1) Scottish Independence
2) Freedom for Julian Assange
3) A genuine, public inquest into the murder of Dawn Sturgess
4) Recognition of the State of Palestine
5) Genuine moves towards a paradigm shift in wealth distribution here and across the globe
6) Radical action on climate change
7) The decolonisation of the Chagos Islands
I obviously do not claim that as a comprehensive analysis of the ills of the world; it contains both individual cases and aspects of the widest scale public policy. It is however an indication of the areas where I expect to be expending my own small budget of energy and activism in 2020. What are yours?
I do hope you are all enjoying family and friends in a refreshing festive season. I know it can be a stressful time; mine has not been. I think the implications of an unbridled right wing populist government in Westminster took us all a little time to process. I feel fully refreshed now, and ready for the fight.
All yours are worthy and important, Craig.
You are a fantastic example and inspiration.
More power to your elbow.
For me, I will add;
1) Prevention of 5G rollout, and consequent health and freedom concerns.
2) Promotion of results-driven spiritual practice as antidote to world’s ills both on personal and global levels.
3) Love . Peace . Freedom . Truth
Happy New Year one and all.
@Rich, just parsing your first-postPrevention of 5G
that’s rather a partial approach – current trials of 5G are leaving the consumer unimpressed, whist some promised 5G applications do seem interesting to me, replacement of Wi-Fi in home, ‘simple’ delivery of 8K OLED TV content etc
but you do sound like a special interests commentator with a hidden agenda when you wish to “prevent” something, based upon the usual flimsy evidence for health – as was tried to attack TETRA/Airwave – in the past; I agree there are ongoing discussions about the health implications of all non-ionising radiation, but I cannot yet find the scholarly evidence that the 5G protocols need to be “prevented”
A Guid New Year to you Craig. Long may your slings and arrows continue to find their mark against those political criminals who seek to silence those who fight for justice and equality in these troubled times.
The “roaring 20’s” certainly seems set to be a momentous decade. The Empire has overreached. The defences of their embassy in Baghdad have been breached by protesters. The attempts to overthrow representative governments in Venezuela and Syria have failed. Expect all hell to break loose when the Bundestag resumes sitting in January (Nordstream II secondary sanctions). Much of Europe set to pivot East. Scotland’s historic links to Russia are deep.
I assume that these are not in any particular order e.g. importance (ethical/moral), legality (international and domestic), achievability (in a political sense (present political bias withstanding)), desirability (by the majority of the electorate) etc.
If they are in a particular order could you please say which or if they are not could you please arrange them in your preferred order of achievement (urgency) from first to last.
What’s the need for ranking them? Can’t they just all be wishes and be grateful for any which come to pass. Not that any of these are likely within the coming year, and some are not likely ever.
Your wishes.
1. Be careful of what you wish, you might get it.
2. Yes.
3. How likely is it the establishment will have an inquest that will reveal their lies?
4. How likely is it the establishment will go against their master’s wishes?
5. Yes, the ending of peoples belief in the goodness of government and the widespread adoption of privacy coins causing financial collapse of said governments would be a good start.
6. Yes, putting Greta in front of a computer with a list of all the hundreds of record cold events in the last year and ask her to explain how global warming causes it to get colder would be a good start.
7. How likely is it the establishment will defy Washington and do the morally right thing (it’s never happened before)?
And a Happy New year to you to!
It is customary at this time of year to look ahead with hope, share a drink with friends, be kind to those you care about, and compassionate towards the rest. Try it.
lol global warming doesn’t mean it gets warmer uniformly over the globe, and the records being broken are heat records, not cold records. but hey, believe the ad campaign paid for by the fossil fuel industry.
Yes. Overall higher global atmospheric temperatures mean more energy in the atmosphere driving weather systems to produce more frequent and greater extremes.
I hope you are joking about 6 or you are woefully clueless
Julian Assange first.
Then the death of the MSM and every organisation they propagandise for, without which there is zero chance of any paradigm shift and zero chance of world peace.
Thank you Craig and seconding the first three comments plus Robyn’s.
This poignant song from Eric Bogle was brought to mind. He is a Scot born in Peebles, who emigrated to Australia 50 years ago when he was 25. That would have been in 1969. A reminder of what was going on in the UK then. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1969_in_the_United_Kingdom
If wishes were fishes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEY9kA3OYNE
One of the commenters says that’s an old Scottish proverb.
Heartbreaking anyway.
