A Great Day 1137


My body and mind are still in Ankara, fully engaged with the Syrian peace talks. But my heart is in Catalonia.

A great day. The achievement is colossal – a pro-independence majority achieved despite the leadership being in jail or in exile, and on an 84% turnout. The lies being spewed out day by day by the neo-liberal media about a “silent majority” are well and truly exposed, as is the EU’s contempt for democracy.

I guess now they have to charge over million people with sedition.


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

1,137 thoughts on “A Great Day

1 4 5 6 7 8 10
  • reel guid

    The Scotland in Disunion astroturf group is shown on Wings Over Scotland to be funded by wealthy aristos and Tory landowners. Just what we in the independence movement always thought.

    Meanwhile Nick Clegg gets a K for keeping a Tory government in office for 5 years and for reducing his party from over 60 MPs to single figures. For services to Toryism in other words, since he hasn’t served anyone else.

    Another Lib Dem getting a gong is Jo Swinson who receives a CBE. That stands for Caledonia Behind England in her case.

    Professor John Curtice also gets a knighthood for services to slanting.

    • Sharp Ears

      ‘Meanwhile Nick Clegg gets a K for keeping a Tory government in office for 5 years and for reducing his party from over 60 MPs to single figures. For services to Toryism in other words, since he hasn’t served anyone else.’

      and assisting Thatcher’s other son, David Cameron in 2012, in putting the Health and Social Act through which sounded the death knell for OUR NHS unless we fight for it.

      Where is Cameron? A puff piece in the Guardian under the guise of checking up on his whereabouts. It is ‘hasn’t he done well’ but ‘not quite as well as Bliar’.

      What is David Cameron doing now?
      After leaving frontline politics and taking up a variety of roles, the ex-PM has hinted that he still has a ‘big job’ left in him
      https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/dec/29/what-is-david-cameron-doing-now

      Katharine Vine (editor) and Rowena Mason (dep political editor) obviously admire him.

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

      Mason is ex Torygraph
      http://cameron-cloggysmoralcompass.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/who-reports-on-reporters-and-who-is.html

    • fred

      There has never been any doubt about who funds Scotland in Union, their accounts are published on the Companies House web site.

      Who funds Wings Over Scotland?

      • Sharp Ears

        Donations? eg google search
        ‘Donate
        Friends Of Wings Over Scotland 2, September 2014: £3,078 …’

        This up today – The Tools Of The Union
        Posted on December 31, 2017 by Rev. Stuart Campbell

        Alert readers will have noted that last night we took down our story about Scotland In Union‘s spreadsheet of all the various super-wealthy Dukes, Duchesses, Viscounts, Earls, Marquesses, Countesses, Sirs, Lords, Ladies, Colonels and Brigadiers who fund their “grassroots” anti-independence operation. (AGM pictured below.)
        We believe we’re entitled under the law to run the article, and hope to have it back up soon, but frankly we don’t even want to think about the cost of calling a top media lawyer on a Sunday that’s also Hogmanay, so that might have to wait a day or two.

        And anyway, it’s not even nearly the most interesting aspect of the affair. We mean, who didn’t know that SiU were funded by millionaires? But why was someone sending US their names and addresses?

        Read the rest of this entry →
        https://wingsoverscotland.com/the-tools-of-the-union/

  • Alasdair Macdonald.

    All the best for 2018, Mr Murray.

    I hope you stay healthy. I hope you are successful in your efforts in the middle east.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    In 1966, the founder of Amnesty International Peter_Benenson “alleged that the organisation he founded was being infiltrated by British intelligence.” He resigned the following year in disgust.

    By 2012, the state of total infiltration at the highest levels was obvious to anyone who did the most basic research…eg

    “Amnesty International is US State Department Propaganda”

    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32257.htm

    This seems to have come as a shock to some people

    “https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2017/01/23/amnesty-internationals-war-crimes-in-syria/”

    Amnesty International should now itself be considered a Terrorist Organisation, guilty of the actual facilitation of war crimes.

    Before you send, your next charitable donation, its advisable to do a little research.

