Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT 1465


It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she leveled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning. In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply “I am not ready, I do not want their help”. Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of “I do not wish to avail myself of their services”, as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.

“I do not wish to avail myself of their services” is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the “I am not ready” opening phrase of that sentence. My conclusion is that Yulia’s statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.

It would of course have been much more convincing had Sergei also been present. Duress cannot be ruled out when he is held by the British authorities. I remain extremely suspicious that, at the very first chance she got in hospital, Yulia managed to get hold of a telephone (we don’t know how, it was not her own and she has not had access to one since) and phone her cousin Viktoria, yet since then the Skripals have made no attempt to contact their family in Russia. That includes no contact to Sergei’s aged mum, Yulia’s grandmother, who Viktoria cares for. Sergei normally calles his mother – who is 89 – regularly. This lack of contact is a worrying sign that the Skripals may be prevented from free communication to the outside world. Yulia’s controlled and scripted performance makes that more rather than less likely.

It is to me particularly concerning that Yulia does not seem to have social media access. The security services have the ability to give her internet risk free through impenetrable VPN. But they appear not to have done that.

We know a little more about the Salisbury attack now:

Nobody – not Porton Down, not the OPCW – has been able to state that the nerve agent found was of Russian manufacture, a fact which the MSM continues to disgracefully fudge with “developed in Russia” phrasing. As is now well known and was reported by Iran in scientific literature, Iran synthesised five novichoks recently. More importantly, the German spying agency BND obtained novichok in the 1990s and it was studied and synthesised in several NATO countries, almost certainly including the UK and USA.

In 1998, chemical formulae for novichok were introduced into the United States NIST National Institute of Standards and Technologies Mass Spectrometry Library database by U.S. Army Edgewood Chemical and Biological Defense Command, but the entry was later deleted. In 2009 Hillary Clinton instructed US diplomats to feign ignorance of novichoks, as revealed by the last paragraph of this Wikileaks released diplomatic cable.

Most telling was the Sky News interview with the head of Porton Down. Interviewer Paul Kelso repeatedly pressed Aitkenhead directly on whether the novichok could have come from Porton Down. Aitkenhead replies “There is no way, anything like that could…leave these four walls. We deal with a number of toxic substances in the work that we do, we’ve got the highest levels of security and controls”. Asked again twice, he each times says the security is so tight “the substance” could not have come from Porton Down. What Aitkenhead does NOT say is “of course it could not have come from here, we have never made it”. Indeed Aitkenhead’s repeated assertion that the security would never have let it out, is tantamount to an admission Porton Down does produce novichok.

If somebody asked you whether the lion that savaged somebody came from your garden, would you reply “Don’t be stupid, I don’t have a lion in my garden” or would you say, repeatedly, “Of course not, I have a very strong lion cage?”. Here you can see Mr Aitkenhead explain repeatedly he has a big lion cage, from 2’25” in.

So the question of where the nerve agent was made remains unresolved. The MSM has continually attempted to lie about this and affirm that all novichok is Russian made. The worst of corporate and state journalism in the UK was exposed when they took the OPCW’s report that it confirmed the findings of Porton Down and presented that as confirming the Johnson/May assertion that it was Russia, whereas the findings of Porton Down were actually – as the Aitkenhead interview stated categorically – that they could not say where it was made.

The other relatively new development is the knowledge that Skripal had not retired but was active for MI6 on gigs briefing overseas intelligence agencies about Russia. This did not increase his threat to Russia, as he told everything he knows a decade ago. But it could provide an element of annoyance that would indeed increase Russian official desire to punish him further.

But the fact he was still very much active has a far greater significance. The government slapped a D(SMA) notice on the identity of Pablo Miller, Skripal’s former MI6 handler who lives close by in Salisbury and who worked for Christopher Steele’s Orbis Intelligence at the time that Orbis produced the extremely unreliable dossier on Trump/Russia. The fact that Skripal had not retired but was still briefing on Russia, to me raises to a near certainty the likelihood that Skripal worked with Miller on the Trump dossier.

I have to say that, as a former Ambassador in the former Soviet Union trained in intelligence analysis and familiar with MI6 intelligence out of Moscow, I agree with every word of this professional dissection of the Orbis Trump dossier by Paul Roderick Gregory, irrespective of Gregory’s politics. In particular this paragraph, which Gregory wrote more than a year before the Salisbury attack, certainly applies to much of the dossier.

I have picked out just a few excerpts from the Orbis report. It was written, in my opinion, not by an ex British intelligence officer but by a Russian trained in the KGB tradition. It is full of names, dates, meetings, quarrels, and events that are hearsay (one an overheard conversation). It is a collection of “this important person” said this to “another important person.” There is no record; no informant is identified by name or by more than a generic title. The report appears to fail the veracity test in the one instance of a purported meeting in which names, dates, and location are provided. Some of the stories are so bizarre (the Rosneft bribe) that they fail the laugh test. Yet, there appears to be a desire on the part of some media and Trump opponents on both sides of the aisle to picture the Orbis report as genuine but unverifiable.

The Russian ex-intelligence officer who we know was in extremely close contact with Orbis at the time the report was written, was Sergei Skripal.

The Orbis report is mince. Skripal knew it was mince and how it was written. Skripal has a history of selling secrets to the highest bidder. The Trump camp has a lot of money. My opinion is that as the Mueller investigation stutters towards ignominious failure, Skripal became a loose end that Orbis/MI6/CIA/Clinton (take your pick) wanted tied off. That seems to me at least as likely as a Russian state assassination. To say Russia is the only possible suspect is nonsense.

The Incompetence Factor

The contradiction between the claim that the nerve agent was so pure it could only be manufactured by a state agent, and yet that it failed because it was administered in an amateur and incompetent fashion, does not bother the mainstream media. Boris Johnson claimed that the UK had evidence that Russia had a ten year programme of stockpiling secret novichok and he had a copy of a Russian assassination manual specifying administration by doorknob. Yet we are asked to believe that the Russians failed to notice that administration by doorknob does not actually work, especially in the rain. How two people both touched the doorknob in closing the door is also unexplained, as is how one policeman became poisoned by the doorknob but numerous others did not.

The explanations by establishment stooges of how this “ten times more powerful than VX” nerve agent only works very slowly, but then very quickly, if it touches the skin, and still does not actually kill you, have struck me as simply desperate. They make May’s ringing claims of a weapon of mass destruction being used on British soil appear somewhat unjustified. Weapon of Upset Tummy does not sound quite so exciting.

To paint a doorknob with something that if it touches you can kill you requires great care and much protective gear. That no strangely dressed individual has been identified by the investigation – which seems to be getting nowhere in identifying the culprit – is the key fact here. None of us know who did this. The finger-pointing at Russia by corporate and state interests seeking to stoke the Cold War is disgusting.

———————————————

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1,465 thoughts on “Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury WUT

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  • giyane

    Mrs May has the unenviable job of keeping both sides of her party happy with both hands while treading water in the Brexit swimming pool. Not waving but drowning. M. Barnier has noticed that at the moment she is standing on the shoulders of the EU while gesticulating wildly to either side of her party to stop squabbling.
    But when the EU removes itself , as it would do if and when the UK leaves the EU, she has to tread water to stay afloat. That is because the EU is currently the firm basis for both internal and external trade.

    Is that not rather cruel of the EU to try to end the melt-down in the Conservative Party before they are ready to stop fighting. and were we not enjoying seeing them fighting for over 30 years while standing on the submerged rock of the EU? M. Barnier has the delightful task which Mrs May previously enjoyed as Home Secretary, of waterboarding highly compromised political agents over whom she exercised overwhelming power. Well she’s apologised for that, sort of. Will M. Barnier now apologise, sort of, for waterboarding her?

    The folly of David Cameron in trying to resolve an internal Tory quarrel by asking the people to referee is obvious. The people were not qualified to referee the matter any more than he. Now that the big crunch of Brexit approaches the poisoned chalice / door knob of squabbling greed inside the 1% is propelled by a glacial pressure of people power bearing down on the mountain of the EU. Will the glacier or the mountain win? And will the mammoths of imperial greed be frozen into the glacier, or die off in the climate change?

    I suppose what will emerge is a new Britain, divided into its constituent parts, learning conformity with the power of Brussels for its own survival. I think I could survive that knock to my British pride. I am after all not a Tory millionaire.

    • Andyoldlabour

      “The people were not qualified to referee the matter any more than he”

      So, you would rather we had dictatorships which do not allow the electorate to have democratic votes on important issues? The EU is a dictatorial machine, which is not appreciated by an ever increasing number of European citizens from many countries.

  • Richard C

    The journalists identified by Craig as followers of Philip Cross on Twitter generally have no Wikipedia page or else it’s curated by Philip Cross.

    Oliver Kamm, 178 edits, 18% of total edits to page
    Nick Cohen, 93 edits, 9%
    Joan Smith, 60 edits, 28%
    Leslie Felperin, no page
    Kate Connolly, no page
    Lisa O’Carrol, no page
    James Bloodworth, tiny stub, no PC edits
    Cristina Criddle, no page
    Sarah Baxter, stub, 16 edits, 35% of total edits
    Iain Watson, no page
    Caroline Wheeler, no page
    Jennifer Chevalier, no page
    Dani Garavelli, no page
    Bonnie Greer, 78 edits, 26%
    Mason Boycott-Owen, no page
    Marko Attila Hoare, 30 edits, 14%
    Kirsty Hughes, no page
    Guy Walters, no edits – Walters edited his own page, his account now deleted
    Lisa Canning, no page

  • quasi_verbatim

    While remaining sympathetic toward Yulia in an avuncular sort of way, I note that other representatives of the monstrous regiment of women are indulging in much anticipatory gloating exultation at the prospect of killing more babies in utero.

    Should women wish to ‘take control of their bodies’ in this respect let them do so before conception by means of more birth-control and less fornication.

    • J

      You might have been gracious enough to extend the possibility of human feeling amongst the targets of your disgust. Instead you draw a risible caricature.

