In late November, a judge in the High Court of England and Wales will hear a judicial review into the legality of the proscription of Palestine Action.
That court has no jurisdiction in either Scotland or Northern Ireland and does not take into account the law of either place, which is different to English Law.
Yet the proscription of Palestine Action applies to the whole UK and the result of the English judicial review will apply to the whole UK – which is a direct violation of Scottish legal rights.
My attempts to raise this point in London have been met with a haughty colonial arrogance, which amounts to “so what?”
Two grounds have been granted for the judicial review in English and Welsh law. Firstly the judge will consider whether the effect of proscription is contrary to the rights of free assembly and free speech protected by the European Convention on Human Rights Articles 10 and 11.
The ECHR applies UK-wide and the arguments will be the same were the case heard in London, Edinburgh or Belfast. An English or a Scottish judge may come to a different conclusion, not only for reasons of individual judgment, but because of the way the basis of law is considered differently in the two jurisdictions.
But the English judge will also consider whether due process was followed in the proscription according to English and Welsh public law. The argument is whether or not Palestine Action ought to have been consulted, or others likely to be affected by the proscription ought to have been consulted – in a situation where the views of Israel and of weapons manufacturers were in fact consulted.
Now, that common law is entirely different in Scotland to England and Wales. In fact the Scottish legal system has a very different tradition to the English system, and the Scots system is not really based on common law, though precedent is cited.
While the English and Welsh legal system is grounded in common law, relying heavily on judicial precedent and case law, the Scottish legal system is rooted in Roman law principles, emphasizing codified statutes and a civilian tradition that distinguishes it from common-law jurisdictions.
I should pause to exonerate the Welsh. When the English conquered, raped and colonised Wales, they simply destroyed its existing administrative and legal systems and imposed their own. Therefore when I speak of “English and Welsh law” I am merely reflecting the current jurisdictional reach.
An important point has to be grasped, which requires a dropping of the colonial mindset.
It is perfectly possible that the banning of Palestine Action might be found lawful in English and even EU law, but is still unlawful in Scotland under Scots law.
I should emphasise that this argument applies not only to Palestine Action but to every English High Court judicial review of a Westminster government action.
You may be surprised to hear the point is probably non-controversial amongst lawyers.
Given five minutes to think about it, I am not sure any Scots lawyer would say it is untrue that UK-wide government action might be lawful in England but not in Scotland. But such is the Establishment cringe of pretty well the entire Scottish legal profession, I cannot think of an example of it ever being tested.
One fundamental difference between English and Scots law has a firm statutory basis – which is that between the English Bill of Rights and the Scottish Claim of Right.
Here the key distinction – and this is a hoary old truism – is between the English tradition of parliamentary sovereignty and the Scottish tradition of popular sovereignty. Scots law contains protections against oppressive executive acts, whether or not imposed by parliament, in a way which English law does not.
For those that may doubt that what I am saying is established law, here is an extract from an article by retired European Court of Justice judge Professor Sir David Edward in the Supreme Court Yearbook Volume 6, entitled “Scotland’s Magna Carta. The Claim of Right and the Common Law” (not available online):
It follows that that which is lawful cannot be arbitrary or irrational – a principle already present in the Wednesbury criteria and developed in more detail from EU administrative law (derived from German law) insisting on the objective justification and proportionality of executive action.10 For recent examples of how this idea is being given effect, see in particular the Judgments of the Supreme Court in R v Gul11 and Beghal v DPP12 which illustrate the evils of over-broad discretionary powers, as well as the importance of not relying on answers given under compulsion.
The reference in the Claim of Right to the Estates as `a full and free representative of the Nation’, whether or not it reflects the constitutional philosophy of George Buchanan, cannot surely be interpreted as a demand for `sovereign’ Parliamentary power, still less the power of the Parliamentary majority for the time being. It is, rather, an assertion that ultimate power rests with the `Nation’…
That the Westminster parliament cannot just impose on Scotland any law it wishes was spelt out explicitly by Lord Cooper in his 1953 judgment in MacCormick v Lord Advocate:
The principle of the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctly English principle which has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law…
Now, I am fully aware that the bulk of the Claim of Right represents the establishment of anti-Catholicism in the state. But that does not obviate its useful provisions. Of which the most (but not only) relevant one is this:
That the causing pursue and forfeit persons upon stretches of old and obsolete laws, upon frivolous and weak pretences, upon lame and defective probation, as particularly the late Earl of Argyll, is contrary to law.
The Claim of Right is still the law of Scotland (and is not the law of England). It was not revoked by the “Union” of 1707 and indeed here it is on the UK government’s definitive website of currently active legislation.
Now, there could not be a starker example of “causing pursue and forfeit persons… upon frivolous and weak pretences” than claiming Palestine Action, a non-violent protest and civil-disobedience organisation, is a terrorist outfit.
Even more absurd is to claim that those decent people who have been pursued by the executive all over Scotland for opposing genocide, are supporters of terrorism.
There is the clearest case that the proscription of Palestine Action and subsequent repression are precisely the kind of executive persecution and injustice which are outlawed in Scotland by the Claim of Right – and are outlawed irrespective of parliamentary authority.
It is precisely an arbitrary and irrational executive act, which cannot be lawful in Scotland, whatever the views of the Westminster parliament. Nor can the Westminster parliament invoke the alien doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty in Scotland, to impose arbitrary and irrational executive action under the rubric of “reserved powers”.
Palestine Action may yet succeed in their judicial review in England. But a separate judicial review must be launched in Scotland that both challenges this extreme Zionist act in support of genocide – directly contrary to overwhelming public opinion in Scotland – and asserts the continued existence of Scotland’s popular and communitarian legal tradition.
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Here, here Craig excellent article, Scots need to stand up, against Westminster, not just for Scotland – but for Palestine Action.
Down with the illegal union.
There is also the issue of enforcement to consider. Uniquely, officers of Polis Scotland do not swear an oath to the Crown. Somewhat surprisingly, even officers of the reconstituted Police Service of Northern Ireland swear an oath to the Crown. I thought they would have dropped this for pragmatic reasons when they binned the hated RUC.
I, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of constable with fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, and that I will uphold fundamental rights and accord equal respect to all people, according to law.
Scots Polis are under no obligation to enforce the diktats of Yvette Cooper.
diktat: noun – an order or decree imposed by someone in power without popular consent
Vivian O’Blivion
August 25, 2025 at 20:14
According to this
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/oath_of_allegiance_breaches_9
PSNI officers swear the following oath:
“I hereby do solemnly and sincerely and truly declare and affirm that I
will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of constable, with
fairness, integrity, diligence and impartiality, upholding fundamental
human rights and according equal respect to all individuals and their
traditions and beliefs; and that while I continue to hold the said office
I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties
thereof according to law.”
So that’s something…
What a loony culture they’ve got in England and Northern Ireland. Tooled up blokes in uniform monopolising the right to violence after they’ve sworn an oath to a hat.
Is a representation of the hat used as a focus at the oath ceremony? That would be reminiscent of the practice in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, where a model of the Ark of the Covenant is kept in all places of worship.
I am informed that uniformed police in England and Wales wear representations of the king’s hat on their own hats, but that this is not so in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Meanwhile the king’s real life hat has a lot of stolen jewels stuck in it.
Odd what people respect, and beat other people up in the name of.
“When the English conquered, raped and colonised Wales, they simply destroyed its existing administrative and legal systems and imposed their own. ”
As far as I know, it was worse than that. After the Edwardian conquests, the Welsh remained under Welsh law, but the English, even in Wales, came under English law. In all cases, English law trumped Welsh law, thus the Welsh had no legal recourse against the English. It wasn’t until the reign of Henry VII that this was changed to the whole of England and Wales having the same laws.
You’re putting a lot of things rather well these days Craig. Nice to see you get out to greet that bloke.
Interesting news from the Electronic Intifada with Jon Elmer: the IDF is now so short of troops that they are considering recruiting from the diaspora: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWJgKogyUJQ
That’s right, getting Jews from Western countries who are liable to be more informed about the genocide than Israelis, to contribute to it. The IDF hopes to make up the greater part of their shortage in this way. Not very likely, I would think, especially when the diasporan would-be recruits realise that they are volunteering to be put in harm’s way, and at the same time, there are an increasing number of courageous young Israelis refusing military service.
The report says that IDF soldiers narrowly escaped capture, not for the first time. Judging from these reports it is only a matter of time before the number of hostages held by Palestinian resistance groups start increasing again, augmented as they might soon be by IDF soldiers, even possibly including officers.
Thus the prospects for the IDF achieving its military objectives appear to be getting less bright, whatever Israeli politicians might claim.
Thousands of British Jews have participated in murdering babies in Gaza over the past two years, returning home with smiles and laughter. Compare their treatment by the Labour government to that being dished out to the blind, elderly and otherwise vulnerable people protesting the Genocide.
Btw, Electronic Intifada is another outlet that has detailed repeatedly the manifold ways in which the UK government, British Army, BBC, Guardian etc have participated in or abetted the Gaza Genocide.
Exceptionalism, chosen ones, holocaust, don’t you know !
Not sure the number runs into thousands but it’s not all bad news:-
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2025/apr/07/ten-britons-accused-of-committing-war-crimes-while-fighting-for-israel-in-gaza
Tip of the iceberg unfortunately.
5,000 IOF war criminals have been brought to Britain for recuperation and spiritual healing by a British zionist ‘charity’.
Some may be living in your street!
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/08/03/752369/meet-zionist-charity-brought-over-5000-israeli-war-criminals-britain
Thanks for sharing that article Zoot. Certainly an eye opener for me as I’d never heard of these so called Charities.
But might there not be unexpected good effects, e.g.
(a) These Israeli guests might be exposed to sources of news in the UK which they would never see in Israel, like Al Jazeera
(b) while they’re here, they might also discourage British Jews from joining the IDF, even if they don’t do so openly.
(c) while here they might enter into dialogue with Palestinians or Arabs for the first time in their lives
(d) On returning to Israel, they might encourage refusniks
Couldn’t this argument be used as a defence in Bill Williamson’s case?
This is very interesting. Has the ECtHR ever applied its ‘margin of national appreciation‘ to deliver a judgment vis-à-vis a case contesting the application of ‘UK’ law to Scotland ?
The Secretary of State’s order, without the heft of parliamentary sovereignty, reduces to a ministerial decree (whatever that might actually mean in practice). Today’s arrest of Paul Laverty in Edinburgh under s13 TAct2K – not for expressly supporting Palestine Action, but (you’ve got to assume) for implicitly sporting some irregularity in graphic design – arguably could run into difficulty because (i) simply not an expression of support for Palestine Action as such and (ii) defaulting to TAct2K’s reliance on the ingredients of an offence that depends ultimately on the SoS’s questionable exercise of discretionary power.
