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.
The Beeb report linked to by Mary/Flaming June @01.01pm today is still showing half a dozen countries considering Snowden’s asylum application. Hats off to all of them.
It also includes a snide quote from the Polish minister Radek Sikorski (aka the spouse of neocon eminence Anne Appelbaum). The sooner Correa/Evo Morales or whoever make Snowden an offer of sanctuary, the sooner the smirk from Sikorski’s face vanishes.
Flaming June
30 Jun, 2013 – 10:30 pm
“What is the name for someone who is being trolled?”
A target Mary.
Doug and Old Mark. Cheers! Keep going Macky.
Reading back I see what Dreoilin was getting at when she asked where that JTA had come from and was it from medialens. I think I have been posting from Medialens for many years, especially their editors’ ‘alerts’. No I did not get that from medialens. I do have other sources – friends and other Palestinian support groups both formal and informal. That JTA link came from a friend (who is Jewish) in the West Country. Hope that is clear? I could post a lot more similar links but don’t.
I admire Shannonwatch’s activities especially if they were involved in opposing the atrocity of the rendition flights.
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/politics/anger-at-rendition-flights-through-shannon-166249.html
Passerby
1 Jul, 2013 – 12:01 pm
“Policing ‘Hippocratic Oath’ will fix bent coppers, MPs hope”
Some hope!
Anyway the police already swear an oath:
I do solemnly and sincerely declare and affirm that I will well and truly serve Our Sovereign Lady the Queen in the office of constable, without fear or affection, malice or ill will; and that I will to the best of my power cause the peace to be kept and preserved and prevent all offences against the persons and properties of Her Majesty’s subjects and that while I continue to hold the said office I will to the best of my skill and knowledge discharge all the duties thereof faithfully according to law.
Yes, right.
They also swear to tell the truth etc. when giving evidence in courts (while stitching people up).
“I often wonder why people fall for Habby’s troll games”
Macky, I am interested in their (Shannonwatch’s) methodology myself. Can you understand that?
I doubt if they have been sitting in the fields around Shannon, counting planes and then estimating the numbers of troops on board. That would be rather woolly. I have emailed them to find out where the figure of 2.2 million came from.
Activists certainly did sit in fields, with binoculars if/when necessary, to note the tail numbers of the CIA rendition flights, and the dates and times that they came and went. (These tail numbers were later matched up with sightings in other countries, including torture destinations.) I understand that was the work of Shannonwatch too.
“That JTA link came from a friend (who is Jewish) in the West Country. Hope that is clear? I could post a lot more similar links but don’t.”
I don’t think there was any actual link, Mary. That’s the reason I asked. Doesn’t matter now anyway.
@ Macky
You claim that I said the following in my post at 16h50 :
“Any mass killer can claim as an excusing or mitigating factor that he could have murder many more.”
No, Macky, I’m afraid you’re wrong. If you read what I wrote more carefully you’d see that this is not what I said.
What I said was that if the Israelis’ intention had been deliberately to kill or injure civilians they could have killed or injured many times the number that were.
__________
“Massive mass slaughter of overwhelmingly innocents & children, is rational if it’s to “teach a lesson””
Again, I think that if you re-read what I said you’ll find that you are wring again. I did not say that anything was rational; what I said was that the Israelis were teaching Hamas a lesson. This is what the Israelis themselves said on several occasions.
“When the dumb goyah start seeing through the yarmulkes, its again time for a millenial cause n effect correction. The satisfycing from the sayanim has reached a sick crescendo.”
__________
“…its again time for a millenial cause n effect correction.”
Sounds a little bit as if the poster feels it’s time for another holocaust.
Howls of indignation, anyone? Macky? Komodo? Herbie?
“..ie would it have been wrong to allow 2 million US troops to pass through, but ok for 200 ?”
________
The point, dear Macky, was to verify, if possible, the “over 2 million” claim.
I’m sure that you’d agree with me that it is quite reasonable to question this number , which does seem surprisingly large.
Why does this upset you so much? Anyway, you can calm down for the tilme being, because people are investigating.
@ OldMark
“The sooner Correa/Evo Morales or whoever make Snowden an offer of sanctuary….”
___________
I wouldn’t put too much of your money on Messrs Correa and Morales if I were you, OldMark. You might just get egg on your face and have the displeasure of seeing Radek’s smirk deepen (or widen, or whatever smirks do).
But let us wait and see whether Rafael and Evo are men of courage and principle or just Latin-American blusterers.
@ Dreoilin:
“But you can’t find (or won’t look for) one of them to quote me, Habbabkuk?? (I know you’re not referring to this blog, since you weren’t here then)”
___________
Look, this took place some time ago and I’m unfortunately not sufficiently obsessive to keep lists or minute records. The answer is that yes I probably could find quotes and sources if I spent enough time and effort looking for them. And no, I’m not going to do that. There is no point, because experience shows I’m not going to convince anyone; he who doesn’t want to believe, won’t believe, or will find a reason to invalidate the source(s) given. Sorry.
