Gordon Brown and wee Dougie Alexander once bestrode the world, bombing much of it. Now these mighty egos are confined within Elderslie Village Hall.
The problem is, the average member of the population does not have a high opinion of the dynamic duo. So it is essential that they are kept away from average people, and instead paraded only before vetted audiences of Labour activists. There are not very many of those; so the venues are tiny, with a small number of carefully bunched people holding silly placards, photographed by a compliant media only from carefully prepared angles.
Now I plunge happily into politically incorrect ground. As normal people have abandoned it and Labour has come down to the core of its core support, it is truly striking how remarkably ugly its hardcore activists are. I don’t mean that in any metaphorical sense. I mean that they are an aesthetic disaster. It is not a product of poverty, as the core support are all well employed as research assistants or doing pretendy youth work jobs for Labour councils. Other parties do not have such challenging physiognomy. It is very seldom you can look at a room and say Gordon Brown is one of the best looking people there. Perhaps Blair’s crimes have been written on the faces of all the complicit.
Douglas Alexander not only facilitated the use of Diego Garcia for torture and extraordinary rendition, in an act of extreme hypocrisy the evil little shit also declared a “marine conservation area” around it. In the 1960’s Britain forcibly deported the entire population of the islands to make way for the US Air Base. Faced with a continual political and legal fight for them to return, Alexander sought to make it impossible with his “marine conservation area”. There is nobody who better represents Scottish Labour’s loss of its soul than Alexander. If Mhairi beats him I shall be extremely happy.
Tony_0pmoc, I don’t hate you. You just seem to be having a much better time than I do (except when I go to Scotland), and I wanted to join in and have some fun and meet some new people.
But if you won’t let me come to you, you can come and meet me. Book your tickets for Doune the Rabbit Hole. Or better still, be volunteers:
http://dounetherabbithole.co.uk/become-a-volunteer/
“Perhaps you should look at what the SNP have done on rent reform”
Nicola Sturgeon’s parents bought their council house for £8,000 in 1984 under the Thatcher right to buy scheme.
Clark,
I can’t make you come..maybe you have done a bit of Essex and maybe even Norfolk and Scotland…
But This is Free
And Sometimes what is free is not only the best but completely Awesome
And this is In The (Well One Of) The Prettiest Places in The World…
Upton On Severn..on the Border Between England and Wales
I have told you before..but I guess you don’t think you are up to it…Look you can sleep in your car (free) if you want to..or pitch a tent..£30 the entire weekend
Upton Blues Festival
http://uptonbluesfestival.org.uk/
See if you can spot my wife and me..we are usually at the front.
Tony
RobG, I know about TTIP. And its counterpart TPP. Well I don’t because the contents are mostly secret, but I know of them, and some of their dangers – I’m subscribed to 38 Degrees.
The problem is that there’s not much I can do about them, and that’s because people in many countries have lost control of their governments. The structures of democracy have not kept pace with the increasing power and influence of corporations and other Big Money.
There’s growing awareness through Internet media, but most people with typical employment don’t have time to pro-actively research news in the manner required to make sense of the chaos on the Internet – I sometimes wonder if the trolling organisations we hear so much about aren’t merely seeding plausible nonsense onto the Internet like the several thousand 9/11 theories simply to bog down newcomers to Internet news and just scare them off back to TV and newspapers.
Here’s one from the last few days…
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2015/04/25/u-s-intel-community-warns-isis-attack-u-s-soil/
The headline is: TSA Warns of Possible ISIS Attack on U.S. Soil.
The Intercept obviously ran this piece in an ironical sense; but I mean, what the feck?!
Keeping the populace in a constant state of fear from an outside enemy is classic police state stuff.
In the UK it now goes on all the time, from a bunch of corrupt tossers and vermin.
And yes, Clark, I would put them all up against the wall to be shot.
Unless you think child rape and murder is ok; unless you think totally corrupt bankers are ok; unless you think all things nuclear are ok; unless you think we can go around the world bombing the feck out of people, and that’s ok; unless you think that it’s ok for the UK to be one of the biggest arms sellars in the world.
It’s all totally disgusting stuff, and not one of the Westminster brigade will say a peep about it.
What I’m saying is not conspiracy theory. It’s fact.
But in the ersatz democracy we now live in you will never hear about any of it.
What kind of General Election is this?