Also The Band Played Waltzing Matilda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnFzCmAyOp8
About Gallipoli – See the first comment from Halis ÖZTÜRK
2 years ago
Hello Australian friends. İ am from Turkey. This song very sad and very kindfull. Respect from Turkey. Yes we won this war but many brave man “lost” in here. And our greatest leader Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK wrote a letter for parents and families:
“Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side now here in this country of ours… you, the mothers, who sent their sons from faraway countries wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.”
This words maybe a little drop for peoples but it means a lot of things for us.
Your grandfathers and our grandfathers still “sleeping” together in the our fields. Because we dont say “they are dead” we say “They are last heroic martrys”.
Come and see their monuments on the ÇANAKKALE (Gallipoli) You are welcome…’
“After having lost their lives on this land. They have become our sons as well.” ;
and Safe in the Harbour – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=josjdS5Rj2w
Happy New Year to you and yours Craig. Lang may yer lum reek.
Craig, my immediate wish is that I could make it to your Hogmanay party, but I have a rotten cough. Have fun tonight.
Hi Clark,
for a variety of reasons, none of them anything especially bad, it turns out we are not having a party this year. Would still be good to see you soon though.
🙂 Thanks Craig; hopefully see you in the next few weeks.
Happy lemsips to you Clark, echinecia is recommended, 20 drops in water or tea 3 times a day.
Get well soon, no rush to pass by mine get better first.
Btw. Fumes from solder are not to be breathed in Clark, but one could use a mirror and a large 10×4.
Have a few hot toddies and have a soothing new year.
I couldn’t take issue with any of these Craig other than perhaps minor changes to the running order.
Your list differs little from Jeremy Corbyn’s: we all know what the UK voters thought about that through the recent GE.
I’m sure an equivalent Antonym list would be a noble, uplifting read.
Probably Get Brexit Done
1) introduce Australian style immigration- refugee laws / practices for the UK.
2) Leave the EU.
3) Work with Trump and other non Establishment forces in Europe and the world.
4) Leave NATO and the five Ayes.
5) Leave the UN permanent Security Council seat.
6) Dump all subsidies on any form of energy usage. Fund non military nuclear power research.
7) Get out of the Chinese governmental grip too.
8) Encourage English, Welsh and Scottish culture, artists & scientists.
9) Free Julian Assange and compensate him financially big time.
10) Work on Northern Ireland: either get integrated education or separate the communities physically and transfer more land to the Irish republic if the NI Catholics want that.
Corbyn was actually closest to being a genuine anti-establishment leader. That’s why the media and the right wing clowns you follow were unified in attacking him and assassinating his character at every turn.
EU = Establishment, blind immigration = Establishment, XR = Establishment, anti Trump = Establishment, so NO.
6) Radical Action on Climate Change
I think this would be best addressed by scientists agreeing on the real factors affecting climate change. I observe a chasm between those insisting it is all due to CO2 emissions and others that say that’s not the case and that many other factors are involved. I’m beginning to beleive the latter have a much stronger and independent scientific case, although this doesn’t fit with current political agendas.
Another hope for 2020 is that more debate and research into the effects of 5G on organic life happens before the we are all subjected to exposure of radio signals in the 8-100Ghz range.
Happy new year to all ?
what others? they don’t publish, and the fossil fuel industry elected to continue the ad campaign rather than fund research. there is a chasm between scientists and the propagandists.
Here is an article on the subject by a real scientist (one of the world’s leading experts on measuring the atmosphere via satellite instrumetnts) which you might find interesting. And yes, he believes that many other factors are involved…
http://www.drroyspencer.com/research-articles/satellite-and-climate-model-evidence/
Wrong and wrong. First, the article is from 2008, you know, before we got far better models and mountains of data further supporting climate change. Or before 10 years in a row broke all sorts of temperature records. Second, I like how laughable his claim about “too sensitive” models is, when if anything these “sensitive” models were TOO CONSERVATIVE in predicting future temperature growth we’d have in 2019. Using simpler words for you – his claim was farce back then, it is doubly farcical now that we know we were too cautious (because scientists didn’t want to give dumb deniers extra ammunition, so tended to stick to lower end of predictions…) and warming is now higher than even pessimists thought. Third, I like how this clown built ‘very simple’ (in his own words) climate model and claims it’s better fit than ones perfected by thousands of scientists, even though these accurately predict warming and he didn’t even try putting his own to test and predicting anything – telltale sign of snake oil voodoo salesman.
