UK Rejects International Court of Justice Opinion on the Chagos Islands 884


In parliament, Alan Duncan for the government has just rejected yesterday’s stunning result at the International Court of Justice, where British occupation of the Chagos Islands was found unlawful by a majority of 13 to 1, with all the judges from EU countries amongst those finding against the UK.

This represents a serious escalation in the UK’s rejection of multilateralism and international law and a move towards joining the US model of exceptionalism, standing outside the rule of international law. As such, it is arguably the most significant foreign policy development for generations. In the Iraq war, while Britain launched war without UN Security Council authority, it did so on a tenuous argument that it had Security Council authority from earlier resolutions. The UK was therefore not outright rejecting the international system. On Chagos it is now simply denying the authority of the International Court of Justice; this is utterly unprecedented.

Duncan put forward two arguments. Firstly that the ICJ opinion was “only” advisory to the General Assembly. Secondly, he argued that the ICJ had no jurisdiction as the case was a bilateral dispute with Mauritius (and thus could only go before the ICJ with UK consent, which is not given).

But here Duncan is – against all British precedent and past policy – defying a ruling of the ICJ. The British government argued strenuously in the present case against ICJ jurisdiction, on just the grounds Duncan cited. The ICJ considered the UK’s arguments, together with arguments from 32 other states and from the African Union. The ICJ ruled that it did have jurisdiction, because this was not a bilateral dispute but part of the UN ordained process of decolonisation.

The International Court of Justice’s ruling on this point is given at length in paras 83 to 91 of its Opinion. This is perhaps the key section:

88. The Court therefore concludes that the opinion has been requested on the matter of decolonization which is of particular concern to the United Nations. The issues raised by the request are located in the broader frame of reference of decolonization, including the General Assembly’s role therein, from which those issues are inseparable (Western Sahara, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1975, p. 26, para. 38; Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 2004 (I), p. 159, para. 50).
89. Moreover, the Court observes that there may be differences of views on legal questions in advisory proceedings (Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1971, p. 24, para. 34). However, the fact that the Court may have to pronounce on legal issues on which divergent views have been expressed by Mauritius and the United Kingdom does not mean that, by replying to the request, the Court is dealing with a bilateral dispute.
90. In these circumstances, the Court does not consider that to give the opinion requested would have the effect of circumventing the principle of consent by a State to the judicial settlement of its dispute with another State. The Court therefore cannot, in the exercise of its discretion, decline to give the opinion on that ground.
91. In light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that there are no compelling reasons for it to decline to give the opinion requested by the General Assembly.

As stated at para 183, that the court did have jurisdiction was agreed unanimously, with even the US judge (the sole dissenter on the main question) in accord. For the British government to reject the ICJ’s unanimous ruling on jurisdiction, and quote that in parliament as the reason for not following the ICJ Opinion, is an astonishing abrogation of international law by the UK. It really is unprecedented. The repudiation of the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention over Julian Assange pointed the direction the UK is drifting, but that body does not have the prestige of the International Court of Justice.

The International Court of Justice represents the absolute pinnacle of, and embodies the principle of, international law. In 176 decisions, such as Nigeria vs Cameroon or Malaysia vs Indonesia, potentially disastrous conflicts have been averted by the states’ agreement to abide by the rule of law. The UK’s current attack on the ICJ is a truly disastrous new development.

I have taken it for granted that you know that the reason the UK refuses to decolonise the Chagos Islands is to provide an airbase for the US military on Diego Garcia. If Brexit goes ahead, the Chagos Islands will also lead to a major foreign policy disagreement between the UK and US on one side, and the EU on the other. The EU will be truly shocked by British repudiation of the ICJ.

I have studied the entire and lengthy ICJ Opinion on the Chagos Islands, together with its associated papers, and I will write further on this shortly.

—————————————————

Unlike our adversaries including the Integrity Initiative, the 77th Brigade, Bellingcat, the Atlantic Council and hundreds of other warmongering propaganda operations, this blog has no source of state, corporate or institutional finance whatsoever. It runs entirely on voluntary subscriptions from its readers – many of whom do not necessarily agree with the articles, but welcome the alternative voice, insider information and debate.

Subscriptions to keep this blog going are gratefully received.

Choose subscription amount from dropdown box:

Recurring Donations



 


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

884 thoughts on “UK Rejects International Court of Justice Opinion on the Chagos Islands

1 2 3 4 5 7
  • Republicofscotland

    Iran’s President Rouhani, has refused to accept the resignationof resignation of Foreign Minister Javad Zarif. Israels PM Netanyahu said of Zarif, who often held Netanyahu to account, and bested him on many occasions, good riddance to Zarif, no doubt Netanyahu will be very dismayed to see his more than competent opponent return to the international fold.

  • Per

    voltairenet have a quite interesting take on this situation imho. (link to story below)
    “- 3. The defendants who were members of groups affiliated with Al-Qaïda benefited from the direct aid of the French government. This is revealed by the letter handed by ambassador Bachar Safari to the Security Council, on 14 July 2014. Dated from 17 January of the same year, and signed by the Commander-in-Chief of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), it exposes the allocation of the munitions offered by France to the jihadists, and specifies that a third is attributed by Paris to the Free Syrian Army, and that the remaining two thirds must be delivered to al-Qaïda (known in Syria as the « al-Nusra Front »). And did not Monsieur Fabius say that « al-Nusra is doing a good job » [4] ?

    Since the defendants obeyed the instructions of the French government, and had indirectly received weapons, and directly received ammunition from the French state, they can not be accused of collaboration with the enemy or high treason.”
    https://www.voltairenet.org/article205314.html

  • FranzB

    Alan Duncan was the MP who Shai Masot wanted to get rid of. From Wikipedia:-

    “In January 2017, Al Jazeera aired a series entitled The Lobby.[42] The last episode showed Shai Masot, an official at the Israeli embassy in London, proposing an attempt to “take down” British “pro-Palestinian” politicians, including Duncan.[43] The leader of the opposition Jeremy Corbyn wrote an open letter to Theresa May objecting to what he called an “improper interference in this country’s democratic process” and urging the prime minister to launch an inquiry on the basis that “[t]his is clearly a national security issue”.[44] The Israeli ambassador Mark Regev apologised to Duncan for the “completely unacceptable” comments made in the video.[45]”

    One benefit of the Chris Williamson furore is that the Jackie Walker film ‘Witchhunt’ is getting lots of free advertising. The whole thing does have a touch of the Salem Witch Trials about it.

