Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund 326


If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again.

The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.

Through a chain of seven cutout companies, which I will take you through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.

 

Note that Airtanker Ltd states that five of the Voyager aircraft while available to the RAF: “can also be made available to other parties. This can include providing military capability to other nations…”.

Whether the aircraft have been operated by the RAF on behalf of the Israelis, or whether they have been “provided to” the IDF direct, is an interesting question. Is this designed to build in plausible deniability for the UK government?

Eight of the Voyager Aircraft though fully painted in RAF livery, actually are the property of Airtanker Ltd.

It is not plain whether the other six – also the property of Airtanker Ltd but only occasionally used by the RAF – are also in RAF livery. The company does not show any photographs of jets not in RAF livery.

So who owns Airtanker Ltd? Well, the “person with significant control” on the Companies House register is Airtanker Holdings Ltd. They own over 75% but less than 100%. It would be interesting to know who owns the rest.

So who owns Airtanker Holdings Ltd? Well, it is owned – more than 25% and less than 50% – by Airbus, which provides the actual aircraft, and more than 25% and less than 50% by Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd, which presumably provides finance. As both own under 50% it would be interesting to know who owns the rest, and why.

 

So who owns Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd? Well, Equitix Capital Eurobond 6 Ltd is owned by Equitix Holdings Ltd, a company at the same address in the City of London.

So who owns Equitix Holdings Ltd? Well, Equitix Holdings Ltd is owned by Pace Bidco Ltd, a company curiously enough also at the same address.

So who owns Pace Bidco Ltd? Well, Pace Bidco Ltd is owned by Pace Topco Ltd, a company which turns out to be also at the same address!

So who owns Pace Topco Ltd? Well, here, we finally get the name of a human being. It is a Mr Reade Griffith whose address is given as Polygon Global Partners LLP, 4 Sloane St, London.

On another page of the register a Mr Reade Eugene Griffith is given as a Director of Pace Topco Ltd, presumably the same person. This would also appear to be the same individual as the E Griffith Reade who is listed as – amongst other interests – the 10% owner of Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc.

Polygon is a hedge fund. It would appear likely from the register to be either Polygon or Griffith’s umbrella hedge fund Tetragon that owns these liveried RAF aircraft. We have therefore simply no idea who the investors are: it could be anyone from BlackRock to Kim Jong Un. The true ownership is deliberately shrouded in secrecy.

This spaghetti tangle of ownership of RAF aircraft is rather surprising to those of us who naively believed that RAF military aircraft belonged to the RAF, and that the hundreds of billions of pounds the state lavishes on “defence” was used to do things like buy military jets, rather than make rich financiers still richer.

The long tree of subsidiary companies is not only to disguise ownership. At every single stage it provides opportunity for tax avoidance and for other forms of corruption, like consultancy contracts or directorships handed out to the contacts or nominated go-betweens of the politicians and senior civil servants. If you saw a company called Pace Bidco Ltd were giving a remunerative consultancy to the son of an ex-government minister, or to a firm registered to his local landlord, why would that ring alarm bells or connect to the RAF?

To be plain those are entirely hypothetical examples. I am not accusing Pace Bidco Ltd of anything. I merely explain the system.

Defence spending is more prone to corruption than any other form of spending and that is why venal politicians are always extremely keen to boost it. No UK politician has ever proposed to increase defence spending by more than Keir Starmer, who wants to lift it by £120 billion a year.

The RAF’s Voyager aircraft are effectively being provided under the Private Finance Initiative. Exactly how much money the hedge fund managers and this string of companies are taking out of the defence budget is hard to know.

One particularly surprising fact is that it is plain that the private companies are also providing the RAF ground crew. Who employs the flight crews is not entirely clear.

That such an obviously rotten and corrupt arrangement exists in the RAF I had no idea. Some British military personnel are in fact contracted mercenaries. It gives new context to the active RAF involvement in the Genocide in Gaza.

Palestine Action’s excellent act of resistance in vandalising this Hedge Fund Air Force has brought all of this to our attention. Which is yet a further reason to be grateful to Palestine Action.

 

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326 thoughts on “Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

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  • Robert Dyson

    What an amazing situation. Maybe the whole UK is just a shell full of hedge funds that run everything for their profit. Like the RAAC concrete it will all fall down at some point. It’s the end point of Thatcherism where everything is sold off to be rented back forever. No wonder the government is a bit stuck – there’s nothing to sell off anymore – except their souls.

    • mark cutts

      Robert Dyson

      Precisely.

      They do not ‘ sell ‘ their souls – they ‘lease’ them to the highest bidder
      year in – year out.

      They are indeed soul less people living in their soul less world.

      That’s why they all take drugs and try not to look into too many mirrors.

    • Bayard

      “Maybe the whole UK is just a shell full of hedge funds that run everything for their profit.”

      It certainly looks like that economically, the UK is beginning to resemble an ecosystem where the only living things are carnivores. The lack of sustainability of such a system should be obvious.

  • M.J.

