I am giving a talk at Occupy London’s Tent City University by St Paul’s at noon tomorrow. Many thanks to all who responded to my request to help the logistics of this. I am going to donate some copies of Murder in Samarkand and The Catholic Orangemen of Togo for people to read on the occupation.
I shall also be giving a talk at the Chapter Theatre, Cardiff on 13th November at 2.30pm, for Freedom from Torture (formerly the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture). This is a wonderful organisation which, among other things, does fantastic work for torture victims who are in the UK.
If anyone knows where I am giving a talk on 8 November please let me know!!!!
@Stephen – I think you and I have debated in the past. Please go easy on people here – Craig and most folks here welcome opposing views, but civility is requested of everyone. Mary and MJ are valuable and well-informed commenters on this blog, and are hardly clueless.
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I hope you can take my suggestion in the positive spirit it is intended – and with the notion that if one intends to persuade people to a particular position, one needs to get them on-side first 🙂
OOps Sorry folks about the wall-paper posts – Jon/mod can you delete Plse, cheers.
Can’t locate it now but someone put on a link to an article written by Peter Wilby in the Guardian about Prince Charles having a veto on government matters and taking advice from Melanie Phillips and David Starkey.
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P Charles presents himself as a kindly eccentric, a man of the people and concerned about the general good.
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I have heard and seen it all now. I find that one of his outfits is devoting a day to study Thatcher’s Personality and Impact. She set in traint the pattern of our decline, banking frauds aside, leading in part to the current hardship we are enduring. Unbelievable that this uncritical sounding programme is being offered to teachers under his auspices.
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11 November, 2011
Museum of London Docklands
West India Quay
London E14 4AL
Margaret Thatcher: Personality and Impact
Friday 11th November 2011, Museum of London Docklands, London, 9:00 – 15:45
A day which focuses on the powerful impact Margaret Thatcher had in shaping the British landscape and its policies. Participants will consider her role in contemporary British history and will be offered practical ideas for presenting the context of this in the classroom. The event is being led by James Sladden, Head of History at Queen Elizabeth School in Kent. The aims of the day are to:
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Examine the role of personality in the Thatcher years, including Margaret Thatcher and her ministers
Consider how Historians might analyse Britain under Thatcher
Analyse the social and economic impact of Thatcherism
Analyse the reasons for the downfall of Thatcher
This day is suitable for those teaching History at all Key Stages and at IB level.
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Provisional Programme of Events
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9.00 – 9:30 Registration and coffee
9:30 – 9:40 Welcome and Overview of the day: James Sladden
9:40 – 10:40 Lecture: John Campbell: Margaret Thatcher: Her Life and Legacy
10:40 – 11:00 Break
11.00 – 12:00 Lecture: Professor Richard Vinen: Britain’s Thatcher
12:00 – 13:00 Teacher Workshop: James Sladden: Thatcher in the classroom
13:00 – 13:45 Lunch
13:45 – 14:30 Group discussion
14:30 – 15:30 Seminar: Lord Richard Wilson: The Thatcher years
15.30 – 15:45 Evaluations and depart
Speakers: On the link
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{http://www.princes-ti.org.uk/events/detail.shtml?id=977694006}
Here are the four Trustees including Harvey McGrath, Chairman of Prudential, a banker, an acocuntant and an academic.
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http://www.princes-ti.org.uk/AboutUs/Ourtrusteesandgovernance/
Fascist stronghold.
Off with their heads
I see our friend Mr Hintze of Fox Werritty fame is in the equation.
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The Chairman of the Trustees is Harvey McGrath, and the Institute’s Co-Directors are Bernice McCabe and Christopher Pope.
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The Prince’s Teaching Institute is supported by the very generous sponsorship provided by The Prince of Wales Charitable Foundation, Harvey McGrath, Dr Jonathan Milner, the Clore Duffield Foundation, Hintze Family Charitable Foundation, ICAP plc, the Sidney E. Franks Foundation, Nord Anglia Education PLC, Mr and Mrs Tager, Pennon Group plc, Keith Breslauer, David Tucker, Edmund Lazarus, Ben Iversen, Rupert Mitchell, The Nomura Charitable Trust, Mr and Mrs Weiss, Mr and Mrs Hampson, ShareGift, Baring Private Equity Asia, a number of anonymous donors and by the Training and Development Agency for Schools.
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http://www.princes-ti.org.uk/AboutUs/
Get the banking and corporate sponsors out of the G20.
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http://www.avaaz.org/en/occupy_g20/?cl=1363566542&v=10909
Jenny Diski on the London Review of Books on HRH Prince of Wales.
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http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2011/11/01/jenny-diski/meddlesome-prince-even-more-meddlesome-than-previously-thought/
worth a watch
http://t.co/R3dEi7uF
@Mary – Margaret Thatcher: Personality and Impact
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So on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, we have “Britain’s Thatcher.”
You couldn’t make it up.
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I wonder if the programme includes the number of passengers killed on the railways after Thatcher put in motion the privatisation of British Railways, leaving the directors of Railtrack with the usual legal responsibilies for the interests of shareholders (money) and none for safety?