Craig, you made a marvellous contribution to getting the South Africans to bring a case of genocide against Israel. Can I perhaps suggest you have a look at the International Criminal Court Act and perhaps suggest a way of bringing our own ministers to account under domestic legislation. I understand some apparatchiks have a role in it. But its worth a thought. Some of the twitterati are asking the same question, your view would be interesting.
Good suggestion. At the very least, force the British legal profession to proclaim that it’s perfectly legitimate for the UK government to help butcher women, children, medics, journalists, etc. The more completely these frauds are exposed the better.
It’s depressing that so few young people seem to care about freedom of speech, or about genocide.
I remember as a student attending a demonstration nearly sixty years ago against the Vietnam War, in Grosvenor Square outside the American Embassy. It was a big demonstration – we completely filled Grosvenor Square and overflowed into surrounding streets – but I don’t remember seeing anybody who looked over 60 (though I’m sure there must have been some). Most of us were students. Where are today’s students?
On the gram/Tiktoks. These screens we carry in our pockets, 24/7, are a good way to keep us distracted. We can just watch videos of activists and like their post and we can feel like we are contributing. To activate a population handicapped by the machine AGAINST the machine sounds near impossible. Who wants to go back to dumbphones?
Young people want to care which is how they are so easily swayed to foam at the mouths for something against their well-being. Its just that the levers arent controlled by normal, civilized beings, no sane person wants to go near that thing at this point.
Greedy psycopaths are all about that though, any sane person would be satisfied with enough. Greed is mainly encouraged in a society obsessed with wealth, psycopathy seems easy to hide under this system since it helps with the greed. We need laws against ultra greed. They say its human nature, violence is also natural except we put the extremely violent in cages. Lets think of something for the extremely greedy, the ones punished only seem to have stolen from others like them, if you steal from the poor, its encouraged.
I wonder. Scrolling and liking stuff on social media maybe doesn’t change the world. But filling Grosvenor Square didn’t stop the Vietnam War either.
On their phones !
I remember in my youth many youngsters would meet in coffee bars, pubs, college etc. and discuss politics. We also had mandatory social studies at college where lively discussions ensued. Social media appears to have killed all that dead.
The discussions still go on, just that they are on line now. This blog is an example.
Unfortunately you’re right. And how many under thirty year olds come here ? This is the wrinkly ranting club, the same people from the 60s/70s still discussing politics. Youth is the future, though not here …
A fair point. Why engage in debate when you have an influencer telling you what to think. Expressing your own opinion can also put you at risk of being being ‘cancelled’, ostracised, by your peers.
Pears Morgaine
Not stopped the representative of the Silent Majority Farage mouthing off or Trump has it?
I will only believe in Freedom of Speech when I can invite myself into Rees- Mogg’s house – sit on his sofa and give him lecture on the benefits of Socialism.
He of course, will de-platform ( a euphemism for not inviting me) and tell me to sod off.
That’s his right and I don’t have the right to demand that he and his lovely family have their ears bent by a pushy Socialist.
By the way – Free Speech is not free – you/me or anyone who shouts their mouth off are liable to get some back.
In some circumstances you can pay for it with your life.
Four Al Jazeera MSM ‘ colleagues and three to four Reuters reporters have been deliberately been popped off by that well know guardian of free speech Netanyahu.
Not a raised eyebrow from their fellow journalists in the MSM and another reason why they didn’t support Julian Assange.
Put more simply; the fear of the US not just Israel.
My recollection of my youth is that it was ever so, just that “influencers” were called “gang leaders” in those days, but the same pressures were there.
I think the fact that most of today’s students are deep in debt makes a difference. Both society in general and students in particular were better off sixty years ago. It’s not just Tik-tok. Freedom of speech is way down the hierarchy of needs compared to employment and shelter.
Better off ! I don’t think so. I’m fed up with people saying it was easier in the past, it wasn’t, I was there !
The difference is that we knew we had to get a job to survive and better ourselves. No bank of mum and dad to bail us out. I accept there were some better prospects for jobs and education was cheaper but the overriding factor was you had to get off your butt to progress. Blair created the false idea that everyone needs a degree, this is total BS. Student debt is self imposed harm. Commonsense has vanished.
Rant over/
I was there too and for starters, students got free education right up to getting a degree, plus, unless their parents were rich, they got a maintenance grant, too which it was, just possible to survive on.
“The difference is that we knew we had to get a job to survive and better ourselves”
It was a bloody sight easier to get a job back then, but it didn’t stop there being deadbeats and dropouts as well. The education system was still demotivating young people, even back then. If more of them are demotivated today, then that is hardly surprising, as it is a cumulative effect. Blair presided over a massive expansion of tertiary education, to the harm of both students and the educational establishments, but this was only a logical progression from the previous education mindset, where the goal was to “better yourself” and go to university. If you didn’t have good enough grades to do that, you were advised to go into a trade, implanting the patronising idea that manual work was somehow second best and that those who didn’t go to university had somehow failed. The post-war education system has a lot to answer for.
I’ve no complaints with the post war education system: cheaper, 3 Rs, good dedicated teachers, and you got something at the end of it. Now, the post Blair education system delivers expensive, badly educated kids with degrees, up to their necks in debt. So, yes, in that respect we were better off – although the reality was that it was a very small minority that went into further education. However, the basic living standards were way lower than we have nowadays so I still contend we weren’t ‘better off’ we had to work for what we had. The ‘better off’ mindset just leads to enabling the government to rob even more from retirees to bribe the ‘yoof’ of today.
Well I’m an oldie too, and it wasn’t easy to get a job with a degree because such jobs were scarce. I recall ringing to ask why I hadn’t been shortlisted for a job, on one occasion, to be told they had 120 applicants, 80 of them with degrees, and they wanted someone with 5 O levels, who was incidentally probably going to be just as bright as the ones who had become expert in stuff most people had no interest in. However the dole paid your rent, and gave enough money for half an hour of electric heater a day, and a bowl of cornflakes. It was fashionable to be thin of course, but low paid waitressing at least provided food. Today’s indebted baristas are in the same position, plus forever debt to go with it.
Students still see collecting their loan in the same way as we saw collecting our grants, but today the wealthy’s intention is to ensure people stay poor, rather than just have a slow start in finding the right post graduate skill set training. Life skills are learnt from experience.
“although the reality was that it was a very small minority that went into further education”
However, events have shown that that small minority was all the country needed. The problem was not the numbers, but who got to go. The solution not to end up with more students with degrees competing for the same small number of jobs that required one, but to emphasise that there were other valid educational goals than going to university.
The whole point of expanding the undergraduate population was to get as many people as possible into debt as young as possible, i.e. 18.
Before then, the main form of large debt was house purchase loans, which had a big effect deterring workers from going on strike for obvious reasons.
As for “influencers”, they are nothing but freelance advertisers for big business – the lot of them.
Growth of radical collective consciousness probably requires a network where most people are in touch with no more than about two or three others.
Clue: this is what the rulers don’t want. There’s a lesson there. We need a scene where if anyone even says the word “iphone” or “facebook” or “substack” or “VPN”, people look at them as if they’re a village idiot, and they know not to do it again.
“Come and listen to the man on the computer network (or even in the park) – he tells it how it really is” – no thanks. We’re beyond all that. No more Speakers’ Corner illusions.
“The whole point of expanding the undergraduate population was to get as many people as possible into debt as young as possible, i.e. 18. Before then, the main form of large debt was house purchase loans, which had a big effect deterring workers from going on strike for obvious reasons.”
The need to pay rent has a similar effect, but sure, the boss class doesn’t like workers who are neither tenants nor in debt. However, I think the main object of getting young people into debt was to normalise the concept of being in debt. Right up to the introduction of the credit card, debt was mostly seen as a bad thing to be avoided. If society was to be changed from saving to buy things and being paid interest to buying things with a loan and paying interest, this mindset had to be eradicated.
I agree with your main point, but if you look back at the 1970s when many working class people in Britain aged in their 20s were encouraged to take out loans of e.g. 2.5 times the husband’s annual income plus 1.0 times the wife’s, so that they could “get on the first rung of the property ladder”, staying put for 25 years while paying back the lender, this was very much seen as getting away from the life of a tenant which in most cases wasn’t so secure, at least at that age. Strikers in the great epoch of wildcat strikes, or strikes that were unionised in the sense of being called by shop stewards, tended to be tenants not mortgaged-up. I don’t blame people for wanting security, and for wanting to raise children in stable conditions, but it was swings and roundabouts.
“I agree with your main point, but if you look back at the 1970s when many working class people in Britain aged in their 20s were encouraged to take out loans of e.g. 2.5 times the husband’s annual income plus 1.0 times the wife’s, ”
I think it was Thatcher who started that. All it did was make houses more expensive, not more affordable. Statistics show, that if a borrower is limited to 1 x annual income, then average house price will be the average annual income. Up that to 2,5 x plus 1, and the new average price will be 2.5 times the average income plus the second income for the same house.
University students seem to be forefront in the ongoing attacks on free speech. Once upon a time people with diverse views, even BNP/NF leaders, would be invited to debating societies. These days speakers get ‘no platformed’ for daring to wander even slightly off message. No, today’s students are cowering in a safe space somewhere demanding their reading lists be censored to remove anything that might trigger them or which might’ve been written by a non-woke author. The chances of them venturing outdoors to attend a major protest are about nil.
What the BNP and NF were saying in the 1970s is now mainstream.
The BNP didn’t exist in the 70’s, Brian. At that time, the National Front* was calling for the compulsory repatriation of all non-whites who’d legally arrived in Britain in the years since World War II, as well as their British-born descendants. Stuff like that only exists on the extremes of the far-right today. I may be wrong, but I don’t think that even the leaderships of Homeland, Patriotic Alternative or Alek Yerbury’s National Rebirth Party are in favour of going that far.
* The NF is still going, though these days they don’t bother with general elections and field just one stalwart in local elections in Derbyshire.
Point taken about the BNP.
Sure, Reform aren’t saying they want Britain to be white on the map, and to repeal the Race Relations Act, and things like that. Not yet. They are just ranting about “woke”, diversity, and getting rid of human rights obligations.
But what the supporters hear is they’re totally different from us, Britain is full, stop ’em coming, round ’em up, send ’em back, and don’t let ’em near our girls.
Boats definitely featured in the far right mentality in the 1970s. “Put ’em all on the boat”, etc. I remember a white racist telling an Indian friend of mine from Kashmir that the day would come when he’d be “on the boat”. That was about 1980.
It’s not rational. Most illegal immigrants come here on lawful visas and overstay.
True enough, the BNP split off the NF in 1982.
Thanks for your reply Brian. Reform are not leading the masses rightwards – they’re just surfing the populist-right wave, adjusting to the ‘vibe shift’. What was unsayable in vaguely polite society a decade ago is now perfectly sayable – it’s very similar to the trans stuff. I’m probably less of a fan of Farage than Galloway is, but I thought he thought he had a very good presser this morning, especially when it came to the journos’ questions. The message came through clearly: Reform are no longer playing your games.
