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The End of Western Pluralist Democracy September 1, 2024: - No major western leader is ever again going to be able to speak about human rights or ethical values, without attracting howls of derision. They are turning on their own people in order to prevent protest at a genocide they actively support. Keir Starmer stepped up the pressure on opponents of Zionist genocide on Thursday with the arrest of journalist Sarah Wilkinson and the charging of activist Richard Barnard, both under the draconian Section 12 of the Terrorism Act which carries a sentence of up to 14 years in prison. The UK MSM has of course ignored these, but is… Pavel Durov and the Abuse of Law August 27, 2024: - The detention of Pavel Durov is being portrayed as a result of the EU Digital Services Act. But having spent my day reading the EU Services Act (a task I would not wish upon my worst enemy), it does not appear to me to say what it is being portrayed as saying. EU Acts are horribly dense and complex, and are published as "Regulations" and "Articles". Both cover precisely the same ground, but for purposes of enforcement the more detailed "Regulations" are the more important, and those are referred to below. The "Articles" are entirely consistent with this. So, for…
The Attack on Truth: Julian Assange and Richard Medhurst August 22, 2024: - Julian Assange was released in the midst of the election campaign and the event was not really given the attention it deserves. Alex Salmond invited me to take a look back with him on what this persecution means and where we are now. I do recommend that you subscribe to Alex's show Scotland Speaks. He is a fascinating and, in my view, admirable man whose public image is massively distorted by the mainstream media. I think you will be pleasantly surprised by the range of topics he tackles and his approach to them, as well as his breadth of intellect.…
Richard Medhurst and the Right to Armed Resistance August 20, 2024: - We were waiting for Richard Medhurst to arrive and join our panel at the Beautiful Days festival, when he was arrested and imprisoned for 23.5 hours. Obviously we were all worried sick about him. I was arrested at Heathrow Airport under the Terrorism Act, Sec 12 because of my reporting.6 police officers were waiting for me at the entrance of the aircraft.I was held for almost 24 hours and questioned.I believe I'm the first journalist to be arrested under this… pic.twitter.com/pbf6q5dXIf— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) August 19, 2024 It is now becoming easier to list the truly dissident UK journalists who… 
The Purpose of Scottish Independence August 18, 2024: - The purpose of Scottish Independence is not to replicate the UK state on a smaller scale with a prettier flag. The purpose is to eschew the imperialist past, stop invading other countries, and build a fairer and more equal society both domestically and internationally. I thank God I was alive and campaigning in 2014 when for a joyous few months a better world seemed within our grasp; genuine transformational change to a better society was almost tangible, we only had to reach for it. In all the speeches I gave in that campaign, I concentrated on international relations, because others… 
We Are The Bad Guys August 12, 2024: - In Murder in Samarkand I describe how as a British Ambassador, when I discovered the full extent of our complicity in torture in the War on Terror, I thought it must be a rogue operation and all I had to do was make ministers and senior officials aware and they would stop it. When I was reprimanded and officially told that receipt of intelligence from torture in the "War on Terror" was approved from the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary down, and it became clear to me that there was a deliberate promoting of false intelligence narratives through torture which… 
Skin in the Game August 9, 2024: - I cannot think of a period in my lifetime when so much was happening in the world so quickly with which it feels that, as a reluctant UK citizen, I have a direct connection and indeed responsibility. Race riots in the UK, the genocide in Gaza, the attacks on civil liberty and decline in effective democracy across the western world, the ever darkening reach of mass surveillance, including of the individual's use of currency; those are just a few of the issues in play and the links between all of them are intimate and inextricable. I do not believe that… Freedom of Speech and the Fascist Wave August 3, 2024: - UPDATE The people of Blackburn scored a vital victory today against the forces of fascism as "Tommy Robinson"'s overweight racist disciples were met with an overwhelming show of solidarity in the street, of which I was proud with my friends to be a part. The fascists like to attack defenceless targets. Faced with the prospect of real resistance, they ran away. Poor little Tommy is not happy in his Spanish hideaway, where he lives his life as an immigrant. Blackburn should be a model of how to face down the fascists. Yesterday I received a phone call from a police… The Israeli Terrorist State July 31, 2024: - It is no longer possible to categorise the nihilistic violence of the Israeli state. It appears to have no objective other than violence and an urge for desolation. In 24 hours Israel has murdered the man with whom it would need to negotiate hostage release in the short term and political settlement in the long term, and a key figure in its most dangerous potential military enemy which has refrained from full-on war. In doing so it has violated the territory, indeed the capitals, of two crucial regional states. Israel has also taken a policy decision that the mass rape…
The Relative Value of Life and Death July 29, 2024: - The cause of the tragic Druze deaths in Majdal Shams was the illegal Israeli occupation in Syria, a fact which the residents of the town are clear about. The large majority of the Druze community in the Golan Heights has always refused to accept Israeli citizenship. That picture is from a demonstration four years ago, but it shows that the Golan Druze know where their allegiance lies, and it is not with their Israeli occupiers. The deaths are a tragedy, and they would be a tragedy if they were Druze, Palestinian or Jewish kids. The right of occupied peoples to… 
