Craig is in Jacobabad 1952


Just a quick note to say that Craig has been in contact and he is fine but currently in Jacobabad, Pakistan with no reliable internet access.

He knows some people have been wondering if all is okay, so this post is just to confirm all’s well and he’ll be back online when he can.

Site Admin.


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1,952 thoughts on “Craig is in Jacobabad

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  • Republicofscotland

    As Britain for the time being, refuses to return Venezuela’s gold bullion, and the US and its minions impose illegal sanctions on the country, causing great hardship to its people.

    British Royal marines are undergoing jungle warfare in Belize, having done so since January, and a large British Royal navy auxiliary ship sits 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

    Throw in Bolton’s 5000 troops notebook, and it would appear the build up to the coup in well undeway.

    http://archive.is/F1Kq6

    “Venezuela Solidarity Campaign secretary Francisco Dominguez told the Morning Star: “We are extremely concerned that Britain may join any military attack unleashed by the US against Venezuela.”

    “Stop the War Coalition campaigner Mayer Wakefield echoed this concern, saying:”
    Britain’s recent history of catastrophic military interventions should rule out any UK participation in Donald Trump’s attempts to destabilise a democratically elected government in Venezuela.””

    • Charles Bostock

      “As Britain for the time being, refuses to return Venezuela’s gold bullion,”

      Seems eminently sensible to me. It is probably being held (if it is actually being held) to prevent the corrupt “leaders” of Venezuela stashing it away somewhere to fund their retirement (which will soon be upon them).

      • pretzelattack

        no it’s being held to further destabilize venezuela. the corrupt leaders are mostly concentrated in the coup supporters.

      • N_

        @Charles – When you use the word “sensible” to describe the poshboy British regime stealing the Venezuelan government’s gold, you sound like the zookeeper who said chimpanzees were “intelligent” enough to know to return after escaping.

        As for the Bank of England “preventing” money being stashed away by corrupt leaders, do you know how funny that statement is?

      • nevermind

        you shouldn’t use the term ‘sensible’ Habby, it is being withheld from their rightful owners, despite many requests, its pirates at work and it erodes trust.
        It is not up to the bank of England to make political decisions about other countries sovereign wealth funds here, whether they like or dislike a Government.

    • philw

      This is not a ‘coup’ – it is an illegal attack by UK and US on a democratic sovereign state. It is no more a coup than Iraq, Libya, or Syria.

    • Loony

      Why the sudden interest in Venezuelan gold repatriation?

      Did you express the same interest in the extraordinary length of time it took Germany to repatriate gold from New York and Paris? Do you think the French and Americans held on to German gold in order to put pressure on and destabilize the government of Germany.

      Surely the major gold story of the day is in Italy where Salvini has floated the idea of Italians seizing Italian gold reserves from the Italian central bank.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-11/salvini-suggests-seizing-control-italys-gold-reserves-central-bank

      Maybe Salvini is still trying to come to terms with being labelled a social leper by Macron. Good to see that the Europeans are fully united and marching in lockstep to the sunlit uplands of the Nirvana being busily created by Macron. Obviously there remains some work to do with regard to social leprosy but happily Macron is on the case and manifestly enjoys the popular support of the French citizenry. Well the support of those people who are not busy trying to burn France down. Maybe he has a problem with social lepers in France as well.

      • Isa

        It is not your gold to keep . That is state theft from the Venezuelan people by the U.K. it will also work as a deterrent for any state with leaders with an ounce of brain to trust the brittish government with gold reserves …

          • Sharp Ears

            Do you remember seeing Her Maj being shown round the stacks of gold by that very nice man, Mr Carney the Canadian i/c of the Bank of England?

          • N_

            @ Blunderbuss – That’s a good question that deserves an answer.

            Clearly there must be levers, and we’re seeing them being pulled in the Venezuelan case.

            The world isn’t composed of countries that are all on an equal level of security and respect. “Sovereign” is basically a moneylenders’ term, meaning “highly guaranteed to pay back”. It goes with the noun “borrower”. It means “good” as in “good milking cow”. So my answer to your question is that those who control the financial system demand that gold be kept here or there. Essentially it functions as collateral for loans, including the day-to-day finance that governments have been made to depend on.

            Which is not to say everything is monolithic. As well as the British “islands” (including the City), there is Switzerland. People are encouraged to think the importance of Swiss banking has something to do with a reputation for prudence or perhaps with the Templars in the 14th century. That’s all crap. In actual fact, the country became a banking centre in the early 1930s when Meyer Lansky did a “deal” with a bunch of lederhosen-wearers and the Sicilian and Jcwish parts of the New York mafia started to bank their money there. Even many Swiss people don’t know this. It’ll be in any decent account of mafia history though.

        • Loony

          Sure, but how is that different from France and the US holding on to German gold?

          What is it exactly about Venezuelan gold that makes it so interesting in comparison to German gold?

          • N_

            It’s so boring how both trolls and stupid people like to come up with the lines “why are you obsessed with that?” and “why are you singling that out?” Of course it’s one of the first lessons they teach at hasbara school. Imagine a hypocritical lying “14-word”-style ultra-racist with double standards as big as mountains accusing another person of double standards and fixation! Yeah right. We talk about the US and British rulers attacking foreign countries because we’re so biased. We’re all paid by Moscow. We want Putin and Hamas to burn babies, rob, steal and lie – that’s why we criticise other regimes for doing it. Didn’t you know?

          • Loony

            All I want to know is what makes Venezuelan gold so interesting in comparison to German gold. If you don’t know the answer just say so.

      • Deb O'Nair

        The smarmy faced prick – never held a senior government position in his life prior to becoming head of the MOD, and you can tell. Typical May, she surrounds herself with inexperienced and ineffectual idiots to make herself look and feel better. No wonder the country is a global laughing stock.

  • N_

    It seems that according to defence secretary Gavin Williamson, Brexit is an “opportunity” for the British monarchist regime to wage war on republican Russia and China.

    Undo 1949? Undo 1917? What next? Undo 1848 and restore the French crown?

    But the gun man in the little island monarchy’s government has spoken!

    The British defence secretary has revealed plans to invest £7m in a swarm squadron of drones theoretically capable of jamming enemy air defences, in a bellicose speech in which he spelled out how the UK could ‘enhance its lethality’ after Brexit.

    (Aren’t city-destroying strategic nuclear warheads “lethal” enough? And as for £7m, does one drone count as a swarm?)

    (He) said he wanted the RAF to form a new ‘concept unit’, composed of hundreds of small flying craft, to target the radar of countries such as Russia or China as part of his future strategy for the armed forces (…0

    It is part of Williamson’s attempt to present Brexit as an opportunity ‘when we must strengthen our global presence, enhance our lethality and increase our mass’.

    Nothing like the rule of three to give a speech gravitas!

    Perhaps they can trundle tanks along the Mall on Brexit night and watch from the balcony at Buckingham Palace?