    I really like this cartoon:

    https://timhayward.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/beeley-bartlett-balloons.jpeg

    Tony

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Tony_0pmoc December 31, 2017 at 14:33
      I knew Peter Benenson from meetings, when ACT (Action by Christians against Torture), later to change to ACAT (same organisation), was being formed in the mid-1980’s. He lent me his own personal copy of one of his books.
      I was a member of Amnesty for many years, quite active, at one time servicing their East London Urgent Action volunteers.
      I became disenchanted with both organisations a few years after 9/11, when I realised how blinkered they were.
      I didn’t know about his leaving AI because of infiltration, but he helped set up ACT/ACAT.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    On 31st December 1999, almost the entire world was full of optimism for a Bright New Century – a New Millennium.

    18 Years later, almost everything has got considerably worse for almost everyone.

    The prevailing mood now is that 2018, is going to be even worse.

    However, I now think despite all of us being drowned in a wave of lies, propaganda, fear and terror, that 2018 is going to be a turning point.

    There are only so many lies, filth, and fear that people can take.

    The only way to defeat it, is for many more people to stand up and challenge the lies. If not the evil will kill us all.

    I sense that this is already happening, and that it will grow exponentially.

    We won’t take it anymore.

    “Peter Gabriel – Don’t Give Up (ft. Kate Bush)”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjEq-r2agqc

    Love & Peace,

    Tony

  • John Spencer-Davis

    Happy New Year to Craig, and to all cantankerous dissenting sods everywhere, especially all those on here.

    Best.

    John

  • Republicofscotland

    To Craig, and the mods, and all the commentors, have great new year, I hope 2018 is a year of peace and common sense.

  • shugsrug

    Not a regular contributor but best wishes to all who give to this blog. I suspect that there are many like me who find encouragement from reading free thought from whatever viewpoint. Trowbridge, do not go, come back refreshed in 2018.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    The most important thing a man can do on New Years Day – maybe 2 or 5 hours into the New Year – especially if you have had a Party…Is Before You Go To Bed…

    After she has gone to sleep – clear up all the mess as quietly as possible – and then go further…

    Clean up the Cooker as Well

    She will wake up in the morning and think she is in Fairy Land…and maybe bring you a cooked breakfast in bed.

    Did we go out last night?

    I told a girl down the pub tonight, that we were Childhood Sweethearts and she believed me.

    Well, we have been together for much longer than she has lived

    Happy New Year

    Tony & Wife xx

  • giyane

    The great satan is pretending to go into isolationist mode and is using the MSM to publicise this fake news. In the case of Libya, USUKIS has already installed its stooges and is making steady progress towards pumping oil using its servants of Mammon Al Qaida alliance. In the case of Syria, Trump looks Trumped, but we have learnt from bitter experience not to trust the alligator when it is pretending to be a log.

    These are times when an experienced hunter or tickler of trout has to remain absolutely silent, still, and totally alert. I for one believe the great Satan is capable of swallowing Damascus and whatever it can grab of Syria, like a Wildebeest crossing a watercourse in one sudden rush. We have to be extremely patient and find our inner Clint Eastwood or crocodile Dundee. USUKIS are shite.

  • Macky

    Happy New Year to all; may 2018 bring success and victory to all the righteous people and setbacks and defeats for the evil.

  • John Goss

    Happy New Year everybody. May all the good people who comment on this blog have a successful year. And may the others come to see the error of their ways.

    • nevermind

      Chechens, as part of any coalition, will get the goat of the Russians. Meanwhile Donald, the human rights defender of Iranians, is praising killers such as Duterte, no hypocrisy to be seen anywhere.
      No, we don’t support any terror organisation such as ISIS/Daesh, Al Quaeda Al Nusra etc.etc, off course not….

      Whilst actions and timing is speeding up towards a hiatus, diplomacy is slowing down to a crawl. Animality is becoming dominant in humans increasing the risk for erratic behaviour and mistakes that can be fatal for many.

      That said, enjoy the New year as long as possible, maybe we get to squeeze a GE in before the ‘schizos’ start lobbing hardware at each other.

  • Republicofscotland

    As Iranian’s seek more freedoms from their religious zealot government, in a string of protests. Donald Trump tweeted.

    “Iranian’s finally getting wise, as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism.”

    The Donald doesn’t do hypocrisy it seems.

  • Republicofscotland

    Nurses and GP’s in England are to sent to answer 999 calls ahead of ambulance crews. A spokesperson for NHS England said the scheme was being introduced to cope with the ever increasing pressure on the service.

    The service will be rolled out in Northern England first.

