You can see me speaking 24 minutes in here. Can’t work out how to embed this one. It was literally freezing and the very small crowd was understandable. I think four hour rallies outdoors in Scotland in midwinter are somewhat optimistic. I think we also need to face that the high excitement of the referendum campaign, where you could just put something out on Facebook and 10,000 people would show up, is behind us. What we have now is a period of hard graft towards the general election.
I think what I say in this short speech will give comfort to those in the SNP who blocked me as a candidate, because as usual I am joyfully off message. Shortly after me there is an amazing speech from Tommy Sheridan; his physical voice projection alone is astonishing! It was bouncing back off Salisbury Crags and Holyrood Palace.
This really is under 100 yards from where we live. That view of Salisbury Crags is what I see every time I look out the window. The balcony will be great once it gets a bit warmer.
Is anon always like this? I’m switching habbabreak back on.
OldMark, still thinking about the response. I need more than a moment (which is all I have now) to answer that. The short answer is that the ptb could not send out a single message addressing their agenda. That would mean instant revolt. Mixed messages, confusion, lies are all part of the game. And of course ptb is a lazy shorthand for complex power relationships. It’s not like I think there is a room of balding men plotting the lot.
Anon – you are certainly as interested in UKIP as I am, and after your last couple of rants your greenhouse residence is no longer weatherproof.
But to return to an earlier point, you regard the housing crisis as the product of immigration and suggest that the cure is to stop immigration. So far I am partially with you; always bearing in mind that the situation has not been engineered by immigrants, but by conscious government and corporate decisions. Fine. Immigration’s stopped. There’s still a huge housing shortfall. Much of the housing, as you complain, is occupied by immigrants, no-one can afford to live in London (yes, I know it’s not a London problem alone, by any means), prices continue to rise,the situation is not improved.
Do you (a) build more houses or (b) evict the immigrants? It sounds to me from what you said earlier that you don’t regard (a) as a priority. And of course the party you are oh-so-subtly plugging here would never, never deport anyone. Your solution, please, without the bullshit.
“But if you want change that is democratically led…”
That’ll be a new one for the EU.
And I bet 100 quid to MAP the Scotch bottle it again.
Give it now. It’ll be devalued by 90% by the time it happens. Or more.
Ha ha. True.
Komodo @1:13pm
I answered this last night. Can’t your read?
Note:
“There is obviously a massive need for affordable housing right now” – Anon.
See?
My particular point, though, which started this whole thing off, was whether the rather important matter of continued mass-immigration was raised at Phil’s rally by the comrades. I suspect not.
Nevermind
“The EU, as designed by the Club of Rome and its various treaties will fail if we do not get the issue of tax havens and avoidance schemes reformed, just as the CAP, TTIP, the unelected Commission and the powers of banks.”
The EU has failed because it is just another top down, elitist institution easily captured by big business. It can only get worse as it gets bigger. We need radical decentralization to get people back in contact with politics.
“And of course the party you are oh-so-subtly plugging here would never, never deport anyone.”
I don’t expect they would, excepting some categories such as illegal immigrants. The problem you have Komodo is that UKIP simply isn’t full of grotesque goose-stepping Nazi caricatures like you (and the MSM, Tories, Libs, Labour, etc) seem so desperate to portray. Why are you so keen to smear UKIP Komodo? It’s a long-held theory of mine that you, Craig and others here are actually much more in tune with establishment thinking on a number of issues than you like to think. It’s a source of amusement as well. š
āNigel Farage burns puppies to heat his home.
“Is anon always like this? Iām switching habbabreak back on.”
Bit worse than usual, if truth be told.
How bad is usual?
“We need radical decentralization to get people back in contact with politics.”
I belief we talked about just that in a pub before taking the vuvuzela for a walk, Phil, how hard it is to get people interested in any politics, never mind those of the EU.