      Your final sentence indicates that instead of a reasonable injunction to sensible precaution, you prefer to invoke sin, perhaps to provide you with meaning through its imposition upon the rest of us.

  • N_

    Two big drug dealers, Eyhaz Mahboob and Tahir Iqbal, walk free as prosecution collapses (Sunday Times.) Have a read about what happened in court – it sounds very dramatic. I’m reminded of how the crook Michael Howard, the Tory home secretary, helped his organised-crime friends John Haase and Paul Bennett out of jail, using a cock-and-bull story about how they were assisting the police. What criminal networks is Sajid Javid connected to? And in what parts of the country?

    And why does crystal meth keep getting found at the Home Office? Is someone giving somebody a warning?

    Now I’m wondering whether the Leeds child-abuse case (where Tommy Robinson got arrested) might collapse too. Some threads are such that people pull on them at their peril.

    • Stu

      I doubt Javid is connected to any criminal networks.

      Drugs are big business and the police are involved. At a lower level if you read about a house being raided or cars being stopped then it’s because drug dealers who co-operate with the police have set up a drone who works for them. Anyone Scottish reading the comments will be aware of Arthur Thompson and Tam McGraw who ran drugs in Glasgow with the support of the police.

  • Nevermind, Duke of Doggerland

    Putin agrees with you and the many stories concocted around this sorry affair, to confuse and detract, imho, make it obvious that this event was created by somebody who wants to keep up the Russophobia meme.

    Since it is a nice day and you all need some refreshing and exciting diversion, here is a little help from our friend, sadly not with us anymore. Try shutting your eyes to enjoy his great voice, a challenge….. Wishing you all a great weekend, don’t let the Habbastock get to you.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4b04jq7NB1s&feature=youtu.be

  • Radar O’Reilly

    And for sunny bank-holiday reading, what about a respected academic institution in the USA asking a representative poll of Americans – how they feel. Do they feel spied upon? (spoiler: YES) , do they feel an unseen hand is pushing events, perhaps a Deep-State (spoiler: YES)

    Wonder why say, English academics, don’t repeat this in blighty? Would we get a different answer?

    https://www.monmouth.edu/polling-institute/reports/monmouthpoll_us_031918/

    To save those pressed for time from reading the statistics, I’ll quote an analysis from another website

    Polling about the term “Deep State” is problematical, because as the polling report says: “Few Americans (13%) are very familiar with the term “Deep State;” another 24% are somewhat familiar, while 63% say they are not familiar with this term.”

    So the careful pollsters at Monmouth defined the term as follows for their interviewees: “The term Deep State refers to the possible existence of a group of unelected government and military officials who secretly manipulate or direct national policy.” Then they asked whether such a group exists.

    Monmouth reports the results as follows: “Nearly 3-in-4 (74%) say they believe this type of apparatus exists in Washington“

    These non-partisan were also widely held , irrespective of demographic or political affiliation

    The report also asked about government surveillance of the citizenry and here again there is widespread concern: Fully 8-in-10 believe that the U.S. government currently monitors or spies on the activities of American citizens

    [This] causes the director of the Institute to be concerned. “This is a worrisome finding. The strength of our government relies on public faith in protecting our freedoms, which is not particularly robust. And it’s not a Democratic or Republican issue. These concerns span the political spectrum,” says director Murray.

    Well done 5-eyes/one-brain, seems you’re doing a really covert job in the ‘states. Hardly anyone has noticed, no-one is worried, and it is not affecting society /sarc

  • Tom Smythe

    The Reuter cameraman/reporter (digital storyteller) came forward with this:

    ‘The filming of Yulia Skripal took place on Wed May 23rd. I did not have any involvement in arranging this interview. I just filmed it. This is not true: [Yulia] used a teleprompter.’

    https://twitter.com/JurisAbramenko/status/999334820923760640

    Cousin Viktoria came forward with this analysis of ‘invasive treatment’:

    “I too don’t know. She doesn’t have a medical education. She is a geographer. I am an accountant. But i don’t know what is invasive therapy. And it can’t be a persons speaks so well, without mistakes. She has her favourite word. We all have our own parasite-word, right? She used it when she called me by telephone: “ну да, ну да” (Approximate English translation may be “yeah, yeah”, or “well, yeah” – ed.). But here [in this appeal] she suddenly did not use her words. I.e. it’s smoothly, in one breath. And a little bit slowly for her. Because [usually] she’s chatter faster, when she’s talking and nervous.”

  • Sharp Ears

    Russian MoD: Missiles Shown By MH17 Investigators Were Decommissioned After 2011

    May 25, 2018 “Information Clearing House” – According to the Russian Defense Ministry, it’s analyzing videos provided by Dutch investigators on the MH17 downing.

    “The Russian Defense Ministry is analyzing video materials presented on May 24 at a press conference of the Dutch Joint Investigation Team, which is engaged in the investigation of the passenger Boeing’s crash in the Ukrainian skies in 2014,” the ministry said.

    All missiles, whose engines were demonstrated by the Dutch team, were disposed of after 2011.

    “After 25 years of operation, all missiles of the Buk systems are subject to decommissioning and disposal, and further use of these products… poses a direct threat to the life of servicemen. The maximum lifetime of the missile, the engine from which was demonstrated by the Dutch commission last Thursday was 2011 (1986 + 25), after which all the missiles produced that year were seized, decommissioned and sent for disposal,” the ministry said.
    /..
    http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49505.htm

    • Kempe

      Well that conveniently undermines the theory that it was a Ukrainian owned Buk.

      If all the missiles made in 1986 were seized and destroyed how come parts were found at the crash site?

      • SA

        Russia can only answer for itself. The decommissioning was carried out in 2011 and not 1986 as you say, by which time Ukraine was a sovereign country.

      • GoAwayAndShutUp

        Baby food version for you:
        “After 25 years of operation, all missiles of the Buk systems are subject to decommissioning and disposal…” IN RUSSIA. Ukraine is an independent country since 1991. What it is done with expired BUKs in Ukraine is not known. Maybe fired at civil aircraft?. That’s the whole point of that claim. Even if you don’t believe it, not been able to comprehend that says a lot about your understanding of other things.
        Besides, how do you know those parts where found in the crash site?. Have you seen any evidence that the chain of custody was respected?. Shelling of the crash site (separatists) by ATO forces was non-stop during the first days if the investigation.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ GoAwayAndShutUp May 27, 2018 at 16:15
          ‘..Shelling of the crash site (separatists) by ATO forces was non-stop during the first days if the investigation…’
          And I wonder why that was? To try to disrupt evidence gathering?
          Just as the OPCW were prevented for a time from visiting Douma because the West’s proxy mercenary headchoppers were sniping the area.
          But the odds are the reports coming out almost immediately saying a Ukrainian Su 25 shot MH 17 down are the most convincing to me, reinforced by the alleged pilot being ‘suicided’ shortly before the ‘investigation’ Final Report came out (or ‘committing suicide’, according to the Ukranian regime).

          • Kempe

            ” the odds are the reports coming out almost immediately saying a Ukrainian Su 25 shot MH 17 down are the most convincing to me ”

            That wasn’t the Russians first effort, they first tried to claim it was a Buk fired by a Ukrainian battery, as they still are, but the problem there is that Ukraine didn’t have any anti-aircraft systems deployed because the rebels don’t have any aircraft!

            The Su25 is a ground attack aircraft with a service ceiling less than half the cruising height of the B777 and a maximum speed around 30 knots less than the Boeing’s cruising speed. It also lacks an AI radar and can only carry light weight air to air missiles which would be incapable of bringing down a big aircraft like a B777.

            Please explain why you are so convinced.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Kempe May 27, 2018 at 17:45
            The main reason I believe it was an aircraft that shot down MH 17 was the testimony of someone who witnessed an Su 25 take off with an air-to-air missile on board, and later land without it, and the pilot was said to be in a distressed state.
            Also, a BUK would have left a highly visible smoke trail around for some time, visible for 50 miles. Nobody saw such a trail. There would have been thousands of witnesses, on both the Ukrainian and the Separatist’s sides.
            It is commonly stated that MH 17 was flying at 33,000 feet, however, as well as being ordered to fly on a more northerly route, taking it over a war zone, it was also ordered to drop to 30,000. And the Control Tower was immediately taken over by the military, and the flight communication tapes were impounded and never released.
            There is certainly controversy over an Su 25’s ability to fly high enough to shoot down a Boeing, with most reports saying it couldn’t.
            But there are alternative knowledgeable reports that it could.
            ‘Could SU-25 fighter jet down a Boeing? Former pilots speak out on MH17 claims’:
            https://www.rt.com/news/239881-mh17-ukraine-fighter-jet/
            Whilst the chief designer says an Su 25 could not shoot it down, other pilots and officials disagree:
            ‘..However, several former top officials and SU-25 pilots disagree with Babak.

            Based on the analysis of the plane debris and the nature of the damage, there is a high probability the plane was stuck by an air-to-air missile and an aircraft gun, Lieutenant General Aleksandr Maslov, former deputy chief of the Russian Air Defense and Land Forces, told RT.

            “The published photos [from the MH17 crash site] enable to assume that the Boeing was downed by a military jet. Besides that, the existing damage indicates that the airplane was shot with air-to-air missiles together with an aircraft gun with a 30mm caliber,” Maslov said.

            Claims that the passenger plane was downed by a surface-to-air Buk missile “cannot be supported,” as the nature of the damage from the missiles is different, he added…..’

            ‘Speculation about the combat capabilities of the SU-25 jet stem from the Russian definition of the aircraft’s service ceiling – which is not the same as its absolute ceiling, as defined by the US military, Veterans Today senior editor Gordon Duff told RT.

