Gordon Brown 822


I have a guilty political secret.  I do not detest Gordon Brown.  That is such an unfashionable opinion that I don’t really expect any comments at all to agree with it.  And yes, I do realise that he went along with the Iraq War and all the other horrors of the Blair era. Interestingly, I don’t remember the question of what Gordon Brown really thought about Iraq ever being discussed; he deserves condemnation for having not tried to stop it, and perhaps he was indeed an enthusiast.  And I am well aware that the Private Finance Initiative is a terrible disaster, and that he oversaw creeping privatisation in the health services, and – worst of all – the introduction of tuition fees.

And yet I cannot dislike him.  Probably because I just know too many people who have  known him through decades, who are themselves good people, and who like him.  Around Edinburgh and Fife you will find it hard to find people who actually know him who share the hatred and contempt he seems to arouse among the political and media classes of London.

As a general rule I do not like or dislike people according to their politics, but rather according to the sincerity of their political beliefs and the goodwill with which they hold them.  I am sure Anders Breivik is sincere in his political beliefs, but those are lacking in goodwill. Sincerity is not enough – humanity and inclusiveness are also important.

There are one nation Tories who seem to me perfectly decent people, genuinely trying to do good.  I don’t hate them because their political conclusions on the best way to do good are different to mine.  Gordon Brown I put rather in the same category – I feel he was trying to do good for ordinary people, he just got it wrong.

Blair is in a whole different category again – insincere, absolutely focused on attaining personal power, and with a Messianic belief that what is good for him must be good for the World.  The Guardian is publishing some emails around the Blair Brown rivalry this week.  I don’t care and won’t read them.  But while I see Blair as quite properly damned for eternity to the seventh pit of hell, I don’t think Brown deserves anything worse than North Queensferry.

I have been in Ghana the last 20 days living in a house with no internet connection and working (extremely hard) in an office with virtually no internet connection – not enough to load WordPress.  I hope to get more chance to blog shortly.

 

 


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822 thoughts on “Gordon Brown

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  • AlcAnon

    Space roundup.

    A new entry at No 4 in the top 10 most dangerous asteroids to earth has just been discovered. 2013 RJ74 has a first possible impact on the 8th March 2014. Impact probability is currently calculated as about 1 in 10 million for a 6 Gigaton hit based on observations currently spanning Sept 14th to Sept 17th. Details at http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/2013rj74.html

    Now what we should see happen next is that over then next few days and weeks more observations will be made until the risk of an impact is totally ruled out for 2014 at least. That’s what normally happens. Except for that other biggish one they inexplicably lost of course that should be approaching us soon.

  • wendy

    biggest political mistake of brown was not to purge the party within a party ..the bl;airites .. the man had tremendous public goodwill when his premiership began .. he really failed himself and the british people

    mind you george galloway always said blair and brown were of the same backside albeit different cheeks.

  • fedup

    [Mod: para removed; I understand the sentiment, but please don’t escalate into a war. Thanks]

    Huh, you can never, ever, in a million years understand my piercing fandabidozi, stupendous observations, you fool! How dare you arbitrarily, and fascistically removing my coruscating observations, and accuse of me of being a savage? You are just an anti Fedup plain and simple, and if only Craig knew what you have done to the fantastic; me the Fedup. He too will be taking a massive dose of laxative and stay very deafeningly silent.

    Now that I have shown you for the fool that you are, hope you will have learned your lesson this time!

    Oh I forgot! Thank you very kindly not to fuck around with my comments in the future. Or I will have to skewer you fool some more and teach you manners and shit. Thank you very Kindly again, and remember you will be whined at if you don’t behave, because you know how very principally and extraordinarily exceptionally intelligent and great I am period
    =====

    Einstein –“The splitting of the atom changed everything save mans’ mode of thinking, thus we drift towards unparalleled catastrophe”.

    Brian, as you know we are a branch of primates, although you realise I am an exception, because my granddaddy was Adam, unlike the rest of you who descend from Monkeys!

    However that condescending remarks of a chauvinist narcissist aside. Our trouble is the degrees of throwback to the ancestral troops can vary between 99.99999 percent monkey to somewhere in the region of 97 percent monkey. Thus the behaviour that you see on exhibit. It is enough to stop one scratching his nuts and get on with swinging on the ropes.

    Seriously though, how fucking sad is it, that our best efforts have been in the direction of trying to annihilate each other instead of learning to cooperate and make better use of the resources at our disposal?

    Compare and contrast

    How about using tools?

    Although it must be said There are wheels within wheels and tools may not be needed after all.

  • Juteman

    I know this whole thread is about Israel/Palestine, but as it started about a British Nationalist called Broon, I thought I might post something.
    Nobody seems to be concerned about the extreme right wing views of the British National Socialist party in Scotland.
    Johann Lamont, the Leader of the BNS in Scotland is already infamous for her ‘something for nothing’ speech, where she demonized the poor. Her latest speech at the BNS conference should alarm any decent person. She described Independistas in Scotland as a virus.
    Will her talk of the final solution to this ‘virus’ be ignored before the world realises what is happening in Scotland?
    The BBC/Pravda are hiding the truth, and ordinary Scots have to go to RT to see a report of the 30,000 folk marching through Edinburgh on Saturday for Independence.