In short, educate yourself, because you’re sounding like ‘nicotine is harmless’ paid puppet of tobacco companies in 1940s…
“Radio signals in the 8-100Ghz range” – aka microwave radiation. I like calling mobile phones “microwave phones” to smartphone users and then watching their face. Hardly any of them ever bothered to wonder. They didn’t half buy into the flashing lights and the pictures of tits though.
As for the climate, it has always changed, frequently as fast as it’s changing now or faster.
Those who believe “scientists” should do this that or the other should consider how opinion works. The idea of a hierarchy of jobsworths and careerists which is dominated from top to bottom by profit-making considerations being composed of objective disinterested seekers of the truth is ludicrous (ask any woman) – just as ludicrous in “science” as it is in “the media” or “politics”. Edward Bernays’s work “Propaganda” is recommended.
no the climate hasn’t always changed, something has to cause it. i wish i lived in your universe, where giant corporations weren’t dominated by jobsworths and careerists who were only interested in profit making opportunities, but alas i live in this one, where giant corporations buy legislators and governments and finance ad campaigns based on bernays work, and people who claim to be marxists defend them.
@Chris Young
2020, more debate on effect of 5G
as I wrote earlier to @Rich, who first-posted that he wished Prevention of 5G
that’s rather a partial approach – current trials of 5G are leaving the consumer unimpressed, whist some promised 5G applications do seem interesting to me, replacement of Wi-Fi in home, ‘simple’ delivery of 8K OLED TV content etc
but you too Chris do sound like a special interests commentator with a hidden agenda when you wish to “debate” something, based upon the usual flimsy evidence for health – as was previously tried to attack TETRA/Airwave; I agree there are ongoing discussions about the health implications of all non-ionising radiation, but I cannot yet find the scholarly evidence that the 5G protocols need to be “prevented” or “debated” to the exclusion of airport primary radars or SSR radars or some indoor light-switches, door-opening systems that use RF. (hint: we have for many years been exposed to man-made RF in this range, and naturally too)
We, organic life that can type, are regularly exposed to radio signals of all frequencies and power levels. I expect soon to see much road safety information beamed around in the 60GHz band, and the new iPhones have been revealed to have UWB range (ultrawideband microwaves) I look forward to informed debate, not ‘nudges’ HNY
wishlist – wouldn’t want a free press to stymie your shtick then?
a glorious new year to your goodself and all readers/contributors. Peace and love.
“wouldn’t want a free press ”
There’s no such thing as a free press, they’re owned by neoliberal billionaires who almost always side with the government of the day, or the candidate that suits their needs best, usually Tory (UK) or Republican (US). That government more often than not returns the favour.
Both however covet the multi nationals, who fund the politicians campaigns and advertise in the press/media, all however want the status quo to remain.
They push the ideology that they are the free press for your benefit.
‘There’s no such thing as a free press,’
yes, that’s the point of wishing for one?
In addition to everything said already, my wish would be that a ‘news’ search on something wouldn’t always censor alternative press, and yield such poor journalistic results from the Daily Mail, Sun, Telegraph, BBC, Times, Guardian, or any of the other crap out there. I have tremendous fright for the poor souls who consume this stuff and then poo it out their mouths in their fantastically ignorant comments. I guess that means my wish would be a return to the internet’s promised democratisation of knowledge, no matter how hopelessly naive that is. Only with more and healthier debate can the relentless onslaught of extremist right-wing propaganda, which has had such remarkable success in billing itself as centrist, be exposed for the sickness that it is.
The internet is private property.
“The aims of the communists may be summed up in the single sentence: abolition of private property.”
So its okay that a Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen, and a British aristocrat the Duke of Buccleuch own around half a million acres of land in Scotland?
I wish that we don”t have the war that looks as if it’s about to start.
this wish is not including class war.
A admirable wish list but…
Number 7, there’s no way the UK will even hint to the US to get out, the UK like the US is now flaunting international laws when it suits them to do so.
Number 6 again they’ll be very little movement, I think at the most recent summit, progress was painfully slow. The next summit will be in Glasgow 2020, barring several major environmental and ecological catastrophes that affects the summit nations, between now and then, I don’t have much faith in making any kind of significant headway into avoiding further climate change.
Again number 5 is actually moving away from wealth distribution, and not towards it. Strikingly an economist on the the radio today pointed out that rent and living expenditure has risen from 30% of income to around 70% of income since the 1970s.
