A Sense of Proportion 133


The Establishment is fast losing its grip on the loyalty of the populace. That decline in the respect of the population for their masters has coincided with the rise of the importance of the internet and social media, and the corresponding decline in consumption of traditional print and broadcast news and current affairs media. It is a little more complicated than simple cause and effect – at precisely the same period the income gap in western society has opened out massively, and the palliative protections of the masses, particularly trade unions, have been rendered impotent. But the overall impact is that respect of the people for their “betters” is vanishing. Indeed, very few people would accept anybody in the political class as their “better” today.

There have been a number of Establishment reactions to this development. One is the cry of “Fake News” and desire to find excuses for censoring the internet and re-establishing control of the narrative. The “Fake News” alarm is perhaps too transparent a device to work in this respect, but they will keep mining away at the national security/paedophilia/terrorism excuses for ending this period of unprecedented freedom in mass communication.

Another device continuously deployed is for wealthy and/or powerful members of the Establishment to use identity politics to claim that they are themselves under attack. Hillary Clinton’s defeat is continually explained by her acolytes as due to “misogyny”. We had the entirely faked up story that the anger at Laura Kuenssberg for being blatantly anti-Corbyn was also misogyny. There is not a single Blairite female Labour MP who has not repeatedly claimed that political opposition from the left is conditioned by her gender.

Now we have a new meme, where MPs are complaining that their children are being verbally attacked at school. Now it is very wrong that any child is ever bullied or made unhappy. If Bob Stewart was telling the truth of his child facing adverse comment from a teacher, that is bad. But life is not without its troubles, even for children. I suffered some veiled taunts from one particular teacher about the fact my father was absent from the home. When I was going through my very high profile dispute with the Foreign Office, people said things to my children. Stuff happens – I don’t want any child to be unhappy, but MPs’ children have pretty charmed lives and manage to do often “surprisingly” well at getting their first job.

Today we have Hanna Flint in the Guardian apparently traumatised by a teacher asking her when she was 13 if her mum, Caroline Flint, would vote for the war in Iraq. Again I am sorry if that upset Hanna. No child should be upset. But there are hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children a very great deal more traumatised by having close family members blown to pieces in the Iraq conflict, thanks to the hardened and nasty right wing piece of work that is Caroline Flint. I imagine their trauma is rather worse. There are plenty of Iraqi children who got maimed themselves. There are plenty of Iraqi children who, unlike Hanna, never got the chance to grow up at all, thanks to Hanna’s warmongering mum. I am sorry for your childhood pain, Hanna, I really am. I hate to see any child unhappy. But forgive me if you are not first in line for my sympathy.

Remember, if your mum was not a Blairite MP, a young journalist as bland as you would be most unlikely to get an article published in the Guardian. See, its not all that bad. being in the Establishment.

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133 thoughts on “A Sense of Proportion

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  • Ba'al Zevul

    I blame the parents. I’m betting that the offspring of flamboyantly successful parents often suffer low self-esteem – which is invariably spotted by the nasty little bastards who have found that taunting someone else keeps the heat off their own inadequacy. It would be interesting to see whether MP-spawn are any less likely to do the bullying than anyone else, too, and I impatiently await evidence to that effect.

  • glenn_uk

    What is it with these powerful and connected snowflakes, that the first thing they do with a platform is whine about how they’ve got it _real_ hard compared with everyone else? Just trying to throw the heat about their massive privilege, perhaps?

    • Ba'al Zevul

      As a side-issue, how about the interconnected incestuousness of broadcasting, PR and politics? Which reached its culmination (to date) with Osborne’s new job.

      • glenn_uk

        It’s even more pronounced in the US *, where failed politicians – particularly those who became too corrupt/ insane/racist/ bigoted to do their job – get high-profile spots on far-right propaganda networks such as Murdoch’s GOP-TV, otherwise known as Fox. There are other examples, such as a pro-fascist Breitbart news, the lunatic wing’s Prison Planet with A. Jones, with notable contributions from The Blaze and so on and so forth.

        —-
        * It’s worth bearing in mind that no bad idea stays in the US. Typically within 5 years or so, it washes up on our shores with the same corrosive effects.

        • SA

          Glenn
          “* It’s worth bearing in mind that no bad idea stays in the US. Typically within 5 years or so, it washes up on our shores with the same corrosive effects.”

          The Americanisation of Britain is far ranging with introduction of CEOs for every manager, the use of terminology such as ‘marshals’ for any official, and the presidential style of electioneering amongst many others are reflections of what you say, it is insidious but well planned.

          • Shatnersrug

            It’s nothing new guys. See councils from all over the west go and meet up in conventions to discuss the newest ideas in planning, health and safety or whatever. The most interesting thing I’ve seen of late is European things like bike lanes and parking restrictions we’d all find familiar, showing up in Los Angeles – in fact they used the whole ‘think bike’ campaign wholesale.

            What has been marked in recent years is just how far *behind* the USA has fallen. Of course Cameron and May have ended that, and we’re heading back to lagging behind – although to lag behind the US these days is to be third world. The country is an absolute shambols as the myth of the free market combined with the outrageous wealth that it’s possible for elite to accumulate has sealed the fate. Of course most of it our be reversed tomorrow if there was the political will, however that would mean a politician that avoided assassination.