RobG at 11.23
People of my generation used to think the Daily Mirror was for the working class. It generally supported Labour. It also had at least one incorruptible journalist – who remains loyal to the left – John Pilger. 🙂
Tony_0pmoc, yes you mentioned the Upton Blues Festival before, but it’s months away. You’re in Camden aren’t you? I just wanted to nip into London at the weekend, meet up and have a dance. I lived Up North for a few years; York and Bradford – a great scene while I was there.
Yes, free stuff is often great. I used to go to the Stonehenge Free Festival before Thatcher and her mercenary supplier smashed the Convoy. What I heard is that he supplied the Boiler Suit Brigade who posed as police, but he also warned the Convoy what was going to happen and offered to sell them shotguns – but they wouldn’t buy.
RobG, trouble is, from time to time you’d have me against that wall being shot, and maybe some of my friends. And that shows that it’s getting to you too much:
You can’t ever let the end justify the means. Rob, I sympathise; the anger and despair scream out from within me too. But there are no good people and bad people, just people doing good things or bad things, and the best thing is when you find someone who was doing wrong yesterday is doing something good today. Try to make that happen. Love can do it; guns can’t.
Well, i didn’t know..how could I possibly know??
Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
Yet another one from Lancashire…
The Guitarist last night comes from Blackpool but he keeps it quiet and yes Salford too..I wonder if he knows Mar E Smith..of Te Fall…I don’t know any of these people…
I thought The Hollies were Crap compared with The Beatles and The Rolling Stones…
but he is still alive and he wrote these words..probably got lost a bit with Neil Young…in Laurel Canyon…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Nash
If you could only see me.
And know exactly were I am.
You wouldn’t want to be me,
Oh I can assure you of that.
I’m not the guy to run with,
Cause I’ll pull you off the line.
I’ll break you and destroy you
Give time.
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s king Midas in Reverse.
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s King Midas in Reverse.
It’s plain to see it’s hopeless,
Goin’ on the way we are.
So even though I loose you,
You’ll be better off by far.
He’s not the man to hold your trust,
Everything he touches turns to dust in his hands.
Nothing he can do is right, he’d even like to sleep at night, but he can’t.
All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust
All he touches turns to dust
I wish someone would find me,
And help me gain control.
Before I loose my reason,
And my soul
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s King Midas in reverse.
He’s King Midas with a curse.
He’s king Midas in Reverse.
He’s King Midas with a curse
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s Kind Midas in Reverse.
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s King Midas with a curse,
(all he touches turns to dust)
He’s King Midas in Reverse
Songwriters: NASH, GRAHAM / CLARKE, ALAN / HICKS, TONY
King Midas In Reverse lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
John, the Mirror seems to me to be the last man standing.
In the last six months the Guardian has completely sold out. I dare not mention HSBC stuff for fear of being sued; but what the feck…
http://medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2015/788-a-conspiracy-of-silence-hsbc-the-guardian-and-the-defrauded-british-public.html
There now seems to be a large number of the BTL brigade leaving the Guardian, which is rapidly turning into a media husk like the NYT.
All taken over by corporates and the security services.
The police state is here, but what a swell party it is. Next July we collide with Mars, which is quite obviously infiltrated by ISIS…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liSrzc_OdDw
Clark, you quoted from one of my U2 favs!
We will probably have to disagree on things, though, because when the public start to realise just how much they’ve been lied to and conned my own anger will pale into insignificance.
A Blues Festival, Sounds Interestin… I,ve been to a Blue Angels Festival…Super kool
Yo Fedup ..Sorry for me manners, it’s bin grand to see ya back n Kickin … Stay Alive
From Yesterday’s Hope over Fear Rally, a most remarkable woman… Nine Months ago… A Climber, An Independance Climber. in the dark, on the castle cliffs, Lindsay Jarrett –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85bcKRR2EhQ
Rob, we never know whether a commenter is trying to con us, or whether they’ve been conned themselves. Look at some of the nonsense that humans have believed. I was brought up a a Jehovah’s Witness. I used to go knocking on doors with my mum, trying to convince others of the rubbish I believed myself. And the people who convinced me did so because they themselves were convinced. They actually believed that they were trying to save me. They taught me deeply frightening lies, but they did so out of concern for me. It’s easy to believe rubbish when lots of other people around you all believe it and agree with each other about it.
