Recently an Angus mother of three infant children was separated from them and jailed for ten months for over-claiming £10,000 per year in benefits. Meanwhile the Duke of Westminster evades £3.6 billion in inheritance tax through a transparently fraudulent use of trusts which “have the option” to give the money to someone else instead.
The United Kingdom is a socially backward and sometimes vicious polity, an island which prides itself on the state enforced conservatism which allowed it to evade intellectually motivated reform and retain a historical legacy of gross injustice and privilege.
For historical reasons land reform is an immensely popular cause in Scotland, and one of so many areas where SNP timidity is a deep, deep disappointment. The fact that they are covered in buildings does not make the vast London estates of the Grosvenors any more acceptable than the unnecessarily empty Highland estates where golden eagles are destroyed so the chinless wonders, hedge fund managers and sheikhs can blast away at tame grouse.
The late Duke of Westminster is characterised as a “philanthropist” by mainstream media even though the percentage of both his income and his wealth he gave to charity was less than most ordinary people’s mite, myself included, and I am willing to bet that what he did do, was tax-deductible. That a parasite who sat on £9 billion of unearned money in a country where disabled people commit suicide from poverty, and who got two O levels from Harrow, was Prince Charles’ closest friend, cuts through the lying propaganda about the Royal family we are constantly fed.
The political class have a deliberate will not to enforce inheritance tax on the super wealthy. They have a political will not to tackle landlordism, which as it affects both residential and commercial tenants is a fundamental malaise of the British economy. Neither problem is technically difficult. The problem is that the political class as a whole are in the pockets of the super-wealthy, promote their interests and ache to join them.
Which is why in the UK it is important that the threat to them posed by Corbyn is maintained, and why in Scotland it is essential that the SNP membership now push their own leadership into bold action on fundamental land reform and Independence. To call the current SNP approach to both issues desultory would be excessively polite.
As Mr Blair once said: the chocolate ration has been raised from 30 grams a week to 20 grams a week.
Manufactured Civil Unrest and Regime Change: Is America Next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r2vmzFOvfI
Sorry, Bright Eyes; couldn’t resist.
How do you know it is she, and that she isn’t thinking of you being a troll, perhaps the biggest one?
Some of the latest on USS Reagan and Operation Tomodachi:
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201605190065.html
At least 16 US warships have been irradiated, at a cost of billions of dollars; but that’s nothing compared to the total corruption in the US military-industrial complex, which has recently ‘lost’ $6.5 trillion…
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-audit-army-idUSKCN10U1IG
The obvious question is: how can US tax payers be so dumb as to tolerate this?
The answer is the biggest-propaganda-machine-in-history, which includes an army of trolls on the internet.
“It is nonsensical to claim that Operation Gladio is “going global” for the simple reason that the original Gladio no longer exists (because the reason for it no longer exists) …”
The assumption being made here, by Habbakuk, is that Gladio was aimed at preventing the USSR from expanding and at liberating the people of eastern Europe from the Yalta Pact and subsequent Soviet moves to keep those countries within their ‘sphere of influence’ from becoming staging posts for US aggressions.
Which makes a sensible person wonder why, given that there is no longer a Soviet Union and that Russia no longer has a Communist government which is descended from that which organised the Comintern, the US and NATO creeps ever closer to Russia’s borders, encircling it far more tightly than it ever did during the “Cold War” against, it was claimed, “Communism.’
And the answer, which explains also why Gladio has expanded its reach and grown to include fascist militias on every continent, is that the Cold War was only incidentally concerned with “communism” and was the diplomatic and military expression of the USA’s campaign to establish its rule over the planet-Full Spectrum Domination.
This mad and hopeless campaign for hegemony, on behalf of a nation-falling apart at every seam in 2016 just as it was in 1948- temporarily rewarded for its having accidentally backed both sides in 1939 and cannibalised the British Empire under Lease Lend, will continue until either a nuclear holocaust puts and end to insane ambition or the US is defeated.
Which explains why patriots in every land, including the USA, support every development weakening the Empire and hastening the defeat in which the best hopes of all humanity (not to mention every other species) will be consummated.
NATO “keeps approaching Russia’s borders” because countries close to Russia for some reason feel that they need protection. Any analysis has to include a discussion of why countries that had a long and close relationship with the USSR have to such a large extent seen Russia as a threat.
Very well put, Sir.
Why be ordinary.
It could be that some of the former USSR bloc nations felt aggrieved on the break up of the USSR.( If I recall right, and I’m sure if I’m wrong I’ll be corrected). As the bloc nations were supposed to receive a fair share of the assets that the USSR had acquired.
However Russia, reneged on the proposal and acted in its own interests, claiming all, the embassies and assets for itself. Now the former USSR satellites are wary of the Russian bear.
On could apply that scenario in a hypothetically, with regards to the 50 US states, what would be the outcome if the USA were to fracture, into smaller aligned nations?
For instance if the Southern states and Florida and lets say Texas, united, and formed a nation, how would they then react to Washington and the continuing USA? Of course it’s all just hypothetical, a bit of what-iffery.
