Inspirational meeting in Linlithgow last night. Wonderful people. Biggest applause of the evening for my suggestion that on the day of Independence, we seize the Trident nuclear missiles, dismantle them and refuse to give them back! A very bright audience, including some genuine undecideds. Everywhere I am especially cheered by the sheer determination of people to ensure they are not cheated by ballot-rigging, and their very wakeful understanding of the possibilities. It is not just a question of observers at the counts; there has been a groundswell to organise for ballot boxes to be followed from polling stations through to the count, which is essential but seldom done.
I confess to a boosted ego having been photographed and asked for my autograph frequently yesterday, something I am not used to! I have metamorphosised into “that man off youtube”, as the patronising BT woman would say, were she not living in the 1950s.
Despite the new media meme that all supporters of independence are evil Nazis, I really think we are going to win this. Communities are coming together to discuss how they wish to be governed, and an independent Scotland is going to bring a major change from current hierarchical political and economic structures. This truly is a revolutionary moment.
Written by a doctor Mark. Of interest. Most of the treatment needed for cancer patients is not available in the UK outside national centres so they go as P/Ps to the local NHS hospitals.
‘Superior’ private health is a myth
Just because you have paid directly, your private health care is not better than that offered by the NHS
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/11053982/Superior-private-health-is-a-myth.html
He writes some good pieces, viz http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthadvice/maxpemberton/
Jimmy I wouldna ken. 🙂
@Komodo, a Scot advocated the virtues of a free market.
Bringiton
Thanks – I am just on Broughton St at the moment snatching a coffee and link roll, so I’ll call in shortly.
Dismantle the Trident missiles……I would buy tickets for that, but I would be a long way away when the things detonated as you were smashing them to bits with a hammer……..
More from Lindsay The wee hero Girl…” there is no plan B ” –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB74CViu9YA
thanks for the wishes and support folks..and to Craig for this Space, and your efforts for indy.
Craig apparently doesn’t have a clue about how to persuade the uncommitted or those opposed to independence to change their minds about how to vote tomorrow.
Is Milliband really a war criminal? Is seizing the Trident missies and destroying them the way forward?
@Komodo, a Scot advocated the virtues of a free market.
I’m bloody sure Adam Smith (if that’s who you mean) didn’t advocate making imaginary profits out of selling bundles of subprime mortgages (=bad debt) without telling the purchaser what they were, and then declaring the profits real. He had distinct reservations about cabals and monopolies, too. (Thanks, Wikipedia)
Self-interested competition in the free market, he argued, would tend to benefit society as a whole by keeping prices low, while still building in an incentive for a wide variety of goods and services.
Nevertheless, he was wary of businessmen and warned of their “conspiracy against the public or in some other contrivance to raise prices”.[81] Again and again, Smith warned of the collusive nature of business interests, which may form cabals or monopolies, fixing the highest price “which can be squeezed out of the buyers”.
He wouldn’t be terribly supportive of upper management and a rapacious stockmarket bleeding the productive process dry, and removing the incentives from the producers of wealth, either. The financial structure in his day was very different from that of today. Smith me no smiths.
Your handle Jimmy reminds me of that fine institution, a national bank, that the witch
privatised.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girobank
Privatisation
The Alliance & Leicester Group won a bidding process for the Girobank operation in 1989 when the government decided to privatise it. The transaction was completed in 1990. By the time of the privatisation, the bank was essentially indistinguishable from its competitors apart from the fact that it used Post Offices to transact cash business. The contract with the Post Office was to continue to be an exclusive one for a fixed period after privatisation. Nowadays, the Post Office provides cash services to many banks on a commercial basis.
The personal banking business of Girobank became part of the Alliance & Leicester Building Society directly. The Business Banking arm continued trading under the name of Girobank as a wholly owned subsidiary of the Alliance and Leicester Group until 2003, when it was renamed as Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank following further consolidation in the Alliance & Leicester Group. In May 2010 Alliance & Leicester was acquired by Grupo Santander, and the name Alliance & Leicester was replaced by Santander UK.
While the name “Girobank” is no longer used, the organisation lived on within the Alliance & Leicester Group.[dated info] The name “Girobank” is, however, still used on some Bank Giro Credits intended for paying bills, along with the Alliance & Leicester “plus” logo.[dated info] Some Councils even continue to use the original name “Post Office Giro”.’
Sad.
That catastrophe of Brown’s, Northern Rock, was swiped from us by Branson using dosh from a NY financier all courtesy of Gideon.
Branson takes Northern Rock private
By Sharlene Goff, Elizabeth Rigby and Patrick Jenkins
Sir Richard Branson is taking nationalised bank Northern Rock back into private hands four years after its collapse triggered widespread panic across financial markets.
Virgin Money, backed by a consortium including US financier Wilbur Ross, has agreed to buy the bank for £900m ($1.42bn), including debt.
The government has taken a loss of up to £500m on the “good” part of Northern Rock – which it propped up with £1.4bn of equity in 2010. Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, questioned whether it was the best time to sell banking assets given that markets were “in turmoil”.
