The Funny Tinge Group Ltd is a Boon to the SNP 672


It did not take me long to be proved right about this tweet, as the Funny Tinge Group Ltd was immediately promoted to a seat on BBC Question Time, and are going to be there next week too.

The BBC no longer has Westminster’s third party on QT every week, or given much airtime on other news and current affairs programmes, on the grounds the SNP are a “regional body” and thus not entitled to the consideration the Lib Dems got as third party in Westminster. The Funny Tinge Independent Integrity Initiative Group Ltd (Dir. Shai Masot) are of course not a party at all, they are a limited company, and they have no members. One thing they most certainly are is a “regional body”. Not a single vote in Scotland or Wales has ever been cast for them. Though I can think of a disused factory near Auchtermuchty that might vote for them.

What do we know of their policies? Well we know that are very much against criticism of Israel. We know they think the Cameron coalition government did a very good job on austerity. We know they are against renationalisation of utilities and against abolition of tuition fees and against higher taxes on the rich. I am sure something will eventually distinguish them from the Tories other than Brexit, but they haven’t thought of it yet.

At some stage they will have to form a political party. Once the unbounded bias of the MSM is moderately constrained by general election rules, they will need to be a party to get broadcast time. If they enter into an alliance with the Lib Dems, they will have to split the Lib Dems broadcast time; I do not see that happening.

Has anybody heard any of the “Independent Group” ever mention Scotland, once, in the vast tsunami of media coverage they have been given? I presume at some stage, somebody will alert them to the existence of Scotland, and possibly even tell them how to come here.

The political landscape of Scotland is very different to that in England and Wales. A large majority of the left-wingers who flocked to Corbyn are, in Scotland, unavailable as they are committed to the Independence movement, myself included. Scottish Labour has therefore been led by a rump of unreconstructed Blairite careerists lurking in the branch office (that may be slightly unfair on Richard Leonard, but as I still have no idea who he is I cannot be sure). With no deselection pressures, the Labour MPs have little career incentive to move, except perhaps Ian Murray, elected very largely on Tory votes and a right winger of limited intellectual grasp anyway. The Independent Group plc is both right wing and fashionable, and therefore a perfect fit for Morningside.

Scotland’s Tory MPs are mostly, aside from the Ross Thomson testicle grabbing tendency (allegedly), on the wet side, with pro-EU voters. But their voters are rural and traditionalist and unlikely to be thrilled by the appeal of a wholly new group. It should be remembered too that, contrary to incessant MSM propaganda, the media-induced Davison “surge” peaked at 28% and is now around 25% and falling faster than a Hebridean barometer.

The Funny Tinge Corporation is nonetheless going to need to insert itself into Scotland. This cannot but be great news for the SNP. It is really simple. A unionist vote split three ways will now be split four ways which, under FPTP, is a disaster for the Unionists. The corollary is that it is more important than ever that the Yes movement stay united behind the SNP. And the further corollary of that is that the SNP must listen to the voice of the Yes movement, forget the devolution settlement and push on towards early Independence.

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672 thoughts on “The Funny Tinge Group Ltd is a Boon to the SNP

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  • Ian Sanderson

    “.. at some stage form a political party..”. This should make an interesting manifesto…

    Which section of TIG will be writing it. The Tory or the Labour..?

    • BrianFujisan

      Yip Vivian

      Two Vile entities will be at AIPAC.

      Netanyahu will address the AIPAC policy conference in Washington next month, And Nikki Haley too.

  • Borncynical

    There was an interview on TV (I can’t recall the context) a couple of days ago in which the son of a serving Asian senior policeman was asked whether he had considered following in his father’s footsteps. He said he and some of his friends had thought about it but had decided that they didn’t wish to be part of an organisation in which their ethnic group wasn’t proportionately represented. The interviewer didn’t follow up the discussion with the next obvious retort.

    • Old Mark

      Borncynical

      Not sure what your point is- but if you think the police should represent exactly the ethnic composition of the areas they serve then the Met would need to reduce the ‘white British’ component to below 45%- probably only achievable by barring all applicants from that ethnic group for the next 8-10 years.

        • Loony

          I think you will find that the claim comes from the Office of National Statistics based on data from the 2011 Census.

          Naturally if the claim is absurd then there are a lot of problems as the ONS must be absurd and the Census must be absurd. Assuming you to be a UK taxpayer then maybe you should lobby your MP to avoid spending money on the 2021 Census which is highly likely to show that the percentage of “White British” in London has fallen well below 45%

          https://www.londonmedicine.ac.uk/londons-landscape/population/ethnicity-in-london/

          • Old Mark

            Thanks Loony for enlightening the unenlightened (yes Ian that’s you).

            Regular commenters on this blog are overwhelmingly of the open borders stripe, and a high percentage are also Scottish. How many of the latter would still be in favour of open borders if and when Scots were reduced to a mere plurality (say 45%) of the population of their capital city ?

            I think we should be told.

      • Borncynical

        Old Mark

        Sorry. I must agree that my comments appear to be extremely random! I recall that I posted directly in reply to a post (from @Republic of Scotland, I think) alluding in part – if I recall correctly – to ethnic representation in the police force. I cannot for the life of me find that original post! May be it’s just me…quite possible. Statistics aside, my point was that if the ethnic minorities feel they are not being adequately represented in certain public bodies such as the police, surely it should be pointed out to them that they have responsibility to apply for the jobs in the first place.

      • Borncynical

        @Old Mark

        My memory’s gradually coming back! Further to my post at 11.08 (25 February) the original post included a link to an article in which a police officer in Cheshire was claiming that he had applied for a job but was immediately rejected from the shortlist ‘sift’ because he was white and male.

  • Sharp Ears

    True or false, or something else?

    Theresa May allowed GCHQ spy chief to resign for ‘family reasons’ after he helped PAEDOPHILE Catholic priest avoid jail – despite media being told he would be ‘caring for a sick relative’
    Robert Hannigan helped a paedophile priest avoid jail, Mail on Sunday reveals
    He stunned Whitehall with his exit after just two years in charge of GCHQ
    The MoS learned he stepped down after the NCA discovered he helped a family friend avoid a custodial sentence for possessing 174 child pornography images
    Mr Hannigan provided a reference for Father Edmund Higgins at his 2013 trial
    23 February 2019

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6738081/GCHQ-spy-chief-quit-helped-paedophile-Catholic-priest-avoid-jail.html

    • Anthony

      The FTG are all about deeply held principles and values. But that doesn’t mean principles and values they held deeply just yesterday must necessarily still be held deeply today. That’s the old way of thinking, old politics.

      Another example of this new fluid politics the country is crying out for is Chukka saying in 2016 that proposing a second referendum was an unthinkable affront to democracy.

