Meryl Streep took best actress award at the Golden Globes for The Iron Lady. There has been much media speculation about the motivation for Alex Salmond choosing Autumn 2014 for the independence referendum, largely centring around Bannockburn. Personally I can see the referendum coinciding brilliantly with Margaret Thatcher’s state funeral in London. That really would clinch it.
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Mark Was it this interview or has there been one since?
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/05/iraq-us-tariq-aziz-iran
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An old and ill man is under sentence of death. We have written to the Foreign Office and the Archbishop of Canterbury but our appeals for their intervention have fallen on deaf ears.
Timing is all. Quite. On the day when it is announced that China has acquired 9% of Thames Water, part of the West End gets flooded.
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Burst water main floods shops in Oxford Street
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Shops in central London’s Oxford Street have been affected by “extensive flooding” caused by a burst water main.
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A section between Park Lane and Portman Street has been closed to traffic with 18 bus routes on diversion, said Transport for London (TfL).
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Thames Water said at least 10 shops had been flooded including Primark, Ann Summers and Next.
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A spokesman said it could take days for traffic to get back to normal.
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London’s water mains are among the oldest in the UK, with 44% over 100 years old, according to Thames Water.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16644549
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OUR water has been in these hands since 1989. 9 million of us are supplied by Thames Water.
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1989 Thames Water was privatised as Thames Water Utilities Limited, with the transfer of its regulatory, river management and navigation responsibilities to the National Rivers Authority, which later became part of the Environment Agency. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
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2001 Thames Water plc was acquired by the German utility company RWE
Following several years of criticism about failed leakage targets, RWE announced on 17 October 2006 that it would sell Thames Water to Kemble Water Limited for £ 4.8 billion (since Thames Water had a pro forma net debt of £3.2 billion, this implied an enterprise value of £8.0 billion).
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Dec 2006 The sale from RWE to Kemble went ahead. Kemble is a consortium led by an investment fund run by the Australian Macquarie Bank. Australian investment funds already have interests in South East Water and Mid Kent Water.
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And Thatcher still lives.
A review of The Iron Lady plus some comments on medialens.
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Iron Lady review by Dave Douglass
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Posted by ajohnstone on January 20, 2012, 7:24 am
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http://www.cpgb.org.uk/article.php?article_id=1004689
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“In the film, we have the miners’ strike of 1984-85 taking place before the 1982 Falklands war. Why? Because otherwise we would have the Falklands ‘achievement’ and the crest of the nationalist wave first, followed by the tyranny of the state’s response to the miners, and then the mass poll tax movement and riot. This would have suggested a brief period of popularity, followed by decline, mounting opposition and state repression. It would have made the counter-image of Thatcher as a stubborn fanatic too strong. So we have the episodes jumbled up: first the miners’ strike, then the Falklands victory, then the poll tax.”
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V Good stuff from Dave D, including, glancingly, the beeb’s manipulation of the Orgreave clashes —
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Posted by Rhisiart Gwilym on January 20, 2012, 8:41 am, in reply to “Iron Lady review by Dave Douglass”
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— by its blatant reversal of the time sequence of footage of the events (the Thatcher hagiofilm does the same thing with crucial events of that time, too).
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I was in the thick of the strike, in South Yorkshire/North Derbyshire, and it was widely understood amongst the mining communities themselves, because of masses of direct testimonies from the front lines, that this sort of outrageous media-lying about what was really happening was rife: The English imperial ruling class clearly aware of a really serious threat to their power, and fighting just as dirty as they always do when in real danger, with their propaganda system, as much as with their military personnel in unmarked police uniforms, and other such scams.
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I was wondering, in the face of all the suspicious hype about the film, whether to bother to see it, if only because for my money Streep is just one of the best older actresses around in the English-speaking world right now.
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But I think this from Dave gives it the coup de grace:
‘The iron lady is crushingly disappointing. Politics has only a walk-on part in the film. As Streep herself has said, “It’s an imagined story of who she might be – probably not accurate” (Women’s hour January 6). Got it in one. In fact that could be a one-line review of the film.’