          • J

            The book itself is pure American imperial propaganda dressed up as pragmatism. Interestingly sparse information on Horace Markley the publisher, while it’s author W T Stead is credited with having virtually invented the tabloids and agitating for “government by Journalism” before his death on board the Titanic. I’ve never heard of either.

            Thanks for the tip.

  • Nigel Stapley

    “There is not a single Blairite female Labour MP who has not repeatedly claimed that political opposition from the left is not conditioned by her gender.”

    There seems to be a ‘not’ too many in that sentence, Craig (the last one).

    And you’re right about HRC’s groupies on the neo-liberal side. I recommend Jeffrey St. Clair’s excoriating review of her wretched new book: https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/15/hillary-happened/

  • joel

    One of the major reasons for the loss of respect for the British establishment in recent times is surely its own use of blatantly “fake news”.

    Two of the most damaging lies of recent times, ones that have had disastrous repercussions at home and abroad, were invented and spread by Britain’s establishment media and its political class:

    * Firstly, the lie that the giant deficit in UK public finances was caused by New Labour’s social spending, rather than its taxpayer bailout of toxic banks. Only constant repetition of – or failure to challenge – this lie enabled the Tories and lib Dems to force Britain’s poor and disabled to atone for the sins of its richest.

    * Secondly, the lies that resulted in Iraq and Libya being reduced to Mad Max dystopias, birthing Isis and a biblical refugee crisis.

    And these lies are just small beer compared to the meta-lie / propaganda that the establishment has been pumping out for a generation: that there is no alternative to the neoliberal economic agenda that’s been instituted across the world since the 1980s.

    And yet these people have the brass neck to accuse others of spreading dangerous “fake news” ..

    • geoff

      Joel,
      with regards to the bank bailout – read a few books on why the banks had to be bailed out and see if you still agree with yourself afterwards

      • joel

        Don’t think you understood my comment, geoff. It has nothing to do with whether the banks ought to have been bailed out.

      • Shatnersrug

        Geoff, don’t be silly.Browns belief monetarism and deregulation undoubtedly contributed to the crash. Labours spending did not.

        • AliB

          Thatcher / Tories deregulated. Tories wanted even less oversight / regulation.
          Labour whenever in office, including during their last stint, pay off more of the national debt than Tories ever do. Tories consistently trash all public services meaning Labour is always faced with the need for massive investment. The end of the current Tory regime will be the worst ever, and its probable that with the many outsourced contracts lasting 10 years that Labour will be unable to undo the dreadful harm the Tories are causing to all except the top 10%. Kiss goodbye to the NHS, Hunt’s plan is almost complete.

          • Shatnersrug

            What annoys me is the Tories know labour will renationalise and they know that whoever gets the services will ultimately win again when its renationalised. There really must be prison sentences for current government ministers, this uncivilised Tory behaviour belongs in the past not in the 21st century, we should be well on the way to feeding the entitled world population and finding sustainable AND kind solutions to the problems we face now, not playing these childish and suicidal 19th century geopolitical war games.

            Rudd should be one of the first behind bars after this

            https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/18/samim-bigzad-asylum-seeker-deported-illegally-to-afghanistan-is-returned-to-uk

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Shatnersrug September 18, 2017 at 23:26
            ‘…not playing these childish and suicidal 19th century geopolitical war games…’
            Didn’t you mean ‘…genocidal 19th century geopolitical war games…’?
            Millions have died because of the series of illegal wars, ‘Crimes Against Peace’, ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ and ‘War crimes’ unleashed after 9/11.
            And there is no end in sight (unless and until Jeremy Corbyn becomes PM).

    • SA

      The lie about the banks was the lesser of two evils to accept for Brown and the Blairite Remnants. The truth , that the banks failed as a consequence of practicing Ponzi schemes under the watchful eyes of Blair and Brown with their full endorsement of neoliberal deregulation is the real scandal here. People then wanted to blame socialism rather than red toothed cheating capitalism for the failure and Brown didn’t to admit his incompetence as as a fully fledged capitalist.

  • reel guid

    The Establishment’s David Mundell tells us that not all repatriated powers from Brussels will go to Holyrood. By “not all” of course he means hardly any. He then tells us that the call for a second independence referendum should be detached from Brexit. By which he means of course that it’s not the place of Scots to do joined up political thinking.

    All this against the background of the news that Scotland’s farmers are set to lose £2 billion of EU funding.

    Mundell’s sole loyalty is to his masters and confederates at Westminster. He has zero loyalty to his fellow Scots. That disrespect is surely returned in full measure by the great majority of the people.

  • giyane

    It’s extremely unnatural for unknown people to be able to enter your car, your sitting room , your bedroom and listen to what you are saying in private to your immediate family. If I am prepared to accept this, why don’t I just live in an ocean? The trouble is they want this bugging to be one-way. They don’t want us to be able to bug them. They are the ones who sucked small children into the loop and they are the ones who are going to have to change, if they want to re-earn any respect from the general population.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    I went to school in the 1970’s and 1980’s – the Thatcher years – when both my parents were members of the Communist Party of Great Britain. You can imagine the stick I took off middle-class kids of Tory-voting parents. So fucking what? I haven’t whined about it since. Incidentally, it it’s true, I think the treatment of Hanna Flint and of Bob Stewart’s children is deplorable. It’s not their fault who their parents are. J

    • JOML

      Aye, John – I got a regular kicking from older guys for a while, purely because my father was a teacher in the school – perhaps that’s why I’m not a journalist!

