The Fringe Meeting at which I am speaking will be livestreamed on Saturday from 12.30 on IndependenceLive.
Meanwhile, Emily has started her own blog.
I had a busy day today moving a lot of stuff to move into my new home in Edinburgh tomorrow. But I must briefly comment on a fascinating opinion poll by IPSOS/Mori tonight, which puts the Tories on 32 and Labour on 29 UK wide – and astonishingly the Lib Dems UK score of 9% only just ahead of the SNP’s UK wide score of 8%, even though the latter is concentrated entirely in Scotland. One reason that SNP figure is so high is that IPSOS MORI weight by certainty to vote, and are predicting a much higher turnout in Scotland than England at the next election.
The scenario leading straight to independence – a Tory/UKIP coalition at Westminster and a crushing SNP victory in Scotland – is looking increasingly probable. One thing I do not rule out at all is a unionist Con/Lab coalition in Westminster after the next general election. There are almost no real policy differences between them, and if coalition becomes the swiftest way to satisfy personal ambition for power and money on both sides (the only thing that drives both parties), I so not think it is in the least improbable. We have seen Lab/Con coalitions against the SNP in Dundee and Stirling Councils, and they were extremely happy together during the referendum campaign. I do not yet see a Lab/Con coalition as the most probable outcome of the next Westminster election. But it is entirely possible.
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/events/3589902/videos/68194661
Speech at 13 mins 30 secs in
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/events/3589902/videos/68196705
http://new.livestream.com/IndependenceLive/events/3589902/videos/68197880
Interview at 9 mins 30 secs in.
DonnyDarkness
“I’ve just read through youre sh**e Habbacrap and there is not one answer.”
_________________
There’s none so blind as those who do not want to see, Donny.
££££££££££££££££££££££££££
Dump reals, rupees, remnimbis and roubles (especially roubles! :), buy £, $; € and shekels! Remember, you read it here first.
How many Israelis have died by choking on Palestinian olives, DonnyDarkSide?
And how many Palestinians have been killed by Hamas?
“If you want all the names, they appear on the Conservative Party website (linked to in RoS’s link).”
__________________________________
Ah yes a link, something you seem to be afraid of, like a sterile hen you just can’t seem to produce anything now can you.
“Republicofscotland”
Go to bed, Robert, you’re tired. 🙂
Sweet dreams and keep your arms outside the blankets.
That German parties are usually forced to form coalitions is one of the better parts of the German political system, but of course that feature is useless when the two big Volksparteien become identical and win three quarters of the popular vote together. The Bundesländer sometimes work as labs for experimental coalitions that may, when successful, be considered on a federal level as well. Currently we’re looking towards Thüringen/Thuringia, where the first minister-president (head of federal state) of the Left Party is expected to be elected in a few weeks. After Fukushima the country saw the first Green minister-president In other states there are MPs of the Pirate Party, and also, unfortunately, of the neo-nazi NPD and the AfD, the German UKIP equivalent. Whether we like it or not, the system has a substantial potential of admitting new parties into the parliaments, and if the current shift towards smaller, more specialised parties continues (which I’m not sure of) I hope to soon see the day when the two parties of the grand coalition become one of the others: small.
UK’s most wanted woman terrorist, Northern-Ireland-born Samantha Lewthwaite is reportedly killed by a Russian sniper in Ukraine two weeks ago. She was involved in training the anti-Russian Ukrainian rebels fighting to defend the US-EU installed regime in Kiev.
Moscow-based Regnum News Agency has also claimed that Kiev regime has posted one million dollar reward for the sniper who shot-down Ms Lewthwaite.
A source at the UK’s foreign office told ITV News that “we are aware of reports that Samantha Lewthwaite has been killed in Ukraine“.
http://rehmat1.com/2014/11/14/white-widow-mi6-mossad-agent-killed-in-ukraine/
“Sweet dreams and keep your arms outside the blankets.”
Noddy that’s what we try to teach at Blyton too. Very good. You’re learning boy.
“Dr Mads Gilbert banned from Gaza for life by Isrl. gov.”
https://twitter.com/NilsThS/status/533042299568410624
Dreoilin 14 Nov, 2014 – 12:40 am “Dr Mads Gilbert banned from Gaza for life by Isrl. gov.”