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Off with their heads most definitely.
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Hadn’t spotted that coincidence of the number 11!
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Wonder if His Nibs turns up to their ‘events’ or any of the disciples of Thatcher in that list of trustees.
Latest information on the Dr Kelly case.
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Londoner’s Diary
02 November 2011 12:59 PM
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High Court to revisit death of David Kelly
Bad news for Tony Blair and Alastair Campbell. The Londoner learns that the death of Dr David Kelly will be examined at the High Court next month after a senior judge ordered a special hearing as part of his review of the case. A source tells me that Mr Justice Kenneth Parker, who is considering an application challenging the Government’s recent decision not to have a coroner’s inquest into Dr Kelly’s death, has requested the session in open court on December 19. This could eventually help secure an inquest which, uniquely in modern English law following a suspicious death, there has never been. It will be the first time that issues about Dr Kelly, the Hutton Inquiry and the suggestion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction will have been tackled in court as opposed to at a public inquiry. My source says Lord Falconer, Blair’s chief legal adviser on the Kelly affair, is in line for a verbal thrashing. Reaching this stage is largely down to the efforts of David Halpin, a retired surgeon from Devon, who has never believed the official line that Dr Kelly killed himself in 2003. Two months ago he sought permission to judicially review the Government and it is his written submission that Mr Justice Parker is considering. More than 800 donors have contributed over £40,000 to cover Halpin’s lawyers’ fees. He is the sole claimant in the action.His barrister, John Cooper QC, tells me: “My client has said for many years that on the available evidence Dr Kelly did not commit suicide. He welcomes this first chance since Dr Kelly’s death to put before a court the kernel of his case.”
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http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2011/11/high-court-to-revisit-death-of-david-kelly.html
PS I believe John Cooper QC is also acting for the St Paul’s Occupiers.
Sometimes I despair.
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The extent of commercial and extranational influence on government is MASSIVELY greater than anything Charles the 2.5 can manage. The City of London Corporation alone can give him points and a beating when it comes to preferential treatment.
Concentrate on the main issue, will you? This is a mere distraction. It may well be an intentional one. And it will completely alienate potential allies of the splendid isolationist tendency if it is pursued.
Here we go again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/02/uk-military-iran-attack-nuclear
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Let’s worry about Charles interfering in planning decisions, eh? It’s not as if anyone else is dragging us towards armageddon.
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“One senior Whitehall official said Iran had proved “surprisingly resilient” in the face of sanctions, and sophisticated attempts by the west to cripple its nuclear enrichment programme had been less successful than first thought.
He said Iran appeared to be “newly aggressive, and we are not quite sure why”, citing three recent assassination plots on foreign soil that the intelligence agencies say were coordinated by elements in Tehran.”
Not sure why? What sort of moron inhabits Whitehall these days? Might a sanctions regime coordinated by Iran’s biggest bugbear (a non-signatory, unlike Iran, of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, nuclear-armed to the teeth and probably in possession of ballistic weapons capable of reaching most of Europe), allied to what is effectively an act of war – the Stuxnet virus – not have something peripherally to do with it?
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I’d be getting bloody aggressive if I were Iranian. I’d be looking at who wanted my oilfields, and predicting the likely future.
Agree with Komodo that the Charles issue (although infuriating, just what you’d expect in this democratic country!) is a carefully-placed distraction tactic. We are seeing the possibility of another war – carefully manipulated by the usual suspects – to divert the minds of the populace from the economic devastation that is being wreaked upon us.
Most people probably think that Iran would turn out to be an easy target – and haven’t we some troops in Helmand Province next door in Afghanistan? – they’ll be able to finish the job in a couple of weeks … months … years … decades …
Meanwhile, plenty of lovely profits … real profits from real industrially-produced weapons – not from ponzi schemes! What could be better? That will be the line from the City anyway.
The reality would be horrendous, and we probably wouldn’t live long enough to see the end of the economic devastation that would follow – not just for the Iranians, but for us.
Mary regarding Dr David Halpin’s application for JR you may wish to listen to him being interviewed by James Corbett of the Boilng Frogs (Sibel Edmonds) website and streamed on Dr Halpin’s home page. It’s an excellent listen: http://dhalpin.infoaction.org.uk/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
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He also asks for any legal contributions in a non tin rattling sort of way.
Dr Kelly – good news Mary? – Thank-you so much for the update.
Does anyone know whether Craig gave his talk yesterday and, if so, how it went down and whether it was recorded? Nothing yet on TouTube as far as I can see.
Thanks Seen This?
Ref the heir to the throne. I see him and his faamily as the embodiment of state power, preferment and privilege under whom agressive wars are fought and resources of other peoples are stolen. Think of the MoD arranged theatre of the parades through Wootton Bassett, elevated recently to include Royal in its title, as a reward for waving the blood soaked Union flag. That little ceremony, where Charles’ sister presented the town with its new Royal warrant, was attended by Cameron and was televised live by both news channels.
