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271 thoughts on “The Pits

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    • michael norton

      I would like a Scottish Nationalist to explain to us,
      why they imagine the salvation of Scotland is with the dying corpse of the E.U.

      Three gone now, who will be next?

      • Republicofscotland

        Norton.

        If I were you I’d worry more about what the current EU members, have in store for Theresa May around the negotiating table.

        You can’t leave the EU and get a better deal than the other 27 members, the “dying corpse” as you call it will possess more than enough life in it to thwart May’s cake and eat memo.

        • michael norton

          RoS

          your pathetic administration in the North has been winging that they really, really, really want to be independent within the E.U.

          Greece is being fucked off out of it because they have not quite grasped Austerity, firmly enough.
          Cameron had a ref. on Europe, he lost, he has gone.
          Renzi had a ref. he is this very moment handing his notice in to the President of Italy.
          Your idol Socialist Francois Hollande is so loathed by the FRENCH ( Mr. 4%) that he will not be standing for a second time, France is lurching between the far right and the extreme far right.
          Face it, the game is over.

        • Herbie

          It’s fairly obvious that the EU cannot sustain itself as both geopolitical project and economic project, especially now that the geopolitical project and the economic project are in tatters.

          • SA

            The geopolitical project, jointly run and led by NATO is sadly not in tatters and if anything is stronger and less accessible to any democratic influence.

  • Sharp Ears

    Treeza vaunts her Christian values, She’ll be at home with Philip and a roast goose. Oh goodee!

    Church, a home-cooked roast goose and a nice Agatha Christie: Theresa May reveals her perfect Christmas Day – and how it won’t change this year
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3999964/Theresa-says-Christmas-Day-plans-won-t-change-job-title.html

    Before Christmas though she’s off to Bahrain where the despot friend of Her Maj tortures the dissenters and locks them up. Will she be selling weaponry and restraint equipment?

    Theresa May’s Christmas message is heartwarming – for tyrants and torturers
    December 5th, 2016
    http://www.thecanary.co/2016/12/05/theresa-mays-christmas-message-heart-warming-tyrants-torturers-video/

    Prime Minister seeks new chapter in relations with the Gulf on visit to Bahrain
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-seeks-new-chapter-in-relations-with-the-gulf-on-visit-to-bahrain
    ‘On a 2-day visit to Bahrain, the Prime Minister will seek to open a new chapter in relations between the UK and the Gulf States, renewing centuries-old ties and forging a stronger partnership focused on security and prosperity with the UK’s third largest export market.’

    Here is Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, King of Bahrain at the Windsor Horse Show.
    http://www.gettyimages.co.uk/event/royal-windsor-horse-show-488493249?

    • Republicofscotland

      Sharp Ears.

      Surely May won’t look as stupid as HRH Charles, the dancing puppet of Saudi. Of course May will need to kowtow to the gulf prince’s, and never ever ever contemplate, mentioning the unmentionable words, “Human rights.”

      May and Westminster, are hypocritical b#stards, condeming Iran and China for terrible human rights, yet she and her predecessors, have grovelled, placated, sated and obeyed many a murdering tyrant, all in the name of arms sales.

    • SA

      They are strong allies. A very low-key announcement of a British bnaval base in Bah was announced a couple of years ago and has attracted little comment. It is fully maintained by money from Bahrain and not the tax payer I am lead to believe.

  • michael norton

    BAE Systems sold $25.5 billion worth of weapons. This was partly attributed to the sale of Typhoon jets to the UK’s close Middle East ally Saudi Arabia, which is currently conducting an aerial bombing campaign over Yemen.

    BAE occupies third place in the profit stakes, with US firms Lockheed Martin and Boeing first and second respectively.
    Russia Today

    I don’t understand why the U.K. is to spend 1/3 trillion pounds on the systems supporting the Trident nuclear shit, two new super-sized aircraft carriers, new drone technology and updating and increasing the ability of GCHQ bt 2/3

    what are we gearing up 4?

  • bevin

    “I would like a Scottish Nationalist to explain to us,
    why they imagine the salvation of Scotland is with the dying corpse of the E.U.”

    It is an increasingly forlorn hope.
    The original idea, just a few months old now, was that if the UK left the position of chief arbiter of the world language-English- would be up for grabs.
    Economically a very small prize but for the politicos one that seemed to promise lotsa cushy jobs shared with the Irish Republic.
    You have to bear in mind that what matters most to politicians is not the people they represent but themselves. And a Brussels without Westminster nominated bureaucrats and placepersons set the taste buds tingling on the inner circles of the SNP.

