I am an unrepentant enthusiast for the European Union, indeed a European Federalist. I think the freedoms of movement of people and goods within the EU are the most profound political achievement of my lifetime, and have made the world a very much better place.
I am therefore flabbergasted by the group of unpleasant elitist bastards who apparently will lead the pro-EU campaign for the referendum. How could anybody wishing to win a vote believe that a Board including Peter Mandelson and Danny Alexander is going to help? While the appointment of Lord Rose seems to confirm belief in the “Michelle Mone theory”, that selling knickers grants universal expertise.
Most egregious of all, the Executive Director is Will Straw, whose main qualification is that his father is a war criminal. Founder of the rabid anti-Corbyn website Left Foot Forward and every bit as Atlanticist as Liam Fox, Will Straw is as insanely pro-United States hegemony and as ultra-Zionist as only an extreme Blairite can be. He really is a deeply unappealing figure.
I have no doubt they will be flooded with corporate money. But what I want to know is this. If this referendum is supposed to be a democratic exercise, where every citizen is equal, what grants this self-serving sample of the metropolitan elite the right to nominate themselves as the In campaign? I don’t see how any decent person can have anything to do with them. Having had a lot of respect for Caroline Lucas, I must say if she really is going to work alongside Will Straw then my respect for her is going to plummet.
Mr Goss is another one who is remaining strangely silent when it comes to giving us his opinion on whether his country should stay in the EU or leave.
Funny how some of the loudest shouters on here are keeping their heads below the parapet.
I find it strange that nobody else seems either pleased or interested in the fact that the police are being withdrawn from the Ecuadorian Embassy.
This is from the Sky News website.
http://news.sky.com/story/1568200/police-drop-guard-at-assanges-embassy-refuge
‘The Foreign Office released a statement saying: “The head of the Diplomatic Service, Simon McDonald, summoned the Ecuadorian Ambassador today (12 October) to register once again our deep frustration at the protracted delay.
“The UK has been absolutely clear since June 2012 that we have a legal obligation to extradite Assange to Sweden. That obligation remains today.”‘
I remembered the name from Craig’s earlier posts ref Simon McDonald and Straw.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/?s=simon+mcdonald 2009-12
Simon McDonald
Straw in the Stink
Proof of Complicity in Torture
Jack Straw Lied To Parliament
“Well, Glenn, you can’t say you (and others) weren’t warned, can you.
I warned you (and others) several times but you chose not to listen.”
—————-
Thank you Habb, you never fail to disappoint me, at least I know your true colours, it’s kind of reassuring.
Finally before I retire….to sleep, a funny.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1444683584.html
RoS
“The Act does not give the Named Person a monitoring role
The Named Person will respond to information about wellbeing needs raised by the child, young person, parents or those who work with them. The Named Person will help put children, young people and families in control of getting help and support to overcome difficulties at the right time.”
_________________
Sounds pretty Orwellian to me, RoS. Big Brother-ish if you see what I mean. The heavy hand of the state. BB knows best.
I’m instinctively a federalist but with friends like Straw, Mandy et al, who needs enemies? I want a federal EU in the spirit of Delors not a neoliberal EU in the spirit of Blair.
Off topic, but will be of interest to some;
http://off-guardian.org/2015/10/12/searches-in-kiev-svoboda-party-members-suspected-of-maidan-mass-murder/
As for the EU, unfit for purpose, beyond reform, needs to be dismantled & restarted from scratch.
Talking of Orwell, I’d like to re-post Aldous Huxley’s letter to Orwell, posted earlier by another commenter (thank you!) on an earlier thread.
http://off-guardian.org/2015/08/30/huxley-to-orwell-contrasting-dystopias/
Yes, the same Huxley who was a dear friend of J Krishnamurti and wrote a foreword in 1954 to one of the few books that K wrote himself. Here it is: http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=30&chid=385&w=
Recommended reading.
Also worth watching the video contained herein on a news report (again, thanks to whoever brought it to our notice on an earlier thread) :
https://www.rt.com/news/318277-reporter-uncensored-spoof-video/
Well worth a laugh
1) I found Glenn’s comment, the ‘belligerent twat’ one amusing and apt.
