Amber Rudd Prevents Independent Candidate Questioning Arms Sales to Saudi Sponsors of Terrorism 217


In this hustings clip, independent candidate for Hastings and Rye Nicholas Wilson is linking the Manchester bombing to Tory support for arms sales to Saudi Arabia. Home Secretary Amber Rudd can be clearly seen writing a note, passing it to the chairman and speaking to him. He then immediately intervenes to stop Wilson speaking and takes the microphone from him.

I don’t have the name of the chairman who looks like a corrupt, overfed, complacent, Tory, Church of England vicar straight out of Trollope. But as soon as I get his name, I will publish it.

UPDATE

What is happening to the understanding of democracy in this country? I just got a call saying the Residents’ Committee of the apartment block where I live were instructing me to remove the SNP poster from my balcony (It is a small A3 poster). My reply was extremely rude, I am afraid, and I have now put up a second poster.

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217 thoughts on “Amber Rudd Prevents Independent Candidate Questioning Arms Sales to Saudi Sponsors of Terrorism

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  • Michael Marshall

    Britain is being governed (for want of a better word) by a grotesque cabal of pseudo-fascists with the open support of much of the mainstream media. A Tory victory on Thursday is an unthinkable nightmare.

    • Loony

      Why will a Tory victory be an unthinkable nightmare?

      You have had effective Tory rule since 1979 – sure if you look back over that time frame things have not exactly worked out well. What is not clear is what is so special about this coming Thursday that has not been special on any day since May 1979.

      Surely you are not engaging in irrational and emotional hyperbole

      • laguerre

        It’s a cabal within the Tory party which is in power, their version of Militant Tendency.

      • nevermind

        Sorry, loony meant that 1922 concoction of tinkers/doomsters who sold everything we owned and are now asking for more, Michael, he likes to dream.

      • mickc

        I disagree…. Thatcher was not a Tory, but a Radical. She was despised by the “true” Tories who are far more insidious, pretending to care for the people, whilst enriching themselves and their cronies. Cameron was a prime example….resign from White’s to become PM, rejoin immediately afterwards.
        Blair was similar and the model for Cameron.
        In comparison, Thatcher was straightforward… what you saw was what you got… love it or loathe it.

    • D_Majestic

      My thoughts also, Michael. I keep wondering how on earth we came to this Bridge of Dread. One party fascist state only a few chess-moves away, it seems.

    • K Crosby

      Not the majority who always rejected Hitler at the ballot box. Weimar Germany was a democracy, something the British boss class has never had to contend with.

  • giyane

    Nice neo-Gothic church for a nice neo-Gothic institution. The massive columns support even more massive arches in the same way as the massive machinery of the democratic institutions support even more massive machinery of government chicanery in office. Where’s Cameron and Blair? Have they been sent to prison yet for their Iraq and Syrian war-crimes. No they have been re-painted as whited sepulchres in a white mausoleum for white lies.

    • Ishmael

      “white”

      Racialization perpetuates the ideological framework of stereotypes.

      If you don’t like it don’t participate.

  • Tom Speed

    Sad thing is not a single other candidate there stood up for his right to speak. Pathetic.

    I think he was on topic to speak about Saudi & the arms we allow to be sold to them.

    • Clark

      He was absolutely on the law-and-order topic talking about the proposed Tory closure of the Serious Fraud Office, the same office that Blair censored over the Al-Yamamah arms deal, and the links to terrorism:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Yamamah_arms_deal#Investigation_discontinued

      Robert Wardle, head of the SFO, also stated (in a later High Court challenge, see below) that he had received a direct threat of a cessation of counterterrorist co-operation from the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK, in the first of three meetings held to assess the seriousness of the threat: “as he put it to me, British lives on British streets were at risk”

      See? We must do as the terrorists want, by voting Tory and supporting Saudi Arabia.

      • Clark

        It stinks of being a protection racket. Saudi Arabia does not say “we control these thugs and we will send them to attack you”. Instead they say “our unique proximity to the source helps us prevent such attacks; you wouldn’t like our attention to wander, would you?”