    • Ingwe

      For armchair warriors like Williamson, war seems like an extension, no doubt of his war computer games.
      I think it should be mandatory for Defence Minsters and other advocates of warfare to either serve themselves or for their sons and daughters to be put in the frontline.
      He talks of establishing Britian’s role in a post-Brexit world. As a faded, bankrupt (both financially and morally) stagnating former empire, does he really think he’s going to “make Britain great again”? What a jumped up little fantacist. Should stay up in his bedroom, tossing off to ‘War Games’ ( or whatever they’re called).

    • Deb O'Nair

      “enhance our lethality”

      Sinister talk like this in the high echelons of the UK government should be a red light to civilised people. To think that these nutcases have nukes is very worrying indeed.

  • TonyF12

    All hail Mary Pau – “Land of Hope and Glory” and all that. I agree with your sentiments, however in context I am confused by the notions of regained independence, escaping undemocratic dictatory forces, and regaining control of our borders in leaving the EU.

    (i) Our foreign policy is dictated by Washington. With 100pc demonstrable failure in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria. Countless slaughtered civilians, many of our military killed and maimed, Europe and neighbouring countries awash with refugees. Now we are back to poking Russia and China with ever sharper sticks as a sport.

    (ii) Our Security Central GCHQ operates for the CIA and NSA, both agencies of a foreign country now hostile towards us in our trading relationships.

    (iii) The House of Lords which oversees all our legislation is entirely undemocratic – not one of them has been elected, not one may be removed through democratic process. That statistic makes our system actually less democratic than Brussels.

    (iv) Regaining control of our borders with the EU implicitly means a hard border with the EU in Ireland – the only land border we will have with the EU. It will also cause heavy burdens on ports like Dover for movement of goods. It will add long delays at our airports when EU citizens have to join the queues of incoming tourists from America, Asia, Africa.

    I am all for independence, but there is a lot going on here of which T. May never speaks – let alone Johnson, Rees-Mogg and Farage.

    Finally we have the colossal lie of promising hundreds of millions of pounds for the NHS, where the reality is tens of billions in the opposite direction.

    Brexit is principally (if not only) a game of Westminster politics. With T. May trapped in the jaws of a vice to hold her parliamentary party and her party’s electability in the country viable, which have differing expectations and demands. She cares nothing about the country: only her party.

    • Jay

      v. Public utilities, services, assets now largely controlled by overseas interests. Flogged to them by bring back control super patriots. You would struggle to make it up all.

      • michael norton

        Nearly two million lorries pass through the French port of Calais every year.
        It is a vital supply route between continental Europe
        and the United Kingdom, and consequently the prospect of Cliff Edge Brexit is taken very seriously. Planning started nearly a year ago, and now building work has too. The port terminal’s boss, Jean-Marc Puisesseau, is adamant that they will meet the tight deadline: on March 29, the port of Calais will be ready.
        https://www.france24.com/en/video/20190209-french-port-city-calais-prepares-no-deal-brexit

        It’s nice to know the French ports will be ready for Cliff Edge Brexit on March 29,
        pity British ports wont be.

  • Charles Bostock

    “Why should I want to generate support for Macron? I’m just a commentator.”

    On the assumption that people would prefer to read the truth on this blog rather than lies, I hope that I shall be qllowed to set the record straight about two things the writer of the above said about the gilets jaunes a day or so ago.

    Our correspondent claimed (not for the first time) that the violent element tagging along with the gilets jaunes was extreme right wingers (fascists). Here is what Christophe Castaner, the Minister of the Interior, had to say (my translation):

    “Most of the ATMs of the banks along the route taken by the protesters were destroyed, as were various items of street furniture and cars,often luxury cars; that is classical far-left behaviour”.

    So, according to the Minister, not right-wing thugs but left-wing thugs .

    Secondly, our correspondent also fell over himself to say that the protester who lost four fingers of his hand did so because a heavy metal door had slammed shut on his hand. This again is far from the truth, and police sources have now admitted that it is almost certain that the injury was caused by an exploding police grenade (they still have to determine exactly how).

    In conclusion I should say that while everyone commenting on here is fully entited to defend President Macron, they should not try to do so by slandering the gilet jaunes and telling porkies. It is all the more dismaying when the defender belongs to a profession which is supposed to uphold the truth and base its output on fact and not slander.

      • Charles Bostock

        Whether that was the guy’s intention is something the police are trying to clarify.

        The main thing to note however is that the thugs are, according to the Minister, left-wing thugs (as I believe you yourself suggested some time ago) and not right-wing thugs (as slanderously alleged by our correspindent from Nanterre).

        • michael norton

          SAE 810 instant tear gas grenade
          is a tear gas and sound-only stun grenade containing 25 grams of TNT.

          It is used in France since 2011. France is the only European country using these for law enforcement. It can cause mutilation.

          It was reported that the photographer had been struck on his leg by a SAE 810 police grenade, he bent down to knock it away and it exploded injuring his head and taking four of his fingers off.

          • bj

            So Macron joins a small club of leaders of whom there is factual proof they are gassing their own people.

          • IrishU

            It was only a matte rof time before Sharpie brought the conversation arounf to Israel and Palestine. As night follows day…

          • Dungroanin

            There are documentated reports that French have received riot training by Israel going back years.

            There are many reports of many US riot squads trained by Israel.

            There is even footage of French and US riot forces subsequently training together.

            What is wrong in SharpEars pointing out that the French are usung the same weapons as Israel does in maiming Palestinian protestors?

    • Laguerre

      Of course Bostock is unable to give us a link, so we are unable to check his not very accurate translations. But he has the bitterness and persistent persecution tendencies of Old Habby, noting down everything, and bringing it back against people weeks later. But he believes 100% automatically any old thing said by a far right gilet jaune. Hab used to do that too.

      • Charles Bostock

        Well, Laguerre, I was actually quoting the Minister of the Interior Monsieur Christophe Castaner. What he said in French was the following (I’m afraid I’m using a UK keyboard, so no accents).

        “La quasi-totalite des distributeurs de billets des banques du parcours de la manifestation d’hier ont ete detruits mais aussi du mobilier urbain et des voitures souvent de luxe: c’est tres classique de l’ultragauche”.

        By the way, if I didn’t give a link, how do you know whether my translation was accurate or not? But do feel free to improve it for the benefit of non Francophone readers (but please remember that Castaner uses ENA and not Nanterre French).

    • Tony

      Yes, one can just imagine that the businesses of the world will stop selling their goods to the lucrative UK market, with the subsequent emplyment redundancies, lay-offs, loss of profits, and more than a few bankruptcies. And UK goods and services will be shunned by the world. Not! Doh!!! Project Fear and it’s mug punter supporters are getting truly desperate.

      • SA

        Even if these people are keen to sell they may find no regulatory or legal pathways to sell unless we reintroduced barter. You prefer project heR no evil and hibernate.

  • Charles Bostock

    So much talk about a no deal Brexit, many doom-laden prophecies of shortages of food and medicine and rioting in the streets.

