Here in Ghana people are stunned by the announcement that a bond of £3,000 will have to be submitted by visa applicants to the UK, redeemable on return.
It is unpleasant for a nation to be singled out as comprised of particularly untrustworthy individuals against whom special measures are needed. Theresa May appears quite deliberately to be singling out countries whose citizens are normally black or brown – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Ghana and Nigeria. They are all citizens with extremely close ties to the UK. For example, all of those countries supplied large numbers of men to British armed forces in two World Wars; with little resulting gratitude.
The true level of Britain’s regard for the Commonwealth is disclosed in all its arrogance; citizenship of the Commonwealth countries with the longest link to the UK will become a positive disadvantage in visa application. Israeli settlers living in Occupied Palestine on the West Bank, incidentally, will still be allowed to enter the UK without any visa at all, despite membership of neither Commonwealth nor EU. Paradoxical, isn’t it?
The measure shows the arrogant British disdain for these countries – of which India pre-eminently but also Ghana are fast growing and important trading partners. Undoubtedly Ghana will retaliate with measures which hurt British businesses; many of my good friends are senior Ghanaian politicians, and they are all furious. The rhetoric the British employ about transformation from colonial status to a modern partnership of equals is exposed for the tissue of lies it has always been. This is a straightforward racist measure, aimed at securing the racist vote to the Tories.
Not does it make any sense. If you are intending to enter the UK under false pretences, and have the intent illegally to settle and start a new life there, then £3,000 is scarcely a deterrent given the substantial economic gains you intend to make over the long period you intend to stay. It will rather seem a good investment; people will find the money. The people it will deter are those who never intended to overstay. The extra cash upfront, to the businessman for a business trip, for the student coming to study, for the tourist will drive them to go elsewhere, to the UK’s net loss.
More cruelly it will deter decent middle class people from coming to see grandchildren in the holidays, from going to the niece’s wedding, from going to graduation. Those things will become the prerogative of the wealthy, those with plenty of cash to spare.
This does nothing to deter illegal immigration. It merely demonstrates populist racism, demonstrates contempt for some of the UK’s best-disposed friends, and demonstrates that the government thinks the right to travel is only for the rich. It is contemptible.
“Doug Scorgie. 1.58pm Radonski Caprile is a bad loser.”
_____________
Thank you for reminding us that the full name of the losing candidate in the recent Presidential election in Venezuela is “Radonski Caprile”.
Well, except that it’s actually CaprileS (father’s surname) Radonski (mother’s surname).
Given the attachment some commenters have to giving Mr Capriles his full name,I am somewhat surprised that they have never referred to the winner, commonly known as Mr Nicolas Maduro, as Mr Nicolas Maduro Moros. Could it be that the part-surname “Radonski” is of particular significance for them?
Curiosity killed the saint…… or was it the cat?
http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/samerica/southamericalarge.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/sa.htm&h=1273&w=980&sz=250&tbnid=-y6VgI3g4coDhM:&tbnh=90&tbnw=69&zoom=1&usg=__RolPUmftLXaBZAUyM1nZ323PKbI=&docid=5onxa75iH3G38M&sa=X&ei=nTrPUYiiGITZPMa0gdgD&ved=0CCcQ9QEwAQ
@ Dreoilin
Oh, you should really show a little more tolerance towards the object of your irritation. After all, it’s not every commenter on this blog who can be said to post himself 🙂
@Habba.8 54pm
Two targets with one shot!
However do you manage it?
Maybe I should accept all that you peddle after all.
“Oh, you should really show a little more tolerance towards the object of your irritation.”
Hmmmmmm … I should probably show more tolerance all round. But the fact is, I’m tired.
(I do wonder sometimes how many folk come online when they’re tired and then take out their tetchiness on others. I really do.)
@Dreoilin. 9 29pm
No one’s perfect………………………except, of course, me!
For anyone new to the comments section, there’s a great dialog going on on the “Work for the UN” thread…………on how to contribute to and moderate said comments thread.
All the fun of the circus, plus plenty to consider.
Here’s a sample.
