I received this in an email from the local LibDems – as a joke, I hasten to add.
It does cause me some difficulty. I had to dig deep to get past the second question and avoid voting UKIP, but then found it almost impossible to skip past the Greens to my home as a Lib Dem!!
“The Corruption of New Labour: Britain’s Watergate?”…
http://tinyurl.com/66bvjz
Brilliant description of the party leaders here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02gill.html?ref=todayspaper
“Mr. Cameron, the Tory, is personable ?” your mother would like him. A fresh-faced character who tries, and fails, with emotionally winning oratory. He always sounds like the coxswain urging the rowing team to pull together and straighten their straw boaters.
We look at Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat, and try in vain to imagine him going toe-to-toe with leaders like Silvio Berlusconi of Italy, Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel or even the Queen of Tonga. In any other decade, the best he could have hoped for would have been a post as a junior minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, an ambassador’s bag-carrier. He speaks five languages but can’t say boo in any of them. His children all have Spanish names.
Gordon Brown is a character from a tragic opera, twisted by ambition and a Presbyterian sense of fateful destiny. He has waited 13 years, mostly in Tony Blair’s shadow, for this poisoned chalice and has a pessimist’s luck. He wrestles with an Old Testament temper, and it’s said that he has no friends. Certainly, none of them have come out to contradict this. Last week he was recorded by an open microphone petulantly calling a respectable working-class woman he had just spoken to in the street a “bigot.” Off the record, his advisers say they are quite relieved ?” it’s usually so much worse. …”
A very interesting post by Simkin George – thank-you.
From insiders blogging on the now defunct Webcameron we know Cameron has spent many hours inside the MI5 building. Dave Davies warned of a police state and how ‘fear’ would continue to be used to destroy civil liberties in preparation for ‘global governance’ – All parties are committed to this path I agree George – but I believe Nick Clegg to be less corruptible in moves to ‘convert’ to the right.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/28/civil-liberties-government-law-courts
Mark
The above link has 24 pages, bottom left to find page 2. You may have missed it?.
“but I believe Nick Clegg to be less corruptible in moves to ‘convert’ to the right.”
I thought that about a few in New Labour…I was sadly disappointed.
Consultant on Iraq contracts employed president’s brother
Neil Bush, a younger brother of US President George W. Bush, has had a $60,000-a-year employment contract with a top adviser to a Washington-based consulting firm set up this year to help companies secure contracts in Iraq.
Mr Bush said he was co-chairman of Crest Investment Corporation, a company based in Houston, Texas, that invests in energy and other ventures. For this he received $15,000 every three months for working an average three or four hours a week.
The other co-chairman and principal of Crest is Jamal Daniel, a Syrian-American who is an advisory board member of New Bridge Strategies, a company set up this year by a group of businessmen with close links to the Bush family or administrations. Its chairman is Joe Allbaugh, George W. Bush’s campaign director in the 2000 presidential elections.
Other figures at New Bridge include Ed Rogers, its vice-chairman and a senior official in the Reagan and first Bush administrations, and Lanny Griffith, with whom he works in the lobby firm Barbour Griffith & Rogers.
Lord Charles Powell (Jonathan Powell’s father), adviser to former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, is listed as an advisory board member.
Suhayl,
“Ah, the BNP, here it is again. Glory, glory hallelujah. Amen and Omega. Of course Asia is rising. That’s history. It doesn’t mean we had. have to jack-in our manufacturing. Germany didn’t. They were clever. Thatcher and her successors were/ are stupid – or acting on behalf of international finance not the UK. What’s wacky about paying a decent wage? You get better productivity if you do. We are constantly told we need to pay the rich even more to keep ’em here. What about the rest of us? Chinese workers’ wages have risen so much, they now outsource to Vietnam. It all evens out eventually. ”
There seem to be a few points here:-
1. The rise and fall of the economic top-dog is a cyclical process.
2. The type of economic process that depends on oil for production, and the levels of consumption that the US presently enjoys – China is chasing, as is India, Brazil etc. simply does not square with the resources that the world has relaive to the population bases that exist across the globe.
3. In light of 2 above, we are streching the world’s resources to unsustainable limits.
Point three is where the real long-term issue is.
Do you hate politicians cabbing for Israel?
Then vote BNP!
http://www.ldfi.org.uk/
Sorry, ignore my last comment. Here are the BNP Friends of Israel:
http://bnp.org.uk/groups/british-people-that-support-israel
“But that is why I keep referring to their platform. It is the populist platform. So why does no one support it?”
What does “populist” mean, in this paragraph ? How is a platform “populist” if no-one supports it ? Is it one of these “in-group” technical terms that’s about “who belongs to our club”, rather than meaning what any ordinary person would expect it to ?
Alfred – that second link of yours returned a ‘404 – Not Found’ page.
Fascinating that you tell us about Clegg, “His children all have Spanish names.”