  • Sharp Ears

    Apologies if this is repetition, but PLEASE sign this global petition to Boycott Eurovision from Tel Aviv. 38,813 signatures, so far.
    The broadcast takes place on 18th May.

    https://secure.everyaction.com/1MpUO2QQTkab00tlLM2f6A2

    Background https://secure.everyaction.com/p/N3q5tyBFYEqYpvJgTyR8wQ2

    ‘Just days after Israel’s 2018 Eurovision win, Israeli forces massacred 62 Palestinians in Gaza, including six children, as they demonstrated for freedom and refugee rights. Since the Great Return March protests began on March 30th 2018, at least 205 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the besieged Gaza Strip. More than 18,000 others have been injured, including thousands shot with live fire.

    • Republicofscotland

      Signed it SE, the oppressive apartheid state has no business hosting the ESC, nor participating in it, South Africa saw a boycott in the past so why not Israel.

      Artwashing apartheid fools no one.

    • Alex Westlake

      A lot of us voted for the Israeli entry last year in the hope that we could get to laugh at BDS spitting tacks when it was hosted there. Shame it’s in TA though, they had it in Jerusalem last time they hosted it.

    • Jo Dominich

      Sharp Ears, it’s all just too heartbreaking and the world is standing by doing nothing or seems to be powerless to do anything in light of USA funding, arming and support for Israel and their dominance over the UN. I don’t know where this is all going to end but it seems to me surely now, to be the case that the Israelis are really going to far in everything to do with world politics – I would like to think there are some politicians around the world that will start a condemnation / international action campaign to help the Palestinians.

  • Republicofscotland

    The Great Satan (US), which currently inciting rioting in Venezuela due to its arms passed of as aid being denied entry into the country, has more blood on its hands.

    “KABUL, Afghanistan — More civilians were killed in the war in Afghanistan last year than any other year since records began, with child deaths alone also reaching an all-time high, partly due to a spike in U.S. airstrikes, the United Nations said in a report on Sunday.”

    The US, the single greatest cause of murder, poverty and starvation since the WWII, in my opinion, has been murdering Afghan citizens since 2001, now officially the USA’s longest war.

    http://archive.is/qfFKG

  • N_

    Theresa May is out of the country. She flew straight to Egypt and she will be flying straight back to Britain. Without visiting any other countries. Neither she nor Olly Robbins nor any other British civil servant or minister will do so much as put their big toe across the border. Right? Absolutely no British contact with any other countries than EU members and members of the Arab League. Sound likely?

    My take continues to be that an extension to “Article 50” is highly unlikely.

    Some “pundits” are saying there could be a two or three-month extension. That would be until the end of May or June. So when do the idiots think the EU Parliament might ratify an agreement, given that it rises on 18 April and starts its new session in July?

    I won’t be surprised if before the end of the week a cabinet minister or three have lost their positions and Jacob Rees-Mogg has got his feet under the cabinet table. (You read it here first.) A return of Mophead is less likely. He’s not even in the ERG. David Gauke, by the way, who has been named as someone who might soon resign along with Amber Rudd, is. Is Gauke going to flounce to make way for his master?

    • Sharp Ears

      She and Merkel have been talking.

      Brexit: Theresa May under pressure to consider Brexit delay
      19 minutes ago
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47352446

      and she is also shown with her best friend, Juncker, in another photo.

      The piece is composed by Our Laura of course who is embedded as are Beth Rigby of Sky News and all the other hacks who have been on the jolly.

      • Blunderbuss

        I have no doubt there will be a delay, and then another delay, and then another delay – until everybody gives up and decides to stay in the EU, because leaving is too difficult.

        • michael norton

          You could be right Blunderbuss but that would not be honouring the Referendum, it would not be Democratic.

          • Jo Dominich

            Michael, the Referendum wasn’t exactly democratic was it? All the lies and misinformation the Leave campaign told have all come to light not to mention misuse or abuse of significant levels of electoral funding which the Electoral Reform Commission asked the police to launch a formal investigation into and, hey guess what, they refused on the grounds it wouldn’t be in the public interest! Brexiteers need to remember there were only 1 million votes between Leave and Remain in a very low turnout vote.

        • N_

          OK what’s your scenario? What reason will they give for the delay? Will there be EU elections in May in Britain? Why would hundreds of Tory and Labour MPs vote for this scenario when it looks so unlikely that either party will be able to come up with any coherent policy regarding Brexit that voters might wish to support?

          Going into an election without a manifesto is not a good idea at all.

          • Blunderbuss

            There’s no plan. It’s just that nobody knows what to do so they will just keep on putting off the decision again and again.

          • N_

            Juncker and May say they will conclude negotiations by 21 March and hail “good progress” in Sharm el-Sheikh.

            The EU summit starts on 21 March. The spring equinox when the Sun enters Aries is the night before.

            Triple witching day on the derivatives markets is 15 March.

            Regardless of what it says in Article 50, “Deal or No Deal” is misleading. So is “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. There can be half a deal, whether it’s billed like that or not.

            Huge amounts of money will be pocketed in a very short space of time. Increase the uncertainty and then WHAM.

            (I wonder whether Theresa May has asked any sheikhs whether they’ll be minded to help with a bailout as the Qatari sheikhs were last time.)

          • Jo Dominich

            N_ It looks as though May, as Jeremy Corbyn has been correctly stating for weeks now, has indeed wound down the clock. She seems to now be saying apart from votes to accept her rotten deal or a no deal she is going to include one to delay Brexit. What a Godamm mess – she and her pathetic Government have had three years to sort this out and have failed spectacularly to do so – added to which they have succeeded in deeply dividing the British Nation, in causing such damage to the UK economy as to now be in a serious serious state – interest rates are going to have to rise significantly and rapidly now. They do not seem to be any different now to the Trump Administration in the USA – adopting all the traits of exclusivism, warmongering, international interference in other country’s politics and so on and so forth. Private Pike is, like Bolton and Pompeo, an outright warmonger. Here we are, a single party Fascist State, with an official propaganda wing which is the MSM and a PM who is only interested in keeping her party together rather than what is best for the British nation. A ‘mini me’ USA prototype.

      • Sharp Ears

        This morning

        25 February 2019
        On the morning after the latest round of Brexit-related debate and votes in the Commons Chamber, the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee will hear from the Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary and Civil Service Chief Executive on how the Civil Service is preparing for the UK’s departure from the EU.

        Watch Parliament TV: The work of the Cabinet Secretary
        Inquiry: The work of the Cabinet Secretary
        Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee
        Background
        With the Government still seeking a Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration that can secure a majority in the Commons, the current situation will see the UK leave the European Union on 29 March without an agreement: a no-deal scenario. https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/public-administration-and-constitutional-affairs-committee/news-parliament-2017/cabinet-secretary-brexit-preparedness-evidence-17-19/

        Recording https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/40ea78f4-8188-4fe2-a59f-570f72255931

  • Vivian O'Blivion

    Tony Blair talks up the probability of Scottish Independence based on an English nationalist fuelled Brexit. Nothing controversial there.

    https://www.holyrood.com/articles/news/tony-blair-if-we-hadn’t-had-devolution-scotland-might-be-independent-now

    Blair offers the rather vague and simultaneously sinister line that his only regret; “I would have looked at more ways to keep Scotland and the UK feeling more culturally aligned.”
    Oh, Tony, your successors have not been so lax. The altered BBC charter, the “Great British …… you name it”, Dan fucking Snow, the Union fleg on everything and anything, on and on.
    Still, what power lies in a top down, imposed, moribund, subservient, 1950’s British (English) culture against a vibrant, grassroots, evolving Scottish (European) culture?