    OK, I’ve seen the film To Kill A War Machine. It’s a remarkable film featuring remarkable people, idealists who are prepared to break the law to hinder a genocide, as they see it. I doubt whether I would have the guts to join them, even if I were a young person (which they are). I can’t honestly say I look with favour on smashing up cash machines which I might wish to use, though, even if I understand their reasons – it’s hard enough to find banking services.
    Their main activity presented in the film is to damage Elbit factories in the UK that manufacture armaments liable to be used against Palestinians, with a view to driving Elbit out of the UK. Juries often acquit them when they explain what they are doing. They seem to have had a remarkable amount of success in causing the closure of factories and severing links to other businesses who deal with them, and it may be that as a consequence the government (possibly in response to the Israel lobby) is trying to make life tougher for them. Police appear to be dealing with PA under anti-terrorist legislation just in order to restrict their rights, which looks like an abuse of power by the state. The film also mentions successes (particularly the closure of factories) in the USA and Europe. The proposal to declare them to be terrorists can be understood in the context of this film. See it while you can!

  • Stevie Boy

    The establishment (BBC and government) have really got their knickers in a twist over Glastonbury. Apparently, some popular combos favoured by young people said some hurtful things about genocide. Now the police are watching music videos to identify nasty people so they can be locked up.
    You really couldn’t make this sh*t up !!

    • Alyson

      Unfortunately a chap called villain got the crowd chanting kill the IDF. If they had been IRA sympathisers chanting kill the paras that would have been equally concerning. The Glastonbury crowd immediately forgot that set and enjoyed the next act with happy enthusiasm. These are tricky times. But Zionists citing the music festival in Israel, where helicopter gunships turned homegoing attendees to charcoal statues, as of any relevance really does need calling out.

      Rule of Law and democracy are at stake. Inciting any form of hatred or violence is counterproductive

      • zoot

        The rule of law in Britain allows the government to facilitate (and individuals to join) the IDF in shredding babies. It will soon proscribe any effort to try and stop Britain’s participation. (Or even to express support for anyone trying to stop it).

        • M.J.

          One recent tactic by authorities (possibly influenced by the Israel lobby) seems to be to persuade judges to not allow defendants to explain their moral rationale to juries, and thus not allow them to put their case properly, and therefore not give them a fair trial, and also undermine the principle of a jury trial. I hope defense lawyers make good use of this as grounds for appeal.

      • Crispa

        Bob Vylan is evidently a punk duo (one Bob and the other Vylan). He just put in a more direct way what the other and more famous Bob did back in 1962.
        “Yes, and how many years can some people exist
        Before they’re allowed to be free?
        Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head
        And pretend that he just doesn’t see?—-
        Yes, and how many ears must one man have
        Before he can hear people cry?
        Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows
        That too many people have died?
        The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind
        The answer is blowin’ in the wind”

        • Alyson

          In Gaza’s shattered streets, a child of six did hide,
          Hind Rajab, trapped in terror, with no one by her side.
          Her family gone, their car a tomb, shot through with cruel intent,
          Three hours she begged for rescue, her fragile voice was spent.
          “I’m so scared, please come,” she cried, her words a piercing flame,
          Like Anne Frank’s secret diary, Hind’s call will bear her name.
          A child’s frail heart, a world’s disgrace, in Gaza’s endless war,
          Her echo haunts the silence where justice is no more.
          Hind Rajab, this age’s Anne, her voice will never fade,
          A child’s cry through Gaza’s wounds, a truth that won’t be swayed.
          Like Anne’s pen in hidden rooms, Hind’s plea will light the dark,
          She’s Gaza’s Anne Frank, calling still, to mend our broken heart.
          Three hundred thirty-five bullets tore through that fragile car,
          A tank rolled near, her cousin fell, beneath a merciless star.
          No diary for Hind to write, no attic to conceal,
          Just a phone, her trembling voice, a wound too raw to heal.
          The world heard Anne’s whispered hopes, her dreams through years of pain,
          Yet Hind’s last cries are buried, in Gaza’s blood and rain.
          Two girls, two wars, two stolen lives, their stories intertwined,
          Both speak for those the world forgets, the innocent maligned.
          Hind Rajab, this age’s Anne, her voice will never fade,
          A child’s cry through Gaza’s wounds, a truth that won’t be swayed.
          Like Anne’s pen in hidden rooms, Hind’s plea will light the dark,
          She’s Gaza’s Anne Frank, calling still, to mend our broken heart.
          Anne’s words survived the Holocaust, her name a global cry,
          But Hind’s is drowned in rubble, where the world turns a blind eye.
          From Tel al-Hawa’s shattered streets to halls renamed for her,
          Her voice demands we face the truth, let justice now occur.
          No child should die in hiding, no voice be left unheard,
          Hind’s call, like Anne’s, must shake the world, with every sacred word.
          In Gaza’s cage, where youth is brief, and bombs outnumber dreams,
          Hind’s face on murals sings of hope, through sorrow’s endless streams.
          Her mother weeps, her people march, for thousands lost like her,
          While silence cloaks the guilty, as the powerful defer.
          Like Anne, Hind’s story breaks the heart, a child who bore no blame,
          Her final plea, a testament, forever bears her name.
          From Gaza’s ashes, truth will rise, her cry will not be stilled,
          Till justice dawns for Hind and all, whose blood the world has spilled.
          Hind Rajab, this age’s Anne, her voice will never fade,
          A child’s cry through Gaza’s wounds, a truth that won’t be swayed.
          Like Anne’s pen in hidden rooms, Hind’s plea will light the dark,
          She’s Gaza’s Anne Frank, calling still, to mend our broken heart.
          In Gaza’s heart, where children fall, Hind’s echo lingers near,
          Our Anne Frank of this broken age, her voice we all must hear.
          No peace, no rest, till justice calls, for Hind and every child,
          Her cry will haunt the world.

