Born Kneeling 1248


What comes out to me from the “Black Spider letter” correspondence of Prince Charles published today is how utterly obsequious Tony Blair and New Labour ministers were to him. No sign whatsoever of radicalism from the former “People’s Party” as they fell over to ingratiate themselves with the heir to the throne. I rather enjoyed Charles quite sharp tone to Blair.

I am fundamentally opposed to the existence of the monarchy. It will hopefully be replaced by a better system, but no human system is perfect. Given that we have a monarchy at present, you will perhaps be surprised to learn that I do not see anything wrong in Charles’ letters, which put forward views which are much what we would have expected him to hold. Of course there is interaction between the monarchy and government, and of course we should get rid of this hereditary element. But Charles’ lobbying is hugely less damaging and pernicious than the corporate lobbying I witnessed throughout my Whitehall career. At least Charles is not lobbying them for corporate advantage and giving large political donations at the same time.

While in my view he did nothing wrong in writing the letters, he and government are both very wrong in arguing they should be private. It is when it is secret that such attempts to wield influence between two branches of government – and monarchy is a branch of government – can be most simply perverted to ill ends. That such publication will not occur again because government has legislated to keep it secret, is an example of the privileged arrogance that prevents this from being a genuine democracy.

Altogether not that big a story and it gives Rusbridger and the Guardian the chance to pose as radical. I find the fact that what is published is so anodyne and unobjectionable rather suspicious – what has not been published? Rusbridger is of course the editor who complied enthusiastically with a GCHQ instruction to smash the Snowden hard drives. The existence of other copies does not justify this any more than it justifies book-burning.

By coincidence, a very worthwhile article by Michael Gillard that had been excised from the net has recently been republished, setting out how Rusbridger in 2002 conspired with Andy Hayman of the Met to bury an investigation into police corruption, including the burglary of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. By a further coincidence I was having a pint with Laurie Flynn in Sandy Bell’s four days ago.

Hayman went on to be the promoter of the stream of lies about the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes and the publicist of numerous fake terrorist plots, before having to resign in a scandal involving nubile police officers at public expense in tropical islands.

Rusbridger and his extraordinary wig go on and on as a pretend opposition outlet, their reputation much dented by recent hysterical unionist output which exceeds the Daily Express. But Rusbridger’s continued usefulness to the establishment is not in doubt. The pose of publishing the most harmless of Prince Charles’ letters does little to help a threadbare disguise.


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1,248 thoughts on “Born Kneeling

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  • John Spencer-Davis

    FAO Moderators

    Please could I request that you take a look at the postings by the poster “Really” at 9:24am, 1:52pm, 2:24pm, 3:18pm, 3:40pm, 4:15pm, and 5:18pm.

    I believe these postings contain obviously anti-Semitic material which is not appropriate to debate on this forum. Neoconservative is not synonymous with Jewish, and vice versa.

    Please would you consider removing these postings and placing the poster in pre-moderation.

    If you want my corresponding responses, they are at 1:18pm, 2:03pm, 2:55pm, 4:43 pm, and 8:06pm. Very happy for these to be removed also.

    Many thanks.

    John

  • lysias

    Interesting how a certain commenter goes out of his way to discourage anything being said about the pedophile politicians.

    Just like MI5, according to Danczuk’s account.

  • technicolour

    Phil – I hadn’t read it! Trailer has quite a different effect, I think.

  • Really

    BTW – JSD I know you are also posting as Villager, as deceitful as jiddu the cultic devil !

  • lysias

    Campaigners lose battle to release cable detailing historic UK relations with Bahrain:

    In a ruling that disappointed campaigners, an information tribunal has ruled that there should be only a partial disclosure of the contents of the cable from 1977, detailing conversations between British officials and Ian Henderson, a British military officer who ran the police in the Gulf state for 30 years and was dubbed the “Butcher of Bahrain”.

    Henderson, who died two years ago, was given the nickname after allegations that he was complicit in the ransacking of villages and the sexual abuse and maiming of Shia prisoners. He became head of security in Bahrain in 1966, when the country was still a British protectorate. He had previously helped suppress the Mau Mau insurgency in Kenya.

  • Republicofscotland

    “Most Palestinians would probably be glad you’re not Palestinian.”
    _____________________________

    Most Palestinians are probably pre-occupied by what their satraps are reporting back about them,to the Ministry of Love.

  • Becky Cohen

    @Really: I think the word you’re actually looking for is neo-con, which is an abbreviation of neo-conservative.

    A neo-cohen would, instead, be someone who admires me so much that they attempt to emulate me, and let’s be perfectly candid on that; whoever with any taste simply wouldn’t?;)

  • Suhayl Saadi

    You’re right, Technicolour, thanks again.

    Villager, good clips, thanks. Of the two, I liked the Elvis version best, and Buckethead is magnificent!

  • Daniel

    “Hopefully this will be the start of the end of the Fascists in Kiev.”

    Surprise, surprise, Porko has shafted the Ukrainian people. Of course, not a second of coverage of this protest on the Western mainstream media. There’s another surprise.