    The EU is one of those career mills that cannot be allowed to die- it just offers too much to the Kinnocks of this world to be allowed to go away without a real fight.
    Welcome to Brexit II the Referendum.
    There always is one-ask the Irish.

    • Mick McNulty

      A second referendum would lead to clashes at the polling stations with feelings on both sides running so high, leading to several days of unrest, property destruction and likely a few deaths. They know that so likely intend neither a second referendum nor to honour the first. No matter, the Brexit camp gave the EU a mortal wound and other European nationals are waiting to finish it off.

      They ask if people regret voting Brexit but don’t ask how many didn’t vote at all because they thought the vote was rigged to Remain. Many thousands who didn’t vote would be sure to next time, as will those who regret voting Remain, and those who didn’t take a pen and had their votes changed won’t have their votes changed next time. All that should take the Brexit vote nearer to 75-25.

      • Dave Lawton

        “They ask if people regret voting Brexit but don’t ask how many didn’t vote at all because they thought the vote was rigged to Remain.”
        And then there was those who regretted they voted Remain, “The reaction to the vote completely solidified that niggling feeling of doubt I had about my Remain vote. Leave voters were called fascists, morons, and all sorts of other disgusting insults. The tone of self-righteous superiority was suffocating, the calls for a second referendum were exasperating (we like democracy, except when there is a result that we don’t like – how very E.U. of you!), and then there was the over-the-top romanticisation of what is essentially a bureaucratic trade and labour deal that serves corporate interests far more than it does the ordinary people of Liverpool, Leverkusen or Liege. People were shedding tears for a union that plunged the entire nation of Greece into a depression for the sake of a few German and French banks.”
        https://off-guardian.org/2016/07/23/why-im-ashamed-i-voted-remain/

  • michael norton

    French PM Manuel Valls announces 2017 presidential bid

    that almost certainly means, Valls will have to stop being Prime minister.
    Which then means Hapless Hollande has to shoehorn another sap into the pointless job, as they will be out on their ear
    in a few months.
    E.U. is in fucking turmoil.

    • michael norton

      With Valls announcing he will quit his job as PM, that’s one key vacancy for Hollande to fill.
      Health Minister Marisol Touraine and Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve are among those tipped to succeed Valls as premier
      for the six months until legislative elections that follow the presidential vote.

      So for six months it will be as if Socialist FRANCE has nobody awake at the helm.

      Perhaps Frau Nicola Sturgeon could strut over to France and grasp the helm?

  • michael norton

    Disgracefully managed – how many in prison?
    http://news.sky.com/story/rbs-settles-shareholder-lawsuits-as-part-of-163800m-deal-10684061

    Royal Bank of Scotland has agreed a settlement with three out of five shareholder groups currently suing the bank for compensation.

    The claims relate to a £12bn fundraising drive which RBS undertook in 2008,
    just months before it had to be bailed out by the British taxpayer to the tune of more than £45bn.

    The investor groups involved say they were misled when they bought shares in the bank in an effort to help shore up its finances, after a £49bn deal to acquire Dutch bank ABN Amro went south.

    But the value of those shares plummeted when RBS was bailed out by the government.

    The bank is still 73% owned by the British taxpayer and is struggling to get back on its feet following the financial crash.

    RBS last week was the only major British bank to fail the Bank of England’s stringent stress tests, which were put in place to ensure that financial institutions in the UK are better prepared should another crash occur.

  • eldudeabides

    My first post on the blog.

    I have been reading your blog for a long time. By far, my favourite political blog. I should post more here, and less on the Guardian.

    Get well soon, Craig. God bless.

    • RobG

      The Guardian did a jolly piece last week about ‘fake news’, a piece which amongst other things praised internet censorship in China. You may have seen it…

      https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/dec/02/fake-news-facebook-us-election-around-the-world

      The Monbat also got on the dollar bandwagon…

      “The fake news we should be worried about is not stories invented by Macedonian teenagers about Hillary Clinton selling arms to Islamic State, but the constant feed of confected scares about unions, tax and regulation drummed up by groups that won’t reveal their interests.”

      https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-george-monbiot-misinformation

      The Monbat does not of course mention ‘Pizzagate’, which has emerged out of the Wikileaks Podesta e-mails and points towards a massive satanic and paedophile network in Washington DC, right up to the highest levels, including President Obama.