I did ask you in a previous thread, but you ducked it – are you a racist, Alfred? Do you regard non-white Europeans as lessor human beings?
glenn
Something strange about Alfred and his true politics?.
Hey Richard
You up in the middle of the night again. Do you work night shifts and do some blogging during your breaks, or do you just have to get up in the night for a pee?
Concerning populism, it should be in your dictionary. But here you go, here’s one definition:
“In general, ideology or political movement that mobilizes the population (often, but not always, the lower classes) against an institution or government, usually in the defense of the underdog or the wronged. Whether of left, right, or middle political persuasion, it seeks to unite the uncorrupt and the unsophisticated (the ‘little man’) against the corrupt dominant elites (usually the orthodox politicians) and their camp followers (usually the rich and the intellectuals).”
If you’d read my earlier comments you would see why I say that, despite the populism of the BNP platform, no one supports it. They do not support it precisely because it is the BNP’s platform — that’s the function of the BNP, to alienate the mass of the people from their own true interest.
How do they do that, do you ask? If so, see conversation above with Suhayl.
Glenn,
Sorry about the bum link:
This should work
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/opinion/02gill.html?ref=todayspaper
Am I a racist? Glenn, let me as you, have you stopped beating your wife?
George:
“something strange about Alfred and his true politics?”
What’s that George? I mean what’s strange?
And what you mean by my “true politics.”
Did I say anything about my politics. I didn’t think so. I was trying to point out some things, that’s all. But if I can clarify anything, I will.
Alfred
Maybe nothing, but something just doesn’t gel about you. I like Glenn pick up some undertone in some of your posts?.
As the old saying goes…Time will tell.
Alfred’s back with his neo-Nazi fantasies again.
It’s blatantly obvious that the BNP are still the same old squalid bunch of fascists that they always were.
Nick Griffin likes to talk about the way he has transformed the party from a racist, anti-semitic homophobic party into what it is now. But what attracted him to the racist, anti-semitic party it was? The fact that he was a racist, anti-semitic homophobe which he still is and which his party still is. The fact is that Nick Griffin has merely attempted to change it cosmetically. This is what he himself has said when he was talking in front of David Duke of the KKK. If you ever listen to their “legal adviser” Lee John Barnes then you’ll find he often forgets he’s no longer a fascist and will leap to the defence of neo-Nazi thugs and criminals that carry out racist violence and vandalism.
The BNP are exactly the same as they’ve always been and you’d either have to be an idiotic Pat Buchanan-reading moron not to think otherwise or a Pat Buchanan-reading fascist to pretend otherwise.
Does it really matter which one Alfred is?
Oh, and nice try with that “Oppose Israel? Vote BNP!” Of course, the BNP hate Israel, the BNP hate Jews. And you’d have to be a moron not to realize or a fascist to pretend otherwise.
Ha, that could be it George: I lack gel! If I had it, I could put it on my hair, or mix it with salt and make a bomb.
But here’s where I find a lack of gel. Polls consistently show that about three quarters of the British population, i.e., nearly all those of long British descent, want a cap on immigration, yet large numbers of people are still enthusiastic for the Lib-Dems, who want to legalize illegal immigration, and New Labor who want to see the immigrant population explosion continue.
Similarly, I find a lack of gel concerning the war. The great majority are against it, yet the parties commanding between them something like 90% of voter support are intent on continuing it.
And I could go on.
What’s going on here, perhaps, is that the contest is more exciting than the policy issues which are not seriously discussed. So folks are for the Greens or the Reds of the Yellows (but not those stinking racist red, white and bluers) and get caught up in the excitement of the contest. In “Count Belisarius” Robert Graves brilliantly describes how, in Byzantium, this spirit of faction was engendered and exploited for corrupt political ends.
Angrysoba, Who apparently cannot read, or cannot be bothered to read, joins some others in helping fulfill the BNP role: namely, to associate populist ideas with Nazism, etc., although no such connection can be established except by insinuation — insinuation that is facilitated, deliberately one has to assume, by the bizarre conduct of members of the BNP.
As for the rest of Angry SOB’s rant, it is just that, an ill-mannered driveling rant not worthy of response.
Alfred
What is pathetic is your view that the British are “A race” or that what you would doubtleas view as “miscegenation” would in some way make Britons any worse. Ethnic purity does not exist, and if it did there is no reason to consider it desirable.
Have Eddie/Larry morphed into Alfred?
Woke up this morning, Bank Holiday Sunday, to hear the phoney Gove on Radio 4 Today extolling the virtues of Cameroon’s Big Society and trying to explain why it doesn’t seem to have had much of a reception in this ‘election’.
Interesting Conservative policy in Blackburn election.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100037654/tories-attack-israel-accuse-labour-of-atrocities-and-promise-to-end-expensive-wars/
Dear Vronsky,
You choose to omit the following sentence from my comment about “strong and stabil” government; that one can argue that we’ve had too much “strong and stabil” government under our twin party system for decades. This is an odd omission. By all means criticize me for what I’ve written, but tailoring my comments like this is a bit primative, no?
