Staring at the screen in disbelief as the BBC broadcast a preview of a quite literally soft focus “interview” of Theresa May by a simpering Nick Robinson. North Korean stuff. For Panorama.
“Prime Minister, a lot of people liked it when you described yourself as a bloody difficult woman”. Astonishingly sycophantic stuff from the state broadcaster.
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In any other field, you’d be fired and that would be that.
“Ian Paisley has thanked the voters of North Antrim for their “unwavering support” after Westminster’s first ever recall petition fell short of the threshold required to unseat him.
https://amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/sep/20/ian-paisley-dup-mp-survives-first-ever-recall-petition-lobbying
Not quite “that would be that”, RepSco – you’ve overlooked the possibility of the employer being sued for unfair dismissal.
Good Afternoon Charles, yes I’ll give you that, however it would need to be on a case by case basis.
Imagine a hypothetical meeting in a cafe not far from the Boulevard Mortier: I am seated across from a French military man who has a folder in front of him. We are speaking about French involvement in the downing of the Russian aircraft. He denies any French activity. He then riffles through his folder and moves a sheet up to the top. Leaving the folder open he excuses himself to go the toilet. I am able to read upside-down French and determine that it is a transcript of an DGSE email outlining cooperation between France and Israel. On his return he denies all knowledge of any Israeli cooperation.
Who is my source?
Sounds more like an Israeli story to put the blame on France. Especially after Macron’s positioning today at Salzburg. It’s not consistent.
How does Macron strutting around salzburg inform us as to the deployment of French missiles ?
I wouldn’t think Macron going for a walk around Salzburg tells us anything about anything, as you so irrelevantly and offensively
claim.
He’s not likely to get taken in by Israeli intrigues. There’s other evidence that France is not going along with US-Israel attempts to prolong the war in Syria, so again a good reason for Israel to be ready to paint blame. A country that can launch an armed attack on its principal ally killing 34 sailors is hardly likely to hesitate to put the blame elsewhere, when France is no longer the apple of Trump’s eye.
inspetor Clouseau.
Here is summary of the current position in negotiations between the poshboy British regime (PBR) (“the UK” as it is called by itself, its loyal scribes, and those it has brainwashed) and EU27:
PBR: “We want to be inside and outside the customs union at the same time, we want to be in the single market for goods in all but name, we want City-based financial interests to do whatever they want on your territory, and we don’t want your European Court of Justice interfering.”
(From point 47 of the Chequers proposal: “new arrangements for services (…) that would provide regulatory flexibility”…”provisions” that “minimise” “barriers” to “the cross-border provision of services”. That means HAIL THE CITY.)
EU27: “Screw you.”
PBR: “We’ll walk away then. You can stuff your food lorries. See if we care.”
Note: the PBR is not “walking away”. The PBR is being given the boot. A big hard foreign boot. Daily Mail readers must be absolutely loving this, believing it shows just what happens when you’ve been too soft on the “Windrush” and “swarthy” types for so long.
Strange final paragraph. What on earth has “Windrush” got to do with it – or swarthy types for that matter.
Xenophobia.
The situation in Broken Britain is dire. Now the Prisons chief executive resigns.
The system is bust.
UK prisons and probation chief Michael Spurr to be replaced amid epidemic of violence and self-harm in jails
Michael Spurr tenders resignation after prisons service decides it is ‘the right time to ask a new chief executive to take on this important role’
1 hour ago
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-prisons-service-michael-spurr-sacked-birmingham-inmates-care-conditions-guards-justice-department-a8546436.html
‘Peter Dawson of the Prison Reform Trust said, “Michael Spurr will be an extraordinarily hard act to follow. He is an exceptionally principled and knowledgeable leader who has selflessly served an endless succession of short-term ministers. Whoever takes over will face the same fundamental problems of overcrowded and under -resourced prisons. Those are problems which only ministers can address and none of those whom Michael has served so faithfully have delivered. Anyone who thinks the problems in our prisons can be solved by a change of leader is deluding themselves.” Quite so.
Who and what next?
Head teachers seem to be pissed off too.
Got to wonder how many rich but not super-rich types are making arrangements to leave the country right now, because it is indeed broken. Officials and middle managers working in the administration of various sectors are being put under mounting pressure by all the asset-stripping and looting. They’ve bullshitted all their lives, so they don’t mind bullshitting, but what’s happening now is that the ground is falling away from beneath their feet.
There will come a day when it’s difficult to fly or sail out.
there’s only so much room in new zealand.
Yes and of course every other country is just fine and dandy……..ROFL
try German railways……try German policing…..try German knife attacks…….try German automotive engineering and how many executives are on US DoJ Wanted Lists…….or how 13 million German diesel cars are now approaching zero value…….or how VW falsified petrol engines too from 2011…..or how EU Cartel busters have VW, BMW, Daimler, Porsche, Audi lined up for massive litigation.
try France with Martial Law in perpetuity and bankruptcy…
Oh and New Zealand with strikes of nurses, teachers…because it has the most over-valued housing market on earth………and how it is dominated by an Agri-Conglomerate called Fonterra and dairy is its biggest export………and how low the wages are and how high the cost of living……..
Yes everywhere is lovely outside UK………lovely in USA……..
People in UK are ignorant of anywhere else and fail to run their own country properly……….they want an inflatable bouncy castle to play in provided by someone else because they are incompetent at running their own country
The common feature in all, the financial system destroying everything it touches.
What are you referring to with France and bankruptcy?
The debts of SNCF are 2% GDP and are off-sheet. France has a bloated healthcare budget, bloated State Deficit, bloated public corporation deficit……once interest rates rise the French State is under water.
http://www.debtclocks.eu/public-debt-and-budget-deficit-of-france.html
http://countryeconomy.com/national-debt/france
N_
Greenwood is just being gratuitously offensive. France is not bankrupt. It’s Britain that is up the creek without a paddle, and Greenwood is trying to pretend that it’s otherwise with whataboutery based on tendentious sources.
France’s debts are effectively in a foreign currency, the Euro, of which it is a currency user.
The UK creates its own currency, Sterling, which, as monopoly issuer, it can never, ever run out of. The UK need never bounce a Sterling cheque, and the UK Govt has the power to purchase anything available to buy that is priced in Sterling.
To say that France is bankrupt is hyperbole, but like Greece, if it cant create its own currency then it has to depend on what it can raise in taxes for its expenditure, and can, in fact, run out of money to cover its debts, because its central bank cannot create that currency at a keystroke – unlike the BoE.
Thank gawd, or should I say Gordon, that the UK never joined the Euro.
His Excellency Mr S makes, as ever, some excellent points. My friend Colin (who moved four years ago from Rothschilds to Moody’s) might add a few caveats about national creditworthiness, but he’s got no time to come on here, poor bloke, he’s overworked and overpaid.
One wonders why all these ghastly people want to come here.
Take say a Polish or Romanian or Bulgarian person cleaning hotel rooms in Britain. She will get a higher wage than she can get in the country she came from even if it is lower than what a British person would need to pay her mortgage and keep her head above water. And if she saves even say 5% of her takehome pay and sends it home for the care of her Mum who is a senior citizen, that amount might only pay for a cinema ticket and a couple of cappuccinos in Britain but it will go quite a long way in Sibiu and make a big difference. It’s the market.
What you have stated is entirely true, but people wish to lable folks who provide numbers and statistics – racists/xenophobes.
The NMW in the UK is £7.83 per hour which equates to roughly £15,000 per year – NB that is the minimum wage.
Contrast that with the AVERAGE wage in Romania/Poland/Bulgaria/Latvia/Lithuania/Albania which is around 4500 Euros per year.
In fairness, N_, I don’t think £15 per week will go that far in Cluj. When I was there several years ago, I was surprised how expensive things in the shops were. A lot of basic foodstuffs, eg cheese, oil, rice, sugar were quite a bit dearer.
I think a common misunderstanding, when attempting comparisons like Romania’s average wage versus UK minimum wage, lies in the nature of the two economies. Romania is still heavily agricultural, and outside the big cities, of which there are few, much activity involves barter and what we might call “cottage industry”. The “economics” of this is negligible in UK, but extremely significant in Romania.
Apples and oranges come to mind here.
Sarcasm is no help, @Geoffrey. Both xenophobia and immigration need to be addressed head on, in terms of what they mean for working class people and others.
It would be a nonsense to disagree with N_’s second statement, other than perhaps with arguments that invoke his first.
However, given that these twin issues have, from time to time, been high on the agenda in UK since at least the time of Enoch Powell’s Wolverhampton speech fifty years ago, I wonder what N_ might now suggest on a workable, practical level to address this need.
When Gauke, the prisons minister, worked under Osborne in the Treasury in 2010-16, it was revealed that he had previously worked as a solicitor in a tax avoidance specialist firm, Macfarlanes, for six years. His wife was a corporate tax specialist.
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/david-gauke-tax-avoidance-macfarlanes-hypicrisy-morally-366215
‘Macfarlanes LLP is a corporate law firm headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It advises national and multinational companies, business leaders and high-net-worth individuals in the UK and internationally across the full range of corporate and commercial matters as well as on their private affairs. In 2017/18 Macfarlanes achieved total revenues of £201.5 million and profits per equity partner of £1.74 million.It is regarded as forming part of the “Silver Circle” of leading UK law firms.’ Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Gauke
Before May appointed him as Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor last January, he had been her Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for six months. ‘Short term ministers’ indeed.
So these individuals wake up and have to remind themselves what job they are supposed to be doing?
Jeremy Corbyn becoming PM on the basis of cancelling Brexit, remaining in (and reforming) the EU for the benefit of ”the many” as the saying goes…. (a work of fiction)
Forget about Blairite ?logic? behind maintaining the current status quo within the EU. Their agenda is no different than the Tories and no benefit to the vast majority of people.
At present, the balance of power in EU institutes across the board (commission, president, parliament) are the equivalent of a Tony Blair New Labour government. Rotten.The small cesspit of servile corporate and war industry shills falling over themselves in their attempts to impress their wealthy ‘friends’ needs to be cleaned out and replaced by honest, decent people across the EU who put people before profit, small and medium community sized business before global, society and state infrastructure before the tax avoiders/greedy parasites.
In short, it needs a Corbyn type takeover and Brexit is an opportunity of a generation for social democrats across the EU. If Corbyn was to be elected PM of the UK along with left parties across the EU (Portugal, Spain, Ireland(soon),France(soon), Greece etc) the shift of power could set up workers rights, food and environment standards, fisheries etc for decades to come. Leaving the EU will only hasten the 1%’s divide and rule strategy.
Corbyn should publicly right now, loud and clear, set out a list of red line guarantees that, if agreed to by the EU (regards workers rights, free movement, austerity etc.), would allow Corbyns Labour Party to campaign to remain in the EU. A transparent, honest approach that the electorate can appreciate to contrast against the Tory cloak and dagger stuff. Corner them. Commit them. Call their bluff. Show every voter across the EU who’s interests the current lot actually look after. If they want a better EU for all, then commit Tusk, Junker et al to a deal right now. These red lines should and would actually confront why Britain (like large parts of the EU) is broken and would not alienate the working class or the Labour vote. In fact, it would be a landslide for labour.
(Red lines such as free health care across the EU (NHS EU), free third level education across the EU, a 4 day 35 hour work week, restricting ‘free movement’ of serious convicted criminals etc, completely ban large and mega trawlers from EU waters, catch must be processed in country they are caught in (ie create rules that build back up the small scale fishing industries that has been destroyed by corporate EU) etc)
Reconsider, remain and reform the EU for the benefit of the people.
Corbyn should also invite Russia to join the EU in the name of peace and prosperity (and a massive fuck you to the UK ruling class). Do it.
lolz
Corbyn should do this, but he won’t. The Labour voteshare increased from 30% to 40% between 2015 and 2017 and most of the increase came from former UKIP voters. UKIP’s voteshare fell from 13% to 2%.
Are you still sure there’s a parliamentary road? 🙂
Thank you for your excellent post , shiphaned, my feeling exactly. Instead of running away creating bad feelings alround and ruining the economic outlook for yonks to come , Corbin should get in there and stay in thr EU to reform it? Top down? Starting with an elected EU commissioner who in turn demands democratic credibility from his peer commissioners.
Like your fishery rules, i”d like to add a 6 year moratorium on stopping all fishing in our ‘breeding sea’ the shallow North Sea, so cod halibut and herring have time to sporn and regenerate.
Running away blaming the EU when non of our EU meps ever made attempts to change the status quo are the actions of a coward.
That the City of London corps. Needs controlling must by now dawned on everyone, the bank bailout made this crystal clear.
Aaand we want a fair proportional vote for the many, not just our leaders….at all elections.
