Nestlé and Cadbury are not the same organisation. They both have exactly the same purpose and extremely similar methods of achieving that purpose. Their chocolate products, retail technique, marketing, manufacturing process and ingredients are in essence the same kind of thing.
Not the same organisation
Police Scotland and the famously corrupt Crown Office (the Scottish prosecution service) are treating the Leonardo 3 as terrorists, on the grounds Shut Down Leonardo must be Palestine Action because it has similar aims and methods. That is the Nestlé/Cadbury fallacy.
[Note for pedants. I am using familiar competing brands with different ownership. The ultimate ownership of Cadbury is irrelevant here.]
The young women are being treated appallingly. They are held in the terrorism interrogation centre at Govan police station. The police have repeatedly refused the request by their families to pass on to them the name of the solicitors briefed to represent them, and have also knocked back that solicitor.
It appears that at least one of the women has had access to the local duty solicitor. That is a lottery but this particular solicitor does appear to be well motivated and doing their best.
All this for three young women who have never harmed anybody nor expressed any intention to hurt anybody, who slightly damaged a fence and sat atop a minibus. That anybody involved – judge, prosecutor, policeman, MI5 officer – goes along with the fascist absurdity of calling this “terrorism” is truly shameful.
That the crushing powers of the Terrorism Act and full panoply of state repression are being visited on innocent, unarmed, young, female protestors is a historic shame on Scotland.
The Lord Advocate sits in the Scottish Cabinet. The SNP should step in and stop this now.
I once again refer you to the decision in the London High Court of 4 July in refusing to delay the proscription of Palestine Action. This explicitly stated that direct action is not aggravated to terrorism.
Underpinning Chamberlain’s judgment of course is the repudiation of the Nestlé/Cadbury fallacy. Not all direct action for Palestine is by Palestine Action, just as not all chocolate is Nestlé.
It is the organisation, not the activity, which is proscribed.
To be terrorism, the Crown Office would have to show it is the same organisation as the former Palestine Action. As Chamberlain states, even involving former members of Palestine Action would not show that. It would need to show it is actually the same organisation active since the proscription of Palestine Action on 5 July.
By choosing to hold the women without charge under the Terrorism Act, reporting restrictions are not in place. I can therefore tell you there are no such links. Shut Down Leonardo is a distinct, and Scottish, organisation.
The Scottish Government has to wake up and shut down fascism in Police Scotland and the Crown Office. Otherwise the whole fabric of our society is changing and fundamental freedoms are being lost.
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The mainstream media are certainly in full ‘day late and dollar short’ mode with Gaza. “Starvation and genocide? How could that have happened?” It’s always the same after any of their masters’ big projects, whether it is Iraq, the financial crisis, Brexit, covid… At the time, they always relentlessly peddle the official narrative, with perhaps the mildest of dissenting voices, while demonising or silencing real critics; then, much later, when the damage has been done and the truth is unavoidable they decide ‘some mistakes were made’ usually hung on some official or charity’s report not their own journalism; then they put almost the entire blame on the leader at the time; then they ‘punish’ the public with taxes to pay the exorbitant bill; then the story in question almost entirely falls from the news and political agenda, with none of those to blame given any penalty at all and mostly keeping their jobs… Rinse and repeat. It will be the same with the appalling events Israel.
The MSM are complicit along with the government. And, when you consider who owns these rags it’s no surprise that they peddle the zionist line.
The slow turn in the genocide story is just ass covering, as they attempt to convince the masses that they are innocent – but, they are not ! Never forget, never forgive.
Writing on the wall or cost-benefit analysis, in the bowels of the regime by some clearer eyed elements?
I notice sudden *shock* to discover Zelensky is a corrupt would-be despot. Not the new Churchill too in recent days.
Let me cure your shock. The accusations against Zelensky are Russian propaganda. Indeed he is a Churchill.
Слава Україні!
“Zelensky … Indeed he is a Churchill”. What a drunken racist funded by zionists ? For once I agree ..
Ar$e covering as they realise the game may finally be up. Fully complicit MSM says: ’nuffin to do with us, that’s red paint not blood, honest guv, oy vay’
They usually do this towards the end of something disgusting they’ve been up to their necks in at the last moment so that they can pretend that they find it “deplorable”. False alibi a-go-go.
When all the worst people are rushing at once to create an alibi, it’s a really bad sign of what’s around the corner.
How , when and why the British government decided to proscribe Palestine Action.
“The UK government was secretly advised that Palestine Action is “highly unlikely” to advocate for violence while officials struggled to produce evidence the group posed a national security threat, it can be revealed.
Despite this, the activist group was banned earlier this month when Home Secretary Yvette Cooper proscribed it under terrorism legislation.
It is the first time in British history that a direct-action group has been branded a terrorist organisation.
Only 26 MPs voted against the ban, which provoked a wave of civil disobedience across Britain, with protesters holding placards saying: “I oppose genocide. I support Palestine Action”.
