It is good that details of MPs expenses have got out. I am sad if they were sold rather than leaked in the public interest, but they should have been available, unredacted, anyway.
Having said that, the Telegraph has made a massive pig’s ear of its big scoop. It majors on Gordon Brown paying his cleaner through his brother. That sounds to me unwise of Brown, but really not a huge front page story. I am not convinced Gordon Brown fiddled anything.
On the other hand, Hazel Blears changing her official second home designation three times in a year, in order to get the taxpayer to pay for furnishing all her homes, is simply crooked. As are Hoon’s multiple home arrangements. Jack Straw only paid back his “accidental” excessive claims for mortgage and council tax after the Freedom of Information Act ruling that expenses would be published. The Telegraph throws away the really crooked transactions in the odd phrase.
Straw’s expenses are particularly interesting. He has lived in a series of London government mansions ever since 1997. The taxpayer pays for his Blackburn flat, but his real home is his £1million plus Cotswolds property. Just where Straw gets all his money is an interesting question. Some real investigative journalism into Straw’s relationship with his bagman, Lord Taylor of Blackburn, and the peddling of influence for the defence industry, would be more interesting than anything the Telegraph reports today.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/08/more_lord_scumb.html
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2007/08/theres_good_mon.html
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2009/01/jack_straws_cor.html
But I am struck by the continued government mantra of “It was all within the rules”, which Harriet Harman is being trotted round the television studios to spout this morning. Harriet has the job because she hasn’t made dodgy claims. She is old money. Her family don’t even notice the odd £100,000.
But this idea that it is OK to stretch the rules to the limit – with no worry whether it is right or wrong – is not a minor point. It is done for advantage, so it is immoral, not amoral.
It is an issue which has been heavily on my mind since I gave evidence on ministerial complicity in torture to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights last week. Nobody except me and possibly Cranley Onslow showed any horror at torture. There was instead a discussion on the finest details of whether there was any possible way this may be declared legal, “within the rules”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF9spgagSHI
Even on an issue like torture, right and wrong seems to have disappeared completely from our national political discourse. Is it any wonder they are fiddling their expenses?
Jealousy will cause a lot of in fighting and back-stabbing here. I think contrary to what most commentors seem to believe, that these “expenses” will always have existed as “perks” of the job, and any of the nouveaux riche will have fed greedily at the trough to maximise their “perks” each tax year. That it happens doesn’t surprise me, that anyone else is surprised does.
The whole two party political pantomime involving the vote for either cheek of the same arse needs scrapping, as we will never get a politician who hasn’t been selected by the current system.
The MSM are a tool of the elite albeit sometimes unwittingly. Very effectively controlling public opinion none the less. We will be carefully steered through all this shit ’till the swine flu starts up or Israel attacks Iran.
The whole system needs an overhaul from the top down so that a genuinely representative and accountable government is installed.
Take care guys, ian.
It has always amazed me that during the late 1930s Hitler and his Nazi regime had to work within the legal system to define their ability to persecute and eliminate ‘undesirable’ minorities.
Just because something falls under the statement of being legal does not mean that it is Lawful. We all live under a legal commercial system and most of us presume (with encouragement from those we allow to govern us) that this makes it a Lawful and Just system.
Legal = Lawful is a complete lie.
Those that we have allowed to govern us have usurped our authority and even changed the meaning of words so that whilst we feel what is wrong, one finds it difficult to explain why.
We live in a One party state and as such change can never come through the legal electoral system.
Only by refusing to play this rigged game can one have any hope of true change.
I, for one, refuse to take any heed of deceivers and live MY life as I see fit within the truths I know to be right.
We all need to be the adults that we truly are and not act as the children that need to be governed by ‘someone that knows better’.
They didn’t. Hitler passed emergency laws and established an effective dictatorship within weeks of being elected Chancellor in January 1933.
This is I think the first time I have visited this site and commented. I hope more experienced contributors will forgive my ignorance in some areas, which I am trying to address.
The problem we have is clear and enormously difficult to overcome. A very old and highly organised bloodline of conspirators have achieved such an all- encompassing dominance for such a long period of time in so many aspects of “life” that we live in a world which is almost completely made up of false assumptions and deviant realities. The result, as they anticipated, is that it is impossible for any one person (or in fact any group of people without the organisation and control over resource that governments or the incredibly wealthy have) can perceive the entirety of the false reality. As each generation passes the recruitment and absorption into their system of the people who control all aspects of our lives becomes more systematic, wholesale and complete. They have their controlling influence on the world’s religions, governments and the police, army and security apparatus, on education, on healthcare, in the supply of energy, food and water and via their “global warming” crusade soon to be control over and taxation on the very air we breathe. Their poisoning of food and water supplies and their control over the legal and illegal drug trades designed to dumb down their herd is augmented by their control of the press. Their control of the world’s money supply, their usury and the indebtedness of every nation state and so the whole of mankind to them is the root and branch of their control and the means by which they recruit their apparatchiks.