          FB
          Posted by: Jamie Matthew Deardon

        • Brian Red

          Vera Lynn would have done from me and all other internationalists. The IDF ~ the SS. Israel ~ the Third Reich. Just to be clear. If you want an equivalent of Germany, which is a country, it is Palestine, which is also a country. The Occupation of Palestine should be disarmed and its regime ended. Many settlers hold other citizenships or the right to them, just as in “French Algeria”, and those who do so should be deported, especially given that there are 6 million Palestinian refugees waiting to return to Palestine. Obviously propaganda for the return of ethnic supremacism should be banned. This is nothing like calling for “death to the Jews”, and nobody who calls for things like that has ever been welcome on any pro-Palestinian event I have ever heard of. “Death to the IDF” means thumbs up to the armed resistance to the Nazi-style nuclear-armed genocidal attack force that has murdered tens of thousands of people in the past two years. “Israel” should not be accepted as a country with a legitimate right to exist, any more than the Third Reich or Khmer Rouge were. It is a criminal entity.

          Note that the turd at No.10 is denouncing people for doing things that are legal, just as his friend in the Elysee famously did. Who does he think he is?

          • Stevie Boy

            I imagine lots of things could be happily chanted without the fifth columnists getting excited.
            Death to [eg.]
            Eg. Russia, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houties, England, Jesus, Corbyn.
            ‘Fuck Starmer’. Now there’s a chant with a nice ring to it !

          • glenn_nl

            SB: ” ‘Fuck Starmer’. Now there’s a chant with a nice ring to it !”

            Jaja, I thought that was pretty catchy 🙂

            Odd, though, that No.10 was only concerned with condemnations and stamping out such things. Never gave a moment’s thought as to _why_ people might feel that way.

          • Bayard

            “Note that the turd at No.10”

            Are you referring to “Knight Soil”?

            It looks like the Red Tories are envious of the Blue Tories’ landmark achievement in unpopularity in the C20th. They want to have the most hated prime minister of the C21st.

          • Squeeth

            The zionist occupation doesn’t have citizenship, it has nationality, like that other nazi state from the 1930s.

      • Squeeth

        Are you judge and jury? Using force to stop genocide doesn’t sound like incitement to hatred or violence, at least not when the Red Army did it.

    • nevermind

      Exactly Stevie. Who the f… do they think they are, trying to sanitise artistic expression of a dire social dilemma in NI, or the ongoing murder of women and children in Gaza.
      Glastonbury should not be harrassed and dragged through their spun news coverage, IT IS NON OF THEIR BUSINESS.
      They are actively involved in the genocide and have, on their own behest, joined the list of PA targets.
      They will need to shut up or face the consequences.

  • 100%Yes

    Craig, I know this is off subject by I’d just like to say a big thanks for recent visit to the UN and what your doing for us and our country.

  • Norman

    In a way, this absolutely shocking revelation is ‘nothing’, given that Palantir, a CIA-linked company is helping to run the ‘sacred’ NHS and process millions of private health records. Anyone in their right mind should have opted out of this data grab. If they didn’t spot it earlier they may wish to take legal advice on what they can do.

    Note, a body called the ‘Health Security Agency’ appeared very soon after 2020. But it had probably been in existence for several years before that. I haven’t checked. Funnily, various worthy individuals linked in the past to MI5, MI6, etc tend to appear on the boards of such entities.

    It’s ~25 years since the then Inland Revenue sold its buildings to a company based in a tax haven and leased them back. A very bad decision for the public profit & loss account, because it increases net government expenditure (measured in £ billion per annum), but it probably seemed quite a cosy deal to people who are directors of tax haven companies, including some MPs and ex-MPs.

    • Crispa

      Health Security Agency morphed from Public Health England post – Covid and comes under the Department of Health and Social Care. It was given a snazzier title and branding by the Tory government to suggest that it will offer a more robust approach than its predecessor to deal with the next pandemic when it comes.

    • Brian Red

      @Norman – People’s trust in the state health service that the British elite allows to be administered for its “peasantry” is very scary. It is a certainly a valuable asset for the ruling class, and you know how rich people think of their assets – they put them to “work” for them. That applies to money in the bank, a piece of land, or the “goodwill” attached to a fictitious person or institution. This particular asset has a lot more “work” left in it. Let me emphasise for anyone who is not used to this way of thinking that I am talking about people’s trust in the state health service, not about the state health service. Just look at how trust in the brand has stayed high despite the level of service having fallen through the floor in the past five years, which is to say during the 2020s, not to mention all the lies and crap that have been so evident for anyone with their eyes open for the past half century.

      • Bayard

        “Just look at how trust in the brand has stayed high despite the level of service having fallen through the floor in the past five years,”

        Probably because the frontline workers are still desperately trying to make things work, despite being sabotaged by their senior management and people (but not politicians) respect this.

        • Squeeth

          I worked in the NHS from 1987 to 1992 (latterly as a RNMH student nurse) and left about four months before my finals. The collapse of care standards of care for people who have learning difficulties began with the Community Care Act, that took out the money put in since the 1971 White Paper. As the money left, the incompetence, negligence and corruption came back. Any ‘damning report’ that doesn’t lay blame on the NHS and CCA 1990 isn’t worth a damn. Not that I’m bitter mind.

          • Bayard

            “the Community Care Act”

            Was that the same “Care in the Community” that put beggars back on Britain’s streets?

  • zoot

    Great praise for Craig’s “extraordinary sleuthing” here on the ever-brilliant Decline and Fall show.