But then the same could’ve been said about the USSR, and the foretelling, of it’s demise.
One has to wonder what planet some people are on:
Manufactured Civil Unrest and Regime Change: Is America Next?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r2vmzFOvfI
Maybe they remember the Crimean War?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_War
You know the one with the poem by Tennyson which goes “Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die”
The dysfunctional UK seems to have this obsession of repeating the same old mistakes.
Absolutely! The US and it’s NATO poodles care immensely what the ‘countries near Russia’ are afraid of – in a confrontation, as Putin has said, they would be toast. And they know it, though their ‘Leaders’ follow the orders of their Western puppeteers.
Hitler wanted to do the same – set up native ‘leaders’ in the countries they conquered, who would take their orders from Berlin.
Plus ca change…
Perhaps the Americans believe their own propaganda and assume they’ve got us too dumbed down to realize Full Spectrum Dominance is the same as what the Nazis called World Domination? To think the Nazis were generally more honest than our own war criminals…
Did the Nazis talk about World Domination (Weltherrschaft)? I can’t say I recall ever seeing the phrase in Nazi literature.
I don’t think they were massively into the world domination angle. If anything it was more pre WW1 were the german’s dug that idea. Of course the nazi’s were intent on being the powerhouse of Europe but i don’t believe they had plans to take over the world a la Doctor Evil….
Both imperial Germany and Nazi Germany aspired to be a Weltmacht, a world power, but that’s not quite the same thing as acquiring world dominance.
Lysias
Most of us. I imagine, are less cognisant of Nazi literature than you appear to be.
or get them wet, especially Gizmo.
This is a very good article on current politics and the origins of our present discontents. I urge people to read it and pass it on to others:
http://journal-neo.org/2016/08/21/clintons-campaign-the-anti-russian-roots-of-the-cultural-left/
This is very Shocking
Turkey wedding suicide bomber ‘was child aged 12-14’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-37147717
Yup, we kill them by the million because they are savages, unlike us…
http://www.mintpressnews.com/4-million-muslims-killed-in-western-wars-should-we-call-it-genocide/208711/
Meanwhile the chocolate ration has been raised from 30 grams to 20 grams.
Oh, and don’t forget your daily 2 minutes hate…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3748562/Can-Corbyn-worse-Labour-leader-REFUSES-say-stand-key-Nato-principle-collective-defence-Russia-invaded-Ukraine.html
Or this shocking situation in Scotland, land of the rat.
Dysfunctional Glasgow
The constituency of Govanhill had 3,500 Romanian migrants packed into a few streets of ramshackle tenement blocks in Govanhill, in the south of Glasgow even before the nation’s accession to EU in January 2014.
Now the pocket of Glasgow, which Ms Sturgeon only visits with armed police officers in tow, is in meltdown mode.
There is no clear information on how many different racial groups are in the broken down community, but figures show that there are 57 different languages spoken by their pupils in schools.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/702382/Sturgeon-s-EU-slum-Squalor-filth-and-sex-crime-in-constituency-branded-shame-of-Scotland
Can it really be true, that when Ms. Nicola comes home from strutting her stuff on the E.U. stage, she needs armed policemen
just to walk the streets of her own constituency?
“Govanhell”
http://www.urbanrealm.com/news/2186/Holyrood_hears_Govanhill_slum_petition.html
Residents calls for a government inquiry into substandard housing in the Govanhill district of Glasgow are being heard by MSP’s today.
Govanhill Housing Association submitted a petition to parliament after criticising rogue landlords and funding shortages for exacerbating poor living conditions in the area.
Holyrood’s cross party petitions committee will quiz the leader of Glasgow City Council, who tendered his resignation on health grounds today, and housing minister Alex Neil on the issue.
It is estimated there are some 1,200 properties in the Govanhill area which are classified as in slum condition, leading some residents to label the district ‘Govanhell’.
“Can it really be true,”
__________
Michael
It’s the Express reporting, of course it can’t be true
Nicola Sturgeon’s constituency is in Govanhill, a very cosmopolitan mixture of people live and work in the area.
There’s even a Roma day, that all creeds celebrate every year, and don’t forget Glasgow city council is one of the few councils that has taken substantial amounts of refugees.
Here is a link to one of the international Roma marches.
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/13277841.Day_of_celebration_for_Glasgow_s_Roma_community/
Your other comments on Glasgow and Sturgeon are, rather churlish.
Scotland and Srebrenica’s international ties go back to the horrendous crimes committed when Scottish scientists went over there to try and identify bodies found in war graves.
Exposed: Shocking living conditions in Glasgow’s Govanhill by The Herald, Glasgow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrR2YSACFDI
Squalid conditions in Govanhill must be improved, say residents
http://stv.tv/news/west-central/1339915-calls-for-urgent-improvements-to-unbelievable-housing-in-govanhill/
Urgent action needed to clear up streets in Glasgow area as vermin breed among piles of rubbish.
Residents have demanded improvements to living conditions in the Govanhill area of Glasgow as a charity said it was “unbelievable” Scotland still had such poor housing.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, the MSP for the area, was confronted by angry residents last weekend who invited her to see the squalid conditions of some of their streets.
The Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council have ploughed £10m into a fund to improve properties in Govanhill but locals say conditions are still unbearable.
Residents told STV the area needed urgent action to clear up back streets, with rats and other vermin breeding among the piles of rubbish.
Local householder Joe Beaver said: “We’re only five minutes away from Hampden. Is this really Glasgow in the 21st century?”
After being shown some of the conditions, Graeme Brown, director of housing charity Shelter Scotland, said it was clear far more needed to be done.
He said: “It’s unbelievable that we still have housing that bad. Scotland has done a great deal to improve its housing but clearly we have more still to be done.”
Alan.
Thank you for those links, however the Scottish government has ploughed over £10 million pounds into Govanhill, part of it to clean up the bin sections of the tenements.
I gather real problem, is to with resident not disposing of their rubbish properly, I’m sure that’s a common trait across the dis-United Kingdom.
But I’m sure you won’t highlight any of those misgiving across the border.
Habbabkuk
August 21, 2016 at 17:51
“Your [RoS] first para is the typical weasel response whenever terrorism comes up. It says in essence that terrorism is terrible but might nevertheless be justified.”
………………………………………………………………………………
Now Habbabkuk it wasn’t so long ago, on this very post, that you justified the bombing of the King David hotel.
I don’t remember that, Mr Scorgie, so I should be grateful if you could link to that comment. Thanks.
Ms. Nicola Sturgeon struts the World stage ( Glasgow can go to Fuck)
Nicola Sturgeon ‘moved’ by visit to site of 1995 Srebrenica massacre
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-37142487
You seriously expect more than BS from a politician?
“The Royal Navy’s only vessel capable of repairing British warships on the sea is being offered up for sale by the UK’s Ministry of Defense due to cost-cutting measures, despite a recent retrofitting that extended the life of the RFA Diligence to 2020.”
Still I’m sure if push comes to shove the dis-United Kingdom’s government at Westminster, can use all those Olympic medals to patch up the ships at sea, I knew they’d come in handy for something.
The Russian’s must look at the state of the dysfunctional dis-United Kingdom’s naval forces, and have a wry smile on their faces.
Still I’m sure Trident’s renewal will have them shaking in their boots, shaking with laughter at the bloody cost.
https://www.rt.com/uk/356627-royal-navy-repair-vessel/
Forgive my ignorance, but why is that a bad thing. Could it be possible that its services are no longer needed.
Well, Phil far more notable people than you and I, who have many years of naval experience, think its a bad idea.
“Lord West, a former First Sea Lord, told the Telegraph that the decision to forgo the only OMAR at sea was an “error.”
“I had 22 ships with me, and she was invaluable. That sort of floating maintenance capacity is very, very useful. It’s yet again a diminution of our Naval capability, particularly of our area capability. With the carriers coming along, that’s really what the Navy needs to retain.”
There have in recent times, several British warships and submarines that have had collisions with tankers or ran aground that needed quick repairs.
Then there’s the growing possibility of skirmishes with Russian or Chinese vessels.
I wouldn’t say you are ignorant Phil.
The 2016 Olympics is now coming to an end.
Does anyone want to take a bet that we’re now going to get some more ‘terrorist events’?
(and as an aside, Peter Hitchens published a good piece in today’s Daily Mail about the Olympics… http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3751106/PETER-HITCHENS-Gold-synchronised-sunburn-self-delusion-goes-to.html )
Sorry, didm’t like Peter Hitchen’s column one bit, comparing the long defunct GDR with current Britain in sport,
along with a swipe at Brazil.
The current world cannot afford such extravagance.
.
Why ? Do you think it was a good thing that the seats were mostly empty while the poor of Brazil were kept out of the stadiums their taxes had paid for ?
Also read the article Hitchens has written underneath about Syria. I wish there were more journalists telling the truth about that.
I don’t think it was a good thing for the seats to be empty. It was generally because the people could not afford to go.
The whole nonsense is just a bonanza for private interests..
Sorry, but I can only take the Hitchens in small doses.
Hitchens’ article is mean spirited and just plain wrong. What motivated East Germany and various other countries the other side of the Iron Curtain was to show the superiority of the communist system. To this end their athletes were pumped full of steroids on an industrial scale, some from as young as eight, to the point that the survivors are still suffering physical and psychological problems.
I’m not saying the modern Olympics are squeaky clean but you can’t really compare Team GB with the drug fuelled East Germans.
OK but is it possible that this ‘British’ pursuit of Olympic success is founded on the experience of how the Russians and East Germans propagandised sport, and stole a march on the west? By responding, we repeat the same process, even if the methods are not as ruthless as those employed by the soviet system. They may (or may not) , have used drugs to a greater extent than ‘the west’ but the primary methods used were the same as have been used here-namely identifying individuals with particular abilities and then freeing them from the everyday burdens of earning a living and looking after oneself. In Eastern europe it was achieved largely by channelling the resources through the military system and soe specially created state institutions.