To their credit, unlike the boat people, most illegals don’t claim asylum – even though it’s the economically rational thing to do since they can get free accommodation and £50 a week (plus other freebies) while their claim is processed, and if it’s rejected they can just remain in the black/grey economy. By the way, if Reform do come to power and succeed in deporting 600,000 of them in one parliamentary term like they say, they’d better have a plan for who’s going to do these jobs for sub (current) minimum wage, otherwise London will slowly begin to starve.
—
Thanks for your reply Pears. The split actually happened in 1980, after John Tyndall fell out with Martin Webster*. Tyndall initially formed a party called the New National Front, before founding the BNP in 1982.
* Webster & Farage have a little bit of history, although I’m sure nothing sexual happened. Apparently, a teenage Farage was enamoured with the fact that he and the National Front shared the same initials.
“By the way, if Reform do come to power and succeed in deporting 600,000 of them in one parliamentary term like they say, they’d better have a plan for who’s going to do these jobs for sub (current) minimum wage, otherwise London will slowly begin to starve.”
I suspect what would happen is that the deportations would begin with great fanfare, then as soon as it is realised how this is hurting the economy, Reform will be told quietly to wrap it up by TPTB. It will be a great opportunity them to get rid of anyone “economically inactive” or trying to get better working conditions for the economically active.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. The real powers that be are a simple majority in parliament and King Charles (as he gives royal assent). Reform can achieve the former by getting at least 321* MPs elected at the next GE, and then packing the Lords with 1000-odd life peers. I’d imagine that Reform plan to replace the illegals with currently economically inactive working-age people. Big cuts to benefits and the minimum wage should achieve that.
Elsewhere, I see that Agent Mason is claiming that voting for Your Party or the Greens at the next election will directly lead to the executions of 600,000 people. Even by his lofty standards, that’s quite a shark jump:
https://x.com/paulmasonnews/status/1960431153623478327
* assuming Sinn Fein continue not to take their seats
“The real powers that be are a simple majority in parliament and King Charles (as he gives royal assent)”
Yeah, that’s what we are told to believe. Even a cursory glance at history shows that it is merely a facade.
Thanks for your reply Bayard. May I ask who is in charge of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland then?
You don’t need to know what something is to know what it is not. I can look at a flower and have no idea what it is, but be 100% certain it’s not a waterlily.
Pears Morgaine
St Andrews, Glasogow and Edinburgh Uni’s are safe houses for MI5 and those that undermine Scotland, they are a disgrace, indeed an English man ran the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow for over thirty years – and not once did he put on a Scottish play, Scottish public bodies are awash with those that want to keep the status quo – they are parachuted in to positions of authority and are gatekeepers, many top cops in Scotland are not Scottish they are from NI and England, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
You can’t blame it all on the security services. Britain has a long history of intolerance dating back to the Civil War, and, in religious matters, long before that.
Bayard:
Daniel Defoe wrote the satire The True Born Englishman a stanza of which was referenced in an introduction to one of his republished works.
These are the heroes who despise the Dutch,
And rail at new-come foreigners so much !
Forgetting they themselves are all derived
From the most scoundrel race that ever lived !
“These days speakers get ‘no platformed’ for daring to wander even slightly off message.”
Who by, the students or the universities? It is true, though, that we are seeing the rise of a new Puritanism. In the old days, if you didn’t like what someone had to say, you either didn’t go to the event or walked out if you were already there.
“Where are today’s students?” On the internet. And thinking their portable microwave trackers make them free.
Don’t personally hang out in those parts, but it seems like the forums are not so free as they ought to be:
TikTok has apparently just published its revised rules concerning hate speech, which now forbids referring to Israeli military as ‘terrorists’, following the appointment of a proud zionist and former serving soldier Erica Mindel as public policy manager. Over at Instagram meanwhile, the CEO is Adam Mosseri, an Israeli citizen resident in the occupied Palestinian territories. Episodes of account censorship and restrictions are numerous, it is said, especially those relating human rights abuses in Palestine or relaying the genocide experience …
@ Townsman
We’re like the Germans who grew up in the empire and Weimar trying to explain it to people who grew up in the Hitler Youth.
Ach don’t worry Craig , I’m sure the Brit State fellaters of the snP will be on the case just as soon as they get off their knees , borrow a spine and remember how to spell S.C.O.T.L.A.N.D . Oh and source some invisible ink in the extreme scenario they’re pressured to write a STRONGLY WORDED LETTER .( unlikely )
To save time they could use this template orginally commissioned by his beloved * former * commander ,ie Hans Christian Sturgeon .
Dearest Keir
So sorry to bother you at this time of grave threat to the universally admired ( not least by your adoring fans in Edinburgh ) English way of life ; but I , we ( Mrs Pinny and I , plus all of your faithful servants in the snP Management ) really just wanted to thank you and your outstanding display Cabinet for introducing the Assisted Dying Bill , thus making it much simpler to dispose of those geriatric terrorists which our heroes of Rainbow Polis Scotland bravely apprehended the other day before they could detonate their I.E.Ps ( Improvised Exploding Placards )
Anyway , I won’t take up anymore of your precious Democracy-saving time . Give that evil Vladimir Stalin a hefty dose of Blighty Bellicosity .Thank you so ,so,so,so,so,so much .xxxxx
Your Humble Servant
John Pinny
Head Boy . Jockland PLC
Hello Craig
I hope you will forgive me if I express my amusement at your yet again tilting at legal windmills. You are brave and consistent and dedicated, but you’ll get nowhere. The only thing that matters in those benighted isles is the use of force, and that is how it will remain until the whole stinking mess collapses. And that is not so far away.
I followed closely your own suffering at the hands of the lawyers brotherhood. Have you learned nothing?
A question for you. Did you know that KCs have the power to sit in judgment as a deputy High Court judge?
That is, that a professional advocate and litigator is able to sit in judgement with all the powers of the over mighty British state. So what do you think happens? Yes. A secret though active market in purchased decisions.
It happened to me, when Mr Philip Shepherd QC sought out his good friend John Rogers QC for an Order in my own case against Anglia Television. More such chicanery followed, but my point is that all participants in the legal Mafia know these things. But it is lucrative, and they make a good living, and they operate in a part of London that will never be graced by diversity. Life is sweet.
You are not going to change that.
Only Mr Putin and Mr Trump and Mr Xi can change that. And change it they will.
Quite.
As Mr Murray himself said: ‘My attempts to raise this point in London have been met with a haughty colonial arrogance, which amounts to “so what?” ‘
The ‘truth on the ground’ is that the establishment do what they want, and the UK legal system assists them in that.
Could there be some kind of Scottish legal angle to fight against Reform UK’s promise to round up tens of thousands of immigrants and hold them in army bases before deporting them?
https://www.ft.com/content/5885fdff-cb03-406a-b499-5b5b3df8e4b4
Reform UK is rushing even further to the right to stay within the Overton window as it zooms rightwards, propelled by the Home Office, Elon Musk, the US government, and the Zionists.
“Yusuf accepted that Farage had previously said deporting all small boats migrants was a ‘political impossibility’. ‘His view on that clearly has decisively changed because of the facts on the ground and the fact that we’ve now done the work that this not only can be done, it must be done,’ he told the BBC.”
I.e. they have received their orders, and “here is the news”.
“(Reform UK) has vowed to round up people in surplus army bases, as well as build new detention centres that could hold tens of thousands of people ahead of removal. “
Reform and Farage can be depended on to shoot themselves in the foot before any GE, much like Corbyn will, or else they’ll play the game of tactical voting which guarantees their defeat. Farage is a shyster who really only wants to be in the tory party and then the lords, his influence is fading every time he opens his mealy mouth.
Immigration is a game that NO political party intends to deal with, meanwhile we pay the french to deliver the boats to the RNLI and our shores. And, the boat people are a minority of those hordes entering the country albeit an easy target. Honesty is the only thing that will halt the immigrants, so don’t hold your breath.
Looks like I was right. Musk has a hand in the flag stuff. He does now anyway, if he didn’t before:
https://nitter.poast.org/elonmusk/status/1960230222441193644#m
That is a remarkably succinct, cogent and impressive representation of the Claim of Right provisions. And the first ever to suggest the obvious, that what remains law in Scotland should be used as law in Scotland. (This is particularly true when it forms a condition of the supposed union but is ignored in practice for policy and political reasons rather than the interests of Scottish justice.)
I might contest the statement that the bulk of its provisions are sectarian, (anti-Catholic) given that the bulk of the protections from/prohibitions of government or judicial overreach are what we would now call human rights and that its underpinning principles are the inalienable sovereignty of the people and the inviolability of Scotland’s ‘fundamental constitution’. It does not even include Hanes VII’s religion as a cause for deposing him. If you read closely you will see that he is deposed for violating the fundamental constitution of Scotland, failing to take the legally required coronation oath and converting the legally limited monarchy into an absolute rule. He did this, the Act says, while ‘being a professed papist’. Which may sound as if it’s a reason for removing him but actually has as much force as saying he committed the crimes while wearing a green tie!
One point arising is that the civil protections this act affords the people of Scotland quite clearly establish the law in Scotland as something that exists *for* the people and not for the privileged classes to use as a weapon or a means of control against the population. Another significant difference in the two legal traditions.
“the law in Scotland as something that exists *for* the people and not for the privileged classes to use as a weapon or a means of control against the population”
What is the weather like on your planet? The law upholds the right to private property, in Scotland as everywhere. Start from there.
Reform UK’s poll scores in Scotland for the next British general election have risen from ~7% in the last actual election (Jul 2024) to ~20% now. In England, the party’s poll score has gone from ~15% to ~30% and they’ve been ahead of all the other parties for months.
So at the moment 1 in 5 voters in Scotland are Powellite “Round ’em up and send ’em back”-ist, whereas in England it’s almost 1 in 3.
“The law upholds the right to private property, in Scotland as everywhere. ”
That does tend to imply that you consider everyone who isn’t completely destitute to be a member of the “privileged classes”.
That last sentence is shocking – Zionism is clearly a form of Fascism.
“France has summoned US Ambassador Charles Kushner after he sent a letter to President Emmanuel Macron criticizing Paris for failing to do enough to stem “anti-Semitic” violence
“In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – plain and simple,” Kushner wrote.”
Kushner’s letter:
https://archive.is/wzVUR
Jailbird Kushner could do to Macron what he did to his own brother-in-law. Macron will probably fold, but perhaps they don’t want him in office anyway, or they want to create a “crisis”.
““In today’s world, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism – plain and simple,” Kushner wrote.”