  • giyane

    Please correct me if I’m wrong. The west makes the weapons. One assumes they don’t intend them to be used against us. So what did the arms salesman/woman actually tell the Saudis? ” We won’t be needing these weapons, they’re no use to us. They would damage our reputation as a peace-loving nation. You can have them for a knock-down price if you lend us another trillion to get us through the election, but don’t use them against us.”

    Mrs May has a selective sense of responsibility to the UK. She would be positively delighted if the weapons were to be used against impoverished Muslims. ” Us more, wogs less.” Brittle smile.

    • Bill Rollinson

      These weapons find themselves into the hands of ISIS, Al-Qeada. Indirectly arming the rebels fighting a Sovereign nation on our behalf!

  • Clark

    Atrocious. Direct political censorship at a hustings. Direct subversion of democracy by the Home Secretary.

    • Ishmael

      `i think that is democracy to them. Technical vs actual meaning, ‘we are in charge’.

  • Loony

    UK foreign policy and its arms sales policy are both wicked and immoral.

    It is however an absolutely necessary policy in order to maintain the US$ as the global reserve currency and to provide a modicum of economic stability to all US vassal states.

    Absolutely no-one is going to voluntarily abandon current arrangements. Anyone that actually shows any signs of doing so will be effectively quarantined and if necessary removed from any position of notional power. This has nothing whatsoever to do with domestic UK politics with the single exception that Jeremy Corbyn may actually believe that he can do something. All that Corbyn can do is trigger a sterling crisis and be removed from office in short order.

    If you don’t like things as they are then you have got to start consuming less – and a lot less.

    Only a fool would believe someone else can save them. No-one can make you consume things – so stop consuming garbage and stop buying things you neither need nor want.

    • Republicofscotland

      “Only a fool would believe someone else can save them. ”

      I’m sure those waiting on a major operation would disagree.

      “If you don’t like things as they are then you have got to start consuming less – and a lot less.”

      I doubt the average consumer buys armaments from the British government. Also Britain’s economy is based on consumerism, cut that out and we’ll be in a even worse state after Brexit.

      • Loony

        It is the sale of armaments that recycles the money some of which is given so you can purchase of all the garbage that you demand.

        Some more of the money is recycled into the public sector to provide the technology and the means to perform major operations.

        As income from armaments is insufficient for you demands – extra money is created for you. The only reason that the currency does not collapse under the weight of money printing is because some of the armaments are kept for ourselves. These armaments are used to kill anyone that questions the power of the US$. Think Saddam in Iraq who had the insane idea that he was going to sell oil for euros. Or think of the even more insane Ghadaffi who had the even crazier idea to back the Libyan currency with gold.

        As all of this is manifestly unsustainable your choice is simple – stop consuming as a matter of choice or be forced to stop consuming as a matter of necessity.

        Obviously this is all a waste of time as the consumption game will be played until the very end. You can blame the Tories or English domination all you want – but the ultimate responsible party is each one of us. We are each the architects of our own disaster.

          • Republicofscotland

            Stop buying stuff, that computer or tablet you’re commenting from, has innocent blood all over due to armaments sales, well according to Loony it is.

            Dont even think about buying a washing machine, just walk about with dirty clothes on, oh and sit on the floor, no suite or chairs for you. ?

          • Loony

            It does not matter who you vote for. The system functions more or less as I have described. Boats and tanks and planes are the only thing holding things together.

            No-one has any intention of stopping what is happening. It will end, when it ends.

            If you want the NHS and public services then you absolutely need to kill the foreign man in order to have them. Every single thing that any politician has promised you is only deliverable if you step up the killing. The people will demand more of everything. Such is the all pervading moral cowardice and absolute delusion that any mention of the truth will be met with howls of outrage and denial.

          • J

            Loony, some of your arguments are sound. One of many problems which arise from within them is your unerring instinct for siding with Tory policies whenever you express a preference and for solutions which make things worse through failing to oppose the worse option. Every single time.

            Ask yourself about your relentless insistence upon only one solution. Why only one? Is the world really that simple, really that reducible to your formula? For example if we address the machinery which encourages consumerism, interrupt it, regulate it and neuter it’s power, one might expect that alongside other strategies this might be welcomed. Not so according to you. You are at heart a particular kind of absolutist. Anyone not of the purest faith is simply not acceptable. You have more in common with your moment than you would like to admit and certainly more than you realise, if you are an honest broker.

