You would never guess it from the media but Lord Ashcroft’s latest major polling effort strips bare the entire lie about a Tory and Unionist bandwagon rolling in Scotland.
You would never guess it from Lord Ashcroft’s Tory agenda-driven report of the findings either. This tendentious nonsense ignores Scotland completely – indeed I do not think he even mentions the nation’s existence. No paid media journalist would ever dream of reading more than the executive summary of the report, and certainly would never comb through the data tables, which contain the actual information on which the report is just a gloss.
But the data tables break down the sample by “region”, of which Scotland is one, and thus give us a very great deal of information. The Ashcroft polls have a 10,000 sample and the Scottish sub-samples of over 900 are more than used for many standard Scotland only polls.
So here are the highlights:
It is indeed true that Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is more popular than Nicola Sturgeon – but only in England.
Contrary to constant media propaganda, Nicola Sturgeon rates over 12% higher than Ruth Davidson. Invited to rate their performance from 0 to 100, Scottish voters gave Nicola Sturgeon a mean rating of 52.91% (Table 47) and Ruth Davidson 40.52% (Table 48). Despite Davidson being proclaimed by the media as the new Jim Murphy/Jesus Christ, including constant lying claims that she is the more popular.
But Ruth Davidson is very much more popular than Nicola Sturgeon – with the English. In every region of England, Davidson is widely preferred to Sturgeon.
There is no Tory Revival in Scotland.
Asked whether they would consider voting Conservative at the next Westminster election, on a scale of likelihood from 0 to 100, 65% of Scots voters answered 0-10 “there is no chance I would vote Conservative” compared to only 10% who answered 91 to 100 “I will definitely vote Conservative”. (Table 8)
The mean Tory score in Scotland on this scale was 23.84. This was narrowly behind Labour. (Table 9) Typically Ashcroft’s poll does not even ask about the SNP. But note this methodology gives a mean result that is higher than a party’s actual percentage vote: totaling the party mean scores for England gives you more than 100%. So Tory support in Scotland is running below 23.8% and below Labour.
Again this is completely contrary to the media propaganda that has been blasted constantly across Scotland.
Tory Britain is Totally Alien to Scots.
In answer to the question “Do you think Britain is on the right track, or heading in the wrong direction” Scots stated by a resounding 67% to 33% (excluding don’t knows) that Britain is heading in the wrong direction.
This compares to a clear majority in England that Britain is heading in the right direction. (Table 15).
Again contrary to constant media propaganda, Scots are much less obsessed than the English with controlling immigration. Only 28% of Scots named controlling immigration as one of the top three political issues, significantly lower than any region of England. (Table 19) A tiny 4% of Scots think immigration is the most important issue (Table 20).
But more revealing still is the ability to discern continued Scottish support for more left wing approaches to the economy. Here Ashcroft accidentally does us a favour by his exclusion of the SNP from the question.
Asked who would “have the best approach to growing the economy and creating jobs”, and not given a chance to answer SNP, Scots favour Labour over the Tories by a conclusive 46% to 36%. This compares to an equally strong preference for the Tories across England. (Table 25). Interestingly an extraordinary 15% of Scots plumped for the Lib Dems, presumably in reaction to no SNP choice being offered.
Again this is a devastating disproof of the media narrative that Scots have swallowed Torynomics. The Scottish preference for Labour over the Tories shows up in later tables on schools, the NHS, the environment etc.
Tory Scotland is a Myth the Media are Trying to Propagandise into Reality
As we gear up for the next referendum, I am cheered that the poll clears up the difference between empirical observation of the Scottish public and the picture portrayed by the media.
The media are lying.
The Blairite leadership of Scottish Labour betrayed their party by close collaboration with the Tories in Indyref1. As a result the party is in meltdown – but there is still a strong public sympathy for what might be described as real Labour values. This mantle has been taken up by the SNP.
But because the Scottish Labour Party as an organisation is a laughing stock, and because the Tories are highly hubristic and have convinced themselves of their own propaganda about their popularity, in Indyref2 we will face an open clash between Independence and Toryism. The Tories will no longer be lightly disguised behind Gordon Brown. Hard-faced anti-devolution unionism and City of London economics will be shoved down voters’ throats.
I have no doubt at all we will win this battle and finally achieve national independence again. If Ashcroft has the honesty to look at the message hidden in the unused data of his own poll results, the Tories realise it too. Which may explain their aversion to a referendum.
Going Underground with Afshin Rattansi.
John Pilger on nuclear war, Russia & The Last Poets (E467)
15 Apr, 2017
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/384840-nuclear-war-russia-poets/
We speak to legendary journalist John Pilger, former UK ambassador to Russia Sir Tony Brenton, plus revolutionary music from The Last Poets.
Talking of which I saw no mention here of Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s recent death. Now there is man whose humanity runs as deep as modern politicians’ humanity is shallow. Trump commissioned Israel to fly in Sarin to murder Syrian kids, as an excuse to help Al Qaida. I suppose if you are a product of incest, rules of civilised behaviour must rather cramp your style.
Have you seen this Giyane?
April 14, 2017
An Assessment of the White House Intelligence Report About the Nerve Agent Attack in Khan Shaykhun, Syria
by Theodore A. Postol
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/an-assessment-of-the-white-house-intelligence-report-about-the-nerve-agent-attack-in-khan-shaykhun-syria/
This is Brill.Shot and speedy.
The Syria Strikes: A Conspiracy Theory Worth an Oscar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkj9UCHO0Tc
Our Jihadist allies have ruined an internationally brokered peace treaty by blowing up buses full of civilians.
What reaction can we expect from the USA?
More Boris Johnson lies:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article196019.html
“Sarin takes several weeks to degrade when it comes into contact with the air and light. Thus if the photo were authentic, as the CIA claims it is, then sarin gas could not have been used. For if sarin gas had been used, the people picking up the samples and the onlookers would immediately be seriously infected.”