    ‘The Centre Cannot Hold’
    Decline and Fall, with Kit Klarenberg and Alexander McKay
    (Article discussed from 1:06:00 mark)
    https://www.youtube.com/live/YpVweeAmVNs?si=HZnkcEzLqBdN5jLv

    It’s referenced in their discussion of the much-hyped increase in British military spending, which thanks to this article we now know will largely go towards lining the pockets of consultants, hedge fund managers and other people in the City of London.. without enhancing Britain’s war-fighting capability in any meaningful way.

    Obviously the Official story being pumped out by MSM – that Britain is aboit to become a serious war-fighting power – will remain unchanged, for all the good that will do.

    • Brian Red

      Hedge funds in London are often based outside the Square Mile of the City. (This is not meant as a pedantic comment.)

    • zoot

      Good discussion later in the show (from 1:50:00) of the claim by the UK Defence Journal – headlined by The Times – that IRAN is behind the Scottish independence movement! Also of the role of Integrity Initiative operative Stewart Mcdonald on undermining the movement from within. Notwithstanding these British ruling-class schemes, it is noted that support for Scottish independence has never been higher.

      Tony Benn is cited on the UK being the last vestige of the British Empire and how its disintegration will be a grave blow to Anglo-American imperialism.

        • Brian Red

          They’re partying like it was 1953. That article is typical “journalism”. Questions are what committee if one is involved (so we can know who’s on it), what else do those MPs do, what contracts are likely to be signed or already have been, who else in the British oligarchy is double-headed eagle boy Pahlavi the aspiring “king of kings” associating with? Presumably he is introduced and addressed as his imperial highness. Hold the front pages – MPs don’t spend all their time abstaining from snorting coke and fighting for better health for the peasants.

    • Bayard

      “the much-hyped increase in British military spending, which thanks to this article we now know will largely go towards lining the pockets of consultants, hedge fund managers and other people in the City of London.. without enhancing Britain’s war-fighting capability in any meaningful way.”

      A glance at the history books would show that this has always been the case, right back to the C16th and probably before that, too. (OK, they didn’t have hedge funds back then, but there were probably equivalent organisations).

  • Brian Red

    It’s interesting who is making up the good side and supporting the Palestinians.
    Big thumbs up to

    * Belfast musical band Kneecap
    * supporters of Celtic football club
    * Greta Thunberg
    * Rosa Hicks of Just Stop Oil
    * the group Support Not Separation and others involved in International Women’s Strike Actions
    * the Irish government
    * the South African government

    The Zionist turd in No.10 Downing Street and his masters seem to want to “elect a new people” by banning or slagging expressions of support for the Palestinians and of opposition to Jewish-supremacist genocide. Not only when it’s damaging warplanes, but even when it’s only expressed by “displaying” a symbol or by saying four or five words in public [*], it’s still dangerous for them. They don’t want it to catch on.

    Yes they have rabies – all racists and fascists have rabies – but they also know their crowd psychology. Crowds can support all kinds of barbaric sh*t, but sometimes when somebody sets a good example they can also do admirable humanitarian stuff too. That’s what they’re scared of.

    And they’ll find it f*cking difficult to tell Celtic supporters to shut their gobs and put down the flags…

    Note
    (*) E.g.
    Free Palestine, from the river to the sea
    Death to the I”D”F
    Up Hamas
    Up Hezbollah
    etc.
    And old words can take on new meanings, e.g. “You’ll Never Walk Alone”

    • ET

      In football, Celtic isn’t alone. There are a number of clubs (Dundalk FC, the town I grew up in, being one other) who have been fined by UEFA/FIFA because fans displayed Palestinian flags at games. A mayor in France recently banned Palestinian flags after a PSG win because “incidents.”

      Ireland has been one of the loudest voices in it’s criticism of Israel but the recent “Occupied Territories Bill” only applies to goods not services for which the Irish government received much deserved criticism.

      https://www.trocaire.org/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-occupied-territories-bill/

      Aaaand, I’ve just discovered this , shocking to me, fact. Ireland is Israel’s second largest export market for goods after the USA albeit at just over 3 billion. That fact has me disturbed.
      https://archive.is/nIdJA

        • Alyson

          Best case scenario, ET: Labour has a vote of No Confidence in Starmer and holds a Leadership election which gives us an ethical Labour Government which enacts legislation to ban second jobs or direct payments from lobbyists for all elected officials in all branches of government.

          It can then tax unearned income the same as earned income and nationalise anything that isn’t UK owned and taxed properly.

          Government responsibility and accountability to the electorate is currently seen as a lower priority to being managed by offshore interests.

          • zoot

            After Corbyn, Labour adjusted the rules for electing a party leader to ensure no decent human being can ever again be selected as a candidate, let alone have a chance of winning. The changes were extremely well publicised and met with uniform approval from the media and other parties.

            PS You did not respond to my request for the Tom Tugendhat principles you admire.

          • Bayard

            “It can then tax unearned income the same as earned income”

            I think that has been the case for many years now. The point is that “unearned” income was taxed at a higher rate than “earned” income in the past, although the distinction is fairly specious and a bonanza for accountants and tax advisors.

      • Brian Red

        Should I call Starmer the honourable gentleman and imagine I’m in a debate or a national conversation about the general interest or ethics?

      • mark cutts

        Q.H. Flack

        True.

        But it makes a lot of people feel better.

        Better than the Orange One threatening another world leader with assassination.

