The Dysfunctional United Kingdom 2388

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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.

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2,388 thoughts on “The Dysfunctional United Kingdom”

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  • michael norton

    Bulgaria to extradite brother-in-law of Charlie Hebdo attacker

    http://www.france24.com/en/20160816-bulgaria-expedite-brother-law-charlie-hebdo-attacker

    Bulgaria is to extradite to France a relative of one of the Islamist militants who attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris last year, following a Bulgarian court ruling on Tuesday.

    Mourad Hamyd, who is French and brother-in-law of assailant Cherif Kouachi, was detained in Bulgaria last month after a Paris court issued a European arrest warrant against him. He is suspected of wanting to join Islamic State.

    “The court decided to hand over Hamyd to the relevant court authorities of France,” Sofia City Court said in a statement.

    During a court hearing last week, Hamyd, 20, denied the accusations and said he wanted to be extradited immediately to France, complaining about the way he was treated in Bulgarian custody.

    • michael norton

      The French Government have been suggesting,
      there is a war going on in France.

      It certainly seems to be far more Dysfunctional than the U.K.

      • michael norton

        Hamyd arrived alone in Bulgaria via Serbia by train on July 26, declaring that he was travelling on “holiday”.
        He was detained two days later after being turned back at the Turkish border due to a five-year ban on entering Turkey.

        Hamyd was questioned by French police following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January 2015, in which Cherif Kouachi and his brother Said shot dead 12 people before being killed by police, but was cleared of any involvement.

        So if you were banned from enering a very dangerous country like Turkey ( Midnight express https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Express_(film)
        why would you be going to Turkey on “holiday” ?

        Answers on a postcard, please.

        • Anon1

          A truly disturbing film. I gather it didn’t go down well in Turkey. Wasn’t the director Armenian?

          • Paul Barbara

            In fact, try finding ‘Missing’ (Chile Coup); ‘Z’ (Costa Gavras – Greek Colonel’s Coup) – they have a habit of ‘disappearing’ from the web.
            Oddly, all expose the evil, corrupt, ‘Crimes Against Peace’ and ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ machinations of the ‘Empire’.

          • Habbabkuk

            Barbara

            Don’t be daft – both are easy to find on YouTube (full version).

            If you must mislead, please do it better.

    • Alan

      Well you seem to have recovered from the hornet sting nicely, but hey, don’t bother thanking me for the treatments I posted. We can’t expect manners in the 21st century, can we? Next time please don’t whine for sympathy ‘cos you won’t be getting any. In fact, I hope the next hornet is bigger.

      • michael norton

        Thank you Alan for your interest.
        It was horrible, happened at 11.00am
        feeling better now , so diving into a LARGE bottle of cheap cider.

    • RobG

      A peaceful revolution is trying to be achieved all over the western world, but the sad thing is that the psychos in power are so drunk on that power and so deluded that they just won’t let go.

      Which means the next stage will be violent revolution, and the vast majority don’t want that.

      The United States is on the cusp of violent revolution right now. France is not far behind. Britain is catching up, as are many other countries in the western world (obviously, Greece and Spain, and more recently Portugal and Ireland have been in open revolt for some time now).

      “Let them eat cake”.

      Who knows where it will all end?

        • Alan

          Let’s put it another way, Percy Bysshe Shelley was born on 4 August 1792.

          In Shelley’s world the “natural order
          Has no place for tyrants” –
          Neutering the beauty of the earth,
          With all its inspirational beings:
          Plants, animals, humans,
          And elemental presences.

          He was an atheist
          Of a most particular kind
          For his own spirit is ever present
          In the poetry that he envisioned
          To be “the interpenetration
          “Of a diviner nature
          “Through our own.”

          He saw this poetry’s footsteps as being like
          “Those of the wind over the sea
          “Which the coming calm erases,
          “And whose traces remain
          “In the wrinkled sand which paves it.”

          In just such a fashion Shelley’s now etched
          Into the wrinkled neurology of the brain,
          And he’ll rise to the surface in a trice
          As the oppressed take up his chant:
          ‘We are many, they are few.’