Number 4 is also unlikely, even though the UN creates resolution after resolution on Israeli activities on occupied Palestinina lands, the Israelis just keep building illegal settlement after illegal settlement on them, and with US backing, I can’t see a two state solution happening anytime soon.
Number 3 poor Dawn Sturgess in my opinion was a sacrifice that the British state was willing to allow to obtain the upperhand in the propaganda stakes. Again I cant forsee any government intentionally wanting to open up that particular can of worms ever.
Number 2, is there any form of legal challenge that would see Julian Assange freed? We just have to look back at the British judiciary to see that’s unlikely, if I recall correct Mr Assanges lawyer can’t even obtain access to his files to defend him properly, will the EU or the UN intervene, unlikely I say.
As for number 1, even that is beginning to look unlikely in the short term even though its the most likely of them all. Like you I’m wishing that the SNP holds a indyref next year come hell or high water, we’ll see.
2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 I sign up to.
1 is requiring a majority of Scots to vote for it. Being English/Welsh and not Scottish, it is not my fight, but democracy should be respected. However, there will clearly be red lines no Scot can expect the English to agree to and I would be interested to see Mr Murray’s opening stance on negotiations were a Referendum mandate reached.
6 is where myself and Mr Murray differ profoundly. I am absolutely contemptuous of the widespread arrogance of ignorance amongst climate change proponents, many of whom are absolutely unconstructed communist bedwetters. My opinion on climate for 2020 is a widespread EDUCATION campaign to disabuse ignorant multitudes of the hoards of lies they have been peddled since 1990, none of which bear up to sceptical, rigorous enquiry.
a. No climate models developed since 1990 have had any predictive abilities whatsoever. They are utterly worthless for policy formation and it is gross professional misconduct for any politician to use them in any way when formulating climate-related policy.
b. Carbon dioxide is not a poison and anyone saying it is should lose the right to work, found a business, own a home nor make any investments. It is the only way to rid the world of pathological liars.
c. Climate resilience policies are the only acceptable political action acceptable. Every nation and every major region within every nation should have carried out a rigorous risk assessment and put in place strategies to be resilient against whoever pressures are most likely to cause weather-associated downsides in the short-term and medium term. Windbaggery about what MIGHT happen in 2050 or beyond is unprincipled bullshitting. Any proper governance will be reviewing on an ongoing basis and the time to plan for beyond 2050 is 2040.
d. The IPCC should be disbanded forthwith and all climate research should be kept entirely separate from policy. Any politician wilfully printing misrepresentations of scientific opinion should go to prison for 15 years: it is the only way to stop these charlatans lying on a decadal basis.
e. All uncertainties about climate must be made absolutely explicit and NO SCAREMONGERING using ‘worst case scenarios’ of less than 1% probability should be reported in the media upon pain of life imprisonment for the top 50 members of the transgressing organisation, appropriation of all assets of the offending corporate entity and lifetime bans from all ownership rights to the miscreant owners. It is the only way to make the media talk sense.
My hope is that Brexit is not equated with US colony status: there is zero value in joining NAFTA WITH A 3000 MILE ocean between us and all other partners. Apart from anything else, we would have zero influence in Washington, much less than we had in Brussels, which was hardly much. Brexit was about global trading: so become a neutral global trading nation, leave NATO and tell the Americans to decommission all their UK bases. If they refuse, call for them to be removed form the UN Security Council and have membership of every global body revoked. It will be a suitably confrontational end to a highly unspecial relationship………
I also hope that the criminally evil renewal of Trident solely to pay £200bn in mafia kickbacks to absolutely unethical arms corporations in the US is halted through mass campaigns of disobedience. Up to and including storming Parliament, burning it down and hounding 500 MPs out of the country. If we cannot afford to rehouse Grenfell victims, we can certainly not afford Trident. Same can be said about HSR and Trident; and any other number of ‘unaffordable’ projects which are far more pertinent than a weapon that will never be used and cannot defend us from annihilation by Russia.
“b. Carbon dioxide is not a poison and anyone saying it is should lose the right to work, found a business, own a home nor make any investments. It is the only way to rid the world of pathological liars.”
Ermm……
“At higher concentrations it leads to an increased respiratory rate, tachycardia, cardiac arrhythmias and impaired consciousness. Concentrations >10% may cause convulsions, coma and death.”
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16499405
@RepublicofScotland,
10% CO2 is 100,000 parts per million.. The highest estimates and calculations in the history of the planet don’t go above more than 4,000 parts per million, i.e., 4.0%.