“NYT Retreats on 2013 Syria-Sarin Claims”
“Even as The New York Times leads the charge against the Syrian government for this week’s alleged chemical attack, it is quietly retreating on its earlier certainty about the 2013 Syria-sarin case, reports Robert Parry.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/04/06/nyt-retreats-on-2013-syria-sarin-claims/
They will replace the explosives the suicide bomber used, in order to be ready for the next time.
Current voting intentions:
Con: 46%
Lab: 25%
Lib: 11%
Clearly Jeremy is going to storm the next election. Socialism is alive.
You left off
S. N. P.
U.K.I.P.
D.U.P.
UUP
Sinn Féin
Plaid Cymru
and The Greens
To put this into perspective, loser Ed Miliband was polling about 36% at this stage…
Socialism will reappear when people get hungry enough. The most recent cuts are just kicking in and the effects of Brexit are only in the opening stages. If people want to continue to get poorer they’ll vote Tory in 2020.
What matters is that 1997 isn’t repeated. Don’t let Tories wear the country down and be replaced by Red Tories. 1945 shows you only have to win one election to change the country for decades.
“Socialism will reappear when people get hungry enough”
Go tell that to the people of Venezuela
http://abcnews.go.com/International/photos/venezuelas-food-crisis-38712958/image-38733018
Venezuela’s economy is under attack by US backed business interests. This is what happens to countries that defy Washington.
You might recall that in the case of Cuba, the US was so intent on wrecking the economy, in order to cause a famine that it engaged in systematic biological warfare, introducing diseases which killed hundreds of thousands of pigs and cattle and millions of fowl.
Cuba survived but during the shortages loonies could be heard howling “You see-socialism doesn’t work.”
Leave Venezuela alone and it will continue its progress towards equality and prosperity with healthcare and education for all and land in the hands of the cultivators. Those are threats to the US which, throughout its history, has fought against Latin American reformers and the redistribution off the vast estates of the latifundia to the peasants, most the descendants of aboriginal people and African slaves, who actually produce food on the land.
You might recall that the same sort of problem, still to be solved, existed in South Africa and Rhodesia where white settlers and their descendants stole the land off the people and then offered them ‘jobs’ under conditions as bad as slavery in return.
Borussia Dortmund bombs: Letters at scene ‘not from Islamists’
Ministry of Truth
the story is now evolving to be one of neo-nazis, using German bombs.
PS do tell Ken Livingstone, he must no longer say Hitler of Nazi for twelve months.
What the Observer is saying about Mélenchon is almost total nonsense…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/15/jean-luc-melenchon-france-first-round-voting-election-presidential
… but the fact that they are half-way reporting on what’s really going on shows how rattled the Establishment are.
With a neo-con controlled cowboy president in the USA, bombing people at every opportunity, expert a massive surge towards the left.
The presstitutes won’t tell you about any of this, of course. You’re all being conditioned to be obedient little drones who will go along with the war agenda. Those dang twerrorists are coming to get us!
It’s quite remarkable how this is all playing out.
History in the fast lane, and the psychopaths will be the losers.
(incidentally, the last two military acts under President Trump are blatant war crimes, to add to an incredibly long list of war crimes that the USA has carried out)
This will interest you Rob. It is an article in The Nation magazine by the eminent historian of Korea Bruce Cumings. It is worth approximately three years of The Guardian and everything that the BBC has produced since 2003.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/46874.htm
Bruce Cummings’s writing was well described as passionate,cantankerous and fascinating., like Korea(Nic. Kristol). As a ‘revisionist’, he has like David Irving, been praised or damned by partisans of one side or another with little regard for the substantial content of his work.Along with Aidan Foster Carter,occasionally wheeled out on TV, he has back-pedalled somewhat from lauding DPRK’s development.
The expected missile launch yesterday is reported as having failed(Stuxnet?) so the acute crisis seems over,but things will remain tense up to election day here in the ROK with a hoped-for resumption of Nordpolitik )and Armed Forces Day in the North.
.Meanwhile the Russian navy is showing St Andrew’s flag with the visit of a warship to Busan. and trilateral trade talks involving South Korea, China and Japan are proceeding(A Chinese character- using area, Yellow Sea Group. the +3 of ASEAN +3). Sino-DPRK trade is up despite the ban on coal imports.
So things are more relaxed again and the DPRK . can be ignored again or side linrd.
Still a hat figure is always needed for the US/NATO war machine and Kim Jong Un plays this role like a maestro.The nuclear issue is pretty much irrelevant in terms of serious defence although Japan’s Abe might know alot about sarin (Aum Shinkyo) and Dodgy Dave might know the whereabouts of SA /Israeli nuke technology.
I shall now walk over the mountain to my local temple which has a monument to its Bhuddist abbot who killed a Mongol general during the 13th century invasion.
Pence will be here in the ROK tomorrow. I was initially dismayed byTrump’s choice of him as VP as it was at odds with his speechifying,, but hope withers fast. . I think many younger people here wpuld rather Pence stayed away.
Of course Cumings unlike Bevin does not blame it all on one set of imperialists:
“”The Korean War did not begin on June 25, 1950, much special pleading and argument to the contrary. If it did not begin then, Kim II Sung could not have “started” it then, either, but only at some earlier point. As we search backward for that point, we slowly grope toward the truth that civil wars do not start: they come. They originate in multiple causes, with blame enough to go around for everyone—and blame enough to include Americans who thoughtlessly divided Korea and then reestablished the colonial government machinery and the Koreans who served it. How many Koreans might still be alive had not that happened? Blame enough to include a Soviet Union likewise unconcerned with Korea’s ancient integrity and determined to “build socialism” whether Koreans wanted their kind of system or not. How many Koreans might still be alive had that not happened? And then, as we peer inside Korea to inquire about Korean actions that might have avoided national division and fratricidal conflict, we get a long list indeed.”