          These potent phrases were coined by him
          After the Peterloo massacre where
          Crowds of Manchester demonstrators
          Protesting against cruel and unfair conditions
          Were cut down by a Tory government –
          Women and children included.

          ‘We are many, they are few’
          Those who’ve never heard of Shelley
          Know this to be true…
          True for the Ninety Nine Percent who occupied Wall Street
          To shame the One percent
          Counting their algorithmic wealth
          In that cold-hearted gully;
          True for those in Tahrir Square
          At the height of the Arab Spring
          Who adopted this as their slogan;
          True for the two million who marched
          Against the impending war in Iraq
          With Shelley’s line displayed upon their banners.

          Here’s how Byron invoked his dead friend
          As he stood beside Shelley’s drowned body,
          On the shores of Lerici on the Ligurian coast,
          To watch its twenty-nine-year-old flesh burning:

          “He was the most gentle, the most amiable,
          “And least worldly minded person
          “I ever met. Disinterested beyond all other men.
          “And possessing a degree of genius
          “Joined to simplicity
          “As rare as it is admirable.
          “He had formed to himself
          “A beau-ideal
          “Of all that is fine, high-minded and noble.
          “He acted up to this ideal to the very letter.”

          Shelley devised formulae for man’s improvement:
          Poetic equations to enlighten those
          Weighed down by enervating shibboleths.

          He saw how, “The great man’s comfort equals the poor man’s woe”,
          And how war makes small men feel important,
          And why militarized violence is quite worthless
          Because, “Man has no right to kill his brother.
          “It is no excuse that he does so in uniform:
          “He only adds the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”

          Whilst laws passed in Shelley’s day are now redundant –
          Consigned to unconsulted vellum scrolls –
          And whilst the authorities who then held sway
          Are no more than corpse-dust in the wind,
          Shelley’s spirit is still legislating
          For another world that’s possible.

          “Government is an evil…” Shelley proclaims,
          “When all men are good and wise,
          “Government will of itself decay.”

          He then whispers an erotic conjuration:
          “Soul meets soul on lovers’ lips”,
          As this life-lover dances through the aether.

          Heathcote Williams

          http://internationaltimes.it/for-shelley-on-the-4th-august-his-birthday/

  • Doug Scorgie

    Habbabkuk
    August 16, 2016 at 18:44

    “…could you just be a little more precise and tell us if you’re referring (“..what happened in Iran in 1979..”) to the taking of US embassy employees as hostages or to President Carter’s attempt to rescue them?”
    …………………………………………………………………………………

    Carter had no choice but to attempt to rescue them Habbabkuk but if it hadn’t been for the 1953 CIA/UK overthrow (operation ajax) of a democratic government (regime change in other words) Iran would not, in my view, be a theocratic country today.

    • Paul Barbara

      If it hadn’t been for the Reagan/CIA ‘October Surprise’ plot, Iran would have already handed over the hostages (and many would have been CIA – Iran had the biggest CIA group in the world, outside the US). But Iran/Contra and it’s associated drug imports into the States (including Governor Clinton’s Arkansas Mena airport) scuppered Carter’s back-channel negotiations with Iran).
      And did Iran have a legitimate beef with the US? Sure they did; they (and the Perfide Albion) had overturned Mosadegh (various spellings) in 1953 coup, and installed the Shah, and supported his extremely brutal repression of the country till his ousting in 1979.
      One could excuse them if they had executed the bloody lot of them (Embassy staff).

      • Habbabkuk

        Barbara

        “..installed the Shah..”

        You make it sound as if Persia had been a republic for quite a while and that the monarchy was imposed on Persia for the first time in 1953.

        I am sure you did not want to mislead and that you gave that impresion in your haste to post.

        You will of course be aware that Persia’s head of state was a Shah for quite a while before the 1953 coup?

    • Habbabkuk

      Mr Scorgie

      I wonder if you’d care to expand a little on that “view” of yours?

      As you know, I have the greatest respect for your views but it would be interesting to learn how you arrived at that particular one.

      Feel free to be as expansive as you find necessary.

  • Doug Scorgie

    Michael Norton
    August 16, 2016 at 20:00

    “Yet these fucking dog attacks with moronic owners, just keep on happening.”
    ………………………………………………………………………………………….