Flaming June
1 Jul, 2013 – 9:30 pm
“BBC Patten to resign.”
Got me there for a moment.
Dreoilin
2 Jul, 2013 – 7:54 am
“Rafael Correa not considering Snowden asylum: helping him was a ‘mistake’”
Dreoilin, the article is by Rory Carroll who, in my view, is a despicable liar when it comes to Latin American politics and the smearing the left-wing government of Hugo Chaves.
Don’t believe a word of it.
@ Doug Scorgie
“Dreoilin, the article is by Rory Carroll who, in my view, is a despicable liar when it comes to Latin American politics and the smearing the left-wing government of Hugo Chaves.”
_____________
Interesting take on Rory Carroll. I would invite readers to look him up on Wikipedia and reach their own conclusions on whether Carroll seems a “despicable liar”.
But if he believes the Wikipedia article is biased in favour of Carroll, then Doug should perhaps provide us with chapter and verse to back up what is quite a serious accusation.
Let’s hope Correa and a rotating cast of tormentors pull the rug out from under Snowden again and again. As Philip Agee and Victor Marchetti can tell you, hair-raising thrills do wonders for your book contract!
Habby-Clown; “What I said was that if the Israelis’ intention had been deliberately to kill or injure civilians they could have killed or injured many times the number that were.”
You can try to hide behind the Apologists “collateral damage” excuse, but it doesn’t wash with anybody with a conscience and a little common-sense; firing powerful battlefield weapons into one of the World’s most densely crowded residential areas, and then claiming that the intention was not really to hit civilians, especially when the targets included private homes, schools, hospitals, etc, is exactly like driving a car recklessly through a busy pedestrian area, killing a few people, and expecting a Judge to let you off because you state you were chasing some “bad” person who happen to run in that direction, and rather like the Americans trying to justify “bugsplats”, which in other words is stating that the lives of those, likely to be killed/ or killed, is not as important as if these people were Americans/Israeli, the ultimately deadly expression of racism.
Habby-Clown; “Again, I think that if you re-read what I said you’ll find that you are wring again. I did not say that anything was rational; what I said was that the Israelis were teaching Hamas a lesson. This is what the Israelis themselves said on several occasions.”
The fact that you feel able to shamelessly repeat such a grotesquely inhuman justification for mass murder, implies either you agree with it, or that you don’t find any fault with it.
Moreover the fact that you cannot see the contradiction in your responses of effectively saying “they didn’t mean to kill all those people”, with “they did it to teach them a lesson”, betrays the desperate & illogical straw-clutching nature of your morally bankrupt position.
Habby-Clown;”Howls of indignation, anyone? Macky? Komodo? Herbie?”
Does this ring a bell ?
“these things are universally condemned and hardly worth the effort of pointing out on a forum where it can be tacitly assumed most people are on the same page.”
Besides, there’s a fair chance that many anti-Semitic posts here are deliberate hasbara troll attempts, and remind me again who was the last person caught posting anti-Semitic comments using a sock-puppet, oh yes it was you !
Habby-Clown; “I’m sure that you’d agree with me that it is quite reasonable to question this number , which does seem surprisingly large.”
No, you deliberately raise this to deflect from Kibo’s point Ireland’s subservience & complicity to & in American crimes.
Rather late to mention this as the programme is just about to start on BBC1. Don McCullin war photographer. Title:Imagine, a documentary portrait. Finishes at midnight.
@Someone (1 Jul, 2013 – 8:51 pm)
To have the choice for Scotland’s people to decide;
on Monarchy, NATO, Trident, Currency
and a whole host of whatever other issues might arise;
that whole democracy and self-determination thing.
None of which can happen without Independence,
A No vote is a vote for no choices, no changes, no chance.
I haven’t read your Zionist-controlled BBC link (ZBBC), I don’t ‘do’ the ZBBC as every half-truth is accompanied by an army of lies, perhaps you’d like to summarise their scare story of the day for us to save many the certain grief of having to experience their vomit inducing partiality first-hand. I have to say if they are the source by which you choose to misinform yourself, given over-whelming evidence of their slick depravity and malevolence: criminally so, with such a blemished record – cheerleading for wars, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria spring to mind – you really are a willing party to your own deception.
This is from Medialens where commenters have been on Rory Carroll’s case for yonks.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1370342074.html
Re: Link to infolibre.es
Posted by emersberger on June 4, 2013, 1:31 pm, in reply to “Link to infolibre.es”
Carroll is very reactionary but sometimes makes a flimsy effort to cover it up. The Spanish reviewer seems to have fallen for it.