  • Goose

    On the day that well-known Corbyn fanzine, the Daily Mail, runs with a column titled:

    PM ‘covered up’ spy chief’s link to paedophile priest.

    Jon Lansman comes out saying Labour is afflicted with that all-encompassing derogatory put-down to label anyone questioning anything – “conspiracy theorists”.

    Do Momentum have leadership elections?

    • Paul Barbara

      @ Goose February 25, 2019 at 12:58
      ‘How a former public schoolboy is hijacking Labour: Jon Lansman founded Corbyn’s Momentum which rails against the rich… yet lives in a luxury building and his family run a property firm with links to a tax haven.:
      https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5002774/How-ex-public-schoolboy-Jon-Lansman-hijacking-Labour.html
      Very worrying – ‘We shall control all those who campaign against us’ springs to mind…
      Perhaps unsurprisingly, I can’t find confirmation of the source of that quote (doubtless due to shenanigans by the search companies).
      As for the BS about ‘conspiracy theorists’:
      ‘“Conspiracy Theory”: Foundations of a Weaponized Term’:
      https://www.globalresearch.ca/conspiracy-theory-foundations-of-a-weaponized-term/5319708
      Lansman is not only hypocritical in his family’s business practices, but he is hypocritical re ‘Conspiracy Theorists’, being an arch conspirator himself.

      • Goose

        I’m not a member of Labour or Momentum, so I don’t know Momentum’s democratic accountability, or if/how their ‘leader’ is elected?

        I follow the approach attributed to Groucho Marx : “I don’t care to belong to any club that will have me as a member.” And I especially wouldn’t join now, with this current witch hunt underway; which is basically becoming an attack on free speech by Labour’s authoritarian wing.

        But, it does seem as if Lansman has way too much power and control over what is, potentially, a good campaigning organisation.

      • Goose

        ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ is such an inane, loaded term given history is littered with bona fide, confirmed conspiracies.

        Anyone suggesting what Snowden revealed was taking placed , before he revealed it, would have been dismissed as a complete ‘crank’ by these same people.

        • Clark

          “Conspiracy theorists” is misused, just as are the terms “fascist” and “anti-Semite”.

          We have plenty of actual conspiracy theorists commenting at this site; they spew no end of nonsense.

          • Goose

            Well yes, maybe 80% of conspiracy theories are total bunk. Look at the silly QAnon stuff in the US. The discerning intelligent individual can however filter out the BS conspiracy theories.

            As for the growth in people visting sites, like this that give alternative theories/ views . This is mainly due to MSM Investigative journalism being so thin on the ground these days imho. People are becoming deeply cynical as to how the message is being controlled and by whom and for whom. And patronising know-it-alls in the media and politics just make folks even more certain in that belief they are being manipulated.

          • Clark

            You can tell an actual conspiracy theory by its attributes, see my 15:33 and 14:42 comments below.

            Yes, I agree that actual conspiracy theories are proliferating in the vacuum left by an untrustworthy MSM. Most unfortunately, this gives the false accusations teeth. We need to counter it ourselves; no use waiting for a “good gatekeeper” to come along, they’re all susceptible to being wrong or corrupted. Critical thinking is the only solution.

          • Clark

            What, a theory where entire international disciplines and professional communities are conspiring to knowingly mislead the rest of the public? Well then we’re fucked, and we may as well forget about politics, because our own next door neighbours are against us, we all lie to each other and none of us can depend upon anything. Universal psychosis, wherein any search for accuracy is inevitably futile.

          • Clark

            If you mean that critical thinking leads us to the conclusion that there’s a limited conspiracy, that’s fair enough, but a limited conspiracy does not constitute a conspiracy theory.

            I don’t see why people have so much trouble with this, unless they’re trying to defend untenable theories. If members of the cabinet conspire with a section of secret services to concoct non-existent weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that’s legitimately a conspiracy.

            If the entire scientific community with its hundreds of thousands of members is supposedly warping its entire public dialogue to concoct non-existent climate change, NASA are supposedly faking their satellite images in the same way as the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency, the Russian space agency etc; all the pilots and air stewards and stewardesses are lying about retreat of the polar icecaps, and they’re all lying to their husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children and everyone they know, but behind closed doors they supposedly admit to each other what’s really happening so that they can coordinate their faking – well, that’s a conspiracy theory.

        • Clark

          It takes more than proposing a conspiracy to constitute a genuine conspiracy theory. The proposed conspiracy has to be effectively superhuman – it can control anyone, fabricate or cover any evidence, and can encompas just about anyone, anywhere in the world, according to the need of the conspiracy theorists to support their theory.

          For instance, there are commenters here who will think that I’m an operative for such an overarching, fantastical conspiracy, merely because I wrote the above.

          • Goose

            I agree , there’s NO overarching conspiracy involving all the mythical ‘establishment’. Such a thing would be unsustainable because it would only be as strong as its weakest link.

            Snowden, in one presentation, talked about concentric ‘inner circles’ based on need to know, to protect leaders. By giving them plausible deniability. Snowden also talked about how the CIA frequently use criminal gangs to do their bidding, he said they could use the a triad (organized crime gang) to kill him in Hong Kong. Coming from someone like him, who worked for the CIA, that’s quite dark and scary.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Clark February 25, 2019 at 15:33
            You want everyone to accept your definition of a what ‘conspiracy theory’ is, but not everyone believes you are the fount of all knowledge.
            It does not take all doctors and nurses to be in a conspiracy in order for them not to spill the beans that certain vaccines and vaccine policies are extremely dangerous, just for the regulatory bodies in the various countries and international organisations to be infiltrated, bribed and/or blackmailed.
            Once the ‘accepted’ line has been laid down, a doctor or nurse risks getting de-registered if they take a contrary stance.
            I have put many factual examples up showing how regulatory bodies are controlled, via government and personal corruption, with the CDC, FDA and EPA being excellent examples.
            You believe in man-made ‘Climate Change’, as I believe is the consensus, but what does Trump do? He plants one of the alleged 3% (I don’t know if that figure is anyway near correct, but at least one of the minority) to be on an important climate-related board (I believe this was included in the video, but here is the info in another article::
            ‘Report: Climate Denier to Lead White House Climate Panel’:
            http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/02/report-climate-denier-to-lead-white-house-climate-panel.html
            ‘THE CRISIS OF SCIENCE’: https://www.bitchute.com/video/LfHEuWaPh9Q/
            See about 16:30 mins in, where RFK Jr. tells how the CDC tried to cover up the fact that autism is linked to vaccines.
            There is plenty in that video you won’t like, so you won’t likely respond in depth.
            Here is another article, which was shown in the video:
            http://robotics.cs.tamu.edu/RSS2015NegativeResults/pmed.0020124.pdf
            In the States, scientists have been raiising the alarm for decades that science has been ‘politicised’ (or ‘monetised’!).