      • John Spencer-Davis

        I’m sorry to hear it. I hate the idea of any child being bullied, especially by teachers who should know better – in fact should be seriously disciplined. However, not everyone has a nationwide forum to complain about it.

        • glenn_uk

          The worst bullies by far in one of the schools I attended were the teachers. Utter psychopaths. It wasn’t until I got there (first couple of years in the comprehensive system) that I encountered people – adults – who were without question completely insane.

  • giyane

    From the perspective of the elite, by which I mean those who are currently selling their souls to the devil and sacrificing all human principles by raging war against nearby populations and universal spying, they see no distinction between a person who are picketing the NWO by committing their opinions to the virtual paper of a tweet and someone who is exposing their fake news i.e. lobbing clogs into their propaganda news machine.

    Most people don’t comment for fear of being mistaken for trouble-makers. If they don’t speak, they will not vote, so they become accessories to the NWO status quo. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an Iraqi or Libyan whose country has been destroyed by the laissez-faire of the UK electorate, to see no alternative to setting bits of our society ablaze in the underground. We are the people who elect the NWO politicians so if we continue to bury our heads in the sand, we are responsible for the backlash of terrorism.

    The NWO, using the sledgehammer to crack a nut, the universal spying machine, has pulped all political opinion. When Jeremy Corbyn stands up and tells us how it is, it’s like eating real food compared with flavoured soya dumplings. The politicians have been pulped by the powers that be, and we have been pulped as well. the only remedy in this situation will eventually be violent revolution. Individual members of the elite being identified and guillotined, followed by the huge armies of those who condoned , assisted or supported them.

    The citizens of the EU are going to revolt because there is no vent for opposition, but before that the UK will self-destruct like the Grenfell Tower as the result of decades of corporate manslaughter wrong decisions.

    • SA

      Giyane

      ” I don’t think it’s unreasonable for an Iraqi or Libyan whose country has been destroyed by the laissez-faire of the UK electorate, to see no alternative to setting bits of our society ablaze in the underground. ”

      This is a bit awkwardly put and would cause a lot of aggro if posted in other forums. Firstly this sort of futile reaction gives more reasons for warmongers to retaliate by invading even more countries. Secondly, often these actions are irrational and carried out by deluded people and in many cases not even those whose countries are being destroyed. Thirdly these actions create and foster xenophobia. Fourthly they play into the hands of those who say “they hate us for our values”. Fifthly they obscure the connection between the fact that these terrorists are a result in some cases of the encouragement by our countries of terrorism in other countries, with a sort of blowback.

  • Sharp Ears

    Hanna Flint is actually Hanna Zammel, Flint’s first husband being Saief Zammel. The second is Phil Cole. employed by us, the idiot taxpayers, as Caroline Flint’s office manager. He is just one of many such relatives of MPs employed in the HoC. The whole system is rotten.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Flint

    What does Hanna think of her mother’s membership of LFoI and her support for that little borderless state that knows no law?
    https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10202

  • willyrobinson

    Here in Spain the government bailed out the banks, and then the banks bailed out the press. The result is you get a pretty shocking whitewash that pervades every area of journalism, not just the Catalan question.

  • giyane

    The Middle East faces yet another war as ex-President Barzani is seeking a May-like popularity referendum over Kurdish independence from Baghdad. He has no mandate,and his term has expired after sitting on power for 25 years and embezzling the entire oil wealth of Kurdistan for his family and the likes of Tony Blair and David Cameron. Nobody has been paid for years on end in Kurdistan. Now he calls a referendum over the city of Kirkuk, which he appropriated while Baghdad was caught off guard by Islamic State. Islamic State was signed for by the leader of the CIA’s Islamic groups in Kurdistan, + Barzani’s brother, + in absentia William Hague, + USA and Israel at a meeting in Amman. After that they left their Saudi/Israeli training camps in Jordan, picked up a fleet of Toyota 4 x 4’s supplied by Turkey and went to Mosul where the Iraqi army chief had been bribed by Saudi Arabia to command his troops to run away, leaving their new US weaponry for Daesh.

    Now Baghdad wants Kirkuk back and Barzani has not paid any of his Peshmerga who fought the Islamic State for the safety of the whole of Iraq.
    Are they going to fight for Kurdish ownership of Kirkuk when Barzani has given all the proceeds to USUKIS corrupt politician sitting in safety in Europe? I don’t think so. But Barzani thinks they are stupid enough to fall for. Whay does Islam say about that? Islam says Satan ( the corrupt eavesdropping thievers of wealth) is your enemy, so take him as your enemy. The first rule of government is to pay your army. No army in the world, (especially Islamic State ) will fight unpaid, un-respected, unthanked.

    Barzani pumps out the patriotic Kurdish tunes and propaganda as he draws the Kurdish into yet another war on 27 September. If your leader is Satan, treat him as Satan. Kick him out, like Cameron Blair and Thatcher before him. Good riddance.

    Any politician that devastates the lives of the innocent to oil wealth in their filthy pockets deserves our total disrespect. Cameron sits in his posh gypsy caravan while families in Libya, Iraq and Syria endure terrible conditions, a million times worse than the former depradations of the British Empire. Anyone who supports them deserves our undying disrespect.