            Is your mind really as free as you would have us believe?

          • Republicofscotland

            ” Every single thing that any politician has promised you is only deliverable if you step up the killing. ”

            So in Scotland free bus passes for pensioners are only available because a lot of brown people were slaughtered somewhere else.

            I suppose pensioners will never look at their travel pass the same way again.

            And I thought I had a fertile imagination. ?

        • Clark

          Loony, I agree in principle. It is, after all, the Military-Industrial Complex, and to the extent that we act as Consumers, we support it. Money can be thought of as growth hormones to the corporate system; each time we spend, our money sends the message “do more of whatever activities I just paid for”.

          I disagree with you here: – “…the ultimate responsible party is each one of us. We are each the architects of our own disaster”

          Firstly, many do not understand, because the “news” media itself is a corporate product, and therefore does little to inform them.

          Secondly, individual reduction of demand is inadequate in itself, because decreasing demand reduces the price, increasing the number who will buy. Reduction of supply is essential, but that requires political action.

          • Loony

            You are correct in that the news media is a corporate product and it is unreasonable to suppose that everyone will have sufficient time and energy to devote to discovering for themselves what is likely to be true.

            But even here you have people claiming to be either interested or informed or both and then moaning about the BBC. Just ignore it. It is so easy.

            Sure decreasing demand reduces the price – but there is no demand for gas lighting at any price. Just take a simple example: Look at the obesity epidemic – why should there be a demand for burgers and other junk food even if these products were available for free?

            In all probability there is no hope. There is definitely no hope available from any politician. If people cannot save themselves then they will perish.

        • John Cutts

          Stop consuming what? Food? Water? Energy? Land for housing? Public services? Where are you drawing the line on this non consumption argument? Because it sounds very similar to the Tory “live within your means” argument which neglects to say that some people’s means are more than others.

          I agree with your argument that any alternative to Capitalism (or even nationalism as you illustrate with the Middle East example) will eventually be stamped on by the US. But, as we are seeing with Syria, there are other powerful countries on the scene now. China is on its way to outstripping the US economically and the US daren’t mess with Russia militarily. As we are seeing with the BRIC countries, Chinese involvement in the development and growth in Africa, and the recent remarks of Merkel re a post Brexit and Tump governed US;

          In short, the US isn’t the force it was and the dream of a unipolar world they had just a decade ago is over.

          • Loony

            No – do not stop consuming food START consuming food and stop consuming junk and stop wasting food.

            You likely live in a country where there is plenty of water – so no problem, waste a little if it makes you feel better.

            Yes – radically reduce your consumption of energy. Were you alive in 1982?, do you know anyone that was alive in 1982? In 1982 there were 12 million cars in the UK. Today there are 44 million. Were people starving in 1982? Were there mass protests from people demanding almost 4 times as many cars? Were people having their life spans curtailed as a sole consequence of a lack of cars?

            Of course some peoples means are more than the means of others – when has this ever not been the case?

            Who cares what the Tories or the BBC say. They are mostly ignorant of mostly everything. They, and all other political parties, are merely mirrors that allow you to see yourselves. If you don’t like what you see then you need to change yourselves.

            You are correct the days of hegemonic US power are drawing to a close. Assuming that they do not incinerate the planet then US loss of global control will force you to change, whether you want to or not.

    • Clark

      Loony, good points. Western divide-and-rule policy against the Middle East is part of the global competition for the remaining reserves of hydrocarbon liquid fuel.

      Note; specifically liquid fuel, not energy in general. Liquid fuel is at the base of the industrial production pyramid; nothing can move without it. We have no viable alternative for mobile power as required for harvesting, ploughing, transport, and crucially, warfare.

      The fight over the Middle East will not end until sufficient infrastructure is built, to synthesize adequate quantities of liquid fuel.

  • Sharp Ears

    You should have heard Andrew Pierce (D Heil) followed by Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz with his special guest ‘Col’ Richard Kemp on LBC this morning. Where are Harold Pinter and Eric Blair?

