I was called by a journalist yesterday who told me that in Dewsbury six years ago I shared a platform with Baroness Warsi’s now husband at a meeting against the persecution of Muslims. Sadly I couldn’t really help him as at the time I was doing hundreds such events and have only the dimmest of recollections of that one.
It is not merely amusing that Cameron refers Warsi for investigation for allegedly pocketing a couple of thousand quid while protecting Hunt who tried so hard to shepherd the Murdoch BSkyB bid past the winning post, while pretending to referee the event.
Nor is the lesson just that a Muslim woman will always be expendable while a fully paid up member of the ruling class will be less so.
The truth is that to trip up an MP over a little cash does not threaten the system. To tackle the massive institutional corruption by which corporate interests control the British state is a different question altogether.
Hunt is of course not the only case not to be referred. Nor was the Adam Werritty debacle, where rather than the proper investigative procedures Cameron organised a tidy little stitch-up by Gus O’Donnell which omitted almost all the key facts and particularly did not say what the entire scheme was about – the promotion of the interests of Israel. The Murdoch Empite, the Israeli lobby, these are amongst the interests that actually run the exploited citizenry of this poor wracked old country. Every now and then glimpses of truth emerge.
But must not be pursued.
Meanwhile Israel breaks Camp David accord by putting tanks along Egyptian border… A feint to the West when they’re about to attack East methinks… and a Russian flotilla of war ships steam toward Tartus. This is not the Olympic spirit.
Apologies to the toes on which I am probably treading, but it seems I lied (see above). Govoid’s school chum (and successor as President of the Oxford Union), Duncan Gray is no longer Head of Entertainment at BSkyB. He left, and joined Princess Productions (the outfit that raised much merriment in Afghanistan’s NAAFIs by proposing to bring the squaddies’ wives and babes over for a surprise visit). Princess Productions is part of the Shine Group, specialising in televisual pap. And Shine Group was bought by Murdoch last November. Yes, that Murdoch.
It fits. Gray shafted the lady on maternity leave at BSkyB by getting her job. Also did his bit in dumbing down Britain whilst at ITV. Later got the chop.
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Duncan Gray to leave ITV
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 19 March 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/19/itv.television2
Both Gove and Duncan Gray were presidents of the Oxford Union in 1988.
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1988 Hilary Michael Gove Lady Margaret Hall[69]
1988 Trinity Duncan Gray University[69]
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidents_of_the_Oxford_Union
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Some familiar names on that list.
Another Saudi geriatric is appointed to be next in line for the dictatorship. Prince Salman aged 76.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18496118
Yes, Mary. But Gray is no longer with BskyB as Head of Entertainment. He has joined Princess Productions. Princess Productions is part of Shine Group. And Murdoch bought Shine Group last November.
(post missing with further details on Princess)
I see. Sorry if you had said that before about Shine. A very mobile person this Duncan Gray. Shine is a typically (censored) name. Glittery family names like Silver, Diamond, Gold, Pearl etc are in the genealogy. I noticed a Yoel Flohr in one of the many companies within the company. It must be an accountants’ and lawyers’ paradise setting all that up I would imagine.
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http://shinegroup.tv/people/elisabeth-murdoch
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I see the BBC outsource to them. Wonder how much of our licence fee goes towards Shine. And I always said I would never give a penny to Murdoch.
My male Warsi boss must have been narked by the Pistakani jibe, because today they upped the pressure to include no holiday trips to Kurdistan, no short days for fasting in Ramadhan, and no more jibes against management incompetence.
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Oh dear, what thin skins narcissists have these days. They think because they come out of the incense of Sufism into the sulphur of Salafism that they now have supernatural powers to control other people’s lives.
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The tyrant told Abraham that he could control life and death by freeing or killing people, but the ability of political Islam
to betray and destroy countries for their own power and gain, does not mean they know how to bring them back to order again.
Does it Mark?
