My friend Mike Arnott of Dundee TUC has done more than anybody to record the story of the outstanding Dundonian contribution to the early war against fascism; seventeen men from Dundee died in the International Brigade.
I wonder what they would think about the alliance between the right wing Spanish “Popular Party” and the Tories plus, reportedly, New Labour to plan a demand for the expulsion of an independent Scotland from the European Union?
New Labour’s commitment to keeping Trident in Scotland, to ending free prescriptions and to imposing university tuition fees makes it, I suppose, unremarkable that they would feel comfortable in this company.
The Tories have today denied that they have made any formal deal on a united front against Scottish and Catalonian independence, while acknowledging that meetings between the Scottish Tories and the Popular Party have taken place. (To discuss what else, one wonders? Property prices on Tory retirement homes in Spain?)
And this grand theft too
HAITI: Humanitarian Aid for Earthquake Victims Used to Build Five Star Hotels
http://www.globalresearch.ca/haiti-humanitarian-aid-for-earthquake-victims-used-to-build-five-star-hotels/31646
As some 500,000 Haitians still live in displaced camps, five star hotels are being built amid shanty towns.
As part of the country’s “Reconstruction”, The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund recently invested $2 million in the Royal Oasis Hotel, a deluxe structure to be built in a poverty-stricken metropolitan area ”filled with displaced-persons camps housing hundreds of thousands”. Royal Oasis belongs to a Haitian investment group (SCIOP SA) and will be managed by the Spanish chain Occidental Hotels & Resorts.
/..
By Julie Lévesque
Global Research, June 28, 2012
The scare mongering is reaching feverish proportions. That Scottish Labour is part of the disinformation campaign is beyond belief.They know why the fishing industry disappeared. they fought against it at the time.When the mines were shut down to curb the Unions, they fought against that.Scottish Labour were for scrapping Trident. A naval base does not have to have WMD.If Westminster needs them,store them under Parliament.
As for the EU. They fast tracked Bulgaria and Romania before they were ready. Brussels is building Empire , and they’ll take anybody except Turkey.Our membership will be whizzed through pronto, to protect Schengen. If this threat of Barroso’s becomes more than rhetoric before the vote in 2014, then it makes it a vote on the EU as well. That will add to the YES side.
To paraphrase John Cleese, ” what has Brussels ever done for us ? “
Fred @ 8 Nov, 2012 – 9:52 am
Well said Fred. Let it also be remembered that Craig was born and raised in England and is probably a Freemason.
The Telegraph has conveniently summarised its recent headlines on Scottish politics here. It will make a thoughtful piece of reading for those who still believe the press is independent. And yet Salmond is the
mostonly popular political leader in the UK, and the SNP is the most popular party in Scotland (and in some parts of England, I hear). Power of the press? Pfft.@spamtasticus:
ET, the mothership’s on the ‘phone…
“Well said Fred. Let it also be remembered that Craig was born and raised in England and is probably a Freemason.”
…and hasn’t denied being a member of the Illuminati.
“Andrew Mitchell denies ‘rogue’ action over Rwanda aid”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20250025
Spamtastcus
I don’t judge a man by where he was born or where he was raised and it concerns me not if he is a Freemason.
It is the things he says I take issue with.
Outrage at Unionist scaremongering while indulging in Nationalist propaganda himself makes as much sense as the Sun newspaper being outraged at the sexual exploitation of young girls.
“old Etonian”
“He’s particularly concerned about the plight of the poor and the moral obligations of the City – so the government can expect him to be just as outspoken as Rowan Williams.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20242129
“old Etonian” “concerned about the plight of the poor”…I don’t think so!!!. A safe pair of hands was the order of the day after Rowan Williams and it was made so!!!.
Fred – think the Mason jibe was intended ironically. Though there are here one or two who will reach for their tinfoil hats and take it entirely seriously. Ditto Illuminati, Rothschild, Temple of Sion and the rest.
I have several recent ancestors who were Masons. They were not in charge of a global elite, believe me. Or anything else much.
Old Etonian…cont’d…
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/index.html
§
Dr. Horace King (Southampton. Test) I beg to move, “That this House expresses its concern at the fact that most of the so-called public schools of this country are, in reality, exclusive private schools catering for children drawn from a narrow social group and outside the State system of education; and, believing that education ought to be provided for children according to their educational needs and not according to the financial resources of their parents, would welcome further measures designed to achieve that object.”