2) I find RoS is behaving like a belligerent twat.
3) For Fred I: See 1.
4) Habbaduk I still think is Margaret Becket
5) Alcyone: Got any cute cat videos?
“Holy Cow, I’ve seen some twisted nonsense and O/T bile on here from the same source and others but this really takes the biscuit. Positively barking. Go directly to Coventry.”
Is Lloyd Quinan, who has just been selected as an SNP candidate, on record, on vidio in fact, saying not being a Nationalist constitutes child abuse?
If concerns about people like that passing laws controlling how we raise children seems “barking” to you it must be because you are as fanatical as he is because it’s frightening to any sane person.
“Instead of meaning quoting Fred read it for yourself.”
Are you saying that if it was Westminster passing these laws you wouldn’t oppose them?
TTIP will go ahead. Malstrom’s comment, “I do not take my mandate from the European people.” made it clear that public opinion means nothing tot he fat cats of the EU.
I would prefer us to leave the EU but the party that I support, SNP, wants us to stay in.
The thing is, the SNP don’t want to align themselves with the slimy, fat cats that you named, Craig. Apparently there can only be one official group on each side so they would have to be an unofficial grouping. I think this also means that they can’t draw down funds (not sure about that).
Oh dear . . . what a to do. 🙂
In some ways the comments on Craig’s blog posts have reflected how totally, utterly and fucking insane Britain has become.
All pumped-up by the media and a bunch of so-and-sos in Parliament who should all be in jail.
Wacko land is not the phrase for Britain in the 21st century.
“Habbaduk I still think is Margaret Becket” Tony M, at 1040pm today.
In her caravan, by the beach? 🙂
I think that is extremely unlikely. But it hardly matters in any case.
Whom do you think here might be Vladimir Putin?
I would like to make it clear that I am not Lavrentiy Beria.
^LOL Suhayl!
Add: Best one today, if not this month…
Hope Dreolin and Technicolour ok, btw. Haven’t seen them around for ages!
This topic makes me so angry that I’m going to bed.
In the meantime I’ll leave the Subjects in the UK bowing and fawning to their lords and masters (which they continue to do quite readily).
In most civilised societies this would be called child abuse.
You are children.
You are complete idiots.
But Craig here begs the obvious question. If these highly unprepossessing people are to the forefront of the “In” campaign, does this not show that they see the EU as a means of furthering their agenda? If it does assume a more federal form, it will inevitably acquire an increasingly firm foreign and “defence” policy. Once this has been achieved, it is probable that it too will start throwing its weight about in the worlds affairs. It cannot have escaped his attention that the majority of E member states are firmly Atlanticist in outlook. In fact the EU is already playing a pernicious role internationally, by actively supporting the misbegotten “Arab Spring” helping to depose Ghadaffi, and openly supporting the fascist coup d’etat in the Ukraine. So I am less than enthusiastic about his European vision.
In the context of EU aggression in the Ukraine, Will Straw positioning himself as a friend of the EU is worrying.
His father used his position inside government to bend many immigration rules, to the extent that bribery and corruption is now normal in the border agency. He prostituted himself to the zionists’ war on Islam, to the extent of crimes of rendition torture and the destruction of Iraq.
Will Straw has detected the opportunity for self- advancement in an atmosphere where the UK Establishment is currently attacking the EU and it needs friends.
In view of his father’s record we should be very cynical about him. The EU is famous for its abuse of money, but has yet to participate in the zionist wargames. The refugees crisis is about to change all that because Israel intends to usurp Syrian land. Turkey is willing to genocide Syrian refugees in a ! safe zone ! by takfiring them aka Ala Qaida and IS. but what to do with the rest of them?
The EU is in serious need of psycopathic Straw men and women to assist the ! birthing ! of the greater Israel.
Thanks for flagging him up Craig.
Obama is poutraged over Putin’s interference in His Grand Design…lol.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
The switchblade has the size of a remote piloted hobby plane but features a visual and infrared camera and an explosive charge. It can be “suicided” on a target. According to the datasheet the battery powered killer drone has a “10 km radius of operation”.