      This revelation, and the resulting cover-up, should come as no surprise to Brits.

      Anyhows, the psychos are about to roll out the full police state, and voices like mine will be snuffed out…

      Enjoy, and don’t forget to keep being terrified of the twerrorists, or the Russians, or whatever other nonsense they dangle in front of you.

      • John Goss

        “The Monbat does not of course mention ‘Pizzagate’, which has emerged out of the Wikileaks Podesta e-mails and points towards a massive satanic and paedophile network in Washington DC, right up to the highest levels, including President Obama.”

        The Guardian mentions it. Calls it “fake news” of course. Sourced from Reuters.

        https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/dec/05/gunman-detained-at-comet-pizza-restaurant-was-self-investigating-fake-news-reportsool

        And this is the fake news the once respected Guardian is referring to in its report.

        https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/5bat1b/john_podesta_irrefutably_practices_satanic/

        • Shatnersrug

          John I have to intervene this Pizza gate business is appalling conformation biased twaddle. There is no substantial evidence for any of it the supposed examples of code words and terms are clearly two middle aged people talking about pizza – they’re working class now rich Italian Americans I can assure you that pizza is an obsession – not one person can point to anything beyond innuendo.

          This guy debunks it’s here clearly and in away any ADULT would understand and agree with far clearer than I could.

          https://m.reddit.com/r/DebunkThis/comments/5dqwta/debunk_this_pizzagate/

          Believe me, I am aware of institutional peadophillia but this is just plan fanciful rubbish.

          And having red through the idiots that want to lynch podesta because he said pizza 10 times which / according to 4chan teenagers is code for child sex or something I can well believe those numpties would take it on thrmselves to attempt some “citizen justice” with a gun.

      • eldudeabides

        yes, the new snooper laws, and the Globalists efforts to close down real news sites, blogs, and curtail posts on social media, mean we are all in for an even scarier new world.

        sadly, I cannot wake up friends and family to the reality. They still think we live in a democracy. They still think we have a free press.

        • nevermind

          First of all, welcome to eludeabites, hope you got the Guardian out of your bloodstream, they are no better than some of the tabloidal excretions elsewhere in the media.

          To the issue of snooping and full spectrum surveillance. Today Goodle,Fart book and other internet big wigs have decided to cooperate with international aims at bringing terrorists to book.

          Still the satellite providers of services to ISIS, Al Nusra, AlQuaeda and others, are refusing to cooperate and provide the GPS coordinates of the head choppers positions when they upload their bile on to the internet services of the world.

          Another point, once pizza gate/many other victims are amplifying the hurt they have been subjected to by elites around the world online, will these shit hot IT providers, who say they will cooperate, ensure that that form of ‘societal terrorism’, which insidiously undermines families, sports ambitions, trust in the church, schools, politicians and their string pullers, is also brought to justice?
          Even if this means that the institutions they helped to undermine with their silence are falling to pieces due to the revelations?

  • Alan

    How the heck did you allow yourself to fall into the hands of the medical profession Craig? Didn’t your mother warn you about that?

    May you escape their clutches soon.

    • giyane

      The other day I declined a flu jab so my GP called me in. In seconds he had whipped out his syringe and stuck it into me. I know Craig’s been mentioning lobotomising drugs given to Karimov’s children, Maybe the experience of hospitalisation will give him an insight into the chemically lobotomised condition of our Tory cabinet. They say ultrasound instead of driving them away makes mice hyper and even more naughty.

      • Shatnersrug

        Hehehe naughty mice! That tickled me. I’m finally out of the hospital and thankfully convalescing at home – there isn’t a part of my body that hasn’t been spiked poked amor bruised. I do hope Craig is ok and his conditions wasn’t as violently painful as mine.

  • RobG

    Media Lens also appear to have been ‘captured’ (this has been apparent for some time on their message board). How an outfit like this can’t make any kind of comment on ‘Pizzagate’ is beyond belief.

    http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2016/833-fake-news-about-fake-news-the-media-performance-pyramid.html

    Read it. No mention at all of ‘Pizzagate’, just mentions of the ‘fake news’ meme.