Of course much of this debate, like the election, is highly academic. It hardly matters who wins the election, because ordinary people, with limited resources, not me though, are going to be royally screwed over, like the Greeks.
The differences between the leading three parties are minimal, more a matter of style and emphasis, rather than substance. Three conservative factions fighting over who gets to sit at the head of the table of greed and power in our post democratic society.
I’m kinda surprised by the panic over PR that is being expressed here. Born and raised in Australia, I cannot understand what the fuss is about. Australia is neither radical or unstable, in fact its much too conservative for my taste. The same is true for the European states that use PR.
Regarding minor parties holding too much power, voters for the minor parties expect the smaller parties to be responsible with the power they are given. If the smaller parties are seen to be misusing the power entrusted to them, voters generally withdraw their support very quickly. A good example of this can seen with the Australian Democrats, once the most significant minor party, it now barely exists after betraying the voters and making deals for their own political gain. The Greens instantly filled the vacuum left by the Democrats and the political system is as stable as ever.
BTW it is now controversial to quote Billy Connelly on this blog? Are our ears (eyes) so sensitive? I’m actually offended that people are offended. Swearing is a beautiful thing, and can be quite profound when used in the correct manner. I highly recommend Bill Hicks Rant in E-Minor as an example of this. Personally I have never understood the hype over George Carlin, he is just like Bill Hicks minus the insight, spirituality and humour.
I don’t buy Alfred’s argument quite as he puts it, but I suspect that the existence of the BNP is indeed convenient for the other parties, in a ‘look – there’s someone worse than us!’ sort of way. The above-mentioned Anti-Nazi League and kindred groups frizzle away their energy throwing eggs at Griffin, while the nazis running the country, and its foreign wars, escape similar attention.
It reminds me of that faintly disgusting photo of Brown and his wife posing outside Auschwitz. ‘Look’ it says ‘we are not them.’
“By all means criticize me for what I’ve written, but tailoring my comments like this is a bit primative, no?”
My apologies, writerman – skimming through the posts too quickly.
Gordon Duff on Opinion Maker.
http://opinion-maker.org/2010/05/times-square-bomb-hoax/
Was there a false flag on the car roof?
Yes, I agree, Vronsky. I think that although I disagree with one of his central theses – the ‘race’/ birth-rate one to which Craig and others already have allude – I think Alfred does make some excellent points. I sense he’s also being rhetorical/ Devil’s Advocate at times in relation to the BNP in order to stimulate lateral thinking.
Also, over many years there have been quite serious concerns reportedly expressed in relation to some anti-fascist organisations, Searchlight in particular. The UAF, too; it’s not just Alred, I’ve read other material on this subject. It’s not that these bodies are not full of entirely sincere grassroots members who hate racism, fascism, etc. – they are – but some of the organisations are alkso being used by the mainstream political parties and/ or the hard state. So, we have the hardstate manipulating/ instrumentalising both fascists and anti-fascists. But what’s new? It’s not that ‘they’ are omnipotent – not yet! – but this is how such organisations work to best maintain power in the hands of those for whom they work. They’ll set up front organisations to draw people away from genuine ones and they’ll infiltrate genuine ones to manipulate them. Look at what happened to the anti-arms trade organisation – CAAT – allegedly they were infiltrated by a sophisticated UK state spy-ring.
So, whether the leadership of the BNP are deliberately posing as a hard state outfit (i.e. whether it’s an organised strategy) or are just doing what politicians do and trying to gain maximal populist power, in some ways it has the same end result. It serves the interests of the main political parties, esp. Labour and Conservatives and the interests of those whom now they serve.
I wonder where the bnp are getting their money from to field so many candidates in this election?. Not that long ago I heard they were broke?.
We in the The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition… http://www.tusc.org.uk/ …can only manage to field 42 candidates in the UK.
Tonight jack is attempting to treat some more people, its an open event and the police is ‘stretched’ with a Blackburn home game at Ewood park.
The campaigns manager of jack got a ticking off for feeding the masses and told in no uncertain terms to not do it again, tonight he will.
So we all know what will happen, nowt!
enjoy your squabblin, you ahebv been so very active during this election, without moving from your chairs, bar Craig that is, who’s valuable work once again has set examples to us all.
“What I say to people on the doorstep is we will only cut your throat slowly, the others will cut your head off” was a comment of New Labour MP for Blyth Valley in the North East, Ronnie Campbell, in a local paper. This message has been mirrored by New Labour chancellor Alistair Darling, when he admitted that public sector cuts will be ‘deeper and tougher’ than under the hated Tory regime of Margaret Thatcher.”
“Elaine Brunskill, Tyneside Socialist Party”
http://tinyurl.com/2v8g69o