The funding methods are quite different. In one case there is absolutely no connection to a democratic process or to any accountability. In the other (the west) in its latest manifestation, it is not obligatory or ‘enforced’ (but is certainly propagandised and manipulated). How important is this? Well quite important, I would say( i am agreeing wit you) although I also have some reservations about this ‘Olympic’ achievement from a wider perspective. I am highly doubtful of the inspirational effect of elite sport, which is much touted as part of the remedy for poor diet and lifestyle choices that we see proliferating at the moment-see also the recent comment on the Tory failure to curb the promotion of ‘value added’ food products (i.e adulterated, poor quality food promoted by relentless advertising by a corporate machine which has become detached from any (sincere) sense of civic value and purpose.
Walking around Edinburgh (Portobello) beach yesterday , with my grandson my wife and I were struck by how podgy so many of the kids looked . We actually counted and the proportion was astonishing. Although obviously not a reliable sample it stil seems significant,
Personally I think a great opportunity was missed and misunderstood in the decisions made to pursue elite sport, in that it channels resources mistakenly away from mass participation and away from enriching as many peoples lives as possible through participation sport-as opposed to spectator sport.
It is vainglorious. also it is not ‘sustainable’ in the sense that others, seeing the success will emulate or try to emulate the methods which have led to it, and having achieved ‘success’, one suspects that there may well be a ‘meh’ effect somewhere down the line in this post modern world- ‘a seen that, done that ‘ malaise of the spirit.
The argument is still over prioritising elite sport over mass participation sport.
One is the manifestation of neoliberalism, and the other is much more inclusive and I believe, much more constructive and effective over the long term.
Yes, what an absolute disgrace. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, the Yanks are pumped full of Bovine Growth Hormones, GMO’s, pesticides, bombarded with dangerous microwaves, have their air and water contaminated with heavy metal aerosol spraying (Chemtrails), have their ppprotective radiation monitors turned off, when it appeared that they (particularly the West coast) were getting high levels of radiation from Fukushima, allow BP off the hook for killing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico, blatantly rig Presidential and other elections, spend taxpayers money committing War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and Crimes Against Peace, prop up an Apartheid, expansionist (and some would say semi-Fascist) regime in the Middle East, and another in Ukraine, etc.
Oh, those Russians!!
They’re are bombing Gaza again tonight.
Innocent children will again be killed and traumatised.
The only thing we can do is boycott all Israeli products. Please Please boycott.
Look for Israeli goods in your local supermarket and move them to where they can’t be sold.
The Israelis really disgust me. No country in which semites of a sect beginning with J has broken the laws of God handed down to Moses on behalf of the Israelites.
Thou shalt not kill.
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours chattels.
Thou shalt not steal.
Thou shalt not bear false witness.
Of course all members of the nearly aforementioned faith do not share the murderous Netinyahu apartheid philosophy and I was very pleased to see corroboratory support on my recent bike ride on behalf of Palestinians.
This is me cruising out of Derby on the second day (courtesy of Sheffield PSC).
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sheffieldpsc/28864777355/in/album-72157669173450363/
Depends which interpretation you take. Remember that the Old Testament was all about smiting and destroying other tribes without mercy, long after the 10 Commandments had been issued (or 12, or 15 etc., depending on which version of the unalterable and incorruptible Word of God that we’re using).
Some of these translations make it clear that the “Thou Shalt Not Kill” only applied to the killing of _J3ws_, and not of the lessor creations of the self-same God. Smiting the heathen g0yim is just fine. There’s also this:
http://atheism.about.com/od/tencommandments/a/commandment06.htm
Judaism is a religion of descendents of converts. The equating with the Israelites is a nonsense.
Thous Shalt Not Kill isn’t even a general rule about not killing other Israelites. There are copious passages about burning other Israelites in the fire and so on for various crimes. The rule is – ordinary Israelites can’t kill each of their own volition. Its a rule about maintaining the Priest’s authority. You can kill anyone on his say so – Israelite or non-Israelite.
This rule, limited as it was, wasn’t some great moral invention of the Israelites either. No society can function where ordinary members of it can just kill each of their own volition. Every society outlaws that – they have to.
I love the idea of people in tesco searching high and low for Israeli made products (I don’t even know whether there are any) just to fling them away in disgust once they are found whilst uttering “take that Israel, Gaza will be safe tonight”. What an incredible plan.
I don’t know where you’ve been these last few years Phil but BDS has been hugely successful and very worrying for Israel.
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/how-israel-boycott-movement-struck-major-blows-2015
I suspect its impetus may be fizzling out. There are new initiatives. All in good time.
Totally correct, John. It’s so worrying for them, that they’ve strong-armed our craven lackeys in government to _make it illegal_ for local authorities and so on to honour the concerns of their constituents:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/israel-boycott-local-councils-public-bodies-and-student-unions-to-be-banned-from-shunning-israeli-a6874006.html
BDS seems to have ’em worried! Just needs strengthening, along with kicking them out of football and other associations, and GETTING THE TRUTH OUT (that last will infuriate those whose task is to ridicule those who try to do just that).
And let me add this – their sorry carcasses will not be spared when Armageddon comes upon us; they and theirs will fry alongside those of us who try to prevent it – then they may well consider any payments they got for trolling to have been a ‘Big Mistake’, but a bit too late.