It is currently at 0.042%, 420 parts per million. Calm down dear and catch your breath…_
Actually, 4,000 parts per million is 0.4%…_
nuclear bombs are very small compared to cities. this means nuclear bombs cannot affect cities. cancer cells are very small compared to the human body. this means cancer cells cannot affect the human body. etc. etc. etc. are you people not aware this crap comes from an ad company, originally?
CO2 at tropospheric altitiudes just happens to be most effective at reflecting solar radiation back into space.
35% of the solar heat is reflected and a further 17.5% is absorbed before solar radiation reaches lower altitudes.
This information was first published by NASA IN 2015 but was pulled from their website within 24 hours.
Fortunately, Columbia University have published the same information within Climate Change Document V2100.
That sounds bollocks. CO2 mostly absorbs in the infra-red, it makes little difference to where it is in the atmosphere as the sun’s energy is almost unchanged as it goes through the atmosphere. Can you produce this NASA document which backs up your claims?
No.
Mighty Drunken:
You obviously are very drunk, try reading my comment again when/if you are sober.
Clue –
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CLIMATE CHANGE DOCUMENT V2100.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CLIMATE CHANGE DOCUMENT V2100.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY CLIMATE CHANGE DOCUMENT V2100.
You are intoxicated by your own CO2 and you need to impose a tax on yourself.
Well, the part of climate science that studies the atmosphere doesn’t claim that CO2 is poisonous. It claims that higher atmospheric CO2 concentrations cause higher atmospheric and ocean temperatures.
“Brexit was about global trading: so become a neutral global trading nation,”
Oh I’d say it was much more than just trading. Free movement, healthcare in the EU zone, the Right to live and work in any one of the other 27 EU nations. The Erasmus programme access to scientific bodies and their information.
Access to new EU drugs earlier than some other non EU nations. Access to information on terrorist activity. The Right to holiday in the EU without any further monetary payments or penalties or bureaucratic red tape.
Access to EU food standard laws, or EU Human Rights laws, workers rights, a fair wage etc.
Then of course there’s the huge EU grants that subside the likes of farmers in the UK.
The above is just the tip of a very large iceberg of EU benefits.
@Rhys – I basically agree with you on climate change, but I think your concept of “climate change proponents” could do with some tweaking. Part of the propaganda attack against those who retain sanity on this matter is to conflate the denial of climate change with the denial that human activity is a major cause of it. That dishonest conflation is par for the course throughout the whole revolting structure in which gobsh*tes declare that people have got to go all-electric domestically by such and such a date, and we’ve got to help big business as much as we can by working unpaid to return whatever materials that big business can use for new profitable production, otherwise we’re terribly antisocial and want to kill babies, and so on. “Let’s all change our behaviour – especially you proles at the back – to stop climate change” is like the propaganda in the early 1970s about the “oil crisis” to the power of itself, and much more insane too – and yet the ultraleftists who could criticise the latter seem to have suffered from a complete failure of their critical sense now, just as the opposition in the West to the attacks on Iraq and Serbia paled into insignificance compared to opposition to the US war in Vietnam.
Let the climate change, baby! Let’s respect Mother Nature!
oh marxists hate ultraleftists. good to know. humans are causing the climate to change. start there, instead of where the ad campaign wants you to start, with fear, uncertainty and doubt.
My goodness Rhys you are confused.
Climate change science is primarily based not on models but on concrete field evidence collected from rocks, the seafloor, ice bubbles and the like. Climate cycles can be tracked back hundreds of millions of years, to when, for example, there were palm trees in the arctic and sea levels were hundreds of feet higher than they are now. Models and lab experiments simply add more confirmation to the conclusions.
Regarding CO2 as a poison? That’s hardly relevant. For climate change it CO2’s role as a greenhouse gas.
I do agree that more education on this is called for. It has become a deadly serious issue.
“an unbridled right wing populist government in Westminster”
Your blog always provides an entertaining read, for which many thanks.
As for your political antennae, not so much.
Kind regards
What’s the need for ranking them? Can’t they just all be wishes and be grateful for any which come to pass. Not that any of these are likely within the coming year, and some are not likely ever.
The only one of your wishes I would disagree with Craig is action on climate change. I generally support Green initiatives, but I do not support Extinction Rebellion or their belief that radical action on this is necessary.
