This speech was delivered despite one of the greatest hangovers in the entire history of the universe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERWrcBR1Wd0
I am rather proud of it. Even more proud of the extraordinary continuing vibrancy of the independence movement.
Blogging will resume very shortly. As several of you have noticed, there has been a great deal of technical work and stress testing done on the blog the past few days. This is almost complete: there may be something of a change in appearance shortly.
More from Valdai
“BRITISH JOURNALIST SEUMAS MILNE (retranslated from Russian): I would like to ask a two-in-one question.
First, Mr President, do you believe that the actions of Russia in Ukraine and Crimea over the past months were a reaction to rules being broken and are an example of state management without rules? And the other question is: does Russia see these global violations of rules as a signal for changing its position? It has been said here lately that Russia cannot lead in the existing global situation; however, it is demonstrating the qualities of a leader. How would you respond to this?”
So much for Milne’s anti imperialist credentials. You just could not make it up.
Just imagine the kerfuffle here if someone from the BBC had questioned Obama in a similar manner.
I’ve seen some comment that the anti-Spam Captcha’s are stopping people posting, and now I’ve been unable to post this on its proper thread, Why I’m Convinced Anna Ardin is a liar. Sorry it’s off-topic here.
Swedish prosecutor got her response to Julian Assange’s appeal into the SVEA court last night on deadline, but what a dog’s dinner her legal argument is:
http://assangeinswedenbook.com/2014/10/28/assange-appeal-prosecutor-response-27-oct/
The SVEA court, clearly embarrassed at the thought of ruling against Assange on the basis of said dog’s dinner, have thrown the ball back to the defence team to buy some more time – until 3 November:
http://www.svea.se/Avgoranden-och-pagaende-mal/Pagaende-langmal/Information-om-overklagandet-av-Julian-Assange-betraffande-haktning/ [includes English translation]
This appeal started in June and all the back-n-forth-ing since then is like watching a match at Wimbledon (though it’s clear who’s delivering all the aces, I still suspect the match may be fixed…)
Nice speech Craig, if you’re still in the mood for speeches tomorrow, then make your way over to Edinburgh, where Nicola Sturgeon is due to speak at the Corn Exchange, a full house of 1650 is expected.
I’m pretty sure someone of your talents would be most welcome.
@RD: That seemed to me to be quite a good question from Seamus Milne…
Seumas Milne has no anti-imperialist credentials, the dead canary in the mine was his failure to back Scotland’s Independence. Put to the test so many did their master’s bidding on this and were found wanting, caught in inexplicable and absurd, contradictory positions. Milne is the bellwether, the lead sheep the others blindly follow into the pens. A useful tool, as establishment as they come, setting the boundaries of ‘permissible’ controlled dissent.
According to press reports Neil Findlay is a possible candidate for leader of the Labour Scottish branch, Mr Findlay though says he want Gordon Brown to take the position. Former cabinet minister Malcolm Chisholm, is urging Kezia Dugdale to push for the position, latest news though is that Sarah Boyack Labour MSP for Lothian, is also in the running, after throwing her hat in the ring.
I haven’t mentioned Jim Murphy I can’t quite see Mr Murphy dropping a large chunk of his considerable Westminster salary, and his more than lucrative expenses, to take over a poisoned chalice leadership, whoever takes over the managers position of the Scottish branch, will have the Sword of Damocles, hanging over their head.
As for democrats, Anthony Eden was Hitler’s chosen quisling to run Britain on his behalf. That makes it all the more surprising he became PM within ten years of the war’s end.
How can anyone look at the past leaders of the UK in the previous century, all drawn from the same elite, same public schools, Oxbridge educated, born to rule and in the case of Cameron and Osborne distant relatives of an hereditary monarch, and call this democracy.
Staying on the debacle,that is the Scottish Labour branch, Ed Balls has become the most senior Labour member to dismiss Johann Lamont’s criticism. Mr Balls said “we are a UK party.”
It appears, Labour’s head office are in damage limitation mode.
Hangover cure: guaranteed to eject alcoholic stomach contents immediately, reducing the load on the liver.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIntwqMSAaw
How do you succeed in an era of relentless globalisation, incessantly promoted by Mr. Tony and blamed by him, not on corporate greed, but ‘technology’?* Here’s how.
1. Hijack a political party and attract the maximum backing by selling out its core principles to business.
2. Have a war. No, have several. Make sure you’re on the right side for corporate approbation. Make up a reason afterwards. Needn’t be true.
3. Gracefully accept sinecure position from President of the Right Side, for services rendered to mendacity and contribution of poor bloody infantry to same. Position entitles you to (a) meet lots of important people and (b) largely ignore issues your sinecure is overtly concerned with.
4. Travel the world making lucrative deals with people you met in (3) above. These deals transfer large sums of money from taxpayers and charity donors worldwide, dividing the cash stream between your corporate sponsors and people you met in (3)
5. Discard people in (3) as their utility wanes. Pretend old media photos of you hugging them will go away. There is no shortage of hungry autocrats, and meeting them is now easy because you are now FAMOUS.