I think there has been a great deal of overreaction on this blog to our impending doom. Us Brits, the English and Scots (and the other two) will be standing shoulder to shoulder if the Chinese and/or Russians lose their patience with the US.
In fact I think we are lucky to still be here; Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria destroyed, Saudi Arabia bombing Yemen on behalf of the US because SA don’t want the US to bomb them…. The US have no interest in bringing peace to anywhere, their economy could not cope with that outcome.
Troops massing on the Ukraine-Russian border, fleets massing off China (not to send a message to NK), Iran on the list, NATO as useful as the UN and the ICC.
And Scottish and English politicians and civil servants taking bungs for decades to allow this stuff to go on unchallenged.
But we are lucky, the UK has no meaningful air defence, we have ground zero targets all over the place in Scotland (subs and associated assets (even Skye will get a glow) – (doesn’t matter if our subs don’t work) The RN in the South of England, Army and RAF dotted about all over, London, Manchester, Birmingham catered for in poss 2 or 3 weapons. Underground Not very secret bunkers. The Houses of Parliament, the tower of Big Ben, The rosy red cheeks of the little children … (sorry drifting a little)
Everything destroyed using 10 – 12 weapons within a half hour of launch.
We should feel lucky because if the UK did not buy, maintain, deploy on launch platforms and commit to never ending upgrades of US nuclear weapons we would be left alone. We would offer zero threat, the threat we do pose is relatively insignificant but with such minimal use of resources the UK can be swept aside in the first moments.
And if we didn’t have the US nukes we would all die in a nuclear winter, taking weeks to months from starvation, looters, disease. We would see are loved ones slowly die with no hope of salvation on this planet.
But thanks to the US weapons on Scottish and English soil we will all be evaporated in seconds. And that’s how it should be. We will be forever joined by our political negligence. We know our politicians are twats but we keep voting for them. Our fault not theirs!
Happy Easter everyone!
Ten years ago exactly, Craig was speaking to David Frost about Uzbekistan.
Craig Murray
The former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan talks about state repression and torture.
15 Apr 2007
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/frostovertheworld/2007/04/200852518542164877.html
People come here to try to portray how especially compassionate they are, to vow support to ‘social justice’, declare there unstinting commitment to human rights and defend free speech. Yet, when a young student of journalism, Mashal Khan is lynched by a mob (allegedly for blasphemy) at his university in Pakistan, not a squeak on this board except from one mature contributor, RepublicofScotland.
Why?
Because like you, everyone has their own agenda?
She was asked what she had learned from the Holocaust, and she said that 10 percent of any population is cruel, no matter what, and that 10 percent is merciful, no matter what, and that the remaining 80 percent could be moved in either direction.
Kurt Vonnegut
If you are telling us there are people in the world who are cruel we already knew that, I just question your motives for reminding us.
If addressed to me hardly a troll comment. Those who criticise israel for its policy are mostly correct. Your comment about barbarity in pakistan is mostly correct. But guess what? While you pettilly squawk away,trying to one up each other….nothing changes. The insane and power mad run the world. Showing off how clever you are btl is not going to change anything.
Squeak
Pip-
The death of Mashal Khan is of little interest as it does not fit the ideological narrative that all the ills of the world are a consequence of Anglo-American policy that is uniquely nefarious.
Mashal Khan is of no interest for the same reason that Genghis Khan, classical Egyptian slavery and Aztec human sacrifices are of no interest. All of these things may shed light on the true nature of the human condition and this must be resisted at all costs as none of these historical crimes can plausibly be attributed to the US-UK or to “white privilege” or to the patriarchy.
There is interest in the resurgence of public slave markets in Libya.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/10/libya-public-slave-auctions-un-migration
This fits the narrative that Libya was destroyed by Anglo-American power and hence all citizens of the west are somehow responsible for this. The Guardian does not, and will not, mention that Serbia was similarly destroyed by Anglo-American power but you cannot attend a public slave market in Belgrade or Novi Sad.
Those infected with the virus of ideological purity are driven to ignore such facts – a few of the more impetuous may claim that the destruction of Libya was more severe than the destruction of Serbia. Fine, but the destruction of Leningrad and Stalingrad by the Nazi’s was total and yet no public slave markets emerged in the USSR.
Always remember it is imperative never to ask why. These facts must be ignored. If a response must be made then it should preferably comprise an ad-hominem attack (sexist, racist, ignorant, malevolent etc,) or else be completely irrelevant – perhaps a drunk English youth sending offensive tweets to a morally perfect Scottish Nationalist.
The American writer Susan Sontag was right when she said, “The white race is the cancer of humanity.” Even though us whiteys have contributed so much to cultural and technological advances we also gave the world the cruel Roman Empire, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, Conquistadors, Nazism, we dropped “the bomb”, depleted uranium, special rendition, Guantanamo Bay etc etc. Sure, other races can be cruel too but they’ve got nothing on whitey. Our slaughter must now be over a billion and if that idiot in the White House doesn’t get a grasp on reality soon we’ll be wiping out the planet.
I also think our Cro-Magnon ancestors genocided the Neanderthals.
One thing that white people did not give to the world was the cult of human sacrifice as practiced by the Aztecs. How many people the Aztecs killed is unknown but estimates range up to 250,000 per year. Not even bevin can construct an argument that white people were responsible for Genghis Khan and his murderous rampage across most of the then known world.
Does Susan Sontag have anything to say about these events? If not why not? and why should anyone take her seriously?
White people (along with all other people) have committed crimes and proceeded with evil intent. White people were also responsible for the abolition of slavery, the development of many medicines and medical advances leading to the eradication of diseases such as smallpox and vastly reducing the impact of a range of other diseases.
Everyone needs to get a grip on reality – something that the ideologically driven are desperate to prevent from happening. Sure there are bad people around – and a lot of them are to be found in positions of power. Who allowed that to happen? Answer everyone did, by a collective refusal to understand reality and a collective refusal to accept responsibility.
