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.
You mention drones Komodo. Even down Mexico way now.
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U.S. plans more drone flights over Caribbean
The move is intended to fight drug smugglers who have been pushed to the ocean by greater border surveillance. But the unmanned aircraft have a limited record of success over the open water.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drugs-caribbean-20120623,0,3135494.story
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A new ‘control centre’ is being opened in Corpus Christi, Texas. That’s a place name to conjure with in the context.
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Nine of these monstrosities overfly the US.{http://www.wfaa.com/news/texas-news/Aerial-drones-patrol-the-border-158282145.html}
If in the semantics of NATO they decide whatever the evidence points to , that one of their members was attacked.. then they are treatily bound to retaliate in some form. Where do we stand ? Can NATO just go to war and all the members are dragged along because of treaty obligations,or does it have to be debated in our Parliament before we partake?
The way Wullie Hague spouts, you would think we can head butt any nation we want to ,if we feel like it.There must be acid in the water at the Foreign Office.
First we had the Houla massacre that was courtesy of the rebels and even the BBC have caught up, and now this ridiculous story of the F4 which loses credibility by the hour.
Syria has been caught flagrantly defending their airspace and shall be punished.
I do have the feeling Russia has drawn their line in the sand, the bullies are still circling, but there isn’t one with the cohones to start something.Israel would lose bigtime. They’ve got all these nukes and a Palestinian rock thrower is still more effective.
The ‘usual’ Syrian suspects:
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http://www.ghsr.org/syriamonitoring/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=950&Itemid=187
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Who the hell are these people – Mary?
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith (Welfare reform)
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http://www.thespark.co.uk/uploads/images/Gallery/cartoons/welfareReform2.jpg
“EU hands personal data to US authorities on daily basis”
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http://euobserver.com/22/116719
All this talk of war is truly frightening. What gets me is that people whose job is to write and who presumably are paid handsomely to do so,lack any kind of moral judgement.
Mariella Frostrup in The Observer rag-mag describes Campbell as “a giant in the political world” Perhaps it was an attempt at irony from someone who hasn’t noticed that the political world is inhabited by pygmies and those who crawl on their bellies.
Rebuke to self: stop wasting your dimming eyes on reading such dross.
Donny: it helps to remember that the f***wit Hague is a great admirer of Churchill. You can even hear it when he opens his mouth- apart from the (partially assumed) Yorkshire accent, you get the characteristic “NnnngI am nnngtelling you that we shall nnnnngNEVER SURRENDER…” inflections. Trouble is, Churchill had been in the military and earned a living as a front-line journalist while Fourteen Pints has never done anything but bellow at captive audiences off the back of a PPE degree (are we surprised?) from Oxford. And Billy’s thinking, like Chirchill’s, is essentially 19th century. Lethal combination, particularly for our military.
I find it slightly sinister, too, that his fizzy pop-manufacturing parents gave him the second name of Jefferson…
The ‘usual’ Syrian suspects:
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http://www.ghsr.org/syriamonitoring/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=950&Itemid=187
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Who the hell are these people – Mary?
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Sorry I drew a blank Mark but I should imagine one of those Washington think tank/White House/AIPAC linked outfits as they target Korea, Syria, Iran and China. Many of the sub headings are completely blank but on the Korean page, clicking on produced a dead CIA link.
Perhaps Komodo could have a look on Whois etc.
Their You Tubes give a location as London. Linked to MENA.
http://ghsr.org/mena/index.php?option=com_contact&view=contact&id=1&Itemid=119
And yes, Russia is still involved –
http://www.kyivpost.com/content/russia-and-former-soviet-union/interfax-ship-to-carry-russian-helicopters-back-to.html#.T-luynX9GnA
I didn’t know that Boris has a younger brother Jo who is the Con MP for Orpington.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Johnson He has been speaking on Sky News on the scandal of the SW London NHS trust that is about to be put into special measures. Rather a cold fish I thought and does not possess Boris’s chutzpah.
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£60m of the total debt of this three year old trust (of three hospitals) is due to interest on the PFI contracts. The sharks who hold these contracts will have made sure that they are watertight and that they will get their money. Alan Milburn and Tony Blair where are you now?
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A greater scandal is that the trust has the lowest mortality and the highest infection control scores in the country.
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Will the bean counter who is to be appointed as administrator have any medical knowledge?