Over 100 people have now been arrested under the Terrorism Act for allegedly showing support for the group, including an 83-year-old priest and a man holding a Private Eye cartoon.
Declassified has now seen documents which detail why, how, and when the decision to proscribe Palestine Action was made. They form part of the material relied upon in the group’s High Court challenge to the ban.”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/revealed-how-palestine-action-was-banned/
All those paid holidays to the promised land were a good investment.
And now that the rats have completely over run Palestine, lo and behold macron and starmer want to recognise a Palestinian state. Too late boys, you’ve genocided them.
Well, you see, preparing for what is just round the corner may be a waste of time. Enjoy the football (aren’t our girls the best?). Get your holidays in while you can, and then in September sit back and enjoy the greatest show on earth. Colonel MacGregor is your man for all the inside track updates.
All our kowtowing to the genocidal masters of the universe, pretending that Zionists were just Jews in wolves’ clothing, doing ‘the heavy lifting’ for the oil and gas companies, while Ukraine gave all its assets to Black Rock et al to pay for weapons which were aimed at regime change in Russia, and lots more free oil and gas for the big investors….
‘We’ were promised the rare earths in Ukraine but Trump changed the plan. We have allowed visits from monsters with outstanding ICC arrest warrants against them. And now the UN has spelled it out: don’t think you will be safe when the plan unravels. To see Ben Gvir state that a small nuke would sort out the Glastonbury Festival was an unmistakeable threat.
Israel has never allowed inspections of its nuclear arsenal. It intends to take us all down with it. Proscribing Palestine Action was our last desperate plea for clemency. We are in a pickle and diplomacy will be stretched to its limits. Trump wants a peaceful resolution but unless Israel either gives up its Zionist plan for a greater Israel, or the rest of the world offers to welcome all the remaining Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians and Christian or Muslim Israelis, then relax, sit back, and enjoy the ride.
It is all looking pretty grim anyway, with savers being told they must spend or risk having their accounts withheld (stolen). Tax cuts are for billionaires buying up bargain basement Britain, while workers must pay more tax to take their low paid money to pay for hedge fund owned public services. A radical, decent, human and nationalist government is needed. Nazi Germany gave national socialism a bad brief because of the genocidal racism it practiced. Genocidal racism is not required for a better, sustainable, local democracy based, redistributive economy, but our bought and paid for politicians have the backing of the Zionist owned and controlled mainstream media. And perhaps it is better not to know how this will all play out…..
Alyson
Looks that way in The Declining West.
Meanwhile in the real world away from the West, things are moving around the BRICS.
The more canny thinkers in the US are thinking that there are two paths to follow:
One destroy BRICS by Military means ( including Nukes) .
Two: Go along with the BRICS to a certain degree and attempt to destroy it from within.
What Big Mouth Lyndsey Graham and others haven’t considered is that if it come to Nuke Times then his bank and his bank accounts will become a pile of dust.
He will become a pile of dust indeed, because the biggest mistake that he and the US is making is the idea that the US can fire at countries and not get any firing back.
If he’s one of those who is looking forward to Armageddon Times it makes religious sense in a way.
If he’s looking to make on this then he is more of a fool than he already is.
WW3 is un-winnable – simple as that.
If I were a thinking Yank I would certainly go for the second option.
But, if you think you can get away with and not be struck back you will only find out what happened after it happened.
Piles of dust can’t make that judgement as they will all be dead Mr Graham.
Mark, what you say is correct, unfortunately the Neocons inhabiting most of the US government always think threats of retaliation by their opponents are merely bluffing, and that US economic and military hegemony is enough to achieve the desired aims. This is true with small to medium countries, but not with the other big boys Russia and China. Or with, as increasingly is the case with a combination or alliances of states [like BRICS]. The US has lost its proxy war against Ukraine, It is slowly losing its attack dog in the Middle East Israel, with Iran now being backed by China. As for the US pivot to Taiwan, forget it, the logistics, demographics, military balance of forces mean only one thing, an eventual unification of Taiwan with China, which incidentally is what the US recognizes now in its ‘One China Policy’.
BRICS could collapse in on itself. The fact that neither Putin or Xi Yinping could be bothered to turn up to the summit this year could be a sign that their enthusiasm for the project is waning. There are allegedly 44 countries wanting to join which could see BRICS fall into the same trap as the EU; becoming too large and unwieldy to control. Fractures are already appearing between those members who rely heavily on fossil fuels and those set on low-carbon economies.
” The fact that neither Putin or Xi Yinping could be bothered to turn up to the summit this year could be a sign that their enthusiasm for the project is waning.”
Of course the ICC warrant for Putin’s arrest will have had nothing to do with that, would it? No chances that the security services of a small island nation and former imperial power might have taken the opportunity of having a go at “arresting” him and oh, look, he was shot while resisting arrest!
I’m sure with the assistance of BRICS partners he could have afforded adequate security.
Like they did for Raisi, eh?