Unfortunately, he’s not wrong. Words change their meaning. How many people use the word “gay” to mean “carefree” any more, or “silly” to mean “innocent”? What is needed is a new term to mean discrimination against people because they are Jews. How about “anti-Judism”? “Anti-semitism” was always a misleading term, given that so many Jews are not Semites and so many Semites are not Jews.
Unfortunately, the good Jews are in the absolute minority. The majority support Israel either explicitly or through their silence. Of the nearly 16 million Jews worldwide I’d suggest the numbers of good Jews number less than a million. Until Israel is democratised the zionist problem will not go away – whatever labels are used.
If what you say is true, then democracy will never work for Israel as the “good” Jews will always be in the minority and overruled by the majority.
An example of a good Jew (and good writer about the internet too, and those are few and far between) is Yasha Levine:
https://www.nefariousrussians.com/p/in-the-name-of-all-jews
Others stopped being Jews when they joined the good side, such as Gilad Atzmon.
Figures are approximately:
Jews in Palestine: ~8m
Arabs (not including Arab Jews) in Palestine: ~7m
Palestinian refugees outside of Palestine: maybe ~6-8m
Jews outside of Palestine: ~9m
The thing about democracy is that it can happen not only that the majority are wrong (as Marcuse pointed out – thanks, Herbie), but also that the majority are a bunch of c***s. See Proposition 14 in California and tell me otherwise:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_California_Proposition_14
You can’t be a Jew and a zionist, they are opposites.
“You can’t be a Jew and a zionist, they are opposites.”
=========
I accept that not all Jews are Zionists and most Zionists are not Jews.
But the only supporters of your claim that I know of are ultra Orthodox fringe groups who believe the state of Israel is a blasphemy, absent the Messiah.
Are there others?
It isn’t a beauty contest or a football match; zionism is a racist, fascist, terrorist, genocide and antisemite ideology, you can’t get more un-Jew than that.
Cynicus: … Are there others?
Gilad Atzmon, jazz saxophonist, writer & philosopher would probably figure:
https://counter-currents.com/2016/10/interview-with-gilad-atzmon-2/
I am no fan of Zionism.
But your OTT sloganeering adds nothing to support your original claim.
@azymax
“I’m not a Jew. I don’t regard myself as a Jew, and I never speak as a Jew.”-Gilad Atzman
That from the link you posted. How dors it support
Squeeth’s claim “You can’t be a Jew and a zionist, they are opposites.”
Mr Atzman claims NOT to be a Jew. He “fails”, if you like, the Ben-Gurion test: “a Jew is someone who thinks himself a Jew”
Here’s one for the Purists:
So, what are we to make of Christian Zionism?
If we are against Zionism a political movement in general based on religion then
shouldn’t the Israeli Zionists be defending them too?
Anti – Christianism?
The UK – THE Christian State?
Stripped down of all its religious nonsense, both are class based and ultimately racist.
If you want to be a member of The Chosen Few you don’t want too many in your God Club.
It’s very select.
Self selected – but select.
Mr Mark Cutts
“So, what are we to make of Christian Zionism?”
=======
Its adherents vastly outnumber world Jewry (Zionist ot not), especially in the United States.
When western politicians and commentators say Donald Trump is the only one with the heft to end the war in Gaza, they forget that.
Christian Zionists are a huge part of his support base. His ambassador to Israel is one of them.
That puts Mr Huckabee is in pole position during these End Times – well placed to enjoy The Rapture, possibly from the Mount of Olives itself.
Tread carefully, Mike: you might disturb the eternal rest of Ghislaine Maxwell’s dad, Captain Bob. His outraged daughter might then threaten to dish the dirt on your boss unless he tells you : “You’re fired.”
Charles Kushner (born May 16, 1954) is an American real estate developer and disbarred attorney[2] who founded Kushner Companies in 1985.
In 2005, Kushner was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering, and was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, which he served in the Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery. As a convicted felon, he was also disbarred in three states. He later received a pardon issued by his son’s father-in-law, President Donald Trump, on December 23, 2020. Kushner has donated significant amounts to Trump’s campaigns. [Wiki]
Another of Satan’s spawn who sits on Trump’s shoulder, whispering in his ear …
One factor in US-French relations right now is the court decision against Le Pen, banning her from candidacy in the next presidential election.
She looked surprised and annoyed by the verdict.
At least the next president won’t be Macron and will therefore be an improvement, whoever it is.
“At least the next president won’t be Macron and will therefore be an improvement, whoever it is.”
Given the experience of the UK, I wouldn’t put money on the “improvement” part of that prediction.
“At least the next president won’t be Macron and will therefore be an improvement, whoever it is.”
Two examples of this thinking: Trump and Starmer. Another potential: Farage.
Careful what you wish/vote for … the establishment always wins.
Banning Mme Le Pen from standing in their GE, is a very foolish act imho and will come back to bite TPTB Francaise on their bums good style. 1. They will create a Martyr. 2. They will create un cause celebre’ amongst her supporters, mainly French Nationalists, probably resulting into a highly visible backlash with unpredictable results. (I suspect that many of the French Police, Security Services and Military hold sympathy with Le Pen and not le petit Napoleon). 4. It makes the idea of democracy in France a laughing stock and strongly hints at “Fear”. No…let her stand, and if she’s trounced at the Polls, (fair & square), so be it. The French people will have had their say, to do otherwise is sailing headlong into stormy waters. OT btw but I too think his wife’s a bloke, and given their age differences a nonce too.
“While the English and Welsh legal system is grounded in common law, relying heavily on judicial precedent and case law, the Scottish legal system is rooted in Roman law principles, emphasizing codified statutes and a civilian tradition that distinguishes it from common-law jurisdictions”
The Scottish legal system also has the Common Law – a strong Common Law, at that. It has been abandoned largely to make room for ridiculous statute (mainly by the SNP who revel in making stupid laws cos they can). The Common Law of Scotland is flexible and, almost all-encompassing, and would have dealt with what are now called ‘hate crimes’ very easily. Murder, rape and other offences are still Common Law offences in Scotland. The deplorable attitude of the SNP (and other parties) to Scotland’s legal system should be an offence in itself. Also, British Law exists, and the recent UKSC ruling on single-sex spaces is part of that. Just because something comes from England does not make it reprehensible, and just because something is Scottish does not make it something to celebrate. If we are to distinguish ourselves from England, we could do worse than repairing the damage that has been done to our own legal system – by us!
I may be wrong, but I thought the UKSC was applying Scottish law when it reached that judgment, i.e. it was sitting as a Scottish court.
No, Brian, it was a ruling based in British Law – which incorporates, but is different from, both Scottish and English Law. The whole self-ID thing which Sturgeon tried to foist on Scotland was a breach of British Law, which is why the Scottish Secretary stepped in and challenged. The 2010 Equality Act is British Law, and is enforceable in all parts of the UK.
There is no such thing as British Law. There are laws made at Westminster which apply equally in Scotland and England- but they are distinct. Scots Law isn’t incorporated into anything else. The SC might align the law but it does not make it into a single jurisdiction.
Without a SC judgement or primary legislation the PA ban might apply on only one side of the border.
Okay, let’s imagine we are an independent state and that there is some correlation between Scotland and Gaza/Palestinian state. How would we go about getting justice for our people if, say, another set of people decided to butcher, rape and take hostage, our citizens? In the distant past, this happened frequently, and history tells us that we invaded, butchered, raped and took hostages in retaliation. For many years, we were in almost permanent warfare against England.
Just because we were smaller, and Gaza is smaller, does not create some kind of parallel like-for-like. English invasion did not stop us from retaliating and nor did superior weaponry. In modern times, England has not sent terrorists over the border to butcher, rape and take hostage, our people, and neither have we reciprocated. Hamas sent Palestinians into Israel to carry out atrocities two years ago. So, what do you think should have happened or do we all think that the Israelis are lying about it, despite the Hamas footage spread all over the internet within hours of the incursion and deaths, etc?
The Ukrainians bombed and attacked the Eastern, mainly ethnic Russian, flank of Ukraine for several years and who were in an uprising against Kiev. Should Russia, setting aside Russian military goals, just have left them to their fate?
Few things are black-and-white. Distortions and lies are told. What we appear to see is not always what is.
“So, what do you think should have happened ?”
Let’s look in the part of the Bible that Christians share with Jews, Exodus 21:23–25, “23 But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. ” How about that?
A better parallel is the invasion of Russia by Ukraine. Here civilians were also butchered and raped. Do you think the Russians would have been justified in bombing every settlement in Ukraine outside the five oblasts to rubble?
Im not saying anything would have been better, Bayard. I’m saying that we simply do not know what is happening in Gaza because we cannot rely on getting the truth, anymore than we can rely on getting the truth about anything much. If we call Gaza a genocide, what do we call Sudan, Yemen, Congo, parts of northern Nigeria, where the loss of civilian lives is very much higher and why are these governments/rebels/terrorists not in the dock, too? In each of these conflicts, the people’s food is stolen by insurgents. The UN had to admit eventually, that, yes, at least a part of the Palestinian civilian food supplies were being diverted elsewhere via UNWRA. That diversion took the food supplies to Hamas or to blackmarket gangs. However, when Gaza is mentioned, the hysteria over Israel takes prime position and no one is allowed to question the Hamas/Qatar/Iranian propaganda. Just what does everyone want the Israelis to do? Lie down and be slaughtered? Why? No one expects the Palestinians or anyone else, to be slaughtered so why just this one demographic? Few situations in this world are black-and-white.
We know, despite the Israelis murdering all the journalists in Gaza (more than in all the conflicts of the 20th century combined) and despite the BBC and the rest of the British media acting as a propaganda arm for the genocidal Israeli state. The popular outrage about Gaza is because it is being done by the UK and the rest of the West.
The rest of what you write is just genocidal hasbara.
Zoot: journalists are being murdered everywhere and always have been. That is the risk of the job. That they may be targeted deliberately could be true, but they were warned to get out of the combat area, as were the civilians. What we have been getting is a one-sided narrative, which is one thing, and we should all know better than to believe everything that Al Jazeera or any other news service feeds us, including the Israeli one. The hospital may have been treated for a reason or it may have been a mis-strike. We do not know.
That is not the point: the point is that people over here are so hysterical about what they perceive to be a genocide, they are not asking questions about motives. For example, South Africa sees a number of white farmers massacred every day. This is the South Africa, many of whose officials are Muslim converts (easily checked) as opposed to Christians, as they once were. When people are being killed deliberately in your own country and they are all famers and all white, you should be asking yourself: is this a small-scale genocide in the proper sense of the word? Except no one does – certainly not in the Un where SA has attained the stature of sainthood for calling Israel “genocidal”. No one questions Sudanese slaughter although the numbers of civilians killed is way, way more than in Gaza. No one asks why so many civilians in Yemen are being killed, again much higher numbers than in Gaza.