The most famous and most exclusive and most expensive public schools were stolen from the nation and its poor children a long time ago.
The early Christian, William of Wykeham, founded Winchester College for the education of 70 poor scholars. He did permit 10, in his own words, “of wealth and rank” to belong, so that originally it had 88 per cent. free places. 435 King Henry VI founded Eton for 25 “poor
and needy scholars to learn grammar there freely, without money or anything else”—to quote from the old Charter. There were 20 fee payers, so Eton had 55 per cent. free places.
John Lyon founded Harrow as a free grammar school for the townsfolk, and there were 100 per cent. free places. Queen Elizabeth I founded Westminster with 40 boys chosen for their “disposition, knowledge and poverty.” Merchant Taylors was a school “of liberty most free, being open especially for poor men’s children.” Sutton founded Charterhouse for poor children, and King Edward VI founded Christ’s Hospital to “take out of the streets all the fatherless children and other poor men’s children that are not able to keep them.” As British society became less Christian and more class conscious these original foundations were diverted. The methods of confiscation varied. William of Wyke-ham, who had said that his descendants could acquire free education at Winchester, would find through the ages that he had a fantastic number of relatives.
§
Mr. Godfrey Nicholson (Farnham) His descendants?
§
Dr. King I should have said his kinsfolk.
Teachers were badly paid, and so the number of fee-payers was allowed to expand. School masters became boarding-house keepers to supplement their miserable wages. Scholarship holders paid all kinds of “extras,” so that the poorest children could no longer afford to take up a scholarship. Influential people had the right of nominating candidates to these schools. The schools were run by closed corporations, and they still are, almost. They could interpret their own charters as they liked and finally they arrived at a stage when they could prove that the words “poor and indigent” were to be taken in a Pickwickian sense and really meant the sons of gentlefolk.
(Hansard: HC Deb 20 March 1953 vol 513 cc434-47)
Welby’s a splendid chap. Right sort of people, knows his way around, won’t see him letting those Occupy plebs anywhere near St Pauls –
Welby’s stepfather, allegedly a Labour peer, but interesting views on foxhunting and climate change. Solid on oil and banking. Looks reassuringly Victorian.
http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp06115/charles-cuthbert-powell-williams-baron-williams-of-elvel
ad Rob (11am) : Scotland’s EU status would be questionable, but there is, I think, no doubt that the “remainder” of the United Kingdom would NOT have to re-apply for membership. EU membership is based on states applying for membership and then being accepted (“acceding”)..or not – states however they are constituted and whetever their territorial extent.
The UK (including Scotland) acceded in 1973 and would continue to remain a member state, albeit with an altered territorial extent. What would need to be revisited as far as the successor UK was concerned, however, would for example be aspects of EU membership based on various statistical/historical data (GNP, fishing patterns before 1983, etc etc…)
Floreat Eton indeed.
PM and Cantuar both old Etonians.
Chancellor and PUS at the FCO both St Paul’s and Oxford.
But, on the other hand, if you avoid the public schools and Oxford, you end up with people like Greg Dyke at the top.
Take your choice…
Scotland not eligible as independent State with 5.2 million
Ireland ok at 4.3 Million
Denmark 5.4
Estonia 1.4
Latvia 2.3
Lituania 3.4
Malta 0.4
Slovakia 5.5
Slovenia 2.0
Are 10 Scots counted as 1 ? Are they very small ?. Or insignificent?.
Scum rises, Hab. Sad FACT.
‘modo; Being a neophyte with no context for this issue; a question….
IYO, isn’t the EU desperate to keep all the chickens in the coop? By that I mean, by way of comparison, isn’t that like a politician giving up a constituency’s donors and votes when the success of the Mission can only be hurt by their omission? Expulsion seems like a red herring.
Mary
From the Oasis Project webpage (with some comments of mine):
“For Haiti’s recovery to be sustainable, the country must attract businesses and investors who will need a business class, seismically safe hotel staffed by highly-trained [and shit paid] hospitality workers. The Oasis Project will meet this need, with far reaching impact.”
“Though original construction was abruptly halted following the earthquake, [so the construction of the hotel was ongoing before the earthquake but now it is being hailed as a project to rebuild Haiti’s infrastructure and economy] the new project sends a powerful message [to casino magnates; Monsanto; land speculators; supermarket chains; advocates of slave labour and many other opportunistic thieves] that Haiti is “open for business.”