    They do Michael. We have a section of dog-owners that can’t control their animals through lack of training the pet or neglect – letting them roam unsupervised.

    Also we have the nutter macho-brigade that train their dogs to be vicious; many drug dealers use these animals to intimidate “customers” or rivals and many members of the public have been attacked by these dogs.

    My own view is that all dog owners should be compelled by law to have a licence to keep a dog with a photograph of the owner and each dog they own. They should be legally obliged to register their pet with a Veterinarian surgery where they pay for their dogs to be chipped (it could be funded by the government or local authorities for the less well off).

    Unfortunately, the issue is not being taken seriously by any of the political parties.

    The RSPCA have a view on this.

    http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/news/dangerous-dog-laws-dont-work-say-rspca

  • RobG

    The holiday month of August, and ISIS attacks mysteriously cease, when previously it was apparently non-stop.

    So I wonder where the CIA/MI6/Mossad… whoops, I mean ISIS… spend their summer holidays?

    I would guess at Auschwitz, because these people really are beyond insane.

    • Anon1

      ISIS have holidays too. A week’s head-chopping in the Middle East is a popular break. For the adventurous, one can crucify a Yazidi or dodge Syrian regime barrel bombs in a Hilux equipped with AA gun. And why let the adventure end in Syria? Bring all your memories home with you by declaring jihad in your home country!

      For the ladies, a long period of sexual slavery under an ISIS commander seems to be appealing.

      • Paul Barbara

        Spare a thought for the poor commanders and their mercenary thugs; they have to build up their stamina for the 76 virgins they will shortly receive (Insha Allah).

  • Anon1

    Laura Trott. That’s grit and determination for you, English style. What a girl. Lovely and sweet too. We totally dominate all forms of cycling now. Komodo will be ecstatic.

    And Usain Bolt. The greatest athlete of all time. And totally drug free. A great fan of the Queen, he wants a knighthood and he should get one. Still trains on a dilapidated track at his local technical college in Jamaica despite numerous offers to transfer to the US. Set the 100m world record by the greatest margin in history despite slowing up to celebrate at the end. He crossed the line with his head up and a shoelace undone. He won his first professional 100m sprint with his shoes on the wrong way round. After another trademark terrible start, he has just won his third consecutive Olympic 100m gold in what he considers to be his weaker event. His 200m record is equally impressive and no other athlete has held the world record in both events in the modern era. A talented cricketer as well, he once straight bowled Chris Gayle and then knocked him for six.

    60% of Jamaicans believe their country would be better off under colonial rule. Sends the left into a frenzy, that one. 😀

    • glenn_uk

      Quite agree with your second paragraph, Anon1 – but isn’t failing to cash in 100%, and to hell with your own countrymen, just GIVE ME THE MONEY!! – isn’t such a lacking at odds with right wing principles? After all, he could have gone to the US and become highly wealthy. Perhaps this Bolt fellow you rightly admire has no great interest in money. Nothing tops such considerations with a right-winger, as there is no loyalty beyond the worship of money.

      Patriotism can be given lip-service with right-wingers – after all, it might better some personal interests (PR in particular), but that’s right out of the window when it comes to money. Along with any other value you could mention.

      So perhaps there’s hope for you yet – you have come a long way, if you finally recognise there are other values to be appreciated than money alone.

      • Anon1

        He’s the most highly paid athlete in the world, reportedly trousering $30 million a year. Usain Bolt is making plenty of money. 😀

        But I don’t understand where you get this idea that I “worship” money, or that to worship money is “right-wing”.

        • glenn_uk

          $30M/year? Chump change! Just think what he could get in the US.

          But surely it’s obvious that money is the only real value right-wingers hold? I’m surprised you question it. Perhaps you aren’t actually as right-wing as you’d assumed? After all, right-wing policies are about greed, holding onto privilege, dividing the working classes and concentrating the riches of society at the top.

          • Martinned

            After all, right-wing policies are about greed, holding onto privilege, dividing the working classes and concentrating the riches of society at the top.