No one wonders why the Israelis have not wiped out all Gazan civilians they come across or herded them all into an enclave and murdered them, as the Germans did to the Jews. With modern weaponry, no gas chambers required; they could have done that in a couple of days, problem solved. Except they haven’t, have they? Why are no Arab neighbours taking in refugees? Would you, knowing that Hamas will be seeded throughout the population? Oh, wait, yes that is exactly what the UK does, isn’t it? Let us all hope that we do not become more closely acquainted with the word, ‘genocide’. What is happening in Gaza is horrific, and the loss of life, on both sides, is also horrific, as is the hostage situation. I don’t know what Israel could have done differently to prevent Hamas rising up again. Do you? If you do, why not offer your services to Netanyahu or to the Hamas leadership in Qatar? That would be much more productive – perhaps – than donning a keffiya and taking to the streets over here.
We did bomb Germany to rubble during WW II, Bayard, because that was the only way to stop the Germans. Have you seen the pictures of the great German cities? Millions of German civilians died during the war, and another few million died of starvation after 1945. That is all-out war. We did not drop leaflets over the German cities either, to alert them to the fact that we were coming.
Again, I ask you: what do you expect the Israelis to do to rid Gaza of Hamas? It is almost certain that at least half, if not more, of the remaining hostages have been killed in various ways. Israel did negotiate. It did send hundreds of Palestinians home. Many of them simply rejoined Hamas and carried on fighting.
Eventually, the Israelis will flood the tunnels to flush out any remaining Hamas fighters, but not before they have cleared them and brought out any remaining hostages, dead or alive. Those who have returned, from the negotiations, have told the world that it was ordinary Palestinians who kept them hidden for part of the time – probably those with husbands, fathers, sons, nephews, etc. in Hamas – and that the Israelis were telling the truth when they said that the Palestinian civilians were part of Hamas, too, most of them because their relatives were Hamas.
Considering that Arab women have very little agency, can you explain what they could have done to force their menfolk out of the tunnels? They do as they are told or suffer the consequences. They cannot even protect their own children. I’m not saying that the Israeli government always tells the truth, but a knee-jerk reaction every time they tell us anything is rather pointless. The children were being radicalised in the schools. Radicals always target the young. Our own battle with the ‘woke’ should tell us that, as should the ‘river to the sea’ narrative that so few seem to understand the real meaning of: that Israel will cease to exist.
In medieval times, both King Edward I and his son, King Edward II, raised the Dragon Banner over Scotland. That meant no quarter to be given to women and children, villages and towns to be razed, beasts and grain to be taken and the people left to starve; and all combatants to be hunted down and killed mercilessly. That is genocide. Have the Israelis raised the equivalent of the Dragon Banner? I think not. They could have done so and wiped out Gaza in days, but they didn’t. They could have machine-gunned, bombed and mortared the fleeing people from northern Gaza City, but they haven’t, not as Edward I murdered every living thing in Berwick. Hamas is their target, not the civilians. It could come to a very hard choice, as in Sobibor death camp: try to break out and many will die; but some will get out and live. Perhaps the Palestinian civilians will have to rise up against Hamas and break out of their control in order that at least some of them might overwhelm the Hamas death squads and live.
” ……they could have done so and wiped out Gaza in days, but they didn’t. They could have machine-gunned, bombed and mortared the fleeing people from northern Gaza City,
. Hamas is their target, not the civilians. ”
Aye , that’s right , the Zionists should be commended for only murdering upwards of 60,000 , mostly civilians : so far , give it a little more time and I’m sure they can increase that number exponentially .
If ” Hamas is their target ” why are they murdering people – starving people – queueing for what pitifully little food is being allowed in ? .
You keep trying to find ways to justify what’s going on there ; you keep failing in that attempt .
You’ve bought the whole ” Israel is only defending itself /Hamas are the uniquely evil villains ” lie and continue to propagate it .
Israel has been ” defending ” itself with the blood of Palestinians for 70+ years .
This is the last words I will address to you ; and what you’ve written above the last words of yours I’ll read .
What do you expect the palestinians to do?
Lorn
You get it backwards, why do you imply palestinians are the “nazis” in this equation? Hamas is the inevitable result to the israeli terror that have been going on since 1947, Hamas is a resistance movement generated from the occupation, annexation of their very land. Why is this so hard to recognize? If someone broke into your house, would you not resist?
Israel speaking the truth? Boy what are you drinking today? Israel spends billions on propaganda and disinformation, almost every thing that have been said by IDF since this Genocide started have been lies. How could you not see that?
For example, remember how they for months spread the lie about the alleged Hamas military HQ under al-shifa hospital, – no proof whatsoever was presented when israel took over the building!
As far as genocide: If you kill men, women, children, destroy the water infrastructure, destroy the electricity, block food, block medicine, systematically attack hospitals and other life-upholding services, if you attack schools, mosques, stores well everything and if you add religious genocidal rhetoric one realize very quickly that israel have set out to kill not all but a considerable part of the palestinian people and have made sure the palestinian birthrate is cut down considerably.- that in turn is part of the Genocidal criteria – look it up.
Amnesty, HRW, Doctors Without borders, UN human rights groups, israeli groups like B’tselem & Physicians for human rights along with other experts in the field say that this is a not only a genocide but war crimes and crimes against humanity – Why do you doubt them?
You have simply no idea what a radicalized society israel is, do not be so gullible, innocent children i Gaza die because of people refuse to see what is going on.
What should israel have done you ask? Well obviously following international law to begin with, intetrnational law forbid the crimes of Genocide, Ethnic cleansing, Collective punishment. 7th of october was a symtom, not the cause.
The whole world also support the 2 state solution, but israel stands in the way, they want more Lebensraum, now you earlier implied that you supported the bombing Germany during WW2, why are you not supportive of bombing israel?
If you cage a dog for 5 years in a small confinement, taunt it, provoke it daily, now, do you believe that that dog would be kind if you let him out? No of course not, he would attack you directly, and it is the same here, israelis have treated palestinians like vermin since 1947, if you were born in Gaza you would of course also support the armed resistance.
The doctor who went to work at the hospital only to see her husband and all her children brought in dead a couple of hours later, was a woman. At least one of the 5 journalists killed yesterday in a double tap attack on a hospital yesterday was a woman. A little girl carrying a jerrycan of water home was blown up on camera. She was female. So 28 children a day being selected for death at food checkpoints is targeting Hamas? Do not say women in Gaza are restricted like in Saudi or under the Islamic State occupation of northern Syria. Many are Christian and all have lived in harmony and peace until the Zionist terrorism arrived in 1948. This is a genocide even worse than the Holocaust, perpetrated by a group of people who shelter behind that horrific event to perpetrate worse.
Remember Shireen? She was the news anchor of Al Jazeera, snipered in the back of the head in the press enclosure.
Ahed Tamimi had global audiences but after being detained by Israel her suffering is visible on her face, and too great. And Hind Rajab died live on air calling the emergency services from the car with her dead family as the tank rolled over her.
This is not war. It is slaughter. Unarmed civilians have no defence and our governments are complicit. Human rights must be for all humans and all criminals are subject to the same international law. The hostages were a daring blow struck by Hamas, but Egypt had provided plenty of warning, and the pop up festival location was only revealed to ticket holders the day before. Hundreds of home going festival attendees were torched by Israel plasma flame throwing tank and helicopter gunships in the Hannibal Directive, days after the hostages were taken. That brave Israel journalist who shared all the images had all his computer, camera, and phone hardware smashed by unidentified riot police who smashed into his flat.
This is not a war. It is pogrom, a holocaust, a genocide against the citizens of Palestine, as they are erased by the invading Zionists who wished to steal their land and resources.
So much can be seen with your own eyes if you would care to look. Being anti genocide is not being anti Jew and pretending antisemitism cannot criticise war crimes is disingenuous at the very least. This is not a war. Palestinians have no army, no airforce, no defence. It is a sickening abuse of defenceless people.
Well there we are. The Zionist terrorists threatened us in 1948 and we rolled over and abandoned the Palestinians then. We’re worse now because we are complicit in their war crimes as well
War crimes and indeed crimes against humanity were committed by Allied powers in WW2 against both German and Japanese people, as well as by the German and Japanese regimes. No, the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were not in any way justified. These were major crimes.
As for the Jewish-supremacist Occupation regime in Palestine today, any parallel drawn with WW2 would best draw an analogy between the said regime and the Axis powers, not between it and the Allied ones. Zionism is Jewish “national socialism”.
One could also compare the Occupation with the French regime in Algeria. What will you say next? “Surely the French were justified in what they did in Algeria because the FLN did this, that, and the other”?
Personally I think drawing an analogy between the Occupation of Palestine and French Algeria is quite useful. Those who disagree should perhaps desist from calling “Israel” a colonial regime. (But it is one.)
The palestinians could make similar arguments to justify attacking Israel only they would have a better case since they were already living in Palestine when the zionists showed up.
The British state grasped at strategic bombing after the Great War to avoid the mass killing (of its side) in favour of a method that promised to be quick and cheap. The RAF promoted it as a replacement for armies and navies but did remarkably little homework on the effect of bombing German towns, vastly overestimating the results. Before 1940 people treated strategic bombing like we (justifiably) treat nuclear bombing and the RAF spent most of the war deserting the army and navy whenever it could to pursue the Will o’ the Wisp of a knockout blow.
“Again, I ask you: what do you expect the Israelis to do to rid Gaza of Hamas? It is almost certain that at least half, if not more, of the remaining hostages have been killed in various ways. Israel did negotiate. It did send hundreds of Palestinians home. Many of them simply rejoined Hamas and carried on fighting.”
Lorn
You should be asking what has Hamas and the Palestinians got to do to get rid of the Zionist occupying force known as Israel, there are at least two-UN Resolutions that allow Palestinians and other occupied peoples to take up arms and physically remove the illegal occupiers – in this case the Zionists squatters.
As for sending Palestinian prisoners home, putting aside their awful emaciation and tortured looks on their face – the Zionist squatters just rounded up thousands of more Palestinians, and imprisoned them, one can only imagine the horrors that have – and are being inflicted upon the Palestinian prisoners – held WITHOUT charge.
The Zionist occupying force known as Israel must be completely destroyed, Zionism is akin to Fascism and removing these squatters from Palestine permanently is a must – send them back to their countries of origin – they are committing genocide and – eventually they and the Wests leaders that aided and abetted in this awful genocide – MUST stand trial.
‘Getting rid of Hamas’, an Israeli founded organisation that was supposed to rival Fatah and the PLO, would have been easy, infanticide so to speak.
They should have spent more time thinking hard of the consequences that might arise in future.