            “The claimed service ceiling is based on the oxygen supply in the aircraft. Now, there is a claim that this plane [SU-25] will only work to 22,000 feet. At the end of World War II, a German ME-262 would fly at 40,000 feet, a P-51 Mustang propeller plane flew at 44,000 feet. The SU-25 was developed as an analogue of the A-10 Thunderbolt, an American attack plane. The planes have almost identical performance, except that the SU-25 is faster and more powerful. The A-10 Thunderbolt has a service ceiling of 45,000 feet. The US estimates the absolute ceiling, which is a different term,” Duff explained.

            The known estimate for the absolute ceiling of the SU-25 is 52,000 feet (15.8km), he added….’

        • Kempe

          It says all missiles, not all Russian missiles, the word all only means one thing.

          In 2011 Ukraine still had normal relations with Russia so the outdated rounds would’ve been exchanged, Why would Ukraine hang on to outdated munitions which might not work or be dangerous?

          • Tatyana

            Kempe, you have to be russian (or ukrainian or any ex-USSR) to know, outdated due to instructions is not obligatory non-working. In order to save money or, more or less probably, to steal money, it is very possible some people could still use outdated weapons.

          • GoAwayAndShutUp

            Kempe says: “It says all missiles, not all Russian missiles, the word all only means one thing. In 2011 Ukraine still had normal relations with Russia so the outdated rounds would’ve been exchanged…”

            So, as per your rationale, any time any Soviet or Russian missile expires in any country in the world with normal relations with Russia (India, Pakistan, Venezuela, Egypt, etc.) then it is immediately exchanged for a “new from the box” one. Really? Is that the better you can do?

            Kempe says: “Why would Ukraine hang on to outdated munitions which might not work or be dangerous?”

            Because it is and, by 2011 was, in an economic crisis that led to the crappy state their army very clearly demonstrated during 2014 war?.

          • PJ Haddock

            Try “qui bono” Schl*m*, and explain what on earth Russia could gain from such an act. The Ukraine already did shot down a Russian civilian airliner in 2001 remember? WITH A BUK MISSILE. They refused to admit their evil deed until evidence became overwhelming.

            The painting of the mh17 and the Russian presidential il96 is quite similar and a Ukrainian – *sraeli oligarc, Kolomoisky, id’s on the record having made a threat to shoot down that jet

          • Tatyana

            GoAwayAndShutUp
            Is it possible that only Russia could re-place outdated BUK missiles? I mean, if Ukraine had to replace, so they must have turned to Russia for it. As long as I know, it never happened.

          • Tatyana

            PJ Haddock
            there’s a detail that messed up the whole case. MH17 turned in opposite direction after the strike. Nobody says if it is usual for striken airplain to make a turn round (God forgive me for these cynical words)
            It fell on the rebell-hold area, BUT if not reversed, it would have fallen in Russia. And this might possibly be the real goal of the shooter.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Kempe May 27, 2018 at 15:30
        The same way police can ‘plant’ drugs or other ‘evidence’ on innocent people.
        You seem to very muted about the Robinson Demo in Whitehall by the EDL and associates.
        That was a massive demo, one of the largest I have seen at Downing Street, and for such a large demo, by far the least policed; and the police arrived long after the demo had become very aggressive.
        I have NEVER been to a Downing Street demo where there was not a strong presence of police guarding the outside of the gates.
        Incredible; they must have had an order to keep policing as low key as possible (perhaps May doesn’t want to upset her Right-wing racist friends who vote for the Tories):
        ‘FREE TOMMY ROBINSON DOWNING STREET STORM THE GATES PART 2 OF 2’:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1q91kzzwdSc

        I really sympathise with those handful of police officers facing the baying crowd of football hooligan types.
        Talk about the ‘Thin Blue Line’.
        I cannot imagine another country on earth that would have put up with that behaviour.

        • Charles Bostock

          Israel certainly wouldn’t, it’d have shot a few of the buggers and quite right too.

          • SA

            No need to remind us if the lawlessness of the Israeli state, we are all aware.

          • bj

            I hope Hamas, if it ever picks up arms against the Israeli’s, has enough bullets for everyone. If every man, woman and child in Israel gathers at the gate, in other words, there is a bullet for every one of them. They can all be killed, no problem.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Charles Bostock May 27, 2018 at 17:29
            Hardly; they’re ‘buddy-buddy’ with the EDL, or hadn’t you heard?
            ‘Uncovered: the unholy *ionist-EDL alliance’; just exchange the ‘*’ for ‘Z’ and search.

          • bj

            @Clark
            May 28, 2018 at 11:04

            I admit the statement was a bit unorthodox.
            In fact, I find it heinous and repulsive.

            You see, I did not make that statement.
            It was a quote.

            In the quote, the only thing I did was substitute the word ‘Israel’ for the word ‘Gaza’.
            I was quoting Knesset member Avi Dichter.

        • Kempe

          Hard to tell from the video how many were actually demonstrators and who were just bystanders, the usual tourists and passersby.

          All estimates put the number in the hundreds so hardly a vast demo but sad that we should have even that small number of far right idiots who have nothing better to do on a Bank Holiday.

        • Canexpat

          @Paul

          I really find it interesting that for a blog that continually highlights press smears and downright lies you automatically believe the MSM portrait of Tommy Robinson. It has been several years since I threw off my Guardian/BBC gatekeeper brainwashing and I am now far more sensitive to whoever is their whipping boy of the moment. I have a rough rule of thumb nowadays – the views of anyone who is systematically targeted as a ‘wrongthinker’ by these esteemed press organs are worthy of further investigation, whether it is Craig Murray, George Galloway or even Tommy Robinson. You seem extremely fast to label Tommy Robinson as a racist and his supporters as ‘football hooligans’. As to the former charge, I have watched several of TR’s speeches and have yet to find a truly racist statement. I would contend that you are applying the same rigorous approach to name-calling as certain zi’ists. TR (rightly or wrongly) opposes the ideology of extremist Isl’m. This has nothing to do with the DNA of its proponents. I oppose the ideology that arose in Eastern Europe in the nineteenth century that proposed an ethnostate in the ME, yet many would slander such a position as antis…ic. Please feel free to direct me towards a Robinson interview where he makes obviously racist statements as opposed to statements objecting to the ideological/cultural values of a group.

          As to his supporters, they hail from many backgrounds, although no doubt most are from that demographic which seems to be the last legitimate target of publically expressed unbridled hate – white, under/working class males.

          • marvellousMRchops

            Well said. If you object to the state of Israel you are smeared as anti S. If you object to fundamental Islam you are racist. If you are white, northern and working class and voted for Brexit you are a foaming at the mouth racist. Divide and rule.

          • Node

            I have a rough rule of thumb nowadays – the views of anyone who is systematically targeted as a ‘wrongthinker’ by these esteemed press organs are worthy of further investigation, whether it is Craig Murray, George Galloway or even Tommy Robinson.

            I use this rule of thumb myself, but in conjunction with don’t assume the people who orchestrate the targeting are incapable of subtlety. Take the media treatment of Nigel Farage: they constantly attack him and his views, while giving him every opportunity to spout them. Count Farage’s appearances on BBC Question Time, compare his treatment to that meted out to Jeremy Corbyn.

            Perhaps the tactic is to use Farage and Robinson to drive the entire political spectrum right-wards whilst portraying them as extremists, a wasted vote at a general election. The Tories adopt their policies and we have to vote for them or those of an antisemitic ira-supporting communist.

          • Canexpat

            Node

            I agree that what you suggest is a possibility and Robinson may be an unwitting tool of a nefarious establishment, but the constant police harassment and frequent imprisonment indicates that he himself is not complicit.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Canexpat May 28, 2018 at 01:53
            Here are some links; I couldn’t find too much but I’m sure worse can be found:
            ‘Fury as Ex-EDL leader Tommy Robinson accuses Finsbury Park Mosque of ‘creating terrorists’:
            https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/623358/tommy-robinson-finsbury-park-mosque-terror-attack
            ‘Tommy Robinson IS Racist, how else can he justify this?’:
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j06vNTx6z04
            ‘Analysis: Tommy Robinson’s ‘Day for Freedom’ – a new turning point for fascism and the far right’:
            http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2018/05/analysis-tommy-robinsons-day-for-freedom-a-new-turning-point-for-fascism-and-the-far-right/
            ‘Tommy Robinson’: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Tommy_Robinson

            Looks like I was right about the football hooligans ( I just sussed that before); he is linked up with the DFLA, hard-line football hooligans.
            In public interviews, Robinson tries to appear moderate, but his Islamophobia still shows through.
            Islamophobia is racist.

            Whilst searching around, I found this:
            ‘An EDL Paedophile Has Been Jailed for 17 Years’: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/3k74vn/an-edl-paedophile-has-been-jailed-for-17-years?utm_campaign=sharebutton

            ‘…Some EDL members seem to be aware of the problems McMillan’s crimes could now cause them, in light of this.

            Campaign website Hope Not Hate reports that the 46-year-old, from Milton Keynes, used the name “McMillen” on social media, where other EDL members have already called on anyone in the know to keep any information relating to his child abuse to themselves.

            “We don’t want the left rubbing our noses in the dirt pretending they are whiter than white themselves,” wrote one.’

          • Canexpat

            Oh FFS PB

            “Islamophobia is racist”

            No, no and a thousand times no. You may object to “Islamophobia” if you wish – that is your right, but to say that Islamophobia is racism is on a par with the contention that anti-Zionism is anti-s@m@t1sm. Islam is a belief system. Belief systems are mutable.

            There are aspects of Wahabbist Islam that scare the bejeebus out of me, so in that sense I am certainly Islamophobic. I would suggest that the history of activist Islam warrants such a phobia.

            Perhaps you would contend that being anti-Nazi or anti-Bolshevic is also racist.

            BTW, why on earth is it relevant that a member of the EDL has been outed as a paedophile? What a ridiculous attempt to smear by association. I am sure there are members of every political group who have objectionable traits. It does not reflect on the group as a whole unless the behaviour is condoned by the group.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Freddy May 28, 2018 at 04:17
        Perhaps the phone caller told Voloshin to shoot himself, or his whole family would be murdered.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    I wish all you guys a Brilliant Festival Douune Your Rabbit holes in Bonny Scotland…if it is half as good as here at Winsterfest in Derbyshire you will have a great time. Its 23 degrees in the Peak District. Weather. Perfect Massive great Paddling Pool which a Grandad brought for us kids Tony xx

  • Doug Scorgie

    Herbie May27 00:01

    “Is there any support among zionists for a one state solution?”