We only have these little brains struggling to make sense of an infinitely complex reality. We never actually know whether we’re right or wrong, and that is one reason that we must never kill except in defence.
Lysias
26 Apr, 2015 – 11:16 pm
Thanks for the interesting links about the USS Reagan.
The Reagan saga is one of the biggest scandals in recent American history (there were at least 12 other warships in the Reagan carrier fleet that were also seriously irradiated). The thousands and thousands of service personel who are now suffering from radiation related illness is the big thing (there’s an ongoing lawsuit), but there’s also a huge number of US Navy ships, including the Reagan, that will never be able to be used again.
And the feckers who run all this want to sell you ‘austerity’?!
And that’s what’s been happening on this blog. Two teams have developed; the members of each all back each other up, so on both sides everyone feels right, and righteous, and they see those of the opposing team as a bunch of agents with a mission to subvert the truth.
And I’ve been in a team like that when I was a kid and I escaped it and now I can see how it happens, and I now know that the only way I escaped was by questioning my own beliefs – disputing the opposing, external beliefs just makes the trap stronger.
And that’s why I’m vulnerable and full of self-doubt – because I know that I can never be sure and that I must always question my own beliefs.
Clark, one thing that struck me about Craig’s book, Murder In Samarkand. is how early in the book he relates how ‘seemingly normal’ people very quickly go across to the dark side of things (Craig is talking about British people in the diplomatic service). It is, I suppose, the essence of evil and corruption, which is worldwide human nature.
You can judge the integrity of people by what they post on their blogs over time, and whether they have any hidden agendas. Craig is widely read because there’s absolutely no bullshit and he says what he thinks.
Likewise, Clark, although you will be villified, people will trust you because you are earnest and say what you think.
We need more honesty in politics.
Don’t get me on to the corrupt bunch of feckers currently sitting on the green benches…
Apologies for OT but this may be of interest ..
I was in Illichevsk for a few days last week (a stone’s throw from Odessa), my home town. I hadn’t been for nearly 5 years, though my parents go back every summer and we keep in touch with relatives and friends via Skype regularly. Flew to Odessa from Gatwick with UIA via Kyiv. Needless to say I kept my eyes peeled for the famous “Ukrainian nazis” but was disappointed – there were none to be seen, not even a solitary member of Right Sector. Russian was predominantly spoken by passengers and air crew, at Kiev and Odessa airports and on the ground in Odessa – just like before. Walking around Illichevsk, a city of some 75,000 inhabitants, I saw no obvious signs that there is a war going on. Save the occasional poster urging people to come forward and join the Ukrainian Army, I didn’t see any military, paramilitary or other uniform. I flicked through the TV channels in our old flat, found that just like before Russian and Ukrainian are used interchangeably on most of them. I accepted an invitation from a friend of mine to give a couple of English lessons with her at a ‘Ukrainian’ designated school (means Ukrainian is mandatory during exams). Found the usual scene there – pupils and teachers mostly speaking Russian amongst themselves. Well, it was clear that oppression of the Russian minority was too subtle to see with the naked eye. It all seemed much of a muchness with how I remembered things from my last visit 5 years ago. I had to go in deeper.
Armed with beer and chocolates, I went to see some friends. I asked about Euromaidan, what happened, was it visited on them by the West. Their reaction was incredulous laughter at this question. My best mate from school days, by virtue of his job gets to visit a lot of people at regular intervals in their homes. Just from what he saw with his own eyes his understanding of the scale of revulsion against Yanukovich’s regime leaves no doubt in his mind that claims that Euromaidan was somehow instigated or propped up by the West are nonsense. Two of my friends’ ethnic Russian husbands contemplated at the time going to Kiev to join the protests against Yanukovich. My cousin showed me an engraved watch, awarded to him by the SBU (Ukrainian security service). It was awarded in recognition for his work in repatriating orphan kids from Odessa who had ran away to Kiev to join Euromaidan.
I asked my friends about the war in the East, did they think there really was majority support in Luhansk and Donetsk for the separatists. They did not hesitate to say no, it is clear in their minds that what happened was a hostile minority takeover orchestrated by Russia. In my friends’ view, a minority, those without qualms about using coercion and violence, were supplied with weapons and encouraged to take over strategic buildings and locations, paving the way for an influx of Moscow’s ‘volunteers’ and ‘borrowed’ tanks and heavy weapons. My friends have spoken to refugees from these places. In the words of one of the refugees, when asked why they allowed this to happen, she said they just did not expect it. They thought the flag waving and demonstrating would be as far as things went. But one day they woke up and found that there were people with guns everywhere and it was too late to act.