    Relinds one of the Millenium Bug, doesn’t it – aeroplanes falling out of the sky, nuclear missiles firing off by themselves, water, gas and electricity systems breaking down……

    Except that none of it happened 🙂

    • Republicofscotland

      Britain wilk be a far less safer place outside the EU, it will lack:

      Schengen Information System (SISII) – an EU wide IT system that enables member states to share real time information about wanted or missing people. Law enforcement officers in the UK accessed this database 539 million times in 2017.

      European Arrest Warrant (EAW) – a framework that facilitates the extradition of individuals between EU member states to face prosecution. In 2017/18 over 1,400 people were arrested on EAW in the UK and around 180 were returned to the UK.

      European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) – ECRIS enables member states to exchange information about criminal convictions. Currently criminal record checks with member states take six days on average, whereas the average outside the EU is 66 days.

      Europol – Europol is an agency that supports cooperation between member states enabling information sharing and joint operations. The UK is a significant contributor to Europol sharing over 47,000 messages in 2017 and has supported over 130 investigation teams.

      We’re lead by self serving donkeys.

      • Tom Welsh

        I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw RoS commending the European Arrest Warrant.

        It was with the greatest of difficulty that I refrained from hoping that, any time now, he might become the object of one of those despicable intsruments of unaccountable tyranny. Then he could be snatched from his home by British police, asking no questions about the validity of the alleged crime – or even whether it is a crime in the UK – and flown rapidly to some distant hell hole, there to languish in prison until a local judge feels like giving him a hearing.

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1300723/Innocent-student-extradited-Greek-prison-hell-EU-arrest-warrant.html

        https://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/09/the-case-that-shows-why-we-must-not-stay-in-the-european-arrest-warrant/

        “Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Kommunist.
        Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
        Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
        Als sie die Juden holten, habe ich geschwiegen; ich war ja kein Jude.
        Als sie mich holten, gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte”.

        – Martin Niemöller, Der Weg ins Freie, (F.M. Hellbach, Stuttgart, 1946)

        “When the Nazis arrested the Communists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Communist.
        When they locked up the Social Democrats, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Social Democrat.
        When they arrested the trade unionists, I said nothing; after all, I was not a trade unionist.
        When they arrested the Jews, I said nothing; after all, I was not a Jew.
        When they arrested me, there was no longer anyone who could protest”.

        – translated by Bob Berkovitz ([email protected]). Revealingly, often quoted without the first line (or even the first three lines).

        • Tom Welsh

          “The power of the Executive to cast a man into prison without formulating any charge known to the law, and particularly to deny him the judgment of his peers, is in the highest degree odious and is the foundation of all totalitarian government, whether Nazi or Communist”.

          – Winston Churchill (cable to Herbert Morrison, the Home Secretary, in 1943 on the occasion of the latter’s releasing Sir Oswald and Lady Diana Mosley from detention without trial)

      • Tony

        The Schengen Information System will be superseded by immigration and cross-border travel controls.

        The European Arrest Warrant is a legal disgrace, which dispenses with nearly all the arrestee’s legal rights. The EU can stick it, and Interpol, where the sun doesn’t shine.

        • Johny Conspiranoid

          Didn’t Jack Straw give the European Arrest Warrant extra nasty bits just for the UK?

      • JohninMK

        ” Law enforcement officers in the UK accessed this database 539 million times in 2017.”

        Incredible productivity, that’s over 10,000,000 a week or 2,000,000 a working day. Roughly 50 Forces in the UK means 40,000 a day each. No wonder there are no police on the streets, they are all hammering away on terminals. Wonder how they have any time to actually identify who they need to raise a query against.

      • Charles Bostock

        Well, RoS old boy, I think your comment got the response it deserved.

        Do I not remember you complaining about the existence of the European Arrest Warrant a couple of times in the past (when used by the UK)?

    • Clark

      That’s because a small army of engineers were recruited and they fixed the bugs. It was overhyped too, but the problem isn’t as trivial as is often made out.

      There’s another of those coming up, but you’ll hardly notice it because it’s mostly in the Free Software domain, so the fixes will be self-motivated among the user base:

      “What happens on January 19, 2038?”

      https://www.unixtimestamp.com/

        • Mighty Drunken

          Blunderbuss I doubt your computer harboured the ancient code written in COBOL and other ancient languages which did not foresee their use in 2000.
          Unless your home computer was a mainframe bought in the 1970s?

      • King of Welsh Noir

        The Unix Time Stamp? Don’t worry Clark, if the insects continue to die at the current rate I suspect a bigger problem in 2038 will be finding decent quality flint to make our fires.

        • Clark

          Indeed.

          Though I could have said, don’t worry, I expect a conspiracy theory will arise claiming that the apparent collapse in insect populations is really just a ruse perpetrated by the worldwide scientific community to [fill in your favourite plausible motive here].

          • Clark

            Why roll your eyes? You energetically support just such a conspiracy theory about the global scientific and engineering communities! And in so doing, you lend credence to the climate science denial and anti-vax conspiracy theories.

          • King of Welsh Noir

            You seem to be claiming that I subscribe to ‘a conspiracy theory … claiming that the apparent collapse in insect populations is really just a ruse perpetrated by the worldwide scientific community.’

            Nothing could be further from the truth. The only posts I have contributed on the subject have been ones that lamented the tragic loss of insects, butterflies, wasps etc from our countryside, something which has been very apparent in recent years.

          • Clark

            So what did you “roll your eyes” for KoWN?

            You know what I’m on about. You frequently encourage conspiracy theories. One in particular requires that nearly the entire global physics and engineering communities help keep from the public an extremely high profile transgression of Newton’s laws.

          • Clark

            See, each time you support one such global scientific conspiracy theory, you effectively support them all, including the global warming conspiracy theory, and the vaccines conspiracy theory. The message you send is “there is no science; it’s all a scam to manipulate people”.

            Insect decline conspiracy theories will probably arise in due course, because corporations will probably start seeding them. Protecting our descendants’ future hurts profits.

      • pete

        Re “…the problem isn’t as trivial as is often made out.”

        This is too true, imagine you are writing some software dependent on having the correct time, ( like GPS) and you want the software to work anywhere in the world. Your programme will have to factor in local time differences, or time zones, this page shows time zones including those with 30 minute and 45 minute offsets: https://www.timeanddate.com/time/time-zones-interesting.html
        Your software will also have to factor in, leap years, calendar differences, atomic clock adjustments and assumes the reference time
        ( see: http://www.thetimenow.com/utc/coordinated_universal_time )you use to make all these calculations is not in the hands of an interested party who can subvert your efforts if they wish, say AT&T or Google. The switch from 32bit to 64bit is another can of worms.

        • Clark

          Remember that old advert: “Eventually it went right all by itself”?

          Here’s to the engineers; the less they’re noticed, the better they’ve done. But credit where it’s due would be nice occasionally, eh?

    • Ken Kenn

      Wasn’t that related to the Russians or some other enemies of the ‘ people?’

      It didn’t happen because it wasn’t true.

      Here’s the problem with your non occurring scenario:

      If there is a tailback either way at Calais then do you think that Lefarge Trucking Co and Eddie Stobart will add further trucks and paid drivers to go and join the queue?

      Eddie ( because he’s a smart guy will wait until the queue dies down then send his trucks 2 or 3 days later. If the queue reduces of course.