Analysts said the price – which includes £747m in cash, £150m of debt and a further £130m depending on future business performance – was reasonable considering the dire state of the economy. The total return from Northern Rock will also reflect the contribution from its £45bn old loan portfolio, which has made about £600m of profit.’
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f14fd53a-10fc-11e1-ad22-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3DZhOfSOp
Lovely jubbly if you know the right people just like those who profited from the Royal Mail privatisation.
“Dismantling Trident is a great idea.”
Except of course that it runs contrary to what the SNP actually have promised they would do in the White Paper.
“Following a vote for independence, we would make early agreement on the speediest safe removal of nuclear weapons
a priority. This would be with a view to the removal of Trident within the first term of the Scottish Parliament following independence.”
Of course little things like democracy and basic honesty with the electorate don’t come into it with friends of the former Soviet Union, for who the ends always justify the means.
Adam Smith if you read him carefully was of course aware of the limitations of free markets as well as their benefits. He was also part of the Scottish enlightenment which blossomed after the Union and whose key figures were nearly all supportive of that Union. Let us not forget that the so-called Scottish instinct for equality can be attributed to the enlightenment rather than the Pictish clans, which were most decidedly not egalitarian institutions.
Autres temps, autres moeurs, ESLO. There’s no enlightenment around today, just a deepening globalised anti-intellectual darkness.
‘there has been a groundswell to organise for ballot boxes to be followed from polling stations through to the count, which is essential but seldom done. ‘
Thanks for that info Craig, our conserns over the past few days have been recognised, it is of vital importance that past discrepancies do not get overlooked, as I understand these ballot boxes are counted instantly and only have one way to go,i.e. to wherever the count is held.
This should not lull people into a false sense of security, follow the ballot boxes and ensure that your campaign has the same rights to observe the office where the count is held, than the No campaign. Inspect everything, look out for blank/filled out ballot papers thjat should not be hanging around anymore at that time.
Thanks for your immense efforts Craig, I hope that you will be part of a new Scotland, they need your expertise.
My best to all voters, regardless, just make sure you vote!
“So you wouldn’t have had a “voice” without this blog?”
I have always wondered what voices she uses on other blogs – I find the argument that she saves her efforts for this blog and the entertainment of its “trolls” just a tad unconvincing.
I might also speculate that Mr Goss is unlikely to have started posting a couple of years back on his retirement and may well have a number of other non de plumes on the go.
“Autres temps, autres moeurs, ESLO. There’s no enlightenment around today, just a deepening globalised anti-intellectual darkness.”
I somehow doubt that there will be in Scotland going forward if the campaigning style of Mr Murray is anything to go by e.g saying that you cannot be a decent person if you vote no, shouting down the leader of the Labour Party, eulogising rickshaw drivers who repeat the same slight racist insult ad nauseam (btw perhaps Craig might wish to take some time to look at the faces of some ordinary voters to that protest rather than getting carried away with the campaign hype).
RD FYI I do not post on any other blog apart from Squonk’s who kindly set his blog up when the trolls caused this one to be shut down. Remember?. Rather an obsessive interest in my activities I would say. MYOB.
As a matter of interest, do you troll elsewhere?
“RD FYI I do not post on any other blog apart from Squonk’s who kindly set his blog up when the trolls caused this one to be shut down.”
____________________
This blog was shut down temporarily because of the intolerant and (verbally) violent behaviour of certain Eminences who could not get the better of people like myself, Resident Dissident, ESLO, Anon and Kempe and who therefore had to resort increasingly to insults, slander, bad language and posts which might have got Craig himself, as blogmaster, into trouble with the law.
He did well to shut it down for a few weeks to bring you lot to heel.
Mary
“RD FYI I do not post on any other blog apart from Squonk’s who kindly set his blog up when the trolls caused this one to be shut down. Remember?. Rather an obsessive interest in my activities I would say. MYOB.”
____________________
Have you ever thought of starting up your own blog?
After all, you have time enough, and you could post whatever you like without constantly being reproached for going off topic and disturbing threads on here.
You could also be your own moderator and so delete anyone disagreeing with you, thus saving you the trouble of called hum/her a “troll”.
You could, as blogmaster, even install Habbabreak!
I do recommend you to think about this idea seriously.
ESLO
““Autres temps, autres moeurs, ESLO. There’s no enlightenment around today, just a deepening globalised anti-intellectual darkness.””
__________________
Just to let you know that there is at least one person on here who found Captain Komodo-Baal’s response to your points extremely wishy-washy and feeble.
In fact, that response could have come from Ben (California Nazi)! 🙂
Agent Cameron cannot understand why the polls are so close in the Scottish independence referendum:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/scottish-independence-blog/live/2014/sep/17/scottish-independence-referendum-salmond-and-darling-interviewed-on-today-live#block-54194f23e4b0cf0f0c9e13a9
I will attempt to explain this knife-edge situation to you Mr Cameron in what I shall call Erev Yom Kippur [eve of atonement] where you will feel the pain of others, tortured, abused and murdered in your permanent state of global war to stuff the vaults of the elite with filthy, fecal, adulterated green-backs.