“Everyone needs to get a grip on reality – something that the ideologically driven are desperate to prevent from happening.”
Seriously wise words, reinforced by another wise man I respect. I shall put up a link shortly, separately afresh so it doesn’t get lost on people. But, once again, well argued and well said.
“One thing that white people did not give to the world was the cult of human sacrifice as practiced by the Aztecs.”
How do you know? Yes, because you read it in whiteys historical book of the Aztecs, the one’s that they killed, to a man woman and child. Trust it much?
Ya lunatic.
Loony
“One thing that white people did not give to the world was the cult of human sacrifice”
Funny enough, current understanding suggests human sacrifice and white skin emerged somewhat contemporaneously. Make of that what you will. I recommend, not a lot. Anyway, paleolithic Europeans were at it tens of thousands of years before the Aztecs.
http://www.livescience.com/1594-early-europeans-practiced-human-sacrifice.html
“You cannot attend a public slave market in Belgrade or Novi Sad…”
Never mind, you could buy transplantable organs ‘harvested’ from Serb prisoners from the Kossovo Liberation Army.
I can’t tell from your comment whether your latest adopted victims are the Serbs or Kosovans. Either way you might want to let them know that as far as organ harvesting is concerned the competitive advantage lies with India and the Indians. To the extent that any real competition exists it is provided by the Chinese who routinely harvest the organs of prisoners it executes.
Serbs or Kosovans are marginal players in this market – and always will be.
Despite your latest attempt at diversion based on an ill informed understanding of the organ harvesting market it remains the case that there are no public slave markets in Serbia.
And the prostitution and porn rackets that arose in Eastern Europe and Russia, as the West brought its civilisation to these lands.
I believe that Arabs have considerable form when it comes to slavery.
My understanding is that the slave of an Arab was more akin to an unpaid intern – but with board and lodging provided – than to a cotton-picker in Kentucky. Many found it advantageous to remain slaves even when freedom was offered. Which might not be the case for some of the Guardian’s junior staff…
So that’s alright then 🙂
Yes , but you can buy yourself human organs in Kosova,,centre of human organ trafficking for Europe and Middle East.
Loony
What better way to spend a wet sunday afternoon than to treat the ravages of political Islam and USUKIS as mere, and now boring, sport. I realise it’s boring, because no matter what degree of perversion Boris supports, the Brits are only interested in the bung from Saudi for destroying another Muslim country. Who gets raped, murdered, exiled, forced at gunpoint, starved, in-washed or poisoned isn’t very interesting to folks back home. Our economy which is so dysfunctional that nobody can afford to live without weekly government top-ups in our bank accounts, still supports the lifestyle of our neighbours who run productive economies , because of the bungs. Bungs Bungs Bungs man.
Not interested in all that stuff from history which happened a long time ago.
Maybe it would be a good idea to find out really why said student was attacked, before manifesting outrage. Some vague claim with the modifier ‘allegedly’ is hardly enough.
When the state governor of Panjab made some mild defence of Christians by saying they shouldn’t have their heads cut off for blasphemy, he was gunned down. Huge demonstrations took place in support of his murderers. It is important to note that when those charged appeared at court, the protesters outside were not made up of some illiterate mob. They were lawyers. Chanting in support of the murderers.
Just let that sink in, Laguerre. Pakistan is a deeply fucked up country.
LOL you are a funny kind of murderer. Why do you need a justification at all? Just do it, the law is an ass, right? Chump!
If you re-read what you have written it will probably occur to you that you are doing exactly what you accuse others of doing, which is to say, smugly affecting a concern about this lynching simply in order to score points.
I don’t think that you care at all about this terrible event, it is simply a peg for you to hang your islamophobia on, while it gives you the opportunity to signal to us how full of …virtue you are.
“If you re-read what you have written …” etc. explains a lot about why you’re such a tortured soul, apart from all the weight of history you carry, then you reread your own stuff? You must have a very heavy grave ego. Despite that I’m relieved to see that you that you agree the event was “terrible” even if you blame it on a string of Viceroy’s.
Projection?
. What would you do regarding pakistan alcyone? Degrading them for beating a student to death when a lynch mob in croydon nearly beat to death a refugee for no other reason than he was a refugee seems hypocritical no? Lynch mob mentality is a human condition that no religion or nationality can claim as its own
hundreds/thousands of disabled people in britain have been killed by the current tory government and nobody has batted an eye lid – the government doesn’t even think it necessary to keep the figures and is murdering many more with a £30 per week decrease in the benefits paid to ILL PEOPLE in the disbanded WRAG group – nobody bloody cares – what’s your point?
It’s not a point per se, it’s a question–can you not read? Stop trolling.
I am actually agreeing with your general point and providing a parallel issue as evidence – I take exception to the notion my trolling, especially as this blog has its own favourites which make coming here and commenting so bloody pointless – don’t be so bloody patronising
If an irrelevant internal dispute between the pre-EU and post-EU factions of the Tory party can lead to Brexit, and then hard Brexit, and affect the whole nation, this is giving much too much influence to a tiny minority.
Imagine if the internal intellectual disputes in the Labour party were to do the same. Mostly these politicians started forming their intellectual positions at school, and then as they consolidated their interest in politics, they carried their irrelevant ideas into positions of power.
How did we get to a position where private companies are rewarded to remove the most vulnerable in society from benefits? Firstly through the puerile dogma of wealthy schoolboys and secondly through the puerile influence of a few wealthy schoolboys, including Nick Clegg from Westminster and David Cameron from Eton, connections with eachother. Most people didn’t realise that these posh school kids were real. But they are. All the childish talk they found got attention for themselves in the school corridors they have actually implemented.