    • giyane

      RoS
      That’ll be Virgin Care. I’ve waited two and a half years while my GP totally ignored my health, but I recently had occasion to call 111 for help. The male nurse in the Virgin Care clinic was excellent, but there was no place in the feedback message for ” Hands off our NHS”. The last time I asked the G.P for help he told me for work problems I was responsible for my own occupational health. Many G.P.s are getting over-excited by the prospect of privatised health.

      • Republicofscotland

        “Richard Branson’s Virgin Care won a record £1bn of NHS contracts last year, as £3.1bn of health services were privatised despite a government pledge to reduce the proportion of care provided by private companies.”

        “Overall, private firms scooped 267 – almost 70% – of the 386 clinical contracts that were put out to tender in England during 2016-17, according to a new report. They included the seven highest value contracts, worth £2.43bn between them, and 13 of the 20 most lucrative tenders.”

        “The £3.1bn in contracts, a big rise on the previous year’s £2.4bn, prompted concern that profit-driven companies are increasingly involved in delivering care, in a development that undermines repeated assurances by the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that they play only a marginal role.”

        https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/dec/29/richard-branson-virgin-scoops-1bn-pounds-of-nhs-contracts

        Giyane the NHS in England, is being starved of funds by the Tories, the plan is to privatise it, in England that plan is well underway.

        Unless of course the people rise up and fight for it.

  • Republicofscotland

    As if the royals aren’t already detested in some quarters, over their pampered and cosseted lifestyles, often (mostly) at the taxpayers expense.

    It’s now alleged that gaff prone Prince Philip, while meeting crowds at Sandringham yesterday, pointed to a man with a beard and uttered, “Is that a terrorist?”

    Why certain people still see this archaic, and resource draining lineage, as relevant in this day and age is a complete mystery.

    • giyane

      RoS
      The Duke had a head start on the rest of us for being watched 24/7. Fair play to him at his advanced age having a little poke at the goons with whom he has to share his life.

    • Sharp Ears

      and the son and heir (ref Paradise Papers like his Mama) has reduced his ‘charity’ donations by £3m!! What’s going on? That income derives from the tenants of the Duchy of Cornwall who are obliged to doff their forelocks now and then even when their rents are increased.

      ‘Paradise Papers: Prince Charles’s offshore investments revealed
      Prince Charles’s private estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, secretly invested in an offshore company which lobbied to change climate agreements, documents from the Paradise Papers have revealed.
      Sustainable Forestry Ltd lobbied politicians to amend global agreements to allow ‘carbon credits’ from rainforests to be traded.
      The Prince made speeches in support of this – and his estate, the Duchy of Cornwall, tripled its investment in Sustainable Forestry in the space of a year. It is not clear why this was. The Duchy says the prince has no direct involvement in investment decisions. Prince Charles denies ever speaking on a topic simply because of a company the Duchy may have invested in.’
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-41908774/paradise-papers-prince-charles-s-offshore-investments-revealed

      Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation halves donations in past year
      Total given to causes drops from £7.7m to £3.1m in 12 months to March 2017 as heir to the throne takes on more of Queen’s responsibilities
      https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/01/prince-of-wales-charitable-foundation-halves-donations-in-past-year

      So do we assume that £4.6m is needed to enable him to make a few more speeches and perform the odd opening ceremony in place of Her Maj?

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile some of the extortion racket TV licence fees that you pay, are to go to unionist newspapers, (local journalists, if you can call them that). Who will in turn feed you back the appropriate propaganda.

    More so in Scotland where bias reporting against the SNP and the Scottish government will see a inevitable increase, and you’ll be funding it through the TV licence extortion ring.

    http://archive.is/HKZ1s

    • giyane

      RoS
      Don’t be naughty. If God hadn’t wanted you to controlled by the BBC, He’d have put the Scots on Iceland. Scotland is joined like Siamese twins with US UK and IS. You are our hat and you can’t have yourselves back.

    • Habbabkuk

      To be noted that the UK is far from being the only Western European country to have TV licence fees. In fact I cannot think, off hand, of any Western European country where one can legally watch TV without paying a licence fee.

    • Habbabkuk

      In Greece, for example, you pay your annual TV licence fee in two months installments as part of your electricity bill. Much more difficult to avoid paying than in the UK.

        • Habbabkuk

          That is one – are there others? If not, my point stands, ie, the UK is very far from being the only Western country to levy TV licence fees.

        • Habbabkuk

          Actually, re the Netherlands, this is what Wikipedia has to say :

          “With the plan to abolish the licence fee in 2000 due to the excessive collection costs[93] and in order to pay for public television from government funds, income tax was increased[93]”

          Note the last 4 words.