      If not then he’ll stop sending the trucks because the firms who create the stock he is meant to move will delay delivery as they won’t want their fish fingers/lamb/butter etc etc to melt in the trucks. Eddie doen’t get paid and therefore his drivers won’t get paid.

      You can use the useless big aircraft carrier if you want but if there is nothing to put on it you may as well use Fedex Air Post ( if you can ?) for individual well off people to keep getting their deliveries of caviar coming. That is if the bandit gangs don’t intercept the contents of the trucks?

      Imagine the street price of medicine if there are shortages?

      And where is this banditry going to occur?

      Not Calais not Cherbourg but the Irish Border.

      Banditry creates gangsters and gangsters get guns.

      So I hope I’m wrong, but to pretend it will be a mere bagatelle is dangerous.

      By the way If I had a ‘ friend ‘ who’s name was Igor or Ivan or even Jonty I would advise them not to park up any gold
      with the Bank of England due to fact that the US tells it what to do with it.

      A warning to all dodgy multi millionaires Oligarchs and other possible future non friends of the US to place iheir ill gotten gains anywhere in the UKor the US.

      Perhaps the crooks will think – ” Were dealing with a load crooks here”

      Park it up with Shotgun Harry and his firm – it’s much safer underneath the arches.

      Cockney Capitalism.

    • Sharp Ears

      ‘Millennium’.

      The local council here also made the mistake of leaving out an ‘n’ on their memorial plaques etc.

      • Clark

        Spellcheckers have yet to be developed for stonemasons’ chisels; I’m forever misspelling that one.

        Since the council was the purchaser, the bill submitted was probably five figure, so they can’t afford to correct it. When my parish council wanted a name sign by the road at the parish boundary, the bill was over £10,000. A blimmin pavement litter bin was £650.

    • michael norton

      The Pound is two percent up on the Euro, compared to twelve months ago, if the prospect of Brexit was so terrible, why hasn’t the pound collapsed against the Euro?

        • michael norton

          Well,
          Italy is in Recession, Germany is flatlining
          not sure how France is doing with its economy but the peasants are quite unhappy with how things are being run.
          So the United Kingdom creeping along at 1 1/2% is alright, much more than 2% causes inflation.

  • Sharp Ears

    Williamson’s speech at RUSI was given full welly in the Heil. He is also planning to buy two ferries to convert them into warships! Perhaps Mr Grayling is procuring them for him.

    Defence Secretary says Britain’s new carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth will sail to the Pacific on its first mission and reveals plans for a new RAF squadron of ‘swarm drones’ as he warns Russia and China of UK’s ‘hard power’

    00:02, 11 Feb 2019, updated 17:35, 11 Feb 2019
    Williamson said the Armed Forces ready to use ‘hard power’ against aggressors

    He said it is time to increase our ‘lethality’ during a speech set in London

    Williamson talked tough on Russia and pledged to fund the cyber defences

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6689439/Were-ready-strike-against-Russia-China.html

  • Republicofscotland

    Old Blighty is the economic basketcase of the OECD.

    “Household incomes are around £1,500 year lower today than they were expected to be before the Brexit referendum – with the UK having experienced the sharpest income growth slowdown of any economy.”

    https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/publications/counting-the-cost/

    Nevermind there’s always the new British Airways advert, that proclaims just how wonderful Old Blighty is, if you buy into that kind of shit that is.

    • michael norton

      What twaddle RoS
      The United Kingdom has the sixth largest economy of the World, more peasants now have jobs than before Brexit was announced, two and a half years ago.
      Wages are raising and the economy has grown every year for the last seven years.

      You are in danger of losing it with your exagerations.

  • John Goss

    I think I’ve worked out what the Daily Mail was up to with this article:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6688559/Russian-trolls-claim-Novichok-victim-Yulia-Skripal-pregnant-MI6-agents-baby.html

    and why my comment was not published.

    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/02/craig-is-in-jacobabad/comment-page-2/#comment-828555

    It is information gathering on individuals and their viewpoints over the believability of the Skripal poisoning. I think it might be illegal. While you or I can just see the number of likes or dislikes they can see who liked or disliked a comment. They have permitted a cross section of comments not allowing a single reply to any. So it is almost certainly information gathering and quite peculiar. Unless somebody can advance a better theory.

    Amazingly I think our spooks and their media mouthpieces are in for a bit of a shock. A lot of people are very sceptical of the government (fairy) story. When Gavin Williamson has his war there will be havens (camps perhaps) to house the voices of dissent.

    • michael norton

      If someone were to craft an actual letter to Mrs.Theresa May, saying the populace imagined Sergei Skripal was being held against his will, could she have him brought out for a public interview to set our minds at rest and show that we were not being hoodwinked by the stste.
      How do you think she would respond?

      • Paul Barbara

        @ michael norton February 11, 2019 at 19:41
        ‘Fraid we’ll have to wait for a Corbyn Government to find out, as well as a decent resolution to Julian Assange’s plight.
        So, get out there and VOTE, as soon as the opportunity arises.
        And lots of other stuff, like May & Co.s support for traitor terrorist Guiado,and murderous genocidal bin Salman.

    • Tom

      I agree it is very sinister. The Mail’s system of rigging the red and green arrows, and withholding comments they don’t like, is a way of manipulating public opinion in a similar way to how the establishment and media collude to fake opinion polls to boost the Tories (or their pet causes). The idea is that most people feel embarrassed to support a minority position, and this is compounded in the Mail by their trolls making fun of people with views they don’t like – I’ve been dismissed as a Momentum member or a student even though I am neither. And as you say, there is often no way of replying to these silly insults.
      It seems to me, though, that the manipulation is so blatant, it must verge on the counter-productive. The achilles heel of our press has long been to believe most people are stupid.

      • Mary Pau!

        Obviously some journalists are in bed with MI6 but unless there has been a major policy shift under its new editor, I doubt the Mail is in a conspiracy with the security services. After all the owner of the Salisbury coin shop who captured video of the Russian assassins/spies/couriers looking in his window, seems to have approached the Mail before the authorities, and when the Majl ran the video clip it was the first live coverage of the pair . This seems to have annoyed the Met police who were busy concocting a false version of their movements.

        Ditto the Skripals feeding in the ducks in the park only became public because the parents of the children who joined them, approached what paper the Mirror, direct. ? Otherwise we should never heard of it and indeed it is still omitted from the official account of their movements on the day.

        • Mary Paul

          I don’t buy it, I read it on line (no firewall.) I do so precisely because of things like the Salisbury coin shop video which by passed the police entirely. I am waiting to see the new editor’s editorial line – although given he is reported to be close to the Royal Family and went big on Princess Eugenie’s wedding, my expectations are not high.

  • Charles Bostock

    Scotland is an integral part of the entity referred to (presumably scornfully?) as “old Blighty” and will very probably remain so in our lifetime and indeed beyond. As such, its Head of State is a monarch and the most important political issues (taxation, defence, relations with foreign countries and so on) are decided upon by the Parliament of the Union (aka “old Blighty” to some) sitting in Westminster.