    Freedland from the Guardian has a go at Williamson re the Pittsburgh synagogue shootings:-

    “Williamson decided that was the right time, several hours after news of the murders had broken, to tweet an attack on the British Jewish community’s representative body, the Board of Deputies.”

    The tweet was sent at 11.11 a.m. BST. The shooting in Pittsburgh was at 9.45 a.m. local time, which is (I think) 3.45 p.m. BST So the tweet was sent before the shooting. If I’m right, I wonder if that will be corrected.

    Freedman also has the film being made by Jackie Walker. In fact (according to the Guardian) Jon Pullman made the film – as part of the investigation into the various allegations of anti-semitism made against the Labour party.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/27/labour-chris-williamson-antisemitism

  • Goose

    Re: Chris Williamson’s suspension.

    I don’t think he said anything wrong, he merely expressed what the membership are thinking , hence the applause The leadership have massively overreacted.

    Who filmed it? Was it filmed openly or surreptitiously? It’s just that the audio is v.bad and the camera doesn’t move i.e.not being held, suggesting a fixed view as a hidden camera would have.

    • Herbie

      You’d think that by now they’d have understood that the smear-merchants have no interest in truth or logic, and just shut up about the thing.

      It’d be a reasonable assumption that all Labour party private meetings are recorded and that the party itself is infested with spies.

      It’s hard to take it seriously anyway. The Labour party looks more and more like the SWP or some other Trotskyist outfit.

      Anyway, Chris Williamson has a curious voting record for a Leftist.

      • zoot

        “The Labour party looks more and more like the SWP or some other Trotskyist outfit”

        not being pro-war and pro-austerity enough for your taste hardly equates to trotskyism, does it? that is the mantra of the 1% and the british political and media establishment. but what they don’t tell you is that labour’s public spending and tax policies are milquetoast by mainstream continental standards.

      • Goose

        @Herbie

        Yes, kinda agree on how it’s ridiculous the LP are still giving their opponents opportunities to misrepresent them like this. You’d think ‘no comment’ would be the sensible approach.

        Williamson basically said Labour have a proud record fighting all discrimination and therefore they don’t need to apologise to anyone. That should have been an uncontroversial statement, one even Tom Watson could support, but even this has been twisted.

        • Jo1

          @ Goose
          Well, much was made, today, of the applause Williamson got at that meeting by Andrew Neil on Politics Live. He challenged Andy McDonald on it. Said did the applause not prove the Labour Party is heaving with anti-Semites. It proved no such thing. But that didn’t hold Neil back. Comparisons were made to the 1930s!

          My understanding is that footage from the meeting was passed to a local newspaper in Yorkshire and then the big boys took it from there.

          • Herbie

            You have to laugh though.

            The Right has taken the moral high ground from the Left.

            And all because of their Achilles Heel, Identity politics.

            The economic chaos don’t even get a look in.

            There’s a Hybrid war going on against the Labour party, and it seems they don’t know how to respond.

  • Roger ewen

    Hi Craig,
    After speaking to officers at fort George, where US troops from North Carolina based in Italy, are training with U.K. Military for deployment under the auspices of Africom, in Africa.
    It’s either 1500 or 2500 American troops are to be transferred to RAF Lossiemouth where the Americans are presently spending millions of dollars for the return of there nuclear missiles.,

    They informed me, that America now finances the British forces, making U.K. Forces, an AIPAC owned U.K. Foreign policy, and AIPAC owned and directed mercenary army.

    • Herbie

      Not to downplay your comment and its significance in a culture in which people think their army fights for and protects them.

      But, US General Smedley Butler was saying the same thing in the 1930s about his military career going back to the 1890s.

      He was a mercenary for US corporations.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Herbie February 28, 2019 at 01:17
        Yep, and he wrote a book, ‘War is a Racket’. He also exposed an attempted Fascist Coup (the ‘Business Plot’) in the US in 1934 to the Congress, but because the head honchos were so highly placed no action was taken, though the coup was aborted.
        And he died in mysterious circumstances whilst travelling around the country campaigning against the US entering WWII.

      • Johny Conspiranoid

        Herbie: The Labour Party doesn’t know how to respond to hybrid war because a hybrid war is a conspiracy and the Labour Party doesn’t believe in conspiracy theories.

    • Republicofscotland

      Interesting comment Roger, it wouldn’t surprise that the US is helping to fund the British military, afterall the US funds Israels military.

      • N_

        Payments by the US government to the British government for keeping US bases in Britain used to account for a large part of Britain’s invisible exports. (The other large part was accounted for by insurance.) These payments were quoted in official statistics, certainly as late as the 1980s.

        Nowadays they aren’t mentioned. Even campaigners against the arms trade don’t know whether the payments are still being made. Perhaps they stopped.

    • Clark

      “America now finances the British forces, making U.K. Forces, an AIPAC owned U.K. Foreign policy, and AIPAC owned and directed mercenary army.”

      This posits that AIPAC controls “America” (which is a continent, by the way; it’s much more than just the US).

      This is clearly a conspiracy theory, and very close to the “Jews control everything” conspiracy theory. Yet it has gained approving comments from various other commenters, and this comment is the first criticism.

    • IrishU

      ‘They informed me, that America now finances the British forces, making U.K. Forces, an AIPAC owned U.K. Foreign policy, and AIPAC owned and directed mercenary army.’

      Absolute nonsense. Bullshit on so many levels.

      Also what point are you making regarding Lossiemouth? Are you claiming that US nukes are to be based there?