Typical example, just off top of my head, from Al Jazeera interview where he was totally unmasked by other two guests (one from FAIR, the other from CEPR): Carroll said Chavez was neither dictator not democrat but a “hybrid” (i.e. not really a democratically elected head of state like Blair or Obama but some weird and less than democratic concoction).
However, in his articles, Carroll will often drop even this fake balance and depict Chavez as a tyrant and cherry pick “proof” from wherever he can find or fabricate it. Carroll’s interview with Chomsky is good example but there are countless others.
Very freeing to have carefully read (and reviewed) hundreds of Carroll’s Venezuela articles. I will not bother to read his book. I’ve read quite enough of him to know – and show – what he is all about.
I believe an archive of many (not all) of my emails to Carroll over the years is still avaialble here
http://www.medialens.org/23_fg_75_lc/viewtopic.php?t=2664
if not I’m sure it can easily be found in new forum on this site
Macky
Just a quick question about style (or perhaps technique) : is it your considered opinion that the ritual intoning of “Habby-Clown”, like a black-robed priest at a mass, and the piling-on of mock indignation and outrage in the fashion of a bar-bore made eloquent by an excess of ale are capable of transmutation (ie, turning the dross of your ‘responses’ into gold)? Genuine replies only, please 🙂
Over and out for tonight. Happy nightmares!
re Rory Carroll – who is this “emersberger” whose post Mary/April Showers/Flaming June brings to us with such relish?
Why should we take his word as gospel anymore than the word of Scorgie?
The “typical example ” he gives in his second para seems particularly feeble as an indicator of bias. Indeed, Carroll’s characterisation of Mr Chavez sounds rather sensible and on the nail.
PS – Mary, please remember what Dreoilin said to you about using inverted commas to distinguish what you are saying from your quotations from other sources.
Habbabkuk,
“Habby-Clown”…but Ok for you to call Mary “Old Biddy” eh?
Tut tut Habbabkuk,yet more hypocrisy to compound your earlier failure to provide sources and links to earlier claims-as you so often demand from others.
You’ve just been completely outwitted by Macky’s post at 10.03pm.
Away and have a wee lie down eh?
Rory Carroll torn to pieces:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/7649
Habby wasn’t her usual self this evening, was she. Seemed a bit spooked by something. Went straight to victim mode after a sock puppet conveniently arrived upon the scene.
Wonder was it her gaffe over Israel’s crimes against humanity. I wonder.
Must mention them more often, and see…
Doug and Mary,
I don’t know anything about Rory Carroll. But Correa is not giving asylum to Snowden.
“Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa has denied granting asylum to the former US spy agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.
“He has described as “cordial” a telephone conversation with the US Vice President Joe Biden over the issue.
“But Correa has also admitted that a mix-up in Ecuador’s London consulate resulted in Snowden being given an unauthorised safe-passage document as he fled Hong Kong for Russia.
“The consul overstepped his role and will face sanction,” Correa said. His government had originally denied this.”
http://www.euronews.com/2013/06/30/ecuador-s-correa-says-snowden-has-not-been-given-asylum/
If you do a quick search you’ll find more sources.
————————————–
And who is joe emersberger of Windsor, Onatrio, Canada?
http://www.medialens.org/23_fg_75_lc/viewtopic.php?t=2664
I wonder exactly the nature of The Squeeze put on Correa?
Maybe something he said on the phone or online? :.)
I’m beginning to see how this Prism/NSA malarky really works…
Dear Hot Babe UK
I wonder if you and “Tech Savage” (English Knight) might get a room? That’s if you don’t already have one.
Mary,
“I will return to my real name in July.”
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/06/work-for-the-un/#comment-413355
Jives,
“I wonder exactly the nature of The Squeeze put on Correa?”
Yes, good question. All I’ve read so far is from the euronews link
“Although, Ecuador’s president says he does not know if Snowden is headed for the country, many people are starting to fear the knock-off effect of shielding a wanted US citizen.
“Washington has signalled that it will indefinitely delay a decision to eliminate tariffs on Ecuadorean imports of roses; a trade worth some 250 million US dollars a year.
“Benito Jaramilo, head of Ecuador’s flower-growing association said: “If this escalates, it could also decrease flower exports from Ecuador, affecting the jobs of our people and revenue in US dollars for our country, which is essential for the dollarisation.”
http://www.euronews.com/2013/06/30/ecuador-s-correa-says-snowden-has-not-been-given-asylum/
Somehow, after the Assange affair, the above is not very impressive?
Hotter than hellacious her in SoCal, so a little breeze from the archives…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ahhmiuyko0
“I’m unfortunately not sufficiently obsessive to keep lists or minute records. The answer is that yes I probably could find quotes and sources if I spent enough time and effort looking for them. And no, I’m not going to do that.”
Habbabkuk, I don’t particularly care. But don’t be surprised if your words are quoted back at you when you ask someone else for a link to back up what they’re saying. K?
Clapton……
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaV4tL7LZkQ