    One good thing about Pizzagate is that it reveals who is real and who is not real.

    • giyane

      Talking of fake news, didn’t Erdogan recently announce that the Turkish Army was marching to Damascus to overthrow Assad. That might have been 1st generation warfare straight lies to divert Assad from attacking Aleppo, as opposed to 4th generation warfare straight lies that Daesh were inside Mosul several hours before they had actually got there. But lies definitely.

      It must be tempting for a child wearing a NATO Spider-Man action suit to pretend they can send out sticky suckers onto high-rise buildings, and for Erdogan to declare a Turkish caliphate by 2027 dressed in his NATO spider suit. But Cameron gave the game away by visiting Erdogan within weeks of becoming Prime Minister.
      Erdogan is a NATO puppet and has to eat his NATO-compliant halal happy meal along with the rest of his NATO-Muslim Brotherhood-Arab Spring-confederates.

  • michael norton

    U.S.A.- backed “moderates” loss of the eastern half of Syria’s largest city Aleppo to Russian-backed government forces would be a defeat for President Barack Obama’s efforts to promote “democracy” and defeat terrorism in the Middle East,
    U.S. officials conceded on Monday.

    Their grim assessment reflected the expectation that the last rebel-held districts of Aleppo, where tens of thousands of civilians are trapped, will soon fall to the Syrian Army supported by Russia, Iran, and Shiite Muslim militias from Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere.”The fall of eastern Aleppo will confront the United States with the reality that supporting a moderate opposition with any hope of becoming the future government of Syria is no longer a hope,” said Paul Pillar, a former senior U.S. intelligence analyst.
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-usa-analysis-idUKKBN13U2YO

    Looks like the American plan has not worked.
    The person, most likely getting his knickers in a twist will be Sultan Erdogan.
    He will be surrounded on all sides by states that despise him.

    • lysias

      I suspect the rebels’ morale collapsed when Trump won the election. There will be no President Hillary to save them.

  • michael norton

    Hard – Man Cazeneuve – Minister of Interior ( terror)
    to take over as Prime minister of FRANCE.

    Look Out
    permanent State of Emergency on its way – withdrawl of democracy to follow

    • michael norton

      Bernard has been in charge of the Interior for the whole time of the government of Valls.
      All through the terror, from before Charlie Hebdo.

  • Sharp Ears

    Will there be a reduction in jobs and salaries at Network Rail when responsibilities for the tracks are handed over to the privateers who ‘operate’ the train companies? I doubt it.

    11 Jul 2015

    ‘The number of Network Rail executives earning more than the Prime Minister has risen by more than half over the past four years despite a catalogue of failings over rail upgrades.

    More than 50 staff at the organisation now earn more than £142,000, up from 32 when the Coalition came into power in 2010.

    Mark Carne, the chief executive, earned £771,000 last year while the five most senior executives at the organisation took home £2.4million between them.’

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11734020/Pay-increases-for-rail-bosses-despite-delays.html

    Simon Jack wrote yesterday on the proposals. Note his concerns about safety.

    Safety fears raised over government railway plans
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38201570

    Grayling’s plans will meet approval from Thatcher’s children. Branson and co must be loving it.

    • Habbabkuk

      There are many people in many walks of life who earn more – much more – than the Prime Minister.

      Which poses the following question – is the Prime Minister underpaid, especially in view of his or her responsibilities?

      I happen to think that he/she is.

      • Herbie

        Really.

        Do you get a better puppet if you pay them more.

        Perhaps.

        The cabinet secretary is paid more than the PM.

        And he’s higher up the chain of puppets.

        • Habbabkuk

          I don’t quite understand why you are referring to “puppets”, Herbie, in this discussion about the relative pay of the British PM and certain Network Rail executives which was initiated by Sharp Ears’s post.

          You’re perhaps suggesting that those Network Rail executives are “puppets”?

          More generally and re. your thought about a “chain” of puppets, who in your opinion is the chief “puppet” – the one at the top of the “chain” (in the UK )- and who is the Grand Puppet Master?

          • Herbie

            You’re not contesting the fact that the cabinet secretary is higher up the puppet chain than the PM.

            Fine.

            Who’s above the cabinet secretary?

            That’ll be a very select committee of the privy council.

            Even more select than the cabinet itself, which is a committee of the privy council.

            Bit like that group of 32 who really run Iran.