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Alan Milburn and Tony Blair where are you now, you evil men?
We know where Bliar is. This is where Milburn is.
Social mobility man Alan Milburn is on the way to a million
The former Labour MP Alan Milburn’s company made £300,000 in its latest figures.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9324145/Social-mobility-man-Alan-Milburn-is-on-the-way-to-a-million.html
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Wikipedia
In government
He became Secretary of State for Health in October 1999, with responsibility for continuing the reduction in waiting times and delivering modernisation in the National Health Service (NHS). The government increased expenditure on the NHS, although the public was sceptical over claims of improved performance.[citation needed] Milburn was thought to be a candidate for promotion within the Government, but on the day of a reshuffle (12 June 2003) he announced his resignation. He cited the difficulties combining family life in North-East England with a demanding job in London as his reason for quitting.[citation needed] While on the backbenches he continued to be a strong supporter of Tony Blair’s policies, especially his continued policy of increased private involvement in public service provision. Following his resignation as Secretary of State for Health (to spend more time with his family), Milburn took a post for £30,000 a year as an advisor to Bridgepoint Capital, a venture capital firm heavily involved in financing private health care firms moving into the NHS, including Alliance Medical, Match Group, Medica and the Robinia Care Group.[4] He has been Member of Advisory Board of PepsiCo since April 2007.[5] He returned to government in September 2004, with the title of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was brought back to lead the Labour Party’s campaign in the 2005 general election, but the unsuccessful start to the campaign led to Alan Milburn taking a back seat, with Gordon Brown returning to take a very prominent role.
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Vile.
http://who.is/whois/ghsr.org/
German outfit, Netherlands server…allegedly. The who and where are essentially meaningless, Mary, though this might indicate Turkish/Kurdish expatriate involvement. But two things: GHSR has spawned a Chinese section (anti-current govt) and the English on all its sites is lousy. Which last suggests, not Yanks. Their prose is usually turgid but grammatically correct.
Why me, anyway?
intenswe air activities all morning, high altitude mainly, they must be on the tenth sortie now. this is comparable to the air activities just before we went and attacked Iraq.
I wonder whether they try and tie up Iran in a Syria campaign.
@Mary, the drone activities over Mexico and LA’sd barios will soon cause consternations, it is solely directed at immigration,the drugs mules stories are making it more pallatable
to the libertarians.
My guess is Israel, btw. Anyone sympathising with Iran gets it.
High altitude over you, Nevermind…they’re doing the climbing (on afterburn) over me. Wish they’d go and do it over bastard Chipping Norton. Why don’t they?
Yeah its an utter menace when they pull up and open the throttle, some 370 gallons/minute sloshing through those burners.
I’m expecting the next lot after 11 o clock, now its 10am, NATO break for a cuppa and breakfast.
Yeah…MENA does nothing but link to MSM (al-Jaz and CNN are prominent) – doesn’t actually produce anything itself. Links faintly critical pieces on Israel, but nothing on the real issues – mostly anodyne-to-supportive. While it goes to town on Syria, Iran and Saudi. Looks like MEMRI -lite, but with no op-eds from dual-nationality chickenhawks. I’d give it a 10% chance of not being Israeli or diaspora Zionist. Happy to be proven wrong though.
Komodo. Why me, anyway?
Because you are good at lookie uppie.
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I am told that the cost of running the £2.5bn PFI debt at the South London Healthcare Trust is £60mn p.a. 20 other trusts in similar position.
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Talk about HMG mouthpiece – Norman Smith – BBC website
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‘The BBC’s Norman Smith said the government was hoping the threat to send in an administrator to run South London Healthcare would act as “a wake-up call” to other struggling trusts.
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Ministers are thought to be considering a rescue deal for the trust which would involve the taxpayer taking over responsibility for the £2.5bn PFI contract the Trust signed up to for the two new hospitals, he said.’
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South London Healthcare faces being dissolved
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18584968
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Will the facilities, the staff, the patients also be ‘dissolved’?
“We know where Bliar is. This is where Milburn is.”
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Where is James Purnell these days ?, seems to have gone to ground like the elusive Werritty!!!. I always thought Purnell’s resignation had more to it then met the eye!!!.
PFIs here, PFIs there, PFIs everywhere. Simon Burns one of the ‘health’ ministers is laying the blame for the health PFIs at Labour’s feet.