  • Mary

    Have been out. A lovely sunny and warm late September day.

    Return to see multiple posts from Anon and variants! Is there a collective noun for that.

    ~~~

    ‘yet that stupid woman who was doing “the papers” on Sky last night sat there and told everyone that “there was no reason” for such attacks as Nairobi. But that it definitely wasn’t political. She finally announced that the only reason for terrorism was that “some young men badly want to engage in violence”.
    Wish I knew her name. She was on with some twit called James Max.’

    Yes she was appalling as indeed they both were. She is Christina Patterson. Right wing, bigoted and with a big opinion of herself.
    http://www.christinapatterson.co.uk/about.html

    He used to be a presenter on LBC. a London based talk radio station. The phone-ins are dominated by right wing views. He seems to have found a niche for himself at the Royal Albert Hall! http://www.royalalberthall.com/about/arts-and-sciences/who.aspx

    Appalling choice by Sky News.

  • Mary

    Jonathan Cook from within the belly of the beast. He lives in Nazareth.

    More doubts over Syrian role in gas attack 22 September 2013 – http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2013-09-22/more-doubts-over-syrias-gas-attack/

    His previous piece was good too, especially the choice of photo. The IDF gun barrel pointing down at the French diplomat lying in the dirt. Imagine the furore if the roles were reversed and that was being done to an Israeli diplomat.
    http://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2013-09-21/israeli-guns-pointed-at-diplomats-in-quarrel/

  • Juteman

    So what do you think about Lamont, the leader of the British National Socialists in Scotland calling the government of Scotland a ‘virus’, Fred?
    When will I have to wear a yellow ‘I’ on my sleeve?

  • Mary

    Centrica have backed out of plans to build two new gas storage facilities because HMG would not give them subsidies. Now we have 15 days of gas reserves.

    http://news.sky.com/story/1145326/centrica-shelves-1-5bn-gas-storage-plans

    ~~~

    Sports Direct has just joined the FTSE 100 and the company is worth over £4bn. The company is famous for using zero hours contracts for its staff. The owner Mike Ashley also owns Newcastle United and he has personal wealth of £1.7bn. Amazing.
    http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/newcastle-united-fc-owner-mike-5916280

  • Juteman

    Last comment.
    I haven’t posted for about a week, yet Fred appeared within minutes after I posted.
    The British State must use the latest ‘alert’ software. Correct, Fred? 🙂

  • Fred

    “I haven’t posted for about a week, yet Fred appeared within minutes after I posted.”

    You posted Friday.

  • Arbed

    O/T – I guess this really belong on the previous thread, but that’s looking a bit unwieldy and I thought Craig might like to have a wander through some of these.

    WIKILEAKS RELEASE #Kazakhstan: 31,622 emails from US intelligence contractor #Stratfor:
    http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?q=kazakh*+%7C+astana+%7C+almaty&mfrom=&mto=&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0&file=&docid=&relid=0#searchresult

    WIKILEAKS RELEASE #Kazakhstan: 184 sensitive emails from US intelligence contractor #Stratfor:
    http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?q=kazakh*+%7C+astana+%7C+almaty&mfrom=&mto=alpha%40stratfor.com&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0&file=&docid=&relid=0#searchresult

    WIKILEAKS RELEASE #Kazakhstan: 62 very sensitive emails from US intelligence contractor #Stratfor:
    http://search.wikileaks.org/gifiles/?q=kazakh*+%7C+astana+%7C+almaty&mfrom=&mto=secure%40stratfor.com&title=&notitle=&date=&nofrom=&noto=&count=50&sort=0&file=&docid=&relid=0#searchresult

  • AlcAnon

    Mary,

    Don’t worry they “solved” the gas problem last year by just removing the “firm emergency” withdrawal limits. Long Term Storage at Rough was drawn below the official “ZERO” line. We were running on negative gas storage for a time. How far they can go below zero before the fumes run out I don’t want to ever find out. Because of the record drain on storage last year it has not been possible to fully fill up storage over this summer so we go into autumn/winter with storage already partially depleted. Best hopes for a warm winter with no major pipeline or LNG supply problems then.

  • Suhayl Saadi

    “She is the most feared female terrorist since Ulrike Meinhof, founder of the Red Army Faction which carried out bombings across West Germany in the 1970s.”

    Ulrike Meinhof was by no means ‘the most feared female terrorist of the 1970s’. She was a famous journalist who later became involved with the RAF (Red Army faction), but she was not actually the leader – Andreas Baader and Gudrun Enslinn were really the leaders of the first generation of the RAF and were by far more committed than Meinhof.

    There was also Leila Khalid of the PLO, who became a sort of pin-up for wannabee radicals.