    ………………

    Yes Herbie, overwhelming support for a J..ish state called Greater Israel to encompass the total area of historic Palestine.

    • Dom

      With the proviso that “the only democracy in the middle east (TM)” dispense with one person, one vote.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Doug Scorgie May 27, 2018 at 16:01
      There never was such a state of Palestine covering that area; it’s just the area they believed (or professed to believe) had been ‘promised to them’ by ‘God’.
      You are right about their intention of a ‘one state solution’ comprising the proposed ‘Greater I**ael’: search: ‘Yinon Plan’.

    • lysias

      A lot of them want Greater Israel to extend from the Nile to the Euphrates.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ David Avi May 27, 2018 at 21:21
          I most certainly take it seriously.
          I also take Aaron Russo’s testimony extremely seriously – I doubt if you have ever seen it:
          ‘Jones Interviews Aaron Russo’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3NA17CCboA
          Do you believe it is right to use snipers against peaceful demonstrators? And to keep a whole territory as a sealed prison, bombing and shelling the people and vital infrastructure? And to build illegal settlements on occupied land?

  • Republicofscotland

    So a crown prince will open Britain’s new £40 million pounds military staging post in Bahrain.

    “Making the announcement at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) Sea Power conference, Williamson warned “liberty, justice and tolerance are under attack from every angle” oh don’t we know it, Tory policies at home are the main cause dear Gavin, Tory policies.

    https://www.rt.com/uk/427737-frigate-deployment-gulf-bahrain/

  • Republicofscotland

    North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un finds it hard to trust US President Donald Trump’s assertions that the US would not seek to undermine his rule after Pyongyang gets rid of all its nukes.

    Well who could blame him? You just have to look at the Great Satan’s (GS) record, most recently the GS, has squirmed twisted and weaseled its way out of the Iranian deal.

    It also promised to help to come up with some sort of two-state solution between Israel and the oppressed Palestinian people, instead of pushing for a solution it moves its embassy to Jerusalem which it knew fine well would cause unrest and tension in the region.

    Then theres the Great Satan’s nefarious actions in South America, and Ukraine, but to mention a few. Kim Jung Un, is indeed a little tin pot dictator, but he’d be a bloody fool to trust the Great Satan, which has caused murder and mayhem around the globe for decades.

  • Sharp Ears

    This was a let off wasn’t it? It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Rock had ‘been close’ to Cameron for two decades. He was appointed as his deputy political advisor.

    Former aide to David Cameron found guilty over five images of girls
    Trial of Patrick Rock centred on whether images – which included girls aged 10 to 16 posing in bikinis and hot pants – broke the law
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jun/01/ex-cameron-aide-patrick-rock-cleared-two-images-of-girls

    ‘Rock was found not guilty with respect to three of the pictures and the jury failed to reach verdicts with respect to the remaining 12. The jury was discharged by Judge Alistair McCreath, who said Rock had brought “massive reputational harm” upon himself.’

    The images, found on an iPad in North Carolina, while Rock was working in the US, were all classified as category C, the lowest on the scale. McCreath said Rock would not face a custodial sentence.

    ‘After his arrest, Labour accused the Tories of a lack of transparency over the affair, suggesting Rock may have been tipped off by Downing Street before being detained.’

    ‘Rock, of Fulham, south-west London, did not give evidence during the trial, which began on Tuesday morning and lasted less than three hours. It featured no witnesses, only submissions from opposing counsel.’

    Crimes discovered in March 2014. Charged in June 2014. Appeared at Southwark Crown Court in October 2015. ‘Trial’ in May 2016.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Rock

  • Sharp Ears

    Another let off. The same judge rolled over. The Tories look after their own.

    ‘Lord Hanningfield’s prosecution was the first to be brought since the expenses system was overhauled in the wake of the revelations exposed by the Daily Telegraph in 2009.

    But sources at the CPS said following the decision, it would “almost certainly be the last”.

    Explaining the situation, Judge McCreath told Southwark Crown Court that parliament had exercised its right to say that parliamentary activity was entirely a matter for parliament and not the courts.

    “…parliament was saying it is a matter for us parliament to make that determination, not for the criminal court”
    Judge Alistair McCreath

    He went on: “That expression of parliamentary independence finds a title in constitutional law namely exclusive cognisance. At the heart of the crown’s case is an assertion that Lord Hanningfield on material dates was not carrying out parliamentary work.’

    Ex-Tory peer Lord Hanningfield cleared of submitting false expenses as parliament overrules the courts
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/18/ex-tory-peer-lord-hanningfield-cleared-over-false-expenses-after/

    ‘Where the law ends, tyranny begins’. John Locke. 1632 – 1704

    • Charles Bostock

      And the law – of exclusive cognisance – was of course applied. So John Locke would have been content. As indeed you should be.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Charles Bostock May 27, 2018 at 17:33
        Blimey! That’s a relief! I thought you might have been abducted by aliens, as you had not replied to my question:
        ‘Paul Barbara
        May 27, 2018 at 14:22
        @ Charles Bostock May 27, 2018 at 12:08
        ‘…“Supporters of Robinson immediately called for a protest to take place the following day and hundreds have answered the call.”
        The streets must have been pretty narrow ones.’
        Did you actually watch Silvio’s (‘E’s) video links? It certainly was a large demo, and Whitehall is not a narrow street:
        ‘..Videos of London protests at link: http://12160.info/page/uk-protesters-flood-the-streets-to-demand-the-release-of-imprison
        And here is another one: ‘Tommy Robinson’s supporters clash with police over his imprisonment’:
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_JTHYAAj_Q

        Of course, it is not obligatory to reply to a reasonable question, but you are pretty ‘voluble’ on here, so perhaps you missed it?
        By the way, he has now been freed; mustn’t upset the Tory-voting racists, must they?

  • Republicofscotland

    It looks like French president Macron, is attempting to be all, things to all men, except at home in France where he’s faces protests.

    Macron has travelled to the US, where he spoke in Congress, he’s also spoken to Iranian president Rouhani on the telephone and Israeli president Netanyahu. Le petit French President has also found time to travel to Australia and the wider Pacific region as a whole.

    The latest jaunt that Macron has undertaken was to Russia, but I doubt his French dulcet tones would’ve enticed the former KGB man president Putin, into giving any concessions, or confessions for that matter.

    Although Macron’s international showmanship is easy on the eye, attempting to please everyone will only see the French president become isolated. You cannot realistically be everyones friend, situations arise and on occasion sides have to be chosen.

    Macron in my opinion should focus more on his domestic troubles for the time being.

  • David Avi

    Merely to let readers know that the Israeli Ministry for Strategic Affairs has (after some delay) now published its blacklist of various European and US organisations which are involved in BDS. The officials and other leading persons of those organisations will be barred from entering the State of Israel from now on; other prominent activists in those organisations, as identified, will also be barred. As the Minister said, it is now time for Israel to abandon its passive approach in this matter and go over onto the offensive. Comrade “Node” will now have to step up his Israeli fruit and vegetable squeezing n’ bruising activities in Tesco!

      • David Avi

        I don’t know about ‘BDS must be working’ but whether it is or not, it was high time that Israel stopped giving those who wish her no well the freedom to enter the country unhindered. At least they now have fair warning that they will be put right back on their plane at Ben Gurion. Unlike in countries like Iran, no question of them being allowed in and then seized and imprisoned for months on end (usually on trumped up charges.

        • GoAwayAndShutUp

          You mean “seized and imprisoned for months on end (usually on trumped up charges”, like the thousands of Palestinians, included minors now in jail WITHOUT trial?

        • Rhys Jaggar

          Well I hope you do not expect to travel everywhere then. Plenty of people Israel does not wish well to….

        • Paul Barbara

          @ David Avi May 27, 2018 at 19:15
          ‘..Unlike in countries like Iran, no question of them being allowed in and then seized and imprisoned for months on end (usually on trumped up charges.’
          No, they save that tactic for native Palestinians, without even bothering to ‘trump up charges’, just successive ‘Administrative Detentions’: ‘Number of Palestinians Detained in I**ael Without Trial Sees Sharp Rise’:
          https://www.haaretz.com/**rael-news/.premium-number-of-palestinians-detained-in-i**ael-without-trial-sees-sharp-rise-1.5416131 (please replace ‘**’ in the links above with ‘sr’; the *’s are to save the comment going into moderation.

          ‘G4S Complicit in Torture of Palestinian Children – Parliament Projection’: http://www.inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10701

          ‘…A legal study conducted by the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Resource Centre found that G4S has “failed to demonstrate a genuine commitment to comply with international law in good faith” and is complicit in several of I**ael’s violations of international law. Similarly a 2012 report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 criticises G4S for its complicity with I**aeli violations of international law.

          40% of the 600 children that were taken from Jerusalem alone, were sexually abused by I**aeli soldiers during arrest or interrogation. During interrogation 75% of Palestinian children detained by I**ael are physically tortured.

          G4S provides the security systems which keep these torture dens operational. Prisoners who have survived these hell holes recall seeing G4S logos on the cameras that witnessed their abuse.

          One of the facilities G4S secures for Israel is the notorious Al Jalame interrogation centre in northern I**ael where Palestinian children as young as 12 years old are caged three floors below the surface in tiny children’s cells – filthy dark holes in the ground where a child is locked up without charge or trial in solitary confinement for up to 65 days in order to break them. Their only escape is the interrogation room where the children, shackled by hands and feet, are abused and tortured by the Israeli secret police for over 6 hours at a time, until they confess to trumped up charges, usually of throwing a stone which carries a penalty of up to 20 years!……’

          BDS is the very least people can do against such abuse.