            I think I see what’s happening here. You seem to suffer from “my side is by definition good & virtuous, so all things evil most be true about the other guys” bias. Well, I guess if that’s what keeps you warm while you spend half your day queuing for bread and toilet paper in your Soviet Socialist paradise, that’s fine with me. At least this kind of muttering won’t get you in trouble with the secret police you left-wingers are looking to roll out right after the revolution.

          • Habbabkuk

            Martinned

            But those kinds of mutterings might get him and his fellows into trouble with the relevant UK authorities one day.

          • glenn_uk

            You think that’s what happens in Scandinavian countries, do you Martinned? Fascinating.

            You need to wise up a bit, though. The Soviet Union is over and they never were practicing democratic socialism.

            I do see what’s happening here, though. You’d like to portray anything less than dog-eat-dog capitalism and an effective return to feudalism as a “Soviet Socialist” dystopia. So unless one loves Stalin, it’s got to be full-on American style capitalism – right? (At least, for the poor. It’s socialism for the rich, banks, “defence” industries, the investor class etc.)

          • glenn_uk

            Habbabkuk: “But those kinds of mutterings might get him and his fellows into trouble with the relevant UK authorities one day.”

            Alas, Habbabkuk – there exists yet some free speech in this country. Maybe your lot will have your way eventually, and everything published will have to meet prior approval. But from the sound of your regular whining, you don’t like pre-mod policies yourself all that much. Just saying…. 😉

          • Habbabkuk

            Glenn

            I think you’re confusing free speech ( in general and when used responsibly, a very good thing) with the notion that people should be held responsible for what they say within the framework of applicable law (an even better thing).

            To hold people responsible for what they say (if necessary and appropriate) one has first to know what they’re saying. And to do that, one needs to keep an eye on them (where necessary and appropriate).

            Hope that clarifies.

          • glenn_uk

            Habbabkuk: It clarifies very little, I’m afraid. You said that such “mutterings” might get me in trouble with the authorities. Now what exactly did I say – or have I ever said – that should cause you to think that, hmm? No smoke- blowing, please – a straight answer would be appreciated.

            *

            Martinned: Null points for that weak answer.

          • Habbabkuk

            Glenn

            My observation wasn’t aimed specifically at you since you are by far not the greatest sinner on here.

            Bu to answer your question: it is for all those who feel the cap might fit to revisit what they have said over the years and to draw the appropriate conclusions.

          • glenn_uk

            Habbabkuk: If your comment was not aimed at me, why did you address it to me?

            Good of you to give Martinned a pass for answering on behalf of someone else. Usually you get very upset when someone does that. Funny that! Perhaps your principles only apply one way?

            I have to say, I am disappointed in the weak responses by both yourself and Martinned on this sub-thread. Nothing but smoke-blowing and straw men.

      • Habbabkuk

        Yes, all those countries were “on the right track” until the CIA got involved.

        Would you care to tease out that theory with regard to, for example, Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe?

        • Paul Barbara

          No, please, you do it! I’m sure you’ll come up with some dastardly Soviet plot, and I’m (not quite literally) dying to hear it – THEN I shall respond.
          I take it the cat (or vicious dog) has got your typing finger/s re the Central and Southern American CIA-organised coups???
          I’ve got a few half price (second hand) bandaids, if that is the case.
          Toodle pip!

    • Je

      My neighbour’s pet dog or a not very fit donkey could beat Usain Bolt in a run. Human beings, the two-legged tortoise of the large mammals, thinking they can run fast, swim well, jump, or have any other real physical prowess is a spectacle of the ridiculous.

    • John Goss

      Laura Trott and Jason Kenny and all the UK cycle team have done us proud. It has been such a boost for the second time.

      Bolt too is a great athlete and a pleasure to watch. However I noticed that when the Russian athletics team was banned en bloc for the odd cheat Bolt approved of the OAC’s decision. I find it difficult to understand how he squares that with his defence of drug cheat Gatlin.

      http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/other-sports/athletics/usain-bolt-brands-justin-gatlin-8633113

  • Brianfujisan

    bevin

    August 16, 2016 at 16:51

    ” Thanks for the link. I’m a great admirer of Galloway. A few more like him in the House of Commons would make a real difference”

    You will like this video then bevin… G.G having a right Rumble in the Presence of Military officers –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObddRcoyCCM

    And Putin explains in Plain enough terms how to avoid a refugee crisis –

    ” if you would like to stop the flow of migrants into Europe, if you want for them to live in their own countries, then you must return sovereignty to those countries where it has been taken away.
    I was talking of countries such as Libya, and you must support sovereignty in those states where it is still hanging on – meaning Syria ”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5BBiRbtvzk

  • glenn_uk

    @Michael Norton:

    Entirely agree with your views on dogs. Filthy, disgusting and often dangerous animals, who are nothing but an annoyance (if not worse) to everyone except their owners.