6. Don’t forget to lecture. Charge a lot. The fact that you know less than the average ascidian about the topics you presume to lecture is irrelevant, as long as the basic sales pitch concerns globalisation. Education? Globalise it. Put it in the hands of a multinational hedge fund. Health? Ditto. The Middle East? Why, oh why won’t the Palestinians stop hankering after their land and become docile consumers?
7. Social media, social media, social media. And charities. And an impenetrable tax structure. And endless press releases celebrating you.
8. Congratulations. You’re in the money! Though no-one on earth knows quite how much. Good value for your soul, eh?
* I didn’t get further than that before throwing up. And didn’t return.
Incidentally, the woman who posted the above youtube horror appears to be from Malaysia, which Mr. Tony honoured with his presence (and his thoughts on globalisation, education, globalisation) a month or two back; Was there a Wendi Deng moment there, I wonder?
ResDiss – Let me explain again to you without being pretentious or patronising.
Vladimir Putin was concerned over the expansion of Uzbek-US cooperation. After urgently quitting the Russian led CSTO in June of 2012, Tashkent focused on stepping up military-technical cooperation with Washington and NATO. The Pentagon had promised to supply Uzbek army with arms in exchange for using Uzbek territory as a route to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan.
Mr Putin had previously said through the head of the department of Central Asia and Kazakhstan at the Institute of CIS studies, “this military traffic could undermine stability in the entire region.”
“The situation in the region is quite unstable, and setting up new military bases or allowing arms supplies could result in new conflicts. If the US is serious about making Tashkent its major military and political partner in the region one should expect Uzbekistan to be ‘flooded’ with arms. No matter how heavily ammunition depots are guarded, extremists will likely manage to get access to the arms.”
http://voiceofrussia.com
Now Vladimir is passionate about the security of Russia and her friends. The CSTO Charter prohibits the deployment of third countries’ military bases on the territories of the allied countries. Uzbekistan’s withdrawal removes legal barriers for it to host any military hardware of NATO, including weapons that NATO forces would like to leave on their way from Afghanistan.
If the US faces problems as it withdraws from Afghanistan or experiences problems again with Pakistan, and if Uzbekistan is worried about defence, then it is fast, cheap and easy for the US to leave these heavy lethal vehicles in Uzbekistan
Karimov is all about playing the great powers off against each other in classic fashion and Putin knows it, he said, “this directly concerns the security of the Russian Federation itself. Cooperation with our Uzbekistani partners is extremely important for us; “the transfer of military equipment, used by coalition forces in Afghanistan, to Uzbekistan’ security services, which have a bloody human rights record.
Now critical thinking in this knowledge explains the ‘rub’ ResDiss and I have no use for your undervalued statements.
Craig in his wisdom and knowledge has said. “I think that we should start listening much more carefully to what he[Putin] says.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/03/deconstructing-putin/
The Nation: What do you think will emerge from this time of troubles?
Snowden: Look at the reactions of liberal governments to the surveillance revelations during the last year. In the United States, we’ve got this big debate, but we’ve got official paralysis—because they’re the ones who had their hand caught most deeply in the cookie jar. And there are unquestionable violations of our Constitution. Many of our ally states don’t have these constitutional protections—in the UK, in New Zealand, in Australia. They’ve lost the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure without probable cause. All of those countries, in the wake of these surveillance revelations, rushed through laws that were basically ghostwritten by the National Security Agency to enable mass surveillance without court oversight, without all of the standard checks and balances that one would expect. Which leads us inevitably to the question: Where are we going to reject that easy but flawed process of letting the intelligence services do whatever they want? It’s inevitable that it will happen. I think it’s going to be where Internet businesses go.
For example, Microsoft is in a court battle with the Department of Justice. The DOJ is saying, “We want information from your data center in Ireland. It’s not about a US citizen, but we want it.” Microsoft said, “OK, fine. Go to a judge in Ireland. Ask them for a warrant. We have a mutual legal-assistance treaty. They’ll do it. Give that to us, and we’ll provide the information to you in accordance with Irish laws.” The DOJ said, “No, you’re an American company, and we have access to your data everywhere. It doesn’t matter about jurisdiction. It doesn’t matter about who it’s regarding.” This is a landmark legal case that’s now going through the appeals process. And it matters because if we allow the United States to set the precedent that national borders don’t matter when it comes to the protection of people’s information, other countries are watching. They’re paying attention to our examples and what is normative behavior in terms of dealing with digital information.
http://www.thenation.com/article/186129/snowden-exile-exclusive-interview#
What Aneurin Bevan would think of Blair
http://www.sochealth.co.uk/resources/national-health-service/the-sma-and-the-foundation-of-the-national-health-service-dr-leslie-hilliard-1980/aneurin-bevan-and-the-foundation-of-the-nhs/what-bevan-would-think-of-blair/
“@RD: That seemed to me to be quite a good question from Seamus Milne…”
I’m sure you do!