    • Laguerre

      I dunno, but I doubt that that the Kurdish referendum is going to have much effect. It’s more like an expression of nationalism, much like Catalonia.

      The basic fact is that KRG, that is the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq, is bankrupt, and hasn’t paid its employees for ages (as indeed you say). Including the Peshmerga, but they have been saved by the US agreeing to pay their salaries, if they took part in the attack on Mosul, which they did, but not enter the city, thus avoiding casualties.

      The problem of Kurdistan is like that of Israel: where are the borders? The territory of KRG could be agreed, but they always want more. First Kirkuk, where the population is shared, then all Iraq north of Mosul. It’s not surprising that this expansionism is resisted. If they’d limited themselves to the territory of KRG, they could have got it through. As it is, Baghdad has turned against the referendum, which I thought they might accept.

      • giyane

        Bankrupt on one billion dollars a month? there must be some small change for Kurdistan after Cameron, Erdogan and Blair’s cut. Tell Craig. I’m looking for a healthy return on my crowd-funding investment.

        • Laguerre

          There’s a limit to what you can do in the way of corruption, so bankrupt, yes. If you don’t pay your army, they’re not going to be very willing to defend you (only the Tory party doesn’t understand this rule). The production of the Kirkuk oil-field is very low, and the others they talked about have never been developed. Billion dollars a month? dunno, but it sounds a lot, and the Kurds are well known for going OTT exaggerating their position.

      • SA

        Laguerre
        ‘The problem of Kurdistan is like that of Israel: where are the borders? ”

        Not the only similarity but the aim is the same. In this context the activities of the YPG under the SDF supported by the US in eastern Syria is a case in point. After the SAA lifted the seige of Dier Ezzor, the SDF has duffle decided also to fight Daesh in the same are, the underlying motive is thought to be to prevent the the Syrian Government from reaching the Iraqi border and a land grab for the oil rich region in south eastern Dier Ezzor.

  • Sharp Ears

    Seven years after cosying up with Cameron, Cleggover comes out with this today. His own record is indefensible, .such as shafting the NHS with the Health and Social Care Act in 2012 for instance.

    Working with David Cameron was like ‘being stuck in a cage with a demented gorilla’, says Nick Clegg
    The ex-Lib Dem leader said the former PM was pulled to the right by “loopy” elements of his party, like Jacob Rees-Mogg
    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/working-david-cameron-like-being-11197158

    • giyane

      It was Clegg who pulled on the gorilla suit to try and mix in with the Nasty Party. There are enough mad Old Etonians around for him to know what they were like before stepping into the cage. Did he think the dominant adult male was an imposter like him? No he’s even more dangerous than back-biter Boris. The stunt went wrong and the gorillas are still in charge, all because he lent them his support.

  • Bert

    Hanna Flint makes me wanna puke.

    She is traumatised by being asked whether her mother will vote in favour of war with Iraq. REALLY!

    I have had my life wrecked by the violence of a teacher and I am more likely to be attacked for it than even understood. This is most particularly on my mind at the moment.

    As a six-year-old a FEMALE teacher took a swipe at me knocking me to the floor; the desk came down on top of me; she then lifted the desk and brought it down on my leg.She then started kicking me and screaming for me to get up; I crawled to the back of the classroom (unsurprisingly terrified); she came to back of the classroom; grabbed me by the hair and dragged me back to where my desk was. Having got me seated again she realised she had gone over the top and covered her ass by calling the head master into the room and – pointing me out – announced: “That one has been throwing himself against the desks.” I sat in my chair crying and thinking ‘how can I stop this.’ I grew up with a phobia of lies.

    I could, of course, grind on endlessly about all the lies I am subject to but that is not my point. My point here is that when recently I objected to the barbaric terrorism of a capitalist organisation called FORTEM I had a sick two-faced feminazi: Jayne Price, tell me that outlining this childhood event as I have here constitutes antisocial behaviour and I have been censured by Birmingham City (unsurprisingly the same Birmingham City responsible for the teacher) Housing Department for this and another feminiazi::Michelle Lewis, has announced that my letter was offensive and antisocial. REALLY! In this city it is okay to abuse little children rather more seriously than in the case of Hanna Flint – but for anyone who dares report the vileness of the teacher and the consequences thereof, is attacked and sanctioned.

    In spite of the fact that I have challenged these people to take me to court if they think they have a case they do not do so… I would argue that this is because they want to impose their feminazi judgements while not having to substantiate any of it.

    Over the last thirty years I have repeatedly asked West Midlands Police Force to deal with the teacher and they refuse refuse refuse. The last time I got a letter from an Insp. Eyeles; she announced that there was evidential loss. REALLY. So the other thirty children in the room constitute evidential loss! Also, I have recently found this:

    “Given that the onset of reliable memory for childhood events in adults may reach back to three or fur years of age, this implied that a higher percentage of adult criminal psychopaths actually experienced significant abuse earlier than that.”
    [Fallon. J. (2014) /The Psychopath Inside./ London. Current. [p. 91.]]