  • David

    ukraine’s entry to eurovision was selected by a people’s vote last weekend.
    singer resigned from the singing idea when she saw the contract, she alleged “propganda”.
    ukraine invited the next two acts, who both also declined.
    ukraine has now withdrawn from the May song fest in sunny land of peace.

    source BBC WS, who went on to witter about Crimea and worries about Russia now winning the contest! surely a task for the Integretives….

    • Tatyana

      David,
      it is shame, people paid for SMS to vote for singers believing they really choose the winner, and at the last step the jury asks “whose is the Crimea? Russian or Ukrainian?”
      People’s vote means nothing. Yagolnik even said that the national vote for singers was an FSB operation 🙂

      In Russia we had the cult singer, bard and composer Victor Tsoy. His songs are still touching our hearts.
      Just look, his song “We wait for changes” played by an orchestra!
      https://youtu.be/s3NFmSQMuqc

      “Changes! – demands our hearts.
      Changes! – demand our eyes.
      In our laughter, and our tears,
      And in the ripple of our veins,
      Changes!
      We are waiting for changes.”

      * you may need a good sound device to enjoy the music, because it is symphonic orchestra.

      I think this would go well for the Yellow Vests 🙂

  • Sharp Ears

    February 27, 2019
    Diego Garcia: UN Court Calls on Britain to ‘Decolonize’ Chagos Islands
    by Brett Wilkins
    The United Nations’ highest court on Monday called Britain’s claim of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands “illegal” and urged London to “decolonize” the remote archipelago — which is home to one of the most important US overseas military bases — by returning the islands to Mauritius.
    [..]
    The ICJ agreed with Mauritius’ submission, which argued it had been coerced into giving up the islands. Such an act is a violation of UN Resolution 1514, which prohibits the breakup of colonies before independence. +++The only judge who dissented from the court’s main opinion was Joan E. Donoghue of the United States.+++

    https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/27/diego-garcia-un-court-calls-on-britain-to-decolonize-chagos-islands/

    • Sharp Ears

      and an article by John Pilger –

      Victory for the Chagos Islanders
      26th February 2019

      ‘There are times when one tragedy tells us how a whole system works behind its democratic façade and helps us understand how much of the world is run for the benefit of the powerful and how governments often justify their actions with lies.

      In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the British Government of Harold Wilson expelled the entire population of the Chagos Islands, a British crown colony in the Indian Ocean, to make way for an American military base on Diego Garcia, the largest island. In high secrecy, the Americans offered a discounted Polaris nuclear submarine as payment for use of the islands.’
      /..
      http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/51166.htm

  • Martinned

    To add some things I just learned in the comments section of EJIL:Talk!

    It remains to be seen too how the government of France will react, given GA resolution 31/4 of 21 October 1976 and subsequent resolutions up to and including GA resolution 49/19 of 6 December 1994 on the ‘Comorian island of Mayotte’, subsequently integrated into France as an overseas département in 2011 following a referendum in 2009, having been hived off from the Comoro Archipelago prior to France’s grant of independence to the latter. (For the briefest of context, see the preamble to GA res 31/4.)

    And

    I’ll need to look more closely at the AO, but I’m concerned that the Court asserts that by 1965 hiving off parts of colonies had crystallised as customary international law. If this is correct (and ex cathedra, we must treat it as so), then when did this occur? What does this mean for Cyprus (quite apart from Mayotte)?

    And

    Not just Cyprus and Mayotte. The Court’s ruling will surely reinvigorate South Cameroonian independence claims (South Cameroon was administered jointly with N. Cameroon, which was incorporated in Nigeria, while the south was pushed into union with French Cameroon); as well as Russian claims to Crimea, which was lopped of from Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet empire and transferred with no discussion to the Russian SSSR in ’54. So the Court would have to draw some fine line that the custom had not crystalized in ’61 but had in 65!

    • Bayard

      Regarding Crimea, I thought it went the other way, i.e. from Russia to Ukraine, hence why it was still part of Ukraine at the break up of the USSR.

    • Charles Bostock

      I was wondering about Mayotte as well.

      Perhaps not by coincidence, Mayotte has always been the richest of the Comoro Islands and the one with the highest white European presence.

      If it were not for its DOM status (which implies hefty subsidies of all sorts, including from the EU), Mayotte would be the same basket case as the other islands of the archpelago.

      I had to go there once so have seen the position at frist hand.

  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    If North Korea has numerous nukes, as US hawks claim, why doesn’t ;t it hand over at least one to get the denuclearization process started?

    The answer is that it has nome. They only exist in Washington propaganda.

    • Martinned

      1. Because then the US would know exactly how good those nukes are or aren’t.
      2. Because nukes are expensive, particularly for a poor country like North Korea,

      Any further questions?

      • Clark

        No, he’s blaming the US earthquake generation programme which was used to fake nuclear explosions and then claim they were North Korea’s nuclear tests. His evidence is a broomstick displayed by the USS Jimmy Carter on return from a tour of duty.

          • Clark

            Well exactly. That’s the problem with unfalsifiable theories; you can never tell what their real objective is. But at least Trowbridge invents his own, so we don’t need to worry who’s seeding them.

          • Clark

            Here’s the full quote:

            Just look at all the evidence that a special attack submarine caused the earthquakes around Christmas 2004 off Aceh whose tsunamis killed around 250,000 innocent people, most Muslims, living in Southeast Asia, on Indian subcontinent, and along the coast of east Africa.

            The sub USS Jimmy Carter took years to build, had unprecedented crew problems, vast cost overruns, was sent on its first cruise before it was commissioned by the Navy’s CNO Vern Clarke with a special pep about carrying the fight to the enemy, was not reported anywhere for several months as if it was a better covert weapon than the USS Parche, people reported noise from unknown sources southeast of Australia and southwest of New Zealand where the Antarctic plate was attached to the Indo-Australian one, thousands of sea mammals were killed in the area by unknown causes though no oil drilling was going on there, then the mammoth earthquakes occur off the Auckland Islands and Indonesia’s Aceh, and the ensuing tsunamis, after four months the Carter reappears finally at New London, flying the broom, the traditional sign by a sub when it’s achieved a great victory over the enemy when there was none in sight, and which the US Navy went to great lengths to cover up, even having a regular sub re-enact the process to defuse its alarming unprecedented (note spelling, Donald() character.