A little more detail here:
http://www.thelocal.no/20141114/israel-shuts-gilbert-out-from-gaza-for-life
Kempe
” Sainsbury’s Christmas ad is a dangerous and disrespectful masterpiece ”
Oh dear. Better chuck away my Blackadder DVDs; and I suppose my copy of Wipers Times better go in the bin too.
____________
Can you really not see the difference? On the one hand, Blackadder a brilliant satire on the appalling inhumanity and pointless slaughter of the War, deeply infused with pathos and compassion for suffering of the common man. On the other hand, some supermarket chain taking one of the most sacred events in human history—the 1914 Christmas Truce— and sticking their slimy logo on it? And then having the gall to pretend that it was somehow an ad in support of the Royal British Legion when it is quite obviously a £4 million ad in support of Sainsburys. If you could ask the dead soldiers in Heaven, the ones who were there that day and were indelibly moved by it, what do you think they would say?
That is appalling. They do not like any criticism even though justified. Here he is when he returned to Tromso.
Video: Palestinian resistance in Gaza is “fighting for all of us,” says Dr. Mads Gilbert
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-palestinian-resistance-gaza-fighting-all-us-says-dr-mads-gilbert
He is a fine human being who heals and does no harm.
“Tony M
PARAGRAPHS PLEASE !!”
I was told that a new paragraph was needed for each new idea/thought/concept – so given Tony M’s politics I surprised he manages as many as he does.
It’s OK, Kempe. You can deplore the Sainsbury’s ad too. Along with the Barclay Bros and your fellow-Tories/kippers. No-one will laugh at you. Well, RD and Tuggacock might…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/11228839/Has-Sainsburys-1914-Christmas-truce-ad-exploited-memory-of-war.html
By constructing an artificially sentimental plot of hands reaching out across the trenches at Christmas, Sainsbury’s has distorted history in the tradition of Hollywood blockbusters such as Titanic and Braveheart in order to provoke an emotive response to buy.
Although many will applaud the company for placing remembrance at the centre of its Christmas campaign, did the supermarket really need to airbrush and exploit our history to boost festive earnings?
It’s always a great comfort to me at this time of year* that, not having a television, I don’t have to watch the shite on it.
But Sainsbury’s have their reasons….
http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/sainsburys-shelves-new-store-plans-as-sales-and-profits-tumble-9855052.html
Proposing to ‘squeeze suppliers’, I see. That means extorting discounts from the producers if they want to place their products on Sainsburys’ shrinking shelfspace…bumping up the margin without frightening the customers with inflated prices, that is. Tesco’s been at this, bigtime. It’s the latest market dodge, and it’s driven entirely by the exaggerated profit expectations of shareholders and upper management.
*October onwards
” Can you really not see the difference? ”
I don’t believe that the motives of BBC Worldwide in issuing the Blackadder DVD were any less cynical or exploitative than those of Sainsburys’. The bottom line is all that would’ve mattered.
Israel Banned Renowned Doctor and Human Rights Activist Mads Gilbert from Entering Gaza for Life
by Ben Norton / November 14th, 2014
Israel has banned Norwegian doctor and human rights activist Mads Gilbert from entering Gaza for life
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/11/israel-banned-renowned-doctor-and-human-rights-activist-mads-gilbert-from-entering-gaza-for-life/
~~~
The Norwegian embassy looks lame in response to these Lucifers. The entity is beyond description. It is being more widely recognised as a threat to world peace. A euphemism. And I am sure that the cabinet of the UK around WW1 and the Weizmanns and the Rothschilds knew how it would play out. That discovery re Ilin – a ‘settlement’ named after a WW1 Zionist espionage unit serving the ‘BRITISH’ ie ZION, WW1, tell us something.
My comments on the Racist Concept of Israel thread refer –
Dahiya Doctrine – that it came out of INSS and that is part of Tel Aviv University. Vile.
If I was an international lawyer, I would judge Cast Lead, Protective Edge and the Mavi Marmara massacre in conjunction with this ‘doctrine’. If the Nazis were in the dock, I am sure that doctrine would weigh in the scales. Or the coalition of the willing in Iraq.
