Would you like to be shot with a red gun or blue gun, sir? That is the limit of the choice being offered the UK electorate as New Labour announces it will keep the Coalition public spending plans and the Coalition benefit cuts. Given it will also throw away £100 billion on Trident, and New Labour initiated the rampant privatisation of the Health Service, PFI, Tuition Fees etc., my point could not have been more eloquently proven that the UK electorate is no longer offered any meaningful choice by the neo-con parties.
It also of course demolishes completely the Gordon Brown argument that Scots need to stay in the Union to put New Labour in to power. Who carries out Tory policies is not the question; and why a nation should surrender its freedom just to make sure Ed Balls has a ministerial car and salary while he implements Tory policies, is not a question which to me has an obvious answer.
The only meaningful political choice any part of the UK population will have in the foreseeable future is the Scottish Independence Referendum. If Scots do not take their chance, all they have ahead is economic decline and the collapse of public services. The choice could not be more stark.
Thanks, Fred.
“Full Article at BBC News”
No thanks, Mary. You spend half the time telling us how appalling the BBC is, and the other half quoting it at us. It’s feckin weird.
“I’m opposed to Nationalism, whether it’s Scottish Nationalism, British Nationalism or Zionism. I’m opposed to the propagation of Nationalist myths designed to incite hatred.”
Nationalism is just another form of Tribalism. Nothing more and nothing less. Thats how medieval we are.
——
Can we debate things out here without spitting on each other, please. Appeal to all offenders, for what its worth.
Obama says we can’t have 100% security (genius!) and 100% privacy. But we can have him as a 100% hypocrite!
Jimmy Giro asked earlier, “So, how’s Ireland doing these days ?”
Munsterman responded: “Well the North is one sandwich short of a complete basket case in every respect. Have a peep :
Irish town erects fake shop fronts for G8 summit”
I am reliably informed that that is all one D Cameron’s doing. The idiot.
Finally, the corporate media are holding power to account. The Verizon/GCHQ surveillance scandal isn’t just about the management of the state – this is about how the dark heart of the secret state operates, how power is wielded. Let’s hope the BBC and the Guardian, and others, actually keep running with this ball. Usually they drop it when they get too close to something or a juicy scrap is thrown out to distract them. Werrity and MI5 knowledge pre-7/7 spring to mind. Obama and Cameron have got their hands full now.
This is about Governments routinely spying on people. This is what totalitarian regimes do. It doesn’t get much bigger as a news story.
Dreoilin. This item
BBC News 9 minutes ago
Vaz: GCHQ US spy claims ‘chilling’
.
7 June 2013 Claims Britain’s electronic listening post GCHQ has been gathering data through a secret US spy programme are “chilling,” says a senior Labour MP. Keith Vaz, chairman of the home affairs committee, said he would be… Full Article at BBC Newswas copied from the Sky News website.
Was I supposed to delete ‘Full article at BBC News’ so as not to offend you?
Henceforth I shall refer to the RI (Resident Interrogator/Invigilator) as ‘The Old Cock’ if he/she persists in using that derogatory term to refer to me. There seems to be a fixation with hens.
bid·dy 1 (bd)
n. pl. bid·dies
A hen; a fowl.
He/she has absolutely no right to attempt to squelch comment here dependent on the identity of the poster. Who does he/she think he/she is? It is NOT his/her blog as I have repeatedly said over the last seven months.
“He/she [Habbabkuk] has absolutely no right to attempt to squelch comment here dependent on the identity of the poster”
Hence your sly attempts at slandering me by implication with your irregular, defamatory comments describing Australia and its people as a “racist country”.
You, my dear, are quite the hypocrite.
– – –
Go Scotland, Vote YES for Scottish Independence!
@ Dreoilin :
“No thanks, Mary. You spend half the time telling us how appalling the BBC is, and the other half quoting it at us. It’s feckin weird.”
——–
Dreoilin, please do not mock the afflicted, she’s probably just a little confused.
BTW, since she doesn’t read my comments, would you please do me a favour and, with reference to her post at 18h24, let her know that F16s are not used for intelligence gathering? Thanks in advance!
“Was I supposed to delete ‘Full article at BBC News’ so as not to offend you?”
It’s a pity it wasn’t clear that it was “copied from the Sky News website”. That’s what quotation marks are for, Mary. If it had been in quotation marks, I’d have known you didn’t write it, wouldn’t I.
So, tough.
@ Flaming June :
“Henceforth I shall refer to the RI (Resident Interrogator/Invigilator) as ‘The Old Cock’….”
———
I protest strongly against the use of the adjective “old”!!! No problem with the Cock bit though.
@ Villager :
“Obama says we can’t have 100% security (genius!) and 100% privacy. But we can have him as a 100% hypocrite”
———–
Perhaps I’m misinterpreting you, but the tone of your second sentence appears to indicate that you disagree with, or even contest, what the President said in the first sentence.
It follows, therefore, that you believe that one can have 100% security and 100% privacy. If so, you are wrong.