    BBC shill/stooge Daniel Sandford was just quoting Tony Blair!!! on dealing with terrrrrrism 12 years back, followed by Frank ‘I was there’ Gardner on the BiBiCee just now.

    The defence of the ‘state’ on the airwaves, on the net and in the media is relentless.

    YCNMIU

    • Node

      …. followed by Frank ‘I was there’ Gardner on the BiBiCee just now.

      There was a peculiar thing on BBC 24 about 2am today. The news anchor in the studio was fielding various reports, speculations etc as they came in from journalists. At one point she said [from memory, something along the lines of] “Our security correspondent Frank Gardner has just phoned. He makes the point that this investigation is presently police-led, not intelligence-led, suggesting that the intelligence services had no prior knowledge of the attack.” She repeated this a few times over the next few minutes, then didn’t mention it again. She seemed to think (or perhaps Gardner had said) that it was unusual for the intelligence services not to lead the response from the outset due to having prior intelligence of an attack.

        • Node

          Yes, D_Majestic, it intrigued me. I wondered if Gardner had mentioned it to the news team as a bit of inside information, not intending it to be broadcast. Pure speculation on my part, no way of confirming it.

          My ‘quote’ may not be word-perfect but it conveys the gist. The phrase “police led, not intelligence-led” is verbatim.

  • Republicofscotland

    It’s kinda hard to slip you a note, or ring a bell, in here Trowbridge. ?

  • giyane

    I want to clarify the question about fasting in Ramadhan. Ramadhan is a holy month in which fighting is forbidden. Mecca is a holy place where fighting is prohibited in the Holy Mosque. But if you are attacked in the holy month in the Holy Mosque you have to defend yourself. Mrs May deliberately put the election in the middle of Ramadhan and has deliberately launched three false-flag attacks to denigrate the religion of Islam during the run-up to the election.
    I for one am not going to twiddle my thumbs while this stitch-up carries on. The UK has sponsored terrorism in Muslim countries for hundreds of years, in order to depict Islam as a religion of fanatical violence. The west has supported the Shia in Iraq, in Yemen, in the nuclear deal with Obama, to fan the flames of the Shi’a -Sunni conflict. Divide and rule, divide and rule, divide and rule.,,,,,,,,,,,

    • Ishmael

      Unless you can prove some of these thing they have little weight. Others?

      “The UK has sponsored terrorism in Muslim countries”, “Divide and rule” Yes.

      Most everyone on this blog knows history ok and can see what’s happing now. There is enough to condemn in the state just by what we know. You don’t strengthen points with things you can’t prove..

    • Resident Dissident

      Of course self proclaimed Muslims making accusations without a shred of evidence doesn’t denigrate Islam at all.

      • Node

        Of course self proclaimed Muslims ….

        All Muslims are self-proclaimed.
        You’re a self-proclaimed Labour supporter.
        Giyane talks and behaves like a Muslim.
        You, on the other hand ….

        • Resident Dissident

          And there was me thinking that false evidence was one of the highest sins in Islam, but apparently Node knows better.

        • Resident Dissident

          Also not true that all Muslims are self proclaimed – some Muslims believe that all people are born Muslim hence they can get them for apostasy if they deviate.

          • Node

            What nonsense. So you and I are Muslims because “some Muslims believe that all people are born Muslim.”

            You didn’t challenge was my implication that you’re very Tory for a ‘Labour supporter.’

    • Habbabkuk

      “I want to clarify the question about fasting in Ramadhan. Ramadhan is a holy month in which fighting is forbidden.”
      ______________________

      Thank you for that, I believe that sexual intercourse is also forbidden.

  • ben

    so many sharks jumped in the last few weeks.. im maxed out.. i feel like im in some perverse parody of the world..
    just amazing.
    and imagine how much froth would be billowing out from the pages of the mainstream press if a Labour MP had done this?