    Thirty witnesses is, so far as West Midlands Police Force are concerned, evidential loss. What is really behind that – as with other such cases – is simply holding back the flood gates. If one of us wins, the gates are open and Birmingham Education Authority would be buried under an avalanche of compensation claims. So each and every one of us has to be sacrificed to protect the pockets of Birmingham City Council. I have been demanding massive compensation of over thirty years and have been rebuffed at every turn… Oh but if it is the poor little Hanna Flint then suddenly she is traumatised by a question that perhaps made her uncomfortable; while so many of us (and I could tell you plenty of stories like mine (but I can only publish what I personally know to be true)) can have our lives flushed down the toilet to serve the greedy financial interests of Birmingham City Council and – I do not doubt for a moment – other local authorities in the UK also.

    I can’t say I have much sympathy for Hanna Flint; but I am outraged at the two-faced hypocritical double standards that refuse me (and others like me) but pander to this nothing little &^%&%.

    Bert.

    • giyane

      On the other hand truth-seeking is a great gift. Maybe you touched a raw nerve in the adult teacher quite unintentionally and she was unable to cope with the package of lies in her head being disturbed.
      I am curious how explosive some people become when God is mentioned. For some here on this blog the mere mention is something between an rpg and a hand-grenade.

      It seems as though your continuing to speak the truth to people who are paid to suppress it is setting off fireworks. Sometimes people unconsciously re-create situations so that they can re-live the pain while as an adult being able to be in control. Strange therapy, but the inner life is strange. As a child the consciousness is fully formed from birth, but loss of control is very traumatic. .i was astonished to read the other day that many people do not think babies have feelings or experience pain. What? Have they ever been introduced to one?

      Anyway, I know a very kind female counsellor in Moseley. Emotional help and understanding is probably worth more than financial compensation, because if you manage to let go of some of that pain, you might be able to do many other things locked down inside there with it.

      Birmingham city Council is not institutionally uncaring. It has done a lot for equal opportunities. So many nationalities co-exist which are at war in their countries of origin.. But there are some very ignorant people around.

      • Bert.

        Your comment covers several grounds most of which I understand and could agree with.

        Of course it is a problem when people are paid to fix things the way the establishment want it. I have been fighting that for decades.

        As for therapy, tried that years ago. There is several key problems: most therapies do not work; and, since this comes back to a phobia of lies the only valid solution is to deal with the wrong-doers. I have spent the last 38 years living with a ranting law and order government who then do not want to apply law and order on my behalf. All I see is more lies, more lies, and more lies. It just gets worse while the only logically consist response is to start enforcing the law against the criminals. I have literally sat watching the television trembling because thatcher was banging on about law and order but looking the other way whenever it is an inconvenience; or, she would bang on about terrorism while I was sat there trembling thanks to er terrorism.

        But, all those is not really for this blog. My original point was to highlight the hypocrisy of the media who will ignore me while pandering to the likes of Hanna Flint. But then there are those so much worse of than myself: the estimated 4,000,000 lost across the fertile crescent thanks to the illegal wars of bush and bliar. I few weeks ago I read Shashi Tharoor’s /Inglorious Empire/ referring to 35,000,000 who were left to starve in India so that the capitalists could make more money. Reminiscent of the Irish potato famine.

        Those on top commit atrocities far beyond any petty pilfering committed by the working class yet all the cops do is hound the working class and look the other way whenever it is the capitalist establishment.

        Bert.

    • Muscleguy

      Bert, what happened to you was terrible and shouldn’t have happened. But it might not have seemed so terrible to the other children in the class leading to their not remembering it in actuality. Life is like that, events which we as individuals remember with great clarity and made big impressions on us made no or smaller impressions on others. I’ve realised this talking to my sisters about our youth together and to my wife about events early in our marriage.

      I’m one of those with strong early memories from about 3 or possibly before. I have a generally very good memory. In terms of pictures it is outstanding. I remember others in the class being strapped by the teacher (on the hand) as was the de rigeur punishment for minor infringements at the time and place. I was never strapped and would be hard put indeed to confirm WHICH of my classmates was strapped by Mr Murray.

      I’m quite sure most of them remember, but because it didn’t happen to me and they weren’t strapped with me for joint enterprise my excellent memory fails me on that point.

      So I can understand if evidential veracity is lacking in your case.

      Again, I am not doubting the trauma of your memory, just stating that most others would have been head down hoping the same wasn’t going to happen to them. Not burning the identity of who it happened to, that time. Sorry.

      • Bert.

        I appreciate entirely your point. Key here is that the cops do not even try. I only need one to confirm; two would be nice three would be more than sufficient. 10% that is all. When you say they might have had their heads down hoping it would not happen to them… that is very much the point. One friend of mine has actually suggested that teacher did this to me in order to teacher the others what might come of them if they step out of line. But that would depend upon them remembering.