1. Margaret Thatcher violated indirect rule by her decision to use Scotland as a testing ground for the poll tax.
2. Tony Blair defiled Scotland by using the union as a machine that sucked Scotland into profitless and expensive exercises in overseas aggression, esp. by pursuing his abhorred war with Iraq, rendition and torture.
3. Agent Cameron debased Scotland by expecting that protracted arguments over the future and identity of Scotland would clear the air and help foster consensus and a renewal of sweet reason, refusing to believe nationalism has historically been one of the most inflammatory and volatile human passions.
Feel the pain Cameron?
ESLO, you’re too thinskinned to be a political campaigner. Fail. Sorry. (And not a word from you of BT getting boisterous, either, lol.)
I really hope you win as well Craig. Best of luck and I hope they make you the Scottish Foreign Secretary. Wouldn’t that be something?
Rich
“I really hope you win as well Craig. Best of luck and I hope they make you the Scottish Foreign Secretary.”
__________________
That would presuppose that Craig stood for election as a MSP first.
(Unless of course the Scottish Constitution provided that ministers need not be members of parliament)
For which political party would Craig stand….?
Thank you and well done Craig, for the supreme effort you’ve put in to ‘making it come alive’ for those of us unable to be there ourselves, at this unforgettable time. The destiny of the Scottish people is about to take place before our very eyes. Given half the chance, what right thinking individual WOULDN’T want to break free from this loathsome UK government, who have brought this country and its people to their knees, like never before. Whatever happens, nothing will ever be the same again; for any of us.
Craig Murray: “Biggest applause of the evening for my suggestion that on the day of Independence, we seize the Trident nuclear missiles, dismantle them and refuse to give them back!”
You really shouldn’t be making promises that you cannot keep. That’s completely not on the agenda Mr Murray. The nukes are to be “safely and expediently” handed over to the UK from what I remember of the independence movement’s pledge.
Anyway, it should be a riveting election tomorrow. See you then. Night, night!
” nationalism has historically been one of the most inflammatory and volatile human passions.”
Well said Mark and if anyone looks closely at the rancor on both sides of the Referendum a word to the wise should be sufficient.
Patriotism is a terrible thing.
Patriotism and nationalism are different things – read Orwell.
Untrue.
‘Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !
17 Sep, 2014 – 2:20 pm
“RD FYI I do not post on any other blog apart from Squonk’s who kindly set his blog up when the trolls caused this one to be shut down.”
____________________
This blog was shut down temporarily because of the intolerant and (verbally) violent behaviour of certain Eminences who could not get the better of people like myself, Resident Dissident, ESLO, Anon and Kempe and who therefore had to resort increasingly to insults, slander, bad language and posts which might have got Craig himself, as blogmaster, into trouble with the law.
He did well to shut it down for a few weeks to bring you lot to heel.’
~~~~
For those unfamiliar with the history here, this is page 17! dated November 2013 of a thread that Craig had posted the previous month in October 2013.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/edward-snowden-gets-sam-adams-award/comment-page-17/#comments
You will see the pattern. Habbabkuk with the very same taunts and insults. My name was being used by an imposter and confirmation that a post had been put on the Stormfront website using a pseudonym I had earlier adopted in an attempt to avoid the vicious and malign trolling I was experiencing.
Craig was having intermittent health problems and he did not blog again January 2014.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/01/war-criminals-on-tv/
I keep going as I will not be beaten although at some stages, it became unbearable.
Many of us fail to understand why Habbabkuk is tolerated. I will say no more.
Mary
This is the quotation you were looking for, I think (it’s from Jon , the former moderator):
“Bah, you’re all at it again. For all our dissidents calling for unrestricted freedom of speech, this is what you wanted. Not very productive though, is it?
I think it’s time open threads were politely frozen – and it’ll be interesting to have a count of contributions since my departure that are (1) about politics, and (2) contain no unpleasantness towards others here at all. All are welcome to count their own contributions, to see whether they fulfill these trivial criteria.
In the meantime, since Craig has not been in full health this year, I am sure it would be a much more generous use of people’s time if they were to drop him an email, and to wish him well.
Edit: I’ve snipped a bunch of vexatious contributions from various, err, “sides”. I’ve deleted one or two libelous items, and a few racist jokes. Hopefully everyone can now turn off their computers for a bit, and read a good book instead! Peace to all.”
More or less bears out what I was saying, doesn’t it, Mary.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Many of us fail to understand why Habbabkuk is tolerated. I will say no more.”
Probably because Craig is more tolerant than many of the left-fascist, pro-Putin, pro-Soviet Union, West-hating, Jew-baiting, Holocaust-denying (that’s for you, Republicofscotland), obsessive, conspiracy-loving and “truthing” commenters on his blog?