      • Loony

        How would you know what is or is not working. Elsewhere on this comment thread you are claiming that the Saudi Arabian refusal to grant citizenship to Palestinians is an opinion and not a fact.

        It is a fact – and if you want to evidence that fact for yourself then I suggest you take a read of the 1959 Arab League Resolution 1547. Why would anyone take seriously the opinions of someone who is not even acquainted with the most basic facts that underpin this entire ongoing tragedy.

        Elsewhere in the world there used to be a place called Prussia and it was inhabited by Prussians. Prussia no longer exists – but there are today no Prussian refugees. Ask why that is

        • SA

          Loony
          I have never defended KSA , israel’s New bosom buddy. It is also like its buddy, a rather exclusivist country with racist overtones and some religious fanatic elements. It is also a country much beloved of the west and a great ally in the fake war on terror which they have been a major part in creating. Enjoy your friend.

    • Republicofscotland

      David Avi.

      I’d have imagined that those at the head of those organisations and also the active individuals would’ve expected to be barred from entering Israel.

      In a similar fashion as the sixteen countries that currently do not allow admission to people holding Israeli passports. Some of those nations won’t even allow entry to anyone who has a stamp on their passport showing that they’ve visited Israel.

      • Andyoldlabour

        You are quite correct, particularly regarding citizens of ANY country who have an Israeli stamp on their passport intending to visit Iran – they simply would not alloowed to enter there, not without extensive investigation.
        The Iranian authorities are quite rightly paranoid about the US and Israel – they simply cannot be trusted.

        • David Avi

          As you say, citizens of any country. How does mistrust of the US and Israel enter into the matter of citizens of any country not being allowed into Iran if their passports show they have visited israel? What’s the connection?

          • Rhys Jaggar

            The same connection that, back in the 1980s, quite a few career paths in the UK government were excluded to anyone who had visited Russia.

            Better to be safe than sorry was the offcial line…..

      • David Avi

        Why should some people be allowed to attack Israel but others not allowed to defend it?

        • Andyoldlabour

          You are quite at liberty to attempt to defend Israel, but the majority of the time Irael’s “indiscretions” are in breach of international law – not that Israel respect the UN and international law.

    • Node

      Comrade “Node” will now have to step up his Israeli fruit and vegetable squeezing n’ bruising activities in Tesco!

      Thank you, David Avi, for endorsing the right of individuals to take action against Isræl. As that genocidal state steps up its attack on BDS, ordinary people of the world should increase their personal efforts to support it. One way is to make it unprofitable for shops to stock Isræli produce (although actually a lot of it isn’t Isræli, it’s been produced by illegal settlers of Palestinian land).

      A simple and effective method, as publicised by David Avi above, is to violently squeeze Isræli fruit and veg while pretending to be comparing several packs. This is undetectable if you do it just as you are replacing the item into its display box and it is unprovable even if someone did suspect what you’d done. The result is that lots of Isræli produce has to be discounted or thrown out, which shows up in the stock control statistics as an unprofitable line.

      Don’t let Isræl use its global influence to evade punishment murder and apartheid. BDS is in our own hands.

      • Akos Horvath

        Thanks again for the tip. I have started to apply your squeezing method whenever I see produce from that apartheid state in my local REWE. I will also spread the word.

      • Charles Bostock

        Actually, Node, it was you who publicised the powerful “squeeze ‘n bruise” BDS weapon in the course of a burst of virtue signalling. It must be a good feeling to believe that BDS is in such capable hands as yours. As you say, “BDS is in our own hands” – Israel must be very relieved that you only have two 🙂

  • Sharp Ears

    Piece Process
    by Raymond Nat Turner / May 27th, 2018

    BRASS:
    Breathe, Relax, Aim, Sight, Squeeze:
    it’s a joy-stick; a video game to him…
    He has orders to “light up” anything that moves;
    “Mow the grass, one blade at a time…” “One shot,
    one kill…”
    So far, he’s bagged a man on crutches, 3 disabled, 2 children

    Azriel stalks victims in the valley of death; studies
    them through his scope; taking careful aim; punching
    tight little holes in heads and torsos—distant targets—
    They’re sudden spray, pink haze floating above spots
    where they stood. No regret. No sorrow for families…

    A plume of black smoke from flaming tires curls
    into his crosshairs, his snake eyes nesting in sand—
    a nano second too late—
    Another child’s head ‘clashes’
    with a butterfly bullet from a
    football field away—
    Crimson skull fragments
    explode from the grapefruit-sized exit wound;
    Spent cartridges, his ‘kill brass,’ pile up in the
    sand…
    Ah, the rules of engagement
    What’s bone, arteries—another amputated leg—
    got to do with it/the piece process: shoot one man,
    Terrify a thousand? Don’t ‘our’ finest train there?

    Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet privileged to have read at the Harriet Tubman Centennial Symposium. He is Artistic Director of the stalwart JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge and has appeared at numerous festivals and venues including the Monterey Jazz Festival and Panafest in Ghana West Africa. He currently is Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report. Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, People’s Advocate Cynthia McKinney, radical sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan.

    https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/05/piece-process/

  • Tatyana

    Reading this blog for about a month I came to some conclusions, but more important to some beliefs. One of which I want to bring here for discussion.

    I’ve realized that we, people, we are responsible for our governments the same way as we, parents, are responsible for our children in society.

    My ‘kid’ is Putin’s government. I am responsible for his actions in the world, the same way as I am responsible for my son’s actions in the town’s playground. I had temptation to whitewash myself by saying ‘I was too young…’ or ‘His father influence him’ or ‘I was too busy earning my living…’ but this is not the answer of an adult and caring parent. I will not, I’ll watch closely at what’s going on.

    I love my family, I love my country, I love my people, I love this world so much! It has so many options for everybody to enjoy one’s life, to educate, to feel harmony every single moment, to feel Human.
    Yet I see how hatred is unleashed between all the ‘kids in the playground’ . And I say, those who strike must be stopped, and those who fuel the hatred must be stopped too.

    I don’t want to turn into an ugly creature hating other humans because of they are Ukrainians, or Israelis, or British, or… I’d like to stay Human.

    • Anon

      Sorry but to know where you are really coming from it would help if you would tell us if you are of the Russian Orthodox Church or otherwise. For example the Americans know Sumner Redstone is actually a Murray Rothstein gone full taqqiya !!

      • Tatyana

        I’m Russian. I’n not religious, though I’m acquainted with basics of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Judaism due to my university education.
        I’ve read the Old Testament and Gospel to make sure I do understand correctly what is religious tradition in my country, but I never accepted it for myself.
        I accept many general ideas of religion regarding peace, love and humanity.
        I’m inclined to scientific research and finding proofs before going to conclusions.

    • Ahimsa

      Yes, i agree… It’s so important that in amidst naming what we see in other people, that we never lose sight of their humanity…. If we do lose sight of their humanity, then we only poison ourself in the process.

      If there’s any hope of turning the species around from the collective suicide we are headed for, then we must hold the humanistic vision of people beyond their behaviour and keep on opening up beyond the dynamics of polarised violence at the level of language, as a foundation for building bridges.

      More and more i come to realise that it’s out of a deep sense of seperation and insecurity, all abuse, violence and war is waged…

    • Twostime

      Tatyana, I’m a parent too :). Hold that love for humanity. Bless all the people across this sphere.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Unfortunately Tatyana, it is impossible to find enough hours in the day to know everything about your Government. Hell, President Putin himself probably does not know quite a bit of it.

      Also, you do not get to vote on their every action. You get one vote every few years.

      Your child on the other hand is easier to monitor….

      You need weekly online votes by citizens if you really want to feel responsible….

  • Rick Green

    Tommy Robinson in prison again. Seems new police and judicial powers being used with full freedom in his case- and media blackout to boot. Be great if you looked into it Mr Murray-

      • Rick Green

        I’m not sure- it seems it was ordered by judge. so difficult to know what for. he ‘face-timed’ his reporting outside court room before his arrest- doesn’t seem to do anything wrong. but it is just that that is so unsettling- he has been disappeared and silenced- and the media told not to report. It is not first time either. and he is in serious danger in prison. I think it would be a good case to be taken up- especially by somebody on the left.

        • Rick Green

          within matter of hours- without any jury- given 13 months (he was on suspended sentence for a similar ‘offence’, which i think it could well be argued was given unjustly to keep him quiet)

      • Loony

        It is hard to say as there is a media blackout.

        Most probably he has been jailed for contempt of court. In England this is a strict liability law – which means that guilt is determined irrespective of intent. Contempt of court can be dealt with immediately by a Judge – no need for preliminary hearings or a trial.

        Robinson has been convicted of this offence in the past – so he is a repeat offender so to speak. Obviously the lack of information males it impossible to draw any definitive conclusions – but it seems likely that the law has been applied as it is intended to be applied.

        What the Judge will not take into account is that both he and Robinson are basically living in a society that owes much to the Aztec cult of human sacrifice. In the UK young, disadvantaged and vulnerable people are offered up for sacrifice on a random but ongoing basis. Naturally it is racist to talk about this – and educated people find it all rather distasteful, so best to ignore it. Then along comes a yob like Robinson who just wont take a hint and shut up. In addition to his general obstreperous behavior he also seems not to have bought into the cult of cowardice that determines substantially all of state policy and public discourse.

        Whilst it is probable that that jailing of Robinson was in accordance with the law, the law also confers on the state a duty of care to those that it involuntarily imprisons. There are a number of instances suggestive of the fact that the state has chosen to disregard its legal obligations in this regard – all of which must be very worrying for Robinson and those who love him.

        • Rick Green

          Although i know nothing about it- my suspicion is that the law is being applied as creatively as possible- revealing the new powers of the state to silence dissent:- yes, precisely becuase he is the sort of ‘thug’ this sort of thing can be applied to with impunity.

          Yes we’ve turned to moloch- young girls sacrificed to their ideals, makes me very sad- and angry.

          • Loony

            It is impossible to say how the law is being applied.