    All sniping at “old Blighty” is therefore sniping at Scotland also.

    • JOML

      Oh to break up old Blighty… or should that be Auld Blighty? Either way, the current Blighty is a cesspit of corruption and a sham. If only we had a leader who likes to stick his penis in a dead pig’s mouth… then we’d be confident that Old Blighty could rule the world… ?

    • bj


      “Jack fell as he’d have wished,” the Mother said,
      And folded up the letter that she’d read.
      “The Colonel writes so nicely.” Something broke
      In the tired voice that quavered to a choke.
      She half looked up. “We mothers are so proud
      Of our dead soldiers.” Then her face was bowed.

      Quietly the Brother Officer went out.
      He’d told the poor old dear some gallant lies
      That she would nourish all her days, no doubt.
      For while he coughed and mumbled, her weak eyes
      Had shone with gentle triumph, brimmed with joy,
      Because he’d been so brave, her glorious boy.

      He thought how “Jack,” cold-footed, useless swine,
      Had panicked down the trench that night the mine
      Went up at Wicked Corner; how he’d tried
      To get sent home; and how, at last, he died,
      Blown to small bits. And no one seemed to care
      Except that lonely woman with white hair.

      — by Siegfried Sassoon
      (who coined the term ‘Dear Old Blighty’)
      and which I dedicate here to Gavin, Charles and the Two Eyes, Five Eyes, and to the one I.

      • N_

        @bj. That’s a deeply moving poem, that one.

        Says a lot about class. The officer has so little respect for the lives of the lower orders, except as some kind of lower and dispensable life forms that deserve acknowledgement for form’s sake when without having got uppity they get killed to help their “betters”. Britain remains the same today, and not just in the attitudes of officers in its armed forces. Today if somebody wants to write a similar poem they should put the contemptuous word “chav” in it. Maybe “random” too.

        • Loony

          That is correct – there was and is no respect for the lives of the “lower orders.”

          Why only this week a member of the lower orders has managed to entrap a senior BBC journalist into confirming that he equates the lower orders to cannibals or Amazonians.

          Strangely the higher orders have managed to convince a large number of the lower orders that this particular representative of the lower orders is to be ritually booed and hissed at upon any command issued by the higher orders. It is perhaps for this reason that higher orders hold the lower orders in contempt and deem it appropriate to compare them with cannibals.

    • N_

      @Charles – Nuance is needed! 🙂 I’ve never heard a Scot refer to Britain as “Blighty”. Many Scots think many English people don’t distinguish as much as they might between their English and British identities, and that many even sometimes confuse one with the other. This can go along with not realising that even while what they say is sometimes true few English people would view view Henry VIII or Morris dancing as “British”, or the army or the BBC as “English”. So somewhere along the line most English people do distinguish quite a bit even if they don’t think about the distinction much. That said, in the case of “Blighty” it is fair to say that many English people are a bit confused over which nation they wish to denote by this term. Of course nowadays it’s usually used ironically, and pretty harmlessly, not by raving nationalist idiot blimps. (Well it might be, but I don’t know any). Personally I only ever use it ironically and almost only to refer to England, but in distinction from France or India etc., not in distinction from Scotland, Wales, or Ireland. Not many would talk about coming “back to Blighty” as they cross into England across one of its land borders or across the Irish Sea. Sometimes I might use it to refer to Britain I suppose. E.g. if I say “Back in Blighty, land of sarcasm and debt” when coming back across the Channel I would mean Britain.

        • Charles Bostock

          “Nobody I know ever refers to Blighty – Old, Auld or otherwise”

          You obviously don’t read RoS’s recent stuff. Mind you, that’s understandable 🙂

          • michael norton

            When I worked on the buildings in the 70’s, we often used to refer to our country as Dear old Blighty, mainly to annoy/amuse the Irish, when the Jubilee year happened 1977, we often had “God Save The Queen” by the Sex Pistols, blasting out, everyone enjoyed that.

        • Ken Kenn

          It really is a Long Way to Tipperary if you live outside of Dear Old Blighty.

          Not reachable by boat or ship post no deal.

          It’s along way to go alright.

          I think it’s an old Irish Regiment song from WW1. fought in France if I remember rightly.

          An away fixture.

        • pete

          The term Blighty not used?

          Not correct, only today I saw the term used in the register: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/02/12/british_solar_drone/ in the headline: “I am just a mapper: Solar drones take to the skies above Blighty” concerning a drone that can remain aloft for up to 90 days. The article by Andrew Orlowski – who has a page on wiki about him: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Orlowski
          Paradoxically Orlowski is very critical of Wiki, in the wiki article is says “In the 2000s, Orlowski often took a critical view of English Wikipedia, noting in 2005, “Readability, which wasn’t great to begin with, has plummeted. Formerly coherent and reasonably accurate articles in the technical section have gotten worse as they’ve gotten longer.” In a 2005 BBC article, Bill Thompson said Orlowski was “scathing in his dismissal of the site as a cult-like organisation where faith triumphs rationality, and even suggests we look at English Wikipedia as ‘a massively scalable, online role-playing game’ where ‘players can assume fictional online identities and many “editors” do just that’.”
          Oh dear god, I have drifted off topic again, sorry.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ N_ February 11, 2019 at 21:21
        Even fewer would have a clue that WWI was planned in Britain by Empire aficionados in 1905.
        But then again, they will also be oblivious to two books by Gerry Docherty and James MacGregor, ‘Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War’ and ‘Prolonging the Agony: How The Anglo-American Establishment Deliberately Extended WWI by Three-and-a-Half Years’.
        Check out the Amazon review, if nothing more…
        Lies,machinations to foment wars, Bankster’s and racists at the heart of it, massive loss of life, massive profits for the Banksters and Corporations – what’s new?

          • King of Welsh Noir

            Kempe if you determine the quality of a book on the basis of its Amazon reviews you must think this is a fine book since 80% of readers give it either 4 or 5 stars, whereas 18 % give it 1 or 2 stars. I always knew you were a closet conspiracy theorist.

          • Kempe

            It was Paul who drew attention to the Amazon reviews.

            Such a book is going to appeal to Truthers so obviously their reviews will be in the majority. Few people with more than two brain cells are going to waste their money on it.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Kempe February 12, 2019 at 16:56
            ‘..Such a book is going to appeal to Truthers…’
            Absolutely! You got it in one! Conversely, those who have no time for the truth if it doesn’t jive with their Weltenschaung, will avoid them (I mentioned two) like the plague.

          • Clark

            But Truthers care not a jot about the truth. They are far more interested in promoting their own prejudices. Anyone presenting them with factual or rational objections to their favoured opinions, they aggressively dismiss as an agent of the vast conspiracy they insist exists. I speak from personal experience.

        • N_

          @Paul – Thanks for this. I have to dust off some of my grey cells here. It’s a long time since I looked at Carroll Quigley. I will look up the two books you refer to. Do the Pilgrims Society and New College, Oxford, feature?

          Edit: downloaded Prolonging the Agony (thanks K.A.T.); Hidden History is taking a bit longer.