            Most countries, even those which effect to be democratic, operate like this.

            A kind of perennial cabinet which steers the ship of state, irrespective of the public cabinet you see in No 10.

            I mean, who’s gonna trust to the vagaries of passenger opinion, when steering the mighty ship twixt Scylla and Charybdis and past the seductive Sirens.

            Eh?

          • Habbabkuk

            Herbie

            “Who’s above the cabinet secretary?

            That’ll be a very select committee of the privy council.

            Even more select than the cabinet itself, which is a committee of the privy council.”
            _________________________

            Sound rather vague to me.

            Does this mysterious “very select committee of the privy council” – even more select than the Cabinet, apparently, – have a name?

            Thanks in advance.

          • Herbie

            To insiders, it does.

            But not to the public. It’s just an unvariegated privy council to them.

            It’s a bit like when the UK used to pretend not to have any intelligence service.

            You remember that.

            Before Blair changed it.

            Anyway.

  • michael norton

    Future proof all United Kingdom Nuclear Power Stations against Tsunamis.

    Durham University professor of marine geology Peter Talling said: “We believe the government should consider adding tsunamis to the National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies.”

    The register sets out plans for rare, but potentially devastating disasters, such as flu epidemics and floods.
    https://www.rt.com/uk/369260-tsunami-landslide-nuclear-plant/
    Hinkley Point is within the catchment of the 1607 Bristol Tsunami
    http://www.burnham-on-sea.com/1607-flood.shtml

  • bjsalba

    I listened to Radio 4 on Sunday evening. They were clearly disappointed by the result in Austria, and positively salivating with glee at the Italian result, hinting at problems for the Italian government, Italian banks, the Euro and hinting at the breakup the EU. I suspect, however that this is pure projection.

    Personally I would like to see the BBC thrown out of the EBU for such despicable conduct.

    • Habbabkuk

      I too listened to the BBC on Sunday evening and must report that there was neither clear disappointment at the Austrian result nor salivating with glee at the Italian referendum result.

      On the contrary, I thought the coverage was fair, impartial and balanced. And why, indeed, should it not have been?

      Perhaps we have been listening to different BBCs?

      • Ba'al Zevul

        That’s a bit of a rant, though, isn’t it? And it concentrates very hard on the iniquities of US mass media without dwelling on (say) Russian domestic media control. However, it concludes:

        Spotlighting propaganda is an important goal in any society that cares about democracy. But we do little to understand how manipulation and indoctrination work if we engage in false narratives that unfairly demonize progressive media, while ignoring the actual propaganda that’s perpetrated in the “mainstream” media. In an era of record mass distrust of the media, efforts to identify propaganda as merely the work of “others” are hopelessly out of touch with growing public anger at officialdom and the officially-allied media propaganda we euphemistically call “news.”

        Obviously, Propornot have touched a nerve here. But is what it’s doing – simply listing what it sees as Putin’s mirror sites – ‘unfairly demonising’ them, or making a valid association? It’s not beasting all ‘progressive’ sites, but as its intro makes clear, is rather keen not to be unfair. And is ‘public anger against officialdom’ not rather easily generated and sustained by promoting the ‘progressive automatically good, mainstream automatically bad’ dichotomy? And whose interests does this anger serve?

        Let’s learn to be critical of all opinions, eh?

    • Alan

      “Time Sturgeon got back to the day job.”

      Is there much call for clowns? I understood people were hunting them down recently so has this caused a shortage?

    • Rob Royston

      Surely it’s the Professor, and his profession, that need to get back to their day jobs?

      • fred

        We pay professors in Scotland to teach Latin and Greek to the kids of wealthy European bankers and lawyers.

        But we can’t afford to teach Scottish kids to read and write.

    • Republicofscotland

      Fred.

      I think you’ll find the whole of UK dropped not just Scotland, with discriminate reports like that Fred, a job at the Ministry of Truth awaits you.

      • fred

        I think you’ll find that Scotland had better results than England in the last test and have worse in this test.

  • fred

    Carnoustie by-election results are in.

    IND: 43.6% (+43.6)
    SNP: 32.1% (-4.3)
    CON: 17.7% (+11.5)
    LAB: 4.4% (-1.8)
    LDEM: 2.3% (+1.4)

    Ind gain from SNP.

    • Republicofscotland

      And if you look out at the sea at Carnoustie golf course, you see English waters, the 6000 miles that were stolen under Labour.