In the case of Boris Johnson he seems to have never been disciplined for lying. He actually believes that the House of Commons is just an extension of Eton or the Bullingdon Club, where turning off the main electric or water is just a prank below the radar of the masters. He thinks he can lie to the world and the House of Commons on matters of great import, and zoom back to his Oxford Farm and barbecue. It is profoundly disconcerting that the conservatives have continued to borrow trillions since the last financial crash in 2007, by simply shouting ya-booh to New Labour for over-spending while doing f.all to repair the financial policies of Thatcherism that crashed us. Daddy Saudi Arabia will buy us a new car if we give them Damascus.
They may have been to Oxford, but:
“Controversy
During a sermon delivered in 2009,[43] quoting a verse of the Quran, Hasan said to an audience: “The kuffar, the disbelievers, the atheists who remain deaf and stubborn to the teachings of Islam, the rational message of the Koran; they are described in the Koran as “a people of no intelligence”, Allah describes them as not of no morality, not as people of no belief – people of “no intelligence” – because they’re incapable of the intellectual effort it requires to shake off those blind prejudices, to shake off those easy assumptions about this world, about the existence of God. In this respect, the Koran describes the atheists as “cattle”, as cattle of those who grow the crops and do not stop and wonder about this world.”[44]
In response to criticism over the use of the term “cattle” to describe non-believers, Hasan wrote in his New Statesman blog: “The Quranic phrase ‘people of no intelligence’ simply and narrowly refers to the fact that Muslims regard their views on God as the only intellectually tenable position, just as atheists (like Richard Dawkins or Sam Harris) regard believers as fundamentally irrational and, even, mentally deficient.”[45] Hasan returned to this issue in August 2012 following criticism from the columnist Peter Hitchens.[44] Hasan wrote: “the entire 45-minute speech is primarily an attack on Muslim extremists who try and justify violence against non-Muslims on an ‘ends justify the means’ basis”, but noted of his 2009 comments that his “phraseology was ill-judged, ill-advised and, even, inappropriate”.[46]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehdi_Hasan
____________
I’d rather get my news from Raheem Kassam:
https://twitter.com/PeterSweden7/status/853367209925775360
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/brand-i-underjordiskt-garage-i-rosengard
Bevin said.
“You appear to be basing your opinions on the imperialist histories ”
______
Bevin.
Yes there is that account as well, but it’s not what I’m basing my comment on. I’m basing it on the life and times of Guru Gobind Singh, whose father was beheaded by Muslims for failing to convert to Islam.
It was the first Sikh guru Nanak Dev Ji, who said, “The realistion of truth is higher than all else. Higher still is truthful living.”
I must add though, that I’m not attacking Islam in itself, there are millions of peace loving Muslims past and present who abhor violence. I’m merely pointing out that Islam like all religions (possibly Zoroastriaism aside, one of the first reglions to promote monotheism) are prone to violence and warfare. Pakistan is high up on that list of intolerance to other religious sects.
So you are telling me that Gobind Singh is the source of your assertion that the British Empire was an improvement for the hundreds of millions of Indian peasants who were taxed to support, amongst other things, a massive army to collect taxes from them?
That is a book I will be looking out for.
Bevin
I was responding to this section of your comment. I did highlight that on the previous page.
“Pakistan is wholly the work of successive British Viceroys who, throughout the C20th, did everything that they could to prevent muslims and other Indians from uniting against the Empire”
___________
In conjunction with modern day Pakistan’s aggressive and mostly unjust blasphemy laws, and pointing out that although the British oppressed the natives in Indian, Islam under the Mughals did so many centuries before as well, when Pakistan was still part of India.
PFI scandal as SCOTTISH NHS faces £10billion bill for hospitals that cost £2billion
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/struggling-nhs-faces-crippling-bills-10234545
Scottish Shambles
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary cost £180million to build but NHS Lothian will pay back £1.6billion by 2034???
If this is how things are being run in Scotland we despair
that you could ever run a whole country.
What currency will you use?
Michael.
Please read this article, to understand the futility of your post. I don’t think you realise just how much debt the rUK is in as well over PFI, and according to this report PFI, was created by the Tories and then Labour at Westminster.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/pfi-deals-will-cost-taxpayers-209bn-over-next-35-years-a6966986.html
I believe both Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are SCOTTISH
You have to take some responsibility for fucks sake.
Michael.
Look at this way, both men carried out their political policies at Westminster. Also Scottish voters I think haven’t influenced the outcome of a GE in a long time.
That has predominantly been the domain of the much larger populated England.
Scotland didn’t vote for a Tory government, yet here we are planted with Theresa May, do you get the picture yet?
And the nutter Donald Trump is at least half-Scottish
so start taking some responsibility for the mess the world is in.
Michael.
Your genetic line of thinking is also flawed, Trump, has German blood in him through his grandfather, does that also make it every Germans fault as well?
“Also Scottish voters I think haven’t influenced the outcome of a GE in a long time.”
2010. Conservatives would have had a majority without Scottish MPs, Scotland put the Liberal Democrats into power.
Yes. They’re Scottish.
But they’re Unionists.
They’re Empirists.
World class predators.
Not Nationalists.
Since the crook and war criminal Tony Blair introduced PFI (and from which many people believe comes the real source of his wealth), I always imagined there’d be new hospitals built but laying empty and unused, because the funds allocated to run the NHS are paying off PFI so NHS Trusts are no longer able to operate them.
As Britain continues its downward slide (low wage economy zero-hour contracts higher cost of living etc) all exacerbated due to the disaster known as Brexit.
The EU leaders look set to strip HMS Brexitania of valued agencies. Reports suggests diplomats are preparing to relocate the European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency, amongst other vital departments.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-leaders-to-strip-britain-of-valued-european-medicine-and-banking-agencies-within-weeks-a7685811.html
Brexit the unwanted gift, that just keeps on taking.
Security concerns have been raised about plans to carry out major servicing work on the UK’s new F-35 fighter jets in Turkey.
SNP MP George Kerevan is to call for an inquiry into the policy in the light of last year’s attempted coup in Turkey and tensions with its Nato partners.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39501299
Full marks to the S. N. P. for making a stand for our National Security.