          • Goose

            Snowden also seemed to be implying intel agencies were somehow antithetical to democracy.

            I.e. The more power they accrue, the more they need to control democracy to maintain, build on that power.

            Although, iirc, the heads of agencies disputed this idea by claiming strong oversight prevented it.

          • Clark

            Paul Barbara:

            “It does not take all doctors and nurses to be in a conspiracy […], just for the regulatory bodies in the various countries and international organisations to be infiltrated, bribed and/or blackmailed”

            No, it takes a hell of a lot more than that, because science is a PUBLIC activity. YOU can read the Papers, so can I, so can anyone. I have read two whole, very detailed books about how data on medicines and trials are systematically warped. You read too, but you make no distinction between sites that make a proper point and the far more numerous sites that push utter rubbish. You refuse to read the books that I have recommended, and you continue to push bad advice that places people’s health at unnecessary risk.

            You push the ‘work’ of utter charlatans such as Andrew Wakefield, who was quite rightly struck off for having invasive procedures performed upon sick children for experimental purposes, yes, that’s right, you defend – nay, promote – a man who used live human children as experimental subjects. You promote the ‘work’ of charlatan Dane Wigington, who works with a CIA man, deliberately bamboozling his audience with simple stroboscopic effects familiar to anyone who has used a film camera.

          • Clark

            And so far as I understand it, you refuse to take any notice of my warnings because you “suspect” me of being a Jew.

            You are beneath contempt.

          • Clark

            Yes, Trump is a global warming denier. He hasn’t the wit to understand the simplest science, and the money behind him is coal money.

            Yes, science is corrupted by the profit motive. That is the entire subject of Goldacre’s 400 page book Bad Pharma. That does NOT mean that science tells us nothing; where do you think the technology comes from that permits you to post your dangerous nonsense on-line? Gifted by demons, no doubt, yet still you use it.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Goose February 25, 2019 at 20:41
            JFK certainly believed they had gone way too far, and had pledged to abolish the CIA and replace it with an ‘accountable’ intelligence agency; he had also pledged to retire J Edgar Hoover, who was universally detested, but who had the ‘goods’ on everyone and sundry, so they were afraid to touch him. He operated like the Mafia, and in conjunction with the Mafia. He went so far as to say at one point there was no organised crime problem in the US (the Mafia had the goods on him, too!).
            Needless to say, both the CIA and FBI were involved in the assassination, as was LBJ.

          • Clark

            Goose, thank you for your sensible comments. Snowden’s message about security services links to organised crime is something I have long suspected; there is much evidence eg. Iran-Contras, Mike Ruppert’s FBI work, Sibel Edmonds’ Gladio B testimony etc. I entirely agree with him that secret services, in their current form, are antithetical to democracy.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Clark February 25, 2019 at 23:02
            I have met you just once, at the High Court when Craig’s case was settled.
            In the pub, I simply asked you if you were Jewish. Simple as that.
            From that, you draw all sorts of conclusions, with precisely no rationale.
            But that’s you.
            You don’t follow my recommended reading/viewing, and sure, no way am I going to waste my time chasing up your BS.
            Parents who have seen their bonnie babes turn into vegetables I trust, rather than bribed a^^hole ‘scientists’ on the bung.
            Are the parents making it up?
            And the parents trust Dr. Andrew Wakefield – so do I.

          • Clark

            You had been hinting for weeks to your fellow conspiracy theorists that there was something wrong with me before that incident, because I worked out and described the collapse sequence of the Twin Towers, and showed that Chandler / AE9/11Truth’s “physics” was wrong. I sort of guessed what you were on about when you linked a YouTube recording of Hava Nagila. Your question in the pub was merely the final, conclusive confirmation.

            You think the parents know that vaccines damaged their children, but you refuse to examine the extremely strong epidemiological evidence against that. You insist upon examining only one side of the debate. Mental damage has to strike at some time, and sometimes that happens to coincide, roughly, with the time of vaccination.

            A charlatan like Wakefield uses that tragedy to promote his conspiracy theory, thereby placing the parents under even more distress, even guilt, inappropriate self-recrimination for having their children vaccinated.

            Huge numbers of scientists, doctors, ethicists and epidemiologists have examined the evidence, studies involving half a million children, and found no link between vaccines and autism. But no! according to YOU, in your arrogant, religious self-righteousness, this ONE MAN Wakefield is a victim of this vast conspiracy.

          • Clark

            Paul Barbara, in my comment of February 25, 23:02 I wrote that you were beneath contempt. I retract that and apologise for it.

            Everyone has value, but I am sorry to say that the value I find in your comments is not complimentary to you personally. Your extreme stubbornness and consistent dismissal of evidence has served as an excellent learning tool for me, which has helped me to clarify my thoughts considerably. Thank you.

      • Jo Dominich

        Paul B – tame when you look at the Tory MPs who have considerable, significant properties, funding, offshore tax havens, tax fiddles, such as one Tory MP taking a £1400 bung a day I think to promote charities. I don’t agree with it but I don’t think for one cotton’ pickin’ minute that Labour MPs (apart from Chukka and the 7 departed) have interests of the extent, financially lucrative, self-serving endorsements those of Tory MPs. I have happened to look into this lately only touched the tip of the iceburg – and I am appalled truly appalled.

    • Republicofscotland

      From your link Jack.

      “Israel is the only possessor of nuclear weapons in the Middle East, but its policy is to neither confirm nor deny having atomic bombs. The regime is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.”

      Trump threatens Iran over nuke possession, and tries to sweet talk Kim Jong Un to stop constructing nukes.

      Meanwhile in the land of apartheid, Israel, they can do whatever they want with regards to nukes, and you won’t get a bad word from Trump on it.

      Mordechai Vannu spent 18 years in an Israel prison, drugged and abducted off the streets in Italy by Mossad for reavling that Israel possessed nukes. Reagan was POTUS then, but no coup in Israel or invasion took place.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu

    • Sharp Ears

      Bloody Sykes-Picot again enabled its acquisition by the Israelis. It was never theirs.

      They are turning a once beautiful desert and semi desert into a hell hole. Arabian leopards and other fauna and flora say goodbye and to the Bedouin people and their herd animals too.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev

      See Environmental Issues
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev#Development_plans

      and Environmental Issues
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negev#Environmental_issues

    • Clark

      Verify claims in PressTV from other sources – there’s sometimes good info in PressTV, but they’re not above just making things up. If this really came from the UN Secretary General, it should be easy to confirm elsewhere.

      • Jack

        Clark

        The news is out there (googled it).
        Btw, I have not seen any “made up” info at Presstv.

        • Clark

          OK, if you have more reliable sources, link to them. Then we can see if they just cite back to PressTV. For something like this, you should be able to find a UN source.

          PressTV recycled the old Nazi propaganda version of the results of the WWII UK attack on Dresden, which even the mayor of Dresden contradicted. There are plenty of other examples.