Here’s some food for thought: ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’:
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v19483133d9a7jQka
‘Duck and Cover’: https://archive.org/details/DuckandC1951
‘THE UNDERGROUND NAZI INVASION OF THE UNITED STATES’:
http://gehlen.greyfalcon.us/underground.html
I am not familiar with this site; and have not gone into it in depth, but I do know that much I have read backs up what I already knew, so I’m posting it. I cannot find at present the site I was looking for, about ‘Paperclip’ Nazis forming the base for the ‘Fourth Reich’ in the States, in conjunction with ‘Rat Line’ Nazis and their slew of Corporations built from the plundered wealth of people and countries they had conquered in WWII.
Aidworker!
“Look for Israeli goods in your local supermarket and move them to where they can’t be sold.”
__________________
I should advise people not to act on your advice. The action you advocate is likely to have the perpetrators land up before the local magistrates court. I wonder why you are inciting people to commit likely offences and I am also surprised that the moderator allows that incitement.
BTW, is it something you yourself do?
“…Any analysis has to include a discussion of why countries that had a long and close relationship with the USSR have to such a large extent seen Russia as a threat…”
Two reasons stick out.
1/ Many of these countries are run by emigre fascists. The Baltic states are a good example: Russian speakers are deprived of citizenship. Veterans of the SS are pensioned, their massacres redefined as battles and their collaboration with the Nazis against the Red Army celebrated. These tendencies have all been repeated in Ukraine. Opposition to these fascist policies is dealt with by murders and beatings by death squads.
2/ Investment is tied to collaboration with the EU and the euro zone. And these, in turn, are tied to joining NATO. Enormous amounts of money have been spent to buy politicians and parties.
In some of these countries (Poland, Rumania and Lithuania, are examples) CIA prisons used to torture ‘rendered’ prisoners tied the government to the US, militarily and financially as well as in a shared criminality.
The underlying reality is that NATO expansion puts the, unconsulted, populations of these countries in the front line of any war resulting from US irresponsibility.
Indeed Bevin and that is why the Ukraine should not get access to the EU, just as Turkey, both countries are run by megalomaniacs, both are being pulled by powers they can’t control. Both countries are unable to develop a true democracy, both are clamping down on their judiciary, police and their respective home office, both are controlling people lives on the street, controlling the opposition.
There are enough fascists in Europe and we do not need a war here because fascist have undermined NATO and are trying their best to get into Shillaries administration.
Nevermind
You support Bev’s views about Ukraine, I notice.
Do you also support what he said about the other countries of the firmer Soviet bloc (the Baltic Republics, Poland, etc?
do you support it Habby? Are you wearing any cloth at the keyboard?
and did you squeeze your skeletal frame this morning to get every last bit out?
Should the fascists of the Ukraine be allowed to join the EU?
Is devolution for Norfolk and Suffolk a feasible idea?
Will Iffy Cliffy have any success in bullying councils into submitting to the long gone plan of Osborne’s anger project?
Meet Iffy Cliffy, he’s just like you, and stop asking stupid questions!
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/more_than_half_of_norfolk_voters_will_not_have_a_say_in_mayoral_election_1_4665935
Turkey
what a miserable hell hole.
I hope Ford of America are proud of their decision to shut the Ford Transit plant in Southampton, after half a century of loyal service.
Then build another Transit plant in Asiatic illiberal Turkey,
an excellent example of world capitalism
and how the original British workers are fucked over. “Back of the Queue”
Is there any better symptom of the craziness of our modern world than everyone cheering about the Olympic Games in Rio than the President of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, nowhere to be seen, undergoing impeachment from office for making them possible, and quite likely going to prison because of them?
No country has a monopoly on today’s world as it has gone simply nuts,
I agree with Peter Hitchens.
Would those who think his view is mean-spirited care to give the answer to the simple question about our medal mania: Why?
What is the point of it? Serious question.
We went to pretty extraordinary lengths to win, spending lots of money, targeting weak sports, even–or so I believe–targeting sports where one person could win multiple medals. The question is, Why?
Was it just to make us feel good? Panem et circenses?
Or is there something intrinsically good about winning olympic medals (as opposed to simply competing) that I have missed?
It seems to me the only arena in which we led the world was the one of spending money on sport.
Asking myself the same questions, KoWN. And wondering which bit of the generally bad news is so assiduously being buried in the manufactured hysteria. I’d add, isn’t it wonderful that flinging cash at athletes makes Bri’ain Great Again, while the same mechanism has so little effect on students that they are required to get into debt for the rest of their working lives to fund their aspiration to excellence?
Though I think the answer to most of the questions is to be found in the phrase ‘marketing opportunities’.
I agree. I had to switch off because I couldn’t stand the puffed up attitude of various presenters, sitting there in their studios congratulating themselves on another gold medal.
It would appear that George Galloway has de-registered Respect and is rumoured to be about to rejoin the Labour party. That should make things interesting.
Tactical move, to stop voters electing Corbyn? Can’t see that having a positive effect at all.