Do you *really* think it would be easier to bring in left wing reforms across a monolithic organisation of 28 sovereign nations, some of whom have either entrenched anti-socialist populations (NMSs), burgeoning far right parties either in govt or in the ascendant, with neo-liberal free-trade rules embedded into various treaties impossibke to change without unanimity, and a single currency outside the democratic control of any of its users, which dictates maximum 3% budget deficits, than within a single nation, with a democratic socialist leader’s party already ahead in opinion polls, gagging for higher public spending, the return of its welfare state and nationalised industries, and, crucially, which is the monoploy creator of its own sovereign non-convertible currency?
“Charity begins at home!!”
Your Excellency again makes many impeccable observations with great passion and conviction. I fear however that in UK a phenomenon often called “work ethic” is greatly at variance with that same in his home country. To say that Brits are a nation of skiving layabouts would be grossly inaccurate, but one fears a natural tendency in human nature towards idleness might be fostered by a return of an early 1970s style welfare state as perhaps you suggest, and in a way not expected in Japan.
One also fears that those nationalised industries would struggle to compete for many reasons (and the above factor accompanied by militant unionisation could be one), with a result in high inflation, and, shall we say, a lack of “easy convertabilty” of Sterling making the raw materials for this industry expensive to obtain. Again, my friend Colin would be of more help here, as I bow to His Excellency greater fluency in Econometrics
Ever, J
Do you not think that after 40 years of learning that the Eu is unreformable because it is controlled by TNCs and all elected MEPs cannot shape legislation, that simply saying ‘Jeremy, change it!’ will make it happen?
Stakes are far higher in EU and the bureaucrats will not relinquish their power.
Destroy it then start again sounds more realistic, destroying it by Greece, Italy, Hungary and others leaving.
Start it again excluding TNCs, CIA, and all other 1% from negotiations.
Then you might have a chance.
Assuming the 1% do not bomb Europe to teach the 99% a lesson.
Which left party do you imagine being elected in Ireland?
It’s amazing really that despite everything Ireland’s polity is still akin to Britain’s tweedles in the noughties. In fact, it’s still one of the only countries on the planet never to have had a left wing government. Explains why even before the current austerity regime – at the peak of the Celtic tiger boom – ROI ranked second to bottom in OECD league tables for poverty and inequality; among developed nations, only the US fares worse. The Irish electorate always force you remember that Connolly was a Scotsman for a’that..
Xavi,
Have you a link to the report that states Ireland was second from bottom at the heigh of the Celtic Tiger Boom – I am thinking 2006/7?
More recent reports make for interesting reading and suggests that the picture is not quite as gloomy as you would have us believe: https://data.oecd.org/inequality/income-inequality.htm#indicator-chart
No, late 90s, early 00s, the period of highest economic growth. It’s from Peadar Kirby’s ‘Globalization, the Celtic Tiger and Social Outcomes: Is Ireland a Model or a Mirage?’ in Globalizations, Dec 2004, p. 216.
He also mentions that Irish government expenditure on social protection as a proportion of GDP had fallen to just 14% in 2003—barely half the EU average. That’s despite the number of households earning less than half the average income having risen from 18% to 24% over the previous decade.
If the picture has improved after the last decade of cuts and sackings, I’d be pleased but surprised.
GDP growth is a statistical joke. In fact GDP calculations themselves are highly dubious with imputed rents and other guesstimates. even the high levels of Consumption in GDP calculations distort comparison with countries that are Production-focused with Wholesale Prices having lower Value-Added than Consumer Prices.
German living standards were highest 1970-1989 because of D-Mark appreciation. Once the Anschluss in 1990 loaded costs onto social security contributions and stealth taxes living standards started the progressive nosedive even though Trade Surpluses are the highest in the world and record levels of GDP – the effect is Deflationary in a Euro-Zone – so GDP hardly grows
Xavi: “[Ireland] is one of the few countryies never to have had a left-wing government.”
It depends what you mean by “left”. If terms “left” and “right” have any meaning, and I would argue that they don’t (how can you divide something as complex and multifaceted as politics into a binary choice?) then Irish politics and Irish media have long been ultra-left and ultra-liberal on social and cultural questions . In fact Ireland is the textbook example of the unspoken alliance between big business/big banks and the cultural left. The myth of the great power of the Catholic Church in Ireland is actually a paradoxical testament to the opposite – since it shows how anti-Catholic liberals have shaped narratives about Ireland since Irish independence. At the supposed height of the Catholic Church’s power in Ireland (the 1950s), all of the major banks were owned by Protestants – as were all of the major industries. Protestant firms like Guinesses openly practiced anti-Catholic employment discrimination until into the late 1960s. The leading newspaper, the Irish Times, only got its first (nominally) Catholic editor in the mid-1980s. Two of the first five presidents of Ireland were|Protestants. The Irish media has been ultra-liberal and rabidly anti-Catholic since at least the early 1970s.
As for the so called left in Ireland, some of them, such as the Workers Party – have deep and easily proven connections to the the British deep state. Anyone who doubts this should consult ‘The Lost Revolution’ – a 2009 history of the Official IRA and the Workers Party – where WP and OIRA activists admit their close relationshp with British security forces and agencies in Northern Ireland. It’s a mark of how intellectually vapid Irish republicans are these days that almost none of them noticed this book – or the significance of the information about the WP’s role as de facto British state agents contained therein. The Workers Party was at the cutting edge of anti-nationalist and anti-republican discourse in the Irish media, Irish academia, and Irish trades unions from the 1970s until the 1990s – and ‘The Lost Revolution’ makes it clear that this was not a spontaneous ideological commitment on their part. Very tellingly, many leading WP figures made a seamless transition from rabid – almost theatrical – pro-Soviet Stalinism in the 1980s, to outspoken enthusiasm for the Neocon Bush/Blair agenda in the Noughties.
Opponents of the Workers Party in Ireland often accused them of being Soviet stooges, but the evidence all points the other way: their real role was to propagandise in Communist countries on behalf of the British position. In other words, they were British state stooge – hence the need to pose as old-school pro-Soviet “tankies” in order to curry favour with East Bloc regimes.
The other left-wing parties (mostly Irish branch offices of British leftist groups such as what used to be known as Militant Tendency) are also anti-nationalist and de facto apologists for banker enforced austerity. Their standard line is not to oppose austerity, but to come out with guff about the need for “the rich to pay their share towards rectifying the financial crisis” – thus tacitly conceding that banker imposed austerity is indeed justified.
JudeD,
Interesting post – although I disagree with your key point in para one. I am running for a train but I will post a more complete response tonight or tomorrow.
Cheers
Thanks, Jude. Intriguing stuff. An anti-nationalist, pro-British left sounds very strange indeed.
“An anti-nationalist, pro-British left sounds very strange indeed.”
Only if you think politics are local rather than global. Irish independence, for example, was much more a global operation than a local one. This Irish freedom thing was very much a poster boy for what was to come, the transition from colonialism to neocolonialism. The Free State is a kind of interregnum, where elites can sort their affairs before the new rules. Like Brexit, but longer, much longer.
And yes, anyone alive at the time will have known that Dev was very much the New World Orderist of his day. Big, on the League of Nations. Small nations unite together under international law for protection. The US scuppered that, but eventually created a similar kinda thing in the UN.
Ultra Leftists everywhere have always been globalists rather than nationalists. Easily explains that transition from Trotskyism to Neoconism, which you see in the US in the PNAC crew and in Ireland with the writings of someone like Eoghan Harris, perhaps.
Always important to distinguish economic Leftism and cultural Leftism.
So, Ireland has managed to emerge in a cultural leftist/neoliberal economic configuration, without going through your more usual Enlightenment history. Spain is similar, in this regard.
That United Irishman Enlightenment project was neutered by the Orange Order and the British. That’s a very curious and confusing story in itself. Lots of embarrassment all round. There was nearly like a wee civil war thing going on within Ulster Protestantism itself. And them surrounded by savage Catholics wanting their land back.
I mean, the UI were Anglos, Freemasons, modeling themselves upon the French and US Revolutions. Burke is important here.
There’a a plaque in the entrance to Freemason Hall in Anne St, Belfast, commemorating Henry Joy McCracken, the leader of Belfast UI.
It’s from these Freemasonic Anglos that all these Irish Republicans today and in the past, take their origin myth.
You’ll see them all at Bodenstown on different days in June honouring the memory of that great Irish leader, Wolfe Tone.
That’s all your IRAs, your Fianna Fails, Sinn Feins, etc.
So, Ireland got Enlightenment dialectics imposed upon it in that period between 1916 and 22, using a creation myth, and whacking all alternative leaders and voices . The executions of the Easter Rising. The deaths during the War of Independence, and the executions during the Civil War, killed off any alternative to the Tweedledum/dee garbage that emerged.
Back in the day, inquisitive economic lefties used to ask why there weren’t more real lefties about the place. The usual response was that they were all killed off during the Spanish Civil war. Very sad. Yeah, we’ll drink to the Quinta Brigada.
Herbie – I’m not sure I like your reference to “savage Catholics” – but we’ll let that pass for the sake of argument. If your main point is that the Irish conflict has not been a war between Catholic nationalists and Unionists Protestants, but rather between two forms of Enlightenment liberalism, I think you’re basically right. It’s too easily forgotten that many leading Catholics at the time thought Dev’s constitution was far too liberal, and Irish republicanism has, contrary to the modern perception, an awful lot of Protestant and liberal (and Masonic) baggage. However the same is true of Orangeism. As you indicate, Orangeism was a British liberal response to the nationalist French Revolution derived liberalism of the Protestant Irish nationalists. I’ve noticed that many traditional Catholic commentators trace modern liberalism to the French Revolution – their monarchist, young fogeyish Anglophile outlook precluding them from admitting that the French Revolution began as an endeavour to import Anglo-style liberalism to Catholic Europe – British liberals only turning against the Revolution when its more radical elements began to take it over, and turn it an anti-English direction.
It’s also worth pointing out that a minority of northern Irish Protestants are among the most severe critics of the Orange Order and the other “loyal orders” – believing them to be fundamentally anti-Christian – whereas quite a few Irish Anglo-phile “Castle Catholics” prefer to ignore the Masonic anti-Christian elements of Orangeism and British imperialism generally. The book “Builders of Empire” by Jessica Harland-Jacobs reveals just how much of a Masonic enterprise the British Empire was (the book is anything but an anti-Masonic conspiracy tome btw – the author doesn’t have a bad word to say about either Masonry or the Empire).
It seems to me that Anglo-globalism (for want of a better term) is extraordinarily skilful and adaptable at playing the left-right dialectic from both sides. I once heard the then British Northern Ireland Secretary Tom King on American television refer to the Provisional IRA as a “Marxist Leninist terrorist group”. That approach was obviously designed to play to the anti-communist outlook of Reagan era Americans. However on the other hand opponents of Irish republicanism in Ireland and Britain often characterised the IRA as fascist right-wing nationalists – since they knew that calling the Provos “Marxists” in these parts, far from damaging their reputation, would give them progressivist credibility on the left. Knowing your audience is always key when it comes to emotion based propaganda.
There is also something grimly comic about the way liberal or leftwing champions of British Unionism in Ireland denounce the “reactionary nationalism” of the Irish republican movement, as if they themselves were not also peddling a form of reactionary nationalism. I noticed George Galloway and John Wight trying to pull the same stunt during the Scottish referendum campaign: seeking to depict Independence campaigners as outdated racist nationalists, while they themselves were campaigning ardently on behalf of British nationalism. To adapt an observation of Graham Greene’s about sentimentality: “reactionary nationalism” is the term progressivists use to describe nationalist sentiments they don’t share.
Nothing much to disagree about there.
“I’m not sure I like your reference to “savage Catholics” – but we’ll let that pass for the sake of argument.”
That was a rather poor attempt to invoke the idea of what later became known as the “siege mentality” among Ulster Protestants. Looking at things from their perspective.
It’s not really appropriate for the late 1700s though, when British policy through Anglicanism had managed to create some common cause between Catholics and Presbyterians, both outsiders to the Anglican way. The vast majority of Ulster Protestants were Presbyterians rather than Anglicans.
So, you can imagine the early Protestant settlers having problems with the displaced, and the displaced with the settlers. That’s understandable.
Moves towards Home Rule produce something similar. Partition cements it in stone. For a while, at least.
But yes, in between times and certainly in the late 1700s, Anglicanism was tending to undermine central control of the Ulster settlers.