The EU has failed, but it has people within who want to change it, the decentralisation of power is a basis policy of the GPEW.
http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/ip.html
The more Molly Scott cato’s there are, the more bad PR and adverse publicity for their open robbery to treasuries, with the end result being some very unpopular right wing politicians, we are beginning to reach a moment in time, when real solutions to aid decentralisation are possible.
My advise to any Independent MEP would be, don’t think think twice before joining the Green group in the EU Parliament, if you are concerned with your locality and want to see powers devolved to a fair and proportional set up of councils that represent voters, then that is what you do.
But nobody is perfect, I do not agree with some of the Green Party’s foreign policy and defence aspects, imho they need revising after Snowden Assange and W.Binney, this years Sam Adams ward winner, a purely personal thing, or, maybe, a reason to re-join.
The problem you have Komodo is that UKIP simply isnāt full of grotesque goose-stepping Nazi caricatures like….(imaginative creation of straw man continues)
Neither was the DAP – look it up. And I am well aware that what it is full of people who can’t see that exitting Europe on their terms means closer ties with the US, who are inherently sympathetic to corporatism, and who will follow the right demagogue anywhere. Fortunately, Farage is just a garden gnome, so they’re ok for the moment.
Why are you so keen to smear UKIP…
Why are you so keen to promote it? Your response to having your cage rattled is rewarding…
hat are the great ideas of the SNP for the devolution of more powers to the English voters? after all they made it clear that they will want to vote on our affairs, and should the English be allowed to choose an equally proportional and fair voting system as exists in Scotland, Wales and NI, as part of any coalition deal? (a really fat and juicy bone/vegan nutloaf)?
We know that the SNP finds it opportune to woe the Welsh and agree with their demands for more powers, but what of Birmingham, Manchester, east Anglia, the South West and of all, Yorkshire? what support would/could the SNP give us down here which the other main parties currently do not want us to have? Hint, tut, hint.
Those who says that the SNP has nothing to offer us here are politically still cracking their egg shells, off course they have, nothing to stop them speaking up for fair proportional votes for the English, they have no problems with it in Scotland…..
or have they?
answer on a stamp.
And what of their noises to Europe, will they want a referendum on an exit from the EU, or steer a pro reform course together with the Green Party of Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland, another hint on possible coalition talks for positive pro reform policies?
It is time for those who claim to understand these politicians, to talk of real reform and bring this into the foreground of debate, into the MSM, the studios and then blast it into the stale air of both Parliaments, before the elections!
How about it diplomats?
‘I agree about the financial pressures lining up to undermine Syriza. And of course relentless propaganda. If these arenāt succeeding (although they probably will) ultimately we may see a coup. Perhaps money pours in financing right wing groups to cause havoc on the streets and the military encouraged to take over. Only temporarily and to restore order of course.
Their only hope is hanging on long enough as other European nations follow their lead. Spain, Italy, Ireland. France maybe.’
Phil- I can certainly concur with you on that. If Podemos can return a large bloc of representatives to the Madrid parliament in the elections this year that will undoubtedly help to bring change- if the Euro, and the Greek debt mountain, haven’t been seriously reconfigured in the interim.
“How bad is usual?”
Pretty bad, actually.
A card carrying member of the British Haganah, Anon is displaying the classic kapo behavior, lying in bed with concentration camp guards, in his instance UKIP, for some Islamophobia traction.
Yats has also been singing the same song, with pro-Nazi sentiment in Germany, as he runs out of money in Ukraine. But Merkel is not opening her purse.
Glenn
“āIs anon always like this? Iām switching habbabreak back on.ā
Bit worse than usual, if truth be told.”
___________________
That’s unfair, Glenn and you disappoint because you are better than most of the knee-jerkers, obsessives and conspiracy theorists on here (you have shown that in several of your posts).
You know perfectly well the real reason why Anon gets insulted and rubbished in here.
par for the course, although Germany has had the highest export balance returns, it has also got many obligations. She does not want to work into the hands of the right wing fascists in Germany, some who are hiding behind PEGIDA, but there are others who are far more rabid and they network.