    • Mark Russell

      “If North Korea has numerous nukes, as US hawks claim, why doesn’t ;t it hand over at least one to get the denuclearization process started? The answer is that it has none. They only exist in Washington propaganda.”

      Does it really matter? In some ways, a global nuclear was might well be preferable when you consider the rising levels of radiation coming from what’s left of Fukushima. It’s almost eight years since the earthquake and tsunami – the engineers still can’t locate the fuel rods and suspect they have now penetrated the substrata. They still require enormous quantities of sea water for cooling – and the contaminated water is pumped back into the Pacific. There is still no solution to recovering the fuel rods and if they can’t be cooled further, the reaction will increase. No one knows what will happen if it does – but the amount of radioactive contaminants in the Pacific is now almost uniform in distribution.

      It may take a few years but all our marine life is facing an extinction level event. Significant numbers of blue fin tuna in the oceans now carry levels of ceasium 134/137 that are toxic to humans – yet still they are fished and sold for consumption. And now the Japanese want to start whaling again….

      For the sake of some species that might endure, perhaps it would be best if mankind stopped pissing about and got it over with once and for all.

      • Mark Russell

        ….let’s not forget the impact on marine life from all the plastic and other toxic materials we’ve polluted the oceans with. Some are worried about climate change and extreme weather and yet more are consumed with the folly of politics and the pursuit of wealth and power. Futile distractions from the real threat to our future.

        Like James Lovelock, I suspect it’s too late to do anything about it. 120,000 cubic tonnes of contaminated radioactive seawater every day for 2910 days is bad enough. But it can’t be turned off. Checkmate.

        • Clark

          I think you might have been reading misleading sources. For instance, there are some problems even I can identify in one thing you wrote:

          “There is still no solution to recovering the fuel rods and if they can’t be cooled further, the reaction will increase”

          But the nuclear reaction would decrease with temperature as the fuel expands and becomes less dense. However, water can increase the reaction rate because it’s a neutron moderator, slowing the neutrons thus enabling them to be captured by other nuclei.

          I have also read that effects upon marine life in the Pacific are not that bad, eg:

          https://phys.org/news/2016-06-fukushima-oceans-years.html

          “A major international review of the state of the oceans 5 years after the Fukushima disaster shows that radiation levels are decreasing rapidly except in the harbour area close to the nuclear plant itself where ongoing releases remain a concern.

          – Uptake by marine life. In 2011, around half the fish samples in coastal waters off Fukushima had radiocesium levels above the Japanese 100Bq/kg limit, but by 2015 this had dropped to less than 1% above the limit. High levels are still found in fish around the FDNPP port. High levels of iodine 131 were measured in fish in April 2011, but as this has a short radioactive half-life, it is now below detection levels. Generally, with the exception of species close to the FDNPP, there seem to be little long-term measurable effects on marine life.”

          But if the melted fuel was still reacting it would still be producing Iodine 131.

          So your source seems to have serious factual errors, and I therefore expect it’s sensationalising the problem – which happens a lot with nuclear tech; there’s a massive amount of scare-mongering about. Helen Caldicott is one of the worst offenders and her work is very prominent, so if she’s contributed to your sources you’d better check elsewhere.

          • Mark Russell

            Yes, I agree, there are many conflicting opinions and it not always easy to determine their objectivity or factual basis. I’m not an expert on nuclear meltdown, Clark, but I guess the authorities are keeping the fuel piles cool for a good reason – wherever they are. If I may correct my last post – it is 400 tonnes of contaminated groundwater that is escaping each day. Caldicott discusses the impact on the environment in the west coast of the US and Canada in the material I’ve read. Whist interesting, I am more concerned about whats still happening underground in Fukushima.

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMr3pBAPgLg

          • Clark

            I can think of two reasons for the cooling water; to keep the reactor vessels from melting, or melting further, and to keep the temperature down to keep various substances including water from boiling, since gaseous products could distribute more radioactive material.

            That’s probably also why they’re storing so much contaminated water instead of recirculating it; if the melted cores boil water at all, the less contaminated the water the better.

            “I’m not an expert on nuclear meltdown”

            They used to say, “the last chapter of the nuclear emergency manual hasn’t been written”. A bit more was written each time there was a meltdown, but thankfully that’s not often. That chapter must be growing by the day at Fukushima.

  • Republicofscotland

    It has been revealed that donations to the Tories from the Scottish Unionist Association Trust (SUAT), have come from the likes of Lubov Chernukhin’s wife, a former minister of Putin’s. The money was received 8 months after the Skripal poisonings.

    A six figure donation came from Ann Said, the wife Syrian born arms dealer Wafic Said, a family friend of Bashar Assad. Wafic Said.

    It’s abundantly apparent that the Tories will take donatiins from anyone no matter how unscrupulous they are.

    • N_

      To judge by that article, the people responsible were too cowardly to identify themselves. They only gave a quote attributed to “the shooting range”, as if shooting ranges can talk.

    • Peter

      Luciana Berger was on Newsnight last night claiming that Chris Williamson’s defence of the Labour Party (LP) against antisemitism attacks was “jew-baiting”, so anyone who defends the LP against such smears is automatically antisemitic.

      We are in a looking-glass world when the LP has suspended or expelled at least two jews from the party for antisemitism, along with headline, lifelong antiracism campaigners Livingstone and Wadsworth, and, of course, Margaret Hodge was just on Politics Live hurling the same smear at Corbyn – unchallenged.

      And if you think that’s bad, Kirsty Wark on Newsnight last night, went further and started demanding that anyone who clapped Williamson at that meeting should also be suspended from the LP.

      Meanwhile, Joan Ryan is treated like a saint despite there being video footage of her discussing a £1m donation from the Israeli government, and of her fabricating antisemitism smears.