Herbie: Thanks. Even today there’s a certain ambivalence of national allegiance among some northern Presbyterians. The elder Ian Paisley often made it clear he considered himself an Irishman as well as an Ulster Protestant. After an infamous football match between the Republic and Northern Ireland in 1993, Fintan O’Toole travelled to the Protesant heartland of the Shankill Road in west Belfast – and asked loyalists there how they felt about the Republic’s soccer team (which in those years was enjoying a limited degree of success). Some of the Shankill loyalists told him they would respect the team, and take some pride in its success, if hadn’t got so many players born in England! They condemned the southern Irish as “unprincipled” for having any truck with a team composed of so many semi-Anglos. I’m not sure how many of these folks were Presbyterians – as opposed to Anglicans or other Protestant denominations – but that little anecdote tends to support a suspicion I’ve had for a long time: that northern Protestants in general, and northern Presbyterians in particular, often despise the south of Ireland, not for being too nationalist, but for not being nationalist enough.
“that little anecdote tends to support a suspicion I’ve had for a long time: that northern Protestants in general, and northern Presbyterians in particular, often despise the south of Ireland, not for being too nationalist, but for not being nationalist enough.”
Interesting point.
They’ve always seemed to be more favourable to Fine Gael, which used to be Ireland’s more Conservative party, and to what used to be called the “Green nationalists” in the SDLP. There was some support for a NI Labour party when there were still all those industrial jobs.
Perhaps they simply don’t like Republicans, given their Godless and anti-monarchical history. That latter can be rather confusing, given Presbyterian history. You’ve got to factor in “The Glorious revolution”, to account for that I suppose.
But anyway, during the Troubles in the North and the Peace Process, no one at a high level seemed to care much what they thought about anything. They were bad and wrong and just had to get up to date with the postmodern consensus.
To be fair, RoI media gave them a far better hearing than British media, especially as things developed.
I don’t follow Irish politics that much these days, more focused on the global picture, but I think Enda Kenny gave what seemed to be a Nationalist speech upon his resignation.
Have you any background on what looked like the ousting of a Nationalist and replacement with your more Rainbow kinda chap, bypassing Mr Bilderberg himself, Simon Coveney?
The line “people in Ireland had a revolution and then handed everything over to the bourgeoisie and the church” may or may not come from the 1967 film “Rocky Road to Dublin”. You make a good point about the long-term weakness of the left.
What has happened to the aspects of conservatism in Ireland that were associated with respect for the priesthood now that the priesthood commands less respect?
I’ve lived in Ireland. It’s interesting that the word “tiger” denotes the property-based – which is to say, debt-based – boom understood in near mystical terms and also describes a type of robbery that is, beneath the surface, given respect in the Irish press.
Oh if only shinphaned, if only…. our self-described betters and elected representatives stopped playing politics and actually did some real graft – i.e do the jobs for which they are handsomely rewarded. I wonder how many politicians have a good grasp of whatever they are supposed to be responsible for. And by that I don’t mean how well they’ve been “briefed”, but how much real work they put into properly getting to grips with all aspects of their jobs. If they did the work for which they are paid and actually listened to what the majority of people want – a fairer society which works in the interests of us all – having that understanding would surely inform their intent and direct their actions. From what I observe some of them are barely able to comprehend anything very much, a few are actually incoherent and other more flamboyant specimens appear to think that politics is a branch of show business.
I’ve always said that Britain needs to leave the EU because the EU would not let us have a socialist government. I said this to a remainer and he said “Ah, but what I want is a socialist Europe”. That’s all very well but it’s not going to happen unless all the EU27 elect socialist governments at the same time.
It was Thatcher who brought neo-liberalism to Europe.
Truth is the EU cannot permit UK to resolve its huge trade deficit which is unsustainable.
Since people in UK use Credit to import luxury cars it is an unbalanced economy. Simply breakdown the UK trade deficit by category – if UK stopped exporting cars to EU and stopped importing it would be better off in trade terms external sector……..considering it is now Old Tech. maybe time to see how fast China is moving to dominate the future and how Germany is panicking because NO German company is making batteries for electric cars and is sourcing from CATL and LG
@Blunderbuss,
I totally agree with all the points in your post, and would give an example of the current situation in France. To all intents and purposes to outsiders, France has had a Socialist government under Hollande and now a Centrist governemnt under Macron, when in fact both governments were/are authoritarian neo Liberal which has nothing to do with Socialism.
It was Hollanded who supported Saudi Arabia’s intervention and slaughter in Yemen, which angered many true left wingers in his government, and it was Macron, the ex investment banker (how many Socialist investment bankers exist?) who was Minister of Economy and Industry in 2014, and was responsible for pushing through business friendly reforms.
The only governments who care about the majority of people in their own countries, the ordinary working class, are being tarred with the “right wing” brush, which is a bit ironic since the Blairite/Thatcherite/Macronite/Merkelite/Junckersite are neoliberal/neocon pro capitalist fraudsters who use the media to convince the sheeple that they are Socialists.
Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are just fool guys for the Conservative establishment. Once Brexit is done and dusted they will be allowed to have a period in power for a few years. The media will make sure they carry the can for the mess left by Brexit and once the dust settles millionaires like Rees-Mogg and scoundrels like Farage will be back to destroy whatever is left of the NHS and the social care system. ,
@Patmur – I just looked up Nigel Farage’s age and was surprised to learn he is only 54, so he would have time to return in your scenario.
What I think is more likely than the Tories handing over to Labour for a few years is one of the following scenarios:
* the Tory government doesn’t reach agreement with EU27 and the British media portray it as having walked out, standing up for Britain against bossy, nasty, cruel, stupid foreign types who tried to tell Britain what to do, and then there’s a referendum on “no deal” or staying in the EU (and Leave wins perhaps 60%-40%)
* some kind of agreement is reached, the government falls, and Rees-Mogg takes over (because Theresa May will not stay Tory leader in such circumstances), Rees-Mogg calls a general election (Kenneth Clarke and Anna Soubry may do something, but it won’t be on SDP scale) or perhaps he calls a referendum without an election (and if there’s a referendum, Leave wins by the same margin as above)
…and in both cases, especially the second, something like a “Koln railway station event” can if necessary be arranged at King’s Cross station or somewhere similar, and whaddayaknow, the far right runs rampant. That kind of thing is very powerful. It can be more powerful even than footage of a couple of deranged “Muslim” men stabbing people with large knives, even if it is not the only way that the perceived threat and xenophobic fear can be ratcheted up.
Farage is only 54? I thought he was at least 60!
That is one of the most perceptive comments I have read in three weeks of being here (and tens of thousands of comments read). I have been predicting this exact potential scenario to an ardent Labour-supporting mate since the time of campaigning more than two years ago.
[I don’t agree about Farage. I believe he will by then be in hiding in Panama, Madagascar or somewhere remote and obscure, and he will be atrophying money to pay for his close protection. Think Szell (Laurence Olivier – “Is it safe”) in Marathon Man. He could save money by teaming up with Tony Blair and Boris Johnson. That would be a dream team!]
Due to the shortcomings of thread “nesting” on WordPress, and in the interests of clarity, I point out that my recent comment was in reply to Patmur’s
“Jeremy Corbyn and Labour are just fool guys for the Conservative establishment. Once Brexit is done and dusted they will be allowed to have a period in power for a few years. The media will make sure they carry the can for the mess left by Brexit and once the dust settles millionaires like Rees-Mogg and scoundrels like Farage will be back to destroy whatever is left of the NHS and the social care system.”
The thing is, there’s a bit of a fight going on at the moment over control of global capital markets.
The City of London controls about 25% officially, more like 40% if you include the dodgy stuff. The US controls about 19% officially. They do their dodgy through London, as does everyone else.. Nowhere else comes close.
So, say your more productive economies are getting pissed off with this, trading their real assets for paper, someone else deciding day to day what that paper is worth, and indeed what their hard assets are worth in that paper.
Well, there’ll be a fight of some sort, eventually. Exploitative relationships break down.
That’s what we’re watching unfold, Brexit, Trump, Russia, China, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Arab “Winter” etc., the whole thing is the one thing.
The last time this happened to the British Empire, it was little old plucky Ireland who stood up “alone” against the great big beast that was the British Empire, showing the light and the way, to all the small nations. Rise up against your colonial oppressors.
Say, as a result of this fight, London is much reduced in its control of capital markets.
What then for UK.
Scotland might want to leave before they get dragged down into the unfolding chaos. And they’ll have been thinking ahead, seeing what was coming.
Trying to get away, but not allowed to fully explain why.
Seems to me we’re back to a need of labour in those circumstances. Real labour. Productive activity.
The Labour Party – Created for you. Owned by you. Working for you. Pre-Bernays Realism.
My best guess is a return to the post-war consensus between Labour and Conservative parties. (Poor old Treeza is even bigging up on Council house peeps.)
You know, when they needed production to rebuild after WWII.
They blamed it all on WWII.
The reality is, they’d been neglecting things badly whilst they were all enjoying the freebie money in the 20s. The 30s were grim.
A cornerstone of Corbyn’s vision for the future is the renationalisation of key utilities, a policy for which he has wide popular support. This is illegal under EU law. If we want the supply of gas, electricity, water and rail services back under public control then leaving the EU is essential.
Rubbish, many of these key utilities are still run by the state in EU countries. Almost no country has gone down the privatisation route as far as the UK.
Ah ha ha ha ha ha..hilarious…like these services will be re-nationalised by the millionaire Tories/Red Tories. Get real.
shinphaned
September 20, 2018 at 13:18
You are having a fantasy dream because Jeremy Corbyn is into a full Brexit.
The EU cannot be reformed from inside ,it is anti-democratic and run for the benefit of Corporations mainly, plus the ensconced bureaucratic and unelected troughers. Its neoliberal austerity policies are killing Europe economically.
Mr Shigemitsu has it right. The main problem of Europe is its currency, the Euro
ECB control of the currency puts an economic death grip on the 19 Countries that use it. They are in effect using a Foreign currency, over which they cannot control its issue or interest rates, so have little power to stimulate their economies.
The Financiers are the main beneficiaries of EU monetary policies. A Eurogroup Nation cannot issue fiscal stimulants so it is forced to issue bonds at interest rates to raise money. These bonds have a higher risk than a currency issuing nation, so interest rates are higher.
The other means of raising money for a Eurogroup nation is to privatise its State Utility monopolies. This has been demonstrated in Greece, which has been plundered to enable debt repayments.
Europe is dying ,slowly but inevitably.
Britains departure will hasten the collapse and is prescient of its much maligned Brexiteers
I agree that the eventual collapse of EU is likely; it is an unnatural league of disparate cultures and economies, and is devoid of any authentic, powerful unifying force. It is prfedicated on economic expediency.
However, the weasel words there are “eventual” and “likely”. It seems probable the Union will continue to exist- even thrive- far into the future by cobbled up measures. There is no real indication of its imminent collapse. The idea that UK has something to be gained by being in the vanguard of this collapse, and worse to have catalysed the process by leaving next year seems to me strange, not to say bizarre. Economically, at least in a medium term, it is risky, shall we say? There are no “Brownie points” thereby accrued, and quite the opposite. Any such catalysis would quite likely result in vilification of UK by our natural trading partners on the Continent, and additional economic peril. We can only hope this will not be an outcome.
My major problem with the referendum was its timing. There is no economic argument in favour of leaving in 2019. Perhaps in five, ten or more years, when a hypothetical decay of the Union had properly got underway, would have been a more sensible time to leave.
Just at the moment, the ship is not sinking. To fire a torpedo which will double back and sink it (diving off in the meanwhile) seems a little bit potty. Let us hope it malfunctions and misses. Would it not be more sensible to wait until the ship reaches port and disembark at that time, to somewhat overextend an already weak metaphor?
Apropos of Craig’s short post, a new book has been issued today (Sept 20) by Media Lens called Propaganda Blitz. Its focus is not the usual suspects, the Tory press, but the paragons of reputable liberal journalism: the BBC, the Guardian, Channel 4 News.
To coincide with its release, John Pilger has written this article on the decline and debasement of mainstream journalism in recent years.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/09/20/hold-the-front-page-the-reporters-are-missing/
god, the guardian has turned to shit.
It’s not today or yesterday. I remember they considered Ed Miliband’s limp opposition to austerity too extreme.
yeah, and iirc supported the iraq invasion.
Yep, and regime change in Libya. Now becoming frantic that they’ll be denied a hattrick in Syria.
Who/What is ‘iirc’?
(3 day fuckbook ban so link in my name prob. not working 😉 ; think I’ll dump them soon, give vk.com or minds.com more serious ‘tryouts’).
.
“if i recall correctly”
@Dennis Revell – Why not get your own website instead, e.g. hosted by a company that makes its money from selling hosting and not from selling advertising space as Facebook does? There are companies that couldn’t care less what you put on your website so long as it doesn’t get them into legal trouble, and that don’t put their name on it either.
I don’t miss it since my oppression, at the hands of pseudonym’d mods with no bosses or complaints procedure, for unnnamed crimes – i do save many £’s a month not buying it for 35 years.