        No bleating from the MSM about that.

        Not even a : ‘ Steady on Old Boy – we’re not savages! ‘

        A Theocracy V a Thickocracy.

        And they don’t come any thicker than Trump.

        Our Thick NATO Commander in Chief.

        Thick as a Brick.

        Jethro Tull had an album called that once.

        It fits beautifully

      • Bayard

        “Callin Starmer a “Zionist turd” may relive your feelings, but it doesn’t advance things.”

        Calling him “Sir Kier Starmer” also doesn’t advance things, but neither does it relieve anyone’s feelings, so, on the whole, the sum total of human happiness is more advanced by insulting him than the correct usage of his name.

  • Tom74

    And maybe Palestine Action are owned by similar people if they got so close to the planes? On the face of it looks a typically clumsy attempt by the Americans or Israelis to turn the British people against the plight of people in Palestine, or force the hand of the British government. Maybe I am doing Palestine Action a disservice, and indeed the RAF, who perhaps let them protest down to their own misgivings.

    • Brian Red

      Historical comparisons include at one end of the scale the Spies for Peace and at the other end Greenpeace. I would give Palestine Action the benefit of the doubt. It doesn’t seem to me they are encouraging people to disempower themselves and concentrate on cheering on a bunch of bronzed heroes on the telly or on the modern telly that’s called the internet. On the contrary even micro things in explicit support of the Palestinians seem to be anathema to the authorities. And there are quite a lot going on. Only a few years ago, most people in Britain wouldn’t have recognised a Palestinian flag.

      Undoubtedly government propagandists are stoking a “well you’ve got to respect the state’s armed forces” attitude. But what do we expect? I count that as a success for Palestine Action.

      Hey hey RAF, You’re killing kids for the IDF.

    • Alyson

      I think we have the definitive verdict here:

      All fascist oppression needs to be called out and stopped by all decent human beings.

      https://www.doubledown.news/watch/2025/june/30/what-really-happened-at-glastonbury?

      And today is the Dalai Lama’s 90th birthday, live-streamed for anyone interested, in which he calls for world peace and an end to all harm to all sentient beings. Such a lovely man. There are people asking for him to reincarnate, but it was always prophesied from the very first incarnation that this would be the last. I read about it in a book published in 1906 when travellers said they could not imagine a Tibet without a Dalai Lama, since the 11th century.

      And I digress completely now. In his autobiography he described the process by which he was found and declared to be the reincarnation. The process was the same as the Three Wise Men from the East, who are said to have presented the baby Jesus with gold, frankincense and myrrh…. And declared him to be the greatest Avatar….

      Please feel free to edit, Mods

  • M.J.

    Regrettably the London High Court has just ruled the sale of F-35 jet parts to Israel to be legal:
    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jun/30/uk-sale-f-35-fighter-jet-parts-israel-lawful-high-court.
    The case was brought by Global Legal Action Network and the human rights group Al-Haq, in conjunction with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam. The judges said that the courts should not intervene in a sensitive political issue that was best left to ministers and parliament. The article contained no report of any plan to appeal.

    • Republicofscotland

      M.J.

      Declassified has picked up the story as well.

      “Judges ruled this morning that Britain’s decision to allow F-35 fighter jet parts to be sent to Israel was lawful, despite concerns about violations of international humanitarian law.

      The 72-page ruling came in response to a landmark legal challenge brought by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq with support from the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), Oxfam, Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

      The claimants argued in court that Britain’s provision of fighter jet components to global pools which supply Israel was in breach of its international and domestic legal obligations.

      The UK government’s lawyers said the F-35 programme was of vital importance to national security, and it would constitute a threat to “international peace” should Britain withdraw from it.

      While Israel’s conduct in Gaza could “in principle, satisfy the physical component of genocide”, the lawyers accepted in court, it was unknowable whether these “actions are motivated by genocidal intent”.

      Genocidal statements by Israeli ministers were dismissed as broadly irrelevant, while assurances of commitment to international humanitarian law (IHL) were treated as reliable.

      Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and finance minister Bezalel Smotrich were deemed to have “limited influence” over Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, though they have since been sanctioned by Britain for “repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities”.

      High court judges Lord Justice Males and Mrs Justice Steyn found in favour of the government, saying the courts “should not intervene in a sensitive political issue that was best left to ministers and parliament”.

      A spokesperson for Amnesty UK responded: “Despite overwhelming evidence they risk fuelling genocide in Gaza, the High Court says it can’t intervene in the government’s decision to keep supplying F-35 fighter jet parts to Israel.

      “The judgment doesn’t change the facts on the ground or the UK’s duty to help prevent genocide. The government must end all arms transfers to Israel immediately”.”

      https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-withheld-evidence-from-court-in-israel-arms-export-case/

  • Republicofscotland

    The Zionist loving British media have been slabbering like Pavlov’s Dog – over the beautiful chant about the IOF at Glastonbury – which is now chanted at other events internationally, what passes for a media in Britain, never got its knickers in such a twist over the Zionists genocide.

    • Melrose

      Beautiful. Another decade or two, and we’ll see all the people of the UK chant against apartheid in Palestine and racism across the globe. Patience is a virtue…
      I wonder whether Pavlov’s dog was pro-Ukraine or pro-Russia? A SMO-trained puppy?
      Go figure…

      • Republicofscotland

        “Another decade or two”

        Melrose.

        Another decade or two – and they’ll be a full blown revolution in Britain – by then things will be so bad that the masses will have no choice – but to take matters into their own hands.