    This is another thing we can thank Thatcher for – the abolition of the dog licence, which at least required that the owner had one, and it could be withdrawn if they weren’t up to the task of keeping control of the wretched thing.

    The licence was too low to make it worth collecting, apparently, so in the solid logic of a bone-headed administration it was done away with altogether. The obvious answer was to make the licence well worth collecting, besides a chip and DNA test for the filthy creature, by making the fee something that would make sure the owner gave proper consideration to the prospect of ownership. A fee (annual) of about £25,000 should do it.

      • glenn_uk

        Nah, not really – although they are a lot nicer looking, and obviously far cleaner animals – clearly a higher order of species. They don’t tend to kill people so often, either.

        The bird population – nature generally – would be far better off with all cats neutered, let’s be honest.

          • glenn_uk

            What’s astonishing is the supposed concern of anti-windfarm types, such as Trump, bemoaning the impact windfarms have on birds. High-rise buildings (as commissioned by self-same Trump) cause vastly more bird casualties than windfarms.

          • Anon1

            A large proportion of the RSPB’S membership are cat owners. Because of this, the RSPB refuses to admonish cat owners.

            We don’t have many skyscrapers in Britain, but wind turbines do kill a lot of birds. When they’re working, that is.

  • glenn_uk

    Judging by your attitude here, Ben, your dog is an extremely placid and gentle creature, right? 😉

    They say if you want to find out about a dog’s temperament, look at the other end of the lead. But there are plenty of utter jack-asses going around, I’d hate to think what their dogs are like. And that’s the problem – what dogs present to other people.

    A large proportion of people think it’s just fine to allow their dogs to strain the leash, barking viciously at me (and the snarling things are barely held back) when I go out running. That’s in public – not through the gardens of these ghastly dog-owners.

    You think that’s just fine, eh? That people are fair game for dogs, and it’s all very entertaining.

    Funny thing is, when one of them does make a go at me, and I respond by giving it a deterring boot, the owners get all bent out of shape – that’s not how it’s supposed to go at all. I’m supposed to just stand there, and see whether it’s going to chew my ankle – because the dog was lovely really (all evidence to the contrary notwithstanding). And if they did bite, well hell – they’ve never done that before!

    Then I have a problem with the owner, too, wondering if he’s just barking at me or going to strike.

    • Anon1

      You must live in a very chavvy area. Around here the dogs heel to the boot on the left side and won’t move without permission.

    • Phil the ex-frog

      Glenn

      The only dangerous dogs are those which are beaten. It is that simple.

      Unpicking your story: out running, when a dog on a leash barks, you stop to kick it. You haven’t been bitten, you imagine the possibility. You know dogs are “filthy, disgusting and often dangerous animals”.

      When push comes to shove (ie something disturbs you a little bit) you respond by attacking the abused underling.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    I am very much a dog person. I love them: they’re faithful, they’re painfully honest, they’re loving, they’re fun, they’re easily pleased and satisfied, they’re trainable.

    They are also immensely therapeutic for the elderly. I am always delighted when I hear that my clients own a dog: it gives them an interest, a focus and an emotional satisfaction which can scarcely be paralleled elsewhere. I do recognise that for cat people it’s very similar.

    I think there should be a system of licensing and I also think compulsory attendance at training and responsible handling would be a good idea. Owning a dog should be subject to the same level of responsibility as owning a car or a gun.