        • Republicofscotland

          No I think you’ll find it is Westminster that is full of liars, “the only way Scotland can remain in the EU is if it votes no.”

          And that’s just one big fat lie, there are plenty more.

          Remember or have you conveniently forgotten?

          • michael norton

            You are obsessed with Independence, why not have yet another once in a lifetime Referendum?
            You know you want to.
            If that does not work, just have another.

          • Republicofscotland

            The Vow, the Smith Commission, mobile phone charges to rise attacks from outerspace, and dozens more lies from Better Together who represented the Westminster government.

            Oh and lets not forget, the sheer and utter bias of the Treasury under Nicholas MacPherson.

            Infact the whole union of 1707 is built up lies, with only 1% of Scots allowed to vote back then, the rich, the nobles and the wealthy merchants, who all received, lands titles and financial gain to sell their country out.

            A parting of ways is well overdue.

  • Sharp Ears

    Treeza emulates Bush and Blair on board a warship. Shame she did not have one of the new aircraft carriers on which to parade around. She’s got Christmas on the brain.

    Theresa May wishes troops Happy Christmas on Royal Navy flagship in Bahrain
    The Prime Minister stood on the sunbaked flight deck of HMS Ocean, sending season’s greetings to 300 sailors, airmen and Marines
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/theresa-wishes-troops-happy-christmas-9400164

    Shame on the Mirror for the war porn within the propaganda piece.

    Elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, part of the Gulf Cooperation Council she is meeting today, are executing 15 men today. They were accused of being spies for Iran.

    But it’s OK. She is going to ‘raise concerns’ at the Gulf Cooperation Council ‘summit’ – a gathering of despots, dictators and murderers especially Saudi Arabia in Yemen for the last two years.

    Theresa May urged to raise human rights concerns on Gulf visit
    PM unveils joint security effort and says she will discuss rights as Bahrain cracks down on journalists and activists
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/dec/06/theresa-may-announces-joint-effort-on-security-in-gulf

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Cooperation_Council

    • Habbabkuk

      “Elsewhere in Saudi Arabia, part of the Gulf Cooperation Council she is meeting today, are executing 15 men today. They were accused of being spies for Iran.”
      _____________________________

      From time to time people get executed in Arab countries for being spies for Israel.

      Curiously enough, however, I have never seen anyone protesting about that on this blog.

        • Republicofscotland

          Indeed, Israel has a virtual carte blanche, when it comes to aggression around the world. The Great Satan, (consecutive US governments) se too that.

          • Habbabkuk

            Where are all these countries which have been attacked by Israel (“Israel has a virtual carte blanche, when it comes to aggression around the world”) ?

            Has Israel attacked any country or organisation other than those countries abd organisations which have attacked it (some of which still deny Israel’s right to exist)?

        • Habbabkuk

          Israel spies where it is able to – exactly like every other technically capable nation.

          • Herbie

            You’re putting the cart before the horse there, habby.

            Israel wasn’t at all a technically capable nation when it started nicking US secrets.

            Far from it.

            It was only through the spying that it developed that capacity.

            So.

            Must have had friends in the US.

          • Republicofscotland

            Israel, stole the hard working American’s tax dollars, just like they’ve stolen Palestinian lands.

            Both could not have happened without the aid of the US.

            If the American public ever wake up, and realise that they’re being fleeced to support a warmongering oppressive military state, things might get pretty ugly pretty quickly.

          • Why be Ordinary

            @ Herbie: Actually I think it was French nuclear secrets. The reason Israel so well understood the Iraqi nuclear programme is that it was another copy of the same process.

            And Israel started off with a lot of very capable technicians that Europe didn’t seem to want for some reason – and who for perhaps the same reason did not want Europe

          • Herbie

            We’re talking about technology more generally.

            The Israelis have stolen quite a lot from the US.

            That’s not in dispute.

      • nevermind

        For other readers who might what to know what from ‘time to time’ means for a UK fan of a Saudi regime that keeps its proxy wars as dirty as shaitans al aanhah, it means about 50 people/per month. Its just to keep people in fear of the regime, they are paranoid that someone finds out about their weekly wiski flights from the UK. Saudi is keeping two dirty proxy wars in Syria and Yemen, and mass suppression of Bahrain’s majority Shia population, going and which has been seen to ignore and break UN human rights more than once, its more like a profession there.