Ben, it’s part of THE FEAR. You’ll have no friends, no money, no resources, you’ll be horribly in debt, you’ll never work again, pestilence and disease will run riot in your benighted country.
It will get worse. Whole divisions of Civil Servants and spooks will be working on this, as we speak.
Well whilst I wouldn’t argue that the EU federalists are eager to expand their empire by any means except Turkey Bulgaria and Romania applied for membership in 1995, negotiations started in 2000, were completed in 2004 and both nations were finally admitted in 2007. I suppose by the turgid pace of the EU 12 years can be regarded as “fast track” but although an independent Scotland, if it has to re-apply, would be in a better position as it should already comply with most EU legislation it shouldn’t imagine that (re-)joining would be a speedy process.
Interestingly neither Bulgaria or Romania has yet joined the Euro and currently I don’t think either has any plans to do so. Certainly Bulgaria recently shelved it’s plan to join the Euro by 2015 because of the current economic situation. How long they’ll be able to get away with this is anyone’s guess as they have to join sometime. It’s part of the terms and conditions.
Before any country can join the Euro it’s currency has to spend at least two years in ERM II. No one has yet explained to me how Scotland will do that if, as the SNP have stated, it will continue to use Stirling.
Whilst Scotland’s situation might not have any precedent there may be for the rest of Britain. After the Soviet Union broke apart the UN recognised Russia as successor nation as it had the largest landmass and population. As a result it kept the USSR’s seat at the UN and membership of the Security Council. If they did the same with the UK it would be difficult for the EU to argue that the England, Wales & NI bit needs to re-apply.
“Scotland not eligible as independent State with 5.2 million”
Who on earth has been telling you that?
AFAIK the only thing you need to be a state is that other states recognise you as such. It’s like a club, if the other members say you’re in you’re in, if they say you’re not you’re not. Same with the EU.
“It will get worse. Whole divisions of Civil Servants and spooks will be working on this, as we speak.”
Donald; with reference to fear, ‘cui bono’?
Ben, better ask the Unionists. A convincing argument has not been forthcoming for staying in. Why do they want us so much?
After all, we have no friends, no money, no resources…
Is it pure sentiment? Hmm.
Anent the Euro; the Danes ain’t too keen on it, either. You have to join it, but there are criteria.
Just make sure you don’t achieve them…
Donald.
Since when did you need a reason for the status quo?
Scotland is in a union with the rest of Britain, that is how it is, if you want to change things then it is you who must come up with the reasons and I haven’t heard a Nationalist come up with a convincing one yet.
” I haven’t heard a Nationalist come up with a convincing one yet.”
Here’s 300
Ben – I’m hardly qualified to comment, but I think the unspoken wish of the EU members is to lose the paupers and keep the contributors. While the EU bureaucrats want as large a gravy train as possible to maximise their importance. This may be too cynical, but the approach rarely lets me down…
Vronky
That all looks like one reason to me, a hatred of the English, not a convincing reason.
“EU bureaucrats want as large a gravy train as possible to maximise their importance”
I see. It’s a possible breach in the Castle wall. Btw….cynicism is a synonym for ‘context’ and is not pejorative.
PERFIDIOUS ALBION – 4
THE BATTLE FOR SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE
As the USUK Empire Fascists do abroad, so at home. (*)
So will it be a _real_ battle, with murder, death and torture-to-death and false flag attacks? USUK Empire SOP abroad – see previous sections.