It appears that JC doesn’t want him back in Labour:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2015/11/jeremy-corbyn-does-not-want-george-galloway-rejoin-says-labour-mp-dawn-butler
Sound move on JC’s part, but the NS is even harder to read online than on paper:
We notice you have ad blocking software enabled. Support the New Statesman’s quality, independent journalism by contributing now — and this message will disappear for the next 30 days.
If we cannot support the site on advertising revenue, we will have to introduce a pay wall — meaning fewer readers will have access to our incisive analysis, comprehensive culture coverage and groundbreaking long reads.
IOW, we’ve got a paywall, pay up or fuck off. Or we’ll have to introduce a paywall, meaning fewer readers and even less advertising revenue. (And don’t bother hitting your back button to get back to wherever it was you ghastly oiks come from – it doesn’t work on this page.)
An interview with the PM of Libya Mr. Sarraj
” Sarraj: I didn’t take office until March 30, 2016. We were immediately confronted with numerous problems that were produced by former governments and the old regime, not by us. We have a difficult environment here and no financial resources. Oil exports have stopped. The government has no revenues.
SPIEGEL: No taxes, nothing?
Sarraj: No. We have been working here for months without a budget. We first got access to a small amount of resources two weeks ago that we have been able to pass along to the ministries, making a few things easier.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-libya-s-prime-minister-a-1108565.html
Come to think of it, what has happened to Libya’s billions confiscated when Ghaddafi was killed? Supposedly held in foreign bank accounts.
“The $ 150 bln on Gaddafi’s and other former Libyan leaders’ bank accounts is not the only money that was stolen during the period of anarchy in Libya,” Ms. an-Niran continues. “Lots of money was trafficked and is still being trafficked abroad by the Libyan “revolutionaries” themselves. To a large extent, the situation in Libya still remains chaotic. The new authorities seem to be incapable of controlling the situation in many of the country’s provinces. These provinces are in fact controlled by groups of bandits who do whatever they want with those who try to resist them.”
“When the West threw bombs on Libya, Western politicians said that this allegedly was done to help Libyans oust the tyrant and establish democracy in their country,” Ms. an-Niran says. “Now, it has turned out that these words were mere demagogy. The real aim of the West was to try to steal Libya’s riches.”
http://www.globalresearch.ca/who-pocketed-gaddafis-billions/5310459
Err, Try? I think they succeeded: ”…The real aim of the West was to try to steal Libya’s riches.”
One of the first things they did in Ukraine with their ‘Putsch’ was to ship Ukraine’s gold reserves out of the country; pound to a penny, they did the same in Libya (but ‘on the sly’.
I have a picture of Francois Hollande President of the Republic of France and Call me Dave ( then Prime minister of the United Kingdom)
congratulating each other on regime change, which they had helped to bring about, in Libya.
Dave Cameron has probably gone back to Culloden, back to his roots.
However Francois Hollande is still in office as the President of the Republic of France, he could be held responsible
for strutting on the world stage, puffed up with his own importance, and despoiling other lands?
FRANCE
launches new wave of air strikes on IS group targets in Syria’s Raqqa
http://www.france24.com/en/20160822-france-syria-new-wave-air-strikes-islamic-state-group-strategic-targets-raqqa-arms-depot
In a statement, the ministry said four Rafale and four Mirage 2000 fighter jets as well as an Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft had been used during the August 21 operation. About a dozen cruise missiles hit several targets in the heart of the northern Syrian city, including an IS group heavy weaponry depot.
“These strikes destroyed a number of combat positions, arm caches and manufacturing sites of explosives and heavy weaponry,” the statement said.
The latest air strikes wrap up an already intense week of French air raids on the IS group as part of the US-led coalition’s efforts to back Iraqi and Kurdish forces fighting the militants near Mosul in Iraq.
“It’s not something we announce every day, but since we are part of the coalition, we’re hitting [IS group targets] every day,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said.
“To strike in Mosul, to strike in Iraq, is also a way of ensuring our security in France, and even in all of Europe.”
Or you could say
the best way of selling aircraft /warmongering to other nations.
This happened just a few minutes after the Olympic closing ceremony.
Norton
How many times do you have to be told that it’s the French Republic and not the Republic of France?
Anjem Choudary…BBC…MI5…a conspiracy theory?
“The security services repeatedly prevented Scotland Yard from pursuing criminal investigations against hate preacher Anjem Choudary, it has been claimed.”
“However one counter-terrorism source, who investigated Choudary on numerous occasions, insisted the decision not to prosecute him had come from the security service, MI5.”
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/mi5-stopped-scotland-yard-taking-choudary-down-sources-claim/ar-BBvTdVy?ocid=spartandhp
A HUNGARIAN politician has caused uproar by saying the heads of Pigs should be impaled on border fences to deter migrants.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/702581/Put-PIGS-HEADS-on-border-fence-to-keep-out-migrants-Hungarian-MEP-says
I doubt it was keep out Dave Cameron.
No, but it might slow him down a bit.
Dysfunctional United Kingdom ( Scotland section)
Four Labour-run councils — Glasgow, Aberdeen, Renfrewshire and South Lanarkshire — sent a joint letter to the First Minister under the banner of their group, the Scottish Local Government Partnership.