        Like it was mentioned before, all with our help and much arms and bombs that keep the profits coming in, ehhh, maybe not in, the profits might end up in some tax haven.

        here in blighty they are called accident victims.

  • Sharp Ears

    Theft of Palestinian land and homes by settlers is being legalised

    Israel votes to authorise illegal settler homes in Palestine
    Passage of bill to evacuate one settler site while retroactively recognising others meets with condemnation from UN and US
    5 December 2016
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/05/israel-votes-to-authorise-illegal-settler-homes-in-palestine

    ‘Israel’s parliament has voted to retroactively legalise thousands of illegitimate settler homes in outposts built on private Palestinian land, in a highly controversial move described by critics as a “land grab”. The measure, which passed in a stormy Knesset session late on Monday, has been met with international condemnation, and has already strained relations within Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing rightwing coalition.

    It comes in sharp defiance of a call on Sunday by the US secretary of state, John Kerry, who urged Israel again to rein in the construction of settlements on West Bank land.

    The bill passed its first reading by 60 votes to 49, and still has to pass a further three votes before becoming law. During the debate, the opposition leader, Isaac Herzog, fiercely denounced the law by equating its adoption to “national suicide”. While the bill seems likely to have support to pass its further readings, it appears inevitable that it will be challenged in court.

    Israeli critics and Palestinians have described the legislation as a land grab that would further distance prospects for a two-state solution to end the long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some high-profile political supporters, echoing that view, celebrated the vote by saying it opened the way to annexation of the West Bank and the end of any prospect of a Palestinian state,’

    The BBC unbelievably carried this news on their programme Outside Source tonight but the news item is rather hidden away on their website on the ME page.

    Israeli MPs advance bill to legalise West Bank outposts
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38215653
    ‘The international community regards all settlements as illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.’
    Palestinians see settlements as a major obstacle to a peace deal with Israel.’

    Israel disputes this……. of course.

    • Ba'al Zevul

      The two-state solution exists only as a meme to distract from its logical alternative, an integrated, single state with equal rights for its inhabitants. Both are equally impossible to reconcile with Israel’s current exceptionalist standpoint, and it might nowadays be more constructive to address the atrocities per se rather than calling them in aid of this or that ‘solution’.

      MAP has just sent me its Christmas appeal pack – the card shows a dove with a crosshairs aligned on its breast. Fortunately, it is wearing a flak jacket…more here:

      https://www.map-uk.org/

      If you can, do.

  • Dave

    The SNP began as a nationalist party and were denounced by the “Left” as “Tartan Tories” but then the “Left” joined to form a vehicle against the “Labour Tories” and the “Westminster Tories” and because many of the new constituency were “Green” they also denounced the “Orange Tories”, but retained support among many “Scottish Tories” against the “Southern England Tories” and as both UK Labour and Conservatives fortunes waned due to their embrace of EU/Globalism and mass-immigration, the SNP was left holding the baby as the “stronger voice for Scotland party” a sentiment captured in the rest of UK by UKIP. But now SNP is in power and scrutinised the Corbyn “Left” are denouncing them as “Tories” and the “Tories” are denouncing them as the “EU/Marxist phoney independence party” that will squeeze the SNP and fuel a realignment in Scottish politics.

    • michael norton

      Dave that sounded quite good but there was too much toing and froing, so i got somewhat lost.
      Is the gist “£ the SNP are now just like any other main stream party, fist-fighting, threatening their own members, stealing, fiddling expenses, telling lies to the voters, feathering their own nests and so on?

  • michael norton

    Italy’s Renzi hands in resignation amid European political turmoil

    Not sure if Renzi has actually gone, might be as in Nigel Farage, I’ve resigned, oh no I have not.
    ‘It’s dying before our eyes’ Now Nigel Farage promises to take a WRECKING BALL to the EU

    The European Empire is like a wounded deer, doesn’t yet know the game is up.

  • michael norton

    The BBC has said it should not pay Sir Cliff Richard the damages he is seeking as a result of the coverage of a police raid on his home in England in 2014.

    The BBC were hooked up with the police from Yorkshire.
    The BBC hounded Sir Cliff, it made his life ghastly.
    This may have been to over-compensate for looking the other way over Mr.Savile,
    who worked for them for years and was untouchable but not untouching.

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