More ratcheting up by The Americans
https://www.rt.com/news/384900-f35-fighters-arrive-europe/
A fleet of F-35 stealth fighter jets has arrived in Europe from the United States as part of a planned NATO exercise aimed at “deterring” Russia.
The F-35A Lightning II jets landed at Royal Air Force Base in Lakenheath, England Saturday, having made the journey from Hill Air Force Base, Utah.
I live about ten miles east of Lakenheath so that’s me gone then if this all goes pear-shaped. All for a plane that can’t fly and an aggressor who can’t fight. Boy, they sure do know how to kill though.
“As we and our joint F-35 partners bring this aircraft into our inventories, it’s important that we train together to integrate into a seamless team capable of defending the sovereignty of allied nations.
The deployment will last several weeks and is part of the European Reassurance Initiative, a US build-up of troops and weapons in Europe launched in 2014 to “deter Russian aggression.”
https://www.rt.com/news/384900-f35-fighters-arrive-europe/
“We’re not getting along with Russia at all,” Trump said on Wednesday, after meeting with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Washington.
The Scottish Donald ordered the April 6 cruise missile attack against a Syrian airbase, blaming the government in Damascus for the April 4 chemical attack in Idlib province. In response,
Russia suspended the “de-confliction” arrangement with the US military, which was established in October 2015.
Anticipating a Russian or Syrian response, the US-led coalition has drastically reduced the number of strikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in Syria.
Americans have been rather quiet about Syria ans Iraq, over the last few days?
Too busy being beligerant in Afghanistan and adjacent to the Koran Penninsular, perhaps.
It will be interesting to see whether they can take off again.
Indeed, it will also be interesting how long it takes for the Bibic to let us citoyens of The United Kingdom that RAF Lakenheath has been invaded by The Americans.
Jeez, two Russian frigates travel through the North sea and tonight pass through the English channel, and the Western press in some quarters claim Putin is taunting Britain.
I wonder if this kind of propaganda existed during tha Anglo-Dutch wars when Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, sailed his Dutch fleet up the Thames in 1672.
Asma al-Assad, the wife of president Assad of Syria, is already banned from travelling to Europe, now after Asma posted a message on social media, claiming the sarin attack was false. There are calls from the British political establishment to make her “persona non grata” in Britain. Asma is originally from London, both her parent moved to London in the 1950’s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asma_al-Assad
Asma al-Assad,
is a Citoyen of The United Kingdom,
therefore she will, after Hard Brexit, be is the same position as any Scot.
She has the automatic right to live in any part of the United Kingdom, including Gibraltar.
Has bevin written up a defence of the mentally ill child running North Korea yet?
I’ve been away. How did he try to justify the Sweden attacks?
May I be the first to welcome you back Anon1, how was your deployment? Also maybe you could shine some light on your fellow comrades (Habb) confident prediction of the removal of Assad before the years out, afterall I assume you’re both in the know as they say. ?
I heard there was a great, big, beautiful bomb dropped on Afghanistan.
Now this was interesting because up to a hundred ISIS fanatics were killed without a single civilian casualty. The local Afghans appeared to support the action. Even the Taliban were in favour of wiping out the “too violent” IS fanatics.
In fact, all over the world, the only objection you could find to the dropping of this admittedly rather large but conventional device, was the Western left. Because Donald Trump is in charge. Maybe after 25,000 more bombing raids he will catch up with his predecessor?
Are you completely mad?
“up to a hundred ISIS fanatics were killed without a single civilian casualty.”
You believe that?
” The local Afghans appeared to support the action. ”
And that?
Clearly your credibility is a matter of no concern to you.
So I take it like Habb, you’re not giving anything away on Assad and his fate, I’m very disappointed in you Anon1, you are very vocal on your opinions, but on this occasion I take it you’ve been told to “keep it shut.”
Pity I thought you were your own man, it appears not.
As for your big bomb, whatever gets you off. ?
RoS, Trump isn’t giving anything away either. Assad isn’t giving away anything either. Putin isn’t giving anything away either.
I’m sure we can all agree though that Syria MUST stay secular despite what the evil Saudis would like.
Do you support US military action against North Korea?
Reports from Reuters reliable sources on the devastated ground in Afghanistan , state that collateral damage casualties from the US $20M bomb was six female goats, a billy goat and a goat herd, a broken down donkey and a farm cart lost a wheel.
Cost /profit analysis of the operation has been futile, but propaganda effect has been successful. Taliban are impressed.
I think they were just testing how effective it was at penetrating mountains.
That’s the kind of terrain under which the Iranians and others keep their missiles and other materiel.
It’s like Thunderbirds down there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN3wMhr5rWI
This is the correct link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0Ie69i–TE
Anon1: “I’ve been away. How did he try to justify the Sweden attacks?”
Bevin didn’t do so, as any sane person would know, and you would too if you’d bothered to look.
You’re out despite being charged with beating up that 17-yo refugee kid at the Croydon bus-stop then? Been on remand all month I take it… did they drop the charges or are you out on bail?
He has attempted to justify, or at the very least explain away, every terrorist attack in Europe since he started commenting here. The Tunisian responsible for the truck jihad in Berlin was apparently responding to German “involvement” in the Iraq War.
And you both should check out McNutty @12h30 above. Seriously guilty, I hope he doesn’t come to any self-harm.
No bevin is still researching his history books–and the it’s lessons that Ping shared with Trump over dinner.
But a regular commenter did suggest that North Korea was being ‘demonized’–she didn’t get very far with that:
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1492243460.html
“No bevin is still researching his history books–and the it’s lessons that Ping shared with Trump over dinner.
What does that mean?
Anyone have any ideas?
What does that mean? Anyone have any ideas?
Don’t stick up for foreigners.