It took a while for the rest of the country to comprehend this tactic that was being used by Russia. Now it is well understood and people act with full recognition of the danger of waiting for things to blow over. This nervousness is seen as the reason for violence snowballing out of control in Odessa a year ago. I was talking to an 80-year old uncle of mine who has lived in Odessa most of his life. He summed it up like this – the people of Odessa are a passive lot generally and it takes a lot to wind them up but eventually their patience snapped when they thought Luhansk/Donetsk scenario was being attempted in Odessa. Calls to mobilise against the anti-Maidan demo spread quickly over social networks. The football match in Odessa that day meant there were large numbers of young men on the streets who joined in on the pro-Maidan side. The tragedy that followed was mob dynamics out of control, made worse by the unforgivably passive attitude of the city police.
It is clear that the events in Kiev and now the armed conflict in the East are incredibly divisive. My friend’s mother berates her two daughters and their Russian husbands as ‘Bandera-followers’ for their support of Euromaidan. My best mate has witnessed some of his clients jump up from their sofa and cheer on seeing news reports of a Ukrainian helicopter being shot down. He has lost many clients because of strong disagreements about the legitimacy of separatists’ actions and Ukrainian government’s response to those. At the same time one of my Russian friends who was recently in his native Cheliabinsk was astounded by the lies and propaganda he saw on Russian TV, and the extent of the hysteria being whipped up against Ukrainians. His relatives in Cheliabinsk were surprised to learn from him that in the event of war in Odessa he would fight on the Ukrainian side without hesitation. When invited by his relatives to come and stay with them if things got tough in Ukraine, his answer was thanks but Russia would be the last place on Earth he would go.
My overall impression was that democracy is alive and well in Ukraine, as is unfortunately corruption at all levels of Ukrainian society. It seems that my friends and family are not concerned about “nazis” and “fascists” taking over. They see this prospect as completely unrealistic, pointing to the fact that support for Svoboda has collapsed after Yanukovich’s ousting, falling now below the 5% election threshold.
I am curious how the assorted sofa vigilantes on here will explain just how I and my friends and family missed the obvious signs of fascism and oppression, so clearly visible from 2,000 miles away. I smile when I remember my friends’ response: “Ты чё, заболел? Пойди полечись!” (loosely, “Are you feeling alright? You need to see a doctor!”).
And the suggestive smut in the one from him at 7.14pm???? OK too?
‘I see that John Spencer-Davis has been rubbing himself up against Mary. So to speak.’
Rob, in this blog’s comments section we have a few people on each side, backing each other up and seeing the other group as “the enemy”. It gets quite nasty a lot of the time, with each side prepared to insult, exaggerate, lie, smear, misrepresent, impute motives and provoke, all because they see such behaviour as necessary to achieve that which they consider good.
Think how much stronger the effect must be in the UK House of Commons, where hundreds on each side back each other up, amplified and exaggerated by the media and backed by millions on each side in the electorate.
Note too how matters improve here when Craig publishes a new post, and a new idea and new commenters not attached to either team disrupt the established conflict. For a while debate progresses, and then the familiar groupings with their almost ritual conflict reassert themselves.
More modern democratic systems have been developed that diffuse the “opposing sides” effect somewhat, with seating arranged in a circle or a sweeping curve instead of opposing banks, and electoral systems that bring greater diversity into debate. Such democracies are not perfect, but they seem to work somewhat better than the UK’s.
Anyway, I must be off to bed. Goodnight.
Evgueni, our comments crossed; I’m reading yours now, and thank you.
Mary, it’s grenade ping-pong. Hide the ball in a flower pot!
What a wet appeal. ‘Less lethal force’ indeed. PCHR should be asking for an inquest, find out which one of the IDF bullies and cowards shot the child and for a full inquiry into the incident.
Black people are being killed in the US just as Palestinians are being killed in Occupied Palestine with impunity.