The UK is now entirely a US Empire satrapy – run by US Empire Quislings – Bliar, Brown, Cameron, Clegg and who knows how many before them … –
What Scotland is up against –
“We do not parachute teams into the Soviet Union to haul families out at night and castrate the father with the children watching, because they have the Bomb, and a big army, and they would parachute teams right back into our country and do the same thing to us – they’re not scared of us. For slightly different reasons, but also obvious reasons, we don’t do these things in England, or France, or Germany, or Sweden, or Italy, or Japan. What comes out at you immediately is that these 1 to 3 million direct victims, the dead, and in these other wars, they’re people of the third world. They’re people of the Metumba mountains of the Congo, and the jungles of Southeast Asia, and now the hills of northern Nicaragua – 12,000 peasants. We have not killed KGB or Russian army advisors in Nicaragua. We are not killing Cuban advisors. We’re not killing very many Sandinistas. The 12,000 that we have killed in Nicaragua are peasants, who have the misfortune of living in a CIA’s chosen battlefield. Mostly women and children. Communists? Far, far, far more Catholics than anything else.” (*) “Now case officers that do these things in places in Nicaragua, they do not come back to the U.S. and click their heels and suddenly become responsible citizens. They see themselves – they have been functioning above the laws, of God, and the laws of man – they’ve come back to this country, and they’ve continued their operations as far as they can get by with them. And we have abundant documentation of that as well. The MH-Chaos program, exposed in the late 60’s and shut down, re-activated by President Reagan to a degree – we don’t have the details yet – in which they were spending a billion dollars to manipulate U.S. student, and labor organizations. The MK-ultra program. For 20 years, working through over 200 medical schools and mental hospitals, including Harvard medical school, Georgetown, some of the biggest places we’ve got, to experiment on American citizens with disease, and drugs.”
from Part 2 – John Stockwell
– http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/StockwellCIA87_2.html
Part 1 –
– http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Stockwell/John_Stockwell.html and
No change there, then!
UK – RULED BY US EMPIRE PUPPETS – WHO KNEW?!
ROBIN RAMSAY – UK LOBSTER
THE CITY
‘WELL HOW DID WE GET HERE?”
There is an important essay for economic neophytes (ER, ‘Us’?) on the UK’s economy and the City by Robin Ramsay in UK Lobster, Winter 2010.
Pages 64 – 105. A lot of work? “If you think education is expensive (or hard work), try ignorance!” See the Neo-Con Nazis and the last eleven years for details! ; )
So you should probably add reading as much else of Lobster’s _free_ information as you can to your To Do list. ; )
William Blum, author of ‘Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions since World War 2’ recommends UK Lobster. ‘The British journal, Lobster — which, despite its incongruous name, is a venerable international publication on intelligence matters’ – July 2012 Anti Empire Report.
His own monthly ‘Anti-Empire Reports’ are always a wonderful dose of both reality and sanity (‘So I am sane’ ; ) ) – the complete opposite of the Muppet Stream Media, which is usually neither!
– http://killinghope.org/
… UNCLE SAM’S NEW LABOUR – Page 88
BLIAR, BROWN – UK TRAITORS OR ‘REALISTS’! ?
“The US government was also paying attention: in 1985 – only two years after Blair became an MP – an official in US embassy in London described him as ‘one of the brightest and most ambitious of recent Labor intake’;60 and the next year Blair took the first of his freebie trips to America.”
“Brown and Blair were ‘modernisers’ and that had a specific meaning in this period: accept the power of the City and American global hegemony and give up all this nonsense about economic independence (let alone socialism).61 John Smith, another ‘moderniser’ in the Labour leadership, was on the steering committee of the Bilderberg group, one of the key elite forums promoting globalisation, from 1989 to 1992.62 In June 1991 Smith took his then understudy, Gordon Brown, to the Bilderberg meeting at Baden Baden. There Brown met the then obscure governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton. Blair attended the 1993 Bilderberg Conference in Athens.”
Well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs !!! Shocked, Shocked! To discover gambling going on. ; )
Thatcher too was of that Anglo-American foundation gravy train ilk. Further, she sold out the people to her Anglo-American chums on UK oil. Where Tony Benn wanted a sovereign wealth fund to preserve the wealth for future generations, as Norway did successfully.
So the Tories are _exactly_ as New Labour. Utterly corrupt US Empire poodles, desperately competing to jump the highest whenever the US Empire sneezes.
CASABLANCA
The Captain Renault Award for recognizing US Empire illegal war, murder, torture-to-death and 27,000 missing ‘disappeared’ Muslims (“Are they alive or are they in mass graves?” – Robert Fisk). –
– http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-obama-has-to-pay-for-eight-years-of-bushs-delusions-1001092.html
Given to those Shocked, Shocked! at the obvious. – Original – Casablanca – ; ) –
– http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1DEG6BWgp0
Craig
A couple of points occur to me. The procedure of the referendum and ancillary debate has been agreed by the United Kingdom government. This procedure allows for internal opposition in the traditional form of political campaigning. Certain politicians seem to be seeking the assistance of foreign countries and/or groups to interfere in the internal policies of the United Kingdom. Is there a legal term for such activity?