They decide the issues, they decide the agenda. They always control both sides of every issue and have historically proven their ability to do so. There can be no doubt that they are already taking the lead and will try to assume control of the loose coalitions increasingly found on the internet categorised as “conspiracy theorists”. Knowing their sphere of command and taking as read their ability to carry out false flag operations it is only a matter of time before anyone that visits a site such as this will be categorised as a terrorist, vilified in the press for the “education” of the herd, made an example of and used as an excuse for the introduction of more draconian regulations.
The evil that these people perpetrate is so far ranging as to beggar belief.
Every war is theirs.
Every baby that takes a bullet.
Every person that dies because of their sick control of drug companies’ research and their deliberate burying of cures for the major illness plagues (and probably their promulgation in the first place).
Every person that lives a life of fear; fear of debt, fear of war, fear of acts of terrorism, fear of disease, fear of impoverishment, fear for the future.
All of these can be laid at their door.
What is rarely seen on sites such as these is an answer. This is hardly surprising. What can one man conceive of that can defeat these evil conspirators? They have recruited into their ranks and subverted the morality and bent to their will the finest minds and the most aggressive and psychopathic mentalities for centuries. They have a long established family business, and that business is domination, and they are extremely good at it. The majority of people are ignorant of their crimes and believe the reality these people create for them and scoff at alternative views of reality and vilify and even attack those that propose a different truth, even one that is self evident. Many ordinary people are caught in their web of control as participators and don’t even recognise the fact: the doctor prescribing their drugs, the teacher teaching (unknowingly) false science and false history, the policeman watching you via his cameras, the soldier shooting for a false patriotism defending you from an invented enemy, worse of all the bureaucrats enforcing their regulations , the bank employees selling their usury, the press reporting their world view.
Even amongst this community there are many who cling to elements of the lies fed to them. No man can be truly free of every element of their false reality. We all of us believe in one bit of history that is a lie, buy one product that is a poison, believe in a scripture that they created, follow a blog that they are behind, believe in a misguided notion of supremacy, buy one piece of their system, vote for “the other party”. “We” argue amongst ourselves when unity of a massive scale is required.
When an organisation of such complexity and depth such as this evil empire presents itself the answering struggle has to be either as well funded, well organised, have the same access to media and the same control over repressive forces (police, army, secret services, the entire apparatus of control) as the opposition , or it has to find a different route. That different route can only be an idea. One single, simple, popular, unarguable, achievable concept that can bring down the edifice of control and reshape the world. We can decide what that shape will be afterwards, the important thing is to decide on the one idea and make it happen, right now. Take that idea and spread it in every way we can, through every media we can access (even by spending our own money), in every conversation we have, in every language in the world to every person in the world. One idea that will spread faster than their viruses and more powerfully than they can control.
As John Pilger said in one of his excellent documentaries there are two world powers, America and public opinion. The latter should be harnessed to take from the ruling elite all of those instruments of Government power and control which they currently access via their control of the major political parties in all the world’s democracies.
Maybe that idea should be that, at every election in the world in countries where elections are held, electors choose only candidates who are not and never have been members or affiliates of political parties.
The rallying cry : “Start Again”
I’m not going to nitpick. I do agree with a fair bit of that. The trouble is as soon as any opposition begins to form a coherent structure and becomes a serious threat they will seek to ruthlessly eliminate it. You are quite right that people like us are probably being monitored on this blog right now. I don’t want to see any bloodshed, even for the ‘baddies’. After winning, we can stick them all on the Galapagos Islands or something and hope they evolve. I think, for the moment at least, that our war is to spread enlightenment and knowledge. Things are certainly moving forward in that respect. The internet is very hard for them to control. I’m sure they are looking into it as we speak though! :-0
“A very old and highly organised bloodline of conspirators have achieved an all- encompassing dominance for such a long period of time…”
Names, please! Who are these people? They sound like the devil incarnate. Illuminati? Bilderburgers? Freemasons? Rosicrucians? The Rothschilds? The Vatican? The Fed? Hollywood?
I suppose taking a spine-chilling gallop down paranoia gulch saves you from the trouble of analysing the world situation more sensibly.
We are indeed in a situation where some powerful tails are wagging large inert dogs – always have been – but I don’t believe for a moment that there is a single all-wise all-knowing all-powerful bunch of people manipulating everything. That’s far too simplistic. It also conveniently lets you and me off the hook of taking responsibility for anything ourselves.