          In other words, you don’t get ouwt for nowt, much as some people would like to. Public TV broadcasting is funded either through licence fees, advertising revenue or govt grants (coming out of general taxation) or any combination of the three.

          • Sharp Ears

            The point is not whether licence fees are levied. It is that the BBC, the Zionist friendly state broadcaster, is training and funding local print journalism. That is fascist.

          • Habbabkuk

            I’m afraid that that is not the point – at best it is a sub-point. The main points usually brought up on here are (1) why should people be charged for using their TV even if they only watch programmes from stations other than the BBC, and (2) why should people be charged for watching what some people call the “state broadcaster which transmits official propaganda”.

  • nevermind

    2018 carries on with the same fascist Apartheid repression as another elected member of the Palestinian Authority is being arrested by the IDF.

    Israel has ignored the election results of 2006 and continues to jeopardise any basis for peace talks with a now United Palestinian movement, despite having made exactly this a pre condition for any talks.
    Now they are undermining this same unity because they’d realised that they can do as they like and Trump will support it, he feeds out of their hands.

    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180101-israeli-army-arrests-palestinian-parliamentarian-nasser-abdel-gawad/

    • nevermind

      And whilst we are at it, lets have a little resume of how much Palestininan land has been stolen/annexed in 2017, some 2500 acres of it.
      Building houses, solely for J….h tenants, is one the greatest obstacles to peace talks.

      https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180101-israel-seized-2500-acres-of-palestinian-land-in-2017/

      But, they are not the only one’s deliberately skewing their actions.
      AFRICOM, created in 2007 to engage with diplomacy and aid for trade, has since turned itself into a reactional central military command for incursions and interventions. Whilst China and Russia are wooing African nations with development and modernisation of their countries, the US has cut its diplomatic effort to solely concentrate on a military approach to Africa’s problems.

      Africa is facing a future of proxy wars and the arms dealers of this world are rubbing their hands in glee.

      https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180101-israel-seized-2500-acres-of-palestinian-land-in-2017/

    • Habbabkuk

      Elections in Israel – in which Arab Israelis enjoy full rights – are held every 4 or 5 years, I believe.

      • Republicofscotland

        Habbabkuk.

        Unless of course you’re a Arab of the Wadi Ara, in Northern Israel, who are Israeli citizens. However Avigdor Lieberman is calling for the rest of Israel to shun them not to buy any of their goods, to let them know that even though they are Israeli citizens that they’re not wanted in Israel.

        Lieberman, is the head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party.

        Is real is anything but a democracy.

        • Habbabkuk

          You will be aware that the Knesset contains many political parties and that the Israeli govt is a coalition. What is important is not what one politician (or even one party) “calls for” but the actual legal position. And that legal position is that Israeli Arabs are full citizens of the State of Israel who enjoy the same political and social rights rights as Israeli Jews (or Christians for that matter). In other words, Israel is a functioning representative democracy.

          To claim – as you are implying – that any country whose political system (or even government)contains individuals or political parties to which you happen to object is ipso facto not a functioning democracy is just silly..

          • nevermind

            If it is such a democracy, habbakuk, why are the rights of Jews not even enshrined in a Constitution? never mind of the indigenous Arab population.
            Maybe you would like to answer to the point I raised above, regards Palestinian disunity, now resolved since last year, being the major stumbling block to peace talks. Why is Israel not true to its words?

            They are enshrined in the Iranian Constitution, for hundreds of years, off course it also a democracy, although currently very unpopular. Maybe the Knesset should offer Iran an olive branch, rather than goad it at every point, making itself the subject of speculation, raising questions as to whether some of these ‘political parties’ have actively encouraged and paid for these demonstrators.

          • Habbabkuk

            Nevermind (@ 11h06

            Thank you for your comments. But please consider the following.

            Are you seriously claiming that the test of a liberal, representative democracy is whether it has a written Constitution or not? If you are, then the UK could not be considered to be a liberal, representative democracy whereas, for example, the Soviet Union, which had a written constitution since the beginning of the 1920s, could. Idem the Eastern European satellite states.The test of a liberal, representative democracy lies elsewhere.

            Just to touch on another couple of your points:

            Last year saw at least the third time when Palestinian disunity was “resolved”. I would not advise anyone to hold their breath.