Ref: 20/2015
Date: 26 April 2015
Time: 10:00 GMT
Palestinian Child killed by Israeli Forces at Israeli Checkpoint, East of Occupied Jerusalem
On Sunday, 26 April 2015, a Palestinian child was killed by Israeli forces at Za’im checkpoint, east of occupied Jerusalem. According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Israeli forces could have used less lethal force against the child or arrest and question him.
According to information collect by a PCHR fieldworker, at approximately 00:15 on Saturday, 25 April 2015, while Ali Mohammed Ali Sa’id Abu Ghannam (17) was crossing through Za’im checkpoint between Za’im village and occupied Jerusalem, he quarreled with Israeli soldiers at the said checkpoint. The quarrel developed to a fight, during which an Israeli soldier fired directly at the boy. As a result, the boy fell down and bled to death. Medical crews of the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) from Jerusalem and from al-Eizariya village tried to approach the place to transport the boy to hospital, but Israeli forces denied them access. Israeli forces summoned the boy’s father two hours after the incident took place. The father identified the corpse of his son that was referred to Abu Kabir Forensic Institute. The father was detained and taken to al-Masqoubiya police station in West Jerusalem, but was released in the morning.
[..]PCHR has been investigating the attack, but points out that its preliminary investigations show that Israeli forces could have used less lethal force against the child or arrest and question him. Moreover, the medical forensic report has not been issued so far and the nature of the injury that led to death has not been identified.’
This piece says it all about the delusional Mr Snow and the equally cringeworthy press.
Jon Snow
The G2 interview
Jon Snow: ‘In the establishment, I’m the most anti-establishment person I know’
The veteran Channel 4 newsreader has inhaled skunk live on air, interviewed Nelson Mandela (straight out of prison) and faced down Thatcher 20 excruciating times. Which must be at least part of the reason that he is about to be awarded a Bafta fellowship http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/apr/12/jon-snow-channel-4-news-interview
I haven’t got a flower pot and the only ball here belongs to the dog.
Evgueni, thank you for that account. I notice that you have attributed carefully, recording who you asked, what you asked them and what their replies were. To me your account seems genuine, personal and rational, entirely consistent with your personality as seen on this blog for years.
Your description of the divisive effect on people’s lives is moving and distressing. You have my sympathy for the events in your home country.
Mary, what I mean is that every time you bat it back at Habbabkuk, he gets to bat it back at you. It doesn’t matter who started matters; the one who manages to stop it earns the respect.
To the Forests with him, that Pained a Maiden,
Sit him doon on a sea of Bluebells.
wander to the River, a wee fire, Now the Stars are oot, what wonder…and the crinkling Dawn from a tent sent the first sunray’s soothing our faces….and then they learn Not to insult women
this be the way of native Americans ( First Nations )
or i could take the wee fuckers to the Dojo… Big now Eh
John Goss
26/04/2015 11:54 pm
Blimey, John, don’t forget Paul Foot, eh?
Kind regards,
John
Evgueni, thank you for your well-written report. I have always admired your English skills, considering it is a second language to you. It is much better than many individuals’s woeful contributions I have read who comment on social media. As to the content of your report I have no doubt it is true, though you might concede that the area to which you have been, and from where you come, is not currently one of the war-torn hotspots in Ukraine. In fact an argument the separatists use to blame Kiev for the civil-war is the fact that the Eastern Ukraine freedom-fighters have not targeted anywhere outside their own region. Eastern Ukraine has not fired any missiles in the direction of Kiev.
I find it interesting that somebody can travel somewhere with preconceived ideas and come back with the same ideas. You actually forecast that this might be the case before you went. All of us, including me, tend to gravitate towards people with whom we have similar beliefs and philosophies. Take one example from your report. Your friends who do not live anywhere near Lughansk of Donetsk seem to know that Russia brought about the war on the Peoples’ Republics of Eastern Ukraine. And that the US was not involved in the overthrow of the Yanukovich legally-elected government. So in the light of that can you please explain this parliamentary speech by Oleg Tsarov and can you confirm that the English text is a correct translation? Thank you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9hOl8TuBUM
With this word ‘individuals’s’ I overwrote the first ‘s’ with an apostrophe and added a second. Apparently, not for the first time, the first ‘s’ I highlighted did not delete. Does anybody else have this problem with Windows 8? Is there a solution?
Of course John Spencer-Davis, how could I forget dear Paul Foot?