        • Bayard

          ““Another decade or two”

          Considering that all the signs are there for things to go badly tits-up next year, I think even “another year or two” is being a bit optimistic.

    • Melrose

      Sounds interesting.
      But then, can we trust whatever the evil MSM may write? The Guardian, the BBC, The Times and other Daily Mirrors never stop spreading their propaganda about Palestine, Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, Syria, Lebanon and the rest.
      Fortunately, no one here ever cares…

      • M.J.

        Given that powerful people know how to push the buttons of people who will then write propaganda for them in the MSM, we can be aware that it happens, and prefer articles written by people who aren’t beholden to lobbies or a sense of obligation to this or that community. That’s not the same as being their enemies, and so having a sense of obligation to the latter, of course. Other cultural idols, such as ideas of “impartiality” or “neutrality” (which may simply be the current Overton window) in the presence of crimes against humanity, carry the danger of perpetuating abuse or crime.
        Scientific American had a special issue in Autumn 2022 on Truth vs Lies, about MIsinformation, which may be of interest. Here’s an online version:
        https://www.scientificamerican.com/interactive/truth-lies-uncertainty1/

      • Bayard

        “But then, can we trust whatever the evil MSM may write? ”

        Well, if it is bad things about our designated enemies, or good things about our designated friends or lords and masters, it can usually be safely discounted. However, if it is something that you get the feeling that they would have preferred to keep quiet, but the cat is already out of the bag, then it could simply be an exercise in damage limitation, containing a few grains of truth.

    • Alyson

      Courtesy of Alan Rusbridger: “ Back in 2004, a rising star in human rights law, Keir Starmer QC, argued a case on behalf of a protester who had intended to set fire to a B-52 US air force bomber.
      Josh Richards wanted to prevent it from joining the invasion of Iraq, but was caught before he pulled off the act.
      Starmer deployed a then-novel legal argument: that his actions were justified because they were aimed at preventing a greater evil.
      Fast forward two decades. Starmer, as prime minister, is now seeking to proscribe the protest group Palestine Action, which has used similar tactics to Richards, as a terrorist organisation. Donating to them could soon be a crime.
      Did Starmer earnestly change his mind or is he a massive hypocrite?
      “Or maybe he believes in nothing? That, after all, is what a significant slew of even his own backbenchers are coming to assume,” writes @arusbridger.”

      • M.J.

        As I understand (as a lay person), barristers have to follow a ‘cab rank rule’ and can’t refuse to defend people they are assigned to, regardless of their personal views. Starmer would have been obliged to make the best case he could for his client, but we have no way of knowing what his private convictions were (in the absence of external evidence), when he defended clients accused of sabotage for political reasons.
        Arguably the cab rank rule obliges lawyers to be hypocrites, if they don’t believe in the justice of the case they are arguing. But the reason for it is that otherwise, they would only take on cases that they were certain they could win, with the result that many clients might have to go without professional legal help. The lesser evil (in the eyes of the legal profession, I assume) is the status quo.

      • MR MARK CUTTS

        Alyson

        It’s pretty straightforward to myself.

        PA and The Yeminis are obeying the UN Laws of either preventing a Genocide
        ( too late ) or stopping further Genocide.

        The UK comes under that set of Laws as far as I can see.

        Starmer’s an alleged Lawyer so why doesn’t he apply it to the UK?

        If the UK doesn’t abide by it then they are breaking UN Law.

  • Republicofscotland

    Another result – whilst the (CCM) Corporate Controlled Media in Britain, still bitches about the wonderful chant at Glastonbury (DDttIDF).

    “All charges dropped against Mo Chara and Kneecap

    The Met Police have confirmed that they are abandoning all action against Kneecap rapper Mo Chara and that the terror charge laid against him in May has been dropped. A court hearing scheduled for August has been cancelled.

    The force, which says the statutory time limit for the alleged offences has expired – something police and the CPS would have known long before now.

    Police have also confirmed that a wider investigation into the band has been dropped, no doubt leaving the pearl-clutching, genocide-apologist Israel lobby frothing at the mouth.

    Starmer’s ‘lawfare’ war on those who stand against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, to protect Israel from scrutiny and challenge, frequently unravels, no doubt the reason Home Secretary Yvette Cooper is moving to have protest group Palestine Action listed as a terrorist group alongside ISIS and al-Qaeda, making membership of or support for the group a criminal offen e punishable by up to 14 years in prison.”

    https://skwawkbox.org/2025/06/29/all-charges-dropped-against-mo-chara-and-kneecap/

    • Brian Red

      The police are differentiating between summary only and indictable offences:

      https://www.thenational.scot/news/25275184.met-police-drop-second-terror-charge-kneecap/

      The (London Metropolitan Police) has now confirmed to The National that its investigation into the video footage from the November 2023 performance has been completed and no charges will be made against the band, due to the statutory time limit for prosecution expiring.

      In a statement, a Metropolitan Police spokesperson added that detectives interviewed an individual under caution but based on current evidence available, a decision has been made that no further action will be taken.

      The statement read: “A thorough investigation has now been completed by detectives from the Counter Terrorism Command, which included interviewing an individual under caution and seeking early investigative advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.

      “A range of offences were considered as part of the investigation. However, given the time elapsed between the events in the video and the video being brought to police attention, any potential summary only offences were beyond the statutory time limit for prosecution.