So its not a good idea to give any of them a hand up, wherever they are.
Ukraine might want to join the EU, but that must be decided by a referendum or should be an issue at the next EU elections. I’m not for goading Putin by supporting some very nasty thugs, violent and in lieu with football gangs. I’d like to say NO at every election to the question of Ukraine joining, until these fascists have been brought to book, and if that includes Ms Timoshenko, that’s how its got to be.
The fact that three commenters havce again touched in SYRIZA gives me the opportunity to stress yet again a point I’ve been making.
Nevermind is completely off-beam when he writes:
“This has to stop, because if Greek deposits in offshore havens would be confiscated to the tune of 80%, leaving all with a tidy sum to live on, this crisis would disapear.”
The current crisis might well disappear – for a while. And then Greece would have to start borrowing again (and again, expensively). Why? Because it will never achieve a balance or near-balance on its books as long as it spends much more than it earns. And that is precisely what is going to happen again, all the more so if SYRIZA actually carries out it pre-election promises.
Structural reforms are essential and the signs that these will be carried through under SYRIZA are not encouraging at the moment.
Breaking news:
Putin accused of being a paedophile at the Litvinenko hearings.
That would explain a lot…
Baal-Komodo
“And I am well aware that what it is full of people who canāt see that exitting Europe on their terms means closer ties with the US, who are inherently sympathetic to corporatism, and who will follow the right demagogue anywhere. Fortunately, Farage is just a garden gnome, so theyāre ok for the moment.”
_______________
I do like the way you dress up banal, mistaken thoughts in lofty language and style, leavened only by the occasional quip.
I really do believe you should drop the weary old cynic pose and stand as a politician, you’d really go places.
Shocking and disgusting.
UN: Israel demolished homes of 1,177 Palestinians in Jerusalem and West Bank in 2014 – by Amira Hass
‘Since the beginning of 2015, the Civil Administration of the Israel Defense
Forces has demolished 77 homes, livestock pens, farm buildings and other
structures of Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank, since they were built
without building permits. As a result, 110 people, around half of them
children, lost their homes at the height of the winter, according to a
report compiled by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs.
Between January 19 and January 26, the Civil Administration demolished 41
structures, OCHA said, far higher than the weekly average for 2014 of nine
demolitions per week. In the seven-day period, Civil Administration
inspectors delivered 45 construction stop orders and two demolition orders.
In 2014, the Civil Administration demolished the homes of 969 Palestinians –
a total of 493 homes and ancillary structures – built without permits, in
Area C of the West Bank, which under the Oslo Accords is under exclusive
Israeli control. In East Jerusalem seven Palestinian buildings were
demolished, including two on January 29 in the Jabal Mukkaber neighborhood.
Buildings were also torn down in Isawiyah, Shoafat and Ras al Amud. In East
Jerusalem, 208 Palestinians were displaced in 2014 after Israel demolished
97 buildings. In 2014, according to OCHA figures, the Israeli authorities
destroyed 590 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and East Jerusalem,
displacing 1,177 people.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.640147
Gordon (saviour of the union) Brown on the news, in Edinburgh proclaiming the virtues of the Labour branch in Scotland.
As he spoke to the “closed shop” of proselytes Jim Murphy’s eyes light up in awe, of the colossus, of politics that is Gordon Brown.
Looking around the room at the sheer admiration of Browns bought and paid for acolytes, you’d have thought Brown had just announced a cure for cancer, instead of, the launching of the “Vow” mark II, or so to speak.
Thankfully a hard dose of reality came swiftly, when John Swinney, confirmed that the Labour branch of Scotland were all over the place, and that the colossus, had been brought in just to say anything and everything that would sway, Scots away from voting for the SNP, and back into the clutches of Labour.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, surely we won’t fall for Browns tricks again, except for a few numpties, who don’t know any better.