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Yeah, that sounds right; made for know-nothing America, as usual…
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BTW, Dave Douglass knows whereof he writes. He was one of the Yorkshire miners’ leaders during the strike, right alongside our Arthur. (Now when do you think we might have a highly-financed, highly-hyped biopic about those real heroes of Britain in our time?)
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Thanks for the heads-up about this review, AJ.
@ Fedup
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I am open for discussions on liberalism in Muslim world. Sound counterarguments could back up your personal judgement and make me look even more senseless. Here is your chance.
@ Guest
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‘Shpionomania’ spymania is favourite argument in Russia since October 1917. Sometimes it is based on real facts such as during western intervention in 1918-1919, sometimes it is just an instrument of terror like in 1929-1937.
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Russians are more concerned with US penetration in Caucasus than with missile shield that Russians know would still not make US completely secure from possible Russian nuclear treat. Russians consider Caucasus as well as Central Asia and Ukraine as their buffer zone and this political doctrine was always present in Russia since 19 century and was back on table since so called Euroasians won over so called Westernisers in Russian ruling circles.
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Accidentally, in yesterday’s programme on BBC about Putin confirmation of this came from both Putin and his defence minister Ivanov when they both stated that they were more concerned with spread of democracy in Central Asia than with the treat of radical Islam originating in Afghanistan. This is something that was very obvious but it was for the first time since I heard it directly from Putin and Ivanov.
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Next time when someone is going to judge American dirty involvement in support of Karimov and alike, one should not forget that Russians are always just a step behind ready to give their hand to falling regimes, something they did in May 2005.
Liberalism aka Cultural Marxism.
Good bye family values………….
On a completely different subject – please read this blog. Sue Marsh has been one of the leading figures in the preparation of the Spartacus Report and has nearly killed herself in the process.
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http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/
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She is one helluva lady. Incidentally other members of the Spartacus report team are now in hospital, one in intensive care, because of their activity overwhelming their available strength (Spoonies)
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Please support the sick and disabled in their fight against the government. I’m perhaps biased, as I am the carer for my husband who has been disabled for the last twelve and a half years – but I know from other carers just how badly affected some of their friends/relations are finding themselves, and through no fault of their own.
Jay
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Well, not exactly. CM might have contributed to the development of liberal ideas but Liberalism itself is much broader.
Someone above objected to “centring around”. Don’t be an arse. Perfectly normal English and it derives from the verb “to centre” meaning “to place at the centre”. English is a live language – it doesn’t only consist of phrases the derivation of which you approve.
@uzbek
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I will look into it liberal ideas, what happened to rule of thumb common concensus.,fot tje hreater good.
Im sad.
Uzbek,
Akin to the old Mr. Atlas type “strongmen” you have huffed and puffed and KGBd and indignantly wriggled out of the questions put to you. Although the first question has been sort of, kind of, maybe, addressed in; “you know what I mean” fashion;
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My understanding of it is when citizens are involved in formation of the government (at least) or government decision making on vital issues (would be ideal). By allowing citizens getting involved in formation of government puts government itself at least somewhat responsible to the needs of citizens, and what is even more important LEGITIMISE government in the eyes of its citizens.
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After this start unable to resist your favourite past time of rubbishing Muslims you have set out to declare Liberalism is everything that Islam is not. This broad blunderbuss approach gives rise to further question;
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1- Uzbek are you a Muslim, and do you practice your religion?
2- What authoritative levels of knowledge do you have of Islam?
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Back to the original questions remaining unanswered;
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Secondly what do you mean with “Liberalism”? (what is it, why should it matter, etc)
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Thirdly how do economics relate to liberalism, or democracy?
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PS no wriggling out of answering the questions.
20 January 2012
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Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown
By Leo Kelion
Technology reporter
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Megaupload displayed a video with celebrity endorsements before it was shut down .
Hackers have targeted the US government and copyright organisations following the shutdown of the Megaupload file-sharing website.
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The Department of Justice (DoJ), FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) among others have been bombarded with internet traffic.
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Web links have been been distributed which, when clicked, make the user’s computer part of the attack.
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A statement attributed to Anonymous claimed responsibility.