@Passerby. 11 03PM
Eloquent and relevant common sense. A good read too.
I won’t repeat all but here’s a flavour:
“A time comes when silence is betrayal…….”
“Those wishing to change the current arrangements of this blog, perhaps ought to learn to scroll passed the comments these find offensive, and challenging to their sensibilities, instead of attempting to change the blog as per their liking. Simply put this blog is not their sitting room to be arranged and rearranged as per their preferences, reflecting their individuality.”
“Hats off to Craig for providing this little speakers corner in the cyberspace.”
And from the horse’s mouth, so to speak.
@Jon. 12 51pm
I’ve had enough of copying and posting. Read full post yourself.
Then you can give out to me if I was wasting your time.
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/06/work-for-the-un/comment-page-6/#comments
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/29/19206445-vp-biden-discussed-snowden-with-ecuadors-president-white-house-says?lite
“The call between Biden and Correa – the highest-level exchange reported between the U.S. and Ecuador since Snowden’s June 24 plea for asylum – came just two days after President Barack Obama said he was “not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker” and should not have to speak personally with the leaders of Russia and China to return Snowden to the U.S.
Obama pledged not to engage in “wheeling and dealing and trading and a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system here in the United States.””
Obama says he’s not gonna send Jets to get Snowden; he didn’t say anything about mercenaries.
Kibo Noh 29 Jun, 2013 – 7:21 pm
“I still think the conversation is worth having.”
Which of course it is. In fact, sorry for my somewhat sanctimonious comment. Upon reflection I was only hectoring myself.
Kibo @ 9:54
Thanks for that. I have been remiss in inserting red-hot pokers into mine eyes.
Sorry for the O/T: “Rebels” make gains in southern Syrian town of Deraa. This is right on the border with Jordan, where 4000 US marines are conducting “exercises” with their hosts. Now, I’m no conspiracy theorist, but…
Don’t expect the Blind Broadcasting Corporation to ask if there might be a connection. If this keeps up, I would guess that the next move would be Syrian use of the Iskander missiles Russia delivered to them earlier this year. It will be Russia’s decision whether to fire them, of course, maybe near Aleppo in the north (but the Turks ain’t so keen now to help the “rebels” cos they got troubles of their own) or near Deraa itself; maybe a little piece of Jordan…
You can see where this is going. Dis shit gettin’ REAL, as my analyst once said to me…
” Dis shit gettin’ REAL”
Indeed. I sense a fuse is being lit.
well spotted Mike, and when you listen top the BBc you would think they have nothing else to do but to report on Glastonbury,
what a perfect distraction, massacres in |Syria to the tune of I can get no satisfaction, apocalypse now in reality.
Dis shit is getting very real indeed, the Saudi’s put their hands in their pockets and made arms dealers smile, Deraa would be the first town to get the arms, for all the reasons you mentioned. Syria is also being supplied, whatever Putin may say, he’s not going to set Syria adrift.
Add to this powder keg the lightning speed changes in Egypt, by tomorrow this could be civil war with a sectarian flavour.
I’m appalled at the impotence of the UN and the ease by which its various hands are being corrupted and bend over to suit crooks.
Time to dig that hole…
Anyway. Great speech by Glenn Greenwald on the Ed Snowden leak, speaking freely amongst friends.
Very funny too.
Starts 10.00 mins in, unless you really need to hear the introductions. Scahill’s @ 3.00 mins in is worth a listen though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Uulv4ve6RJ8#at=1376
If I were a gambler, I would put up several dollahs @ 10-1 that if trollery or other asshattery is not benefitting from this imbroglio, I will eat my three corner hat. Oh, I don’t think I understand that gambling thing….
Just say I’ll eat my asshat.
@Phil. 10 09pm
“…I was only hectoring myself.”
Isn’t it the natural, hard-wired, courageous and admirable male approach to a problem, to want to do something physical about it.
I’m sure we wouldn’t be having this conversation if our young men of countless generations had not, without thinking, jumped out of their sleep and headed out to meet the big cats while women, entrusted with the future, gathered the young and moved them to safety. Samburu men do just that to this day.