        Also, it is notable that the cops will not even take contemporary cases where the evidence of other children should be very fresh in their minds. For example this story which I heard over three decades ago:

        I heard another interesting story in 1983. A young girl, about 13 years old, needed an operation for her ear. The operation consisted of the insertion of a piece of plastic to correct the hearing loss. The operation was performed and after a few weeks off school the young girl returned to classes. Fine, she still had her head bandaged but that was no problem. A teacher decided to use a blackboard rule on the girl’s head. Would you believe it? This prat of a teacher took a piece of wood about four feet long and three inches across and some three eighths of an inch thick and swipes the girl with it. It should be horrifying enough that this should even be contemplated yet this prat of a teacher took a broadside at the girl’s head! Not surprisingly the girl was shattered, she was pouring blood from her ear and all down her face; the piece of plastic was dislodged; the girl sat there, in the classroom, in absolute terror crying and bleeding until the lesson was over. And, if this were not enough, the f***ing teacher did nothing about it—just carried on with the lesson. The girl’s mother, not surprisingly, was furious and went up the wall; then she went down to the school; then she went up the wall again; tore the teacher to pieces and, would you believe—she got prosecuted!

        Other teachers, who were in the school turned up, did the usual outrage and indignation routine, threatened her with prosecution, and of course, backed up their mate the teacher.

        What happened to the teacher? Bugger all. The teacher was suspended on full pay while the matter was looked into. In other words, the sickness of Birmingham Education Authority gives the teacher a paid holiday for having brutalised a child. That is what happened to the teacher. What happened to the girl? Well she was expected to go back to school—she ended up terrified and timid—and she lost her hearing in that ear permanently. The teacher suffered a couple of bumps and a modest blow to the ego for which the mother was prosecuted. I think the crime of the teacher against the girl was far more grave but the fascist bastard teacher goes free while the mother does 28 days in clink. She was, at least, a good mother—she showed her daughter that prison or no prison she would try to protect her child. While the psychopaths of the legal system in their infinite ignorance proved what an abusive, violent and sickening regime it is. The girl having been brutalised by the teacher is then further brutalised by making it clear to her that the consequences of her action—telling the truth about the violence of the teacher—has resulted in the imprisonment of her mother and then further brutalises the girl by expecting her to return to the classroom. Now the girl has been taught well and truly that she must suffer whatever sick and twisted violence and abuse the diseased perverts of pedagogy see fit to dish out because if she doesn’t then either her mother will have to do nothing about it or the fascists of the establishment will brutalise her mother again and again for any attempt she makes to protect her own daughter.

        So, when the evidence is very frsh the cops make a point of taking two very different approaches to the two crimes: the mother, whose crime is obviously much less serious and carries far more mitigation, is hammered; the teacher, whose crime is plainly teh more serious and lacks any substantial mitigation, the cops look the other way.

        Bert.

  • FranzB

    “There are plenty of Iraqi children who, unlike Hanna, never got the chance to grow up at all, thanks to Hanna’s warmongering mum.”

    Around that point, I’ve just watched a Studio Ghibli film ‘Grave of the Fireflies’, set in Japan in the final months of the second world war. The film depicts the fate of two children, one a boy about 12 and one a girl about 3, after a U.S. firebombing raid destroys the district they live in and their mother is killed. The father is in the navy. The film was made in 1988 and is directed by Isao Takahata.

    I think it’s the first film I’ve seen that depicts the suffering of Japanese civilians during WW2.

    This ties in with CM’s point about the Internet undermining authority. I only know about the film through IMDB. Studio Ghibli don’t put it on their trailer reel. The film might be available on streaming, but I got it through the post.

    I wonder if we’ll get a film about the destruction in Iraq any time soon.

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

  • Laguerre

    Actually, I rather agree with Craig. If Britain were more like France, revolution would be in the air. But it isn’t, because the British are stoic, and accept what comes. In this case, it leaves the far right the freedom to do what they want.

  • CameronB Brodie

    As a bursary kid at a fee-paying school, my formative years were shaped by an insidious snobbery at school and a barely hidden, skeptical mistrust outside school (in the schemes). I’ve been homeless and I’ve run my own business. I am a Scot living in an increasingly right-wing, English dominated UK that is hostile to others. I’m also considered disabled as a result of a sever traumatic brain injury. In my book, you either deal with stuff or you don’t.

    Saying that, I’m still mortified that Scots are not genetically programmed to make political decisions, allegedly. Perhaps BLiS___d have addressed such racist opinion within their senior ranks? Perhaps not?

    • CameronB Brodie

      I should have pointed out I obtained a BSc and ran a businesses for ten years, after sustaining injuries that less than 5% recover from and re-gain any form of employment.

      Perhaps Hanna Flint needs some ‘real world’ experience?

  • Tom

    Being in the public eye and making decisions that can damage or even end people’s lives should never be for the faint-hearted.
    If Ms Flint is unable to resolve family problems such as her daughter being teased at school, she is not fit to be an MP. She should resign and make way for someone who understands that there is high personal price of public life and it is not just another career choice.

    • Loony

      Sounds good to me – what is needed are more psychopathic people in positions of power. A good test would be how willing they are to sacrifice the welfare of their own children in pursuit of their own power crazed ambitions. It is a racing certainty that if they will sacrifice their own children then they will most certainly sacrifice other peoples children.

      Good to see you acting as a cheerleader in the great race to all out barbarism.

  • nevermind

    Thanks Craig, Bert and Franz B for the powerful points made.

    This disaffection with a system is happening all over Europe, in multiples and for different reasons, the establishment can’t hide and pretend anymore…( the people have seen that the King wears no cloth)… that any of the environmental/ economic mayhem, denuding forests, a shut-eye to human rights violations, Yemen and Rakhine state for example, as well as Spanish repression of Catalonia’s right to self determination here in Europe, emotional cauldrons, then there sis corporate tax evasion, a la Grande, the arms trade and resulting chaos and wars and immense suffering today, all this has absolutely nothing to do with them or their fat bank balance in the BRITISH Virgin Islands, hallo plc politicians and sod aller’s.
    Oh yes it has….