    I have visited large numbers of homes with a dog and the only time I was ever snarled and snapped at was by a Chihuahua…

    • Ba'al Zevul

      ^ Endorsed 100%. Though if Glenn lives in a dodgy part of town, there are bound to be some owners of ‘Staffies*’ and other dogs bred to fight on demand. Also there’s big dog, small owner syndrome. Mind you, I’ve lived in some not-too-salubrious areas and never had a moment’s trouble with the dogs there. The people, yes. You can generally tell how a dog is going to respond to you long before it gets near – and it can read you, too. Some people I think involuntarily give out aggressive signals to which dogs respond badly. Being ready and willing to deliver a kick may qualify in this regard. One to watch is the Rottweiler; they can be attractively playful, but the play can escalate into serious nastiness.

      * pit bulls by any other name

      • John Spencer-Davis

        I used to own a Staffordshire bull terrier, which is not the same as a pit bull. The males are unfortunately naturally aggressive with other males, but they are famously placid with humans and especially with children. * A good dog with a bad reputation.

        * Never, ever let any dog around young children without watchful supervision.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    If something – like guns or vicious dogs – is causing harm, they ought to be removed from society. Not left in the hands of self-identified “responsible” owners, who still manage to rack up injury, death and misery for others in large numbers.

    Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for the automobile.

    UK dog bite fatalities 2014/15: 21
    UK road deaths 2014/15: 1780

  • Habbabkuk

    Still awaiting a reply to the following:

    “Some CIA high official — I think it was Alan Dulles –commented what ridiculously small sums sufficed to buy journalists”
    _________________

    Care to source that, Lysias?

    (try looking up Allen Dulles and not Alan Dulles – hope that helps)

  • Habbabkuk

    Glenn

    “Btw Ben – this silliness from you sounds the same as the old “Guns don’t kill people… people kill people” and so on, with all that NRA BS.”
    _________________

    Now don’t be silly, Glenn. The gun, the motor vehicle, etc… are only the instruments, without mind of their own. Their owners – ie, people – are the true killers (wittingly or unwittingly). Therefore Ben is right.

    Have a good day, Sir.

    • Habbabkuk

      Cries of rage from the “Janner was the Devil incarnate” brigade?

      No, thought not! 🙂

    • nevermind

      Make sure you post when these rapists get imprisoned and deported Anon, your wind ups are slacking, you need some punchy ends to them.

      12 years of war with no resolution has let the Taliban to run Afghanistan, over 400 good soldiers are dead, many have to rely on charities for their aftercare, because the forces they signed up to just want their hide, not their disabilities.
      The same gambling money is also keeping up the pretences, allows rich tennis players, golfers and cyclists to shine in the light of a thoroughly discredited Olympics.

  • Anon1

    Anjem Choudary tweeted one year ago:

    “Muslims DO NOT want to INTEGRATE into a culture of

    Alcohol
    Porn
    Gambling
    Free-mixing
    Promiscuity
    Homosexuality
    Usury
    Insulting the Prophet”

    He’s going to have a wonderful time in Wormwood Scrubs. 😀

    • giyane

      But they do want to integrate into a culture of:
      free mixing
      property ownership
      mortgages
      spying

      Anjem Choudry is an agent of MI5 Islamophobia. It’s no good St Theresa creating hate speech without then posing as tough on hate speakers. Like fish, grouse and pheasants, home-bred for sport. You have to distract the plebs attention from the real activity of neo-colonising the Muslim world somehow.

      • YKMN

        Thanks, no, I was surprised A) that Craig’s hope Ms Helen Clark (NZ) didn’t do well (allegedly) and B) the (alleged) ‘winner’ was a deep and committed SOCIALIST – a bit like (allegedly) the guy who now non-exec advises Goldman-Sachs international. . . but mostly surprised C) that we even get to see the informal voting slip of the fifteen voters, those russkie NSA hackerz again? ,

    • michael norton

      After Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby, Choudary was invited onto the corporation’s flagship news programme Newsnight.

      He sparked outrage when he refused to condemn the murder and described his follower Adebolajo as a “man of impeccable character”.

      Then Home Secretary Theresa May weighed into the debate, announcing plans to ban hate preachers from television.

      She said: “Anjem Choudary has disgusting views and I think it is right that we look at how those views are being presented.