___________________________
More seriously though, you may already have noticed that there is no such thing as 100% privacy and nor can there be – and, before you say it, this is not exclusive to the modern state or a product of a developed society (read some works on anthropology and you will see that, for example, there is zero privacy in the most ‘primitive’ human groupings such as tribal societies).
Hope this helps.
“Dreoilin …
BTW, since she doesn’t read my comments, would you please do me a favour and, with reference to her post at 18h24, let her know that F16s are not used for intelligence gathering? Thanks in advance!” — Habbabkuk
————
Mary says, “It is NOT his/her blog as I have repeatedly said over the last seven months.”
And it’s not yours either, Mary. I often wonder if you comment anywhere else, on any other blogs. Because if you did, you might be more used to the give and take, and even to occasional attacks on you. I’ve been called a LOT worse than an “old biddy” on blogs all over the internet, especially on Tea Party sites. And I wouldn’t attempt to reply to Villager with “I do not have to justify myself”, like you did. Blog comments are all about discussion and even argument. Most commenters here have been asked to justify what they have said, at one time or another. Even Clark and Jon (when Clark was a mod) and they have not used their title of “moderator” as an excuse to duck clarification, either.
You used the word “racist” in a reply to me on some thread some time ago. I asked you, nicely, three times, on the same thread, to clarify what you meant. And although you commented again on the same thread, you ignored me.
But you don’t ignore me when it suits you, eh?
O/T (very, very)
Yikes! I had no idea that Jonathan Rhys Meyers was Irish!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Rhys_Meyers
(was watching the Tudors while down in Wexford) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tudors
While betwixt and between agent Cameron attending a Middle East black budget huddle in a dimly lit meeting room at the Grove Hotel and GCHQ beaming our internet information through PRISM, a major incursion by USUKIS terrorists into Syria from Jordon is expected in the next 24hrs according to information from a British mercenary working out of Dubai.
Dreoilin :
Munsterman responded: “Well the North is one sandwich short of a complete basket case in every respect. Have a peep :
Irish town erects fake shop fronts for G8 summit”
I am reliably informed that that is all one D Cameron’s doing. The idiot.
——————————————————————————-
It is something you’d expect to see in the former Soviet Union in order to try and impress visiting tourists.
Beggars belief.
Thankfully, 5/6 of Ireland is independent – and the remaining 1/6 a work-in-progress towards Re-Unification.
Interesting Report on Scottish Oil from 1975 :
http://www.oilofscotland.org/mccronereport.pdf
Some excerpts :
(i) “The country (Scotland) would tend to be in chronic surplus to a
quite embarrassing degree and its currency would become the hardest in
Europe, with the exception perhaps of the Norwegian kroner.”
(ii)”Thus, for the first time since the Act of Union was passed, it can now
be credibly argued that Scotland’s economic advantage lies in the repeal of the Act”.
Interesting conclusions.
I wonder why London tried to conceal this Report from the Scottish people ?
@habba 8:30pm
RF-16
Seems like there are some things you don’t know.
You lot amaze me. When Craig posts that he is under the weather and he cannot walk for less than 200mtrs, you lot continue to bicker, scream like little kids and hijack an interesting post for your pitiful ‘have a go at each other’ stupid comments. My suggestion is that some of you just piss off and start your open blog where you can all drip your poison to your hearts content. I have posted on this blog for 5 years, now I am sadly disillusioned.
Habba, you Old oaf, the only sensible thing you said is “Perhaps I’m misinterpreting you”. Answer, yes you are. I used the word ‘genius’ to congratulate the POTUS for figuring out that we can’t have 100% security. (Makes me feel warm that i can now wrap myself in my blue blanket in the comfort that we are being lead by such a brainy guy.) Wow, took him however many long years to figure that out! Ditto for privacy, so wtf is he talking about it? Answer, because he made a pre-election promise that he would eliminate/substantially reduce the snooping (he said “that’s not who we are”). In fact he’s taken it further than Dubya. Exposed, he’s now distracting you with these 100%’s which any idiot knows are impossibilities. So, he’s a 100% hypocrite. GITMO Syndrome. Ball-less coward.
Now, don’t give me a hard time with your history lessons, but tell me one new, fresh creative action the Young Cock, (who is greying rapidly) has done for the good of the Planet.
——
PS LOL at your 8.35 and i understand your objection re Old but i promise not to combine it with any C-word! And glad to see you staying young with your volleyball.
“Interesting Report on Scottish Oil from 1975 :
http://www.oilofscotland.org/mccronereport.pdf ”
Thanks, Munsterman. Looks like an interesting read. I see that it mentions that, “There might be some argument about where the boundary between English
and Scottish waters would lie”, and that subject has already arisen here, Craig being an expert on maritime boundaries.
Yes, the story about Enniskillen beggars belief. I’ve heard it’s gone around the world. No doubt they’re all laughing. I hope they have the sense to know who they’re laughing at.
Mark, I would expect nothing less. How big and bad this gets will depend, I think, on how far Russia wants to take it. Because you can be sure if Syria is on the menu, “we” won’t be satisfied until it’s served up on a plate.