Besides from Steve Bell and the odd specialists like Chakrabotty and Collinson – there is thin gruel served daily.
The old bruisers and the young proteges are DS. The business model is Billionaire trusts planting stories amongst state propaganda and PR.
That many long term readers wallow in its daily panacea as an ‘enlightened’ newspaper, because they always hated Murdoch, or Torygraph or shrill Mail, they are hard to convince of the putridness that has developed below that Groaniad skin – they are too near to see the wood.
Of course the burgeoning indy sites such as this one – many, many others daily – easily and cheaply supported is where they lose and lose not just commercially but in controlling the narrative. I am convinced for instance, that the nasty ff WH op was pulled at the last moment because so much had been disclosed on the indyjourno sites.
The patent provocation of shooting down and cold blooded murder of the unarmed Russian plane and crew, by the French, inviting retaliation by the watching Russian ship, seemed to be there to replace the cancelled ff.
Our planes were in the sky ready to rush to our french friends aid.
How are they going to find a reason to despatch hundreds of cruise missiles?
Plan X seems to be to confront Russia directly in Ukraine – totally against the promise not to expand Nato eastward.
Well if the Atlantist thinking is that all will be gained and nothing will be lost (except a few thousand ‘heroes’ and plenty of war goods) – that the EU will collapse; Corbynite Labour won’t take power; that their privatisations and corporate global robber hagemony will be preserved – against the inevitable rising forces that are China//India/Africa and others. Then that thinking has long failed.
What next? Some crazed US admiral arrives on the scene and starts dropping airlines out of the sky again? Or asks for a ff attack on the fleet from the IDF?
Fuck ’em all.
Dungroanin’:
Well written! Like yer style!
“Nothing will avail to offset this virus which is poisoning the whole world. America is the very incarnation of doom. She will drag the whole world down to the bottomless pit.”
Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Indeed, Fuck ’em all! All of the below mentioned:-
Signature:
…………………………………………………..
The creation of Israel has turned out to be the second worst man-made catastrophe ever inflicted on human-kind.
The creation of the United States of America has turned out to be the WORST man-made catastrophe ever inflicted on human-kind; and, for that matter, most of the rest of animal-kind.
The terrible natures of these two creations are NOT unrelated – one creation having been enabled by the other.
In turn, it’s well known that the United States is the bastard spawn of the United Kingdom, the first, the most successful and the most brutal of Europe’s genocidal colonisers.
Those at Echelon, GCHQ, MI6, NSA, CIA and similar fascists reading this post and ‘signature’, are referred to the profanity used by the sadly seemingly immortal lying manipulative War-Criminal, Mass-Murderer and Traitor Dick Cheney to some Democratic Party non-entity (as pretty much all the Democrats are).
…………………………………………………..
.
(3 day fuckbook ban so link in my name prob. not working ? ; think I’ll dump them soon, give vk.com or minds.com more serious ‘tryouts’).
USA would not have so much influence if Britain had not thrown in the towel in 1914 and 1940. There was no reason for the Anglo-American Spencer-Churchill to have made so many bad choices in WW1 and WW2 that UK delivered itself on an auction block to US interests. The Liberal Government 1906 was the Great Disaster with its almost Blairite Approach to foreign policy and tying the British Empire to France.
Without doubt Home Rule for Ireland and India (which Spencer-Churchill fought tooth and nail fielding his own candidates against Baldwin) could have made the British Empire a wholly different creature rather than one wasted to prop up France.
USA would not have entered the war unless J P Morgan fearful of losing his loans had not bought up newspaper editors wholesale to lobby Woodrow Wilson and if his bank had not bribed port officials to ignore loading of munitions onto RMS Lusitania.
Whilst Spencer-Churchill was isolated at Yalta FDR steamed homeward via Saudi and bought out the British ally Ibn Saud making Britain the sucker and Us and USSR the winners
i do save many £’s a month not buying it for 35 years.
£21,294 in total at present day prices.
“god, the guardian has turned to shit”.
More likely, your eyes have been opened. That can take a few decades if one has been brainwashed efficiently enough.
It’s been solid shit since 1963 to my certain knowledge.
it’s gotten worse since obama. re 1963, i have little respect for the warmonger kennedy, if that’s your reference. i certainly don’t think he was killed because he was going to make peace in vietnam. his brother bobby might, or might not, have been a much better president.
since obama was elected, that is, when obama sanctified torture and warmongering by doing it himself. they were quite critical of the chimp.
Actually I feel that Kennedy was one of the better US presidents, morally speaking. But like the rest of them he found he was not in control once inaugurated. Just compare what Trump was saying as a candidate with what he has said and done once elected. It’s fairly obvious someone has a gun to his head – probably literally.
As for the Guardian, I meant that it has been solid shit since 1963 – the first year I looked at it – every year, every month, every day, every single issue.
really? i think he was in the bottom half, at least in my lifetime, particularly the cuban near disaster for which he is lionized, but outflanking nixon on the right by lying about the extent of the ussr threat, trying to get castro assassinated, ramping up the vietnam war, sexual harassment on a scale rivaled only by clinton, all contribute. propping up joe mccarthy while kennedy was in the senate didn’t help, either. and i’ve seen a number of good articles in the guardian, mostly during the bush administration; as i said, once obama got in they changed noticeably.
@ Tom Welsh September 20, 2018 at 20:29
‘..But like the rest of them he found he was not in control once inaugurated…’
It was because THEY could not control him, that he was assassinated. Wit all his faults, no President since him has been fit to tie his shoe laces. The ‘Peanut Man’ is the only one who had even a smattering of humanity since JFK.
What were the main reasons for JFK’s assassination? Not necessarily in order of importance, and certainly not all inclusive:
He was going to end the Vietnam War, and bring the troops home.
He was adamant that Israel should not be allowed to get the nuclear bomb.
He had pledged to totally break up the CIA, and replace it with an ‘accountable’ Intelligence Service.
He was going to retire J Edgar Hoover from the FBI.
He was going to properly tax ‘Big Oil’ so they no longer paid just peppercorn taxes (interestingly the big meeting of conspirators the night before the assassination took place on the premises of a big Texas oil man, Murchison).
He was hated by the anti-Castro Miami Cubans, for not backing up the ‘Bay of Pigs’ invasion.
And , wow, I almost forgot, he had locked horns with the Federal Reserve, and started printing US Government dollars, free of their ‘interest’ (LBJ tore up that plan on the way back to DC; I believe it was his first official action).
And though he was a prodigious womaniser, he didn’t so ‘harrass’ women, they just swooned under his ‘charms’.
That was definitely one of his major faults (he is said to have bedded some 500 ladies – lucky git!).
right he was going to end the vietnam war after risking war with russia for nothing, and no all women didn’t swoon under his charms any more than they did for clinton. he was a warmonger and maybe the first neoliberal president with his tax cuts for the rich. his true character was supporting mccarthy, along with his father and brother, because he agreed with the politics.
Once the word “Manchester” disappeared from the title……..1959
It destroyed the great “Observer” which under Pixie Trelford had been great for Africa and Middle East…….who remembers Farzad Bazoft ? 28 years ago……he would have been 60 this year.
Who recalls Sunday Times “Insight” team; “World in Action” ?
The panel on this week’s media review on BBC Radio Shortbread taking it in turn to skewer Ruth Davidson as a politician. More interested in promoting her career as a meedja celeb than representing her apparent political position. Rooth the mooth’s got a book to sell.
When’s it coming out? The book, I mean.
😉
Does anyone know what’s going on in the matter of blogger and journalist Neil Clark’s legal action (for “harassment”) against columnist Oliver Kamm?
I ask because the whole affair was alluded to at some length on here a while ago but there has been no follow-up info, and because Neil Clark’s own blogspot gave regular updates (in particular on his fund-raising operation) until December 2017 but appears now to have fallen entirely silent. The last entry I can find read thus:
“LATEST UPDATE: 4th December 2017: Oliver Kamm has now been sued for libel and harassment. My counsel has advised me not to serve the writ- already lodged at the court in the summer- against his employers and instead focus the action on Kamm. He believes this would have a number of advantages. It is advice that I have decided very reluctantly to accept- (given the arrogant way The Times -and News UK- arrogantly ignored all my very reasonable requests),- but I do not rule out Kamm’s employers- including Rupert Murdoch- being brought into a legal action at a later date if this matter is not resolved satisfactorily. We now have over £17K raised but legal costs have been high and I will be stepping up fundraising to pay for the court costs which could be considerable. All contributions, large or small, are gratefully accepted and appreciated. Many thanks again to everyone who has supported me.”
So it’s no good trying to get up tp date via his blogspot.
Perhaps one of his fans in here – perhaps even Craig (who donated some of the the surplus from his own legal defence fund to Mr Clark) – could supply some info?
Maybe you could ask him on Twitter …
Or are you blocked chum? 🙂
Well no, actually, I’m not on Twitter.
Anyway, since the Neil Clark / Oliver Kamm business was referred to on this blog by Craig and several commenters, it’s perfectly acceptable for me to ask, on this same blog, what’s been happening.
Perhaps someone from here who’s in touch with Mr Neil Clark could ask him to update his blogspot?
if you are really interested, get on twitter.
No. Like many on here, I don’t want to get onto Twitter.
Can’t understand the seeming reluctance to see an update on the Neil Clark/Oliver Kamm affair, especially from those who were waxing eloquent not so long ago. Perhaps Neil Clark has dropped his lawsuit or reached an accommodation with Oliver Kamm? If so, fair enough, but surely we should be told, in the same way as Craig kept us updated on the conclusion of his legal spat with Jake Wallis Simons?
You are desperate, ‘Charles’.
QT line up for tonight, for those that still watch it.
https://mobile.twitter.com/bbcquestiontime?lang=en
Mr “Exotic Spresm”is one of the guests.
Same old. Two Cons, an LD, the ex CPS Northern prosecutor and an ex Blairite minister. As one wag on Twitter says, its 4 Cons v 1 left winger
4 Cons = I Blue Tory, I Red Tory, 1 Yellow Tory and an airhead from the Torygraph.
This is the BBC’s pie chart of panellists’ affiliations. https://twitter.com/BBCNewsPR/status/1040677440673202177
___
Evan Davis is replacing Eddie Mair on Radio 4’s PM. So at least we won’t have to see him on Newsnight with his strange grizzled appearance of late.
Less or more pay than he is currently receiving? £250,000 – £299,999.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Davis
Eddie Mair was supposedly in receipt of £300,000 – £350,000.
‘The host of PM is said to have infuriated managers by failing to agree a new pay deal alongside his colleagues. He is currently one of the BBC’s highest-paid presenters, on a salary of £300,000-£350,000’.;
ttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/31/bbc-infuriated-delay-radio-4s-eddie-mair-wage-cut-following/
No new talent is allowed on the BBC
Russia shuts off air and sea traffic off the coast of Syria, till Wednesday for military drills. Could be cover for other activities.
Meanwhile in the wake of the shot down Russian plane, Netanyahu, sabre rattles, and plays the vicitm on the same card, quite remarkable I think.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/netanyahu-if-war-is-imposed-on-israel-we-ll-act-with-full-force-1.6491429
‘we will act with full force against those who would kill us’ really? make war before the war – isn’t this getting a little too self fulfilling?
@ Republicofscotland September 20, 2018 at 14:44
‘…We should all remember that the US is the only country ever to drop nuclear weapons on humans…’
Certainly the first, but there have been many suspected uses of mini-nukes since then.
@Paul Barbara,
“but there have been many suspected uses of mini-nukes since then.”
Could you please give examples?
Meanwhile Britain and Israel’s great ally, which kills innocent Yemeni civilians in bombing raids, treats foreign workers almost like slaves.
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/overworked-abused-hungry-vietnamese-domestic-workers-saudi-180919083829939.html
Staying on the wonderful beacon of democracy Saudi Arabia, it would appear that Pakistan, another pinnacle of democracy has through its leader declared undying support for Saudi Arabia.
“Prime Minister Imran Khan has said Pakistan won’t allow anyone to attack Saudi Arabia, adding that the country will always stand with the Kingdom,”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/371031-pm-imran-khan-says-pakistan-wont-let-anyone-to-attack-saudi-arabia
He just lurves those rich moslems but those palestinians get a ”wide’ call. ‘I would like to ensure peace in the Middle East because it is very distressing for Muslims to see conflict among Muslim nations.’ ha ha ha! nothing to do with internal conflicts then.
Germany is busy selling weapons to Saudi Arabia to test on Yemenis no doubt
You’re absolutely correct there Paul, the report is only twelve hours old.
“The sale of arms to parties in the Yemen conflict is against the German government’s coalition agreement. But Berlin has now approved a delivery of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE, despite allegations of war crimes.”