Bruce Chatwin, in “The Songlines”, had some interesting thoughts in this and much more back in 1986.
Back to the jobs at hand.
A “what is really so” narrative has to be one of the crucial issues if we are to course-correct. I’ve a couple of highly effective buddhist friends who have three simple practices.
Pay attention.
Tell it as it is.
Practice compassion.
Their questions enrage keepers of the Official narrative. But they refuse to treat them as enemies and seem the happier for it.
No matter how they go about it, defenders of the old paradigm are finding it difficult to maintain once people start to check it out.
I mean, we are being expected to swallow the notion that it’s somehow OK for national leaders to constantly use lethal, destructive force (in the name of protecting people and bringing democracy) or economic ECT (See Naomi Klein: “The Shock Doctrine”) to maintain the economic status quo.
Out in the world, despite increasingly colossal fortunes being spent to manufacture the corporate media narratives, these are increasingly perceived as bizzare and not in the individual or society’s interests.
It can no longer be convincingly argued that so many should be excluded from the earth’s wealth and nurturing capacity while the microscopic few have between 28 and 32 trillion dollars stashed away in tax havens. The rising tide left most of the boats underwater. Now it’s receded it only took the elites craft with it and left the rest of us high and dry.
Milton Friedman economics is a busted flush, discredited outside the walls of the dominant banking cult but still in vogue with the Lords of the Universe, for obvious reasons.
More and more people don’t see why their unborn kids should be saddled with the debts of corporate fraudsters. Witness the global spread of Ireland’s Anglo Irish Bank tapes.
We are expected to accept these kind of swindles?
Who says?
Oh. It’s those same banksters, arms producers, generals and their political servants who profited by it all in the first place. Who can be reassured once they really get minds around that?
Enormous mental and emotional energy is now required by comfortable conformists to stay shut in their cognitive cuckoons, eyes and minds shielded from reality out there when, increasingly , it crashes into lives all around them?
Citizens are given bank debt, the surveillance state, pre-emptive arrests, etc and kept poor post WOT / Corporate Coup. Just how can that be defended rationally?
Hence the sense of panic from the those who see it as their noble entitlement to enforce conformity,increasingly scraping their intellectual barrels in a vain and rather desperate attempt attempt to distract, insult and confuse.
And of course we, who so desperately yearn for change, can forgive ourselves for loosing our cool now and then. Surely a valid response to, for example, blowing up chidren with missiles from a safe office thousands of miles away, or from an F11 thousands of feet up, is visceral disgust.
Sometimes the language that escapes me offends and alienates. I don’t think it gets me very far, but it sure lets off steam. And Jon’s a dab hand with his zapping stick. Ouch!
These conversations are important because they are likely to leak out of the blogosphere.
My wish would be for change to come peacefully through increasing implementation of International Law. I’m not holding my breath on that one.
I don’t believe the situation can be kept fossilised like this for much longer and ultimately one straw or another will turn up to break this camel’s back.
So post on brother!
……………………………..
@Ben.
It’s the time of night to put those pokers away, put yer feet up, and get an ear-full of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej4tKE43oOw
Peace.
Good God, Ben!!
It’s, “Were I a gambler”
Have you learned nothing from Habby’s lessons?
OK, Kibo. This is War….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muzyOd4Lh8
“It’s, “Were I a gambler””
We dun tawlk lak dat down heuah, son. Git yer culture igorance someswheres else. Gotta run now.
A round up of the foreign news, the news that you are not likely to find in any of the fucking medjia you have come to rely on to keep you misinformed and ignorant.
South Africans burn Obama’s poster
For their troubles informing the wider world of what is really happening; US seeks to take Press TV off air in western Afghanistan
Meanwhile back in London, there has been a demonstration around Saudi embassy in which the demonstrators have been condemning the detention and torture of women who have been kidnapped and detained whilst demonstrating in protest against the ruling regime of Saudi in the town of Buraydah in central Saudi. This is in addition to the unrest in the western provinces and along some eastern board towns of Saudi.