Alyson: the Palestinians have (had) rockets and weaponry second to none. Have you been living on the moon? The Houthis, in Yemen, have weaponry second to none while their women and children starve to death. Where do you think the money is coming from and why Israel had to ask the Americans for the sky dome defence system? Yes, doctors, journalists, etc., are killed in wars. Of course they are. People die in wars. People who are not doctors or journalists. I am hardly condoning it all! I see both sides and none all at the same time because I choose to think, to use my brain.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/is-hamas-causing-the-famine-and-other
“We did bomb Germany to rubble during WW II, Bayard, because that was the only way to stop the Germans. ”
That is not true. Bombing German civilians or “unhousing the German population” was completely unnecessary and would be counted as a war crime if the Allies had not been the victors, courtesy of the Red Army. The war would have been no longer if the allies had concentrated on destroying German infrastructure. Unlike WWI, WWII was completely a military victory and did not end until the Soviets had overrun Berlin and Hitler had committed suicide.
“Again, I ask you: what do you expect the Israelis to do to rid Gaza of Hamas? ”
They could have stopped attacking it. You seem to be presuming that Hamas entered occupied Palestine out of badness and spite and to be completely ignoring all the bombing and sniping by the IDF that led up to it. If Israel had stopped attacking Hamas, Hamas would have stopped attacking Israel. Every single attack on Israel since the founding of the state has been preceded by an attack by Israel.
“In medieval times, both King Edward I and his son, King Edward II, raised the Dragon Banner over Scotland. ”
If you are going to delve into history, then the Bible shows that the Jews have a lot of previous in slaughtering defenceless civilians. For most people that makes it worse, not better.
Anyway, I think there’s little point in continuing this discussion as you seem to be incapable of appreciating that killing tens of thousands of civilians in revenge for the deaths of less than a thousand, many of which it is now coming out, were killed by their own side, is very much in contravention to the dictates of the Jews’ own holy book, let alone most norms of humanity. I
Much of the Torah or the first five books of what Christians call the Old Testament is about a local god (personification of what’s good for the Jews) backing his chosen people in the commission of genocide.
“That is not true. Bombing German civilians or “unhousing the German population” was completely unnecessary and would be counted as a war crime if the Allies had not been the victors, courtesy of the Red Army. The war would have been no longer if the allies had concentrated on destroying German infrastructure. Unlike WWI, WWII was completely a military victory and did not end until the Soviets had overrun Berlin and Hitler had committed suicide.”
Okay, so Dresden, Berlin, Hamburg, just to mention three major cities were not bombed and fore-bombed into rubble, then? All those pictures were doctored?
I would not have expected Hamas to murder innocent Israeli civilians more than 20 years after Israel had withdrawn from Gaza. I would have expected them to try to build a decent Gaza. Instead, they built tunnels, or are you claiming that these do not exist?
The land of Israel is very much the land of the ancient Israelites. Archaeology, as well as the Bible, is evidence of that. The Gaza Strip was once home to the Philistines, a Greco-Mediterranean people and was not part of Israel. The West Bank, once Judea-Samaria, was Israelite. Far more Jews have been expelled from the neighbouring Arab states over the past 100 years than have left Gaza. Jews were resident in Israel/Palestine throughout history. The Romans expelled them, but not all, from the land, and they called it Palestina as an insult to the Jews whose mortal enemies were the Philistines.
An estimated 5-6 million Jews were put to death during WW II, and several millions more during pogroms and other massacres, including the Spanish Inquisition. The Wannsee Conference drew up plans to murder ALL of Europe’s Jews. That is genocide in the real meaning of the word.
We can tell how many Palestinians have been killed only through Hamas and Al Jazeera. Other estimates make the total much lower. How many were Hamas fighters? We do not know because we are not getting that information. Any civilian deaths is a terrible thing, but it is not a genocide in any accepted sense of that word. It is a slaughter of innocents, accepted. All wars are, unfortunately, which might be a good reason for not actually starting wars. The hysteria around Gaza is utterly ridiculous when placed in the scales against Sudan, Yemen, Congo, Rwanda, Northern Nigeria…
In Sudan, Arabs are murdering black people; in Yemen, Arabs are killing their own; in Congo and Rwanda black people killed black people, and still are. In South Africa, white people are being murdered every day by black people. Serves them right for being white and for oppressing the black population in the past? The real reason that the cudgels and keffiyehs have been lifted in favour of Palestine is because rich Arab states are pumping millions into propaganda in the West and few are questioning the received narrative. Oh, and because it’s a case of anyone but the Jews. It always has been.
Let Hamas release the remaining hostages, most of who are already dead, either murdered or starved, and call for a ceasefire. It was only partly revenge on Israel’s behalf; it was also to finish Hamas once and for all time, cripple Hezbollah, limit Iran’s capability to send rockets into Israel and cut off the pipeline to the millionaire Hamas leaders sitting pretty in Qatar while their people die. What should the Palestinians done? They should not have allowed Hamas to dominate and terrorize them.
The ordinary Hamas fighters are their husbands and sons, grandsons and nephews. Some of the returned hostages have described in great detail where they were kept initially, and the people who kept them, before they were placed in the tunnels (no Palestinian civilian was allowed to shelter in the tunnels, by the way). As the IDF advanced into Gaza, they picked up some of these people and were able to identify them and their homes from the information given by returned Israeli hostages.
You can all continue to harangue me as you please, but there are two sides to this story and we are hearing only one side. I delved into Scottish history because it has parallels. The Dragon Banner was the signal for Scottish genocide, but we fought back, and we fought back with everything we had, including the burned earth strategy, using methods that are considered now to be genocidal, in return. Wars have not changed; people fighting wars have not changed. Maybe we need to stop wars and armed conflicts altogether? I’m a woman. I can see no point in war. Once it has started, though, I can see why it is difficult to stop until you have forced the aggressor to surrender. What I do know is that, if war comes to Scotland, I, and every other female, will be a sitting target, as will our children. That’s the real problem with wars: it is always, but always, the innocents who suffer. How do you all feel about arming women civilians to defend themselves and their children?
” I’m saying that we simply do not know what is happening in Gaza because we cannot rely on getting the truth, anymore than we can rely on getting the truth about anything much.”
I notice that doesn’t stop you from treating anything that agrees with your preferred narrative as the truth. To be sceptical is good, but suspending that scepticism when faced with anything that you agree with is not. Why are you sceptical that the Israelis consistently lie, but not when it is reported that Hamas are stealing civilians’ food aid?
“the hysteria over Israel takes prime position and no one is allowed to question the Hamas/Qatar/Iranian propaganda.”
Ok, how about “the hysteria over Iran/Qatar/Hamas takes prime position and no one is allowed to question the Israeli propaganda.” Would you not agree that that is also the case, or do you think there is no Israeli propaganda and no hysteria about Iran or Hamas?
No, I have not accepted the opposite narrative as the truth. I have applied knowledge of the history of the area, common sense and scepticism to much of the Palestinian narrative, but I am not stupid enough to believe that ultra, extreme nationalists in Israel would be happy to see the back of the Palestinians. Rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza, from Iran, from Lebanon, from Syria, from Yemen, from Iraq in the past 50 years. They are a part of life for most Israelis. That can be fact-checked. Would you sit back and put up with this? Really?
In 1948, the two-state solution was offered by Britain, and the Palestinian state would have been larger by far than the Israeli state. After much persuasion, the Israelis accepted the solution; the Palestinians did not. Within a short time, the Arab nations invaded Israel. That is documented history. I accept fully that atrocities were carried out on Palestinians and on British troops and civilian personnel, before the establishment of an Israeli state, but the atrocities went both ways.
Zionism means, quite simply, the desire for a homeland. Ultra and extreme Zionism are very similar to Palestinian aggression and, therefore to be deplored. I recall listening to Benjamin Netanyahu many years ago, and he was very astute and foresaw exactly what is happening today. He may well be on the right, but he is no ultra Zionist or even ultra nationalist. If anything, he has held back the extremists in his Cabinet, and, if you think things are bad for the Palestinians now, just imagine what that lot would do if allowed, which would happen if Netanyahu was brought down by Western stupidity.
To recognize a Palestinian state right now would invite the extremists to make their move. Most Israelis today are great-grandchildren and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, and, while there is a strong liberal, leftish lobby in Israel, most Israelis have long memories. I believe that the West Bank will be annexed by Israel, but that, eventually, Gaza will become the Palestinian homeland. I am quite sanguine about being wrong, though, and am a realist and pragmatist, Bayard, not a wishful thinker and hopeless optimist. Sometimes, things have to be left to take their course.
“However, when Gaza is mentioned, the hysteria over Israel takes prime position and no one is allowed to question the Hamas/Qatar/Iranian propaganda.”
Well, perhaps we are all, except you, feeble-minded dupes of propaganda. You might like to demonstrate your superiority by reading and watching this small but fairly representative selection from the “propaganda” I have been absorbing over the last two years, which has driven poor brainless little me into a state of “hysteria” – from having not given much thought to Israel / Palestine before October 2023, although I was deeply disturbed by the insane “antisemitism” witch-hunt conducted against Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters from 2015 onwards.
When you’ve read and watched it all – you are of course immune to propaganda yourself, so don’t worry about doing this – do come back and explain to me exactly what is “hysterical” about it. I think this sample is representative enough that if you can debunk it rationally, you will have succeeded in overturning all of the mental programming that I, and others like me, have apparently suffered during the last two years at the hands of Hamas and others. I will owe you a great debt, because it has been unspeakably painful believing in all of this. Debunk it for me, please, I implore you!
One little quibble, though. “No one is allowed to question the Hamas/Qatar/Iranian propaganda.” There have been a few brave souls who have dared to question it (even though doing so may get them labelled as “terrorists”, have their homes invaded by police, send them to prison, cost them their jobs – oh no, wait, I must be thinking of something else that has those effects). Brave souls such as all the major political parties all across the West, and all the mainstream media. Take heart, Lorn, you are not alone!
Anyway, quibbling aside, here is some of the propaganda I have foolishly absorbed, which people are too frightened to dare to disagree with, apparently:
1. https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/how-israel-uses-an-ai-genocide-program
How Israel uses an AI genocide program to obliterate Gaza
2. https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/gazas-hospitals-are-the-target
Gaza’s Hospitals ARE The Target – by Caitlin Johnstone
3. https://www.972mag.com/israeli-soldiers-gaza-firing-regulations/
‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KzqQymvzFQ
Norman Finkelstein: Does Israel Intentionally Murder Innocent Civilians? – YouTube
5. https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/surgeons-cruelty-israel-gaza
Opinion | As Surgeons, We Have Never Seen Cruelty Like Israel’s Genocide in Gaza | Common Dreams
6. https://archive.ph/dv3bs
‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza | Israel-Gaza war | The Guardian
7. https://www.gazahealthcareletters.org/usa-letter-oct-2-2024
USA Letter | October 2 — Gaza Healthcare Letters
8. https://jonathancook.substack.com/p/complaints-about-hamas-using-human
Complaints about Hamas using ‘human shields’ are the worst kind of bad faith
9. https://www.councilestatemedia.uk/p/gaza-summary-an-investigation-into
Gaza Summary: An investigation into the latest war in Gaza
A surprising omission from your list is the authoritative testimony of Amos Goldberg, Professor of Holocaust Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem:
Yes, it’s a genocide | Pearls and Irritations
Please note that Goldberg just posted this in a year after October 7.