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Ha! Con controlled Surrey County Council entered into a PFI contract with Skanska for new county wide street lighting only last year.
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The costs here – gobbledegook –
http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/roads-and-transport/road-maintenance-and-cleaning/street-lights-traffic-signals-and-signs/street-lights/street-lighting-replacement-programme/funding-for-the-new-replacement-programme
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PS we were told that the dreaded hanging baskets could not be put on the new lamp posts for health and safety reasons. Perhaps they would buckle under the weight!
“Posted 20 March 2006 – 01:59 PM”
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“I have argued over the years on this Forum that Tony Blair is a corrupt politician and needs to be removed from power. Recently events suggest that we might be on the verge of discovering the exact scale of his crimes. I suspect this is not the case and will end up as Britain’s Watergate. In the sense that Nixon was forced to resign but the full account of his crimes were never revealed to the public.
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Let me outline my case against Tony Blair. The story begins before Blair became leader of the Labour Party. In the past, attempts to undermine the Labour Party took place either just before or during a Labour Government. Kier Hardy was incorruptible but the ruling elite got rid of Labour’s first government, led by Ramsay MacDonald, with the Zinoviev Letter in 1924. More sophisticated methods were then used on MacDonald after that and by 1931 he was willing to completely sell-out the Labour Party.
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It took many years to overcome this treachery but by 1945 the Labour Party was able to win control again. Clement Atlee was also fairly incorruptible but fellow leaders of the party were willing to accept the money of the CIA via Tom Braden and the International Organizations Division to move to the right. This created internal division in the Labour government was by 1951 it had lost its majority.
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Harold Wilson was the next Labour prime minister. We now know that MI5 and the CIA began a long drawn out campaign to undermine his government. Edward Heath suffered from the same forces as he was considered by the establishment to be far too left wing. James Callaghan and Denis Healey (one of the original targets of CIA money in the late 1940s) successfully moved Labour to the right after Wilson was finally removed in 1976. Callaghan and Healey introduced monetarism that was developed by Margaret Thatcher’s period in office.
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In 1986, the newly elected Tony Blair took a “freebie” tour of the United States. At the time he was a member of CND. While in Washington he announced he had changed his mind and that that the “visit had persuaded him of the value of nuclear weapons”. The intelligence services always prefer their placements to have been a former “left-winger” because they rarely move back again after they have been “converted”.
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In March, 1994, Blair was introduced to Michael Levy at a dinner party at the Israeli embassy in London. Levy was a retired businessman who now spent his time raising money for Jewish pressure-groups. After this meeting, Levy acquired a new job, raising money for Tony Blair. According to Robin Ramsay (The Rise of New Labour, page 64), Levy raised over £7 million for Blair).
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In an article by John Lloyd published in the New Statesman on 27th February, 1998, the main suppliers of this money included Sir Emmanuel Kaye (Kaye Enterprises), Sir Trevor Chin (Lex Garages), Maurice Hatter (IMO Precision Group) and Maurice Hatter (Sage Software).
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In April, 1994, John Smith died and Blair won the leadership contest. With Levy’s money, Blair appointed Jonathan Powell as his Chief of Staff. A retired diplomat, Powell was not a member of the Labour Party. In fact, his brother, Charles Powell, was Margaret Thatcher’s right hand man.
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Alastair Campbell was the other man brought into his private office with Levy’s money. Powell and Campbell were later to become key figures in the later invasion of Iraq. It is of course a pure coincidence that this decision reflected the thinking of Israel’s government.
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Another important figure in the corruption of Tony Blair was the media baron, Rupert Murdoch. It was widely believed that Labour Party lost the 1992 General Election because of the anti-Labour campaigns of Murdock’s newspapers.
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In 1995 Tony Blair flew to Australia to “pledge his allegiance at a meeting of News International’s executives… an extraordinary act of fealty”. (Peter Oborne, Alastair Campbell: New Labour and the Rise of the Media Class” page 141)
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As a result of this meeting Murdoch’s papers were, at worst, neutral towards Labour. Alastair Campbell began writing articles to go under Blair’s name in the Murdoch papers. (Robin Ramsay, The Rise of New Labour, page 67)
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It was later announced that Blair had signed a book contract with Harper Collins (a company owned by Rupert Murdoch). The deal was worth £3.5 million to Blair. This information only came out when Blair used the contract as security when he purchased his house in London. Margaret Thatcher and John Major got similar book deals with Harper Collins. Of course, the royalties near reach the multi-million advances paid for them. However, it is a great way of bribing a prime minister.