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/…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16646023
Passerby
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Why instead of salivating argument and demanding further answers from me you put forward your counterarguments? I understand of course that from what it looks like you are being puzzled by the notion of liberalism which makes me to conclude that you missed period of Enlightenment from your history and philosophy curriculum. But no worries, you could always at least resort to Wikipedia.
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By the way just to clarify (and yet again I am at risk of being called troll) I did not say that there is no notion of liberalism in Islam. What I said was that there is no liberalism in today’s Muslim nations with slight exception of Turkey. Can you differentiate terms Muslim nation from Islam? For instance Uzbekistan is what I mean by Muslim nation and as one of the clear example of inexistence of liberalism there.
Uzbek
What counter argument can there be to hatemongering and Islamophobia?
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Throughout your posts, you attack all things Islamic, with a view to delegitimisation of one third of the population of the planet, discounting their humanity, traditions, democracies and value systems. Then you expect counter arguments?
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Why are yon not man enough to say, what you mean; you want yet more opportunities presented to you to get on with more Muslim bashing? You have declined to state if you are Muslim or practice any kind of religion, thus, how can you sound so positively absolutely certain; “I said was that there is no liberalism in today’s Muslim nations” in your own words for the second time at least in this thread alone?
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The sound bites of”liberalism”, “democracy”, prove to be hollow and meaningless concepts upon you being confronted, and questioned about these. Uzbek you ought to re read this thread and sit there an think carefully are you an ass, or a sentient being? If you are the latter, you will then have seen the error of you flawed logic, and will stop Muslim bashing and kissing the ass of the Milton Freedman school of economics.
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Uzbek there is a heck of lot more to being a human than just regurgitating what zioBBC and the rest of the propaganda organs portray.
Mary,
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No I think Tariq was still being held by the US when that article appeared. I quoted from his first interview after his release in 2011. As you rightly say Mary, Tariq’s life now hangs in the balance.
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All
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Apologies for the ‘How to Occupy’ link – since I reported here the US government restriction (red copyright banner warning) has been removed which shows us the American government(or the CIA) reads this blog – Maybe.
“English is a live language – it doesn’t only consist of phrases the derivation of which you approve.” Craig.
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Absolutely.
Some facts about Scotland, and a nice little map of what the karfuffle is all about.Scotland has 50% of the area recognised as the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5udgzGhkvT4&sns=fb
Englands area,influence and seat at the UN would be diminished.
And as for respect, there obviously isn’t any !!
Time for a divorce !
Craig, if you place something as a centre, it can’t be around anything. Everything else has to be around it.
The sun is the centre of the solar system; the planets revolve around it. The planets do not ‘centre’ around the sun.
English, like other languages, evolves; however, this is not about linguistic evolution but clarity. To ‘centre around’ is an illogical construction, and is thus unclear and misleading.
Search the term ‘centre around’ in dicitionaries Dr Paul – all the dictionaries i see say the term is *valid*. So that was a failed grammar policing stunt Dr. Paul – take it up with the appropriate authorities.
Achtung warnung Grammatik schutzgruppe bei der Arbeit. (no disrespect to Ingo, but I do like the German authoritativeness)
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Glad that world can centre around more important debates around centring around, and around and round and around, round, round,….
I disagree, Dr Paul. ‘To centre around’ is in common parlance and its meaning is widely understood. There are many, many illogical constructuions, esp. in the English langauge, but if their meaning is widely understood in a clear way, then that is what matters. Languge is not necessarily about logic. Communication, that’s what it’s about, that’s what it centres around. For example, if one says, “He’s off his head!”, it makes no logical sense, yet its meaning is very clear and is commonly understood.
Quak: “Promoting the petty nationalisms at the periphery”
Perhaps the EU has the same attitude towards your British nationalism?
Suhayl Saadi,
Also the unlogic goes on as in;
He is shit faced, indicating the individual is blind drunk, and not smeared faeces on his face.
Dogs Bollocks certainly does not refer to canine testes, but a brilliance of sorts normally applied to hardware.
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BTW Suhayl you made me laugh with your antics in the other thread, you are a dark horse with the CIA dog do-da. Thanks for the laughs, and a lesson in passive resistance at its best.