I suppose taking a spine-chilling gallop down paranoia gulch saves you from the trouble of analysing the world situation more sensibly.
you mock my friend, yet if you believe that the governments decide issues unpressured by powerful groups of very rich people, then it is you who is disillusioned, or perhaps you are happy with the status quo.
Olive Farmer. well written post. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it.
Yes, I do believe that but I don’t believe it is a single tightly-knit group of super-intelligent omniscient all-powerful titans. I think there are quite a lot of sinister backroom influences at work, but not just one tiny handful of evil bogeymen. If you go down that road, you merely end up feeling more and more helpless and frightened and don’t take any action to improve matters you could in fact have an influence upon.
In fact, I think the situation is much worse than the Illuminati/Bilderburger bugaboo. I think that a growing number of countries’ governments, including the USA and to some extent our own, have been infiltrated by an increasingly powerful international criminal mafia who make no pretence of having any global political interests or goals, and whose sole concern is making money by whatever means they can, no holds barred. They operate in the first place through corruption, and don’t hesitate to resort to violence when necessary. The international drugs trade is a case in point, as is arms dealing. And our current methods of policing fraud are quite inadequate to tackle the problem (witness Blair’s closing down the BAE/Saudi arms deal fraud investigation).
Anticant said: “I suppose taking a spine-chilling gallop down paranoia gulch saves you from the trouble of analysing the world situation more sensibly” and “It also conveniently lets you and me off the hook of taking responsibility for anything ourselves.”
Well hey! That’s great anticant, I think Olive Farmer is utterly and completely right in all her/his analysis, but you are an anti-united front come to sneer with an insupportably superior take on others’ opinions. Who +do+ you think you are? Sensible?
It is spine-chilling to read your words, as obviously you have not understood a single word.
My humble thanks to Olive, a person who is alive and breathing unlike the dead negative mister anti-whatever ….
Dear me. What is it about “No man can be truly free of every element of their false reality. We all of us believe in one bit of history that is a lie, buy one product that is a poison, believe in a scripture that they created, follow a blog that they are behind, believe in a misguided notion of supremacy, buy one piece of their system, vote for “the other party”. “We” argue amongst ourselves when unity of a massive scale is required… (end quote)” that anticant doesn’t understand?
I am no paranoid individual, yet in this high weirdness that we find ourselves I agree with Olive, “A very old and highly organised bloodline of conspirators have achieved such an all- encompassing dominance for such a long period of time in so many aspects of “life” that we live in a world which is almost completely made up of false assumptions and deviant realities. The result, as they anticipated, is that it is impossible for any one person …. [to] ……perceive the entirety of the false reality.”
Name names you cry. Is this sensible?
And Olive Farmer nails it again, “What is rarely seen on sites such as these is an answer. This is hardly surprising. What can one man conceive of that can defeat these evil conspirators?”
Olive didn’t suggest this wasn’t one huge operation. Your double negative not Olive’s. Who said this was a tiny little group?
Well I have an answer. Work for free. It’s the only thing that can break power. Any work, create the meme. Every time I try it I reap rewards ten-fold more valuable in human goodwill than can be calculated in monetary units.
Thank you Craig, for all you do. Many appreciate your efforts.
Some good points anti’ but I still think Olive farmer is not far from the mark. Sal’s also on the money. Nice to see thinking isn’t dead.
Well, Salialioli, if you agree with Olive, fine. There’s no need to sneer at me in such a rude way because I find her thesis too simplistic.
My point is that not everything which happens is the result of deliberate and conscious conspiracy. I grant you there are such conspiracies – 9/11 was one of them – but the series of events they set in train are not pre-planned or foreseen in detail.
Once an event like 9/11 has occurred, there are plenty of ‘useful idiots’ to act out the script. And don’t forget the cock-up theory. Please read my previous post of 9.30am to understand my viewpoint better. My point is that common criminality may be even more influential than deliberate political manipulation.
And if you want to continue debating with me, leave out the personal insults. (It’s not insulting to suggest that someone is rather paranoid. We most of us are these days. And with good reason.)
Your take then anticant on why our government are implementing all manner of police state laws under the pretext of fighting “non-existent” terror?? also the allowing of mass immigration, and the promotion of homosexuality and lesbianism using the press and the film industry. Gordon Brown behind it all I suppose???.
The government drum up all these hugely inflated and mostly entirely empty terrorist scares because they are fed paranoid false intelligence by our very right-wing security services and also by the CIA. After all, there’s a lot of potential career development in professional spookery.
The point I keep trying to make is that while there may well be elements of deliberate conspiracy and ‘false flag’ operations in what’s happening, most of it results from genuine naivety, confusion and alarm on the part of ministers and officials.
But as they are such a cluless and incompeteng lot in so many respects, are you really surprised?
Sorry – my typing’s going to pot.
No problem anticant, take care, ian.