            As I understand it the trial he was reporting on was the second of 3 linked trials. It is probable that reporting restrictions are in place until the end of the 3rd trial. It is possible that Robinson’s reporting could impact on the viability of the 3rd trial, and it is also possible that reporting the reasons for Robinson’s incarceration could also impact on the viability of the 3rd trial.

            However the Judge has succeeded in generating massive publicity and myriad conspiracy theories – a lot of which emanate from outside the jurisdiction of English courts. Somewhat similar to the ludicrous super injunctions taken out by all manner of celebrities – with their secrets being immediately reported around the world by sources emanating outside of the UK.

            None of this alters the fact that the UK is a rotting cesspit of sexual degradation all covered up by an elite class of idiots who feed their lies to a population that has fully embraced the cult of cowardice.

          • Rick Green

            Thanks for informed replies Loony.
            If you watch his ‘banned speech’ you will see the police have been- i think word is not too strong- persecuting him for years- and he is now very conscious of legal situation and is careful to ‘walk the line’, though he may have developed concomitantly a sort of martyr’s desire to see the thing to the bitter end: as you say, as he doesn’t seem to be capable of being intimidated.

            But thinking of the nature of the offence he is reporting on (or trying to)- and the limpness of the response generally to a crime that would have caused weeks of rioting in any nation with a pulse.. together with the state’s *most* unusual alacrity in prosecuting tommy and applying law *here* ….

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Rick Green May 27, 2018 at 21:53
            ‘…If you watch his ‘banned speech’ you will see the police have been- i think word is not too strong- persecuting him for years- and he is now very conscious of legal situation and is careful to ‘walk the line’, though he may have developed concomitantly a sort of martyr’s desire to see the thing to the bitter end: as you say, as he doesn’t seem to be capable of being intimidated…’
            Yeh, that’s one way of looking at it. Another is that he is four square aware that the Establishment have his back, and he is ‘undercover’ ‘Dirty Tricks’ Dept.
            He is, after all, espousing an anti-Muslim speel, which fits perfectly with the Establishment (covert) agenda.
            A couple of indications of this being a correct assessment are that (A) the police seemed totally unprepared for the demo (about a dozen PC’s arrived about 18 minutes after a mass demo outside the Downing Street gates, with all sorts of hostility aimed at the armed security police behind the gate, people(?) climbing the railings)(does it REALLY take the Met that long to respond to a potential storm of Downing Street? Or to back up a beleaguered tiny force of PC’s?).
            The racist a**hole has been released!
            See my previous comments re this.

          • Canexpat

            Sorry PB. Any impartial analysis of TR’s past would conclude that he is not a witting tool of the Establishment. He has spent time in solitary in several of the UK’s nastiest gulags and has been attacked by the organised thugs of Wahabbist Islam while at Her Maj’s pleasure.

            To suggest that he is some sort of agent is absurd. Many consider that he is voicing the legitimate grievances of a demographic that has had no representation since the Labour Party threw them overboard in their clamour to embrace the identity politics of vocal racial, ideological and sexual minorities. TR is the organic response to the comprehensive attempts at silencing of the white working-class demographic that the Labour party was formed to articulate for and represent. The use of the slur “racist” to silence those that have spoken out against the systematic abuse of mainly white children at the hands of a particular group – and the failure of the police and social services to address it – has been one of the most disgusting tricks of the Establishment of late. Unfortunately, it has also been an extremely effective tool. You seem to have fallen for it hook line and sinker.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Canexpat May 28, 2018 at 11:37
            TR can be very persuasive and sound ‘moderate’, but his followers look, act and sound like football hooligans.
            His previous spell in the British National Party, before leading the EDL, makes him a racist in my book.
            Needless to say, he believes all the ‘Terrorist Attacks’ and hoaxes are real Muslim Terrorist attacks.
            He was put in solitary to protect him from the Muslim gangs in prison.

            His campaigning against grooming and child abuse would indeed be admirable, were it not reserved for Muslim perps.
            What about campaigning about Leigh McMillan?:
            ‘Leigh McMillan of the #EDL. One of Tommy Robinson’s mates that has stayed friends with him to this day.
            Jailed this week for 17 years for Paedophilia Offences’: https://twitter.com/far_right_watch/status/969707858584629249?lang=en

        • JohninMK

          As you say Loony he has form on this subject. In particular a 3 month suspended sentence from a similar offense in Kent. So 3 months in jail is probably what he expected when he shouted out for a friend to get a solicitor.

          I assume he can appeal.

      • Loony

        Good to see that my observation that the British have embraced the cult of cowardice infused with a worship of Aztec human sacrifice culture took so little time to be proven accurate.

        Let’s face facts for a moment. There is little doubt that you and your ilk are only too keen to publicly confirm your revulsion of such figures as Jimmy Savile, but when the boot is on the other foot so to speak all of a sudden racism trumps any concern for the uncounted numbers of young vulnerable children/adolescents who are having their lives ripped apart just as completely as the victims of Aztec heart ripping cultural practices.

        Here is a quote from a well known British racist/sexist/misogynist (whose reputation just happens to be so high that there is no traction in smearing him) “You think you’re so clever, so classless, and free, but you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see”

        • J

          Nice. But do you have any evidence for anything you’re attempting to imply here? If so, first, tell us plainly what it is you’re somewhat clumsily implying above. Second, furnish us with some evidence for your conclusions, I’m sure that shouldn’t be a problem.

          I’ll lay my cards out, my understanding of the above is that you see yourself standing on one side of a perceived racial divide and that it is from this perspective that you are making your argument. Is that a mistaken impression?

          • Loony

            I am not implying anything at all. There is an official report regarding the systematic and systemic sexual abuse of some 1,400 young vulnerable people in Rotherham. A report that details the multi year failures of the police, social services and council officials.

            There are court verdicts that have dealt with similar patterns of offending in a number of towns and cities throughout England. There is at this very moment credible reports that systemic and systematic sexual abuse has occurred in Telford over a period of up to 40 years and affecting over 1,000 similarly vulnerable young people.

            It is beyond doubt that the media coverage in the UK afforded to the crimes of Jimmy Savile have been extensive.

            Very few people seem to be remotely interested in the documented activities in Rotherham, Telford and other towns and cities. This must be true otherwise the offending could not have persisted for so many years.

            One person that tries to bring these matters to wider public attention is Tommy Robinson. However his message is immediately drowned out by vacuous and un-evidenced cries of racism. So instead of gaining an appropriate understanding of the full depth and breadth of the depravity within society all attention is diverted by infantile smearing and ad hominem attacks. What could possibly explain this if not for abject cowardice – a cowardly refusal to gaze into the abyss and appreciate what kind of society people are collectively willing to tolerate.

            Why would people pore over abuse claims emanating from the Catholic Church and be so resolutely unwilling to pore over these abuse claims? Answer more cowardice.

            But now people are even too cowardly to admit their cowardice, so instead they massage their own egos by telling themselves that they are pure and good and virtuous and that their cowardice is in fact evidence of their virtue. The Aztecs too slaughtered people as a sign of their virtue. As the Hopi say, there is nothing new under the Sun, and what was will be again. Well it is here right now – and no-one cares.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Loony May 27, 2018 at 23:48
            You’re obviously not joking (even you realise this is not a joking matter, I suspect).
            What has happened to the ‘Historic Child Abuse’ Inquiry?
            Trying to smear the Muslims for a bunch of a**holes who couldn’t give a toss for religion, but are into ‘profit’ (ring any bells?) is racist hypocrisy.
            The Catholic Church has been ‘at it’ for centuries, long before Muslims came to the Midlands.
            Pick the bones out of this link (just copy it into search engine, and replace * with ‘Z’:
            ‘Uncovered: the unholy *ionist-EDL alliance’.
            Hmmm.

          • Rick Green

            Paul Barbera
            Paul Barbera,
            Paul Barbera,

            The catholic church was no more ‘at it’ it seems than other comparable institutions- public schools for eg: if i may say so, for somebody evidently alive to media agendas, you seem to have swallowed one of their favourites, bashing of the catholic church. There was-unlike these muslim gangs- no systematic pimping and rape of chiildren/young girls for sport. Hushing the things up was yet another thing the chruch shared with the society at large. And what is the evidence that this abuse stretches back ‘centuries’? there is plenty of evidence that this awful problem, whihc certainly does exist in church as it does in society at large (partiuclarly- and this is perhaps a better comparison with muslim gangs- among rockstars) largely has its roots in the permmisive society born in the 1960s (the very moment the world entered the church at Vatican ii).

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Rick Green May 28, 2018 at 07:47
            I’ve just seen your reply, but I am late for a demo, so I’ll reply another time.

      • lysias

        Whether he’s a racist or not, I don’t understand why there should be a media blackout. The powers that be like to assert a new power they’re claiming first against disreputable people, in the hope that there will be no complaint and a precedent will thereby be created that can later be used against others.

        First they came for the Communists…

        • John Goss

          Yes, I understand it Lysias. I have written about it. I have condemned it. But of late it is the law. And while the law has long been an ass if people try to change it while it is still law they are breaking the law, ass or not.