          • Jack

            Thank you.
            I dont think there is a single news source where you cannot find errors like that though, regardless, it doesnt change the fact that it was warcrimes commited.

          • Clark

            Jack, look at what happened on that spat in 2014. The anti-war commenters made themselves look foolish by blindly trusting a story because its narrative led in their preferred direction; they repeated Nazi propaganda. That’s why it’s

            TRUTH, Justice, Peace.

            We can moan about the MSM and gatekeepers all we like, but unless we maintain higher standards, we have no more credibility than the warmongers.

          • Jack

            Clark

            What does an error at a news source have to do with anti-war position?
            With that position, one cannot be anti-war (or pro-war for argument sake) because, every news source used – have commited errors now and then.

          • Clark

            The problem is trusting a news source just because it happens to support one’s position. Scepticism must always be applied.

            In this particular instance, PressTV is well known for warping facts specifically to denigrate Israel and Israel’s Western allies. The nuclear waste disposal may be true, but citing PressTV is not a reliable way to establish that; it will rightly be dismissed by many. Cite the UN. If you can’t, it probably isn’t true.

          • Clark

            Paul Barbara, thanks for your link. Tenth paragraph:

            “Guterres’ office clarified that it compiled the report at the request of the UNHRC and relied solely on information that was provided by member states. His office did not independently verify the information in the report.”

            So this is so far just an accusation by Syria against Israel. PressTV gave the false impression that the UN made the accusation. Since the Golan is occupied by Israel, it seems unlikely that Syria has evidence.

          • Paul Barbara

            @ Clark February 26, 2019 at 01:39
            ‘…His office did not independently verify the information in the report….’
            Would it not be the task of his office to verify if the reports were true? If Israel cooperated, it would seem to me a simple matter to check the locations specified by the Syrians for the radioactivity.

          • Clark

            The PressTV report was misleading; Syria made the accusation, not the UN. Just admit error and revise your views. But you won’t. You refuse, because you’re a conspiracy theorist.

            You claim not to trust the MSM, the mainstream media. PressTV is MSM, but Iranian MSM. Your favourite myth, that Wakefield is a hero and the MMR vaccine causes autism, was promoted by the MSM. From Bad Science:

            As 2002 wore on, things got really strange. Some newspapers, such as the Daily Mail and the Daily Telegraph, made MMR the focus of a massive political campaign, and the beatification of Wakefield reached a kind of fever pitch. Lorraine Fraser had an exclusive interview with him in the Telegraph in which he was described as ‘a champion of patients who feel their fears have been ignored’. She wrote a dozen similar articles over the next year (and her reward came when she was named British Press Awards Health Writer of the Year 2002, a gong I do not myself expect to receive).

            – Justine Picardie did a lavish photo feature on Wakefield, his house and his family for the Telegraph Saturday magazine. Andy is, she tells us, ‘a handsome, glossy-haired hero to families of autistic children’. How are the family? ‘A likeable, lively family, pitted against mysterious forces who have planted bugging devices and have stolen patients records in “apparently inexplicable” burglaries.’ She fantasises – and I absolutely promise you I’m not making this up – about a Hollywood depiction of Wakefield’s heroic struggle, with Russell Crowe playing the lead ‘opposite Julia Roberts as a feisty single mother fighting for justice for her child’.

          • Jack

            Clark

            No that is wrong.
            The secretary general of the UN do not create reports themselves, it is the member states that do that, in this case Syria.
            Besides you didnt read the article it seems, it says:

            1 “UN chief Antonio Guterres will unveil Monday a report which accuses Israel ”
            – “accuses Israel”
            2 “Guterres will submit the report – which is based on Syria’s charges against Israel”
            “Syria’s charges”
            3 “Syrian citizens of the occupied Syrian Golan, particularly in the vicinity of al-Sheikh Mountain,””
            -“Syrian citizens”
            =
            So, the report is based on accusations/charges and how only because something is occupied doesnt mean there are not syrians living in that particular area that could provide intelligence to the syrian state what Israel is up to.

            As far as your reply on PressTv you repeat the same accusations. What can I say? You dont like it, fine.
            Not sure why I would go to UN when 1) PressTV quote them and 2) as we now see, that link wasnt good enough for you anyway.

          • Clark

            Jack, your very first sentence which started this was:

            “Israel burying nuclear waste in Syria’s Golan: UN”

            That is the PressTV headline, and it is WRONG. It is MISLEADING. The UN has NOT accused Israel of burying nuclear waste in the Golan. It is merely examining a Syrian accusation.

          • Clark

            What it is, Jack, is typical propaganda. Western MSM uses exactly the same technique. It words a headline to make a desired impression, and then includes a sentence, usually just one, usually towards the end of the article, that states the actual situation more clearly, merely covering its arse.

            Deception is deception, and it is wrong.

          • Jack

            Clark
            Again there is no “UN” there are member states.

            Note these headlines:

            UN report: America’s poor becoming more destitute under Trump – CNN
            UN ‘alarmed’ by reports of China’s mass detention of Uighurs – BBC News
            Report slams ‘high flying’ UN environment chief – BBC News
            UN: Last year saw highest number of Afghan civilian deaths – Washingtonpost

            All these info is based upon member states i.e. accusations, reports, info, analysis.
            There is nothing “misleading” at all.

          • Clark

            Jack: – “Again there is no “UN” there are member states.”

            Untrue. Note the following

            UN report: America’s poor becoming more destitute under Trump – CNN

            Actual report: – “Poverty in the United States is extensive and deepening under the Trump administration whose policies seem aimed at removing the safety net from millions of poor people, while rewarding the rich, a U.N. human rights investigator has found

            UN ‘alarmed’ by reports of China’s mass detention of Uighurs – BBC News

            Actual report: – “The UN body on Thursday released its concluding observation

            I shalln’t bother with the rest; it is far quicker for you to bunk than it is for me to debunk, and the pattern is clear. You are repeatedly, apparently wilfully, equating an accusation with a verdict or conclusion. An accusation of a single member state is different from a conclusion that has been considered by a UN committee or body composed of members from many member states.

            Is this an ego problem, that you merely can’t admit error because doing so would make you feel a bit queasy, or do you genuinely champion PressTV? If I were a conspiracy theorist, I could accuse you of being on their payroll, or working for Iran.

          • Jack

            Clark

            That is what I said, UN do not make their OWN reports. Member states do.
            In the UN, when a report is done it is presented to the respective UN organ, in the syrian case it was to the secretary general through the UNHRC.

          • Clark

            Spin it any way you like, it does not amount to:

            – “Israel burying nuclear waste in Syria’s Golan: UN”

            ..which is what you posted. You obviously took it for a fact established by the UN, because you continued:

            “Syria should keep it and add it as a bonus in their missiles and use them next time Israel attack them. You know, return to sender”

            ..an appalling suggestion to which no one objected but me, despite widespread objection here to all things nuclear. So radioactive contamination should be blasted into the atmosphere in Israel, to affect all Israelis, including the Arab Israelis, the Israeli activists for the Palestinians, Jewish and otherwise, and anyone wherever else it blows? OK, you were joking in bad taste.