  • Aim Here

    The Hustings took place at St Mary’s Church in Rye on the 3rd of June. Beforehand, questions were to be sent to one Canon Richard Orchard (who looks nothing like the chairman), but the chairman may be St Mary’s rector, Canon David Frost, who has chaired other hustings organized by the same group – it’s somewhat hard to tell since he seems to have aged badly compared to the photos online of him, but this is the most recent photo I found – he’s on the left; if it’s him (and I’m still not wholly convinced), he’s grown his hair out.

    http://www.ryenews.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Raffle-blanket-e1481196133269-630×532.jpg

    • Aim Here

      In related news, while hunting for photos, I discovered that the local news website, Rye News, has been profiling all the local candidates – but one (and the last installment was titled ‘The Final Two’, so it’s not as if they’ve saved him for last). Guess which one – an independent standing on an anti-corruption platform – was dropped down the memory hole?

    • Aim Here

      Good find – a google image search suggests that Richard Jackson wasn’t the ultimate choice of chairman, though. He looks very different from the guy in the video.

  • El Deco

    https://youtu.be/86n5ePCAq9o

    Police calling govt liars on Sky for claiming extra officers on beat. More worryingly the chap in the interview states in the full version ( need to DL off Facebook and put on YouTube) that we were lucky the attacks happened in the cities they did as most of the UK armed response is threadbare.

    • J Galt

      Yes indeed – what luck.

      And the police response has been hailed as being amazingly rapid – almost as if they were waiting round the corner – which of course they weren’t.

      • Phil the ex-frog

        Alright then, let me spell it out:

        -May appoints Butler Sloss.
        -Butler Sloss protected paedophile Bishop Ball.
        -Ball’s successor protects Rudd at crucial election hustings.

        I know, I know. It’s nothing but a fucking jolly coincidence!

  • reel guid

    He’s taken a vow of silence.

    Not himself. Just any outspoken lefties.

  • Aurora

    I’ve posted comments in the Guardian (and Independent) on Saudi Arabia’s support for jihadi terrorism for years. They’ve always been deleted by moderators. The only other comments deleted with such verve are those referring to Murdoch’s business interests in the ME.

    It’s a huge area of state and media censorship in the UK, and completely creepy.

    • J

      Re Guardian most frequent ‘moderation’:

      1) Murdoch’s business interests in the ME

      2) Saudi Arabia’s support for jihadi terrorism

      Ditto for me.

    • laguerre

      “The only other comments deleted with such verve are those referring to Murdoch’s business interests in the ME.”

      Guardian moderation is capricious, but there are not many articles about Murdoch’s business interests in the ME. Anything about Israel is where you’ll get instantly moderated. To the extent that they never open articles about Israel to comments these days, only by mistake. So the readership never gets to express its bile about Zionism.

    • nevermind

      Hallo Ruth, good to hear from you.
      Do you think she has the brevity? We know she can deceive and go bust and come back from that, but she was crap as minister for the environment.
      I regard here as of toff bully with a loud voice.
      Clark is off course right, such intervention and denial opf speech and issue at a public husting is shameful for the church, just as it was rather sad that the Sacrister of Blackburn cathedral, well its quiet small, saw it fit to use violence and bullying to oust the first ever Muslim woman candidate for Blackburn, Bushra Irfan, from the podium next to all other candidates. Independent candidates are always attacked for standing up to the party politicians who think they own the election and demand that they feature in the result, voters are the more malleable part of the election.

      fear and loathing so often used by the catholic church has been thoroughly adapted, by adding a level cup full of marketing strategy, a smear of Australian ‘bitzer’ and hey presto, you can scare anyone to do what you like.

    • Republicofscotland

      Saudi money makes some people including companies in Britain, very very rich indeed, best not to mess with the Golden Goose.

      • laguerre

        The Golden Goose ain’t going to lay many more eggs. The Saudis are getting through their reserves at an alarming rate, since the decline in the oil price. I’m not sure they are able to pay for those hundreds of billions worth of contracts they signed with Trump. Their version of austerity didn’t work. They had to restore the salaries they tried to economise on (as no doubt proposed by their US advisors). Because, of course, it is only by paying people, that they can maintain loyalty to the Saudi state.

          • laguerre

            I’m afraid it’s true. I was talking about the Saudi state, not individual Saudi princes. Of course we’re not talking about immediate bankruptcy, but the present regime is committed to very expensive rather extreme policies, which mean they have to pay the Americans to protect them, which is why the contracts with Trump.