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To create “New Labour”, Blair had to start removing the links with the trade union movement. Traditionally, the trade unions had been the main providers of money to the Labour Party. However, if Blair was going to this he had to find other financial backers. This became Sir Michael Levy’s job. However, the problem with obtaining large donations is that they always expect something back in return. Businessmen have always seen donations to political parties as an “investment”. Recently, there has been much speculation about this money being used to buy “honours”.
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For example, all but one of Labour’s top donors who have given over £1m has received a peerage. The exception is Lakshmi Mittal, the steel magnate. He was rewarded in other ways – the Romanian steel contract. This is the reality of large political donations. The granting of honours is just a sideshow. It is the granting of other political favours that is the real scandal.
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For example, soon after he was elected as prime minister, Blair announced that sport was being exempted from the ban on tobacco advertising. Everyone was surprised by this broken election promise until it was revealed that Bernie Ecclestone had given the Labour Party £1 million a few weeks previously.
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Another example of Blair’s corruption concerns his relationship with the businessman, Paul Drayson. Blair had a meeting with Drayson on 6th December, 2001. Soon afterwards two things happened: (1) Drayson donated £100,000 to the Labour Party; (2) Drayson’s company, PowerJect, won a £32 million contract to produce a smallpox vaccine. The most surprising aspect of this contract was that it was not put out to open tender. If it had of been the contract would have gone to a German-Danish company called Bavarian Nordic. It is this company that Drayson has purchased the smallpox vaccine from. It is believed that Drayson paid Bavarian Nordic £12m for the vaccine. In other words his £100,000 investment has resulted in a £20m profit. In all, Drayson has given £1.1m to New Labour. This was a good deal for Drayson, he was also given a peerage as a result of this donation.
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Another company that has a strange relationship with Blair is Jarvis Engineering. The chairman of this company is Steven Norris. He was formerly a Conservative MP and served as Minister of Transport (1992-1996). However, he decided to leave the House of Commons to become chairman of Jarvis Engineering. Although still a member of the Conservative Party, Norris decided it would be a good idea to make large donations of money to the Labour Party.
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This was followed by a change of Labour Party policy. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had in opposition been strong opponents of the Public Finance Initiative (PFI). A scheme brought in by the Conservative government that enabled private companies to obtain government contracts to provide public sector services. Jarvis Engineering had done extremely well out of this scheme. Blair and Brown decided that this scheme was now a good one. It was not very surprising that Jarvis Engineering soon began winning PFI contracts given out by the Labour Government. Jarvis was not the only company that found it very beneficial to give money to “New Labour”. History shows that it seems a very good way to get PFI contracts.
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When Tony Blair was elected he promised to reform the House of Lords in order to make it acceptable in a democratic society. However, he has failed to do this and Robin Cook disclosed in his diaries that Blair was never keen to reform the second chamber. The reasons are clear. Selecting who should be in the House of Lords gives tremendous power to the prime minister. It is also a source of income as Blair has been selling honours for the last nine years.
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Giving money to New Labour is good business. In 2001 Richard Desmond gave £100,000 to New Labour. Within days the DTI gave permission for Desmond to buy Express newspapers for £125m. Afterwards he admitted it was a good deal as New Labour spent £114,000 advertising in his newspapers “so I actually made money on the deal.”
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Over the last five years, 17 out of the 22 donors who have donated more than £100,000 have been given some kind of honour.
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The publicity over links between donations, honours, and government contracts (PFI was always going to lead to government corruption) has resulted in Blair developing a new tactic. This involves businessmen in providing loans rather than gifts. Loans do not have to be declared. The idea is that several years after the contract has been given or the honour awarded, the loan is turned into a gift.