I’m reminded of the 1930’s here. And we know how that economic depression ended. If Russia won’t back down I reckon this might turn into a pretty major exchange of fire, between it, Israel and probably the US, initially through proxies, but then who knows. This is what’s on the horizon. It’s all down to President Howdy Doody now. Does he have enough humanity to de-escalate, or does the neocon war machine call the shots, as it were?
The latest Scottish Social Attitudes Survey report (June 2013) shows that support for Independence is 11 points ahead of support for the status quo:
Independence: 35%
Status quo: 24%
For options not available in the referendum, the results are:
“Devo max” (everything devolved except defence and foreign affairs): 32%
No Scottish Parliament: 6%
So unless most of those supporting “Devo max” vote No, which seems highly unlikely, Scotland will vote Yes to Independence in September 2014.
I am now convinced that the results being presented by the so called “independent” polling companies bear no credibility.
Remember, these are the same polling companies which were predicting a Labour win at the 2011 Scottish election.
http://wingsoverscotland.com/uninteresting-news-ignored/
Mark, I should add that it also depends on what the Jordanian people do; the Turks might have had enough of their Government’s position as Washington’s bitch. We’ll see. Maybe Syria will be saved as a functioning nation state, where kids don’t ingest depleted uranium from “our” bombs, and where the rule of tribal gangs doesn’t hold sway.
The rot seems to have set in with contributions to this site when it was “made-over” with a blueish layout, user avatars and the preview page was removed. With that facility you could at least reconsider your efforts before setting them in stone with the submit button. It would be worth while bringing it back.
I understood there were moderators on here to remove these offenders but if not, could some kind of filter be put in place to reject posts containing the bog-standard selection of offensive four letter words. I’m not in favor generally speaking of cookies but if they could be used as a way of being able to ignore and not show the postings of certain raving loonies and trolls then it would make this site a bit more bearable.
Other than that I have to agree with Frazer that these trolls and fools should go and pee up their own walls somewhere else.
I note that comments sections of Mail on Line never have offensive words allowed whereas the ultra high brow and super liberal Guardian’s Comment is Free sections allows every swear word under the sun. It may be libertarian to do so and indicate signs of a free society but also can be a tad boring after a while.
In a private meeting, Putin has gone on record; even if the fighting reaches the outskirts of Moscow, it is worth keeping Syria on board.
The latest bout of indignations here in US controlled territories are mainly due to the simple fact that Syrian Army is kicking the crap out of the terrorists, and winning the war. Hence the cries of foul, and weapons of mass destruction. However, Russians have already announced a permanent Mediterranean naval presence. Therefore, the notions of Russians taking this new round of expansionism on the chin and letting the US and the coalition of the coattail hangers to take Syria, is a pipe dream. Further, so far as zionistan is concerned, it is used to fighting unarmed and stone throwing Palestinians, and has little stomach in the way of confronting any army that can fight back.
Also, so far as the major fire exchange goes; this will quickly escalate to exchange of nukes, which Russia and China stand a better chance of surviving it, than the West (missile shield is the clue). This matter has not gone unnoticed by the “Masters of the Universe”, who can see their arse is on the line too. Hence no repeat of WWII, because it will be far too costly and not much of use. The banksters are bluffing, and the rest of the world know this fact too well.
“More seriously though, you may already have noticed that there is no such thing as 100% privacy and nor can there be – and, before you say it, this is not exclusive to the modern state or a product of a developed society (read some works on anthropology and you will see that, for example, there is zero privacy in the most ‘primitive’ human groupings such as tribal societies).”
There’s very little privacy in primitive societies, and there was little privacy right up to the Tudors.
Privacy rises as societies become more civilised, so you can probably see the height of that in the 19th century in England.
Privacy is certainly on the decrease and that would indicate that we’re heading towards more primitive times.
“I am now convinced that the results being presented by the so called “independent” polling companies bear no credibility.”
The survey shows 35% in favour and 62% against, that’s in line with the last independent survey I saw.
Parky; As I see it, the mods have some difficulty with management. The support seems to be lacking.
Alan Campbell
“I wonder who Craig will blame when Scotland votes “No”? The CIA and/ or the BBC?”
The whole purpose of dividing countries is that smaller countries are easier to push around. The CIA and BBC are tools/agents, not actual powers that be. Nobody blames the guillotine or the executioner. You have to focus on the intentions of the powers that be.
Frazer, do you know the old cartoon of a rustic gout-sufferer, foot bandaged and raised to relieve the pain, fishing in a half-barrel in his parlour? All human life is here. Squabbling chickens (no names mentioned), prattling fools (now known as trolls), impoverished but sincere curates (myself included), wigged politicians with manifestos for changing the world.
Your future is secure. As an agent of international relations on the moorland borders between the UK and Scotland. I’m sure you will find that mines will soon be being planted there by agents of Prince Charles to stop paparazzi photoing his childrens’ bare behinds.