And not just to Saudi Arabia.
“The Federal Security Council, which includes several ministers alongside Merkel, also authorized the export of 48 warheads and 91 homing heads for ship-based air defense systems to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).”
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-approves-saudi-arms-sale-despite-yemen-war-ban-promise/a-45568639
And its not just Germany, or France nor the US or UK that is complicit in arming Saudi Arabia.
“Ignoring the criticism from humanitarian groups, the Spanish government decided Thursday to go ahead with the sale of 400 laser-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia.”
“In the end, the decision is to deliver these bombs to honor a contract dating from 2015,” Foreign Minister Josep Borrell told Spain’s Onda Cero radio, adding that the €9.2-million ($10.7 million) contract was approved by the previous government.”
https://www.dw.com/en/spain-to-sell-laser-guided-bombs-to-saudi-arabia/a-45473649
Saudi Arabia’s wealth silences humanitarian concerns.
Of course Angela Merkel, and her coalition leaders are already under fire, for first sacking then promoting the head of German intelligence BfV Hans-Georg Maassen, for possible sympathies with the far right. Borne out of controversial remarks he made about the recent unrest in Chemnitz surrounding migrants.
Nothing at all controversial ! Merkel and her press spokesman attacked people in Chemnitz for protesting……and used the word “Zusammenrottung” which is an East German Communist charge and reminded people of Erich Honecker in 1989 attacking protesters in Leipzig, Dresden and other parts of Saxony for wanting him overthrown.
What happened in Chemnitz is outrageous. Three men were attacked for refusing to be robbed at knifepoint by 3 Arabs. They returned with 10 Arabs and knifed Daniel H in the abdomen. He died. The other two with knife wounds in head have “gone Skripal” and no-one hears anything about them.
The prime suspect is on the run. The Arabs arrested were all supposed to have been deported and have long criminal records.
Merkel spread stories based on a dubious YouTube video showing a guy being chased by another. The PM of Saxony, the State Prosecutor, the Head of the Counter Intelligence – and Maasen, Federal Counter Intelligence Chief said there was NO evidence of packs of people hunting down foreigners in Chemnitz. Contradicting Merkel and Media is not permitted in SED Germany.
Maassen is highly respected, speaks Japanese – his wife is Japanese – and is more credible that MSM and Merkel but that is not permitted – Gleichschaltung – democratic centralism.
Merkel is a total FUBAR and everyone but the politicians wants new elections – just like UK…..Merkel is not a Conservative but a Socialist/Green who wants all parties in one permanent grand coalition to stop elections having any meaning. Go look at YouTube….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VPDmjcVgJVA
Sorry Paul, nothing green OR socialist about Merkel and her regime whatsoever. Only the same old right-wing neoliberal sucking up to globalist industrialists and billionaires, accompanied by right-wing chauvinist contempt for the stinking low classes, spiced with LGBTQ glitter to appeal to lefty pony lovers, and painting herself green with her half-arsed stance against nuclear energy, while bailing the nuclear sector out with fishy backroom deals and multiple BILLIONS of tax euros. No matter how you look at it, below the surface is only right-wing fascism. And Massen was one of her regime’s most important police state organisers, loyal to his and her ziosaxon ubermasters, cover-upper of Gladio II operations on the mainland, right-wing technocrat to the bone.
You say he is highly respected. By who, though?
What? As many bombs and missiles as the UK, Paul?
Sidewinder missiles apparently and fast patrol boats
Saudis don’t like cricket sah!
I thought it rather quick witted of the rotund NK dictator Kim Jong Un. When he said NK would dismantle its main nuclear complex, if the USA followed suit.
We should all remember that the US is the only country ever to drop nuclear weapons on humans.
Staying on nuclear, China will open its new generation of nuclear reactors tomorrow. The AP1000 reactor is apparently the world’s first.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2165080/china-ready-fire-worlds-first-ap1000-nuclear-reactor
trouble is they’ll want another one in an hour
I think Britain has ordered some AP1000 reactors.
Hinckley Point is a Pressurised Water Reactor, I’m not sure if that’s the same as a AP1000.
“EPRs – originally known as European Pressurised Water Reactors – are a type of Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR). The design of the UK EPRs that will be built at Hinkley Point C represents a major development on previous PWRs, making them amongst the safest and most efficient civil nuclear power generators ever designed.”
https://www.edfenergy.com/energy/nuclear-new-build-projects/hinkley-point-c/about/reactor
“I think Britain has ordered some AP1000 reactors.”
Hardly. A Chinese nuclear power station, to be built by mostly foreign contractors, delivering the worlds most expensive electricity to the British consumer for the profit of EDF Energy, a French firm. This is what the is known as “getting the best deal for the British people” by the British government. (no doubt many Tories have profited from kickbacks and the like).
We were going to have some at Moorside but now it is uncertain:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moorside_nuclear_power_station
Reminds me of President Correa of Ecuador. When the Yanks asked for an airbase in his country, he replied, “Sure. Just as soon as we get an airbase in Florida”.
Polite negotiations then ended, while they worked up plans to get him killed, removed from office, etc.
Tom Welsh: I’m not sure if you believe western liberal democracy is an “elaborate masquerade” in the literal sense, but if you do I agree with you. Not long ago I purchased “Votescam”, by the late Collier brothers – a book which documents systemic vote fraud in US elections going back to the late 1960s. Reading the book confirmed my long-held suspicion that the casino is indeed rigged – and not just in terms of media coverage, donations and so on – but in the literal sense of widespread vote rigging. And I’m afraid I don’t have any more faith in the integrity of European elections than in the US variety. The only difference is that there aren’t any Jim and Kenneth Colliers in countries like the UK and Ireland.
‘Tom Welsh: I’m not sure if you believe western liberal democracy is an “elaborate masquerade” in the literal sense…#
Yes, I do. As a wise person once remarked, “if voting changed anything it would be illegal”.
@ Jude D September 20, 2018 at 18:16
‘…systemic vote fraud in US elections going back to the late 1960s…’
Yep, no more ‘Maverick’ Presidents like JFK who don’t toe the line.
As Jack (Leon) Ruby said in prison very shortly before his death, and after his plea to be relocated to a prison outside Texas, ‘this is the end of Democracy in America’, or words to that effect (re the JFK assassination, not the refusal to get transferred to an out-of-state jail).
He knew he had been poisoned by cancer to stop him talking, by a notorious doctor with heavy links to the CIA.
Jack Ruby KNEW Lee Harvey Oswald. You should read up on Jack Ruby’s biography and his Mafia connections and his terminal illness……..it is not quite plain sailing. Kennedy fixed the 1960 election to defeat Nixon by 300,000 votes in Cook County, IL cast after the ballot boxes had been “sealed”. Lindsay was such an operator in Chicago that Rahm Emmanuel must be his understudy
US elections have been corrupt for decades – ever since Truman as Freemason was put in place by Missouri “Boss” and received that suitcase of cash during the campaign for recognising Israel against the advice of Gen Marshall.
There is little difference between Putin’s Russia and USA in terms of Organised Crime funding Politics
Paul Barbara: Very interesting information re Ruby. As you probably know, Chavez alleged that the American deep state was giving cancer to latin American leaders who didn’t sell their countries down the river. John Smith’s death happened at a highly fortuitous time for the Nulabor project. Michael Portillo once wrote an article in the Spectator – in which he recalled chatting on the stairs at a party with a very dejected Peter Mandelson – during very the short-lived John Smith era in Labour. Mandelson lamented to Portillo that he was now completely isolated in the Labour Party – and that unlike Kinnnock, Smith had no time for his “modernising” agenda. If Smith had lived, who knows what might have transpired? Perhaps no Iraq war, no invasions of Libya and Afghanistan, and a rather less oligarch-centric approach to the economy and social policy.
It’s also rather poignant that the only two major politicians to oppose the Iraq War, the two Scottish redheads, Robin Cook and Charles Kennedy, died relatively young – and at least in the case of Cook – very suddenly…
“I thought it rather quick witted of the rotund NK dictator Kim Jong Un. When he said NK would dismantle its main nuclear complex, if the USA followed suit.”
It would be funny if he said it. but he didn’t – it’s fake news.
Charles, can you provide evidence to the contrary.
Thanks in advance.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/16889380.kim-jong-un-agrees-to-denuclearisation-following-key-talks-with-president-moon-jae-in/
What’s with that link you provided? It doesn’t source that what you were peddling. I suspect you just cribbed it from one of the websites you visit. As the Italian saying goes : se non e’ vero, e’ ben trovato. I forgive you!
Local elections are cancelled in Eastern Russia, over claims of ballot box stuffing in favour of a Putin candidate. I wonder if Putin’s party the All-Russian People’s Front, gets its dark money from the same source as the Conservatives, just a thought.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/russia-cancels-local-election-results-east-protests-180920080730830.html
Thinking of elections, the Mid-Terms in the US aren’t that far away, and Trump will want to appear as a strong can do type of POTUS . So maybe it’s just as well that the USA’s game plan of weakening the Venezulean economy is nearing its apex.
“Former Obama and Clinton aide Rahm Emanuel is warning that Trump could order military action in increasingly unstable Venezuela for political gain.”
That just might be the move that Trump makes, to show the electorate, that he is a strong kind a do it leader.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/19/rahm-emanuel-warns-trump-may-order-military-action-in-venezuela.html
Potus won’t do that.
This is just another attempt to bounce him into it.
Emmanuel is a master string puller and Z controller.
Oh, I don’t know so much the 1982 Falkland’s war boosted Thatcher’s popularity, with her party on the brink of collapse.
Trump doesn’t have his troubles to seek, Stormy Daniels, Manafort, Mueller, investigations, Jerusalem, China trade war etc.
A quick and decisive head turning victory over the nasty old socialist/commie regime in Venezuela, would go a long way to kicking all that into the long grass, well at least till the next election.
I see where your confusion is – you think Trump is a Republican.
He never was until stealing the nomination.
Also you are mistaken that Falklands gave Maggie her second term.
Foot and Labour were still ahead in the polls after the war.
It took the Atlantist neocon moles defection and SDP1 to split the Labour vote and massive narrative control to keep her in and cement their project. The evidence is in the polls if you want proof.
There may still be some slow people who think there is some political difference between the Republican party and the Democratic party.
There isn’t. They are just rival gangs of highly entitled murderous thieves. None of them gives a rat’s ass for democracy or republicanism – both of which explicitly give the common people a share of power.
Whereas today’s Western “liberal democracy” is an elaborate masquerade giving the cosmetic appearance of democracy on top of a one-party state.
By “massive narrative control” you presumably mean that her economic policies were starting to work.
“Also you are mistaken that Falklands gave Maggie her second term.”
I didn’t say it did, I said victory boosted her popularity.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-falklands-gamble
@ Tom Welsh September 20, 2018 at 17:20
Absolutely right. Pity so few Yanks realise it.
True. Trump was always a Democrat in New York (he would not get gaming licences from Republicans in Democratic cities). He funded Hillary.
Thatcher created the Falklands Mess by saving £300,000 scrapping the patrol boat and losing £800 million ships in a war plus a few lives destroyed.
She would have been gone if Denis Healey had been Labour leader or even Roy Hattersley…….
“Oh, I don’t know so much the 1982 Falkland’s war boosted Thatcher’s popularity, with her party on the brink of collapse.”
I think it was the Labour Party under the egregious Michael Foot which was on the point of collapse with its election manifesto aka the longest suicide note in history. Thatcher would have won the 1983 election without the Falklands factor, just as the Conservatives won the 1951 election despite Korea and the 1959 election despite Suez. The 1980s were a reaction to the lamentable Labour governments of the 1060s and 1970s. the tide had simply turned.
Under first-past-the-post the SDP won a negligible six seats in 1983, despite a strong showing in the popular vote. But the effect of the new party was to hand marginal constituencies to the Tories, who won 65 more seats despite receiving 700,000 fewer votes than they had secured in the previous election.
As for narrative control I refer to Tim Bell (Pottinger), Sattchiis, Murdoch and the paymaster bankers and US hagemons that she represented.
The Falkland war wasn’t planned, but Thatcher had to wage it or resign. It was a gamble won on bluff. I.e, the British army expended all its ammunition on the conscript Argentinians and said expect the same if you don’t surrender. They surrendered and in the glory of victory Carrington fell on his sword to protect Thatcher, who survived the terrible lose due to her victory.
The first part of what you say is certainly correct. Thatcher had no choice but to fight in reaction to the Galtieri aggression. As to whether the war was won by bluff or not, I’m not sure that that matters that much. Bluff can be an integral part of warfare and if it leads to an earlier than justified by purely military considerations victory and cessation of hostilities then all the better, lives have been saved that would otherwise have been lost (on both sides). And, as a bonus in this particular case, victory led to the overthrow – by the Argentinian people themselves – of the murderous Argentinian regime.