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Chai Patel (1.5m), Sir David Garrard (1m) and Barry Townsley (1m) all gave this money to Lord Levy (Blair’s bagman). It has now been revealed that over £14 million in loans was raised by Levy before the 2005 election. As a businessman myself, I find it difficult to understand why Labour has been willing to sell honours in exchange for loans. How are they ever going to be paid back? Since 1997 the membership of the Labour Party has fallen by over 50%. Trade union contributions to the party have also nearly dried up. Therefore, the only way they will be able to pay this money back is by raising this money in donations. It is financial madness? Or is it? Remember, leading Labour Party officials are claiming that they knew nothing about these loans. Is it possible that some members of the party have received money for arranging these loan deals? The Labour Party is in danger of going bankrupt. One of the reasons the Labour Party sought out these loans is that its bankers refused to provide the necessary overdraft to fight the election.
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Even this is not the great scandal waiting to be exposed. This involves the relationship between Tony Blair, Jonathan Powell, Alastair Campbell, Michael Levy, Rubert Murdoch, etc. and the funding of the Labour Party and the Iraq War. Is it possible that some of these loans came from companies who have benefited from the Iraq War? This is of course what has happened in the United States (Halliburton & Bechtel). Is this the reason that Tony Blair is reluctant to reveal who gave such large loans in 2005?
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We now know that Lyndon Johnson manipulated Congress in order to start the Vietnam War. We also know that the greatest beneficiaries of the war was three companies based in Texas, Brown & Root, General Dynamics and Bell Corporation. All three companies had been long-term financial backers of LBJ. Will we find out the same thing about Blair and his backers? The fact that the man who arranged these loans was Sir Michael Levy.”
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http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6382&st=0
Nevermind: NATO teabreak over. Incoming!
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Another puddle of slime oozing its unctuous way back into politics, is the grey-green greasy Mandelson. Seems to be collaborating with Blair in pontificating on what needs to be done without actually having a political base to do it from (if we except Windrush 1-3, Firerush 1-3, The Office of Tony Blair, The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, the Tony Blair Sports Foundation (oh, yes, got past me too until the other day), the Sainsbury-funded
Tony Blair Stalking Horse Progress….etc, etc.Swear I put an unstrike in there, but it’s gone. Should be:
….funded
Tony Blair Stalking HorseProgress…. etc, etcThe freedom fighters have just gone over here – I thought it was too peaceful to last. How much does it cost to put these things up? Can’t be much – we’re broke ain’t we?
Heard Neil Fergusson on R 4 arguing that the banks should be allowed to get on with doing what they do without heavy regulation – with the caveat that punishment for wrong-doing should be long terms of imprisonment.
He had no real answer to the chap who argued for a radical re-think of the whole business of exchange – only that he operated in the world as it is, not as it should be – in other words, the law of the jungle, dog eat dog and blow you jack.
It sounded to me as if he thought it was futile to aspire to anything better; never mind “how the world should be” how about “could” ?
Light and heavy flak:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=ZGbvsZZkuQ4&NR=1
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That would sort the buggers out.
Komododo – you’ve got a wicked pen/finger – “puddle of slime oozing its unctuous way…” indeed. Sheer poetry!
Thanks Guest for your informative potted history of our times.
What about Herbert Morrison – grandfather of said puddle?
Re. money – money is a means of exchange. It is not a commodity. If someone would kindly shoot the financiers who assert otherwise (and have trousered billions by promoting that misconception) that would largely take care of the financial crisis. Funny money created by banks to service the perceived needs of the obscenely rich benefits no-one else, and when, as it must, it evaporates because it represents no real value, everyone else pays: their currency is devalued in real terms.
“Growth” over the last couple of decades, has been little more than a measure of devaluation postponed.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings have returned, but I fear the burnt hand of the fool is wobbling back to the fire…
Following Rose’s kind words, I should point out that the last sentence above is (c) Rudyard Kipling…
Niall Ferguson (looks rather like Sarah of that ilk, but I digress)…yeah, well.
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Formerly at the Stern Business School NY. Formerly still, Oxford.
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Neocon. Embedded goy.
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http://theisraeliinternationalist.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/niall-ferguson-remarks-at-panel-session-presidential-conference-resetting-the-global-order/
“Heard Neil Fergusson on R 4 arguing that the banks should be allowed to get on with doing what they do without heavy regulation – with the caveat that punishment for wrong-doing should be long terms of imprisonment.”
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They do what they have done throughout history…There has never been a war fought that was not for the enrichment of the few.
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http://gdl.cdlr.strath.ac.uk/redclyde/images/redcly165.jpg