            Palestinian disunity is no more than the Palestinian form of what goes on in any democracy, ie, different people or groups of people have different views on political matters. In a liberal democracy, however, those differences are resolved through the political process, which involves, inter alia, the regular holding of elections (something which you yourself pointed out has not been the case in the West Bank since 2006. I assume you are not claiming that Israel has prevented the current administration of Mr Abbas from holding elections since then. I take the point that the lack of Palestinian unity has not helped the peace process, but that is a problem for which the Palestinian authority is responsible.

            Finally, re Iran : the question here is not whether the Iranian govt is currently popular, unpopular or very unpopular. That happens to be a feature, from time to time, of all govts in a liberal, representative democracy. Nor wtether Iran has a written constituion. The point is that the political configuration and the essential features of present day Iran cannot be considered to be that of a representative democracy (the presence and role of a (clerical) “Supreme Leader”, limitations on who can be a Presidential candidate, a non-independent judiciary, various repressive laws, etc, etc…).

        • Habbabkuk

          What I have written applies to the State of Israel; I make no claims for the occupied territories. A recurring problem on this blog is that people deliberately conflate the two when they wish to kick Israel.To repeat – Israel is a functioning representative democracy with equal rights for all its citizens. The occupied territories are just that – occupied territories.

          • fred

            So why not allow the Palestinians who were driven out to refugee camps in other countries their legal right of return to the land of their fathers?

            You can’t claim a legitimate democracy when the major part of the electorate are barred from even entering their own country.

          • Habbabkuk

            Thank you for your observations, Fred and just a couple of my own in return, bearing in mind that the question of the right of refugees to return to their countries of origin is a complex one (not only in the Israeli context but also in others – eg, quid the return of Syrian refugees currently in Germany or elsewhere to a to-be-hoped peaceful Syria).

            1/. You have referred to a “legal right of return”. Well, that right is certainly nowhere in the legal make-up of the state of Israel. On what do you base your use of the term “legal”? In this context, please refer to the fact that there is no “legal right of return”, for instance, for the ethnic Germans driven out of Poland or Czechoslovakia at the end of WW2 either (absent EU provisions on the free movement of persons, of course). Yet another question is to whom this alleged “legal right of return” should apply – is it to those who were driven out of pre-1967 Israel in 1948 or is it to their descendants as well, and if so, to how many generations down?

            2/. You say that a “major part” of the electorate is barred from re-entering Israel. Now, clearly, that could only be held to be accurate – possibly – if you claim the right of re-entry for not only those who were driven out in 1948 but also for all their descendants up to the present day. It is certainly inaccurate if you limit it to those who were driven out in 1948; I submit that if those people – 700.000 according to someone on this blog – I can’t remember who it was), or rather, those of the 700.000 who are still alive today, were to return to present day Israel, they plus those Arab Israelis who were not driven out (the majority, as it happens) and the descendants of those Arab Israelis would not form a majority.

            Finally, on the question of refugee camps. Most non-partsian, serious analysts of the question are of the opinion that neighbouring Arab states have deliberately kept those camps in existence as a useful tool for garnering support for the Palestinian cause and demonising Israel. The inhabitants of those camps could have been absorbed successfully into the neighbouring societies a long time ago had there been the slightest desire to do so.

          • SA

            Apparently this legal right applies only to one side. My friend there is no such thing as legal rights where this part of the world is concerned only merely might is right.

          • fred

            It is not a legitimate democracy if the major part of the electorate are excluded. If the Conservatives were to throw all the Socialists out of Britain at the point of a gun then hold an election they could not claim the result was democratic.

            As for legality there is GA Resolution 194 passed a year before Israel joined the UN so by joining they effectively agreed to it as well as SC 237 which is legally binding. But as I said it’s irrelevant, it isn’t a legitimate democracy anyway.

        • nevermind

          thank you SA, exactly my point, Israel is changing the goalposts every time it wants to further expand into the west bank by force and whatever the Palestinians do will be turned against them.

          Lets not beat about the bush, after 50 years of failure to respect and share with all who live in Palestine, Zionists have thoroughly ruined any chance of a peaceful future.
          That they have never stopped training children in military drills, shooting etc. shows that their inhumane psyops mindset is not in favour of peace talks, they never had any conviction to achieve peace.