INNS http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4471 some old friends like Saban. On the board is Indyk.
http://www.inss.org.il/index.aspx?id=4447 An international cast even as far as Zionist Australia.
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) | 8 November 2014
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2613
Israel’s Universities: A Pillar of Occupation and Apartheid
Israeli Universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice. While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation. (Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s statement of support of the 2011 University of Johannesburg’s boycott of Ben Gurion University)
As Archbishop Tutu and other South African visitors have observed, and contrary to perceptions and arguments about the “liberal” nature of the Israeli academy, the truth is that Israeli institutions of higher learning are deeply entwined in Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid against the indigenous Palestinian people.
It is no surprise that virtually every Israeli academic institution came out in support of the Israeli military during the summer onslaught on Gaza, and universities promised faculty and student reserve soldiers actively involved in the massacre in Gaza various perks and privileges as rewards for their contribution to the state’s “security.” The list of complicity is too long to recount here. Some prominent examples include:
/..
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2613
More on this Dahiya doctrine.
http://imeu.org/article/the-dahiya-doctrine-and-israels-use-of-disproportionate-force
and on INSS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_National_Security_Studies_(Israel)
A struggling company feeling the heat from many Aldi’s and Lidls, has resorted to a bit of fictional advertising with the help of the media nationwide, the least they can do for Lord Schweinsbury after all his GMO creativity.
Screw him and his outfit, one can only hope that this has the opposite effect to what is expected. The horror of war in a chocolate bar, ahhh, how distasteful can you get.
@ Dreolin. That is a terrible indictment and confirmation by the fascist zionist Government that Israel is an Apartheid state more concerned with its non existing image abroad then the Human rights of others.
Knowing Mads he will try again, he’s a martyr to come, will Israels fascist pirates murder him as well on the high seas?
@ Moniker re LRB’s Guardian revolt…;)
I have been banned for years from the Guardian website for daring to post a link to Craigs site here when they were maligning about torture.
The Guardian has become as Apartheid as its Israeli paymasters, sadly no cohones left, they do not like scrutiny, a pure mouthpiece of BICOM these days.
“That is a terrible indictment and confirmation by the fascist zionist Government that Israel is an Apartheid state more concerned with its non existing image abroad then the Human rights of others.”
If they think this kind of petty, vindictive behaviour is going to do anything for their “image” they are as batshit crazy as I have come to believe they are. Grasping at straws.
Two pages of interview by the most prominent ever German zionist alive. He’s telling us of the dangers of an uncontrolled Libya and its consequences after NATO’s aggressive attack.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/interview-with-henry-kissinger-on-state-of-global-politics-a-1002073.html
Batshit crazy is about right, Dreolin, totally beyond redemption.
“The House of Commons will welcome members of the UK Youth Parliament to its green benches from 11:00 GMT, with delegates debating a living wage, creating opportunities for better work experience, whether exam re-sits should be permitted for English and Maths, how to improve mental health services, and votes for 16 and 17-year-olds.”
“Later events in the week include, among other things, a musical recital, a discussion over how a non-party-political Scottish Parliament could work, and a broad consideration of “politics and the North”.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30041158
“…a non-party-political Scottish Parliament…”?
Does anyone know about this? It’s news to me.
A little window dressing there Doug to make the kids believe that we live in a democracy.
They have had these sessions before. Bercow is in his element.
Party politicians grooming the next generation in the art of politics sic, what it really should be called. Six formers get enough education on politics, they do not need to be indoctrinated further but keep an open mind.
Not surprised that non of the lesson was on the leader debate and whether these young future party hacks would like to see the Green party take part in it.
I bet our politicians were falling over themselves to help these young new future interns with their ‘faire du leche vitrine’, as they say in France.
…batshit crazy…
Yup. The current (viciously suppressed) Palestinian attacks in Israel are now all Abbas’ fault:
http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25518/Default.aspx
Hard to see how he could have done anything more to oblige Jewish Israel in the past, but belatedly realising what the agenda really was, and realigning with Hamas probably means his days are numbered. What will it be, I wonder? A tank shell into his bedroom? Or slowly and agonisingly poisoned by a Mossad sleeper in his household? An open trial would obviously be out of the question.
