Blair’s latest attempt at rehabilitation is a discussion tomorrow at Westminster Central Hall with the Archbishop of Canterbury on the place of religion in society. A vexed question, but given that Blair believes God OK’d the invasion of Iraq and the resulting million deaths, not one that can usefully be discussed by this charlatan.
You can protest at Westminster Central Hall from 4pm tomorrow. Should be a lovely day for it. Bring own rotten tomatoes.
About the protest:
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I’d like to have got in to Methodist Central Hall for the debate. I knew there was little hope, but I walked up to the door at about 4PM and asked the two blue-uniformed doormen what the admissions policy was.
“None” replied one immediately.
“None?” I replied incredulously. The other replied,
“All booked in advance, so if you haven’t a ticket you can’t get in”.
“How would I have got a ticket if I’d known?” I asked.
“On-line”.
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So I went and joined the demonstration. Demonstrators had to stand behind removable barriers on the other side of the road, with three police officers facing them with blank faces. Several more police formed a small knot that kept more distant. Demonstrators were not stopped if they strayed from the allotted area, but anyone holding a placard or calling out anything demonstration-like were told to get behind the barrier. Daniel said there were 52. I thought it may have briefly peaked at about a hundred, but it was hard to say exactly who was demonstrating, people came and went.
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A reporter walked among us, asking people questions and making shorthand notes. A team of two handled a broadcast camera on a tripod. Enquiring of them, they told me they were from Danish TV. Lots of passing people took photos of the demonstration.
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The demo was typical Stop The War Coalition, with the usual placards, and a woman with a sky-pointing megaphone, exhorting the familiar chants including:
“Tony Blair, War Criminal”
“Tony Blair, Terrorist!”
“Blair Lied, Thousands Died”
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Notable were two older people standing motionless and in silence; the man prominently holding up a bible and a crucifix, one in each hand.
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A queue formed waiting to get in, and a senior StopWar woman started heckling them with shouts of “Christians, Shame On You!”. I pointed out to her that if I’d known to get tickets, I’d have been in that queue myself. She also heckled the police. I questioned this too, the officers present weren’t being the least bit provocative, and I said that if big protests ever kicked off, we’d much rather the police were on our side. The said that this had in fact happened during Spanish protests, and kept to joining in the chants thereafter. After the protest was officially over, I tried to speak to her about declining support for the Stop The War Coalition, but she wasn’t interested in conversing with me. I helped her load placards into a taxi.
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After the queue had cleared a protester arrived from “behind the building” and told us that a group of protesters had been ordered away from the back door by police and then Blair had been smuggled in. Within a minute a police helicopter arrived. It circled for a while and then left.
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At 5:30 PM the StopWar people dismantled the megaphone and started collecting in the placards. I asked why, and was told that the demonstration had to be booked in advance with the police, and 5:30 was the appointed ending time. Most people just left, but the police made no effort to move people on. I got chatting to two officers, who seemed more inclined to chat than most of the protesters had been, especially the organisers. We spoke about arrangements for the Olympics; they were particularly critical of G4S who they seemed to regard as a gross liability. “Don’t get me started on G4S, you’ll never get home!”
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The chant leader’s stated objective of making sure that Blair could hear us is, I believe, worthwhile. Demonstrations like this serve to put off those groups who would continue to exploit this madman’s charisma, and may even help to activate some semblance of conscience in Blair himself, so long as they are repeated often enough for long enough.
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The protest consisted of people of diverse ages and dress, but I saw three non-Whites at most. There were no families, children or dogs, whereas there were many on the February 2003 procession. I remember one demo I attended some years back where one of the chant leaders with a megaphone was taunting police with “British Police, Fascist Police” endlessly repeated. On that occasion, I thought of asking him to stop, but I had my dog with me and I wanted to avoid all trouble. I seriously question stirring up trouble like this. Families will not want to attend with children, and other people will avoid demonstrating altogether if protest groups are deliberately inciting trouble with the police.
Excellent posts Clark, a jewel of a find Suhayl, who would have thought, a shawl makers family. Who knows, his family might have had connection with Norwich’s shawl empire.