          • N_

            Got Hidden History too now. Once they’re converted to .pdfs using Calibre and then printed, my comb binder is going to see some action! 🙂

          • Paul Barbara

            @ N_ February 12, 2019 at 09:53
            Yes, Pilgrims Society and Oxford Uni certainly d feature.
            Both books are available on Amazon.

  • Republicofscotland

    Not only is Britain a economic basketcase, soon to be outside the EU, and still to negoitate with the WTO.

    But the buffoons who are in government, plan to intimidate Russia and China.

    “Gavin Williamson will declare the UK “may have to intervene” in future to confront aggression from countries like Russia and China who “flout international law” and are “resurgent” in rebuilding their armed forces.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hms-queen-elizabeth-pacific-brexit-military-strategy-china-russia-gavin-williamson-a8772916.html

    The British government can’t take care of business at home, yet this ship of fools wants to project a false facade of global power abroad.

    • Tom Welsh

      The British government can’t take care of business at home, so this ship of fools wants to project a false facade of global power abroad.

      FTFY.

    • N_

      Can’t Williamson make up his mind? Is causing megadeath a “post-Brexit opportunity” for some future-facing go-getters who grab opportunities that are open to them? Or is it something Britain “has” to do, because of the “white man’s burden”?

  • michael norton

    A MP jailed for lying about a speeding offence is appealing against her conviction, the Commons has been told.

    Peterborough MP Fiona Onasanya was given a three-month prison sentence last month after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice.

    Commons Speaker John Bercow said he had received a letter saying Ms Onasanya’s appeal will be heard on 5 March.

    The 35-year-old claimed someone else was driving her car when it was caught speeding on 24 July 2017.
    I think they should increase her jail time to be similar to the eight months Chris huhne got for his lying about a speeding ticket.

  • Republicofscotland

    The DWP, has begun NOT referring destitute and hungry folk to food banks.

    A food bank volunteers said:

    “Believed it was a way for the DWP to “hide that people are going hungry and needing food banks” due to “failures in the system”, and added: “I know that it’s an obvious ploy – if you can’t show figures for something then it’s not happening is it?”

    https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/02/09/the-dwps-latest-savage-move-could-leave-more-people-starving/

    • Dave Lawton

      Republicofscotland
      February 11, 2019 at 20:04
      The DWP is being run by the EU`s Common Purpose brainwashed puppets which it has done for a number of years.So wake up and smell the coffee.

  • J Galt

    We’ll show the Russkies and Chinese with our £7m worth of drones.

    World domination on the cheap – the good old British way!

    • michael norton

      After Dear Old Blighty falls off a cliff edge, end of March 2019,
      we might be glad to trade with Mother Russia, they have a huge amount of the World’s natural resources within their territories.

  • Loony

    Obviously all those with a favorable disposition to the EU will be highly familiar with Europe, since any lack of familiarity would imply that views are formed and held based on ignorance.

    What, I wonder, do pro Europeans make of the Frankfurter Allgemeiner decision to openly question whether the EU is in fact an extension of Nazism

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-11/suddenly-europe-open-question-nazi-eu

    Apparently people that do not like the EU are mostly racist, and now we find that people that do like the EU are mostly Nazi’s. Doesn’t the SNP make much of the fact that apparently Scottish people are in favor of the EU? To corrupt an old saying “If the jackboot fits -wear it”

  • Charles Bostock

    Meanwhile, today sees the start of the trial in Madrid of a dozen or so Catalan politicians and public officials on a number of serious charges (sedition, misuse of public funds, etc…).

    But NOT of the leader of the Barcelona camarilla – a certain Carlos Puigdemont – who is currently safely ensconced in Belgium. Well, not really “ensconsed” because he apparently spends a lot of his time travelling round Europe (good to see he can afford it!).

    It’s always good to see a leader standing by his trpp^s and leading from the front!

    • Sharp Ears

      What are ‘trpp’s’. If you meant to say ‘troops’, I don’t believe Mr Puigdemont has an army whereas Mr Rajoy did have one. But he’s gone. Mr Sanchez will not attack the Catalonian people.

      ‘Pedro Sánchez of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) has been Prime Minister since 2 June, 2018, after a successful motion of no confidence against former Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.’

      • Charles Bostock

        Yes, it was “troops”. Many thanks for pointing out the typo and even greater thanks for having made the effort to understand what I meant.

        On substance now : if Mr Pedro Sanchez is such a good guy, how come Mr Carlos ¨Puigdemont is still skulking abroad?

        Shouldn’t he return to Spain as an act of solidarity with his former comrades in arms?

        • bj

          Don’t you think decisions like that are best left to the man himself?

          I am sure he can manage without advise from the first peasant in Brussels.

          • Charles Bostock

            Certainly such decisions should be left to the individual himself. Did I say otherwise?

            Of course the decisions taken are rather indicative of that person’s moral sense.

            You’d agree with that, I suppose?

            PS – “advise” is the verb. The noun is “advice”.

  • Sharp Ears

    Cross channel freight, cont’d.Now Eurotunnel is suing the government. More legal bills will be funded by the taxpayers presumably. Grayling has already spent £800k on the Seaborne nonsense – payments to ‘consultants’ and ‘advisers’!

    ‘The government is being sued for its decision to charter firms to run extra ferries, including one with no ships, in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
    Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel, said the contracts, revealed after Christmas, were decided in a “secretive and flawed procurement process”.
    The move comes days after Seaborne, one of the firms chosen, had its contract axed after its funding fell through.
    The government said it had carried out a “competitive procurement process”.
    “The Department for Transport acted transparently and competitively throughout the process of securing extra freight.
    “This was done by approaching ferry operators and encouraging bids that could be fairly assessed against each other,” a spokeswoman said.
    /..
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47206303

    Further info on here – https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/chris-grayling-seaborne-freight-fiasco_uk_5c61acc1e4b0eec79b2696fa?

    • defo

      Caught. Bang to rights.
      QT is what you always knew it was, a medium for disseminating the establishment narrative .
      Billy Mitchell. The useful idiots useful idiot!

      When you have the ability to select both panel and audience, why stop there?
      Such desperate, blatant planting is symptomatic of the contempt our betters (it’s a meritocracy remember lol) hold us in.
      Their fear of change is showing.

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      So what happens now? Remember, this is hardly a bolt out of the blue. The individual responsible for booking the panel and audience (Alison Fuller-Pedley) was caught out with links to far right organisations in 2016 and fuck all was done about it. Will Fuller-Pedley be sacked from Menthorn Media? Will Menthorn Media be sacked by the BBC? Will the Director of BBC Scotland, Donalda MacKinnon resign? Will the SNP boycott Question Time? Will the SNP boycott the BBC?
      Pound to a pinch of shite, that nowt gets done and we will be expressing the same ineffectual outrage 12 months from now.

      • defo

        We knew they were ‘weighting’ the audience Vivian, but now there’s proof they’re seeding it too.
        Nothing will suffice as an excuse for this.

        Used wisely, and liberally, it’ll help shift a few over to the good guys, and plant a seed of real, tangible doubt in a fair few more.