The Presence of Evil July 25, 2024: - I have frequently explained that when I sat in the International Court of Justice and heard Israel's lawyers tell lie after lie to justify or excuse the Gaza genocide, I could feel I was palpably in the presence of evil. At least in the Hague you could also feel and indeed observe that most people in the courtroom - including the majority of the judges - were repulsed by the evil. Yesterday that same evil, and the same lies, was manifested in the US Congress by Netanyahu, to an audience which glorified, reflected and amplified that evil. Let us not… 
Who is Running America? July 22, 2024: - There is an argument to continue the convention of referring to the President of the United States as the most powerful man in the world. The dollar has not quite yet been replaced as the world's international reserve currency and Bretton Woods still, creaking and cracking, holds. China is now the manufacturer of the world and its brands are no longer laughable worldwide. The United States has just sustained massive damage to its soft power from its support for Gaza genocide. But China still plays the long game, relying on trade, investment and loans to increase its economic reach. It… 
Existence vs Expansion July 20, 2024: - In its reaction to the International Court of Justice's crystal clear ruling on occupied Palestine, the Labour government has disgracefully attempted to ignore the ruling and to continue the Tory policy of total support for Israel. The UK statement says that: The Foreign Secretary was clear on his visit to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories earlier this week that the UK is strongly opposed to the expansion of illegal settlements and rising settler violence. But of course it is not the expansion of Israel's illegal settlements that is at issue. It is their existence. New Labour's position is that… 
Scotland’s Rampant Corruption July 19, 2024: - Under Sturgeon, Scotland was in thrall of an incredible degree of rampant corruption that included government, civil service, police, prosecutors and judiciary. Listen to this simply stunning speech in Parliament yesterday by David Davis MP and you will understand precisely why I spent four months in jail, almost all in solitary confinement. It is time for a public inquiry, led by judges from outside Scotland. ------------------------------------------------ Forgive me for pointing out that my ability to provide this coverage is entirely dependent on your kind voluntary subscriptions which keep this blog going. This post is free for anybody to reproduce or… 
A Shocking Paucity of Ambition July 18, 2024: - An old man in a comic opera uniform was dragged by carthorses in a gilded carriage through the streets of London, then bedecked in diamonds and more gold, all to very little purpose. That we truly have a uniparty could not be better proven than by a new captain taking over the ship of state, and not moving the tiller one inch, instead merely making minute adjustments to the trim of the sails. Take the centrepiece Great British Energy company, to be sited in Scotland as a butcher's apron branded beacon of unionism. GBE will invest in renewable energy with… 
The Muslim Vote July 17, 2024: - With Gaza genocide as the galvanising issue, in seats where Muslims are over 30% of the electorate, Labour's vote share plunged from 65% in 2019 to 36% at the 2024 general election. In Blackburn, where I stood, Labour's vote share dived incredibly, from 65% to 27%. This in a general election where Labour won a huge majority. The strategy to stand anti-Gaza genocide candidates and show Starmer that Labour cannot, as in the past, take the support of Muslim voters for granted, was therefore a success. Four anti-genocide Independent MPs were elected, taking seats from Labour. However, if you look… 
Assassination and Trump’s Mentality July 15, 2024: - Six months ago I said to a well-known public figure that the US intelligence agencies had destroyed Trump's first Presidency and that, in a second chance, he would have to uproot their entire leadership or simply let them continue to run the country and concentrate on making money for himself. My contact replied that they had recently been told by Tucker Carlson that Trump was very aware of the danger that the intelligence services would have him assassinated. Trump was therefore likely to go for the second option. The last sentence was the musing of my contact, not of Tucker… 
The Election Where Nothing Changed July 12, 2024: - What exactly has changed as a result of that election, other than a different team of snouts in the trough? Starmer's first act as Prime Minister of the UK was to attend a NATO warmonger fest and promise unlimited resources to keep the terrible and unwinnable war in the Ukraine going. In addition he is pledging to increase UK "Defence" spending to 2.5% of GDP, or over £18 billion a year extra - a massive bonanza for the arms industry. Let us be absolutely plain that this is not "defence". There is no country which has any plan or even… 
Scotland and Me July 7, 2024: - I left Scotland during this election campaign simply because I thought I could do more good campaigning explicitly for Gaza in a seat where Starmer could be punished for his genocidal zionism. Scottish independence and the freedom of my own country remains the cause closest to my heart. But although Scotland suffers the drain on its resources of every kind that it has suffered every day of the pestilent Union, Scotland's little children are not currently being blown into pieces. I am therefore justified in my prioritisation of Palestine at the moment. I formed an alliance for Palestine with my… 
The Rejection of Starmerism July 5, 2024: - Millions fewer people turned out to make Keir Starmer Prime Minister than turned out to attempt the same for Jeremy Corbyn. That is the most important fact of this election, and the one the mainstream media works hardest to hide. TOTAL LABOUR VOTE Corbyn 2017: 12,877.918 Corbyn 2019: 10,269,213 Starmer 2024: 9,634,399 I don't think any Prime Minister has ever come to power with less popular enthusiasm than Keir Starmer. Here in Blackburn we had an astonishing result. I was working on projections which had the Labour vote falling from 29,000 to 15,000 which seemed amazing enough. Although on the… More News
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