Dr. Paul – I believe you’ve made a slight mistake. The activity mentioned in the blog post was doing the “centring around”, not the place or event itself. What is clearly implied is a place or event around which an activity will be drawn, making it generally the focal point for this activity, that about which the activity will gravitate. We are not talking about one thing literally orbiting another body.
You say tomah-toe, I say tomay-toe.
Can i be centred around the periphery??
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What’s French for deja vu?…:.)
Thanks, Fed Up. Much appreciated! It’s a song and dance routine, you know?
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Ben (let us emerge at last from C18th to C20th), there’s a song that goes like that, from one of the famous musicals, “I say tomahto, you say tomaito, I say potaato, you say tomaito…!” I can’t recall now which musical.
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And of course, all of these aphorisms do posses an internal logic somewhat akin to dream-logic. For example, often, the attributes and behaviours of the object are transferred to the subject, thus identifying the former with the latter in a seamless manner. I’m not a linguist – and I know there are linguists to read this site, so I’ll not venture into technical terminologies!
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The point about all language is, it’s not that ‘anything goes’ – it doesn’t – but that so long as one has internalised the contemporaneous orthodox usages (this can render immense potential), one can play around with it, develop it, push its boundaries – so long as one is communicating effectively on multiple levels. It’s no use looking at language in a sort of ‘Asperger’s mode’ (no disrespect to those with Asperger’s; as we know, many musical and mathematical geniuses have had it). And English is one of the most plastic languages. Even everyday language, which we take for granted (but which those who have had, say, certain types of strokes, cannot) is a semiotic symphony. In the UK, and elsewhere, there are also political implications. See also – just a few examples of key practitioners – under ‘Tom Leonard’, ‘Liz Lochhead’ and ‘Graham Fulton’.
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tomleonard.co.uk/
grahamfulton-poetry.com/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Lochhead
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Usual prefixes. There are distinct reasons why the ‘Celtic lands’ have been especially rich in these types of dynamics, but that’s for another day! Suffice to say, language is a song. Remember that, next time you buy some tomatoes. We all are Julie Andrews.
:))
What’s French for deja vu?
It is all over again in a French accent, of course
DannyDartko, Very good video. We have several conversations over this table without Chairmam Craig.
Anyone who finds Scottish independence embarrassing or boring can skip over this. If so you are not a Scot and have no right to decide on independence. Of course Scottish nationalists will want time to prepare Scotland for independence. England had hundreds of years to develop its subjection.
HAVE YOUR TRIAL SEPERATION NOW FOR SAY THREE YEARS THEN HAVE THE REFERENDUM TO SEE IF A MAJORITY WANT DEPENDENCE BACK.NOT THE OTHER WAY ROUND. THAT FAILED. A very exciting journey lies ahead for us all. Shoulder to shoulder or not at all.
England has worked on Scotland’s colonisation for a very long time. Why are you surprised that with all their long experience they have been successful in subduing a Country so close and necessary to them? Only true Scots should vote. Not the demoralised cowards, bought serfs, intimidated colonists that have been installed to stop a vote for Scotland. You cannot rob a country by moving your servants in to it. . Outnumbering with servants is not democratic. Would England allow Devon to vote itself out of the UK if enough Germans moved in?
If the Spirit of Scotland is buried alive a new generation of Scots will arrive who will see that peaceful means achieved nothing as colonisation had gone too far. Why wait for this to happen? Use peaceful means now to remove English dominance before it becomes intolerable and other means will be considered. I am not saying this is right. Perish the thought. It is just the way it is everywhere else.
If you are Anti Freedom do not dishonour Scotland, Remove the flags, songs, culture of Scotland. Use the English one or a white flag and sing God Save the Queen. Be honest. Be public. England goes to great lengths to distinguish itself from other Nations. Why should Scotland not also have the same pride . At a match you can still see who sings “the flower of Scotland………Proud Edwards army “ and who sings “….those English bastards”
Is centering round the periphery like dancing around a hot pudding? i.e never getting to the guist, or stalking a shadow?