Anyway, isn’t the whole point of videoconferencing that people no longer have to fly to the other side of the world for a meeting?
Lol, NAZI Germany may have given socialism a bad name to anyone who has zero idea what socialism is (or bad actors willing to exploit that ignorance)…Socialism certainly isn’t Fascism though, it’s the polar opposite. China and Vietnam are both ruled by the communist party, it doesn’t mean they are communists though.
The evidence for Israel’s nuclear program comes in part from the testimony of Mordechai Vanunu, according to Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordechai_Vanunu ) back in 1986 Israel had sufficient material to produce 150 nuclear bombs, presumably that number has been growing ever since, but as they have not acknowledged any nuclear program we may never know until the hammer comes down.
If anybody is a threat to world peace it must surely be Israel
The UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk has said that the government’s proscription of Palestine Action is at odds with the UK’s obligations under international human rights law:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdjxjpl8g0do
Hopefully people who have been arrested will be able to use this fact in their own defense, and juries might acquit them.
“Every week in London and across Britain, people openly march demanding a second Holocaust. And the only people who seem to get arrested are those counter-protesting.”
Which mouth-foaming loony wrote this?
I should add that by “Holocaust” he means not what’s happening now to the Palestinians at the hands of ethnic supremacist killers, but what happened to Jews and others at the hands of ethnic supremacist killers in the ’40s of the last century.
Answer: these are the words of Dominic Cummings, who seems to have completely Adolf-Netanyahued out.
I thought this must have been that swivel-eyed lunatic Howard Jacobson – who was granted an op-ed on the front of the New York Times just before the 2019 election, to opine that Corbyn was such a serious danger to all British Jews, that they should all rush to leave immediately for the safety (!) of Israel, before Corbyn has them all killed.
Makes one wonder what BN has on Cummings. Is he in the Epstein files too, by any chance?
Cummings is deranged. You’ve only got to read his ramblings on Substack to realise that.
Pears Morgaine.
If Johnson was the ‘ Out of control Shopping Trolley’ then Cummings was the ‘ Shopping Basket’ (case).
I see a lot of ex Tory Advisers parading on the TV telling people how the Tories got it wrong.
They are that vain they don’t understand that the Tories got it wrong via their own well paid advice which they gave them.
Starmer is being advised by similar people – hence his collapse in the polls.
Technocrats need a lot of adviser as they have no ideas of their own.
Just target setters and bean counters – they always miss the targets they set.
I disagree strongly about your view on BRICS.
There is no doubt that this is an experiment so no forecasts from me.
The contradiction is the main country that is leading the experiment is a Communist country.
The other major countries are capitalist countries.
That is where any tensions will collide.
If you take the view that China wants to replace the US I think that is way off the mark.
I have little doubt that the Chinese saw what happened to The Soviet Union and are currently witnessing the collapse of Western Economies and they will not want to copy that type of ‘ success’ either.
BRICS is more of a trading Bloc – not a Political Union like the EU and that experiment is slowly coming to an end as well.
It is an alternative to the US’ political and economic hegemony which is fraying at the edges and slowly but surely smaller nations are walking away from the old way of doing things and joining the experiment.
For the West the only way they can disrupt or break the experiment is to go to war or interfere ( nothing new there) in a supposedly Sovereign Nations ability to decide things for themselves.
Cambodia ( pro Chinese ) and Thailand ( pro US) are currently being warmed up as a further example of interference.
Taiwan and China re on the agenda too once Trump stops all the other wars the US directly or indirectly is involved in.
The problem for Trump and the Europeans is that not many want to play ball any more and just surrender.
This is what delusion does to the Western leaders – they don’t recognise what’s really happening , they carry on as if the old ways can continue forever.
They aren’t and they won’t.
Reality really is a bark.
China isn’t Communist. In broad terms, it’s a mixed economy much as we used to have in the days when things got better rather than worse each year. There’s a place for central control to coordinate, to support, to rein in the rentseekers and to make sure nobody falls too far behind. There’s a place for private business to identify and develop new processes and things and to run stuff like restaurants that are too small to control centrally.
Steve Hayes
China is run by The Chinese State.
The State is the Communist party and it rules on what the Private Sector can do and what the Public Sector can and can not do.
The Communist party is in charge of all investments in China.
Admittedly, they operate in a wicked capitalist world but the capitalists in China are not holding the power of The State – Communists do.
Some call it ‘ State Capitalism ‘ but that would mean there is some kind of political and economic equals sign in China between capitalists and the State.
There isn’t one, as the State is owned and run by The Chinese Communist Party.
Cummings is one of the most unpleasant people in British politics (and that’s saying something). He’s been saying this kind of thing about the peace marches for quote a while.
Unfortunately,while (as Pears Morgaine writes) he’s clearly deranged, he’s also highly intelligent – and the combination is dangerous. I hope he never gets the ear of powerful people again.
Look what the powerful people are doing without him.