    That said, my heart goes out to the already hurt and hit, about to be pummelled by another powerful hurricane/storm.

    • giyane

      My daughter has been allowed to talk with her mum on an army phone but being a Brit cuts no ice in the British virgin Islands. It looks as though their chances of getting away before the next hurricane comes are slim. I may be wrong.

  • jeremy

    Off topic – but share widely.
    Same stuff happens here in the UK.

    “Defending the Indefensible – The Occupation of the American Mind ”
    Video Documentary

    “This is a film that demands to be seen. It shows, with devastating precision, how effective propaganda can hide crimes that are epic in scale and have catastrophic consequences. Please see this film, hire it, screen it, talk about it.” – Ken Loach

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/47823.htm

  • Sharp Ears

    In reply to SA I put up some links about Sovereign Strategy, a PR outfit.

    Found this. Flint is a piece of work is she not?

    Labour’s Flint sparks concerns over lobbying donation firm’s Maximus links
    AUGUST 7, 2015

    A contender to be Labour’s next deputy leader – a former welfare reform minister – has been forced to defend her decision to accept donations from a lobbying firm used by the controversial company that tests disabled people’s “fitness for work”.

    Caroline Flint (pictured), the MP for Don Valley, is benefiting from a former member of staff from Sovereign Strategy working on her campaign – a donation worth £8,000 – and the use of a room in Sovereign’s London offices.

    Sovereign, which provides companies such as Formula One and Bloomberg with help in “navigating public life”, is owned by the former Labour MEP Alan Donnelly.

    The donations to Flint’s campaign have been declared properly in the parliamentary Register of Members’ Financial Interests, but the entry does not mention – and does not need to mention – that another of Sovereign’s key clients is the US outsourcing giant Maximus.

    Maximus has a lengthy record of discrimination, incompetence and alleged fraud in the US and has also been linked with allegations of exploitation and manipulation of government contracts within the Australian welfare-to-work industry.

    The company has a huge chunk of Department for Work and Pensions disability contracts, including the contract to carry out the work capability assessment (WCA).’

    /..

    https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/labours-flint-sparks-concerns-over-lobbying-donation-firms-maximus-links/

    Remembering Ken Loach’s brilliant film, I, Daniel Blake.

    • giyane

      Well found Sharp Ears. I wondered what all those entries from PR companies was about.
      I’m afraid I find that completely outrageous. We had a Welfare State which was designed to protect the weakest in society and the person who wants to represent us for the Opposition in Parliament accepts funds from the Tory institutions what want to close it down for dogmatic Conservative reasons.

      My relationship with my GP has broken down because his phone goes through a 10 minute cycle of answerphone garbage before putting you through to reception, and when you get to reception with a simple request for a vaccine for Weils disease, the Practise manager tells you it is not available because you work through a limited company, and you are responsible for your own occupational health. No advice is given as to where you can find the service you need. in effect it costs the GP money and he doesn’t give damn about your personal health.

  • Sharp Ears

    PM and Johnson park up at UN after ‘back-seat driver’ Brexit row
    The pair have no formal meeting scheduled but are expected to attend a reception for Commonwealth leaders in the evening.
    http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/uk/pm-and-johnson-park-up-at-un-after-backseat-driver-brexit-row-36146794.html

    I can’t see any notice being taken of her at the UN.

    I see she did her bit for the war propaganda machine. Our brave boys etc

    UK Prime Minister‏@Number10gov · 2 hours ago
    PM and @JustinTrudeau attended a wheelchair basketball event with @WeAreInvictus athletes from the UK & Canada during her visit to Canada.

    So London>Ottawa>Toronto>New York>London and then London>Florence later. What a waste of fossil fuel and time which could be better spent sorting out this country

    • giyane

      It’s not a waste of fossil fuel if the PM and Boris are feeling lonely and politically isolated before next weeks party conference, at which they will both be vigourously thrown out. travel broadens the mind but with May and Johnson we are starting from a very low base.

      • Sharp Ears

        O’Brien on LBC was saying that Boris is begging to be sacked byTheresa. He would lose face if he was to resign.

        • Sharp Ears

          Dept for Exiting the EU. More rearrangement of deckchairs.

          Top Brexit official Oliver Robbins moves to No 10
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41308081

          ‘Who is Oliver Robbins?

          He cut his teeth at Gordon Brown’s Treasury, helping to co-ordinate public spending policy, before going on to serve in senior behind-the-scenes roles for both Tony Blair and Mr Brown in Downing Street. By civil service standards, his rise was meteoric – he was Mr Blair’s principal private secretary by the age of 31.

          He gained a reputation for being a skilled mediator in the frequent disputes between No 10 and the Treasury.

          After a spell as director of the civil service and as David Cameron’s deputy national security adviser, Robbins became the senior civil servant in charge of immigration policy at Theresa May’s Home Office.

          When Mrs May became prime minister she drafted Robbins in as her senior EU adviser.’