    • giyane

      Why did the BBC give Choudry airtime? Because he is wholly owned by them. if you keep a dog to bark, why are you barking?
      St Theresa needs to do some summer holiday time dick-swinging to rally the troops at the forthcoming Tory party conference.
      No problem Choudry’s a fake, her dick’s a fake, the BBC’s a fake, and the Tory government is a fake. You know it has to be done.

    • Alan

      We’re constantly being prepared for the next war. For Krissakes the British Government has to have wars to keep it’s military well trained, and we couldn’t have them sitting round getting paid just for twiddling their thumbs, can we?

  • michael norton

    United Kingdom not that dysfunctional

    The number of unemployed Britons fell by 52,000 to 1.64 million in July as the country’s labor market showed no signs of adverse effects from the vote to leave the European Union.

    The unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent in the three months to June, according to official data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Wednesday.
    https://www.rt.com/business/356235-uk-unemployment-falls-brexit/
    and we have taken 19 gold and 19 silver,

    more than twice as many madals as any other country in the E.U.

    who are not BREXITING.

    • Martinned

      Well, the unemployment rate fell to a very low rate in June, before the Brexit vote. I guess Russia Today aren’t very good at telling the months apart.

      As for Olympic medals, let’s remember that being big is not a virtue. Adjusting for size of population, GB does middling, at best: http://www.medalspercapita.com/

      • michael norton

        More medals than France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, China, Japan.

        Only the Superstate of America does better but the U.K. has a greater amount of gold and silver /population than any other big country.

          • michael norton

            Well, Martinned, although France has a greater physical area than the United Kingdom, we are similar in both being develped, having had massive empires, in being democratic but we also have similar sized populations.
            U.K. 19 gold
            France 8 gold

            Germany 11 gold
            Italy 8 gold

            Spain 4 gold

            Russia 12 gold

            So the United Kingdom is doing better than any ( big) developed country / population

            five or six times better than the U.S.A.

            so not so dysfunctional.

  • giyane

    The UK functions extremely well considering the colossal amount of disinformation we, post Blair, have to process, throw out as junk/phishing scam.

    We now totally disregard all politicians, media and preconceived ideas as false propaganda.

    Given the opportunity to remove our prime Minister, we quickly castrated him with the same sanglier-froid that he beheaded the piggy into his mouth he had to perform.

    The stupidest idea of the powers that be, to control us ants through spying technology has totally exposed them.

    • Martinned

      We now totally disregard all politicians, media and preconceived ideas as false propaganda.

      Leaving to one side who this “we” is, given how the Brexit campaign went, I wonder why you think that this is a description of a country that is not dysfunctional.

      • bevin

        “In 2014 the Scottish government announced a land reform programme, aptly named 432:50–Towards a comprehensive land reform agenda for Scotland to reflect the fact that 432 people own 50% of the land in Scotland. And this report is worth readings as it is an indictment of the pervasive obstruction of information linking which parts of British aristocracy own what and the disparity in wealth affecting this country:

        “Inequality in wealth is an increasing concern internationally. Debate about the causes and consequences of inequality has focused, in the UK and elsewhere, on the divide between the ‘one per cent’ (who hold a large and growing proportion of available wealth) and the ‘ninety-nine per cent’ (whose share of total wealth has been falling). The inequality inherent in Scotland’s land ownership pattern, however, is of an entirely different order to the more general 1:99 divide. The disparity in this instance is not between one hundredth of the population and the other ninety-nine hundredths. Setting aside the complex ownership structures many owners have put in place (below) in order to obscure or conceal aspects of their ownership, the divide is between the equivalent of one twelve-thousandth part of the population (the part owning half of Scotland’s privately-owned land) and the remainder. [emphasis mine]

        “And if this was not condemnation enough of the greed rife throughout the country’s land ownership, Conservative MEP (Member of the European Parliament) Struan Stevenson estimates that Scotland’s wealthiest landowners will net around £1 billion from rental charges levied on wind farms which, he underscores, only exist because of public subsidy. What the United States government did to bail out Wall Street, the British people have been doing for centuries for its elite, acting against their own interests. The question we must all ask now, is why?…”

        It is easy to see why people such as Anon1 are so enthusiastic about the theft of Palestine. They believe in the principle of the powerful robbing the powerless. They applauded it in America, Australia and Africa and they went along with it when it happened to them in Britain. Theirs are the politics of not protesting, putting up with injustice, sucking up to the bully, tugging the forelock as the ‘squire who just stole the common from the goose rides by.
        And all in the hope of a tip from the gaffer.