          “Secret services like ISI, MI5, MI6 and Special Branch, constitute the less pleasant and open departments of governments, and it would seem they are answerable to nobody. What’s more, they do not leave people alone once they have them in their radar. There may be a good reason for an interest in Begg, which has nothing to do with the ostensible statement for his arrest. After all, the secret services were present at some of the torture sessions when people, all of them Muslims, were rendered to various camps around the globe. Begg was one of those tortured. This has already been well established by an interim report from the Peter Gibson Inquiry, which, though hardly begun, was dropped in January 2012. It was abandoned because of the damage likely to be done to intelligence services for their involvement and participation in torture. The report spells Moazzam as Moazzem but is consistent throughout. Unfortunately the recent Justice and Security Act means that hearings can be heard outside of public scrutiny. A private hearing is already in the offing.”

          http://newsjunkiepost.com/2014/06/09/gitmo-survivor-moazzam-begg-the-man-who-knows-too-much/

          When Moazzam Begg was arrested the proposed act was not law. I have a theory our spooks took him out of circulation to prevent him trying to stop the Justice and Security Act to which we are now all vulnerable.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ John Goss May 28, 2018 at 00:16
            I have met Moazam Begg a number of times, the first time when I was campaigning for Craig in his unsuccessful attempt to replace the evil Jack Straw in Blackburn as an MP.
            At least twice he has been quite abrupt in refusing to discuss 9/11 (you get the gist).
            Once was at an Amnesty International meeting in their London HQ, the other in a local meeting in Forest Gate.
            He seems quite proud that his (I believe it was his grandfather) served the British in India.
            I have an open mind, I’m not sure what to make of him. Refusing to even discuss an issue smells of ‘dirty tricks’.
            I hope he read this, and communicates with me, one way or another.
            He ‘seems’ very anti-Islamophobia, but if there is anything greater fuelling Islamophobia than blaming them for 9/11, 7/7 etc., I don’t know what it is.

          • John Goss

            I have met him too Paul. I have also met his father who campaigned at the Bordesley Centre in Birmingham for Begg’s release while he was banged up by the Yanks in Guantanamo. I think when people he does not know well speak to him he is very wary of who that person might be, and in what way any answer might be interpreted or misrepresented. He has to measure his words carefully and remember, he has been interrogated by some of the nastiest people on the planet with an agenda known only to them. Guantanamo, 9/11 and torture are issues likely to annoy and perhaps he feels the best way to deal with them is to say nothing.

            There are areas on which I have read his remarks with which I do not agree. I do not share his apparent hatred of Bashar al Assad (which is in line with our government’s hatred though our government wants him removed to steal the assets and impose a puppet state on behalf of Israel). When I met him he seemed cagey but that is understandable when a person has been through what he and Shaker Aamer have. Some people believe he is an asset of the spooks. About that I have no way of knowing. Even if he is it did not stop Special Branch arresting and imprisoning him while the Justice and Security Act was going through parliament. It did not stop them sequestering his and Cage’s bank accounts.

            Any coldness towards white westerners is almost certainly the product of what white westerners have done to him and his fellow Muslims.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ John Goss May 28, 2018 at 09:40
            But this was after I dad met him a number of times on Craig’s campaign in Blackburn.
            I also don’t like his knee-jerk hatred of Assad. He is also proud his father, or probably grandfather, served the British with distinction in India, pre-Independence.

        • Paul Barbara

          @ lysias May 27, 2018 at 23:35
          If you look at the various videos that have been linked to this stroy (which I heartily recommend) you will see an almost inconceivable ‘softly, softly approach by the police. They didn’t even arrive for about 18 minutes, during which time the ‘demonstrators’ were rattling the gates of Downing Street. The policing was so low-key, it was, frankly, disgusting.
          About a dozen PC’s, after they belatedly arrived, were confronted by a huge crowd of belligerent ‘protesters’.
          I really sympathise with them. The whole shebang stinks of ‘dirty tricks’, and to top it off, the a**hole has been released.
          See some of my previous comments.

      • Canexpat

        JG “I don’t support racists”

        I don’t have much time for them either, but do you have any evidence that TR is a racist? I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I’ll repeat it here. How have you formed your view of TR I wonder? Is it perhaps the establishment press reporting his speeches? Whether you agree with the man or not, he has been the target of myriad hit-pieces in the MSM and has had his life completely destroyed by questioning the establishment narrative about the “Religion of Peace” TM.

        He grew up as a working-class white lad of Irish descent who experienced first hand the mutation of his own town as Islamic immigrants became more numerous in the working-class areas of Luton. Love or hate his views, he is entitled to them and from those speeches that I have listened to, he has not said anything I would construe as racist. He detests the Wahabbist ideology that is becoming dominant in many UK mosques but has friends from many different ethnic backgrounds – more I suspect than most of those smearing him as a racist.

        For some time I have held the view that if someone suffers real hardship as a result of telling what they see as the truth, they are worthy of a fair hearing. When the BBC and Guardian lauds a group like the White Helmets I am immediately suspicious. When they smear an individual, I become interested in what that individual has to say. The list of those truth-tellers who become vilified by the MSM is an honourable one that includes Craig and Julian Assange to name just two. Robinson has served time in prison on trumped-up mortgage fraud charges and the law has been used to silence him illigitimately on many occasions. He has been placed in prison wings that were dominated by dangerous Wahabbist jihadis and it is difficult to escape the conclusion that the UK establishment wants him dead.

        When the law is used politically to silence dissent, whether you agree with the dissident, as in the case of Assange, or disagree, as presumably is the case with Tommy Robinson, it is incumbent on all of those who care about the truth to speak out. That is why Robinson is worthy of Craig’s support.

        • Duane Renault

          Canexpat,

          Regarding the last paragraph of your comment: Indeed, the only practical test of one’s commitment to freedom of speech is one’s willingness to support that freedom for those with whom one most disagrees.

          • Loony

            …and of course your credibility is through the roof.

            What with you expressing your contempt for George Orwell, Mark Twain, George Eliot, Michael Caine, Ringo Starr, Cliff Richard, John Wayne, Rock Hudson, George Osborne, Elton John, Muhammed Ali etc. etc.

      • Rick Green

        John Goss
        This is a very disappointing response.
        Can the state do what they want with racists?

        • John Goss

          “Can the state do what they want with racists?”

          No, nor Muslims, gypsies, Jews, Communists or other oppressed communities.

          I tried to explain my response in a nested comment. My campaigning has been for not allowing the laws like the so-called “Justice and Security Act” which allow decisions to be made in camera without free reporting. Until we get the law put right it is not possible to protect Tommy Robinson or anyone else. I asked the question “Do you have any reason for thinking him a man worthy of Craig Murray’s support Rick Green?” to stimulate debate, which it seems to have done.

          As to myself I believe if we can get these laws repealed, perhaps under Jeremy Corbyn, Tommy Robinson will get the same automatic protection as the rest of us. If I were a lawyer and he was my client I would do everything I could to prevent his imprisonment, especially when it is done without public scrutiny. I might even get to like him as a person because as you say I only know what has been written about him. As things stand there are other causes closer to my heart than the EDL and its leaders.

          Hope I’m back in the good books! 🙂

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Rick Green May 27, 2018 at 19:40
      I understand he has been released.

  • Pyotr Grozny

    Excuse me if this has been answered above but does anyone know if the official British Government version says that Yulia Skripal was a target, or collateral damage? As my Russian girlfriends says, if the Russian government were out to get her they could have got rid of her in Russia.

      • John Goss

        Because they can’t help it. They are incompetent and showed it when Boris Johnson was pranked. With all the voice-recognition software they should have known straight away, before the call got through to Boris, that the caller(s) was not the Armenian Prime Minister. Instead they gave our Foreign Secretary almost twenty minutes of internet ridicule.

        It is quite obvious to my mind why they failed in this. They are two busy keeping tabs on me and others like me. They need to get real. There is also that Skripal story they bought off the Yanks in order to scupper the World Cup that my country now has so much egg on its face it looks like Humpty Dumpty after the fall.

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Pyotr Grozny May 27, 2018 at 20:11
      ‘..As my Russian girlfriends says, if the Russian government were out to get her they could have got rid of her in Russia…’
      Heaven forbid! How could the UK have spun their ‘Russia done it’ hoax in Salisbury?
      The Russians know better than to screw up relations with the UK, but unfortunately our Luciferian schweinhunds don’t have the same ‘nous’.

    • Tom Smythe

      >>Was Yulia Skripal target or collateral damage?

      Sorry, I don’t follow the official British Government version too closely but:

      Target, if assassin was mother-in-law in Russia from the family of famous Soviet patriots

      Target, if assassin was fiancé after the $200,000 inheritance from Alexandr’s house sale that Yulia just deposited in a Moscow bank.

      Target, if the two had turned down a MI5/6 assignment during the 4 hour shutdown of their cell phones that morning and knew too much.

      Collateral, if Sergei was the target of betrayed colleagues

      Collateral, if Sergei was too embroiled in the Steele Dossier or other new business

      Collateral under all scenarios: DS Nick Bailey who was minding or tailing them

  • The Earl of the Clyde

    Evil Bastards Shot the Ice cream man dead..Who would normaly be Queing for ice cream to see this Horror before their eyes ? . sickening.. Roger waters has been a great voice for Palestininan Rights.. Now he sould call out the World.. U.N ICC ect for allowing it

    The Ice cream man..and so the Slaughter continues

    P.S Sharp Ears

    Thanks for the tip a few days ago re Nadira’s new project.. Got a Donation off in time.. The Target was reached

  • flatulence

    Has Frankie Boyle been compromised? Saw the first episode of his new series the other night. I know there are some Scots that are very pro Indyref2 and so attack Corbyn to try and sway more votes to SNP, (I think this is tactically flawed, but that is beside the point) it’s just he’s been very pro Corbyn or at least dryly cutting straight through the nonesense which usually, quite understandably results in ridiculing Maybot and the tories, but instead he bluntly diverted into his first topic which was an all out attack on Corbyn and the Labour party re. the nonsense antisemitism.

    It just seems so unreal and out of character that I worry he is now being controlled to some extent and may become a mouthpiece. He is especially valuable given the demographic he may influence.

    • MightyDrunken

      I wouldn’t read too much into one episode. Boyle’s style of comedy is to be outrageous after all. He probably let his guests do their thing and he went along for the ride.

      • flatulence

        yeah, jury’s still out in my head. It was just it was so blatant and was a set topic and the first topic rather than just him joining in with his mentally challenged guests. He’s got to be the one controlling the topics, which is why I found it such a shock. Who knows though, maybe even shows like his need to show some sort of political balance, so now he has free reign to tear the tories a new A hole.