The beginning of July is penned down for the biggest manoeuvres in the Mid East. Twelve Chinese navy vessels are on their way to Syria to join with the two Russian amphibious assault vessels manned with at least four thousand marines each, along with the Iranian navy, and air forces will join in with the Syrian military for these manoeuvres.
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The unconfirmed reports are indicative of the line that is drawn against any further US et al expansionism. Further the pipe dreams of the leverage of the star wars defence ie cannibalistic missile shield concessions could be used as a bait to carry on expansionism as before. However this line of thought having no basis in reality is only telling of the unhinged minds dreaming such scenarios in face of a new reality that is not about to be rearranged through the use of the “media” in the West.
I’m kinda surprised about all the flak the Dalai Lama has been receiving. Sure, the man isn’t perfect, but there can be little doubt that he has dedicated his life to tirelessly working for his people. For such a small and unique group of refugees in the modern world to have maintained their culture and group identity is an amazing feat, and much of it due to the work of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile. I did volunteer work at Dharamshala with Tibetan refugees, and I can’t speak highly enough of the place (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stupas_at_mcleod_ganj_below_tsuglag_khang.JPG). The Dalai Lama is the heart and soul of the community and the Tibetans truly love the man.
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I don’t know what more anyone could expect of him? Tibetans tried armed resistance before, but it was a dismal failure, and it’s pretty obvious the idea can never work in the Tibetan situation. Instead the Dalai Lama has focused on building centres for his people to live and maintain their traditions while working on a peaceful resolution in his homeland. The Dalai Lama has also announced his desire to relinquish all political power to a democratically elected replacement. The process is already in motion and the legalities are being worked on.
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About the old Tibetan regime being horrible, that’s not really relevant to the discussion of the current Tibetan situation in the slightest. While it was certainly very flawed, it is the number one excuse used by the Chinese to justify their invasion. Obviously the idea that the Chinese invaded Tibet for the benefit of the Tibetan people is farcical. Now compare the freedoms enjoyed by those living in Tibet under Chinese control vs those living in any of the Tibetan communities run by the Tibetan government in exile. Added to this is that over the last 15 years or so the Chinese government has had a massive migration policy encouraging Han Chinese to move to Tibet, it is a demographic genocide. Since 2009 dozens of Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese policies. So to casually criticise past irrelevancies when discussing the current crimes strikes me as completely pointless.
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/rant
Raking over the remains of the Iraqi dead.
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How the war was spun
The Foreign Office has been ordered to release an early secret draft of the WMD dossier. Chris Ames
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http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2008/01/iraq-draft-uranium
I meant to add that that piece in the NS was from 2008. The comments are interesting though including those about Dr Kelly and Richard Dearlove.
These Tory fundraisers are so tacky. Lord Fink again.
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18 June 2012
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Row over Tory sponsored Lords dinner
Lord Fink was appointed Tory treasurer in March, replacing Peter Cruddas
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The Tories’ chief fundraiser has admitted arranging a House of Lords dinner for American Express customers in exchange for a charity donation.
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Lord Fink agreed to sponsor the dinner at Parliament, for Amex cardholders, as part of a £6,000 trip to London
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Others too from the Independent article linked in the BBC report.
* The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, who hosted a “customer event” for 140 people in the peers’ dining room for a private forensic science firm of which he is a non-executive director and shareholder.
* The Tory peer Lord Sheikh, who booked the House of Lords Terrace overlooking the Thames for the launch of his own insurance broking firm.
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and further on..
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Asked about Lord Stevens’s sponsorship of the LGC reception, a spokesman said: “This was not a promotional event. Those attending would have no responsibilities for procuring our services.”
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LGC are a private company who employ pathologists. One such is Dr Nicholas Hunt who performed the post mortem on Dr. Kelly.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18500588
As I said, I have nothing to say against the Dalai Lama. But the Chinese invasion of Tibet is nothing new. It is disputed territory, and has been for a millenium and more:
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http://asianhistory.about.com/od/china/a/TibetandChina_2.htm
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Very readable synopsis. Not much seems to have changed, politically, since the 1800’s..If the Chinese found a certain incarnation too hard to control, they would poison him. If the Tibetans thought an incarnation was controlled by the Chinese, then they would poison him themselves.