But ministers will only hold formal discussions with one umbrella body, CoSLA, which represents Scotland’s other 28 authorities.
In the letter, Aberdeen leader Jenny Laing said: “We have taken legal advice on your refusal to negotiate with us and believe we have grounds to mount a judicial review.
“It would be unseemly to drag this matter through the courts but your government’s intransigence is unacceptable.”
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/7227177/Council-whacks-Chiefs-threaten-to-sue-Nicola-Sturgeon-over-funding-talks-snub.html
Things not going too well in the Eurozone
Volkswagen has halted production at several plants in Germany, hitting the output of Golf and Passat models amid a dispute with two external suppliers.
The suppliers, one making seats and the other parts used in gearboxes, have stopped delivering to VW in a contract row.
Car and parts production has already been halted at four plants and will be stopped at two others later this week.
The carmaker said the interruptions in production would affect 27,700 staff.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37154334
They shouldn’t have been fiddling.
the MN publicity stunt machine is churning at full speed. Bad news for all those who are longing to drive a VW. But, rejoice a court has just ruled that VW has the right to confiscate spares suppliers have sitting in their warehouses, so no worries little Englander, you will get your Golf, soon.
But be aware that the price might go up due to the pound.
Home news: Thanks to negative interest rates, too much QE, the RBS is now charging institutional depositors for keeping their money.
Dysfunctional United Kingdom ( Labour Party )
Three Labour MPs in South Yorkshire are being investigated by police over alleged electoral expenses fraud!
Labour MPs Sir Kevin Barron (Rother Valley), Sarah Champion (Rotherham) and John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) have all denied the allegations.
South Yorkshire Police said it was in the early stages of an inquiry into alleged expenses fraud in Rotherham during the 2015 general election.
It is assessing whether the deadline for investigations can be extended.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-37153390
Disgusting
but I expect, like always, they’ll get away with it.
So what has happened to the investigation into 29 Tory won Constituencies, who were cheating their expenses, come on MN, you can do better
perverting the course of justice? or just hampering police with their inquiries?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tories-election-fraud-electoral-commission-probe-investigation-criminal-police-a7026141.html
and all for a battle bus full of magic helpers who do not appear on the local MP’s expense sheets when they should have done.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/polit-investigations-into-tory-general-election-2015-fraud-accusations-a7017976.html
Not sure what is happening in the post-fact world but here in the reality based community they are still being investigated by the electoral commission, same as the Labour MPs.
Ex Ukip leader, now sprouting a moustache, is seen queueing at the German Embassy. Is he seeking to apply for his wife’s nationality, a German passport?
Does he want to join in with the AFD now that his UK stint has come to an end?
We should be told.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-europe-attacks-germany-afd-idUKKCN10V0AL
Now the PM is going to add people connected to British Olympians to the Honours List!
Certainly a far cry from how it treated Nobel Prize winners like Doris Lessing.
All she received was five volumes of documents about what the security services thought and did about her.
Wonder how many Nobel Laureates and other big prize winners were treated similarly.
The Olympic Games have made the Great Powers into Banana Republics.
And look what they did to Alan Turing, just for being gay.
Graham Greene only got a CH in his later years.
Thanks for mentioning the CH; never heard of it.
Doris Lessing, along with Lord Coe, got it too, along with all sorts of people, distinguished to almost now unknownn.
Seems an imperial vestige, especially when it came to the former colonies, recognizing Governor Generals rather than the politicians et al. who did almost all of the hard work.
Update on DVD and Online Screening
Posted by George Galloway MP (Creator)
Dear friends,
We did it! We finally got this film finished and onto the big screen in the UK, with an international release to follow – a feat many told us would be impossible for a film this controversial. I thank you once more for all your support and patience.
I’m aware, however, that many of you haven’t yet seen it, including those of you who were promised an online screening. You deserve an apology and an explanation. Once the date for Chilcot was announced we had to throw all our resources into getting the film finished and onto cinema screens as soon as possible, which involved a huge amount of work. It is only since the cinema release that we’ve been able to turn our attention to the online screenings, and to completing the behind-the-scenes segment for the DVD. I hope you understand, but I offer my apologies nonetheless and the following update on your rewards.
Those of you who were promised DVDs, these will be sent out next week. If your address has changed since you filled in the survey we sent out, make sure you send us your current address by Friday through Kickstarter.
As for the online screening, this will be held in early September and you will be notified by email. We will gift the behind-the-scenes sequence to your reward to show our appreciation for your patience.
And for those of you based outside the UK hoping to see the film on the big screen, we’re in negotiations with an international distributor regarding an international cinema release. More on this when we have it.
Please do keep following ongoing updates on Twitter @TheBlairDoc/Facebook (TheKillingsOfTonyBlair) and our website theblairdoc.com
@ michael norton August 22, 2016 at 11:10
‘This happened just a few minutes after the Olympic closing ceremony’
Rumour has it France is lobbying for the Olympics to include drone and cruise missile deaths – jjsut sayin…
Seeing as they dont do very well in the conventional Olympics, perhaps the RoP could have its own competition including head-chopping, self-detonation and pitching a gay off a rooftop from different heights?