        Just read that Boyle himself is annoyed that some biased editing occurred so he is not in complete control. Still not forgiven yet though. I remember Boyle made some analogy about Corbyn condemning all racism rather than just antisemitism, which was completely twisted like it came straight from a Blairite. Oh it was comparing “condemning all racism, rather than just the ‘crisis’ of antisemitism”, to an oncologist saying, “cancer is bad and but I’m also trying to cure the common cold” (or something like that), where in fact, a more correct analogy would be “all cancer is bad and I am trying to cure all cancers”. It just stank of corrupt media taking us to be fools, and he’s one of the last people I would have imagined it being spouted from.

    • Radar O’Reilly

      It seems that many ‘alternative’ comedians take the queen’s spooky shilling, Radio Four’s output can be sickening in its partiality. MI5 has a massive budget.

      I did notice one minor strike-back by Paul Merton in a recent Have-I-Got-News-For-You extended version (Monday nights) when he , fairly out of context , said

      Lets talk about Salisbury. . .

      And he then abruptly shut-up. I think joking about the d-notices.
      It was quite a redeeming feature of the show, which otherwise has also been ‘nobbled’

      • flatulence

        Yeah I’ve seen Merton do similar on Have I Got News For You, he’s a good egg and often the redeeming feature. I had Ian Hislop down as a raving tory mouthpiece, but there was one show during the last campaign where the host was non-stop attack on Corbyn and every topic had been anti Corbyn/Labour, and Hislop said something like “are there no questions about the conservatives” to mass applause. Still wouldn’t call him a good egg, but at least possibly not a corrupt one, so most likely someone behind the scenes is the blatant spook. On Frankie’s show though, can’t see anyone controlling the topics over his head, especially in the way it was, so leaving me thinking it’s a tactical move, or he’s taken the shilling.

    • Stu

      He said on Twitter that the show was edited in a way that omitted all the parts about Israel being an apartheid state and kept in all the Corbyn parts.

      I think Boyle is like many Scottish people who are currently struggling to reconcile their desire for an independent Scotland with their socialism.

  • giyane

    Andyoldlabour
    May 27, 2018 at 10:05

    Yes , the EU is dictatorial, but until and unless the Tories stop fighting eachother, the ones that want to keep business profitable and customs-free and the ones that want freelance trading outside the control of the EU, the EU will be able to dictate to the UK. Cameron is Thatcher spawn so he tried to get us out of the EU by means of a referendum while appearing to be neutral. The fundamental problem is that Thatcher’s neo-liberal politics were assigned to the scrap-heap in 2007. The bankers had pocketed all the real capital and refused either to pay it back, saying they’d spent it, or take responsibility for their crimes of stealing it.

    It’s not a crisis of Capitalism, it’s a crisis of Thatcherism which was there from the very beginning, firstly that she used sexual liberation to dislodge conventional, i.e. responsible capitalism, and secondly that she trusted the bankers to control themselves. Now there is both a moral backlash against Thatcher-designed moral laissez-faire and a financial backlash against financial laissez-faire. Thatcher was bonkers to allow them in the first place, bonkers and absolutely ruthless, and absolutely wrong.

    While the Tory rats are still fighting in the sack, the country needs sane leadership as we leave the EU, not a lobotomised apology of a prime minister and foreign secretary, but a politician that corrects Thatcher’ main mistakes. Boris Johnson epitomises the worst of Thatcher’s moral laissez faire. That’s why he’s at the top of the Tory Party. He has climbed there using the ladder made by Thatcher in the ’80s. Rees-Mogg and Fox epitomise the gambling recklessness of Thatcher’s financial laissez-faire. That’s how they got to the top of the Tory Party, by saying let’s risk our extremely comfortable and prosperous financial relationship with the EU, for the sake of …. cheap imports from around the world.

    IMHO the country needs to put the Tories into Asylum where they can spend 20 to 30 years contemplating the stupidities of Thatcher and think of something new or re-invent responsible banking and responsible personal behaviour. We have a man of great good sense available in Jeremy Corbyn. Do I care if some of his policies are flawed? He would be a lot better than the Tories who are sectionable bonkers nuts wonky loons. Ne’er cast a clout til May is out. The Tories are not fit to govern.

  • Frankly Benjamin

    An interesting point that arose on the most recent DM article comments was regarding the parking ticket machine. When was that removed? And who else pressed the buttons before it was removed?

    And that got me thinking;

    There were drips off the door handle onto the floor that both Skripals presumably walked into.

    But bear in mind only one Skripal closed the door. Of course they could have returned.

    They went to the cemetery and placed flowers on mother/wife & brother/son graves. c 9:15am

    Then they went missing until 1.00pm. The police know where they were at 1:00pm but they haven’t told the public.

    Walking and touching, everywhere they went.

    They then went to a pub. Who used the tables after them? Who collected their glasses? The glasses presumably went in the dish washer and contaminated all the other glasses unless the Public Health England advice is correct and baby wipes and OMO sorts this stuff.

    And then the restaurant, glasses, plates, menus, cutlery, waiters, washer, tables, chairs, toilets, doors, taps etc etc NB At this stage the table was so contaminated it had to be burnt immediately the contamination was detected.

    And they used their Russian feet to move between these locations.

    And there’s a gap between leaving the restaurant and getting to the bench*

    *(But please remember in the non Disney version of this story the people on the bench were 100% NOT the Skripals.

    And then there was the Brave DS Bailey. And all the others concerned in the first response operation (including the helicopter) which wasn’t taken for burning.

    Makes you think!

    • SA

      For a carefully targeted attempt at assassination sloppily carried out, there seems to be a lot of sloshing around of a very dangerous chemical. Sounds like someone wanted to make a movie not really any reality.

      • Frankly Benjamin

        Not targeted at all, it was an indiscriminate attack.

        Only one Skripal likely to touch the door handle

        Many dozens / hundred of people likely to come into contact with that person’s cross-contamination

        And each of those contaminated then continue the cross-contamination.

        And we don’t know what / where / who was being contaminated at the early stages (most concentrated residue on the hand) during the missing 3 and 3 quarter hours after the cemetery.

        We know that later in the afternoon (more than 6 hours after leaving the cemetery) in the restaurant that whoever had touched the door handle was still extremely contaminated and spreading the stuff like a good un

        The evidence is it was extremely virulent and “hot” at more than 7 hours on the bench.

        And then the hospital (8 hours) where weak and vulnerable were at tremendous risk.

        We are lucky the death toll was not in the thousands

        • bj

          It wasn’t in the hundreds, it wasn’t in the tens, it wasn’t in the ones. It was in the naughts.

          The only victims were — alas, and scandalously: the cat, and two guinea pigs.
          And they were killed by the cruel MET police.

        • flatulence

          I wonder how many must also have been taken ill from the door handle which they almost certainly will have used without PPE. Here’s a pic of 2 police women standing a couple of metres away from the heavily dosed handle and doormat which must be drenched in Novichok. They will have it on their hands, and therefore all over their faces, and they will have trampled it far and wide. And yet not one dead.

          https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/180329091351-01-skripal-house-file.jpg

    • earl of the Clyde

      Oh,,Back Up n Running are We.. I tried to say thanks to sharpears.. Reminding me about Nadira’s Project… I sent a Donation.. Just in Time..They Made the Tearget..Cheers.

  • Silvio

    A former Time Magazine Editor states in a panel discussion that all governments create a “master narrative” and seems to imply that it is not the media’s job to question this master narrative, even if evidence exists that it is mostly b*ll*cks.

    He says, “I am not against propaganda. Every country does it, and they have to do it to their own population. And I don’t necessarily think it’s that awful.”

    Note there is some occasional swearing in the video.
    https://youtu.be/ZCQJm1B29p8

  • Sharp Ears

    Apart from Joan Ryan, Lab Enfield North, arch supporter of Zionist Israel and chair of Labour Friends of Israel,

    Philip Cross has nothing on her in the way of editing Wikipedia!

    Expenses
    In October 2007, the Evening Standard reported that Joan Ryan claimed £173,691 in expenses for the 2006/2007 tax year,[3] the highest for any MP. She was the second highest claimant in the 2005/2006 tax year.

    In May 2009, it was reported that Ryan had claimed more than £4,500 under the Additional Costs Allowance for work on a house she had designated as her second home.[4] In February 2010, based on an audit report looking into the United Kingdom parliamentary expenses scandal, Ryan was asked to repay £5,121 mortgage interest.[5]’

    ‘Accusations of editing Wikipedia from within Parliament
    In 2012, The Independent reported that “[a]t least 10 attempts have been made from computers in Parliament to remove information about [Ryan’s] expenses claims and a further 20 efforts to delete the information, some from her constituency of Enfield North, have also been recorded in Wikipedia’s logs.”[15]

    During the 2015 general election, The Daily Telegraph returned to this issue. In Ryan’s case, the entire expenses section was deleted, including information on repairs and decorations on her home paid for out of her MP’s expenses; the edits were made while Ryan was not an MP, and she denied involvement’
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Ryan

    Most would go away and hang their head in shame. Not her.

  • Tatyana

    London welcomes another rich businessman from Russia – Boris Mints, who just moved to London together with his family and his 3 sons all with their families. So many russians are poisoned or suicided in London, but Boris Mints seems like nothing to fear. Is not he afraid? Brave man! What is the basis of his courage?
    His investment company has 25 000 000 000 roubles dept by this moment. Where is this money? We will never know, I guess.

    Mrs. May offered to investigate into origin of russian money invested in Britain, but with so many friends of Israel in British Parliament …. I think it will never happen.
    Mr. Trump said there will be investigation into russian account holders in American banks, I guess it will never happen too, regarding his daughter’s religion and her husband and all the great support UK and USA show towards Israel.
    I’m sure they will never bring to public any results of these investigations, because money driven from Russia belong to citizens of another state.
    Should I mention Boris Mints’ nationality?
    I have strong feeling, that anti-Russian campain is settled to not return money stolen from Russia.

    • Rhys Jaggar

      Of course the aim is to steal the money. 1991 saw that happening for a decade, until Putin said ‘Nyet!’

      What on earth makes you think that kleptocrats will ever change their spots?

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