        • fred

          The legislation is designed to benefit the large land owners. The new laws being introduced by the SNP are designed to drive the small land owners off their land while leaving the large land owners alone.

          Much of the land in these parts is owned by Huntley and Palmer biscuits, Huntley and Palmer aren’t going to die, ever. The small farmers will die and the SNP changes to the law of succession say their land must be divided between their children. Farms will either become too small to be viable or will have to be sold and the proceeds divided between the heirs. No doubt the ones buying up the small farms will be the companies and trust funds who are the large land owners.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Can’t say I much favor the Olympics, though I do enjoy watching Bolt and a few other athletes.

    The hoopla over winning medals, and which country is outdoing the others is simply disgusting.

    If countries spend billions on facilities, athletes, coaches, trainers, tournaments, transportation, etc., ad nauseam, the result is predictable against other countries which can only spend next to nothing on them.

    The performance of countries’ performance in long distance running proves what’s what.

  • Habbabkuk

    “To claim, in the face of all the evidence, that a terrorist act never happened amounts, seen objectively, to supporting terrorism”

    Discuss.

    • Martinned

      Undermining it, surely. The objective of terrorism is to scare the beejeesus out of people. Pretending (presumably convincingly, otherwise why talk about it?) that a particular attack didn’t happen prevents the terrorists from achieving their goal.

      • RobG

        The objective of terrorism is to achieve a political aim.

        The objective of manufactured terrorism (such as ISIS) is to scare the beejeesus out of people, so that they willingly submit to the criminal psychopaths who rule them.

        It’s good to talk.

      • Habbabkuk

        Or it might lead to people lowering their guard – resulting, for example, in calls for the authorities to scale down security measures and spending rather than increase them.

        Denying that a terrorist act took place, if repeated enough, is designed to deny the existence of terrorism itself. And that is not only erroneous, it is also dangerous.

    • RobG

      To claim, in the face of all evidence, that the public should believe everything that’s spoon-fed to them by the media and politicians is, when seen objectively, akin to supporting terrorism.

      • YKMN

        That source of overt propaganda (RT) today mention the Edinburgh Book festival and the comments of a British literary giant, who claimed that our unbiased Media have a covert guy who goes around kicking down doors. . . He’s called “the Investigator” I’m not sure exactly which part of the BBC allegedly employs/employed secret heavies?

        The 70-million selling author withered wordly against the British establishment [I prefer] to be an outsider looking in because as far as I can tell most of the establishment are b*stards and I don’t want to join them”
        The BBC has been very much a part of the UK’s power structures as an arm of the establishment … not a news organisation,” he said. Wikipedia claim that Freddie worked unpaid for Secret International Squirrels for twenty years, they seemed to have simply asked him sensible questions, often accepting answers that were at odds with what the FO were claiming at the time. Seems that FO/mi6 mutual ‘trust’ levels reflect a reasonably functional United Kingdom as revealed by a sensible witness.

    • bevin

      “…, in the face of all the evidence,…”
      That is the key phrase, isn’t it? Pure weaselspeak.

        • glenn_uk

          With all due respect, Habbabkuk, I haven’t noticed you to be very interested in any actual discussion.

          You snipe, ask questions – some very good questions, for sure – but discuss? Never. Detailed responses are left unanswered, which might well be a tactic to put off genuine correspondence – once one realises you’re not serious about an in-depth conversation, you can go on to give the impression (to those with a shorter history) that nobody is willing to engage you in genuine dialogue.

          But mostly it’s the sniping, baiting, deriding, deterring and detraction that is your game here – in a candid moment, I’m sure you’d agree, because there is definitely a core of honesty in you somewhere.

  • Anon1

    You won’t need a skillset. You’ll be put in a cage and burned alive before the negotiations start.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Did you know the University of Georgia has won almost as many medals at the Olympic as Brazil?

    Says a kot about our education priorities.

    Always knew that it was a great recruiting ground for covert agents but now the athletes have joined them.

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