      ******
      Since when were “terrorism” offences summary only? What were the alleged potential summary only offences anyway? “We’re the terrorism police but we’re also looking into reports that may suggest you were drunk and disorderly one night a couple of years ago?”

      On the alleged potential indictable offences:

      Relevant indictable offences were considered by the investigation team and, based on all of the current evidence available, a decision has been made that no further action will be taken at this time.
      ******

      Sounds like government comms officials decided it would be bad optics to tell the whole of Glastonbury to keep their mouths shut regarding Zionist genocide.

  • Brian Red

    Deborah Turness, CEO of BBC News, and who

    * was a main figure in creating the brand “BBC Verify”,
    * was previously president of NBC News in the USA, and
    * before that, was editor of ITV News,

    is married to John Toker,

    the head media guy for “security and intelligence”, based at the Cabinet Office, with official job title “Director of Communications for Security and Intelligence, Cabinet Office”.

    This supports the idea that “BBC Verify” is not about nurturing trust in the BBC among the general population who consume its output – but about nurturing trust in the BBC in another, much smaller, market.

    • Bayard

      “This supports the idea that “BBC Verify” is not about nurturing trust in the BBC among the general population who consume its output – but about nurturing trust in the BBC in another, much smaller, market.”

      That being those who decide whether the BBC gets to keep its licence fee, perhaps?

    • Melrose

      We love watching BBC News, and BBC verify.
      Of course, it’s totally CRAP and their staff stinking t***s.
      But how could we tell if we didn’t follow them closely and daily?
      In my humble opinion, the Daily Mail and Guardian are even crapier than the BBC but that’s open to discussion…

      PS Needless to say, NBC and ITV are also full of s**t.

  • Crispa

    So Cooper’s cunning plan is to conflate the non – violent activities of Palestine Action with the openly terrorist nihilism of the Maniac Murder Cult which originated in Ukraine but also active in Russia and whose current Georgian leader has been recently extradited from Moldova to the USA where he will go on trial for inciting all sorts of murderous activities, and the Russian Imperialist Movement. This seems to be a bit of a whacky organisation trying to put the Czar back on the Russian throne. I do n’t suppose the MPs attending the meeting in support of the equally whacky putative Shah of Persia will get the irony. The idea of course is to use the media to create a single image in unthinking minds of Palestine Action as being supposedly as dangerous as these totally unconnected organisations with their associations with Russia.

  • Fat Jon

    I have just read that Iran declares the head of the IAEA to be a paid Mossad agent.

    How true this might be, I don’t know – but his future might be rather short.

    • glenn_nl

      That sounds a bit unlikely, since the IAEA had the same assessment as the Yank’s intelligence services – that Iran was not in the process of building a bomb.

    • Jack

      The whole development is very reminiscent of the UNSCOM investigation team in the late 90s, early 00’s, a UN- team that was supposed to overlook Iraq nucleaf facilities buy were corrupted by US/Israel interests and concocted intelligence:

      “The hijacking of UNSCOM”https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.2968/055003010
      “George Galloway: ‘Undercover Mossad agents’ in UN team” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/207223.stm

      It is the same here, days before Israel attack on Iran, israeli media leaked that the info IAEA base their information on, comes mostly from Israel:
      .”.Much of the IAEA report is based on evidence from the Mossad.”
      https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-857003

      Also, considering how easily Israel infiltrated Lebanon and Iran one can easily imagine how they infiltrate organizations like IAEA too.
      On top of it, the head of the IAEA did not even condemn the brazen attack on civilian nuclear facilities by Israel. Obviously bought and paid.

    • Alyson

      They’ve decided that Iran is behind IndyRef. Probs because First Minister was Palestinian…. Paranoia and invention knows no bounds. I recall his grief when his family was uncontactable. So yes his bias was clear, but ours should be too. This is nothing to do with religion or race, it is quite simply the horror of witnessing suffering which ought to be preventable

  • Jack

    The Bob Vylan/Glastonbury hysteria is the most sickening spectacle I have ever seen, 23 months into the Genocide and THIS is what the western media/politicians focus on?! When some 100 people are killed every single day in Gaza past months – deliberately – this is what media and politicians get their emotions going?!
    And the band said of course nothing wrong. ‘Death to IDF’ they did not say *Death to Israel’ or ‘Death to jews’ but IDF, a specific state-group!? You cannot even say death to IDF?! What world are we living in!?

    This group could have said “Fuck Putin” or “Fuck the Russian army” and no one would friggin care but to say anything negatively about Israel, no that is verboten. BBC World Service had this as their first segment and it went on for minutes and they invited not the artist, no no, they invited antisemitic-experts.

    And US revoked their visas. So much for pro-freedom of speech. What happend with the alleged left-wing-led cancel-culture that the right-wing were supposed to stop?
    Once again one also see the power of the israeli lobby working behind the curtains.

    Speaking on Bob Dylan, little did I know he was a Kahanist. Never liked his music anyway:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meir_Kahane#Support

    • Melrose

      I can see you only use the very best sources of information: the BBC and Wikipedia.
      Regarding Bob Dylan (NOT Vylan lol 🤣), I no longer believe he was blowing in the wind. Now since you don’t like his music, just avoid oldies but goodies radio stations. Also do not attend Nobel Prize awards ceremonies.

      About the other band, I agree with you 100 and 88 percent. If we can’t even wish death to the people we hate, what’s the point of being hateful to begin with? Strange new world!
      Once again, the WEST is totally wrong and the MSM even more!