Having just written that Greece needs Spartans in order to prevail over its creditors and the EU, the new Greek government is showing signs of being Spartans. Listen to these words from Greeceās new Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras: āWe should not accept or recognize the government of neo-Nazis in Ukraine.ā āThe EU lacks democracy, and citizens do not believe that their vote can change policy.ā
The new Greek government has protested the latest EU denunciation of Russia, saying that the attack on Russia was reported in the media as if the decision was unanimous, whereas in fact, Greece, Slovakia, Hungary and Austria objected. No new sanctions on Russia have been imposed.
The New Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said that a provision that would have imposed further sanctions on Russia was removed at Greeceās insistence from the proposals at the meeting. Greece also required that the communique does not directly blame Russia for the conflict in Ukraine.
http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/01/30/spartan-resurrection-greece-paul-craig-roberts/
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I think I’m going to like the new Greek PM, he isn’t afraid to do an Iceland, and tell his creditors and the EU where to shove their austerity.
Nor does he buy the bullshit, NATO EU, its all Russia’s fault scenario.
The Spartans may well be on the way back, but this time they need to pay their taxes, and no not with the legendary “Iron Bar” currency.
Parents of soldiers killed in Afghanistan are āfuriousā that they have been excluded from a memorial service ā while politicians and VIPs are expected to pack the event.
The service, set to be held at St Paulās Cathedral two days before Mothering Sunday, will remember the 453 servicemen killed and thousands injured during the 13-year conflict.
But just 906 tickets have been dished out and only the spouses of fallen soldiers have been invited along with a āplus oneā leaving hundreds of grieving parents disappointed.
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In the minds of the attention seeking VIP’s the thought will be “Why should the families be allowed to the service, I’m far more important than any grunt.”
The Zionist Jews who run America, have no such problems, they only send goyims to fight and die in their illegal wars.
And just in case you were worried, he’s got Obama on his side too
http://www.france24.com/en/20150202-greece-anti-austerity-boost-washington-obama-tsipras-varoufakis/
Thousands of people have taken part in the ‘March for Homes’ in London, to demand solutions to the escalating housing crisis.
Groups of protesters gathered to listen to speeches at Elephant and Castle and Shoreditch before marching towards City Hall.
Demonstrators carried banners reading āPeople before profitā and āBuild council homes. Take the wealth of the 1%.ā
As rents, evictions, and homelessness continue to rise, campaigners are demanding that London Mayor Boris Johnson take measures to create a fairer housing market. Protesters are angry with what they believe is the failure of politicians to take meaningful action to tackle the crisis.
An estimated 2,000 people rallied around City Hall, urging the mayor to build more council homes, control private rents, and put an end to the demolition of housing estates.
http://rt.com/uk/228259-london-march-housing-crisis/
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The cheek of those people actually wanting a house, have you ever heard the likes of it, I mean its not as if we’re about spend Ā£100 billion quid on renewing Trident, or spend Ā£3 million quid a day on our illegal assaults, into Iraq and Syria.
Come on, I could see the point of it all, if we were letting big business off with not paying their taxes,(Amazon Starbucks etc) or spending billions on aircraft carriers, without aircraft, the chutzpah of those people, wanting a clean dry secure home for their families, is down right arrogant to say the least.
I’mean who needs a home, when the British taxpayer is about to spend Ā£50 million quid, on a holocaust remembrance centre, surely that’s far more important that homes for families.
Six of the worldās biggest companies paid just 0.3 per cent of their UK earnings in corporation tax last year, a Sunday Mirror probe has found.
We have examined the UK accounts of Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Google, Ebay and Starbucks and found the six firms have reported a total of Ā£2.6billion of revenue in the last year.
But many more billions of pounds of sales from the UK are recorded every year by sister companies ā often located in tax havens like Luxembourg and Switzerland.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/business/six-firms-including-google-facebook-5081824
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This is exactly what I was commenting about, the Westminster government, and its rich buddies, they won’t or don’t pay their taxes, and blatantly get away with it, you try not paying your taxes, and see what happens.