Carrington resigned a few days after the invasion. Francis Pym was Foreign Secretary during most of the conflict.
In a rather extraordinary thumbs up for shameless capitalism. A new line of official souvenirs celebrating the French presidency has gone on sale this weekend. Including a T-shirt with President Macron’s silhouette on it, celebrating France’s World Cup win in Russia.
The diminutive French president could be seen in the media today walking with the British PM Theresa May near the EU’s chosen venue in Salzburg, Austria.
In my opinion Macron bears an uncanny resemblance to a young Napoleon, though Macron is no great stratagist, nor does he inspire to say the least.
By the time the Pound is level with the Euro, May will be soliciting macron on the presidential moped, begging to be allowed back into the EU on 2017 terms.
Once Sterling has parity with Euro the trade deficit might start to shrink……..or there will be huge deflationary pressure in EuroZone.
What matters is Cable because it is US dollar that determines the peg and Euro has some big headaches such as puny banks in Germany compared to UK. Can Deutsche and Commerz survive ? If the French acquire Commerzbank Deutsche is dead in the water – Germany desperately wants a Big Bank but no-one wants Deutsche.
Why you giyane see things in a tube rather than a kaleidoscope eludes me – the light refracts and shows much kore colour than your analysis
You’re sounding very well PG. Charles, my best man 20 years ago, would agree with you when you say “no one wants Deutsche”. He worked there for nearly 12 years in asset and structured finance, and left under a bit of a cloud recently.
What your meaning at “Cable…puny…UK”? I agree the SocGen deal will upset a few applecarts, and the huge political importance of Deutsche may lead to some poor decision making. Brit-exit will dwarf all this of course, especially after Salzburg.
Don’t know where that first sentence came from? I think it’s time to Dutch SwiftKey
Well, Macron inspired sufficiently to come up out of nowhere and win the Presidential election rather convincingly.
Something Mr Jeremy Corbin was unable to do at the last UK general election.
I do share your opinion that President Macron looks like the young Napoleon but do not think that is of any great relevance to him winning the Presidential election rather convincingly.
Is anyone following the suggestion that the recent event at Prezzo’s restaurant in Salisbury may have been a “hoax”?
The two people admitted to hospital were Alex King and his wife Anna Shapiro. According to the BBC, Alex King “once hoaxed Prince Charles”, and Anna Shapiro, a “model”, is an I__aeli citizen from Russia. Both have now been released from hospital after all their poison tests showed negative.
Shapiro told the Sun that she feared the Russian state had tried to poison her and her husband with strychnine. That august organ has since removed its write-up, ostensibly “for legal reasons. Not all the other organs that quoted the Sun have taken down their own contributions. For example, here in the Telegraph we can read that Shapiro told the Sun “she believes the Russians think she’s a British spy”.
Given the circumstances, I would have thought that carrying out a hoax of the alleged kind might be considered a serious criminal offence. Unless of course someone in MI5, the Home Office or the Cabinet Office has put the word out that a prosecution wouldn’t be in the “public interest”.
King pleaded guilty in 2004 to “distributing indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children”. I do not know what his sentence was or whether any of the individuals to whom he distributed them ever got named in court or the media. A guilty plea can sometimes be a way to keep certain information (and individuals) out of court.
Click here for a 2006 piece on King’s “hoax” against Prince Charles, in which fraudster and property developer Edward Davenport was involved. The “bet you £100,000” part of this story seems very thin to me. Davenport has worked as a sex party organiser. He is said to have “stolen” the Sierra Leone embassy, which he used for parties attended by Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, Jude Law, Hugh Grant, Simon Cowell, Sarah Ferguson, Kenneth Clarke, Alastair Campbell. (Source).
The Independent reported in 2008 that Davenport “made a fortune throwing parties for Russian oligarchs and Hollywood idols”. “A gathering the same year, organised by the Rothschild family, was attended by Princes William and Harry.”
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.
One of the planned options with this poisoning story may have been to take it further, rather than callng it off so fast.
Anna Shapiro doesn’t seem to have much as an easily publicly accessible backstory as King and Davenport.
And there’s more! According the Mirror:
* Alex King is charged with multiple counts of possessing drugs with intent to supply
* Anna Shapiro earns £4000 per night as a “high-class escort” and “she told friends recently that she was a ‘honeytrap spy’ tasked with seducing men for I__aeli spy agency M*ss*d.”
“Anna claims she worked for M*ss*d after moving to I__ael from Russia in her teens before fleeing and claiming asylum in the UK to study law.”
Why would an I__aeli citizen need “asylum” in Britain? (The only other I__aeli citizen I can think of who was given asylum in Britain is Boris Berezovsky.
Perhaps we aren’t hating Russia enough so we need more fuel on the fire.
Maybe she knows and or has played beach volleyball with Habbakuk Bostitch?
£4000/night – do you think she is VAT-registered ? They obviously live in Salisbury because it has such high consumer demand for narcotics – it seems to be a veritable nirvana for druggies if you simply google Salisbury + whatever………….and looking at her it was hard to believe she didn’t simply ooze strychnine from her bleached blonde hair.
Anyway Sun didn’t have Page 3 options for her. I bet the Russian Embassy was in fits of laughter at the MSM
I read that with interest.
“Given the circumstances, I would have thought that carrying out a hoax of the alleged kind might be considered a serious criminal offence.”
Not, one hopes, by a right-thinking judge. In truth, a hoax is a hoax, and not a criminal offence to my awareness. “Given the circumstances”, that judge might deem an exemplary sentence appropriate, but any charge beyond “breach of the peace” seems to me inappropriate.
The hoax was at worst in very poor taste, given the death of Dawn Sturgess.
Continued from:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/the-holes-in-the-official-skripal-story/comment-page-12/#comments
Colette Annesley-Gamester
July 30, 2018 at 11:01
“The body of the late Dawn Sturgess is to be cremated today Monday 31st July 2018 at ‘a funeral service to celebrate her life’.
“An inquest into her death was opened on 8th July 2018 then immediately adjourned…until 16th January 2019. No MSMs have commented on this unprecedented delay.
“Dawn Sturgess ‘died’ in Salisbury Hospital. It is not widely reported that the oxygen machine was ‘switched off’ a few hours after her admission. Not one MSM appears to have investigated why.
“Concerned that the BBC has as their focus claims of ‘measures to protect mourners’. It would be more helpful to have fuller, factually accurate details of events surrounding Dawn Sturgess’ life as well as the problematic delay of the inquest into her death”.
– end quote –
I’m surprised at how quickly Dawn’s life support was turned off. Were any relatives consulted first? This article implies that relatives were “told” rather than consulted.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-44882793
Social Services will have decided no doubt since they were paying her way and they always go for cremations unless the supplicant is Muslim.
They clearly wanted her out of bed-blocking quickly – is her death certificate available ? or is that pending until Inquest ?
They would need a Part II and a Disposal Certificate so they probably put down cause of death as respiratory failure but with her addict background they could put down anything since she had impaired immune system no doubt
Really interesting Blunderbuss……Thanks
It saves time to give the correct URL for the comment from Colette Annesley-Gamester:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/07/the-holes-in-the-official-skripal-story/comment-page-12/#comment-765753
US Diplomats involved in trafficking of human blood and pathogens for secret military program.
https://southfront.org/us-diplomats-involved-in-trafficking-of-human-blood-and-pathogens-for-secret-military-program/
I posted this on the prev thread but just for visibilty, checkout this theory and quick disappearance of the original FB post.
https://southfront.org/another-version-attempting-to-explain-trip-of-gru-agents-petrov-and-boshirov-to-salisbury/
Seem likely?
“The Owner was knocked on the head by the higher ups, they say, come on take the thread, f*cking Mavrodi.”
This is a reference to Sergei Mavrodi, the Russian financial criminal who died on 26 March 2018, three weeks after the Skripals got ill and a fortnight after Glushkov got whacked in London. So he sounds worth looking at in connection with Salisbury, for sure.
If Andrei Grachev could write in proper sentences we might know whether he thinks the employer of Boshirov and Petrov was Mavrodi or someone else. And if he’s reading this: Geneva is not the capital of Switzerland.
Re Andrei Grachev’s deleted Facebook page: Dungroanin @ 17.33
Yes, this is a more plausible account than the one presented in the MSM.
Now meanwhile Danske Bank has been exposed as a monye laundering machine. I the order of proven $ 200 billion. Rumors and suggestions in Danish press is that it is actually closer to trillions of dollars.
Ehh I am glad that I am a dual citizen, so I dont have to use my Danish passport at the moment. This is utterly disgraceful and criminal, we bailed out the bastards in 2008-2009 and this is how society is re payed?
Kill them! Kill them all! (Darth Vader)
@ Den Lille Abe September 20, 2018 at 18:10
The ass*ole PTB are screwing the public and the environment. These ass*ole War Mongering gits need challenging.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYp2_tcnkAc
But the ‘impregnated’ so-called ‘Stop the War’ ain’t gonna do it. Without a mass movement that is ‘aware’, which we, unfortunately, aren’t going to see, we are screwed.
All the major banks have been involved in ‘money laundering’, including the infamous ‘Vatican Bank’, which funded not only ‘Operation Gladio’, but also the Latin American death squads (in order to counter ‘Liberation Theology’).
For a really enlightening read, check out Paul Williams’ @Opweration Gladio’.
And also check out: ‘In Banks We Trust’ by Penny Lernoux (like many other ‘thorns in the side’ of the PTB, she ‘contracted’ cancer, and passed away).
Israel’s actions in Gaza a ‘war crime’ – EU delegation head tells RT after being denied entry
20 Sep, 2018 11:31
https://www.rt.com/news/438910-gaza-eu-delegation-barred/
How many times have we heard Israel being accused of war crimes? But nothing ever happens.
Note that the war criminals denied entry to the delegation yet again.
‘According to delegation head Neoklis Sylikiotis, an MEP from Cyprus, the main reason behind the Israeli decision “is not to bring the European community into the Gaza Strip.”
12yo boy among 3 Palestinians killed during ‘March of Return’ at Gaza border
“For me what happens in the Gaza Strip is a war crime. We have to give this message to the international community. [Israeli] settlements are a war crime,” the politician told RT.
Israeli authorities have repeatedly denied the delegation access to Gaza since 2011.
In a statement released earlier on the EU Parliament website, Sylikiotis called the Israeli decision “arbitrary and unacceptable,” saying it is clear that Israel is “ashamed and afraid” of letting the European experts witness “the dire situation” in Gaza. The European Parliament called for the return of the Palestinian Authority to Gaza, Sylikiotis stated, urging the international community to pressure Israel “to put an end to the blockade of Gaza.”
Around 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza, according to UN estimates. Many of them are struggling to feed their families and many are deprived of essential supplies such as clean water, medical care, and electricity. A UN report in 2017 warned that by 2020, Gaza will be “unliveable” if nothing changes.’
@ Sharp Ears September 20, 2018 at 18:25
Keep pointing this out. I and many others on this blog totally agree with you.
That was Gaza. Here Robert Fisk speaks with Amira Hass who gives him chapter and verse on life for the Palestinians in the so called West Bank, a Bantustan of sorts, and what remains of their homeland.
I asked Israel’s only journalist in Palestine to show me something shocking – and this is what I saw
This is the old road from Ramallah to Jerusalem, lined with lost wealth and forgotten hopes and once-loved homes. They all now end, of course, at The Wall
Robert Fisk in Bir Naballa, West Bank
6 hours ago
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/amira-hass-robert-fisk-west-bank-palestine-israel-wall-show-me-something-shocking-a8547216.html
It’s heart rending.
EU could bring Israel to heel tomorrow. It simple suspends Trade Agreements and Israel’s participation in EU Research Projects. Israel has a very generous deal with EU which no-one discussing BreXit ever mentions.
Israel could also be tossed out of Eurovision Song Contest until it proves why it is in “Europe”
If the EU really wanted to show Trump its mettle it would impose sanctions on any company doing business with Israel in response to his sanctions on Iran
@Paul Greenwood,
That would be an excellent idea Paul, but Israel has such influence over the UK/France/Germany that it will never happen.
Shaggy Dog Alert
When doing some housekeeping at an old Gmail account today, I came across the following statistics from 2015. It formed part of an email I sent an old schoolchum prior to the referendum, who had fallen for the Big Red Bus argument, posters of gentlefolk of Oriental extraction queuing to gain entry visas, and much other balony contemporaneous at that time.
I thought it was pretty much a full stop to his rather racist, strongly anti East European point-of-view about immigration, but he had made up his mind and he voted to leave the EU, primarily on grounds of immigration control. Another waste of time.