No, I do think I am superior, but I do rely on evidence and am not willing to accept what I am told without a touch of scepticism. Someone said that 7 October was a ‘symptom’. Of what? Bestial behaviour? Those young men were told to target women and children, to kill the men. To take the women and children hostage, rape the women, torture them, kill them, and to mutilate the children. Unfortunately for those ‘brave’, young men of Hamas, within the first 24 hours, we were all able to see and hear the Hamas footage before it was taken down never to reappear. We all saw the hapless young girl in bloodstained trousers, back and front, suggesting that she had been gang violated and sodomized. Later, her naked, dead body was paraded through the streets where Palestinian CIVILIANS cheered and hooted. But, hey, just Jewish women and kids, eh? Serves them right for being there? Unarmed, up against armed men? Who cares?
Well, I care, Twirlip. I care every time I see a female or a child suffer and die in conflicts created by men. Frankly, I am sick to the back teeth of it. Do I care about Palestinian women and children? You bet I do. Only men can stop wars and conflicts. If I could, I’d take all women and children and put them somewhere safe away from blood-thirsty, rapey, homicidal, murderous men. Do I hate all men? No, I do not. However, nor do I see much evidence that men are willing to change their behaviour which is so destructive now that it makes no biological or evolutionary sense anymore – if it ever did. We don’t have to go to war zones to see how destructive masculine behaviours are in the domestic setting. I know perfectly well that it is not all men, but it is far, far too many. Women and children are human beings, too, and one day soon, we are not going to put up with this anymore.
Lorn: your reply doesn’t even begin to address the point of my comment, therefore you obviously can’t expect me to reply at any length to your transparent (and indeed hysterical!) attempts at deflection. By the way, I assumed you were a man, which makes your straw-man tactic of assimilating a genocide – committed and supported by women as well as men – to some kind of sex war even more ridiculous. And your other straw-man tactic, of smearing me as antisemitic (“Just Jewish women and kids, eh? Serves them right for being there?”) is simply scraping the barrel – it’s beneath contempt. Shrill, shallow, two-a-penny, bog-standard, off the-shelf pro-Israeli propaganda, mixed with shrill, shallow, two-a-penny, bog-standard, off the-shelf feminist propaganda! Rant on if you must, but for God’s sake don’t have the nerve to pretend that you’re somehow being highly rational! You’re only embarrassing yourself. I, for one, will simply ignore you from now on.
Whataboutery.
Hamas and PFLP are obviously the good guys. Not perfect, but the good side. Re. Hamas, personally I am in favour of keeping religion out of politics. Let religion be a personal matter only. But that’s maybe not the top issue right now. As Leila Khaled says, it’s easy to understand why religious observance has increased in Palestine in the past few generations.
If you can’t take a joke, don’t hold a party for the master race a short distance outside the fence of a concentration camp. I have sympathy for the children who were not there of their own accord. That’s all.
I would be careful about statements including named proscribed organisations. It’s a good thing that your sentence is qualified by its context, that immediately follows.
Considering that our host’s spectacularly ill-judged tweet – in which he not only expressed support for Hamas & Hezbollah, but also for acts of violence carried out by Hamas & Hezbollah – only resulted in him being detained for an hour at Glasgow airport and having his phone & lap-top confiscated, MJ, I can’t imagine the authorities going to the trouble of getting a Norwich Pharmacal etc to go after our Brian.
Elsewhere, I see that Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells, aka Mike Martin MP, has written to the Home Secretary asking her to investigate Reform’s Zia Yusuf under the Terrorism Act, after he suggested that a future Reform government may give money to the Taliban to take back illegal Afghan immigrants. The polemologist-wannabe midwit seems to have forgotten that His Majesty’s government has recently given £94,000,000 of taxpayers’ money to an actual ****ing al-Qaeda affiliate.
That is relatively easy in the West, barring NI, of course, but Islam is a total life religion as Christianity once was here. Every aspect of an adherent’s life is dictated by the religion. Many Muslim councillors and imams in the Muslim communities in the UK press now for Sharia Law to supersede British laws. About 600-700 years ago, Christians murdered their daughters in ‘honour killings’, too; women wore headscarves and veils; women could own nothing and became the property of their husbands on marriage. Much has changed in the West, and Islam may change in the same ways in the future, but, for now, it is still highly contentious.
“No, the bombings of Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki were not in any way justified.”
I remember being told as a much younger man, by someone who had lived through the war, that the purpose of the Dresden bombing was to kill Germans, pure and simple. Why then? Because the first photographs of the concentration camps had started to be published in Britain. (This is a reason, not an excuse).
I dare say there was something similar behind the nuclear bombings, but it is more likely that it was just that the Yanks had the Bomb and wanted to try it out on some gooks.
Bayard
And to scare/impress The Soviet Union?
When they developed an atom bomb CND was created in Europe.
Not fair doing that according to the West.
That total idiot Hesgeth compared Hamas to the Third Reich. re; Dresden.
I expect his University Professor was crap but well paid.
I did not say they were justified: I said that, once wars are started, they are hard to stop and barbarous things happen; and, usually, the enemy has to be defeated utterly. In no way, would I ever condone either the all-out bombing of the German cities or the dropping of the nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Female leaders have been involved in wars: Boudicca, Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Gold Meir, to name a few. Nowhere could I find evidence to suggest any of them actually started the wars. From research, I gather that each one of them tried everything to prevent war. They were all, however, ferocious in prosecuting them once they had started, and utterly ruthless in destroying the enemy.
Some might say that already there is a set of people who are butchering, raping and taking hostage, our citizens. But curiously our government are quite happy with this situation…
Reform UK has started using a taking off aeroplane on its (superbly designed) arrow symbol:
https://www.ft.com/__origami/service/image/v2/images/raw/ftcms%3A947eb5a4-ea91-4469-9c42-473166e69f70?source=next-article&fit=scale-down&quality=highest&width=700&dpr=2
It has also gone full-scale “Tomorrow Belongs To Me”, publishing a video of two healthy and happy looking young white people in a field:
https://reformfc.com/cdn/shop/videos/c/vp/f11955410ec34a878eb84702e63410b8/f11955410ec34a878eb84702e63410b8.HD-720p-2.1Mbps-55026608.mp4
Even though it’s football clothing, they decided to have the woman wear a skirt! None of this woky “equal rights” stuff for them”!
For comparison:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDuHXTG3uyY
Farage is, like so many of today’s politicians, simply an amoral opportunist. He will do “whatever it takes” to get into power.
PS Thanks for the earworm.
I gather that in the matter of proroguing parliament in 2019, there were contradictory decisions from the English and Scottish courts,
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_(Miller)_v_The_Prime_Minister_and_Cherry_v_Advocate_General_for_Scotland.
They were resolved by appeals to the Supreme Court. But what if no-one had appealed to the Supreme Court? Would proroguing parliament have been legal or not?
Proroguing Parliament is the Royal Prerogative. It exists to suspend Parliament for 2 weeks and invite the Leader of the Opposition to lead an Interim Government until a General Election can be held. Information obtained from Montesquieu, who gave this as the reason why Britain didn’t need to have a Revolution. Proroguing Parliament can be the decision of the Monarch when a Minority Government, like Theresa May’s is unable to get legislation passed by Parliament.
Corbyn should have been invited by the Queen to lead an Interim Government and present Labour’s Lexit Brexit plan to Parliament.
Boris masqueraded as the Queen. He play acted all the Pomp and Ceremony, waving a piece of paper signed by a member of the Queen’s Privy Council. In the weeks leading up to the event a small paragraph on the Times front page declared that the Queen was very angry that Boris planned to usurp The Royal Prerogative. He should have been thrown in The Tower for treason. He got Parliament suspended for 2 weeks to cover the deadline for a Brexit Agreement so that we crashed out without a Brexit Agreement.
Very clever, and pretty dastardly too.
“Proroguing Parliament is the Royal Prerogative. It exists to suspend Parliament for 2 weeks and invite the Leader of the Opposition to lead an Interim Government until a General Election can be held.”
Closing parliament until a GE can be held is dissolution, not prorogation.
Those behind Johnson did well to keep his image up and running and then win a GE with an absolute majority after the guy and his mate Rees-Mogg had been involved in bullshit shenanigans which were so obviously contemptuous towards the national assembly in Britain and all this “democracy” and “rule of law” lark. (I mean you literally had cabinet ministers standing up in the House of Commons – or lying down in Rees-Mogg’s case – and insulting parliament.)
The “Scottish question” was probably a more important factor than inter-branch judiciary vs executive checks and balances (which themselves are largely bullshit when it really comes down to it) in how things panned out.
Ed Davey, LibDem leader will boycott King Charles’ state dinner for Donald Trump:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/aug/27/lib-dem-leader-ed-davey-boycott-king-banquet-trump-protest-gaza
M.J.
August 27, 2025 at 19:00
What extraordinary bravery.. \sarc
As I see it, he acted according to his conscience, in support of Gaza, so good for him.
M.J.
August 27, 2025 at 19:54
I’m just saying that it is a risk free performative action.
Far better if his entire parliamentary party boycott the event.
(I’m not English so really don’t give a shit.)
“Far better if his entire parliamentary party boycott the event.”
As I understand, they have, because only he was invited!
If you’re not English what are you?
Give credit where it’s due.
Curiously Sir Ed has made no complaints about Starmer and Lammy’s role in the Genocide, despite sharing a workplace with them.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/70-questions-the-uk-government-must-answer-about-gaza/
Not relevant and not curious, the Guardian would doubtless say.
And I note that Davey is boycotting Trump over Gaza but not boycotting Netanyahu and/or Israel over Gaza (he is simply asking for tougher sanctions). His empty grandstanding against Trump and the King sums up the gutless hypocrisy of Davey, the Liberal Democrats, almost all other British politicians, and the mainstream media.
“not boycotting Netanyahu and/or Israel over Gaza (he is simply asking for tougher sanctions).”
What’s the difference?
I think it’s a bit misleading to give the impression that Lord Cooper gave a judgement in MacCormick v Lord Advocate 1953 that:
“The principle of the unlimited sovereignty of Parliament is a distinctly English principle which has no counterpart in Scottish constitutional law…”
I may be wrong but, I was of the understanding that that was a very interesting observation, or comment, so obiter dictum, so did not form part of the legal ruling. The court’s legal ruling being that the monarch could call themselves whatever name / title they want. E.g. Queen Elizabeth the Second (in Scotland), even though there had been no Queen Elizabeth the First (in Scotland).