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In the 1970’s its was either an imported ‘shal’ from Kashmir, an English shawl from Norwich, or a Paisley designed shawl.
http://www.norwichtextiles.org.uk/history/fabrics-_fashions/the-norwich-_shawl-story
Komodo: The sky here was full of military hardware yesterday. Thought it was rehearsals for the annual
military recruitment airshow, but apparently we don’t have one this year. (They must be all going to the Olympics (TM) instead.)Retry:
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Komodo: The sky here was full of military hardware yesterday. Thought it was rehearsals for the annual
military recruitmentairshow, but apparently we don’t have one this year. (They must be all going to the Olympics (TM) instead.).
Edit note: Yikes – still getting the hand of Komodo’s fancy strikeout text!
Komodo its high level loops and routine flights, didn’t take a look at the types.
I can hear the altitude from the level of noise, some were faint and quiet high, i.e. laser guided bombing raid, others lower and loopy as in attack on ground targets.
My cold war aircraft spotting menu is not up to date with today’s death birds, I used to identify over 120 different one’s in seconds and report it to the MK20 some 3 miles behind me, that was the 1970’s and the B52’s were just new, closely followed by the dead Kennedies in 1978… lots of weekends in Juarez with mates, weekends on tequila and beer. Now its the murder capital of the world.
Ok, Nevermind, here’s one you might have a clue about: 4-engine turboprop with swept (or swept leading edge) wings. Looked rather like a Tu-95 Bear but I think the fuselage was wider, and I may have imagined rear loading doors. Marine grey. Overhead yesterday around 1800 local, heading in general direction of Marham – prob around 10,000 feet. If it was Russian I’m very surprised it was not seen off the premises long before getting inland. Maybe part of Glenn’s impromptu display?
The helo flights are probably practice troop insertions – I’ve seen similar goings-on oop norf.
Ah. Airbus A400 is close.
good try, my first guess was Hercules C 13o, your call, you’ve seen it 😉
Just re read my gobbledigook, its off course 1870, not 1970, when Norwich shawl making was at its height.
‘Nevermind’ – that’s fascinating – thanks, excellent link. I hadn’t realised Norwich was a centre of the textile industry; I knew all about the Paisley textile industry because I grew up there.
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Speculation is always intriguing, isn’t it. So, if, let’s say, in this claimed narrative, Ahmedinejad’s parents hadn’t decided to become Muslim during the 1950s, he might well have ended up an Israeli citizen. I think that that sort of juxtaposition is as powerful an argument as any against there being any kind of war b/w Israel and Iran, that war is utter stupidity. Not that this argument will do any good, of course.
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I note too that an Iranian Israeli ‘Guardian’ blogger disputed the claim – see link, below. I know nothing about most of this, but I do know that the ending ‘-jian’ is very, very common among Persian-speaking peoples and does not indicate specific origins. Oh well, there you go. Interesting that both Ahmedinejad’s family and Israeli experts were keen to counter the claim. Well, at least that got them agreeing on something!
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/05/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-jewish-family
Which reminds of that excellent comedy starring Omid Djalili (himself, Iranian-British), ‘The Infidel’ as a Pakistani-Brit Islamic Fundamentalist who wakes up one morning to discover he was adopted as a baby and was originally Jewish. I’d recommend it, if you’ve not seen it – it’s very funny and also touching. It was written by David Baddiel:
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/video/2010/feb/05/the-infidel-david-baddiel
Thanks for that Suhayl, I like Djalili, seen the hilarious Infidel, he can take the mickey out of himself and shoot from the hip.
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Coming to visit Edinburgh next week, staying down near Cotton mill.
A weeks of as cheap a fun as we can’t afford it, anybody want to visit, go for a pint, ‘show me and the missus round’ share a coffee ‘n biscuit, send us an email.
Sorry Suhayl, Vronsky, that’s canon Mill, Lothian No 8, 23,27
Sadly Chris, being a war criminal (as Blair is) is not all that matters. Why do you think Blair hasn’t been arrested already?
Thanks, Nevermind.
I posted this earlier on the wrong thread – a plethora of Craig’s posts is confoosin’ for old gits – so here goes again on the appropriate one:
Michael Culver, or anybody else – do you know if there was there any video or audio recording of the arch crim on his knees at confession before the arch bish on Tuesday? If so I’d like to see/hear it.