      Joe McCarthy is alive and well and celebrated at the BBC.

      Hard not to conclude that Williamson is right and that the LP leadership has made a rod for its own back in capitulating to previous malicious smears, and is continuing to do so, which it can then not defend itself against.

      They need to clean up their act, take a much more pro-active approach and get on the front foot asap.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddH2sfNKNY

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuk1EhkEctE

      • Johny Conspiranoid

        “Hard not to conclude that Williamson is right and that the LP leadership has made a rod for its own back in capitulating to previous malicious smears, and is continuing to do so, which it can then not defend itself against.”
        Its been hard not to conclude that for years now. It beats me what any Labour politician is doing on ITV’s Peston (whatever that is) or any other such propaganda show. They only legitemise it, and they are never going to get a fair hearing. Richard Seymour argues that Labour should argue hard and insistently for as long as takes for the storm to go away, but hasn’t that been tried already? You may as well reason with a shark. You will only contribute to the storm, which is your oponent’s plan.
        Maybe Corbyn is trying to avoid a split, but to what purpose?

          • Clark

            Your silence indicates that Luciana Berger’s vile accusation was false; a smear.

            Never heard of the Boy Who Cried Wolf? You’re endangering Jews. Should a real threat arise and get ignored, much responsibility will lie with the likes of Luciana Berger, and those who uncritically endorse her smears such as yourself.

      • Herbie

        There must be some polling on how this nonsense is playing out in the country.

        I mean, how much middle class whining can the peeps bear.

  • michael norton

    Newport West by-election date announced
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47400521
    Paul Flynn, who died aged 84 this month, won a 5,658 majority over the Conservative candidate in the 2017 general election.

    It would be a good idea if the people who have left the Labour party/been in prison/thrown out
    would also put themselves up for re-election on the same day.

    • Martinned

      Because what we need at a time when Parliament is voting almost daily about Brexit, with small majorities in many of those divisions, is a bunch of Remain-votes out of contention because of a by-election that can’t take place until after Brexit day?

  • N_

    If Labour get a referendum on “May’s deal” (perhaps amended) versus Remain, which way will the party be advising us to vote? If that’s too hard a question, which way (or ways) will Jeremy Corbyn and Emily Thornberry be advising us to vote?

    It won’t come to this, or at least not before Brexit it won’t.

    • michael norton

      Christopher Williamson M.P. is now classed as an Independent member of parliament.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Williamson_(politician)

      In April 2018, Williamson said he had come across evidence that Conservatives are posing on Twitter as Corbyn supporters. He also referenced Ken Livingstone in his remarks: “We’ve got these ridiculous suspensions and expulsions from the party” made “in the most grotesque and unfair way”.

      Fully agree

      • Ingwe

        Bang on michael norton. I’m so pissed off by the Labour Party’s pusillanimous
        position with regards to the non-existent anti-semtitism, that Chris Williamson’s suspension has led to me cancelling my membership. If/when Labour fights back against Hodge, Smeeth, Watson, Benn et al, I’ll reconsider. In the meantime, they can go and f**k themselves.

        • FranzB

          “with regards to the non-existent anti-semtitism”

          I doubt if it’s non existent. Hatton’s tweet of 2012 was anti-semitic. To say that all Jews have a responsibility to call out Zionism is anti-semitic.

          Williamson is an anti-racist through and through, and as such will oppose racist ideologies such as Zionism. Heard Louise Ellman on the Labour party and zionism on BBC radio 4 who put the problem in a nutshell. She said many Labour MPs supported the zionist state of Israel. Of course all of those will label those who oppose Zionism as anti-semitic. It is in fact those who support Zionism who are the racists.

          Of the UNs partition plan for Palestine in 1948, Ernest Bevin said:-

          “The majority proposal is so manifestly unjust to the Arabs that it is difficult to see how we could reconcile it with our conscience.”[39]”

        • Jo1

          Ingwe

          You should write and tell them why. Email your MP.

          I have a Labour MP. I’m not in the Labour Party, I usually vote SNP, but I emailed him today complaining about this obsession with anti-Semitism and the message going out from Watson in particular. I’ve told him the antics of Watson and his cohorts is actually fuelling anti-Semitism because it’s like they don’t care anybody else.

          It’s even more important that you tell them what you think if you’ve left the Party. Copy Jennie Formby in too.

    • Jo1

      Interesting comments from Lisa Nandy last night on Peston (before her shouting match with McDonnell) on another vote. She said she wouldn’t be voting for it. She claimed her constituents are now telling her they’ll take no deal over a second vote.
      There will be many other Labour MPs in the same situation. I think Corbyn has always realised this and still does. Many of his MPs who are pro Remain are ignoring it. But they prefer to paint Corbyn as pro-Brexit than to acknowledge the reality.

  • N_

    I wonder what lies Donald Trump may be about to tell about Otto Warmbier.

    Watch the press conference Warmbier gave when he was in captivity to get a handle on just how monstrous the North Korean regime is. (He was foolish but nobody deserves to be treated the way he was.)

    I wouldn’t be surprised if the reason he was sent back to the US, alive and dying, was to convey a message about biological weapons.

  • Jack

    Of course, one of the most fearless politician on wars and foreign policy (integrity initiative!), Mr Williamson is slammed by neocons, and pro-israel crowd and Labour fold, terrible.

    Related,
    “The anti-semitism smear industries in the UK, US and France are now at full speed. They don’t really care about the safety of Jews. They want a return to a political culture in which their power was left unchallenged and unscrutinised”
    https://twitter.com/Jonathan_K_Cook/status/1100802530265702400

    Should remind us once again that the talk about antisemitism is, pretty much solely, used to silence people when it comes to these accusations.

  • Sharp Ears

    The usual from the UN. ‘Israel may have committed war crimes’, with the accent on ‘may have’.

    Gaza protest deaths: Israel may have committed war crimes – UN
    1 hour ago
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47399541#

    It was a turkey shoot by IDF snipers lying prone on an earth bund, created for the purpose.