As you have asked, I offer a selection of things which I would like to see happen. I recognise that much of this is wishful thinking on my part. In no particular order:
1. Freedom for Julian Assange
2. An ending of the global arms trade
3. An end to anti-Russian propaganda and all sanctions against Russia
4. The dissolution of NATO
5. The dismantling of the security state apparatus
6. An end to all aggressive military activities abroad
7. The closure of Eton and all similar fee paying schools
8. The promotion of peaceful and diplomatic resolutions to global conflicts
9. The election of Tulsi Gabbard or Bernie Sanders as President of the United States
10. The international recognition of Crimea as a part of the Russian Federation
uh john, what is your solution to climate change? it’s a radical problem.
No, of course you wouldn’t support XR if your seriously stunted imagination limits you to thinking only 15 years ahead, and if you live in the global north where you have a viciously anti-migrant government fighting for your right to extract and pollute as if there were no tomorrow, so that others whose suffering you couldn’t give a damn about remains invisible. Truly, the ignorance demonstrated by some of the comments here is beyond the pale.
Excuse me?
I do not share your views on this matter.
So the Triodos Bank-funded rune-following Steinerite Atlantis-nut root racers from Stroud, with their message to big business “Do what you’re doing but do it faster, please! Pippi Longstocking demands it!” (did anyone not get Triodos help for pushing THAT kind of line?) – speak for the southern hemisphere now?
Craig,
Having been born in the Caribbean and lived in Britain, your point 5 is of special interest to me. The Caribbean is a region of mainly middle-income islands, with the exception of Haiti which is just dirt poor.
Your wish 5: “5) Genuine moves towards a paradigm shift in wealth distribution here and across the globe”
My wish is much the same as yours for global equity and fairness in trade. My general observation is that it is actually possible to structure/re-structure economies to benefit the populace. For example, in Venezuela the foreign domination of the oil sector saw massive wealth heading North. Chavez nationalised the oil and re-directed the earnings and the living standard indices, in consequence, showed significant improvements for the average Venezuelan. Two problems however. First, as with many an ambitious socialist agendas there is a tendency for spending to outstrip earnings and corruption can and does creep in to help cripple the economy. Add to that the downturn in oil prices, US sanctions and the attempt to undermine the elected government and impose the US appointed ‘President Juan Guiado’. A toxic mix of problems which has reversed the socio-economic landscape of Venezuela to what it is today with the Bolivar coming in at 3,000 to 1US$.
My point?
Any concerted move based on nationalism and patriotism and thus an economy aimed at timely poverty alleviation and inclusiveness of the people of the country will face vicious resistance. Another Latin American example bears out my point – with the recent dislodgment of Evo Morales in Bolivia.
Now take the point further and consider rich to rich relations. At present I note the US response to Russian oil sector advances toward European buyers. Read below for a full understanding of recent developments:-
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52772.htm
N.B. We can but wish and hope or else live with a sense of hopelessness.
“Having been born in the Caribbean ”
Boris Johnson is currently holidaying on the privately owned island of Mustique, which was once owned by Tory aristocratic Lord Glenconner.
Best avoided. Too many chavs there including several who have married into the UK’s ‘royal family’. Trust P Andrew and Mr Epstein have not visited.
‘The company, run by Tyrone-born Brian Alexander, who came to Mustique in the 1960s to work with the then owner, Colin Tennant, Lord Glenconner, controls all aspects of life on the island, including its airport, picture postcard school, clinic, and shops.
Mystique of the billionaires’ island – Irish Times
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/homes-and-property/mystique-of-the-billionaires-island-1.334022
Mary,
The prices quoted in this 2001 newspaper article are relatively cheap compared to the going prices in 2019.
Note: Mystique of the billionaires’ island
Thu, Oct 25, 2001, 01:00
I missed the date. Thanks for the correction.
CNN’s view of them.
A tumultuous year for the royal family
https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2019/12/23/british-royal-family-in-2019-lon-orig-mkd.cnn
Look at the dozens of them on the Buckingham palace balcony in this video. Wonder it doesn’t come crashing to the ground with the weight it’s bearing.
Republic of Scotland,
Do you suggest I hop over to tell ol’ Boris to “piss off” – or – “welcome and do remember to pay full rates”?
Chuckle – thanks for informing ( knew that there was something smelly in the air).
a nice list of wishes Craig, and, god willing, we may see some of them come to fruition, have a happy new year, and we’ll meet again soon
@Courtenay – I am struggling to understand what you mean by “middle-income islands”.
Even on the billionaires’ and royal playground of Mustique, those who do the skivvying are dirt poor.