According to Times of Israel:
Israel set to allow Jordan and UAE to resume humanitarian airdrops in Gaza
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/israel-set-to-allow-jordan-and-uae-to-resume-humanitarian-airdrops-in-gaza/#openwebComments
Now being reported as coming by NYT
Starmer should ask the legitimate elected Government of Palestine, Hamas, whether airdrops can start asap, regardless of what the occupying Zionists say.
Being ‘ set to approve’ does not mean it will happen, so why not go ahead and do it, after all Starmer and his cabinet are allies of this wretched regime.
Do it!
Shock. The BBC has finally noticed some of what’s happening in Gaza.
“Gaza: I witnessed war crimes”
Now that it’s too late – the damage is irreversible, Palestinian culture in Gaza has been completely wiped out – the British Establishment is allowing the plebs to see what is going on.
Townsman
Makes you wonder why they are concerned now?
They weren’t six month’s ago.
Is something shifting in Legal terms that they fear?
The IDF have said they will allow Airdrops of Aid into Gaza.
The UN should take their cue with both hands and grab it while they can.
Medical equipment in bucket loads as reviving near starving people is much more complicated than
just stuffing them full of water and food.
That will kill them – not revive them.
Saline drips and Glucose – vitamins etc for the extreme starvation is required.
Also the UN should insist that all the Medics Israel have locked up should be freed immediately.
We shall see if this is yet again another Israelie as their past promises are usually worthless.
There is an ‘ in ‘ here for the UN and they should use it.
More words of non existing help, food or solutions for Palestinians who are being hounded, bombed and starved out of existence.
This is a Holocaust revival supported and armed by the Germans, the USUK and the Zionist conductors, whilst we are fed with news of a new party, sports events and Zionist spokespersons who, not for the first time, come and trumpet their deathwishes of Palestinians all over the bbc news channels.
Why does the bbc not reject their vile repeats, invites these people on to our airways?
Why does the bbc not reject their vile repeats, invites these people on to our airways?
Indeed. This is really one of the most absurd thing in all this, the perpetrator of a crime is invited for a nice little collegial chat on prime time teleivison throughout the west – daily – to defend, deny and spread disinformation to shield their crimes. Why is that!? When have this ever occured before? If there is an attack in lets say Ukraine by Russia surely the western msm would not invite the russian army to come on the show to defend the attack!
This disgraceful standing invitation to the IDF by the media, is perhaps the biggest reason why so many westerners believe and support israel, because they believe these lies and in turn muddle the debate.
There should be laws enacted that criminalize this behavior by the media – perhaps Corbyn could push this question?
I’ve yet to see a spokesman for ISIS, Hamas or Hezbola be invited onto the BBC to give their version of events. The BBC just likes it’s terrorists white clearly, they used to let the IRA on for instance (albeit with a sanitised English voice to prevent the clutching of pearls lest a maiden hear an Irish brogue on the telly).
Actually, that was because the hated dictator Thatcher introduced legislation that censored the voices of what we deemed terrorists from being broadcast – denying them “the oxygen of publicity”.
So we were, instead, treated to the farce of watching Sinn Féin spokesmen mouthing words which were spoken over by an actor.
glenn_nl
I remember either The Day Today or Brass Eye taking the piss out of that idiocy.
It was a parody of Gerry Adams talking to the UK media whilst having ingested helium – in order to get round the laws.
And the people who are going to protect children from dangerous adults are………………………adults.
1980’s UK Censorship: Having Gerry Adams’ words spoken by an actor.
2020’s Yookay Censorship: Apparently serious talk about the government blocking Wikipedia.
Anyway, for what it’s worth, I’d say that these days, Dean, you’re more likely to encounter an Irish brogue on the Brit News – Fergal Keane, Orla Guerin* & Channel 4’s Paraic O’Brien spring to mind off the top of my pretty little head – than you are old-skool RP. I nearly choked on my Alpen when I first heard Lauren Taylor’s dulcet tones on the Beeb a couple years back.
* 1 down. A ruin ogler (anag.) 4-6
The Crown Office is England on Scottish soil. The direct link between the sell outs and the English regime. I think that many of you fail to see where they are vulnerable and how that can be exploited in our favour. It is so simple and it is one of those things that when told you go oh, yes, so simple. Asking is for kids and slaves. I can give you millions of reasons why there never was a Union but a cover up for the continued occupation of Scotland. The measure can be ….do the same things happen after the so-called Union that happened under the occupation? yes they do. Leaders and potential leaders murdered, framed and harrassed. Plus the abuse of Scottish children by English political parties, to which the SNP covered that up. Now why would a Scottish party do that? It is a very large reason to say cheerio without asking and suing the socks of the English regime for all those crimes against the Scottish People, the Scottish Economy, the prosperity of the nation and its peoples and the extortion of Scottish wealth to fight endless English wars with no end in sight. Plus other chattels.