Fastest stoning to death for adultery.
How about the fastest issuing of a death threat for apostasy? That’s one both the Christianists and Muslims could get in on.
Except only the RoP would carry it out.
Synchronised suicide bombing?
“Celtic FC fans have promised to foot the bill and match any potential fines that UEFA imposes on their team over the flood of Palestinian flags displayed at a recent game against an Israeli team – and send the donated cash to help Palestinians.”
One has to say, that it is a very admirable trait, to fork out for what you believe in, well done to those fans at Celtic football club.
Still it opens up the question, a debatable one of course, as to whether Israel (a apartheid state) should be allowed to compete, in any sport internationally.
One could say that a precedent had been set with regards to South Africa, once a apartheid state.
Incidently SA had an embassy in Glasgow Scotland, to show their support for Nelson Mandela and an end to apartheid, the city council renamed the area that housed the SA embassy to Nelson Mandela Place. I could imagine the look on their faces at the embassy, when the mail arrived with Nelson Mandela’s name on all of it.
Again however one has to look at the conduct of the international sporting bodies, and their reticent attitudes, towards imposing a ban on Israel in the international arena of sports.
https://www.rt.com/sport/356696-celtic-match-fine-palestine-charity/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
You only have ONE EMBASSY in a country, usually that is in the capital city, which for us is London.
Actually an Embassy can have more than one office, subject to agreement of the receiving State. Consulates General are another solution (Edinburgh has several) but only make sense when consular functions are being exercised. The main office of an Embassy is usually in the administrative centre of the receiving State, simply for convenience, but doesn’t have to be. Amsterdam might be a good example of a capital city without if you don’t want to go down the Jerusalem – Tel Aviv road
“In 1986, Glasgow brought more attention to the jailed freedom fighter by changing the name of St George’s Place in the city centre to Nelson Mandela Place.”
“The name change was made more significant by the fact that the South African consulate-general was based on the fifth floor of the Stock Exchange building, at an address which now bore the name of the country’s most
famous political prisoner.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-22976781
Do please pay attention Michael.
“Ankara wouldn’t mind it if Russia used the Incirlik airbase for its anti-terror missions against Islamic State terrorists in Syria, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim hinted on Saturday, but acknowledged that no such requests have been made.”
The article also claims that the Great Satan (US government) may be moving its nukes out of Turkey, and into Romania.
In my opinion, if the report is true, it marks a seismic shift in relations between Turkey and Russia. The failed coup, has pushed Erdogan further away from Nato and the Great Satan, and closer to Russia, which could see an alliance develop.
https://www.rt.com/news/356626-russia-turkey-incirlik-airbase/
Does France have permission from The Government of Syria, for bombing Syria?
The answer is no (and I presume your question is sarcastic).
“The UN has urged Israel to decide the fate of prisoners held under the so-called administrative detention without trial or charge amid a fresh wave of hunger strikes by Palestinians in protest against their arbitrary incarceration.”
The number of administrative detainees is at an eight-year high. I reiterate the United Nations long-standing position that all administrative detainees — Palestinian or Israeli — should be charged or released without delay,” said the UN official.”
Held for 14 years then on the release day, told that you’ll be held for a further six months, without charge or trial.
We read a lot on unlawful detentions in African nations or even Syria or Iran, a Western favourite to berate, but not much in the Western press of illegal activities of the apartheid state of Israel.
Again the UN is helpless to act, as the apartheid state of Israel, has the might of the Great Satan (US government) at its back.
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2016/08/21/480960/Palestine-Israel-Robert-Piper
Hi Rob, not exactly sarcastic, more questioning.
I wonder what the FRENCH use as their raison d’être for bombing SYRIA.
They presumably are not just doing it for fun.
Could it be because they wish to ingratiate themselves with a world power or perhaps as a shop window to sell their hardware.
Only asking.
Michael, the French, along with the British and Americans, are just doing what they’ve always done. It’s called imperialism (aka stealing other people’s resources). Nowadays, because they know the public wouldn’t stand for such mass murder anymore, it’s dressed-up as ‘humanitarian intervention’ and the ‘world’s policeman’ and all that nonsense, and they constantly wave the twerrorist threat before our eyes.
Yup, a huge propaganda machine. It’s no coincidence that the recent video from Syria of an injured boy in an ambulance (this video has been totally debunked as false, by the way) was released shortly before the Americans announced that their own troops have seized part of Syria (see my post a little bit further down).
There is a de facto no fly zone over Syria, enforced by Russia’s S400 system, which is why forces loyal to Hollande (and Obama and May) can no longer operate there without permission.
Young African American’s backing the BDS movement, in Los Angeles, they see an affiliation with the black American man’s plight and that of the oppressed Palestinians.
However they have bern dubbed J*w haters and terrorist allies, one wonders what others think of that ? Cann one be described as those things, for backing something one feels strongly affiliated with?
http://www.latimes.com/local/la-me-uc-israel-palestinian-adv-snap-story.html