          • Jack

            I am not spinning it, I simply try to tell help you on how the UN works.
            I was a mainly ironic about “return to sender”, irony could be hard to grasp, anyway I apologize if you was offended.

          • Jack

            Clark

            If you think about it, if Syria had the capabilities on nuclear missiles that would mean = less or no more israeli wars.

          • Clark

            In 1967, a concerted action of Arab countries attempted to completely destroy Israel. Founded by Holocaust survivors and existentially threatened just two decades later, it’s no mystery why Israel is aggressive. The question is how best to improve matters. Obviously, rights and conditions need to be improved for the Palestinians, both because that is what’s right, and so that Israel isn’t constantly threatened by their understandable aggression.

            The dominant entity is of course the USA. Maybe one day enough states will see the sense in renouncing unilateral military actions and putting their military forces at the disposal of the UN.

            But of course that’d then be the conspiracy theorists’ dreaded One World Government; interesting that a campaign against that has already existed for years, despite zero sign of it ever coming about. I wonder who makes up these conspiracy theories?

          • Jack

            The erroneous claim that Israel was attacked 1967 and was threatened with annihilation is obsolete israeli “propaganda” (to use your own words about Dresden earlier).

            “In the case of the 1967 war, the accepted narrative is that the 1967 war forced Israel to occupy the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and keep it in custody until the Palestinians were prepared to make peace. Many think that the 1967 war was one in which Israel was resisting attack and occupied the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza in self-defense. The fact is that it was Israel which launched the first strike against Egypt in 1967. Prime Minister Menachem Begin later said: “In June 1967 we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentration in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack them.”
            https://mondoweiss.net/2018/01/examining-myths-israel/

          • Clark

            Jack, thanks for linking an article by a genuine historian, with a genuine quote by an Israeli prime minister. There is far too much anti-academic and anti-scientific rubbish gets posted in this site’s comments section, and very few commenters bother to challenge it; I may have been getting over sensitive.

          • Clark

            Jack, thank you for that article. I was indeed under a biased impression about the 1967 war.

            The article explicitly states that by intention, it is not a balanced article, but aims to balance other, unbalanced accounts that have gained precedence. This leaves me with a lot to look into; two Wikipedia articles provide links to many other reputable sources, from diverse perspectives:

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-Day_War

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controversies_relating_to_the_Six-Day_War#cite_note-15

          • Jo Dominich

            Clark, your comments don’t serve any useful purpose here whatsoever – they are not informative, well though out and are completely devoid of critical analysis or thinking. Agitprop for the sake of it might be fine if that’s what floats your boat but you really haven’t got an insight into anything about which you blog. Not even close to ideas. I’m surprised anybody bothers to reply to your nonsense.

          • Clark

            Jo, thanks, but your comment is about me personally. Engage with the discussion please; it’s personal comments that are irrelevant, as per the moderation rules.

            Jack helped me learn something; I value that. I’m disappointed that Jack refused to see the bias in the PressTV headline, but the conversation did have a subject beyond Jack and me; your comment above doesn’t.

  • Sharp Ears

    What should happen to the chairmanship of HoC committees when Tingers like Wollaston have held the post? Should she be taken off the H&SC committee completely as she does not represent a registered party?

    https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/health-and-social-care-committee/membership/

    I have just seen that she and Berger have been marked down as ‘Independent’. What a joke. Who decided to shoe them back into it?

    Dr Sarah Wollaston (Chair) Independent
    Luciana Berger Independent
    Mr Ben Bradshaw Labour
    Rosie Cooper Labour
    Diana Johnson Labour
    Johnny Mercer Conservative
    Andrew Selous Conservative
    Derek Thomas Conservative
    Martin Vickers Conservative
    Dr Philippa Whitford Scottish National Party
    Dr Paul Williams Labour

    • N_

      This is interesting, given that chairs are supposed to be allocated to parties.

      I’ve heard a whisper there’s a secret vetting process for deciding who is “eligible” for chairing Commons select committees, a process that operates through John Bercow’s office.

      What business is currently before, or about to come before, the Health Select Committee?

      Wollaston remains chair of the Liaison Committee too, which brings together the chairs of all Commons select committees. As chairman of the chairmen, she’s probably in constant contact with Bercow’s office.

      When Brexitmageddon strikes, the chair of the Health Select Committee may well be on the “What the F*** to do about Medication and Typhoid?” (£££) subcommittee of the “Let’s At Least Make Sure the Zil Lanes from St John’s Wood and the Approach Road to Sellafield and Dungeness Stay Open” Committee.

    • Jo Dominich

      Interesting Sharp Ears, but I didn’t think they were MPs any more, rather a group of private business people with a company registered in Panama who have themselves stated they are not a political party and therefore, do not have to disclose their funding by the Israeli Government and the Israeli Embassy. Why are they allowed onto these committees.

  • Republicofscotland

    The US and its minons sanctions on Venezuela are the real cause of suffering in the country says UN rapporteur. Obama, now Trump are the real culprits, using economic sanctions, and false accusations to overthrow a democratically elected socialist government.

    “The first UN rapporteur to visit Venezuela for 21 years has told The Independent the US sanctions on the country are illegal and could amount to “crimes against humanity” under international law.”

    “Former special rapporteur Alfred de Zayas, who finished his term at the UN in March, has criticized the US for engaging in “economic warfare” against Venezuela which he said is hurting the economy and killing Venezuelans.”

    “Mr de Zayas recommended, among other actions, that the International Criminal Court investigate economic sanctions against Venezuela as possible crimes against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute.”

    “The US sanctions are illegal under international law because they were not endorsed by the UN Security Council, Mr de Zayas, an expert on international law and a former senior lawyer with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.”

    “Mr De Zayas’s findings are based on his late-2017 mission to the country and interviews with 12 Venezuelan government minsters, opposition politicians, 35 NGOs working in the country, academics, church officials, activists, chambers of commerce and regional UN agencies.”

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-us-sanctions-united-nations-oil-pdvsa-a8748201.html

    • Clark

      Compliments to the UN. The US again acts as if it’s above international law.

      Of course conspiracy theorists will tell us that the UN is the forebear of the dreaded One World Government, is trying to over-tax the poor via the great IPCC scientific conspiracy, and trying to kill us all via the WHO and its overarching vaccination conspiracy and its IAEA pro Jewish-physics nuclear conspiracy. It’s all part of the depopulation programme; wake up sheeple!

      And no, I don’t think the UN is perfect. But it’s also a bit more complicated than the UN merely being an arm of US foreign policy.

      • Republicofscotland

        “And no, I don’t think the UN is perfect. But it’s also a bit more complicated than the UN merely being an arm of US foreign policy.”

        Agreed Clark, however sometimes it doesn’t feel that way. Yes the UN does a lot of good, but with regards to US or Israeli actions, it’s forced to produce limited or weak criticism or remain tacit.

        I say move the UN HQ out of NY for starters and to somewhere more neutral.