          On Bloomberg March 2017
          ‘Oliver Robbins, 41
          Permanent Secretary at Department for Exiting the EU

          An Oxford graduate in Philosophy, Politics and Economics — the classic calling card in the U.K. for a career in the civil service — Robbins went straight into government. He started under then Conservative Prime Minister John Major, a vocal opponent of Brexit, and rose rapidly through the ranks, earning praise as one of the “stars of Whitehall.” His fans say experience gleaned over nearly two decades in both the Treasury and 10 Downing Street, the prime minister’s office, makes Robbins particularly well-suited for the daunting negotiations ahead.
          Critics say he has no European experience per se and point to some unflattering headlines. Photos of Prime Minister Theresa May at an EU summit in Malta showed him carrying her handbag, something he was ridiculed for in media coverage back home. More seriously, he was kicked out of a parliamentary committee after only 20 minutes during a year-long stint as Home Office Second Permanent Secretary for giving “unsatisfactory” replies to questions about budget cuts, and was threatened with contempt. May intervened to defuse the row, a testament to his standing with her. He has a Twitter handle but has only sent one tweet. @OllyRobbins’

          https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-29/these-people-you-ve-never-heard-of-will-be-negotiating-brexit

  • DtP

    Social media has been a great development but it seems to me that it’s coincided with the BBC and Sky being total shite. The way they treated the US elections was if it was a done deal and that was from months before until the very night. They screwed up May’s election – what on earth is the point of listening to these chumps when you may as well turn off the Telly and wander down the boozer for better analysis?

  • Sue Robins

    Would you believe it, somehow this concocted children of Blairite survivors meme mirrors another similar hoax narrative !! A timely nip in the bud by an ever prescient CM (And surely us 99% are not going to vote in Bojo in the upcoming election after his 350m pw defensive jab at deflecting David Davis from stealing the Brexit limelight).

  • giyane

    My remedy for liars is to reverse their statement: ‘ Hanna Flint was NOT traumatised by a teacher asking her when she was 13 if her mum, Caroline Flint, would vote for the war in Iraq.’ But she did learn the art of exaggerating i.e.lying for manipulative effect. In a word, viper offspring are , well, hum, baby vipers. Well taught.

    • Tony_0pmoc

      giyane,

      I tend to have a good memory for what people say, and their previous and subsequent actions, such that I tend to mentally label them a liar when what I know of the evidence of their actions does not conform to what they said. I then try to avoid them, and subsequently not trust what they say.

      I thought, I was reasonably good at detecting a liar, not just by evidence, but also by emotional and facial reactions (like blushing).

      However, I have subsequently realised, that sometimes, I have completely misjudged a person, and for over 95% of the time, they were actually telling me the truth, when I hadn’t trusted them.

      Even worse from my perception of me, but enhancing my perception of them, was my realisation, that when they were lying, it was not just for their own protection from the truth, but they were lying to protect my wife and I too.

      Anyone who states they have never told a lie is a liar, and not to be trusted.

      However, I ‘m crap at it.

      Meanwhile, whilst typing this, two people knocked on my door and invited us to a meal, a gig, and their wedding.

      I also have the proof.

      Tony

      • giyane

        I totally agree with you. Us Brits savour the destruction wrought on others by our politicians like we savour the flavour of the garlic in yesterday’s soup while we’re sitting on the loo. Our own lies to ourselves are of course easy for us to comprehend. It’s just the process of unravelling lies told to ourselves which is hard.
        Politcal metaphor applies.

  • Aubrey

    Great post as always! Totally agree with you! Expecting a change! And always learn from the past, history is always talking to us!

  • mike

    How odd that there isn’t a peep on the BBC website about the threats of military action being made against Catalonia right now…

    • Tony_0pmoc

      mike,

      Thanks I was unaware of that – but a google search quickly revealed this “Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Alamán Castro brings back memories of dark times in recent Spanish history. The infantry officer expressed his willingness to sacrifice his own life for the integrity of the Spanish state, and said that any secession of one of Spain’s autonomous regions will only be “over my dead body”.
      “This ominous statement cannot be easily dismissed nor can it be disconnected from the worsening economic situation in Catalonia, Spain and all of Europe.”

      My personal experience of Catalonia a year ago, was not entirely positive, but if they get their Independence, I may go back to see if there has been any improvement..

      My impression was that the Catalans didn’t really like us British ( a bit like the French ) , but that they completely hated The Spanish, which I found quite strange, cos I really like The Spanish.

      Tony

  • Habbabkuk

    Re Hanna Flint and her mother Caroline Flint:

    While holding no brief for Caroline Flint, I think it might be worth pointing out that her biography reveals a rather traumatic childhood of the sort I would not wish on any child : born to a single mother; biological father subsequently marries mother only to split up thereafter;mother marries again but that marriage also breaks down.

    • Tony_0pmoc

      Habbabkuk,

      Yet again, I agree with you (sometimes it happens twice a year)

      However, your description applies to about 50% of the UK population born since 1987.

      I think the main thing that Craig was trying to say, was that people born before 1987, may well have achieved some success after enduring and surviving a poor traumatic childhood (through sheer hard work) – regardles of anyone’s political views – even if they were (still are?) female)

      But that now, things have changed so much, that the vast majority of the few people born since 1987 only achieve some success as a result of NEPOTISM.

      Do you think that is Right, because I don’t.

      Tony

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