Someone asked whether David Cameron’s outrage at being asked to pay an EU charge for high GDP growth might be political manoeuvring.
Good analysis on YouGov, and looks like his plan is working, although the questions to the public are questionable:
http://yougov.co.uk/news/2014/10/28/public-britain-should-refuse-pay-17bn-eu-demand/
More than a suggestion that he is looking to get votes from UKIP to tip the balance the forthcoming by-election in Tory heartlands where UKIP are currently leading. He can then quietly pay up. Spiffing wheeze, what!
As ever, some of the public will be taken in… didn’t a previous PM change 80% against Iraq invasion to 50/50 split in a fairly short space of time?
@RD: So what was your point?
Update
FINALLY it looks like the UK wants out of the whole Julian Assange mess.
Rebecca Keating of the BBC has just tweeted this:
Hugo Swire: FCO would “actively welcome” & “do everything to facilitate” a request from Swedish prosecutor to question Julian Assange in UK
https://twitter.com/RebeccaKeating/status/527076267301277696
and this, in response to Wikileaks’ question, where’s this from?
@wikileaks House of Commons Foreign Office Questions – you can watch it back on our website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/
https://twitter.com/RebeccaKeating/status/527088325250023424
That’s a pretty firm slap-down to the Swedish prosecutor, I’d say. (Perhaps they’ve read her latest court submission [posted above, FYI] and were appalled…)
@Ba’al Zevul: That might be worth sending to Weight-Watchers. I was about to go for lunch before watching that. Now, I’m off for a run instead. Appetite has totally gone, and I need to expel that combination of anger and frustration that comes from being finger-wagged at, by a money-grubbing war criminal.
Mark
Talk about quoting Craig out of context. If you believe Putin has honourable intentions towards Uzbekistan then you really are being incredibly naïve – the current dealing is all about positioning a suitable puppet when Karimov dies. Putin is not going to criticise anyone for having a nasty KGB of its own.
As for the reference to critical thinking – perhaps we could see some of your own when it comes to the actions of Putin and his KGB predecessors and even better you might want to put some of it down on paper.
BTW – Uzbeks find it very insulting to be called Uzbekistanis.
Peacewisher
Hardly the most searching of questions – only just stopped short of offering Putin his congratulations
I hope that is an enduring trend, Arbed. They have bigger fish to fry and the nonsense has to stop. Noting the response to the tweet as to whether females are prosecuted for lying about using BC, the same gender biases operate with impunity in the US.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/saritharai/2014/04/02/chalk-a-block/
You’d look in vain for Mr.Tony’s name on the board of a private education provider. It would be too easy to identify his interests otherwise. But everything becomes clearer when the TBFF’s affiliations are recognised. This touchy-feely interfaith initiative has a clear preference for approaching extremely rich private education providers, operating in countries which every now and then Mr.Tony lectures on education. Coincidence. Just coincidence.
RD… it runs deeper than that. Have you any idea what the response was?
Putin is not going to criticise anyone for having a nasty KGB of its own
Disagree. He’ll criticise anyone for anything if it is in his interests to do so. And deny that his own FSB is in the least nasty, at the same time. Godammit, he’s a politician.
“He’ll criticise anyone for anything if it is in his interests to do so.”
But he never does when it comes to behaviour of those who used to belong to his old firm – just like a number of posters here.
Peacewisher
Of course I know Putin’s response – see the original link from Mr Golding – though I doubt it will add much to the sum of your knowledge – it never does when politicians are asked easy questions by compliant supportive journalists anywhere in the world.
Last on this distressing topic for now. If you didn’t have a hangover before…
What links Mr. Tony’s visit to Malaysia (theme: education) in early September with his visit to Mexico this week (topics: education, business)?
http://www.laureate.net/NewsRoom/PressReleases/2014/09/Former-British-Prime-Minister-Tony-Blair-Addresses-Students-at-INTI
Mr. Blair’s visit to INTI’s Subang campus is his ninth appearance at a Laureate network institution. The other Laureate universities he has visited are Campus Eiffel in Paris; Universidade Anhembi Morumbi in São Paulo, Brazil; Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas in Lima, Peru; BiTS (Business and Information Technology School) in Iserlohn, Germany; Universidad Europea in Madrid, Spain; Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey; Universidad del Valle de México in Coyoacán, Mexico, and Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
And back to Mexico again:
http://www.laureate.net/NewsRoom/PressReleases/2014/10/Former-British-Prime-Minister-Inspires-Students-and-Graduates-of-Universidad-del-Valle-de-Mexico
Ba’al Zevul; “Godammit, he’s a politician”
Wasting your time Ba’al, trolls on demonising missions don’t do realpolitik.
Get with the program, and try to remember the meme, Russia isn’t allowed to have any national security interests !
But he never does when it comes to behaviour of those who used to belong to his old firm – just like a number of posters here.
I have yet to hear a word from you on the subject of Donald Rumsfeld….so, true for you.
“trolls on demonising missions don’t do realpolitik”
So true. Just fairy-tales and abuse.