I must point out that he is extremely comfortably off, has never worked in his life, and has/d nothing (much) to lose or gain from a result either way.
It remains informative.
TOP 20 COUNTRIES OF ORIGIN FOR IMMIGRANTS LIVING IN THE UK IN 2015
776 603 … India
703 050 … Poland
540 495 … Pakistan
503 288 … Ireland
322 220 … Germany
230 143 … Bangladesh
218 732 … South Africa
216 268 … Nigeria
212 150 … USA
182 628 … China
172 829 … Jamaica
151 790 … Italy
151 073 … Kenya
149 872 … France
139 570 … Philippines
138 752 … Sri Lanka
135 786 … Australia
132 942 … Zimbabwe
119 990 … Hong Kong
Surprised that Germany is so high up: is that counting Goths, Angles and Saxons?
Sorry Goths. Goths had a King Wallia.
I’m not saying Goths were Welsh; just thinking it.
Its almost certainly the case that if there is a no-deal Brexit it won’t be long before Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will have left the UK (with or without a referendum) and re-joined the EU, meaning that most white (and some black) people in England will be eligible for two passports, one English and other for an EU country (for instance Welsh, Scottish or Irish) assuming the particular country allows double citizenship. Some don’t – Netherlands, Slovakia, Poland, for instance.
Another point is that once that happens Brexiteers will no longer be able to wax lyrical about our “Island jewel set in a silvery sea”, since England will have to share the island jewel with the EU !! None of us will be more than an hour from an border with the EU – almost certainly one that will take an hour to cross if its true that Brexiteers want to make access for EU and non-EU citizens equal. Almost for the first time in history. Travelling between European countries has always been easy as most Englishmen in the past understood themselves to be at some level part of a European cultural circle. I worked in Germany for a year as a teenager just before we joined the EU and didn’t need anything more than a passport.
Alaric was the first to kick Rome’s a..e, but then, after his victorious raid, he sadly succombed to a flash flood in the Busento river, died with many men, washed away, as was his bountiful booty.
Ah well
I would like to see the basis on which this list was put together. The figure for Germans is particularly unlikely though I presume most would be Jews who came to the UK before or immediately after the war. Certainly at the end of 2016 there were only about 200 Germans on job seekers allowance in this country (less than the number of Britons on the German Hartz 4 payments in Germany).
If there were 700,000 Poles in the UK in 2015 then they are an extremely hardworking group because there were only 10,000 on job seekers allowance at the end of the same year! Which means less that 1% were a drain on the resources of the country. Well done Poles !!! Are our Brexiteers who succumbed to a hate campaign against this group in 2016 going now to publicly apologize to them and thank them for their hard work?
” The figure for Germans is particularly unlikely though I presume most would be Jews who came to the UK before or immediately after the war.”
If that were correct, then it would mean that most of those Germans would be at least 80 years old if they came before the war and 70 if they came after. That seems doubtful to me.
There are lots of British soldiers married of Germans with children born in Germany. You should read the basis – it is of persons BORN in Germany.
I mean just take Americans like Bruce Willis or Sandra Bullock – born in Germany
Andrew Sachs was born in Germany, the star of The Onedin Line was born in Germany……The City is full of Germans
Why should I read the “basis”? I was replying to “Patmur”, who tried to make out that most of the 322220 Germans in the UK were German Jews who came to the UK before or after the war. Have a go at him, not at me 🙂
The degree of immigration into Britain in the decade after 2004 was unprecdented, the largest influx in the country’s history. And people knew this was going to be the permanent norm. Nobody was ever asked their opinion on it until the 2016 referendum.
Fonso, you might consider distinguishing between EU and non-EU immigration if you are going to bandy about this.
If you looked into it, you’d find that non-EU immigration to the UK has been consistently higher than EU immigration (every single year) since 1990.
I know, they didn’t print that on the side of a red bus when they talked you into Brexit, nevertheless…
https://fullfact.org/immigration/eu-migration-and-uk/
Your link didn’t work.
@ Hatuey September 20, 2018 at 21:53
No one needs talking into Brexit; after Brexit, OTANexit.
Nobody voted for Brexit because of the words on the side of a bus. Most people voted Leave because they would rather be governed by our own shit politicians than a bunch of unaccountable foreign ones. Import of cheap labour was a major issue and rejecting the “dumb masses” attitude of sneering tossers like yourself was another.
Poor, dejected Mister Bond.
I know someone personally(but not that well) who actually did vote on the sole basis of the Big Red Bus, pretty much.
That so much invective can be packed into one little comment is impressive.
Remarkably durable, too.
One other thing, you state that the “degree of immigration into Britain in the decade after 2004 was unprecdented” but you could have said that in Roman times, in the 5th century when the Saxons invaded, in the 11th century in respect of the Normans, all the way through the 19th century (every single year, I’d expect), and basically at almost any point in the 20th century right up until quite recently. You could say the same sort of stuff about nearly any other European or Western country.
It doesn’t mean a thing. It’s the sort of thing that racist politicians say, but I’m sure you aren’t one of those.
If the point you’re making has any real value it’s as a reference to travel which throughout history has more or less gotten easier and cheaper. And, of course, the population is growing so inevitably there’s going to be more people moving around.
You’re welcome.
@ Wenck September 20, 2018 at 22:34
Unter den Linden, http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=161334
Any thoughts?
You used the word “invaded”………
Incidentally, when are the dumb masses going to be programmed to think more about British emigration? I mean, the sun never set on these colonising bastards and here we are talking about immigration…
Bitter, I genuinely have no idea what that means — can you explain?
Google translates this as:
“One of the most beautiful Seychelles for you. There is no Turkish computer, unfortunately. Good evening”.
I still don’t know what it means.
Is my aunt in the garden? No, but George has spilt the beer down the stairs.
I am changing into second gear because we are going uphill. Is there a veterinary surgeon in the next village?
I think we need an MI6 code book.
@ Demirel September 20, 2018 at 22:40
Ekmek!
Where I live children born to foreign born mothers was 53% of births last year. Is that high enough for you Hatuey ?
It’s my opinion that only a xenophobic bore would dwell on things like that.
Can we move on to English emigration now, I’m sick of talking about immigration? I propose that we start with 17th century Ireland.
That list did not have anything to say about children born to immigrants, whether last week, last year, or last millennium. Like it or no, they are as British as you or I.
We do not (yet) have a system here in UK similar to eg Haeften’s German Gastarbeiterprogramm (qGoogle). In fairness to post WWII German politicians, Bomber Command had been a little over-thorough, and there was a lot to do. It did prove extremely problematic from the late ’70s and on, due to a remarkable fecundinty among the Turks, and a dangerously powerful and widespread xenophobia among the indiginous population.
[ I was in Friedberg/iH as a 19 year old for nine months before Uni in 1985, working in a bank. I had a great time, loved every minute, but saw this hatred of the Turks up close and often. The xenophobia there was far stronger than what I had seen at home directed against Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, and Jamaicans.
Many years later, I lived in Ankara for four years and saw a different persepective. I digress.]
Sorry to bore you Hatuey, I agree British emigrants are like a disease spreading over parts of Iberia, they certainly should be sent packing. Unfortunately , as they spend lots of lolly, they probably won’t be.
James
“[ I was in Friedberg/iH as a 19 year old for nine months before Uni in 1985, working in a bank”
3rd year Sixth to sit the Oxford or Cambridge entrance exams in December? Were you public school as well?
Charles
I did sit the CCE in 1984 for so-called 7th term entry for NatSci. It was a waste of time as I had already done spectacularly well at A ans S level, but the 7th term fees and exam had been paid for bzw. arranged. Not public school, but an up-itself fee paying Grammar School. I never went back, and did/do not forgive them for their insistence on sitting the pointless CCE.
I’d also got (temporarily) bored with “science”, and the admissions tutor was perplexed, but agreed to let me matriculate to read philosophy.
Thence on to MML (German & Dutch!!) etc
You?
Now show how Romania fares on that list. That is a Stock not a Flow.
You are using 2015 estimate as statistical source and you missed out Romania which is listed on 2015 ONS estimate shown on Wikipedia. Fact is it is an Estimate in a country that fails to register Arrivals and Departures so it is meaningless. There are hundreds of thousands of Unregistered Persons in UK
Not quite meaningless, Paul, but correct you are it is an estimate. I’d mentioned some caveats in a comment thread last evening, which have now been deleted as they were hijacked by German- and Turkish speaking trolls.
The meaning, or value rather, is pointed to in my OP, and was evidently badly made.
No matter an estimate, the purpose of the list I sent to my friend by email before the referendum was to convince him that leaving the EU would do little to alleviate migration, as the majority of migrants to UK come from outside the Union.
In fact I pointed out in a subsequent email to my “Brexiteer” friend that those statistics were NOT nett of UK emigration, eg in 2015 there were more Brits living in Spain than vice versa. Thus, the point being made was considerably more powerful.
The original list had the EU countries highlighted in blue(!) which did make the “meaning” more obvious, but I couldn’t be bothered to make any tweaks and just pasted the list on here.
For doubts about whether the German statistics incorporated Krystallnacht Jewish émigrés, or indeed any other niceties, there is plenty of reliable information easily Googled. In fact there is and was so much information online, I was quite bemused at my otherwise intelligent friend’s scotona on the matter.
I hope the broad brush of my meaning is now clearer.
Reichskristallnacht was the result of a Polish murder of a German diplomat in Paris itself a product of Poland invalidated passports of Polish Jews living in Germany and Germany deporting them including the family of Herschel Grynszpan who murdered nom Rather in Paris.
Why that should lead to an inflow to Britain is unclear and how they would qualify for residence also. There were however large numbers of Polish troops who stayed in UK after 1945 many of whom from what became Western Poland had been born in 1916 when Poland was partitioned and the area to the west of Warsaw was Germany.
In fact in German Law today German nationality is defined by the borders of the German Reich 1937
There were indeed, and one of them lived next door to my grandparents in Bolton. He was known as “owd Petrovski”, and everyone thought he was a spy.
I’d digressed into Kristallnacht et seq in a slightly tongue-in-cheek response to some comment, now deleted, I think.
Apologies for the additional dilution of my OP!
‘Generation being born now is the last to be free – Assange in last interview before blackout (VIDEO)
20 Sep 2018 | 18:16 GMT
Before his links to the world was cut by his Ecuadorian hosts, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gave an interview on how technological advances are changing humankind. He said global surveillance will soon be totally unavoidable.
The interview was provided to RT by organizers of the World Ethical Data Forum in Barcelona. Assange, who is currently stranded in the Ecuadorean embassy in London with no outside communication except with his legal team, has a pretty grim outlook on where humanity is going. He says it will soon be impossible for any human being to not be included into global databases collected by governments and state-like entities.
This generation being born now… is the last free generation. You are born and either immediately or within say a year you are known globally. Your identity in one form or another –coming as a result of your idiotic parents plastering your name and photos all over Facebook or as a result of insurance applications or passport applications– is known to all major world powers.’
/..
https://www.rt.com/news/438968-assange-last-interview-blackout/
He is suffering. Hope he’s bearing up and knows we’re on his side.
“Best wishes from Comte Balthazar de Bleuchamp”. Am I right?
No, I just googled it.
Hyperbole. People haven’t been free from bureaucratic classification and identity requirements from the state for at least a century. What does the last free generation even mean? Compared to who? Poignant, given his circumstances, but hardly a revelation, especially the guff about FB and insurance forms.
@ Ian September 20, 2018 at 23:33
So are you saying it wasn’t easier to stay under the radar 100 years ago?
He knows just how pervasive surveillance and control has become, and how it is progressing.
How long is it before you will be RFID’d, and have nowt in yer pocket but a bit of plastic, containing all your ‘monetary’ wealth?
Upset the PTB, and your ‘bit of plastic’ becomes just that.
I know a man who has had himself microchipped like a cat.
RFID chips tracked in shopping malls. CCTV cameras. NFC circuitry in mobile phones tracked. Use of Stingray to track phones IMEI.
The ANPR system in filing stations, cities to track vehicles. Credit Card tracking. Facebook, Google, Instagram Big Data pooling.
Assange is right. Oh and lets not forget the imaging technology on drones, or the Black Hawk now assigned to policing in London or the micro-camera buttons……..or Menwith Hill
https://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t15383-madeleine-mccann-and-the-microchipping-agenda#389458
The above links to the Complete Mystery of Madeleine McCann site. There has been speculation by some that her disappearance is somehow linked to the micro-chipping agenda, and that this was actively being lobbied by interested parties who stood to make big bucks by chipping every kid & newly born in Britain.