Good of you to advertise The Lifeboat News. Why don’t you come aboard? You have to register though. 😉
Try these also on Korea.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1492272912.html
Enter ‘Korea’ here and you get dozens of links. No sniping, backbiting or trolling on there which is lovely. http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/search
PS How old are you? You seem rather infantile.
Can you specify the essential difference between him and the mentally ill child who types your posts? Or is running the US, the UK, Australia, France, the EU etc?
How did you try to justify Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile, Nicaragua, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria? Same as you would have justified Belsen or Auschwitz.
You’re on the side of power, that’s justification enough. And you’re right, you’re pragmatic, You know which side of atrocity your bread is buttered.
I wonder if Craig might be going on the slightly biased to Putin to point out the true nature of Usmanov and the trumped up case against Navalny?
https://www.rt.com/politics/384323-billionaire-businessman-promises-to-sue/
Pence, who is probably ready for the rapture, gave a speech to selected US military in Seoul this morning. He spoke of his father who as Second Lt Ed Pence, fought in the Korean War and was awarded the Bronze Star. He said that his father did not consider himself a hero as the heroes do not come home. He thanked the assembled company for their service and their bravery and courage for being there and introduced a story from the bible (the old book as he called it) about Jesus’ amazement at a soldier. It was all extremely creepy. His wife who he calls ‘Mother’? stood impassively alongside.
http://www.heart.co.uk/news/uk-world/pence-tells-koreans-our-resolve-has-never-bee/
Can’t find a transcript but here is one of the speech he gave to AIPAC recently. 🙂 Defo a Christian Zionist.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/full-transcript-of-speech-by-us-vice-president-mike-pence-at-aipac/
So not allowed to mention the pope on Easter Sunday, or his plea for Syria,
religious message censored on this blog
Perhaps you had exceeded your quota of a dozen copy-and-paste posts within a single hour.
Hello Glen….or possibly to do with some protected species in the environment. I’ve seen that quite a few times.
No that’s Big Ears
The one we’re still expecting some remorse from re the Westminster murders?
Well Sky news has been giving that wee dusgruntled guy hiding out in a ladies clothes sho in Coventry, going by the name of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights plenty of air time today.
Over a car bomb that blasted a convoy of coaches carry besieged evacuees, or rebel fighters, or a whole host of other people or equipment etc. The truth is we don’t really know, because like mushrooms we in the West are fed shit and kept in the dark, by the media and our governments.
Like this one from my footnote at 12h02?
#LastNightInSweden Over 150 cars burnt up / soot damaged after arsonist sets fire in garage in Malmö no-go zone. http://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/skane/brand-i-underjordiskt-garage-i-rosengard
“Talking of which I saw no mention here of Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s recent death.”
____________________
Actually I mentioned it on the previous thread the day after he died and said I was surprised that no one else had.
Probably no one else mentioned it because he occasionally criticised the Soviet regime and, as we know, people who criticise the Soviet regime do not get much of a welcome on this blog.
Remember – just as with “President” Assad Jnr being gone by the end of this year – you read it from Habbabkuk on here first 🙂
1/ You’re late
2/ You’re wrong. I heard it on Radio 4 from Professor Robin Milner-Gulland of Sussex University
3/ You haven’t signed in. You will not be insured on site for accidents of the tongue and other slips unless you sign in. No hard hat – no pay.
Anon1
Allow me to be the first the sincerely welcome you back.
“Irrelevantofscotland’s” welcome back does not count because it was insincere.
Habb.
I shall treat any comment you post on Assad in a disdain fashion. You provide no evidence
whatsoever on your boastful claims. Indeed if the shoe were on the other foot, you’d be first to ask for evidence or a clear explaination.
You have provided neither, ergo your credibility over Assad’s fate is inadmissible.
Unless of course you can provide evidence to back up your wild and outlandish claim?
More than likely you’re a popinjay at best. ?
Forever in hope?
Published time: 16 Apr, 2017
Fifty years of occupation and 10 years of blockade have done their worst in normalizing the suffering and legitimizing the injustice in Palestine. So much so that many now believe the absence of a solution has become a solution in itself. Is that the case? To discuss this, Oksana is joined by Pierre Krähenbühl, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.
https://www.rt.com/shows/worlds-apart-oksana-boyko/384915-palestine-blockade-injustice-suffering/
There are 450,000 Palestinians refugees in Syria. Also discussed.
Thank you for the link Sharp Ears, re-RT, John Pilger made an appearance the other day, he quickly got round to the oppressive apartheid rogue military state of Israel.
He said something along the lines that Israel had broken just about every UN resolution, and then some over the awful treatment of the Palestinian people.
Pilger added that Israel likes to claim it is a democracy, he added it isn’t. If I recall correctly (and I’m sure the usual culprits will correct me if I’m wrong) it doesn’t say anywhere in the Israeli constitution (Declaration of Independence) that it is a democracy.
Yes. I put a link on the previous thread. Long may John Pilger live. There are few like him these days to counter the MSM propaganda with the truths.
You are correct on the use of the grandly styled Syrian Observatory…….. Here in this Sky report on the latest mass slaughter of Syrian little ones and adults. Terrible.
Scores of children die in bus convoy attack as UN condemns Syria bombing
The UN has demanded those responsible for the Syria bombing be brought to justice as it emerged at least 68 children were killed.
16 April 2017 15.55
‘At least 68 children were among more than 120 Syrians killed in a bomb attack on a crowded bus convoy carrying evacuees, it is claimed.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the number of dead was 126, including 109 being taken from Foua and Kefraya, government-controlled villages besieged by rebels.
The others were aid workers and rebels guarding the convoy, it said.’
http://news.sky.com/story/un-condemns-syria-bus-convoy-attack-that-left-over-100-dead-10839376
____
‘The organisation is run by Rami Abdulrahman (sometimes referred to as Rami Abdul Rahman), from his home in Coventry. He is a Syrian Sunni Muslim who owns a clothes shop. Born Osama Suleiman, he adopted a pseudonym during his years of activism in Syria, and has used it publicly ever since. After being imprisoned three times in Syria, Abdulrahman fled to the United Kingdom fearing a fourth jail term and has not returned.’