        • Clark

          I agree that a move of UN HQ would help. That the five permanent members of the Security Council include Britain and France is also a problem, especially since France led the attack on Libya. Three of the five are members of NATO, and that seems unbalanced to me.

        • Dungroanin

          I suggest they go to Iceland – should help concentrate their efforts in that neutral, natural landscape. Not as much choice as Manhattan, which should stop the nepotistic troughers I guess and the icelanders could benefit from visitors from the whole of humanity.

          Equally if not more relevant is the whole budget of the whole UN – there is no idea or accounts of what it is exactly. Who is funding what, where, how, why, when … what connected groups are involved under the umbrella of the UN?

          Both could be sorted at the same time by re-setting up transparently.

          Ideally the first thing they should do is have a single set of standards to apply to any democratic vote in any country – which would require UN oversight to be considered valid.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Clark February 25, 2019 at 14:42
        ‘‘A mass sterilization exercise’: Kenyan doctors find anti-fertility agent in UN tetanus vaccine’:
        https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/a-mass-sterilization-exercise-kenyan-doctors-find-anti-fertility-agent-in-u
        The UN, WHO etc. can deny it till the cows come home, but specimens sent to South African labs found the ‘tetanus’ vaccines (only given to women of child bearing age, not boys or men) were spiked with Beta human chorionic gonadotropin (b-HCG).
        The same thing had happened previously in Nicaragua, Mexico, Tanzania and the Philippines.
        And as it happens,
        a similar scandal was exposed in East Timor, where the Indonesian occupiers were proffering vaccines laced surreptitiously with anti fertility agent (I don’t remember what it was, specifically).
        You may well be ignorant of the plans by the PTB for a NWO/One World Gulag, but I and many others are not.

        • Blunderbuss

          @Paul Barbara 00:39

          I did comment on your post but I’ve been censored again. I’m rapidly becoming the most-censored person on this blog.

          • Blunderbuss

            I think it’s unlikely that the UN or WHO are tampering with vaccines but I think it’s perfectly possible that, in some countries, vaccines are being tampered with locally.

          • Clark

            The false scare was raised by Catholic priests, who seem to have missed the change in doctrine at the Vatican and are still obsessed that women should be pregnant for their entire adult lives. Paul Barbara’s link is similarly obsessed with “pro life” issues. The lab that the priests sent the sample to wasn’t even capable of identifying the samples as vaccines, let alone identifying the supposed contaminant:

            https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tetanus-vaccine-sterilization/

            As Paul Barbara points out, there are multitudes of these “vaccines cause sterility” scares; one in Kano, northern Nigeria disrupted the WHO’s polio eradication programme leading to outbreaks in five further states, and then as far afield as Yemen and Indonesia.

            Odd that in the US and the UK vaccines supposedly cause autism, but in less economically develops countries, sterility. Elsewhere they supposedly cause other diseases instead. The obvious conclusion is that the scares are culturally motivated rather than being any genuine physical effect.

          • Blunderbuss

            @Clark, February 26, 2019 at 12:36

            Sorry Clark, I’m not going to reply to you any more. My posts keep getting deleted by mods so it’s a waste of time.

          • Clark

            Blunderbuss, I’m sorry to learn that. I could not think how to reply beyond that last night, and it seemed rather lame to post on its own.

            Considering the history of our interaction, I think it might be helpful to work through some of our previous disagreements, with the objective of finding some points of consensus, which should always be possible about matters of science. I think the moderators could be more sympathetic to discussion that looks like it might prove constructive.

          • glenn_nl

            BB: “Sorry Clark, I’m not going to reply to you any more. My posts keep getting deleted by mods so it’s a waste of time.

            Maybe you should stop whining and post something more acceptable within the rules of this blog.

          • Blunderbuss

            @glenn_nl, February 27, 2019 at 12:34

            I’m not aware that I’ve broken any rules although you and Clark certainly have, by your ad hominem attacks on me.

            What rules am I supposed to have broken?

          • Clark

            Look Blunderbuss, if we’re discussing vaccines, we’re off topic; I can remember only one post by Craig on which vaccines could have been on topic, and that was about the swine flu scare. So since we’re off-topic, all our comments are fair game, so the mods are free to use their skill and judgement.

            Now if a comment looks like it’ll just produce a load of “he said, she said”, maybe they’ll feel like deleting it. But if it looks like a vaguely intelligent conversation might ensue, and someone might learn something from it – you know, like if it’s based on evidence and reason – maybe they’ll let it stay – they have some leeway on that under the “contribute” rule.

            When I last knew who the moderators were, which was when I quit, they all had technical professional skills that are generally learned at university, so they’re likely to recognise stuff like the apparently deliberate misinterpretation of data such as we get from Jo Nova and Kenneth Richard; how good a contribution is that?

            Like, if you were running a serious blog and someone kept posting medical data deliberately warped to make smoking look safe, and an earnest commenter like me was wearing himself out trying to set the record straight, what would you do? What if it was children this commenter was encouraging to smoke? He’d bang on about being ‘censored’ and his freedom of speech – freedom to encourage kids to smoke. Is that a valuable contribution, or basically spam to be deleted? If I were still a mod here I’d have you on permanent pre-mod, because the stuff you post is a danger both to public health and to the public understanding of science.

          • Blunderbuss

            @Clark

            ” If I were still a mod here I’d have you on permanent pre-mod, because the stuff you post is a danger both to public health and to the public understanding of science”.

            So you are expecting the mods to act as judge and jury on all issues. As I keep saying, this is a blog, not a scientific journal. The whole purpose of blogs is to publish non-mainstream news and views.

            If mods followed your advice to the letter, nobody would ever report a murder in case it inspired copycat murders.

          • Clark

            “So you are expecting the mods to act as judge and jury on all issues”

            No, you are, because you refuse to exercise responsibility yourself.

            “As I keep saying, this is a blog, not a scientific journal. The whole purpose of blogs is to publish non-mainstream news and views.”

            Right. So go and jump off a cliff, and then let us all know how you enjoyed your flight.

          • Blunderbuss

            @Clark, February 28, 2019 at 15:26

            Another death threat. As I said before, it’s you and glenn_nl who are breaking the blog rules, not me.

          • Clark

            Death threat? It’s entirely up to you; I’m not twisting your arm. “As I keep saying, this is a blog, not an aeronautics journal. The whole purpose of blogs is to publish non-mainstream news and views.”

          • Clark

            Suicide? Where did you get that idea? I’m trying to protect you from the dangers of walking and cycling. Flying with your armpit hairs is much safer. The trouble is nearly all the scientists are on the bung for the transport industries, and Wikipedia editors with powerful friends suppress minority viewpoints, don’t they Blunderbuss? I mean, you told the readers that yourself.

            Do you have any children?

          • Blunderbuss

            MODS

            Will you please take action to deter Clark from making death threats against me. “Do you have any children?” in his post of 20:14 sounds like a threat to my children as well.

            [ Mod: You are clearly under no threat. Be sensible. ]

          • glenn_nl

            BB: “Will you please take action to deter Clark from making death threats against me.