Many of you won’t know that London is the architect of pretty much all that goes wrong in the world. From Syria, Ukraine, Iran and the long and endless list where they are the hidden hand. The recent fires and other rabble rousing in Iran have London stamped all over it. It’s been the same MO since before WW2. They are good at it.
England must not be allowed to threaten people using legislation designed for actual terrorists. Not a couple of pissed of chicks. That was not the intention and it should have been thrown out, but here we have English appeaser Dorothy Bain and if you don’t know how nasty she is get on the same page quick. It is her and only her that can make this happen. She would sell her soul to Satan for recognition and wealth. However, there comes a time when one has to assess the enemy and see if that is a formidable enemy and of how their removal should occur.
Scotland is not England. It is a nation with a long history and traditions. That has been stamped on for centuries, lied to. Brainwashed and extorted. Then there is the genocide. Adults in Scotland have been having less children due to English high tax policy. They knew what they were doing and it is a genocide of a race.
Pay no English taxes anymore, just say no. Refuse their illegal orders and immoral laws. Scotland is economically dead. Extorted, abused and having those filth from the English regime sitting in Scotland like the lords of old. Many people know Scotland is an occupied country. Like Germany, Japan and South Korea. It is a military occupation. But, the English could not leave their army here because we would keep fighting them…oh now. Police Scotland are the English standing army. Think about that before you jump in with oh it cannot be true. it is true. The actions of Dorothy Bain, Nicola Sturgeon and Police Scotland killed Alex Salmond. Although at the end it looked like he had been poisoned. Another English speciality. They did something after it which was their hallmark.
Three critical exposure past days
1. Israel claimed for months that Hamas stole humanitarian aid from the trucks, now, it is exposed that that was lie:
IDF Officials Say No Evidence Hamas Systematically Stole UN Aid in Gaza, NYT Reports
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2025-07-26/ty-article/idf-officials-say-no-evidence-hamas-systematically-stole-un-aid-in-gaza-nyt-reports/00000198-46ed-db91-a1df-efef44060000
US government review found no evidence of widespread Hamas theft of Gaza aid
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/25/politics/us-government-review-no-evidence-widespread-theft-gaza-aid
2. An American soldier that was part of the infamous Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) claim he saw brazen war crimes being commited by IDF at the humantarian zones and he said he had never seen such brutality being waged against defenseless civilians before in his life as soldier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72aZhsNMOWk
3 A study showed that the food-aid itself lacking vital nutriments, it basically provide calories but nothing more of important, vital substance:
What is inside the GHF food aid box being distributed in Gaza?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd787er1qz4o
Excellent, thank you!
The total destruction of Israel is the only aid that will realistically help the Palestinians.
I have posted a link to a new worthwhile conversation on Russiagate between Aaron Maté and Glenn Diesen.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/forums/topic/russiagate-twitter-censorship-complex-2024/page/3/#post-104742
What I was wondering: Maté argues that Julian Assange by now should consider to make known his information on who was responsible for the DNC “leaks” or “hacks” (or whatever we want to call them). With the argument that evidence on this issue would be of geopolitical significance.
How do others see this? And would it be possible that Assange in his “deal” to get free promised to not do this? I.e. he couldn’t even if he wanted to?
Because the fallout would be feared by the US/British Deep State as Russiagate would then mostly be rendered ineffective for their ongoing manipulations and deceptions.
AG. The DNC story is well known, but the fact is that daily we are fed a diet of genocide and nazi ideology by the MSM. So, what makes you think any truth based report by Assange, or anyone else, would have any impact whatsoever ?
We are in sick times where babies are killed live on TV and the masses don’t give a damn. Truth has no chance, no-one is interested. As a cynic, I tend to judge these reports as distraction techniques by the Jewish lobby.
AG. IMO this is just distraction techniques. The masses happily ingest a daily diet of genocide from the MSM without complaining or batting an eyelid. As such, I cannot see that anything Assange might say about Hillary-gate as having an impact on TPTB. They get away with killing babies in plain view, so who is going to care about leaks and hacks ?
That could very well be the case.
I however wondered if anybody here agreed with Maté on the moral imperative he invoked with his comment.
Regardless of whether it would have an impact or not.
Mearsheimer and Mercouris I think would agree with you with the argument that MAGA is much more upset over Epstein because the Russiagate details are so complicated that latter concerns only a tiny group of people.
At least by principle I´d disagree with them. Russiagate did so much more damage to actual lives (Ukraine War) than Epstein (simply by numbers.). In fact it is potentially the biggest conspiracy since WWII in the US. (I tend to be completely opposed to the idealization of JFK – the other big potential conspiracy in peoples´ minds.)
“Ukraine War Will Now Be Resolved on Battlefield: John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen”
July 29, 2025
https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2025/07/ukraine-war-will-now-be-resolved-on-battlefield-john-mearsheimer-alexander-mercouris-glenn-diesen/
An interesting observation by Jon Elmer in the Electronic Intifada is that there is now a sense in Israeli military circles that the Israeli military is now trying to get out of this war:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi_hkHpdfoE
It’s not a war though is it ?