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Similarly we will soon have Remembrance Sunday, originally to remember those who died protecting us in the two World Wars, but now taken over by the state propaganda machine. The Royals line up in their military rig outs, complete with rows of medals, alongside the policitians and prime ministers past and present. They add God into the mix too and military music. I could go on, the Albert Hall Service of Remembrance, Trooping of the Colour,…
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My reason for putting that link up to the Princes Teaching Institute was that I felt indignant it is interfering in what is being taught to our children and that Thatcher was being eulogised by making her and her policies the object of a study. I also think he should keep well clear of the affairs of what is laughingly called government.
MJ
After some initial confusion about the arrangments, Craig gave his talk to a group at Tent City University which grew while he was talking, building up to about 30. Several of us knew Craig from before and his talk, as usual, was clear and punchy, but largely covered familiar ground. There was some good discussion, moving on to solutions to our present moral, political and economic morass – such as renationalisation of key resources such as energy, water supplies and rail transport; and encouraging smaller banks and building societies. I was aware of some people filming, but did not speak to any of them.
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On the possibility of a war against Iran, Craig feared that was likely, but had no strong views on the time frame. He cetainly saw western military/oil oligarchs as hoping for this. An attack on Syria was unlikely as it had insignificant oil reserves. He thought he would live to see an independent Scotland, but did not venture an actuarialassessment of that timescale. view of
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There was a good atmosphere of semi-anarchic optimistic idealism coupled with a determination to see changes to the woeful legacy of recent generations (including my own).
Iain Orr: many thanks for the info and excellent summary of proceedings.
Thanks for that Ian. Voila said s/he would film Craigs talk, no doubt it will take some time to edit.
BBC 1 tonight’s Panorama is entitled Britain on the Fiddle.
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Stevo on MediaLens message board gives the figures and comments:
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see the government’s lackeys are preparing the ground for the government again.
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The figures for this tell you all you need to know:
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Figures for benefit fraud: ÂŁ1.5 billion
Figures for unclaimed benefits: ÂŁ17.5 billion
Figures for tax evasion and avoidance: Anything between ÂŁ70 – ÂŁ120 billion.
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I presume, purely in the name of impartiality you understand, that there is going to be a similar programme about massive financial fraud, tax fraud that occurs in this country on a massive scale?
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It seems as usual that the media wants to pick on the easiest and weakest victims of government policy. Most people who are among the tiny minority who actually do fiddle their benefits usually earn amounts under a hundred quid; hardly worth the effort to tax. If government are going to throw people out of work and do nothing to create new work and then cut peoples benefits as well, then how can the government be surprised if people fiddle their benefits?
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Expect the black economy to rocket once the new credit scheme is introduced.
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I concur.
Thanks for the report Iain, I’m sorry I couldn’t make it along.
Rally at 2pm 5th Nov steps of St Paul’s followed by a peaceful March to Parliament.
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We are the 99% – come and show your support for the occupation of the London Stock Exchange and find out more about our cause.
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5th November: No Gunpowder. No Treason. No Hidden Plot.
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Rally at 2pm on the steps of St Paul’s followed by a peaceful March to Parliament. We will be distributing thousands of leaflets with our 8 point statement in central London.
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We stand for progressive alternatives to making the majority pay for a crisis they did not create.
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Speakers:
Caroline Lucas MP
John Pilger
Bruce Kent
Seumas Milne – Guardian
Kate Hudson – Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Josie Long – UK Uncut & award-winning comedian
Aaron Kiely, NUS Black Students’ Campaign
Stef Newton, NUS LGBT Campaign & National Campaign Against Fees & Cuts
Weyman Bennett, Unite Against Fascism
Lindsey German, Stop the War Coalition
A tory type fop was reviewing the papers on Sky News just now. Because ‘666’ has been daubed on St Paul’s he was smearing all the protesters and said they must be cleared off.
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The graffiti has only been reported in the Mirror and Express so far as I can see at the moment.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/11/05/st-paul-s-cathedral-defaced-with-spray-painted-666-graffiti-115875-23538762/
This study would be worthy ramming up the noses of any who bleat about “wealth creators” http://tiny.cc/w969s
Two-thirds of the young choristers have their school fees paid by donors, and wear medals bearing their names at special events.
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An American arm of the cathedral’s fundraising operation, meanwhile, organises glitzy dinners where tickets can cost up to $50,000 (£31,306) for two tables.
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Those who give money to help restoration projects are promised they will be “greeted by high-ranking clergy” when they visit the London landmark and ushered to “reserved seating in the Choir stalls for Evensong”.
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Details of the benefits received by corporate donors during church services themselves are likely to prompt fresh concerns about the close links between St Paul’s and the world of high finance.
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When the cathedral authorities attempted to remove the anti-capitalist protesters camped on its steps last week, triggering three resignations, it was claimed that they were abandoning Christian ethics by siding with the rich businesses of the City.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8870177/Sponsored-choirboys-and-VIP-seating-for-St-Pauls-donors.html