        An own goal, whichever way you look at it.

    • bj

      George Galloway revealed he will have his own QT starting this summer.
      He’s had it with Ofcom.

      Ceterum censeo: Go Ilhan Omar!

  • Sharp Ears

    You don’t say Michel!

    11 Feb, 2019 13:57 GMT
    Time ‘extremely short’ to settle Brexit deal, says EU’s negotiator Barnier
    The EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier warned Britain on Monday that time was “extremely short” to settle a divorce deal before Britain is due to leave the bloc on March 29. “This time that remains is extremely short,” Barnier said in Luxembourg. “The withdrawal agreement which we agreed with Theresa May’s government… remains the best way to ensure an orderly withdrawal of the UK.” Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel stressed that the responsibility for finding a Brexit solution sat with London, Reuters reported. “We never pushed for Brexit, we never demanded Brexit,” Bettel said. “The responsibility started in London and is still in London.”

    https://www.rt.com/newsline/451195-time-brexit-eu-barnier/

    Today the Express and the Sun have Theresa May’s resignation coming in the Summer. Surely earlier?

    • michael norton

      If the U.K.Parliament decides in a meaningful vote, to delay Brexit for twelve months, that would likely mean putting up candidates for the European Parliament, in May 2019.
      I can’t see the Conservative party doing all that well, however, what I expect might happen, is a greater number of anti-E.U. people getting in.
      It is expected that the E.U. Parliament is going to change, significantly, as many more voters across Europe are incredibly upset by how things are run.
      There will be a far greater number of Anti-Euro-Ever-Onwards-to-more-Europe
      candidates elected in May.

      • N_

        @Michael – Parliament doesn’t have the authority to delay Brexit after 29 March. Nor does the government.

  • Sharp Ears

    Our Gavin has arranged for the Israeli airforce to come to the UK to carry out a combined exercise with the RAF in September. How vile. Every day, Israeli jets and helicopters overfly Gaza at low height in order to terrify the Palestinians living in the open air prison and as the article reports, the jets are used to bomb Gaza. Drones are also used for that purpose.

    Human Rights Activists Condemn Britain’s ‘Shameful’ War Games with Israeli Air Force
    By Phil Miller
    Global Research, January 21, 2019
    Morning Star 17 January 2019

    The RAF is facing a barrage of criticism after it invited Israel to send its war planes to take part in a training exercise in Britain.
    Last night the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) slammed the offer as “shameful” and “deeply inappropriate.”
    The air force invite marks a major escalation in British-Israeli military co-operation, despite mounting evidence of war crimes committed against Palestinians.
    The joint exercise, named Cobra Warrior, will see Israeli F-15 fighter jets screech over the skies of Lincolnshire in September this year.
    It will be run out of RAF Waddington, although the Israeli aircrew and jets could be based at another location in England.
    Cobra Warrior is the final stage of the RAF’s weapons instructor qualification, where budding top guns war game with allied air forces to hone their bombing skills.
    The Israeli air force is planning to bring an unknown number of its notorious F-15 fighter jets and personnel to Britain for the exercise. The Israeli Air Force routinely pummels Palestinians living in Gaza.’
    /..
    https://www.globalresearch.ca/human-rights-activists-condemn-britains-shameful-war-games-with-israeli-air-force/5666013

    • nevermind

      I’ll have to get a Massive BDS sign to go on to my roof so our rogue state killers got something to look at.

      • BrianFujisan

        Lol Nevermind, Get their Attention alright.. Probably from space too

        Those war Planes will no doubt be up here in too. Just Disgusting.

    • Charles Bostock

      “The RAF is facing a barrage of criticism after it invited Israel to send its war planes to take part in a training exercise in Britain.”

      Anyone else apart from the “Palestine Solidarity Campaign”, who ever they are?

      One man’s barrage is evidently another man’s trickle.

      • Sharp Ears

        That is what’s needed to thwart Israeli fighter jets from polluting our skies. One of those WW11 barrage balloons!

        PS If you had read the article you would have seen that the Campaign Against the Arms Trade also registered disapproval.

        ‘The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) also condemned the training plan. Its spokesperson Andrew Smith said:
        “The Israeli military has an appalling human rights record and has committed terrible atrocities against Palestinian people. The repression has only increased with the recent murders on the border.
        “If Downing Street wants to see change then it must use its influence to push for an end to the occupation of Gaza and a peaceful solution to the conflict. It should not continue to build ever closer political and military links with the Israeli government.”’

        There is no danger of justice for the Palestinians occurring anytime soon when 80% of the Tory party in the HoC are said to be members of the Conservative Friends of Israel lobby group. Messrs Hunt, Foreign Secretary, and Burt, Minister for MENA at the FoC, will continue with their hand wringing.

        • Charles Bostock

          I stand corrected.

          The “Palestine Solidarity Campaign” + the “Campaign against arms trade” = a “barrage”. Got it! 🙂

      • bj

        Charles, now that you’re speaking on the topic of the Israeli Air Force — can you tell me what is ‘most moral’ about carrying out air strikes under the cover of civilian airliners?

      • Ken Kenn

        Was that invite to bomb the UK or protect it?

        We’re short of a few planes for the aircraft carrier that isn’t allowed to go anywhere on the orders of the US.

        Any chance that the Israeli government can lend the UK some – even just for show to the world?

        Gavin’s Airfix Kit planes won’t do.

    • BrianFujisan

      Last night, I came across yet another Video of the IoF planting a knife beside the body of a young Palestinian, that they had just murdered.. then there were Two teneenager Murdered by IoF just last week.. 45 children shot dead shince the start of the Great Return March.

      Blood soaked brown boots Kill

      Palestinian young Lifes

      Then Quick to Plant Knifes

  • mike

    BBC news last night:

    Item 1 – economic downturn nothing to do with Tories

    Item 2 – Labour Anti-semitism.

    Pure propaganda from the state broadcaster. Post-Brexit, they’ll tell us how chocolate rations have gone up, as we stride onto the sunlit uplands of Airstrip One.

    • Sharp Ears

      ex MP for Hove, actually!

      He retweets Margaret Hodge here:

      ‘Ivor Caplin Retweeted
      Margaret Hodge
      18 hours ago
      Glad to see labour leadership comin up with some stats. But I alone put in over 200 examples, some vile, where evidence suggested they came from Labour. So don’t trust figures. Can’t believe only 12 expulsions. Not convinced leadership serious on rooting out anti Semitism’.

      What does she want? Public hangings?

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Blunderbuss February 12, 2019 at 16:25
        Any Labour member who stands up for Palestinian rights is, according to ‘them’, anti-Semitic.
        See Shulamit Aloni: ‘It’s a trick – we always use it’.

  • N_

    The probability of Brexit on 29 March implied by the betting market is still at only 28%.

    I haven’t seen a single media article yet that gives a sensible reason for believing that an “extension of Article 50” is even remotely likely, despite the progress of hundreds of Brexit-related statutory instruments being easy to discover for those who aren’t lazy journalists with their heads stuck up Instagram occasionally stopping to copy out propaganda from Downing Street.