Even calls for a ‘ceasefire’ are a form of mollycoddling by the West. The truth is that Trump could end this mass starvation with one phone call to Netanyahu.
Trump has the audacity to come here and lecture the UK and Europe on our excessive migration. Why doesn’t anyone explain, very publicly, that the US’s meddling and wars have been the main contributor to Europe’s problems? Muammar Gaddafi’s removal, then the ensuing chaos opened Libya up to people smugglers who operated with impunity; a vast corridor for migrant flows from sub-Saharan Africa and as far east as Asia, seeking to cross the Med to a better, safer life. War in Syria, and prior to that, Iraq, also created huge migrant flows to Europe. And as for the legacy of the Afghanistan occupation – at unfathomable costs – it’s still producing repercussions to this day. The US, its cowboy foreign policy and its military adventurism, should be called out as the main instigator of our problems in Europe.
Good points well made, Goose, though it’s worth remarking that most migration to Europe over the last 20 years has been of people not born in Iraq, Afghanistan or sub-Saharan Africa. Anyway, it’s good to see crowds of people protesting outside a hotel in Turnberry that’s hosting foreign rapists.
The US geopolitical machinations are the primary driving force behind world poverty, wars and mass migration. Maybe they’ve always been the villains? If power does shift east to China, as some predict it will, it’s difficult to believe they could be a worse dominant world power than that the US has been.
I watched the Oppenheimer film a few nights back – a dramatization of events around and after the creation of atom bomb. And although familiar with the source material, I hadn’t realised the close proximity between initial test to usage. Having conducted the initial Trinity test on 16 of July ,1945 the US dropped two bombs on Japan only weeks later on, 6 and 9 August 1945, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively, killing around 246,000 people. The film features a scene based on true events, depicting then President Truman’s reaction to Oppenheimer’s visit, where he is said to have called Oppenheimer a “crybaby” and dismissed his concerns about the bomb’s use. Despite being known as “the father of the atomic bomb” Oppenheimer subsequently had his security clearance revoked, ending his relationship with the US govt, in part over his expressed concerns about 2-stage hydrogen bomb development – a magnitudes more powerful fission-fusion based weapon.
Has the modern US ever behaved responsibly?
After the totally preventable atrocities carried out on UK soil by MI6 libyan assets, we now have the possibility of taliban strikes at home courtesy of the latest MoD cock-ups.
“Former Taliban fighters are living in the UK after being secretly airlifted from Afghanistan on British mercy flights,”
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/07/27/taliban-fighters-brought-to-uk-on-airlifts-after-afghan-data-breach/
Thanks for your reply Goose. US geopolitical machinations haven’t been the primary driving force behind global poverty – that’s Africans being Africans. Moreover, decisions taken in the US have helped to relieve much of the world’s poverty – particularly in China after it was allowed to join the WTO, which significantly speeded up its transition to a leading economy. They also haven’t been behind most large-scale 21st century wars: the Second Congo War (est. 3-5 million dead), South Sudan Civil War (est. 400,000 dead), Yemen Civil War (est. 300,000 dead), Ethiopian Civil War (est. 500,000 dead), Sudanese Civil War (maybe more than 600,000 dead) were very little to do with the US – and neither in its first couple years was the Syrian Civil War; nor mass migration to the West either (which isn’t to say that the US commercial activity hasn’t played a large role in that, particularly when you consider the effect of American cultural exports). Over 80 million people died in World War II. The vast majority of them weren’t killed by the US armed forces. The ca. in 250,000 who died in Hiroshima & Nagasaki were a small fraction of that.
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Thanks for your reply Stevie. I’m old enough to remember: “We’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here.” In truth though, British people are probably less at risk from ex Taliban, than they are from our former ‘Afghan allies’ – young boys certainly are.
It’s funny how these large scale civil wars spontaneously break out wherever there’s lots of money to be made by multinational companies exploiting natural resources.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. The civil wars I listed above have broken out in some of the poorest countries in Africa. In general, multinational companies have zero interest in instigating civil wars, because they just make things too unpredictable. The only multinationals with significant investments in Sudan & South Sudan are Chinese – oil companies mostly.
@Re-lapsed Agnostic
Valiant attempt to defend the US, but the slightest bit of research shows the US have usually played an important role, albeit sometimes indirectly. Even in the conflicts you highlight as being unrelated to US activity : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_the_Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo
Dig deep into most civil wars and you’ll find the US (CIA and State Dept) have played some sinister role at some point.
The UK similarly creates destruction everywhere it meddles – turning people against each other in pursuit of its ‘interests’. Would China behave similarly, idk? But there is no sign they’d deliberately foment conflict to achieve their objectives thus far. The jury is out on that though.
Too many assume such criticism of our unaccountable elites is a disloyal criticism of the nation state per se. Nothing could be further from the truth. Our populations are blissfully unaware of actions carried out in our names.