        • MJ

          “The Saudis are getting through their reserves at an alarming rate, since the decline in the oil price”

          The obvious response to which would be to cut production to force the price up. For many years SA’s oil production was substantially below capacity, which is why Russia can claim to be the world’s biggest exporter of oil though its reserves are much lower than SA’s.

          It deliberately raised production a couple of years ago in order perhaps to harm its competitors eg Russia. Its capacity for increased production means it can withstand the lower price and it appears not to have the appetite for reversing the policy.

          • Macky

            Forget these red-herrings about “Saudi sponsored terrorism” & Saudi “Golden Gooses” etc; more people are waking up to the fact that Saudi Arabia, just like Israel, is a subordinate tool of US/UK imperialism, which is not to say that they are not allowed some token “independentness”, but ultimately they obey when commanded to, as they know that their very existence is very much dependent on this servility. If the US/UK really wanted Saudi Arabia not to promote/fund terrorism, it would stop doing so overnight.

          • Shatnersrug

            The Saudi’s play the the West off the Chinese and the Russians – that’s the simple reason why they don’t get wiped off the face of the earth, and why we are constantly crawling up their butts, if we were to take them on WW3 would be in the offing.

  • Manda

    This and other evidence, articles and reports floating around the internet should be bringing huge pressure on the government if we lived in anything like a democracy and had a press and media holding the government to account on behalf of citizens.

    I wrote a post earlier asking a question on the lines of Clark’s comment at 13.45 but bottled out, here is my question anyway… are our governments, civil and security services or parts of them involved in some sort of de facto private profiteering protection racket around the world?

    • Clark

      “…are our governments, civil and security services or parts of them involved in some sort of de facto private profiteering protection racket around the world?”

      There is no monitoring to enforce accountability of countries’ secret services. Typically, secret services are even compartmentalised internally on the basis of “need to know”. It’s the ideal cover for crime; literally above the law.

      Until some international framework of oversight is developed and adopted, it is impossible to tell how much crime is hidden under the cloak of “national security”, but from the evidence of whistleblowers such as Sibel Edmonds, it seems to be highly significant, revolving around weapons and drugs.

  • Salford Lad

    The White Helmets are a pseudo Red Cross organsation and Propaganda arm of ISIS in Syria. The head man is James Le Mesurier ex British Army SAS. They are funded by various Western and Gulf States among them the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the UK Govt.
    How can Teresa May condemn Jihadi terrorists,when her Govt are funding them. Below extract info was secured thru; the ‘Freedom of Information Act’.
    http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/05/2…ruct-in-syria/
    John Pilger and Vanessa Beeley expose the White Helmets real role in Syria.

    The United Kingdom has provided support to Syria Civil Defence (also known
    as the White Helmets) through the cross-departmental Conflict Pool and its
    successor, the Conflict Stability and Security Fund. Our assistance has
    been delivered through trusted third party implementers. The total value
    of funds committed between June 2013 and the end of the current financial
    year (31 March 2016) is £19.7m. All funds are accounted for in line with
    HMG guidelines, including the receipt and review of quarterly financial
    reports.
    Our support to Syria Civil Defence is part of a coordinated international
    programme of assistance. It has helped to provide the Syrian-led
    organisation of over 2800 volunteers with much-needed training and
    equipment. As at February 2016, they have saved more than 50,000 lives
    and were nominated for the Nobel peace prize in both 2015 and 2016 in
    recognition of their efforts to alleviate the suffering of the Syrian
    people.

    Yours sincerely,

    On behalf of the

    Near East Department

    Foreign and Commonwealth Office

    • Loony

      Who cares what you can or cannot watch or listen to on the BBC.

      The BBC is a rotting edifice of corruption and irrelevance – made relevant by people like you, complaining about it. Just ignore it and it will go away.

      • Alcyone

        Loony, I like and appreciate the way you reconcile self-responsibility with economic and foreign policies and the range of stuff that lies in between. It is indeed provocative to engage the mind.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    Possible identity of hustings chairman: Canon David Frost, Rector of Rye?

    Google Image him and see what you think. J

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