Still, it’s nice to think that the current violence has nothing to do with the glorious IDF’s last month-long bombardment of an unprotected civilian population, and destruction of most of its infrastructure. Or any of the previous ones, for that matter. ‘Shalom’ is a very selective concept over there.
KoWN
“Can you really not see the difference? On the one hand, Blackadder a brilliant satire on the appalling inhumanity and pointless slaughter of the War, deeply infused with pathos and compassion for suffering of the common man. On the other hand, some supermarket chain taking one of the most sacred events in human history—the 1914 Christmas Truce— and sticking their slimy logo on it? And then having the gall to pretend that it was somehow an ad in support of the Royal British Legion when it is quite obviously a £4 million ad in support of Sainsburys. If you could ask the dead soldiers in Heaven, the ones who were there that day and were indelibly moved by it, what do you think they would say?”
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I’m with your characterisation of this initiative by Sainsbury’s.
You very often make good points, but you should try to avoid the rhetorical and sentimental excesses indulged in by most of the Excellences; you are better than that.
1/. As someone else has pointed out, the Blackadder DVDs were also (uniquely)about the bottom line: moreover it is a gross exaggeration to call it a “brilliant satire”;
2/. the 1914 Christmas truce may well have been – and remain – moving, but surely it does not rank as “one of the most sacred events in human history”
3/. the “if you could ask the dead soldiers in Heaven” is not only grossly sentimental but also a tad presumptuous.
I hope you’ll take this in the spirit it’s intended.
“Later events in the week include, among other things, a musical recital, a discussion over how a non-party-political Scottish Parliament could work, and a broad consideration of “politics and the North”.
Wow, Doug. That looks like a kiteflying exercise, and no mistake. Mind you, a non party-political UK Parliament would be a bloody brilliant idea, and it’s up to them to give a lead, isn’t it?
Habbabkuk and John Goss.
“sweet dreams and keep your hands outside the blankets”
An “inferiority complex” is easily recognised by personal abuse.
I never at any time made any comment about anyone’s droopy chops.
Personal abuse seems to be your domain.
“Israeli Universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice. While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation.”
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That sounds bad. But I believe in verifying statements made about serious events. With that in mind, could anyone tell us
1/. in respect of Israel “proper”, whether
– Israeli Arabs are not able to access Israel’s public education system (schools and universities)
– there are schools and universities attended by Israeli Arabs (Palestinians)
2/. in respect of the West Bank and Gaza, whether there are schools and universities which Palestinians can and do attend.
Thanks.
–
Robert Crawford
“I never at any time made any comment about anyone’s droopy chops.”
_______________
No, but your alter ego – one “Republicofscotland” did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“An “inferiority complex” is easily recognised by personal abuse.”
_________________
In which case, would you say that “Jives” has an inferiority complex? Cf.
“Habbabkuk sucking the glistening testes of authority-any authority…
Slurpy slurpy Habba eh?
Regard how those testes shine and glisten in your puritanical fire-eyes oh Stasi child snitch.”
********************
“Robert Crawford” and “Republicofscotland” is a fool.
Batshit crazy (2)
http://www.israelandstuff.com/israel-declines-requests-of-being-worlds-medical-pot-dealer
The unenthusiasm of the Israeli government for complying with UN agreements is pretty well a foregone conclusion…but in today’s Guardian a different explanation is given for their reluctance to export weed for medical purposes: their …concern that becoming an international drug dealer would look bad politically..
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/nov/14/can-zambia-save-its-environment-with-marijuana
Serial bomber of children with and without internationally prohibited munitions? Fine. Blood diamond trader? Great. Apartheid state? Let’s hear it, while at the same time furiously denying it, for apartheid. But dope? For shame, what are we already? Criminals?
Off-topic but intention will stop this gross cowardly US deceit; the double dealing, two timing underhandedness will eventually sentence America to the bottom of humanity.
ISIS Fires American-Made Missiles At Syrian Army:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/isis-fires-american-made-missiles-at-syrian-army/5413381