Moreover Bahrainy protests are still ongoing, with demonstrations in the township of Sitra south east of the capital Manama . Those attending the protests were openly challenging the ruling regime and maintained; they no longer feared the measures taken against these demonstrators, which includes detention, torture, and disappearances. Further, the demonstrators made clear that they will carry on with their protests until such a time that the ruling regime have not stepped down and remain in Bahrain.
Egyptian demonstrators have been burning the zionistan flags and have also unfurled a giant banner in front of the defence ministry. The banner read; the pigs and dogs of Mossad, Egyptians are united, and will not fall victim to the US tricks.
With respect to Syrian front, two polish cargo aircraft, each carrying ninety tonnes of heavy weapons and munitions thereof have landed in Jordan, and their deadly cargo has been injected through the Jordanian border into Syria.
The weapons transported are being transported from the Kandahar airport in Afghanistan. the bridge head set up in Kandahar through means of air as well as ground deliveries to the Jordanian and Turkish borders, is delivering weapons and ordnance into the hands of the Syrian “rebels” (the heart eating, good terrorists). The cargo is composed of Humvees equipped with rocket launchers and semi heavy weapons, as well as anti armour rockets and munitions.
This revelation further clarifies the push for arming the “rebels” which in fact is an attempt to farm out the redundant and surplus equipment in Afghanistan theatre, into the Syrian front, in the way of aiding the “rebels” to gain an advantage in the Syrian theatre.
The power of intention wins again Ben. My all time fav ‘Knights in White Satin’ by the Moody Blues. I sang this song in Singapore Brit Club and in Yokahama Japan with the band, ‘London Lights’ aboard HMS London – Cheers for the memory – Syria-the terrorists must move out; they are no longer required. The world has spoken, viva voci people are hand in hand – the terror of Iraq is a constant vision in the minds of Syrian households.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9muzyOd4Lh8
@Ben.12 08pm
Oh, for that old summer of love! You win.
………………..
@Fedup. 12 23pm
Thanks for the update.
Goodnight all.
the Stuxnet computer virus unleashed on Iran’s nuclear facilities is such a huge story, with developments this week. what could be more dangerous than meddling in this way with nuclear reactors? an interesting take here:
Mondoweiss: Leak inquiry launched over ‘NYT’ story on American-Israeli cyberwar targeting Iran
by Alex Kane
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/06/launched-cyberwar-targeting.html
the criminal behaviour of US/Israel must be stopped. international bodies are so compromised, we need another way to hold them accountable.
Good posts from the night owls.
The ex Goldman Sachs operative returns to London to start work at HQ. He will pick up £874,000 pa.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a27e08f4-dec4-11e2-b990-00144feab7de.html#axzz2XfyPfpkl
Merv goes off into the sunset for some me-time instead of doing QE-time.
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/6/25/1372194446411/26.06.13-Steve-Bell-on-Me-002.jpg
That old D notice thing rearing its ugly head again?
http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/658994/diff/1/2
Medics recruited to join UK Border Agency.
http://news.sky.com/story/1109710/nhs-tourism-govt-to-announce-crackdown
Flaming June, at 7:09am: This is another plank in this fundamentalist government’s plan to privatise the NHS. It’s extremely dangerous. As far as I’m concerned, they can fuck off (and that’s my official public statement on that matter).
But sadly, most people will do as they’re told.
Here’s RT’s Crosstalk on the Snowden case.
Some fine moments of verbal slapstick in the second half as the MSM panelist insists that if Snowden had integrity he’s get himself back to the US and “go through the proper channels”.
http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/whistleblowing-nsa-lies-law-372/
Disturbing:
“Royal Family granted new right of secrecy
Special exemptions to be written into Freedom of Information Act”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/royal-family-granted-new-right-of-secrecy-2179148.html
I can’t see any problem with asking foreigners to meet their own medical expenses with an insurance policy. Oz, for as long as I can remember, has required visitors to have insurance. I don’t really want to ask the obvious .. but .. who is supposed to pay for the very expensive healthcare needs of people? If people are entitled to ‘free’ healthcare, surely they should be entitled to ‘free’ basic food and ‘free’ accomodation. How are these any different?