            Bwwhaahahaha…. you’re a scream, Blunderbuss! Why don’t you head for the feinting-couch, and call for a chilled mint julep, before you have another attack of the vapours?

          • Clark

            It’s actually rather disgusting. Blunderbuss claims a right of “free speech” is suppressed at Wikipedia; Blunderbuss claims the right to scare people off having their children vaccinated, and to mislead the public about the causes and dangers of global warming, the right to amplify misinformation.

          • Blunderbuss

            Thanks MODS.

            As you can see, you’ve just given Clark and glenn_nl a licence to insult me as much as they like, secure in the knowledge that you won’t do anything about it.

            [ Mod: Clark and Glenn have not flouted the moderation rules; however, it would be courteous for both sides to dial the rhetoric down a tone. ]

          • Blunderbuss

            Another insult from glenn_nl. He obviously isn’t taking the MOD’s advice that “it would be courteous for both sides to dial the rhetoric down a tone”.

          • Blunderbuss

            Thank you glenn_nl. I did search but, as I did not have exactly the right search string, I did not find it. There really ought to be a link to the Moderation Rules and I urge the MODS to put one up.

            Extract from the rules:
            Fair Play. Play the ball, not the man. Address arguments, not people. Do not impugn the motives of others, including me. No taunting.

            Wuss! is definitely taunting so, MODS, please take appropriate action against glenn_nl.

            [ Mod: We already have. Thanks for the prompt, nonetheless! ]

          • Blunderbuss

            MODS

            Another taunt from glenn_nl at 00:04. He is taunting you as well as me.

          • glenn_nl

            BB: “Another taunt from glenn_nl at 00:04. He is taunting you as well as me.”

            You have to be the most delicate person ever to venture off very safe, and very limited Internet access in recent times.

            Seriously, man up a bit.

            That is fair comment, and not a taunt by the way. But if you have to go with your hand up to the teacher, to tell tales again, that is your (very weak and feeble) prerogative.

            But seriously, do try to man up a bit. That is kindly advice.

          • Clark

            Blunderbuss, do you really enjoy this bickering more than science? I mean, we could review the claims you’ve posted about global warming and work out how the data actually fits into the current understanding of climate science. Now I’d find that interesting. You seem more interested in republishing the deniers’ claims without scrutiny and then moving on; a sort of atomised, hit-and-run approach. Sorry about the term “deniers” but they can’t be called sceptics because their claims fall apart when subjected to the slightest scepticism. That’s actually fun to do. It’s actually rather gratifying to discover that ordinary folk like us can demolish claim after claim made on blogs with very high traffic.

            Dave’s “CO2 concentration is too low to matter” claim turned out to be particularly interesting. First it was obviously wrong, because parts-per-billion of certain dyes are sufficient to colour a fluid. But then I found something fascinating; there was a valid objection based on the concentration of CO2, but it’s the opposite of Dave’s story, and it was presented by Angstrom, who you’ve probably heard of. The atmospheric CO2 concentration is actually so high that it absorbs all the radiation in the relevant waveband, and would do several times over, so at first sight increasing the concentration shouldn’t make any difference to how fast radiant heat escapes the atmosphere.

            The thing I found fascinating is that the deniers never mention it. I guess they can’t push Dave’s objection and Angstrom’s because they’re opposites, so they chose the one Dave quotes because it’s simpler and thus has broader appeal. They chose false superficial plausibility rather than genuine scientific credibility, which would seem to betray their motives, yes?

          • Blunderbuss

            @Clark, March 1, 2019 at 00:51

            “The atmospheric CO2 concentration is actually so high that it absorbs all the radiation in the relevant waveband”.

            A very good point, Clark, and the deniers frequently do mention it. It is the reason that, as the CO2 concentration increases, each additional molecule has less and less effect.

          • Blunderbuss

            glenn_nl, March 1, 2019 at 00:51

            “But seriously, do try to man up a bit. That is kindly advice”.

            There speaks the school bully. He breaks the rules and gets away with it because the MODS are too weak to stop him.

          • Clark

            Blunderbuss, if your objections are scientific, why didn’t YOU mention it, but instead explicitly supported Dave’s “concentration too low” fallacy when you wrote “I agree with Dave”?

            Can you at least see why I, and probably therefore also the moderators, doubt your good faith?

          • Blunderbuss

            @Clark, March 1, 2019 at 10:50

            You will always doubt my good faith so there is no point in further discussion.

            If the MODS doubt my good faith then I hope they will say so. Do you claim to speak for them?

          • Clark

            “You will always doubt my good faith”

            That is not true. You could demonstrate your good faith by engaging with my argument; why did you say “I agree with Dave” if you knew his argument is false? Instead you seem to have demonstrated bad faith because instead you replied…

            “You will always doubt my good faith” which is actually an ad-hominen smear and therefore breaks the moderation rules. But I will demonstrate my good faith by requesting that the moderators preserve it.

            No, I’m not claiming to know anyone else’s motivations. I merely guess as best I can.

          • Clark

            So Dave’s argument fell over a century ago. Angstrom’s argument also fails; when you look at the physics, additional CO2 makes the atmospheric blanket thicker ie. deeper rather than more ‘dense’. It is a fairly technical argument, but confirmed by satellite measurements – and simple observations eg. the melting icecaps and glaciers, bleaching coral etc:

            http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/06/a-saturated-gassy-argument-part-ii/

            http://clivebest.com/blog/?p=1169

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile the Japanese people of Okinawa, are to vote on Sunday as to whether a US base currently at Futenma, can be rebuilt in Okinawa. However it looks likely that most Okinawans don’t want the base

    Okinawans say the present base in Futenma, has seen countless sexual assaults on residents by the base personnel, countless accidents and incidents, and widespread pollution. Omit the sexual assaults and you have Faslane.

    However the Okinawans, fear the Japanese governmet will force through the building of the US staging post regardless of the people voting against its.

    Is the Japanese goverment vying with the Westminster government, to see who can be the biggest brown nose, with regards to the Great Satan?

  • Dungroanin

    I note CM on his tweet is encouraging that citizens don’t pay the poll tax regressive tax for receiving live TV or iplayer for BBC content.

    Please take heed.

    Don’t pay extra to be force fed propaganda like so many geese!

  • Republicofscotland

    Staying on Venezuela.

    “Marco Rubio posted two photographs of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi on his Twitter account on Sunday, in an apparent threat to Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro.”

    Surely a US elected Senator threating a democratically elected head of state (President Maduro of Venezuela) must be seen as a disgraceful act worldwide.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/marco-rubio-tweet-muammar-gaddafi-libya-venezuela-nicolas-maduro-a8795071.html

    • Borncynical

      And Pompeo smugly and sinisterly said a couple of days ago that he was “confident that the Venezuelan people will make sure Maduro’s days are numbered”. He didn’t qualify it with “his days as President…[ or “his days in charge…”] are numbered. Perhaps I’m reading too much into it, but I interpreted his comments as a direct threat to Maduro’s life with the implication that should anything happen to him we must all presume that it was Venezuelans behind it and not the work of outside forces.

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