          @Habby. Not impressed with your lengthy tome. You could argue that the UK is not a proper democracy for exactly your reasons, but that would be diverting from the issue, which is as you rightly said Israel and what it does.
          In international terms of acceptance, a state is one that has declared its borders, not one that steals land on a daily basis and denies people their right to self determination by force.
          My point about the Constitution is one of equal rights and protection from laws and a court, something you fail to understand as you never had the privilege, being a native of this country, were justice is now for the rich alone, arbitrary based on past laws, but not on anything else, bar a feudal rich man’s order book, the Magna Carta.

    • Habbabkuk

      “Israel has ignored the election results of 2006” [ ie, for the Palestinian Authority]
      ___________________

      Not quite sure why my comment of yesterday on the above was deleted. It was to point out that those elections took place 11 years ago and that there have been none since although there should have been. No amount of sloganising alters the fact that the calling of elections is in the gift of the Palestinan Authority and not Israel.

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile in America the craze known as “Swatting” is gathering pace.

    Swatting is when a pranksters call the police to tell them, that someone has killed someone usually at home by shooting them, the prankster asks the police to come quick as they fear for their life.

    The police SWAT team shows up and enters the property armed and forecfully, but it turns out to be a false alarm, the prankster laughs at job done.

    However on some occasions the trigger happy SWAT teams often shoot the set up suspects, such as in this case.

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/29/wichita-man-killed-by-police-after-false-hostage-report-was-murdered-mother-swatting

    You would think that with US cops already in trigger happy mode, that Swatting would be a highly dangerous prank to play on someone, unless of course you meant harm to someone.

  • Sharp Ears

    See how well Branson did in his dealings with the CCGs in Surrey.

    He (Virgincare) won a 5 year £500m contract to provide community health services in Surrey. The medical director was a Dr Graham Henderson who happens to be the husband of Anne Milton, MP, Con Guildford. She was a junior minister to Lansley who put through the Cameron/ Clegg Health and Social Care Act, 2012 which opened up the NHS to even more privatisation. Then she became a senior whip and is now an education minister under Greening, God help the children.

    The contract expired and Branson rebid for a new contract. It wasn’t given to him so, guess what, he sued the CCGs for compensation and won £338,000.

    A poor report in the local Trinity Mirror rag.

    Virgin Care awarded £328,000 NHS payout following dispute over Surrey healthcare services
    The legal wrangle was settled with a £328,000 payout to the private company, according to the Health Service Journal
    http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/virgin-care-awarded-328000-nhs-13977261

    A petition demanding he repay it came to nothing.

    PS Ask friends what CCG stands for. They do not know. Clinical Commissioning Group. They control how the money is spent. Now we have STPs – Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships – how the services are closed down.

    TORIES OUT. NOW.

  • reel guid

    Corbyn’s representative in Scotchshire Richard Leonard is boasting to the Guardian that most young people north of the border now see Labour as the radical choice.

    Except Rev Stu is bringing attention to the Panelbase poll of a couple of weeks ago that shows support for the SNP in the 18 – 34 age group at 51%. Add another 7% of this age group who would vote for the pro-independence Greens. While 26% would vote Labour.

    What’s more 66% of this age group would vote for independence to keep Scotland in the EU.

    Scottish Labour and reality are scarcely acquainted.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ reel guid January 1, 2018 at 17:38
      I hope a Scots Nat majority would cooperate with a Corbyn government, which will have very many good policies.

  • Habbabkuk

    The Bully Boy of Ankara, otherwise known as President Erdogan, is celebrating the festive season and the beginning of the New Year to rack up the pressure on his Greek neighbour.

    As evidenced during his recent visit to Greece, where he spoke of the need to revisit the Treaty of Lausanne; his claim that the Muslims of Thrace were Turks who needed to be defended by the motherland; his demand that the Greek government reverse the decision of the Greek Supreme Court that the first of the Turkish military officers who fled to Greece after the attempted coup in Turkey is entitled to political refugee status; his vainglorious statement that Greece risked soon having no territory to defend.

    Followed, in the last few days, by a sudden upswing of refugees reaching the Greek islands of Samos and Lesvos by boat from the Turkish coast.

    Is it not time that the bully boy of Ankara has his backside kicked?

    But how?

    If there were EU solidarity with Greece (there is not) one method of dealing with the Turkish tactic of allowing an increased number of boat people to reach Greece as a means of putting further pressure on Greece could be as follows : for every 1000 refugees allowed to leave Turkey for Greece, 1000 Turks living in western Europe – eg in Germany or Belgium – should be deported back to Turkey. That might serve to concentrate the Bully Boy’s thinking.