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My response was to Angrysoba, who I think may have been implying that the current concern about eretz-Israel’s claimed territorial rights is largely unmatched in the West by concern about China’s claim to Tibet. But China’s historical claim looks rather better than Israel’s, it could be argued. No doubt the debate will continue…
Two Sides to Every Story Dept:
http://chineseculture.about.com/library/china/whitepaper/blstibet9203.htm
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No-one should have too much difficulty working out which contender wrote this. Beats the hell out of Mark Regev, anyway.
More kishkes* from the lobby.
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http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/68889/labour-back-calls-commons-silence-munich-anniversary
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*balls.
Sorry, am I missing something? It happened in Munich. That’s Germany. It happened to Israelis. They come from Israel. It was done by some Palestinians…also presumably from Israel or thereabouts. It had nothing whatever to do with the UK. Nothing. We do not need to memorialise other countries’ atrocities. Is the Knesset proposing to remember the King David Hotel murders?
FOAD.
20 minutes for these victims, please. Also 1972
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_Israeli_air_raid_in_Syria_and_Lebanon
‘China’s historical claim looks rather better than Israel’s, it could be argued.’
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I don’t see that Israel has any legitimate claim to Palestine. The second here is a myth. All semitic peoples have lived there. The other three are risible esp 4).
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The Jewish Virtual Library
The Jewish people base their claim to the land of Israel on at least four premises
1) God promised the land to the patriarch Abraham;
2) the Jewish people settled and developed the land;
3) the international community granted political sovereignty in Palestine to the Jewish people;
4) the territory was captured in defensive wars.
What’s going on here.
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http://www.firmmagazine.com/news/2944/Exclusive%3A_Rubicon_chief_says_police_not_looking_into_phone_hacking%2C_sources_claim.html
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Worth reading the other articles about this on the same web site.
Just to labour those points a bit more, Mary,
1. The people who now call themselves Jewish (and were then not) originated in what is now Syria, and were still not Jewish when the Eyes In The Sky bestowed someone else’s land on them. They were worshipping the standard issue ME deities.
2. See 3.
3. The Jewish People in Israel have invariably ignored the international community when it suits them, which is most of the time. Settlement and development (involving irrigation projects which have caused a local water crisis) have extended far beyond the boundaries of what the international community sanctioned.
4. If the wars were defensive, then the territory should be returned, as was Sinai.
Thanks Komodo. Their wars have been offensive in the main.
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Ref your link to the labourites, headed by Ms Jowell, calling for a commemoration at the forthcoming Berlin Olympics of the Munich ‘Massacre’ (as Wikipedia have it), my good Jewish friend Tim W****** told me that she could well be called Tessa Jew-ell!
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Little known is the vengeance enacted by the Israelis afterwards.
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Israel responded to the (11) killings with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, during which Palestinians suspected of involvement in the massacre were systematically tracked down and killed by Israeli intelligence and special forces. The Israeli operations cost the lives of one innocent in Norway (Lillehammer affair) and of four passersby in Lebanon during the killing of Ali Hassan Salameh.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre
Funds are running low at Labour HQ. Redundancy is the watchword.
http://order-order.com/2012/06/19/stampede-at-labour-hq/
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Those unfortunate, or even fortunate, enough to get the chop could always join the queue at Whitbread for one of their 3,500 new jobs making coffee at Costa or bedmaking and room cleaning at Premier Inns!
{http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18501910}
What lovely people.
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Tourists venture to West Bank to ‘shoot terrorists’
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Thrill-seeking tourists of all ages brave West Bank shooting range to be taught by settlers how to shoot terrorists
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Akiva Novick Published: 06.18.12
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4243882,00.html
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t think a minute’s silence for the Israeli athletes would be inappropriate, if held, say, during the closing ceremony at the Olympic site,. It would be still better as part of a wider remembrance of other Olympic athletes who have suffered for their politics, ethnicity or nationality, of course. And it would conform with the somewhat debatable idea that the Olympics are a non-political expression of universal human values and ideals (as rhetoric-crazed politicians would say).