As Craig’s story shows, the intense secrecy and paranoia about whistleblowers; the heavy punishments for those breaking official secrecy laws including ‘charge stacking’ – generating longer sentences – I mean, how plausible is it that every recent leaker also happens to be a paedophile? is rooted more in fears about the public reaction, than say the stated fear of adversaries gaining information.
Basically, I’d like a totally transparent foreign policy, no backroom plotting and scheming by intel chiefs and permanent FCDO officialdom. I don’t see why we should have a kind of (secret) govt within a govt, system operating.
More generally, the UK has become a democracy in name only and MPs debate nothing of substance these days. And worse still, they seem perfectly content with this disempowered arrangement – which speaks to the low quality of most of the HoC. No debates on taxation, for example, because Reeves’ iron discipline, bond market satisfying, ‘fiscal rules’ forbade that, prior to the election. Foreign policy has no meaningful debates; the farce that is the 30-minute pointless, Q&A session called PMQs, has transitioned to parliamentary sessions as a whole. MPs are largely just ornaments pretending to look as if they are busy doing something – when in reality they are little more than govt voting fodder, pushing through RW reactionary authoritarian BS like the proscription orders and the censorial, patronising Online Safety Act.
Thanks for your reply Goose. What are you on about though? That Wiki article you linked to is exclusively about what the company might have been getting up to in the Congo of the 1960’s – around 60 years ago. The Second Congo War happened decades later because Laurent Kabila severed ties with his erstwhile comrades from Rwanda, Burundi & Uganda, who’d just helped him overthrow Mobutu, and kicked them out of his newly-formed government, for no other reason than he was a stupid, fat ****. Needless to say that Rwandan president Paul Kagame didn’t react very charitably to this, because in common with his lookalike Southport killer Axel Rudakabana, he is a sociopathic lunatic – and the rest is 5 years of (very bloody) history.
“The civil wars I listed above have broken out in some of the poorest countries in Africa. ”
Poor countries sitting on much mineral wealth. I wonder why they are still poor? As a US politician put it “those countries are sitting on our oil”.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. As someone who takes a bit more than a dilettante interest in companies with mineral assets in Africa, I can tell you that the two main reasons that African countries aren’t benefitting far more from their mineral wealth is: a) the medium to long-term security situation; b) the fact that their bureaucracies ensure that everything takes years & years to get clearance (not to mention the required bribes). Nothing is preventing these countries from setting up state-owned companies to extract their mineral wealth, of course, apart from the fact that they generally lack the necessary skill-sets to be able to do this. Thanks to shale etc, the US is now a net petroleum exporter, and most of what it does import (mid fractions mostly) generally comes from Latin America.
Yes and a) and b) have absolutely nothing to do with foreign interference in the countries’ governance and the fact that every time one of these countries elects a leader who puts his people first he is removed in a coup and replaced by someone who put the interests of foreign “investors” first is a sheer coincidence, just like the coincidence that these civil wars also seem to break out whenever a country is trying to get out from under the arse of a former colonial power. Still, what can you expect from these savages, eh?
Thanks for your reply Bayard. More often than not, these days coups in Africa bring left-leaning governments to power – see Mali, Niger & Burkina Faso for a kick-off. The only former colonial power that can be legitimately accused of holding African countries back for its own benefit in recent decades is France (mostly via the CFA franc malarky), and the current (relatively low-level) civil wars in many of its former colonial possessions are straight-up contests between their leftist governments and Islamists. The civil wars in the African countries I listed above were mostly caused by factions of their respective governments falling out with each other.
This came with the great reader’s comment at naked capitalism that THE GUARDIAN “continues its threats of becoming a worthwhile outlet again.”
I can’t judge it myself but am thankful for any such info and exception:
“Edinburgh University could unadopt antisemitism definition after report into its colonial links – One of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious universities is reviewing whether to launch divestment drive and drop antisemitism definition”
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jul/27/edinburgh-university-could-unadopt-antisemitism-definition-after-report-into-its-colonial-links
Journalists in Gaza selling their camera equipment for food.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/in-gaza-famine-journalists-sell-their-cameras-for-food/
However, it’s heartening to know that good old honest UK journalists still have their cameras to bring us sad stories of cry baby Jews upset by horrible anti genocide protesters. Will this poor victimised bitch ever recover ?
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/07/27/tory-peers-daughter-in-tears-over-pro-palestine-zealots-at-university-open-day/
Goose
Arnaud Bertrand spells out how Europe has answered the US back this weekend in the trade deal being hailed by Von der Leyen and the BBC.
“Atlanticism” from now on is simply going to be crude extractive neocolonialism by Washington. Nothing else.