    It might also be time to reconsider whether a country which clearly does not share Western values and which continues to put pressure on its neighbour Greece, which does share Western values, has any place in NATO.

    • SA

      While you are at it also consider that NATO members include Hungary and Poland, veering very strongly to the right and of course they are trying to get the Nazis in Ukraine also to join NATO.

      • Habbabkuk

        Any comparisons whether direct or implied (as seems to be the case above)between Turkey on the one hand and Poland and Hungary on the other are otiose. It is not in Poland or Hungary that tens of thousands of military officers, state officials, officials, academics and the ordinary man in the street have been either lost their jobs, face court proceedings or been imprisoned.

    • giyane

      What about the Bully Boy of the Bullingdon Club Boris Johnson who backs Al Qaida for everyone else in our immediate area outside of Europe itself. Why should I be ruled by a man who prescribes Arsenic and Hemlock, a disgusting choice between power-crazed dictators who are prepared to rendition-torture their citizens , or , power-crazed Islamists?

      I swear that if this barbaric piece of British bully-boy public school colonialism ascends further up the rectum of UK atavistic Conservative power in a New Years re-shuffle of his odious wet-look head. I will leave this country. I will not be ruled by a toad. I’d rather live in Turkey under Erdogan, or China under Xi or France under Macron, than be a part of the vision this utter arsehole is preparing for the UK after Brexit.

      I’d rather live in the US under Trump.

    • nevermind

      Diversion tactics alert, this bullyboy is pointing in the other direction saying ‘oh look at this bad man, don’t look at the one failing to sit down and talk peace with his very own people in his very own democracy.
      A democratic country is defined by its stated borders, not by aggression and wars with its neighbours and its very own indigenous population. You keep talking about a non entity as if it was a universally recognised state. It is not and it is not doing itself any favours by using fascist methods to steal land and usurp people who have the same rights to the country than they claim to have.

      Liebermann should be given 1000 shekels and repatriated to his eastern European life as a bouncer, he is harming Israel.

  • Republicofscotland

    Returning to my 14.47pm comment, why is the BBC using licence payers monies to fund journalists of failing newspapers?

    This is the first “stage” whatever that means (probably a lot more journalists will be paid for by the BBC) in which 144 new journalist spread over several newspaper groups will be employed with financial aid from the BBC licence fee payer.

    Are these new journalists agenda to dole out British propaganda, extolling the virtues and greatness of Britannia? Whilst putting down via the press anything that threatens the union?

    In my opinion the BBC, a ardent British government mouthpiece, has set a dangerous precedent, getting openly involved with the national press.

    • Sharp Ears

      You’re a lad. Brian. What have you been up to?

      I was looking at your lovely photos on Flickr last night. Beautiful. You certainly make good use of your environment and Nature’s bounty.

  • Republicofscotland

    As the UK debt heads towards the £16 trillion mark, a debt your childrens children, children and so will still be paying long after you’re gone.

    The royals will not need to worry one little bit, because you and your children etc, etc, etc, will be paying for them.

    “The monarchy earns more than the average UK worker by 00:43 on 1st January.
    At £19.1m per year, each royal earns 670x more than the average UK worker.
    Taxpayers hand over £10.95 per second to the monarchy (that’s 36½ Cadburys Freddos per second)”

    Check out the royal debt bomb as it climbs by the second.

    https://www.republic.org.uk/what-we-do/news-and-updates/fat-cat-monarchy

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Republicofscotland January 1, 2018 at 19:55
      Whilst the Central Banksters split their sides at their scam. The answer is National Government Currencies, like the Bradbury Pound.
      Governments can see this, but they also know what happens to anyone who tries it in earnest (not just in wartime).
      And they know they can count on their blackmailed or paid-for MP’s, Congress or Senators to stop any such plan.

    • Habbabkuk

      To be noted of course that the UK national debt has not been incurred solely in respect of England but also in respect of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

  • Hugh McLelland

    Sharp Ears 1848
    These are the beaches of the Outer Hebrides, If you can go, do.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Hugh McLelland January 1, 2018 at 20:48
      I don’t think Sharp Ears is a penguin, or even an Eskimo!

  • Hugh McLelland

    Road Equivalent Tarrif, cheap as it can be. Ferry from Oban, Mallaig, Uig or Ullapool.

1 4 5 6 7 8 10

Comments are closed.