Izraa, where the debris was found, lies (map) at the crossing of the M5 highway from Amman in Jordan north to Damascus and road 109 which runs west to east through south Syria. Izraa is about 40 km north of the Syrian Jordan border and 40 km east of the Golan demarcation line. Anyone who used this armed drone must have been on Syrian ground.
The U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corp are the only known users. Since 2012 the weapons has been used in Afghanistan. The system surely requires significant training. Controlling a remote plane 10 km away over unknown terrain is not easy. This excludes the use of the system by some more or less untrained Syrian mercenaries.
My conclusion is that U.S. soldiers, likely some special forces, are in south Syria on Syrian ground on either reconnaissance or targeted killing missions. This is an invasion in violation of international law.
Mary “I find it strange that nobody else seems either pleased or interested in the fact that the police are being withdrawn from the Ecuadorian Embassy.”
Please allow me to help you out.
1 – It’s completely off-topic, and the blog host has asked numerous times to keep it on-topic for a while following a new post.
2 – It makes very little practical difference. Assange could be arrested by plain-clothed officials as soon as steps outside the embassy, or be detained the moment he tries to move around or leave the country.
“…there has been relative peace in Europe since the end of WWII, surely the setting up of the EU, has played a major role in that. Without the EU, things in Europe could’ve been significantly different when it comes to warring nations within Europe.”
Can you not see the logical flaws in this argument, RoS?
There is no evidence whatsoever that the EU has prevented war in Europe, which has been militarily dominated by the US and the Soviet Union since the last war. In fact the EU was very much involved in the break up of Yugoslavia by wars sponsored by NATO. At the moment the EU is pushing for war in Ukraine.
“U.S. soldiers, likely some special forces, are in south Syria on Syrian ground on either reconnaissance or targeted killing missions.”
I don’t doubt it. There are probably SAS and Canadian troops involved as well. And all probably liaise with the IDF. It is just a matter of time before the bodies of people who should not be there start turning up, and the Syrians start taking prisoners with papers on them linking them to London, Ottawa and Washington.
The media, were it interested, would do well to keep their eyes on Amman which is where these gentlemen are based.
Bevin; “There are probably SAS and Canadian troops involved as well.”
It would explain the outrage over the Russian targetted of “moderate” “Rebels”, and would also explain yesterday’s US weapons airdrops; even the term “moderate” seems to be a very flexible term, as AI accuses the “moderate” Kurds, of committing collective punishment crimes;
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34511134
Marks & Spencer profits have halved because of ‘austerity’.
Facebook making vast profits paid £4K in tax. Westminster does no enforce UK tax Laws.
The EU/US trade agreement is an agreement to allow EU firms to trade in the US without trade barriers. US gov funds R&D. US companies (multinationals) through patents create a monopoly and charge what they like with no competition and pay no tax. US/China etc puts up trade barriers. The Trade Agreement is an attempt to stop that and have an equal trading field. One of the advantages of being in the EU. Either a Trade Agreement or a Trade tarriff war.
“In fact the EU was very much involved in the break up of Yugoslavia by wars sponsored by NATO.”
Of course the actions of your mate Slobo had nothing to do with that whatsoever! Good to see that the old Soviet spray can is working so well after all these years.
Macky and Bevin – the friends of good and moderate bombing – no wishy washy liberalism for them.
@Resident Dissident, here’s something to complement your fake moral indignation;
http://off-guardian.org/2015/10/13/the-fakery-of-the-free-world/
We are not told a lot about what is going on in Europe.
I never heard/saw a word about this on BBC or in the newspapers.
Come to think of it, I didn’t hear about Germany banning fracking either.
The launch of the Stay In campaign was a one day wonder. All premature anyway as the date of the so called referendum could be two years away. First Call Me Dave has to do his renegotiating in Brussels.
This is yesterday’s Kuennsberg interview with Lord Rose.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34506930
Yesterday Cameron was in Devon expounding on his home building agenda. He even threatened to take away local councils’ autonomy if they don’t get their Local Plans decided. If they fail, central government will produce them. A bully.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-councils-must-deliver-local-plans-for-new-homes-by-2017
He has his Blairite sidekick in place – Lord Adonis. The latter has just lined up a lucrative directorship with HS2.
Today the news will be dominated by the content of the Dutch inquiry into the MH17 disaster.