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But there is absolutely no justification for bringing such a lachrymose example of utter hypocrisy to our national assembly. Parliament does not honour the victims (eg) of the Katyn Massacre, and the reason is similar: although the national economy would collapse as completely without Poles as it would without Jews, it’s not our sodding problem.
The secret dossier – thanks Mary – “..in July 2003 when the former US diplomat Joseph Wilson let it be known that he had visited Niger and discounted the possibility that Iraq had sought uranium. In retaliation, the Bush administration leaked the fact that Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, was a covert CIA agent. Following a criminal investigation, Scooter Libby, chief of staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney, was given a prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice, which Bush commuted.”
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In fact the leak not only put at risk a sting operation to supply Iran with nuclear parts, more importantly put Valerie Plame’s informers, agents, including our own(links have been wiped)handlers lives at risk.
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http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/04/07/24_paper.html
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Dr David Kelly’s moral integrity lead him to discuss his concerns over the governments fraudulent dossier to journalists which I believe eventually lead to his assassination over concerns he may in the future divulge top secret work on DNA sequencing/modification of deadly viruses used in germ warfare.
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‘Crossing the Rubicon’ Ch. 29 ‘Biological warfare.’ inc endnotes. Gene sequencing using Polio, appearance of SARS Et al.
During the fall of the USSR and the colonial regime thereof, their leaders spoke of restructuring, and transparency. As the US empire is falling apart, there is not a hint of restructuring, and even bigger push for maintaining the opaque shadow theater that has Barroso incensed enough to burst out;
We are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy or in terms of how to handle the economy – because the European Union has a model that we may be very proud of.
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The above paragraph freely and widely is circulated, however the following second paragraph needs wading through oodles of “google choices of news” to be found;
‘This crisis was not originated in Europe; seeing as you mention North America, this crisis originated in North America and much of our financial sector was contaminated by, how can I put it, unorthodox practices, from some sectors of the financial market.‘
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Fact is the monkeys in charge of the money troughs despite keeping their scams very close to their chest, through their choice of the incestuous methods of staffing and regulatory constructs, yet still failed to keep their greed at bay resulting in the almighty fuck up we have come to know as the “banking crisis”.
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Further as the world falls apart the same bunch of hairless monkeys are trying to feed their habits with even more grotesque displays of arrogance and devotion, so much for the restructuring and transparency arguments in our “free world”
Made a bad mistake just now. I was looking for the news and landed on ITV’s Loose Women. The revolting Alastair Campbell was being introduced by Ms Vorderman. He is flogging his book on every available medium.
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eg http://judithmilleranddrdavidkellyandwmd.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/alastair-campbell-countdown-to-iraq.html
While looking for the link above, I came across this. 🙂
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Hague and Coe sports firm in £3m write-off
Miles Goslett Saturday 19 November 2011
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They are political allies once so close they practised judo together.
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But relations between the Olympics chief, Lord Coe, and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, are likely to be distinctly frostier after Mr Hague saw potentially disastrous losses in a business in which he had invested £30,000 and has Lord Coe as its sole director. The sports consultancy Lord Coe heads has written off nearly £3m of assets.
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http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:wmCUNnEAvHIJ:www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hague-and-coe-sports-firm-in-3m-writeoff-6264613.html+milkes+goslett+alastair+campbell&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
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The piece would only appear on the cached version.??
I was faced with an awful dilemma last week. Campbell was saying (in, and while plugging, his diary) that Blair had been pressured over Iraq by Murdoch, after Murdoch stating at Leveson that this had not happened.
Who do I believe? Please, who? Which of two mendacious scrotes is telling the porky?
And a few seconds’ silence for this please:
http://www.jpost.com/Sports/Article.aspx?id=274221
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No laughing at the back.