    Anybody who thinks there’s a high probability of the date being extended so that a referendum or general election can be held is naive. A general election soon after Brexit seems likely, however. (The DUP “Antichrist” boys in the 6 counties look set to enjoy them$elve$.)

    My estimation of the probability of Brexit occurring on 29 March is 80%.

    • michael norton

      I thought Yvette Cooper and other Blair supporters of New Labour have told us we have “No Option” other than a “People’s Vote”

      is this now off Ms.Cooper’s objective?

      • Xavi

        It has never been her objective. Cooper’s constituency voted Leave, as did 65% of Labour constituencies. Out of Labour’s 256 MPs, only 71 have expressed support for a 2nd referendum. That is why it’s irrelevant whether Corbyn supports one or not. The vast majority of his MPs will not risk their jobs by supporting a 2nd referendum. Corbyn’s media haters know this very well but they insist on pretending he could stop Brexit if only he chose to.

        • N_

          Yvette Cooper can do what she likes but (Tories) minus (Anna Soubry + a few others) plus (some Labour MPs) will be enough to get “altered deal” or “deal with some doodles drawn on the political agreement” or “no deal” through. The Labour party is in much bigger trouble than the Tories. Tory chief whip Julian Smith and party chairman Brandon Lewis say keep the Tory party together and that’s what will happen – does this seriously surprise many people? – barring perhaps a walkout by Soubry. I’m guessing Arlene Foster’s Antichrist mob will be kept on board too, but if they’re not they’re not. Meanwhile David Trimble goes to court to have porkbelly politics ruled unlawful. Good luck with that, David. Note that if nothing gets through, it’s no deal. There won’t be another referendum before Brexit. It’s a fantasy. There are ways to fudge things, but the commentariat can’t see further than the end of its nose. The Noel Edmonds question was a bit stupid from the beginning. Must everything be understood with reference to TV game shows? Why not “Come on down!” or “You are the weakest link” or “Phone a friend”?

          • Xavi

            The commentariat knows the numbers have never existed in Parliament for a 2nd referendum. They know the Tory/DUP majority will decided whatever happens. They know Theresa May is cynically and blatantly running down the clock so that her rejected crap deal will ultimately get passed. They know the sole purpose of all of it is so that one incompetent woman can keep her job.

            They know all these things better than anybody. But their priority is to fix all the blame on Corbyn, who was never in a position to stop any of this.

  • jeffleb

    The Millenium (Charles spelling..) bug was one of the most successful disinformation campaigns the west ever bought into.

    When did team Vlad relieve Boris of the Presidential office again?

    • N_

      Any idea who made the money out of the Millennium bug? I don’t know. Just asking. Someone must have.

      One interesting thing was they were telling people so many things could start breaking down, and then when the “1” flipped up to “2” at midnight the so-called bug was forgotten about right away.

    • bj

      I’m not sure of the spin governments here and there might have given to it, but the ‘millennium’ bug was real thing, not some hyped up nothingburger.

      It would be more accurate to state it was a conspiracy on a large scale perpetrated by that Microsoft idiot.

  • Republicofscotland

    After years of denying the evidence, the British government has finally admitted that their flagship DWP programme Universal Credit has forced thousands to rely on food banks.

    Amber Rudd Works and Pensions secretary, who was involved in the disgraceful Windrush Scandal. Owned up yesterday, that Universal Credit and the increase in the use of food banks are linked.

    “The government is once again in breach of FOI over refusing to release details of the number of internal investigations into claimant deaths this time in relation to Universal Credit.”

    “When a death is linked to Universal Credit the DWP does an internal investigation as to if DWP procedure was followed and if the actions of the DWP should be changed. The DWP is refusing to release details as to the number of investigations and redacted versions of those investigations. Despite knowing it legally has to as it has previously been forced to do so for other benefits.”

    https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2295471/how-many-people-have-died-due-to-universal-credit

  • Sharp Ears

    Interesting that my posts about Margaret Hodge, Ivor Caplin and the anti-Semitism propaganda they are putting out have been deleted.

    • Charles Bostock

      The Mods probably deleted them bevause they were anti-semitic.

      You should be placed under pre-moderation, as I am 🙂

      • Sharp Ears

        They were not. Probably deleted to avoid you coming on to me to start one of your ‘confrontations’.

        [ Mod: Both reasons applied. ]

        • Charles Bostock

          Sharp Ears

          I get the impression that you think everyone who challenges your ideas and assertions is seeking “confrontation”. See challenges as an opportunity to debate and discuss and you’ll feel much happier.

          • JOML

            Charles Bostock
            I get the impression that you regularly try to create scabs to be picked, for whatever reason.
            Whereas Sharp Ears regularly shares sources of information that others can take or leave as they so wish.
            That’s my perception anyway…

    • nevermind

      She is a liar. When she said negotiations are ongoing with Brussels, it was denied that there are any negotiations. She is getting away with wasting time for her friends in the City of London to get ready and make a killing.

      That the self-interested so-called representatives let her get away with more dithering is indicative of their worries to be deselected or just voted out at the next elections should they not act up to the lies that underlie this wretched referendum.

      @ Brian, great Haiku for the child killers.

  • Republicofscotland

    As the British Royal marines gear up in Belize, whilst a British Royal navy auxiliary ship waits 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela.

    “The armed forces budget faces being slashed by billions due to a “huge” funding black hole.”

    Yet we have the Defence secretary Gavin Williamson, openly saying that Britain will hold China and Russia to account in the future.

    The days of empire are gone and I’d imagine, the British armed forces are somewhat seen as inconsequential by the big players. The dire handling of Brexit has left Britain in some quarters as nothing more than a laughing stock, Gavin Williamson’s idle boasts, only adds fuel to that particular fire..

    https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/armed-forces-budget-faces-3bn-pension-black-hole/

      • Charles Bostock

        Is that a reference to the Falklands? If so, the aggressor was a tinpot cnut of a dictator called General Galtieri. History 101 recommended.

      • IrishU

        BJ,

        That is what happens in war. Thankfully, we didn’t lose as many as the aggressors and therefore won.

    • IrishU

      RoS,

      There is nothing surprising that there are Royal Marines in Belize, the country regularly hosts jungle training exercises and has done since the country was known as British Honduras. (‘In 2016 approximately 2,000 personnel from the Army and RAF were deployed to Belize over the course of the year’ source: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/british-forces-in-belize-a-military-partnership-in-central-america/)

      As for ‘British Royal navy auxiliary ship’ ( I asusme you mean Royal Fleet Auxiliary Mounts Bay), an RFA ship is always located in the Caribbean to assist with disaster relief after hurricanes and drug interdiction.

      Sorry that your imperialist invasion fantasy can be so easily explained away.

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile Britain’s food and drink industry bodies are at odds with the British government over Brexit. The relevant bodies say they’re just not prepared yet for the changes Brexit will bring.

    “Trade bodies including the Food and Drink Federation and the National Farmers’ Union warned that they may not participate in future policy consultations if the government ignores their concerns.”

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