    The usual phrases ‘Israel says’ are within the report. There is no corresponding Palestinian response, sought or quoted.
    ‘Israel’s acting foreign minister said it rejected the findings outright.’

    ‘The Israeli government said…’ etc

    The Israeli FM Israel Katz tweeted and that is given a link. So helpful of the BBC.
    https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1101090081681612803

    Katz is a second generation settler born of Latvian and Romanian parents. A hardliner.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yisrael_Katz_(politician,_born_1955)

    Hamas was elected by the Palestinians in Gaza. It is referred to by the BBC as ‘militant Hamas movement, which dominates Gaza and is designated a terrorist group by Israel and other nations.’

          • Deb O'Nair

            Peter Sutcliffe was an evil mass murderer.
            CB: But not as bad as Ted Bundy.

            It was really warm the other day.
            CB: But not as hot as it is on the sun.

            It was Thurday yesterday.
            CB: But yesterday was Wednesday on Thursday.

            Israel has been sniping at unarmed, largely peaceful protesters killing over 120 and maiming 10,000.
            CB: “But fewer than its Arab neighbours.”
            Er, no actually.

  • Republicofscotland

    I wonder what the Great Satan the (US) will say about this, oh that’s right the US quit the UN Human Rights Council last year, in protest claiming it was biased against Israel.

    “The Israeli military may have committed war crimes in 2018 when 189 Palestinians were killed and 6,100 wounded at Gaza protests, a UN human rights inquiry has found.”

    The UN report took into account hundreds of interviews with witnesses and victims, as well as medical records, photos, video and drone footage.”

    “The independent panel wants the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to pass the findings to the International Criminal Court. ”

    “Tel Aviv slammed the report, branding accusations a “theatre of the absurd.”” ”

    https://www.rt.com/news/452633-un-inquiry-israel-war-crimes/

    The oppressive apartheid state of Israel really needs to be held accountable for its actions by the international community sooner than later.

    Meanwhile the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will hold a meeting in the next few hours, the topic is Venezuela.

    The US is hoping to force through its “aid” programme in Venezuela, however Russia is expected to veto US aspirations on the aid package.

    Maduro the democratically elected president of Venezula, has hinted he’ll consider aid entering the country via the Red Cross or the EU.

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile the Canadian PM, who we all know has slipped into the neoliberal suit with great ease, is in the firing line.

    “Justin Trudeau has dismissed calls to resign amid explosive allegations from Canada’s ex-attorney general, who testified that the prime minister tried to pressure her to drop a bribery probe into a Quebec-based firm.”

    The firm in question is, SNC Lavalin, a Canadian engineering company accused of using bribes to secure government contracts in Libya.

    Isn’t Libya still a war torn state? Oh that’s right Canada was part of the illegal coalition force that bombed Libya back to the Stone Age in 2011.

    It makes you wonder just what other nations neoliberal politicians who sanctioned the bombing, of Libya, and, are or were, getting their palms greased from private corporations, party donors, who ended up with lucrative contracts in Libya.

    https://www.rt.com/news/452638-trudeau-scandal-bribe-pressure-resign/

    • Borncynical

      I see that Trudeau has explained that he didn’t wish SNC Lavalin to go to trial because he wanted to protect jobs! According to Dan Glazebrook in his excellent book “Divide and Ruin” several years ago, one of the reasons for the destabilisation, and ultimately destruction, of ME countries by the West was to promote [and not just protect] lucrative arms sales and security services in these countries. They’re all heart, aren’t they.

  • Vivian O'Blivion

    The Offensive behaviour at football and threatening communications (Scotland) act 2012 is repealed in April 2018. Today, Deputy Chief Constable, Will Kerr (a veteran of the PSNI and RUC) states “We have been concerned about a rise in that (sectarian) behaviour over the last 12 months.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47402200

    Almost as if someone had signaled that it’s cool to be a sectarian bigot again. The Unionists barrel scrapers that pander to the “I demand my right to be a 90 minute bigot brigade (you know who you are), trying to shore up their aging and dwindling vote that gets them their £60 K gigs as list MSPs. How long before a 90 minute bigot becomes a 90 minute stab victim?

    • Republicofscotland

      Vivian.

      That moronic fool James Kelly Labour MSP, and his unionist sidekick MSP’s forced a repeal of OBFA, specifically put in place by the Scottish government, to reduce the number of sectarian incidents at football matches in Scotland.

      Kelly and his unionst buddy MSP’s at Holyrood know fine well that sectarianism is a tried and tested way of dividing a nation.

      Since its repeal, there’s been an outbreak of sectarian incidents in Scotland not just at football matches but in public in general.

      • Vivian O'Blivion

        Don’t let the Scottish Greens off the hook. The OBFA offended their libertarian principles. Then again you’d have to wonder how much first hand experience they had of sharp end (no stabbing pun intended) sectarianism in their leafy, organic whole foods, suburbs.

    • defo

      The OBFA was overwhelmingly supported by the decent population, but it’s not in the establishments interests to foster an environment where the bigots are held to account.
      Divide and rule.
      It’s the neo-libs favourite means of retaining the status quo.

    • Jo1

      Saw it Vivian. Unbelievable.

      The Clubs are bleating they can’t do anything about it. The SFA say the same. Lying sods the lot of them! The bigots danced when the act was repealed and James Kelly was made out to be some sort of hero.

      Now it’s the Scottish Government’s responsibility. You couldn’t make it up!

  • N_

    George Eustice, minister of state for agriculture, fisheries and food, has resigned from the government.

    Listen to the reason.

    He supports “May’s deal” and he says he will be voting in favour of it. That makes sense. You support something, you vote for it. So why is he walking out? According to him, it’s because the government has said that in the event that the Commons rejects May’s deal it will allow a Commons vote on requesting that Brexit be delayed (“delaying Article 50” in the parlance).

    That doesn’t make any f***ing sense whatsoever!