‘If Europeans were paying attention (or being told the truth), they should be beyond appalled by this “deal”: https://bbc.com/news/articles/cx2xylk3d07o
It’s nothing more than one of the most expensive imperial tributes in history. Just a massive one-way transfer of wealth with no reciprocal benefits
The “deal” is:
– The EU now gets charged 15% tariffs on its exports to the US when they commit to charging zero tariffs on US imports in the EU
– The EU agrees to invest $600 billion in the US, for no other obvious reason than pleasing “daddy”
– The EU will “purchase hundreds of billions of dollars of American military equipment”
– The EU commits to buying 750 billion dollars worth of very expensive US LNG, specifically $250 billion for each of the next 3 years
In exchange for all these concessions and extraction of their wealth they get… nothing. I’m not even exaggerating, that IS the deal: the EU gets nothing.
This does not even remotely ressemble the type of agreements made by two equal sovereign powers. It rather looks like the type of unequal treaties that colonial powers used to impose in the 19th century – except this time, Europe is on the receiving end.
More worryingly, this sets a dynamic and a precedent: what do you think happens next from here? In the 19th century, were colonial powers content with their first unequal treaty? Of course not – one of the key rules of geopolitics is that weakness only encourages further exploitation.
Again, this is Europe’s century of humiliation.’
https://x.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1949578088712712651
“EU Trade Deal is a Capitulation to America”
https://unherd.com/newsroom/eu-trade-deal-is-a-capitulation-to-america/
Not even the most panglossian EU propagandists have been attempting a positive spin. Guy Verhofstadt, for instance: “The EU – US deal is scandalous… a disaster…with not one concession from the American side…badly negotiated…”
https://x.com/guyverhofstadt/status/1949595987795652747
The chief negotiator herself however is still out there hailing her triumph, now claiming that LNG gas shipped over the Atlantic is more “affordable and better” than gas piped from next door.
https://x.com/AXChristoforou/status/1949705825515188524
You can expect more raving about the cruelties & exploitation of the Soviet occupation of Eastern Europe and the Russian threat etc. To obfuscate all this.
Even though the Russians today sensibly regard Europe as a potential infestation of parasites, not a loot chest.
Still on balance anything that degrades the EU/NATO and brings it closer to an end. Is on balance a good thing.
@zoot
It’s an appalling deal. Ursula von der Leyen’s chastened look spoke volumes.
Trump has this weird view that all trade between major trading partners should, by necessity, be balanced or equal – his interventionist instincts regarding trade and the imposition of tariffs in an attempt to force equality, aren’t matched by similar concerns for social welfare in the US however. The trade deficit with Europe arose because American products are generally inferior to high quality European alternatives and Americans voted with their wallets; whether it be Italian or German cars, or European food and drink.
EU member states could have won better deals negotiating alone, imho, as per the UK(10% tariff). What is the point of the EU and the pooling of sovereignty as a force multiplier, only to end up getting shafted like this in negotiations? if the EU fails to leverage that power and stand up for European businesses and citizens, then what is the point of this bloated bureaucracy called the EU?
Trump’s Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick : “The tariff revenues are amazing — $700 billion a year. That’s just net new money the government never had before. You take that for ten years, that’s $7 trillion.”
Goose
As usual the Yanks are talking bollocks.
The US public will pay any gains and all the US will get out of it the Local/State and Federal tax skim offs.
Off course most of that money will not go to the ordinary US Punter.
It will go to tax reliefs for the rich and those on around $1m a year.
Or the ordinary punters will look for alternative products (cheaper).
What that requires is that Trump comes good on his promises to make alternative US products
within the USA.
Not heard of a Patriotic factory being built in the US yet with US money but, what we are witnessing in this
supine EU Trade deal is the exporting of European jobs and investment and equipment to the US.
Not dis-similar to what the US did with exporting Western production to China.
Trump doesn’t know it ( he is too dim to know) but, sort of a grudging hat tip to the capitalists who
came up with copying the Chinese Model.
Not good for Europe and not good for the UK.
Germany will die on its feet – France will have no horses for the French Carriage and Starmer wants to
re-join a Bloc that is disintegrating.
Voted remain myself but Germany and many other grovelling idiots are not working for their people – the
are Working For The Yankee Dollar.
In the political sphere and the media they will all wonder where all the Fascists have come from?
As usual the ill informed media never lead – never anticipate – just follow and report current events.
A bit similar to their Damascene Conversion to Gazan starvation.
By the way their Death Knell will be AI – some know it some don’t.
The Billionaires do and all the bowing and scraping to them will have been to no avail.
Couldn’t happen to nicer people.
Goose
The grand irony is that the EU was sold to the public as a means of making Europe collectively stronger, better able to stand up to the US.
As is now painfully obvious, the exact opposite happened: it proved to be an instrument of collective weakness and institutionalized vassalization.
The astonishing acceleration in European subjugation is the most consequential news story regarding Europe for a long time but the mass media doesn’t have the bandwidth for it.
How could they hope to dissect it? That would involve admitting they were taken in on Ukraine. It would involve questioning European, US and UK foreign policy all at once. That’s just too much. Better to just ignore it and pretend nothing consequential has happened.