For the first time in human history it all adds up to the prospect of an immovable totalitarian state. We already have a party system and five yearly elections that are simply a charade, intended to give the masses the illusion of choice. Police engaged in creating a chilling effect on social media platforms instead of focussing on real crime – more than 3000 arrested last year alone for comments they made online and legislation is in place or planned that would have made Lavrentiy Beria think all his Christmases had come at once. The recent purge of free speech on Google, Twitter and Youtube has reinforced what the mainstream media has been subtly doing for years – no platform, no influence. Perversely, it’s only war that will save us.
And once you’re identified, you can be killed, if someone so desires:
– “It allows you to separate the bad guys from the good. Smart weapons consume data. When you can find your enemy using data, even by a hashtag, you can target an evil ideology, right where it starts”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CO6M2HsoIA
RFID is being systematically normalised amongst the young as we speak. One prominent vehicle the ruling scum are using to achieve this totalitarian wet dream is the music festival. Once a breeding ground of freespirited souls, like everthing good that “we the people” create, the authorities worldwide have hijacked these events to further their agenda. That’s one reason why festivals are shit now, because many of them are just groupthink projects/experimentation grounds for the cunts. Check this ugly piece of RFID brainwashing “12 Reasons RFID at Festivals is Awesome” !!!!! https://www.idcband.com/blog-us/12-reasons-rfid-festivals-awesome/ . Vomits. It’s very clear what the bastards are doing – get the “cool kids” indoctrinated and so as generations pass, this shit becomes mainstream, and all of a sudden, voila, having a chip to do what you’re doing anyway via a tag seems ok. the authorities are not stupid, they know anyone, say, over 30 would be uncomfortable with this, but as we know, screwing children is par for the course where our demonic leaders are concerned. Martin luther king spoke of the “tranquilising drug of gradualism.” he was a wise man, a visionary. I wonder how much a certain country’s “technology sector” is playing a role in this? Interesting that “Talpiot” never gets a mention here. Maybe it will get some credence, in say 17 years?
The future – plagiarised “we aren’t that far off from a future that is going to prominently feature RFID technology in our everyday life. One expert even insinuated that getting by will become so inconvenient for those who aren’t using the technology, that they will be forced into using it so that they can effectively function within the market and society. ” you can see that becoming reaity, for sure
Ian:
Assange is pointing out how modern technology including all its enticements has made it IMMEASURABLY easier for Western Goverments, whose wet dream is respression and control, to succeed in that dream, but somehow you think you know better than one of the World’s premier experts on security, computers and modern communications technology, ya fucking idiot.
Remarkable lack of comprehension you show.
.
Not just governments. These technologies are controlled by the private sector, which serves profit not people. Governments are just customers.
Google admits it lets hundreds of third party apps read your emails https://www.rt.com/news/438985-google-apps-read-emails/
and
‘But amid all the furor, one monolithic entity has continued to harvest data from billions of people worldwide. The data gathered includes a precise log of your every move and every internet search you’ve ever made, every email you’ve ever sent, your workout routine, your favourite food, and every photo you’ve ever taken. And you have allowed it to happen to yourself, for the sake of better service and more relevant advertising.
Google is a ‘Big Brother’ with capabilities beyond George Orwell’s wildest nightmares. These capabilities are all the more chilling after Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., cut its famous “don’t be evil” line from its code of conduct in 2015.’
https://www.rt.com/usa/422753-cambridge-analytica-facebook-scandal/
The Federal Agency for Tourism of the Russian Federation has issued an advisory to all Russians visiting Salisbury to take packed lunches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvDMlk3kSYg
The video does not match the description, unless I’m using the wrong code book.
Surely they said packed lunches and no bottled perfume.
I was very perturbed to read this analysis. I do hope it is not true but does explain some of what happened recently. If correct it means capitulation and compromise either on the integrity of Syria or on agreeing to ‘regimechange’.
http://johnhelmer.net/gift-to-the-sultan-text-of-russia-turkey-agreement-of-september-17-2018-establishing-turkish-protectorate-of-idlib/#more-19788
Temporary agreement, to disarm the jihadis. But could be fake, in the jihadi-harbouring Gulf.
It was obvious to me from watching the broadcast of the Tehran summit that Erdogan was not happy. He has now had his way in Idlib and strengthened Turkey’s presence in Idlib. This is not a very healthy situation when in the first place the Tehran summit did not include the Syrian president, and two when the Turks , who have again recently returned to the theme of ‘regime change’ came up on top.
This and also the delay in the action by Syria and the events in Latakia sending a clear message that Russia can’t even defend its own aircraft in a strong zone , I am afraid means a message was sent and capitulation has followed. Laguerre I know you are always optimistic about the situation but the ferocity of the reaction of the west to the impending attack on Idlib and the revival of the Skripal affair all indicate to me that the Western Allies were not going to let this happen.
“the ferocity of the reaction of the west to the impending attack on Idlib and the revival of the Skripal affair all indicate to me that the Western Allies were not going to let this happen.”
That’s precisely why the Russian course of action. Deflect the likely US reaction by delaying, and then when the jihadis refuse to disarm or evacuate, as Erdogan has agreed, there will be all the more justification for the Syrian army to move in. Or something similar.
Idlib in itself means nothing to Russia though. The problem of weeding out terrorists in Idlib is now a problem shared and halved.
Syria will, of course, not be happy with the implied permanence of Turkish troops there (on terms that they stay as long as the Assad “regime” remains relevant and in power), but Assad isn’t in a position to complain — he knows, as we all do, that Syria would be a pile of smouldering ash right now if it was not for the Russian presence.
My guess is that Assad will not care so much about Idlib if it helps consolidate his position as leader and engenders stability. Syria and Assad need a period of stability and peace, not for kumbaya reasons but in order to get the West and others accustomed to the idea that he is staying. Survival comes before everything when you face existential threats.
A much bigger concern for Assad and Syria, bigger than Idlib, as alluded to in certain circles, will be the Euphrates and Iraqi border regions where certain business activities are being conducted. Note the emphasis that the agreement with Turkey gives to roads and motorways being stabilised — do you think they are concerned about the lack of fun Syrian sightseers have been having?
Russia for its part wants the pipeline (to take a specific route, of course) and, as usual, warm water access. They also want to legitimise the idea that they have as much right to a share of the middle eastern pie as anyone else, or, at a bear minimum, a right to at least attend the party.
This latter point is probably the issue that irks the US (& Israel) most. The US thinks it has exclusive rights in the region, primarily based on a flimsy deal made with Saudi Arabia in 1945.
Those were the days. Iran was occupied by the Soviet Union & Britain back then after they attacked and invaded in 1941 (Operation Countenance). It was a brutal experience for Iran too, the Russians didn’t pull any punches, and there’s still bad blood. It surprises me that we hear so little that one these days…
The only reason it didn’t include the Syrian president was that he’d have been shot down by the Israelis.
Oh yeah. Standard hasbara. Israel can do anything, it’s omnipotent, is the standard propaganda line.
Not going to let the liberation of Idlib happen that is.
And the plan will also include apparently unrelated action by Israel, otherwise why is Nasrallah saying this now?
https://southfront.org/hezbollah-leader-israel-working-to-prevent-syrian-army-from-achieving-missile-capabilities/
You can’t always know precisely what the Israeli motivation is. They have a basic policy to disrupt anything that goes on in the countries around them. Back in the early days after 1948, Avi Shlaim says that Israeli militants from the settlements used to attack surrounding Arab territories just for the sake of being offensive. His idea is that this amateur militancy morphed into public policy, when Ben Gurion was convinced to join in.
Many of the bank branches have been closed. Internet connection unavailable. Where do we run to access our own money?
RBS, NatWest and Ulster Bank hit by online glitch
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-45598292
The outages are happening more frequently.
Banks close 2,900 branches in three years, says Which?
15 June 2018
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44483304
Maybe they are warming us up for the ‘bail in’ when the next overdue bank failure occurs. Nothing has changed since 2008 and the money changers are still running riot with their derivative casino.
Householders are not borrowing ,but property developers are running riot in the major cities. something is not quite right. Property is always a safe haven in a bust.
Incidentally Google have removed WSWS from their search data.
‘Fight Google’s censorship!
Google is blocking the World Socialist Web Site from search results.
To fight this blacklisting:
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New York Times’ fraudulent “election plot” dossier escalates anti-Russia hysteria
21 September 2018
The New York Times published a fraudulent and provocative “special report” Thursday titled “The plot to subvert an election.”
Replete with sinister looking graphics portraying Russian President Vladimir Putin as a villainous cyberage cyclops, the report purports to untangle “the threads of the most effective foreign campaign in history to disrupt and influence an American election.”
The report could serve as a textbook example of CIA-directed misinformation, posing as “in-depth” journalism. There is no news, few substantiated facts and no significant analysis presented in the 10,000-word report, which sprawls over 11 ad-free pages of a separate section produced by the Times.
The article begins with an ominous-sounding recounting of two incidents in which banners were hung from bridges in New York City and Washington in October and November of 2016, one bearing the likeness of Putin over a Russian flag with the word “peacemaker,” and the other that of Obama and the slogan “Goodbye Murderer.”
/..
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/21/pers-s21.html
author – Bill Van Auken.
I always thought it was legal and acceptable for foreigners to meddle in elections. During the Scottish independence campaign we had Obama and all sorts of dark money deployed against us.
Where do they draw the line these days? Are Strategic Hamlets still okay? What about carpet bombing, as in say Fallujah, doesn’t that stuff influence the outcome of elections? The dead don’t get to vote.
Actually, correction — STOP PRESS! In the 1979 Scottish referendum the dead did count against those wanting devolution. You couldn’t make it up.
Surely amongst new-liberal democracies, though, it’s fine for someone to buy a newspaper in another country and manipulate to his heart’s content?
I’m confused.
You misunderstand. Rules only apply to ordinary nations not to exceptional ones and there are currently two of those apparently chosen from above.
Well Abe does it again, he’ll soon rival Putin in terms of party leadership. Shinzo Abe, has been re-elected as head of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic party in a landslide victory.
It could lead to another term in office for Abe, who in 2021, will become the longest serving Japanese PM.
Japan a country, was completely hacked into by the US, exposed by Edward Snowden, and the US Prism programme. So it doesn’t come as a surprise that Abe wants to strengthen ties with the US, Abe will meet with Trump next week, on the agenda is, among other things is trade.
Abe also want to meet with NK dictator Kim Jong Un, my he is a popular guy these days, to resolve Japanese citizens abducted to the North.
Staying on Kim, the flavour of the month man, he (Kim) wants to meet with the US Secretary of State, hoping the Secretary will visit him in Pyongyang to discuss nuclear matters.
Apparently it would appear Kim is mellowing a bit as he promises to create a buffer zone along land and sea borders to relieve tensions, reduce personnel along the DMZ, and allow families separated by the border more contact with each other.
Meanwhile despite what Russian President Putin said on the downed Russian plane, Putin said, it was a chain of tragic circumstances, Russia has now rejected Israel’s version of the events.
“Al Mayadeen’s Moscow correspondent reported that the Russians rejected Israel’s findings, which consider Russia and Syria responsible for the plane’s downing, and asked for Israel to open a new investigation.”
“The Russian embassy in Israel said on Thursday it views the actions of the Israel Air Force over Syria as “irresponsible and unfriendly,” saying they exposed a Russian aircraft to danger “and led to the death of 15 servicemen.”
Effectively Russia has told Israeli Major General Amikam Norkin, to go away and come back at a later date with a more credible story. It will be a difficult task as credibility and Israel, are words very seldom seen together.
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/report-russia-rejects-israel-s-findings-on-downed-russian-jet-over-syria-1.6492645
The last post of Craigs that I can access is ” Soft Focus ” on the 16th Sept. Judging by the most recent comments, Ive not received the latest Posts, which has happened before now!
Soft Focus is the latest; Craig just hasn’t posted for a few days.
Blimey!
The Guardian claiming today Russia had planned to rescue Assange from London and take him to Russia.
Absolutely no attempt made to provide evidence for this. Even the article admits details are “sketchy”!
Jo1:
The Russians mounting a rescue attempt for Julian Assange would change the minds of … oh, I dunno … may be hundreds of thousands,may be millions of people who currently believe the dangerous toxic propaganda against Russia.
I think the Grauniad must have misplaced its copy of the script!
(Currently in facebook ‘jail’, so link embedded in my name prob. leads nowhere! – Time to more seriously look at minds.com, may be vk.com too).
.
“The Russians mounting a rescue attempt for Julian Assange would change the minds of … oh, I dunno … may be hundreds of thousands,may be millions of people who currently believe the dangerous toxic propaganda against Russia.”
Only if they are complete idiots. Russian dissidents get killed.
so do dissidents in the u.s., and britain, which signed off on the drone assassination of one of its citizens.
that’s why they don’t allow comments, they know the article is bullshit.