    Why doesn’t he vote in favour of the deal, and then wait to see what the result is? If he’s in the majority he can dance a jig. (Remember that the deal may, and in my opinion probably will, be amended before mid-March.) If he’s not, he can vote against requesting a delay and then, again, he can wait for the result. If the majority oppose a delay he can punch the air with delight. If, on the other hand, the motion for requesting a delay is successful, he can post a sad face to Twitter and resign. Why? Because at that time the government will be requesting a delay, and he doesn’t support that.

    OK I believe most MPs are stupid. But let’s keep things in proportion. They are not all stupid, and most of them are not complete dimwits who can’t learn how to walk through a revolving door properly. In this case, I don’t believe Eustice’s reason for his resignation. He’s lying. There is some other reason.

    Perhaps it concerns agriculture. What has he been asked to do? I mean who would want to be food minister in Britain this year, even in March, let alone in August?

    I wonder whether his replacement will be connected with any of the several Steinerite outfits that operate to influence British agricultural policy?

    • michael norton

      I guess George Eustice ( UKIP wing of the Tories) is sending a message to Mrs.Theresa May

      The message is Parliament has passed a law that claims we are leaving the European Union on the last day of March, come what may.
      Do not renege.

    • N_

      Eustice is on record (Hansard, 8 May 2018) as being neutral on homoeopathy. (This is relevant because in Britain homoeopathy is to a large extent dominated by Steinerites, through a company called Weleda that did experiments in Dachau). I’m not up on what flavour of neutrality Eustice has preferred. Certainly the cult uses advanced propaganda and influence techniques and as well as open advocates it runs other assets who say things like “on the one hand, on the other hand” and “many experts are sceptical but some are keen and therefore it deserves a hearing”. (Anything so long as it doesn’t come out that “biodynamic” agriculture – Himmler’s favourite – involves burying cowshit in horns, then digging it up and stirring it round in water in a figure of eight.)

      Anyway, whoever replaces Eustice I’m going to be having a good look at.

      • N_

        One person who might get George Eustice’s job is John Gardiner, the royal favourite (a “Lord-in-Waiting”) and foxhunting scumbag (chairman of a hunt for many years and Director of Political Affairs for the Countryside Alliance, the foxhunters’ political wing), who sits in the House of Lords and is already a minister at DEFRA.

        Is he related to Rolf Gardiner, the Soil Association fascist?

  • Republicofscotland

    That lovely person that we all know as Nikki Haley, who no longer represents the US as a UN ambassador, and who since leaving that role has been earning 200k per speech, looks like she might join Boeing.

    Boeing, which is joined at the hip with several consecutive US administrations, Boeing which entered talks with Israel in October last year has promised to spend billions of dollars in Israel if it wins major defense contracts.

    As we all know, that will please Haley an ardent supporter of all things Israeli.

  • Mary Paul

    Just as a little light relief, given how much many of the posters here heartily dislike the UK and all who sail in her, given a free choice where would you move to? Myself, I like a Mediterranean climate but have not narrowed it down beyond that so far.

      • Paul Barbara

        @ N_ February 28, 2019 at 16:12
        Hardly, as it is a known bolt-hole for rich Yanks when the sh^t looks set to HTF.

    • Godolphin

      While not a UK hater I am not enamoured with our political classes. I have lived abroad in many locations on three continents but always intended returning to the UK; specifically the South but of Northern extraction. The grass may appear greener but nowhere I’ve been has persuaded me to stay or return. California offered most but it was still in the US.

      I lived with a Mediterranean climate for some time; great for vacations.

    • Sharp Ears

      I am British and love this country but hate what ‘they’ have done to it. I am not moving anywhere.

      Are you also British?

    • Blunderbuss

      @Mary Paul

      I don’t dislike the UK and I’m not planning to leave. I aim to stay here and try to change things for the better.

  • Republicofscotland

    Theresa May’s lawyers admit EU ref was unlawful, but the legalities of it were ignored.

    “In February 2019, an appeal was heard against that ruling. The same claimants argued it was unreasonable for the prime minister to proceed with Article 50, given what was known about the proven illegalities of the referendum. But the court refused to hear their appeal.”

    https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/02/27/as-theresa-may-loses-control-over-brexit-her-lawyer-admits-the-eu-referendum-was-illegal/

    Meanwhile MP’s who’ve done nothing but bicker for the last two years, are to receive a wage rise.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47405259

    • Sharp Ears

      Laughing in our faces, cont’d.

      ‘MPs Are Getting A £2,000 Pay Rise This Year, which will anger many people struggling by on meagre wages.

      MPs are to receive a 2.7% pay rise this year, well above the rate of inflation and taking their basic salary for 2019/20 from £77,379 to £79,468.

      The extra salary will be effective from April 1, and is well above the current inflation rate of 1.8 per cent on the main CPI measure. At a time when MPs have failed time and time again to come to any form of agreement over Brexit, it may feel to some, as a reward for failure

      It follows a 1.8% boost to MPs’ pay last year, 1.4% in 2017, 1.3% in 2016 and a huge hike from £67,000 to £74,000 in July 2015.’

      https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/news/politics/mps-are-will-recive-a-2000-pay-increase-this-year/28/02/

      • Paul Barbara

        @ Sharp Ears February 28, 2019 at 18:12
        But without such rich rewards, we wouldn’t have such Sterling representatives….,

    • FranzB

      That article is by Jonathan Cook and deals with Macron’s proposal to label anti-zionism as anti-semitic – which is nonsense of course. I can’t believe he’ll get away with it. What will he do about all those ultra-orthodox Jews who are opposed to the state of Israel on theological grounds?

      Interesting that it’s Macron. It was countries like France, Belgium and the UK that used the vilest forms of racism to justify their imperialist thievery. I suppose Herzl became taken with the zeitgeist and thought to himself – ‘if all these white guys can use racism to justify their imperialism, why shouldn’t I (also a white guy) use racist ideology to stake out a colony in the middle east’. At the time the Ottoman Empire was seen to be on its last legs.