N,
To explain if I can.
The Caribbean has similarities across the islands – English speaking, Spanish, Dutch, etc – but while similar in many ways the islands are not a monolith.
So far as the income levels are concerned, people are not starving and are not all ‘dirt poor’ by way of comparison to say Equatorial Guinea in Africa or to many people in some parts of India ( that level of abject poverty is not the norm for the Caribbean). Yes – there is a lot of relative poverty and there is need but on an objective measure ‘dirt poor’ is not the norm if one compares and contrasts the two examples I mentioned above. As I said, I single out Haiti for there you have the equivalent poverty of the extremes in India or relative to Equatorial Guinea.
Is there any culture in the world other than Britain in which the major festive calendrical event is widely recognised as being for many a “stressful” time? This says so much about Britain, the atomisation here, and the lack of respect for the human being and for genuine community which are so widespread.
Related: one could also ask where else is it common among those who think they’ve got a bit of privilege to have contempt for other people’s Christmas decorations or similar?
wish all the oil in the world turned into mayonnaise
Vegetable oil is a wonderful thing……but I don’t think we should turn it all into mayonnaise…_
Well said about oil turning to mayonnaise, but I’m afraid that human beings in their infinite stupidity would just go on to slaughtering each other over water rights, less polluted air, and all the other blood resources that they fight over….
Awrabest to you and yours for 2020, Craig.
Keep up the guid fecht.
Happy lats hogmanay of this colonised decade – and on to independence in the next!
Alba gu brath,
Slainte.
John
Not hoping for much, syria war will go on, Israel start another war on Gaza, Iran is getting slapped with more sanctions, Russia get smeared, especially after the upcoming report on so called russian meddling.
Brexit will probably not occur in 2020. Internet/social media will censorship dissent even more. Trump will probably get more popular, his ideas and criticism against liberals/lefts that have taken immigration too far will show in elections throughout the west.
1. A smoking ban in domestic properties, beginning with socially-rented properties. You can’t smack your kids or smoke with them in the car but you can give them and your neighbours’ lung damage and cancer from passive smoke from cigarettes and drugs when at home.
2. Legal challenge to “Sovereign in Parliament” UK Parliamentary sovereignty v sovereignty of the people of Scotland.
3. Legal challenge as to whether the Parliament of Scotland was ever legally dissolved by Royal Proclamation.
4. Legal case on the division of assets and legal status of what was the UK if Scotland became independent.
A great list Mr Murray. I’d add the following few “wishes”:
1. The total boycott of and disinvestment in Israel.
2. Criminal indictment for war crimes of Blair, Straw, Cameron, Kissinger, Weinberger (all the neo-con hangers on) Clinton, Obama and Madeleine Albright.
Wishing everyone a peaceful, healthy 2020.
Oh yeah. If can’t have any of the listed items, how about Netanyahu having tastebuds grafted to his anus. Not as ambitious but it would still offer me some pleasure.
I hope that Elizabeth Warren will thrash Donald Trump at the US Presidential elections in November.
Warren wont get the nomination, even if she were to do so, Trump would eat her alive. Only Bernie can beat Trump, and the fact that the DNC is determined to stop him, suggests they prefer Trump to anyone true to traditional Democrat party values.
Ah, I agree in principle. US culture is just too mysoginist for a female president, even if she were semi-decent. Only, correct me if I am mistaken, but you are talking about a nation where socialist ideas are even more illegal than they are in Britain. So no hope in hell there. Another four years of Trump is pretty much guaranteed.
If Trump tries to eat Warren alive, I suspect that he will have bitten off more than he can chew. In that event I look forward to watching the fun. 🙂
In his second term Trump will seek a third.
Bernie is not far from being America’s Jeremy. If the Democrats nominate him they might very well lose. Therefore I hope they won’t repeat Labour’s mistake.
In what way is Labours mistake similar to the Democrats?
What I am counselling against is an attempt by US Democrats to put up a candidate so radical as to be unelectable. Bernie Sanders is a left-winger but no-one suspects him of disloyalty as they did Corbyn. But he may still be too much for older voters.
I hope for world peace, free stuff, and sunshine and lollipops, and another Ronald Reagan. He was fun, charming, and he told good jokes.
Fauxcahontas, no fun. Millionaire Bolshevik politicians (are there any other kind?) never are.