  • John Goss

    “Surprise, surprise, Porko has shafted the Ukrainian people. Of course, not a second of coverage of this protest on the Western mainstream media. There’s another surprise.”

    That’s a surprise Daniel? 🙂

  • Daniel

    “That’s a surprise Daniel?”

    John, isn’t it incredibly sad that the silent majority are paying the price for the actions of the minority, much like they did in Egypt. The parallels are stunning.

  • Daniel

    “Unfortunately Daniel it is always the case. Macedonia next.”

    Probable false flag as the precursor to another regime change?

  • Mary

    The earth shook on the Kent coast this morning at 3am. Magnitude 4.2 on the Richter scale.

  • Abe Rene

    @Really, Fedup: I note that you were unable to refute the truth of the report about Ilan Basri, and the even more comfortable truth it points to: that no other Arab country does such things. Hence your absurd allegations.

    Therefore I hope for the continued preservation of Israeli democracy as well the promotion for more adequate justice for Palestinians, not to mention Israeli Arabs. Concerning the latter I recommend the books of the Palestinian Melchite priest Elias Chacour.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Ice cream cohen

    100% genuine neocohen

    Some things need to be remembered, and the sometimes treasonous partnership between some American zionists – mainly Jewish, though not all – and the Israeli State is one of them. Taking umbrage on a play on words is not the way to suppress discussion, JS-D. Not here.

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    “Interesting how a certain commenter goes out of his way to discourage anything being said about the pedophile politicians.”

    _____________________________

    Almost as interesting as how our Oxford Greatsman (college a state secret) keeps referring to a matter about which all members of this blog and probably most of the population of the UK are perfectly aware and informed and about which they are able to keep themselves up-to-date without any help from the Irish-American from across the waters. 🙂

  • Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)

    “Taking umbrage on a play on words is not the way to suppress discussion, JS-D. Not here.”

    ________________________-

    Ba’al Zevul, despite living on Mount Olympus (known there as Zeus) is evidently not above making mistakes or even attempting a deliberate misrepresentation/smear.

    I see JSD’s question as a genuine attempt to find what Really meant by his neologism “neocohen” and in no way an attempt to “suppress discussion”.

  • Mary

    This land is ours….

    Comment from Medialens

    Guardian publishes more Israeli propaganda

    That the Guardian gives space, without comment or context to a extreme religious right-wing fanatic, spouting what amounts to pseudo-religious, racist, mumbo-jumbo… is, unfortunately, what one has come to expect.

    Israel’s new deputy foreign minister: ‘This land is ours. All of it is ours’
    Tzipi Hotovely gives speech to Israeli diplomats in which she says she will try to achieve global recognition for West Bank settlements
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/22/israels-new-deputy-foreign-minister-this-land-is-ours-all-of-it-is-ours
    ~~~~~~~~

    The Guardian printed it under the guise of what that nice Mr Netanyahu has to cope with in his coalition. Yeah! Right!

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Required reading (2)

    http://www.stopdebezetting.com/documents/pdf/090713Hasbara%20handboek_tip_report.pdf

    TIP – The Israel Project- is currently engaged in undermining Argentina’s government:

    TIP has counted on funding from controversial right-wing “pro-Israel” figures, like billionaire hedge fund investors Seth Klarman and Paul Singer.

    Klarman, owner of the Times of Israel, has been both a major funder of TIP and a member of its board of advisors. Between 2008 and 2011, he gave the group nearly $4 million.[29] His Klarman Family Foundation has also supported a number of controversial Islamic groups, including the American Islamic Forum for Democracy founded by Zuhdi Jasser*, a controversial promoter of surveillance of Muslim communities. Klarman is also a prominent funder of the American Islamic Congress**, an organization that the George W. Bush administration helped start.

    Billionaire investor Paul Singer gave TIP $500,000 in 2007 and $1 million in 2012, the year Josh Block took the helm of organization. LobeLog has reported that since Block became the CEO and president of TIP, Singer has become one of TIP’s “two largest donors.”[31]

    Singer’s funding of TIP garnered attention in early 2015 after Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner highlighted how groups in the United States who have received donations from Singer have been among the more vocal proponents of the idea that Argentina has tried to cover up alleged Iranian terrorist attacks. Singer—whose practice of purchasing the debt of developing nations has earned him the moniker “vulture Singer”[32]—has had a long-running dispute with Argentina over of its debt, which his hedge fund bought up after Argentina defaulted in 2001.

    http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/The_Israel_Project

    *’That strangest and loneliest of creatures – the Muslim Zionist’. Here:

    http://www.loonwatch.com/2014/12/zionist-zuhdi-jasser-shills-for-standwithus-again/

    ** http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/anti-muslim-group-leaps-defense-american-islamic-congress-after-ei-expose

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Is Buggalugs commenting yet, Mary? He usually likes to snark along with exposes of zionist rottenness…

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Israel’s new deputy foreign minister: ‘This land is ours. All of it is ours’

    But not if you’re a schvarz…

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