      The novel by George Elliot, Daniel Deronda (published in 1876), deals with all sorts of aspects of essentialism and in a mystical way with the wish for a Jewish homeland, but is in no way racist at all.

      • MJ

        “What will he do about all those ultra-orthodox Jews who are opposed to the state of Israel on theological grounds?”

        Call them “self-hating” I expect.

        • Charles Bostock

          It’s hardly “all those”, is it. You are talking about very small minority (which however makes a lot of noise).

    • Charles Bostock

      Meanwhile the Bank of England is showing laudable caution in the matter. Let’s face it : former President Nicolas Maduro Moros would not be the first South American tinpot despot to make off with a large part of his country’s wealth when fleeing into exile after having been given the boot. And I’m sure the Cubans would let himl keep it.

  • Sharp Ears

    On the Israel-India tie up.

    ‘India was Israel’s largest arms client in 2017, paying £530m for Israeli air defence, radar systems and ammunition, including air-to-ground missiles – most of them tested during Israel’s military offensives against Palestinians and targets in Syria.

    Israel itself is trying to explain away its continued sales of tanks, weapons and boats to the Myanmar military dictatorship – while western nations impose sanctions on the government which has attempted to destroy its minority and largely Muslim Rohingya people. But Israel’s arms trade with India is legal, above-board and much advertised by both sides.

    The Israelis have filmed joint exercises between their own “special commando” units and those sent by India to be trained in the Negev desert, again with all the expertise supposedly learned by Israel in Gaza and other civilian-thronged battlefronts.

    At least 16 Indian “Garud” commandos – part of a 45-strong Indian military delegation – were for a time based at the Nevatim and Palmachim air bases in Israel. In his first visit to India last year – preceded by a trip to Israel by nationalist Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the 2008 Islamist attacks on Mumbai in which almost 170 civilians were killed. “Indians and Israelis know too well the pain of terrorist attacks,” he told Modi. “We remember the horrific savagery of Mumbai. We grit our teeth, we fight back, we never give in.” This was also BJP-speak.’

    Several Indian commentators, however, have warned that right-wing Zionism and right-wing nationalism under Modi should not become the foundation stone of the relationship between the two countries, both of which – in rather different ways – fought the British empire.

    Robert Fisk
    28th February 2019
    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-india-pakistan-conflict-balakot-arms-trade-jaish-e-mohammed-a8800076.html

  • Deb O'Nair

    I am amazed that no TIGs are on QT tonight. Barry Gardiner is on, along with Henning Wehn. Should be entertaining to see the German comedian getting pulled into the antisemitism debate, can’t imagine for one second he will be talking about smears and orchestrated media campaigns.

    • Republicofscotland

      TIG has a rich backer.

      “A multi-millionaire pro-Israel lobbyist is funding the UK Parliament’s new Independent Group, it was revealed this week.”

      Garrad was so disappointed that Corbyn became Labour leader, he called in a multi-million pound loan he loaned the party.

      “David Garrard told newspapers he had already donated to the MPs who broke away from the opposition Labour Party and the ruling Conservative Party.”

      “The Independent Group is expected to eventually register as a party.”

      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/israel-lobby-funders-back-breakaway-british-mps

        • Sharp Ears

          He was given a long spot to sound off by Neil on the programme that followed. He is very shallow and is up his own whatnot.

          • Jo1

            Ohhhhh, was he? Glad I missed it. I don’t watch This Week any more. Delighted it’s being binned.

      • Dennis Revell

        :

        “The Independent Group is expected to eventually register as a party.”

        I’d like to suggest a name for the new party: How about the Lib-Dems.

        .

    • Sharp Ears

      Plus Layla Moran, MP LD, Oxford W and Abingdon, Lionel Shriver, American author, and Nadhim Zahawi, MP Con, Stratford-upon-Avon, the Iraqi born oil millionaire and the one who tried to claim for his horses’ stables heating on expenses. Co-founder of You Gov also.

      • FranzB

        Layla Moran is a half Palestinian. I wonder if today’s UN report on Israeli war crimes will come up. She’ll have to play a straight bat on the anti-semitism question labelling Chris Williamson as the true editor of Der Stuermer.

        Wikipedia – “Moran was born in Hammersmith to a British father and a Christian-Palestinian mother from Jerusalem”

      • Old Mark

        Plus Layla Moran, MP LD, Oxford W and Abingdon,

        She (or Leader Cable) seems to have pulled rank on Chuka here, and got him ‘bounced’ off the panel. The LibDems and TIG both have 11 MPs; the LibDems are an actual party however, TIG aren’t, It’s also been a while I think since a LibDem MP has appeared on QT, so Chuka got the push.

        Unable to appear on QT in the main hall of his old school he was instead given the spot on Brillopad’s show later as compensation (as SE points out). And by his usual standards, Brillopad was polite and gave Chuka an easy ride.

    • Jo1

      Is this more evidence of BBC rigging the audience? The programme is coming from London…. I’d thought it would be more pro-Remain.

  • Reg

    Why in the face of a illegal coup removing the premier elected in free and fair election in 2010 (as described even by the Guardian) in Ukraine supported by the US Government using the far right such as the Right Sector and the Azov Battalion who burnt pro Russian demonstrators alive sheltering in a trade union building in Odesa. Crimea was part of Russia up to 1954 when the Ukrainian USSR premier gave Crimea to the Ukraine as part of the USSR. Given the history of Ukrainian collaboration with the Nazis and the honouring of the far right nationalist leader Stephen Banderus who was a notorious anti Semite and racist against Slavs and Poles by the Ukrainian state what confidence can the overwhelmingly ethnically Russian Crimean populous have in a Ukrainian Government brought to power by illegitimately by violence of the far right.
    I fail to see the connection between the legitimate succession of Crimea, and the colonialism of the Chagos Islands where none of the original inhabitants are allowed to live and live in sqular on tiny islands surrounding it on processed foods becoming diabetic, why not also rope in Israel, Cyprus and Cashmire?

1 2 3 4 5 7

Comments are closed.