Warren is a neoliberal technocrat and a proud capitalist, plus she is on board with the Russiagate nonsense and openly supplicates to the war mongering national security [sic] state. She has occasionally made a few ‘progressive’ sounding policy proposals but she is notoriously wishy-washy and, when pushed, refuses to unambiguously support a single payer health care system. Frankly, only a fool would trust her to be anything but a business-as-usual corporate Democrat with a bit of ‘progressive’ window dressing. Besides, Trump would make mincemeat out of her in a public debate.
Bernie Sanders, while obviously not perfect, is the only candidate who is even close to being an authentic social democrat and anti-imperialist. The other supposed ‘progressive’, Tulsi Gabbard, is a phony anti-imperialist who, despite rumours to the contrary, has never advanced an unambiguous anti-war platform. She is also very much pro-Israel and has hobnobbed with Sheldon Adelson and even accepted an award from the truly odious Rabbi Schmuley Boteach.
Sanders is the only mainstream candidate worth supporting and were Warren or Gabbard genuinely ‘progressive’ (and serious about beating Trump) they would drop out of the race and encourage their followers to vote for him. Unfortunately Sanders has milquetoast tendencies of his own (see his embarrassing support for Clinton in 2016 even after she fucked him over) and it’s doubtful he will survive if the the media subjects him to an American version of the Full Corbyn Special. But he is the only Democratic candidate with genuine left wing potential who could give Trump a run for his money and the more support he has, the greater his chance of beating the odds.
I do hope your domicile is not caught within the Berlin Wall of the privatisation of public spaces in Edinburgh tonight.
I cannot spend time with family or friends tonight. As a scientist my friends are scattered to the four winds. This will be my second Hogmanay since my wife left me (finally, thank goodness). Neither offspring sees fit to communicate with their father, ungrateful spawn. So I find myself alone to select my tipple and viands of choice.
Though I am about to go out for a run, suitably fortified against the chill. So too much tippling is not helpful to recovery and I may be too tired to see in the New Year personally. There seems little point on your own and with no TV (don’t wish to pay the BBC to be lied to) I shall eschew the faux bonhomie of the TV ‘parties’.
But I heartedly wish you and yours a happy Hogmanay and as said above lang may yer lum reek and as we say down under more power to your elbow.
So Inner London is the richest area in Europe and West Wales and Cornwall the poorest. I can vouch for West Wales – it definitely is the poorest area in the UK. Funny how the other poorest areas in Europe, ie northern England, would want to vote Tory, given their track record over the last 10 years.
https://dorseteye.com/memes-of-the-week-27-12-19/
Carol,
Yeh, but West Wales is one of my favourite places and Cornwall would be too, except it is almost impossible to travel any distance in the summer school holidays. I also really like the Lynn Peninsular in North West Wales. My family on my Father’s side are originally from North West France (Fishermen) and on my Mother’s side from Peebles and Edinburgh (Woollen Mills), though my wife and I grew up in Lancashire (Farming and Cotton Mills), though we did get married in Scotland.
Tony
There’s a reasonable chance of freedom for Julian Assange. Almost no chance of Scottish Independence. I believed almost none of The Skripal story in Salisbury, and have no reason to believe that Dawn Sturgess ever existed, let alone was murdered. Almost the entire thing struck me as Fake. A pre-planned Psy-Op where no one died, and nearly everyone believed. Very powerful propaganda, except the Russian Government just thought we had all gone mad.
There is a chance of not just recognition of the State of Palestine, but a vast improvement of everything in the Middle East.
With regards to wealth distribution across the world, well its already happening. The West is getting very much poorer, and the East is getting very much richer, so if you are young and talented move East. I know some young people who have, and are doing very well.
Re Radical Action on Climate Change, well the climate will do what it wants to do. It has always changed and it always will. There is almost nothing us mere microbes in relative terms on the surface of the planet can do about it, except let off all our nuclear bombs, which is far more likely to kill us all, until the next ice age kicks in, which might actually be survivable.
The decolonisation of the Chagos Island’s ie The removal of The Americans, and British, is entirely possible too, mainly because the Americans have massively over-extended themselves, whilst trying to control, the entire Rest of the World, whilst in the process turning much of their own country, into a far worse impoverished place, than some of the poorest countries in Africa.
Many impoverished Americans, are getting increasingly angry about it, and will become even more disturbed, when the power fails, and their TV’s no longer work to brainwash them.
Happy New Year and Good luck with your Scottish Independence.
Tony
“Almost no chance of Scottish independence” – that is your opinion based on what ?