My understanding of the Claim of Right 1689 is that it was not a document creating rights; it, among other things, asserted pre-existing constitutional rights of Scots and set out to detail that the monarch had violated those constitutional rights, so the monarch had been deposed in accordance with Scots’ constitutional rights: James VII’s abuses of power led to a lawful revolution and a tyrant was legally deposed.
Barbarian Times, issue #57686
Posho males in wigs decide woman who keeps a jewelled hat can choose number she wants to be called by.
It will be interesting to see if there will be any reaction in Germany to decisions over Palestine Action made by a UK Court deviating from the current POV.
In the city of Darmstadt for what we know a film event was banned due to it being regarded as support of Palestine Action:
(use google translate)
https://www.darmstadt.de/presseportal/pressemitteilungen/einzelansicht/geplante-filmvorfuehrung-to-kill-a-war-machine-im-theater-im-paedagog
“Direct action is not terrorism
Classification of the anti-militarist group Palestine Action as a terrorist organization is a threat to all social movements”
by Pablo Flock
July 9, 2025
(use google translate)
https://www.imi-online.de/2025/07/09/direkte-aktion-ist-kein-terrorismus/
“(…)
peaceful anti-militarist groups are also currently facing restrictions on their work. For example, a screening of Shut Elbit Down in Darmstadt was banned at almost the same time as the camp ban. The film in question is the film To Kill a War Machine, which documents the direct actions of the group Palestine Action, known for defacement and sabotage at the facilities of the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems and its service providers. The German-Israeli Society and the city administration of Darmstadt claim that the film glorifies terrorism and put pressure on the theater where it was to be shown. In Great Britain, Palestine Action was recently declared a terrorist organization – amid protests from the UN Human Rights Office . There is no such classification in Germany, and according to international standards, protests in which property damage occurs but no civilians are attacked cannot be considered terrorism.
But the police seem to be getting away with it. Shut Elbit Down Frankfurt had to comply with the recently announced ban on the film screening.
(…)”
see:
Dangerous camping ban
The ban on the Rheinmetall Disarmament Camp is an attack on fundamental rights.
August 19th
(use google translate)
https://www.imi-online.de/2025/08/19/gefaehrliches-campverbot/
More on the evil Elbit.
“Britain’s Ministry of Defence might imminently award a 15 year contract, worth £2.5bn, to a consortium headed by the British subsidiary of the Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems and including the US management consultancy firm, Bain and Company.
If successful, Elbit’s consortium would be responsible for training as many as 60,000 members of the UK military.
The consortium seems well-placed to win the contract; it is, in fact, one of only two shortlisted and preferred bidders. ”
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-must-not-award-elbit-a-2-billion-military-deal
Danke AG. Deutschland ist auf dem weg zu 1933.
Slowly I am beginning to feel Heimatlos.
This doesn’t bode well for the UN’s already badly tarnished image – when it comes to the genocide.
“The UN HAS the power to send a militarised peace force to Gaza to forcibly take humanitarian aid in. And to mount a No-Fly-Zone, alongside full-scale economic & military sanctions. Member States must act now! Please share widely.”
https://x.com/MarkSeddon1962/status/1960772492576104958
When it comes to mass murder, the UN is invariably an enabler: Serbia, Libya, Africa, Covid, and now Gaza. What’s the point of the UN ?
Stevie Boy.
This adds fuel to the already raging fire.
“All members of the United Nations Security Council, except the US, have backed a recent declaration of famine in the Gaza Strip’s largest urban area by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a UN-backed body.
The 14-strong countries offered their confirmation in a joint statement that followed a meeting on Wednesday, less than a week after the IPC issued the grim account on the situation on the ground in the Gaza City and its surroundings.”
Two years, or is that 77 years, sat on their arses polishing their trousers, now they suddenly realise Israel is a genocidal monster. I look forward to their declarations and reports on the bloody obvious, NOT.
SB: “What’s the point of the UN ?
Why, to legitimise whatever action Amerikka wants to take, and to sanction and beat up on Official Enemies. It can carry on with whatever else it wants, more or less, as long as it doesn’t bother Official Friends too much. Should it fail to do so, it can be dismissed on the grounds that it can’t do anything.
And it can be completely dismissed/ ignored whenever there’s criticism of Amerikka, or other Official Friends – and use that as an excuse to delegitimise the entire organisation, on the grounds that it can’t do anything.
UN = US, you’ve only got to look where its headquarters is.
Guess who taught the Zionists to burn and demolish Palestinian house, and to shoot innocent civilians dead in Palestine, the Brits, led by this nasty wee Brit – of whom Churchill praised – along with several Zionist terrorists of the day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orde_Wingate
Watch the three- minute clip – on the Brits actions in Palestine.
https://nitter.poast.org/Documark/status/1960972353178935597#m
You’re probably right. However, an ‘honourable’ mention should be made of the Scottish and Irish clearances.
And, also let’s not forget that the USA/colonists initiated this MO when genociding the indigenous people of America, the ‘Indians’.
The spreading of western ‘democracy’ around the globe is more of a curse than a blessing, and it continues …
In England they had the Enclosure (or Inclosure) Acts
https://www.thecollector.com/what-were-the-enclosure-acts/
What would you recommend we replace ‘western democracy’ with; seeing as socialism and communism are also western ideas.
I was thinking of mentioning the enclosure acts too, but I decided not to because clearances and enclosures are not the same thing.
Reference to the fact that much of the Edinburgh bourgeoisie and indeed many of the Highland clan chieftains supported the Highland clearances might be more apt.
But the points that the ruling scum in Britain now are essentially the same as the ruling scum in Britain in the 19th century, and they consider themselves experts on showing the fuzzywuzzies who’s boss, considering them to be subhumans, are more important.
People have fought for communism everywhere. It isn’t an “idea”.
It’s not just the ruling scum. The “proud patriots” of all classes regard themselves as superior to the subhumans everywhere else in the world.
@Bramble – Agreed.
And there seems to be an amazingly low level of consciousness in the part of the English white working class that doesn’t applaud the current flags operation, i.e. who aren’t “proud patriots”, regarding what the operation is all about.
It’s as if they don’t realise that the ruling scum in England have just as much contempt for them as they do for everyone else.
Any major exception to this is probably in London.
Reform UK already have majorities on county councils in Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, etc.
“What would you recommend we replace ‘western democracy’ with; seeing as socialism and communism are also western ideas.”
What we laughingly call “democracy” is not incompatible with socialism of even communism. We might try actual democracy, but a snowball has more chance of surviving in Hell than any European state introducing a political system that separates the ruling elite from the levers of power. Western countries tend to sneer at states that do not suffer under “Western democracy” in one of its many forms, however, at best it is a fairly benign form of oligarchy and, at its worse it is indistinguishable from dictatorship. Despite Churchill’s dictum, there are better ways for the people of a country to choose who chooses who are to rule them, than selection, once every few years, from a list of candidates chosen by a tiny minority.
Pears Morgaine.
No Communism/Socialism – is not an ‘ idea ‘ as it comes from emerging mode of production in Western Economies the UK being the first to practice that mode of production.
You can’t have a Proletariat ( exploited labour) without the mode of Industrial Production.
The peasantry may have worked as collectives but, Unionisation came about due to many of the exploited working in the same factories.
Like all modes of production its character has changed – we are now in the era of Finance Capital and proletarians have diminished.
If you want ideas see Philosophers for guidance on that.
‘ Philosophers have only hitherto interpreted the world – the point however ,is to change it ‘
Philosophy is fine but, once you’ve had a good old think you then have to act on the thoughts.
Democracy has run out of thoughts to act on.
That’s democracy’s cul de -sac.
Capitalism has been a long experiment which is ending democracy.
Communism/Socialism is an experiment but, what needs to be recognised is that your experiment will fail if you do not apply it to the world and not to narrow nations.
If there is one thing capitalism proves is that, these economic/political systems only work worldwide and not in one country.
A crucial lesson to learn.
Mr Mark Cutts: Communism/Socialism is an experiment but, what needs to be recognised is that your experiment will fail if you do not apply it to the world and not to narrow nations.
If there is one thing capitalism proves is that, these economic/political systems only work worldwide and not in one country.
A crucial lesson to learn.
AAArgh. What is crucial is that this false lesson – believed in by so many – should be unlearnt – and cast into the outer darkness. If capitalists thought like that, there never would have been capitalism or any modern economic growth, that Marx was the greatest booster of.
No, “Socialism in One Country” worked and works. Why one Earth not?? The belief that there is some mystical reason it can’t – has wreaked enormous damage worldwide. Comparable to, but greater than all the US imperialist intervention since WWII. This crazy belief has turned socialist parties and socialists into surrender monkeys. Time and again, things are looking up, then the socialist parties snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory. The latest case was Greece ten years ago.
The Soviets proved it was nonsense. The Chinese saw that and never put the slightest credence in it, as it conflicts with beliefs held by all Chinese no matter what politics – that there is a China, that it has been there a long time and will be there for a long time.
In days gone by, Isaac Deutscher, Trotsky’s foremost and sympathetic biographer was ejected from Trotskyite groups because he dared mock this belief – in the obvious way. Had Trotsky, not Stalin won out – he still would have had only one country to play with, and Trotsky would have been peddling the right slogan – “Socialism in One Country”. (And then two, three, many countries).
Economist Abba Lerner went to visit Trotsky in Mexico shortly before he was assassinated – to explain how he had basically proved that any economic arguments that Socialism in One Country was impossible – were nonsense. Trotsky was not convinced. Then Lerner went to a party in Chicago & met his not-quite-student Hyman Minsky, who was the teacher of leading academic MMTer Randall Wray. MMT proves this point in utterly exhaustive detail.
But this horrible idea lives on, destroying minds and movements, impoverishing whole countries again and again – by teaching them learned helplessness and cravenness – for no reason at all.
The way Wikipedia calls Wingate’s death squads “special night squads” that did “counter-insurgency work”!
In Burma, Wingate’s squads were called the Chindits.
That name comes from the Burmese chinthe, meaning “lion”.
And today…the chinthe is the emblem of the 77th brigade.
The guilty have no conscience!
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if SAS and SBS units are being readied to help with the “clearance” of Gaza city.
Surely when the Scottish parliament returns to work on Monday, one of the first things it could look at could be a statement and instruction that the illegal UK parliament law should be ignored and not enforced by Police Scotland, thereby also strengthening the case in the UK law courts for Palestine Action.
Does the law as it stands really matter or is it the government and authority just does as it wishes, effectively when it wishes, leaving those illegally impacted scrabbling about to try and secure.censure and correction of the illegal action.
I think we all increasingly.know the answer to that.
And its happening morecambe more as a rotten police state more and more prevails.
Not difficult to see.how Germany slide down its 1930s path to a police state. And now SircKeir Starmer wants us all to have mandatory digital ID cards – for our protection against immigrants
Pass cards, is there amity.