‘The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (also known as SOHR) founded in May 2006, is a UK-based information office that has been documenting human rights abuses in Syria; it has focused since 2011 on the Syrian Civil War. It is frequently quoted by major Western news media, such as Voice of America, Reuters, BBC, CNN and National Public Radio, since the beginning of the uprising about daily numbers of deaths from all sides in the conflict and civilians killed in airstrikes in Syria. SOHR has been described as being “pro-opposition” and anti-Assad.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syrian_Observatory_for_Human_Rights
It makes you think.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2b/OttomanEmpireMain.png
Well, it makes me think.
Since the break up of The Ottoman Empire following the end of World War One,
over one million Armenian citoyens killed, countless atrocities, yet masses have flooded into Syria, even now millions of refugees ( non-Syrian) abide in Syria.
Why would Iraqis, Christians, Yazidis, Palistinians flee to Syria if it had been such a hell-hole?
The Syrian “civil” war has been manufactured by malign outside influences, mainly Turkey, who wants its empire back.
Darling Norton
The Ottomans were overthrown from within by imams from as far as Pakistan, Kurdistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt forming a confederation with the British against them. The idea was that the Kurdish would take the Caliphate, but it was denied them by the British. What makes you think that Erdogan is Turkish? Or Assad Syrian? Or Barzani Kurdish? Or the Sauds Saudi?
These are nationalist and religious slogans to appeal to the masses, concealing the reality that they are in confederacy to USUKIS, particularly the IS label.
Unfortunately political Islam has no god except USUKIS, and no connection with Islam, and no hope of ever getting a caliphate except as the tenant of USUKIS. The whole world rejects the abomination of an organisation whose slogan Muslim Brotherhood detests Muslims, and whose sole allegiance is to the West. It will go into history as a charnel-house on the scale of the Borgia-Popes. The entire edifice of USUKIS jihad as Craig has pointed out was conceived under the British Raj in India over 100 years ago. It serves only USUKIS interests, plus the pockets of its traitors.
Turkey does not want its empire back, it wants what the North Koreans have, a palpable arse to kiss.
USUKIS.
RobG
I don’t know if you’ve got your French social security worked out yet but if not I know a couple of chaps who would be happy to help you. Just let me have your details and I’ll put them in touch with you.
Penalties for working while unregistered are severe, particularly if the offender is a foreigner.
Habba, I’m a British passport holder who regularly travels between France and a number of other countries. My status while in France is perfectly legal and above board (although that may change if Brexit does actually happen).
I will also say that when it comes to France about one third of all business transactions take place ‘below the counter’, as is common in most European countries, including Britain. Governments realise this and know that it is a vital part of the economy.
I could further add that I also have income in America, which has one of the strictest tax regimes in the world (which is why Boris Johnson recently renounced his dual American citizenship). We all know why this strict tax regime exists in America: it’s to screw every cent that they can out of the tax payer to fund the absolutely monstrous war machine. So what do they do with all this money..? They steal it…
$10 Trillion Missing From Pentagon And No One — Not Even the DoD — Knows Where It Is
http://www.activistpost.com/2017/03/10-trillion-missing-pentagon-no-one-not-even-dod-knows.html
… this includes $2.3 trillion ‘gone missing’ that was announced by defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld on 10th September 2001 (the day before 9/11)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_p92dECEpQ
Do the Easter Bunnies still hop around and believe the myth that is 9/11, and all the horrors that have followed it?
” My status while in France is perfectly legal and above board”
______________________
I’m very glad to hear that, RobG, because you have certainly been working in France for long enough (so you have told us) to be compulsorily registered for French social security contributions and income tax. Could I therefore hope – at long last – for an answer to a very simple and very practical question, ie, how long did it take you to get a permanent French social security number?
I’m not sure why you keep honing in on me when it’s blatantly obvious that there’s going to be revolution in America sometime soon.
Same thing in France if yet another neo-con tosser is elected.
One can only think of King Canute.
One of the few countries of The Levant that has not been overwhelmed by conflict is Jordan, yet three quarters of the area in underlain by Shale-oil deposits.
Could the reason it has not been war-ravaged be that Jordan is a supplicant to The U.S.A.
A useful idiot
The Tory MSP Murdo Fraser has tweeted “hey @churchscotland, this is what Christian leadership looks like. Listen & learn”. Murdo then provides a link to the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter Sermon.
Do the Tories think they can just have fun getting up the noses of most people in Scotland and it doesn’t matter because Theresa May is there with her No Section 30 to slap down any opposition?
reel guid.
Murdo Fraser is a eight time reject, that never won a single vote.
He’s a nonentity, a gadfly, a loud mouth blowhard.
https://wingsoverscotland.com/murdo-fraser-wins-a-vote/
You’re being a bit too kind to him Ros. Is it because it’s Easter?
Yes, I’m feeling that Easter spirit. ?
Modern Toryism is a disease. They were never wholly for the people but at least they used to have decent politicians with some social conscience like Rab Butler, Peter Walker and Patrick Cormack.
They truly are now nothing but the nasty party that Theresa May once said they should try to avoid being called.
Hard Brexit, food banks, rape clauses, racist tweets, tax havens and denial of democratic rights are what they are about.
With nasty Ruth Davidson shouting at the elected First Minister of Scotland to “sit down” with a look of undisguised hatred.
Scotland needs to be free of Toryism. By that I don’t mean free of right of centre politics. In an independent Scotland there can be a responsible right of centre pro-business party that mirrors such moderate conservative parties across Europe. I’m sure they would do ok at the polls.
But vile Toryism is finished in Scotland. And with it the union.
Heh. NorKs ordnance must be seen as out of UK range by Craig…hence the urgent concern..lol
1400+ views in one day, a ray of hope.