      • Jack

        I think you are trying too hard with that sarcasm bit. Either you have the gift of using it effectively or you do not. sorry. Tone it down a notch and try again.

        • Melrose

          I can very easily tone anything down, and reading me seems to have quite a positive impact on your language.
          Meanwhile, if you took my comment as sarcastic (while I wrote it as ironic) what particular views do you wish to detach yourself from?
          I love Bob Dylan’s music, and if he is a Kahanist, then I must be the Pope. Nobody around here ever said “Fuck Putin”. So what else?
          I like your comments a lot. Please carry on, Jack!

    • Fat Jon

      But surely the right wing hysteria is deliberate, so they can instruct the BBC to cut any live event which may be criticising anything the establishment don’t like?

      How close to 1984 do we have to get before the population wake up?

      I hear that Jeremy Corbyn is seriously considering launching a left of centre political party. Maybe Craig should join him and create a left leaning party whose policies include independence for Scotland? Given the general disgust at our current politicians’ fear of going against anything Israel does, the whole concept might take off?

      But watch out for immediate Zionist/security service infiltrators.

      • Jack

        Fat Jon

        Yeah the western world is really upside down when there is zero reaction when people actually are killed by IDF day in and day out but if a harmless musician use his artistic freedom to condemn this very IDF, oh all hell breaks loose. This comes just a day or so after IDF soldiers themselves admit that it is them, no one else, that fire live ammunition on civilians at the humanitarian zones.

        When I watched the news segment on this last night I felt like these people: media/politicians are totally detached from reality to the extent that it is pathological.
        This is not even 1984 it is way beyond that.

  • Brian Red

    Israeli “defence” forces have been killing Palestinians in Gaza at the rate of about 1 Aberfan per day, for nearly 2 years.

    • glenn_nl

      And that would be on a population very comparable to that of Wales – between two and three million. Aberfan is well remembered as a devastating event in the valleys.

      That our government – puffed up with pride at the supposed superiority of our Great Democracy – sees no problem with this, except when people are impertinent enough to point it out, less still try to stop it, tells us that we have a failed system at the head of our country. Corrupt, inhumane, and rotten to the core.

  • Heather

    Good digging Craig, I had found lots of dubious companies and activities described as ” culture and news” like a nests of dolls all linked to The Atlantic group even tho some were pretending to be small new media from grassroots of Glasgow, like a lone publisher or editor encouraging the public to send in articles to publish but run by an American based in ..er London or so they claimed with ZERO local knowledge…and that was just a casual follow the breadcrumbs at Companies House.
    So I stumbled across …Effectively tentacles of propaganda and influence and basically covert manipulation.

  • Brian Red

    For this genocidalist theologian with longstanding connections in British government circles, no amount of subservience to his organisation from the British state broadcaster will ever be enough. The idea is that they will always have his organisation standing over them, and the way to enforce abject submission is of course to keep them on their toes and continually sack or humiliate people, all in accordance with the science of behavioural conditioning. (Those who don’t know about this should read about schedules of reinforcement [ text (2,300 words); video (3m 25s) ].)

    This disgusting man condemns condemnation of the so-called “IDF” as “Jew hatred” without even mentioning the Occupation even by the name it gives itself, let alone Gaza or war or genocide.

    Curiously he doesn’t say a thing when opponents of genocide who happen to be ex-Jewish or who still retain a Jewish identity get hassled.

    I wish people knew more about the ultra-racist religion this guy belongs to.

    As Michele Bernstein once said, let’s have No Useless Leniency.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70rrld1nlpo.amp

    The word “Jew” wasn’t mentioned at Glastonbury.

    • zoot

      The Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy did similar in a Commons statement yesterday, claiming that “chanting death to the IDF is equivalent to calling for the death of every single Israeli Jew.”

      The Corbyn era showed these people that they can get away with the most transparent lies/ nuclear-powered gaslighting when it comes to this issue. They know the *entire* British media and political class is on board with the scam and will all p!ay along with it. It also explains why it has been so easy to suppress Britain’s key role in the Genocide and hide it from public knowledge. No one breaks ranks.

      • Brian Red

        Nandy even put a “because” in before that ludicrous statement. She says it’s because the Occupation uses compulsory conscription. So the Palestinians just have to let themselves be killed if the person who is trying to kill them was drafted?

        And who mentioned Jews anyway? Not everyone in the Occupation army is Jewish, any more than everyone in the French army in Algeria was French. Indeed not everyone who is drafted into the Occupation army is Jewish. (See the Druze. Reading of texts is encouraged – not so much the watching of short videos.) Although I realise for Mirvis and Nandy this isn’t about facts.

        • Goose

          Indeed. 21% of Israel’s population is Arab. This includes Muslims, Christians, and Druze who identify as Arab or Palestinian by nationality and Israeli by citizenship. So claiming IDF equates to antisemitism, as ministers have, falls apart at the first examination.

          In that recent Haaretz piece, anonymous IDF soldiers stated they felt like Nazis, ordered to shoot on civilians.

          What is going on is utterly appalling – like some ‘real life’ Squid Game; with those remaining not knowing whether they or family members will survive the day. Imagine the stress of not knowing, and worse, being powerless to prevent the slaughter of men, women and children, who will be randomly killed by bombings that day. Noncombatant civilian deaths a certainty, as every day. These self same scumbag western journos and politicians crying over the IDF taunts, should imagine how they’d feel if they and their families swapped places with the average Gazan family.

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