    This ‘White Widow’ went to SOAS and has got military training, presumably from Jihadist camps. SOAS seems to have been a hotbed for both Jihadist and MI5/6 recruitment.

    It’s surreal that she went to Disneyland Paris, but is entirely in keeping with the whole postmodern nature of contemporary Jihadism. Did she meet Minnie Mouse and Captain Hook?

    How on earth can she drag four young children around on terrorist escapdes in Africa? And she allegedly wants them to be suicide bombers? What is this? Post-natal abortion? It beats ‘Kill Bill’. Her deceased ‘7/7’ husband. Everythiong seems bizarre, the whole story seems deeply odd.

    What is she? A double agent? Then again, there have been a number of white male converts who have become Jihadist terrorists, so it’s entirely conceivable that a female would too.

    Firing bazookas into cafes. Reminds me a little of those undercover Special Forces soldiers captured during the invasion/occupation of Iraq, who were found with bombs and so on, and who were rescued by a tank crashing through the wall of teh house where they were being kept. This kind of act, you see, helps keep the Kenyan regime very much on-side. Think Africa – think, scramble – China, Israel, Saudi Arabia and of course, the UK/USA (though the USA and UK have little real national interest in the Horn of Africa; yes, yes, oil ships coming up the Red Sea and so on. But really, again, various lobbies seem to be sucking in US power. All very murky.

    Now we’ve got a White Widow, perhaps we will be able to find the Wicked Witch, the Cowardly Lion and maybe even Dorothy. But who is the Wizard of Oz? I suspect there are a number of ‘Wizards of Oz’, sitting perched behind velvet curtains.

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Arbed; kazakh* | astana | almaty search was specific. What are you seeking?

  • Ben Franklin -Machine Gun Preacher (unleaded version)

    Suhayl; Connect the dots with the Symbionese Liberation Army.

  • Phil

    Suhayl Saadi 23 Sep, 2013 – 8:51 pm
    “SOAS seems to have been a hotbed for both Jihadist and MI5/6 recruitment.”

    What makes you say that suhayl?

  • Juteman

    ““I haven’t posted for about a week, yet Fred appeared within minutes after I posted.”

    You posted Friday.”

    Point proved regarding Fred and his British State. Cheers.

  • Arbed

    Ben,

    Yes, those three are searches already done for you, in varying degrees of classification (Stratfor’s, that is). Just run down the email summaries that have been returned in the search, then if any take your fancy you can use the same search engine using that email’s ID number to bring it up. Or you can enter your own search terms – rather than Kazakh*, astana, almaty – if you like.

    Happy hunting!

  • Juteman

    Fred. Do you agree with your Leader of the Scottish branch of the British National Socialist Party?
    Us Independistas are a ‘VIRUS’ that needs a final solution?

  • Fred

    “Point proved regarding Fred and his British State. Cheers.”

    Point proved that you just make it up as you go along.

    Lamont is not a member of the BNP, the BBC did cover the Edinburgh Rally and you posted three days ago not around a week ago. Everything you say is blatantly and provably not true.

  • Mary

    Suhayl. I can’t remember which news channel said today that there were no women involved in the Al Shabaab attack on the mall. It was the tabloids (Mail, Express and Mirror) putting that story out yesterday about the ‘White Widow’. The usual nonsense.

  • fedup

    Suhayl you “Willy” bastard you didn’t tell me about Pakhtunwala Jundullah, and the other one? Are you snubbing or have you not seen my piercing question, that is only possible with my exceptional intelligence and shit.

    You fool answer me quick and pronto! Thank you very kindly in advance.

    BTW liked your essay on the “white widow” sort of vorse than, vorse than (in a corny German accent) “black widow”!

  • Suhayl Saadi

    ‘Suhayl Saadi 23 Sep, 2013 – 8:51 pm
    “SOAS seems to have been a hotbed for both Jihadist and MI5/6 recruitment.”

    What makes you say that suhayl?’ Phil.

    Oh, I thought it was common knowledge.

    Corinne Souza has written about it, too, wrt MI6 and SOAS. I thought that kind of thing was its real raison d’etre, originally.

    Wrt Jihadist recruitment, they were active on most UK university campuses and SOAS was no exception. Because, by definition, the people studying there were interested in international affairs, if you were a Jihadist recruiter, where would be direct your efforts? A self-selected cohort.

    And if you were working for both MI6 and a Jihadist organisation, well, somewhere like SOAS would be like the hen that laid the golden eggs.

    I’m not a great fan of Maajid Nawaz, or of recanted Jihadists in general, but his book is definitely worth a read. Here is an excerpt which alludes to SOAS.

    http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=FIjms8hwoW8C&pg=PA178&lpg=PA178&dq=SOAS,+Jihadist+recruitment&source=bl&ots=-nU7eVz9MW&sig=z5M5EEDzmKGlZOjWlDG5aHB7Wk0&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uqxAUt7eNMeihgeB14C4AQ&ved=0CDIQ6AEwATgU#v=onepage&q=SOAS%2C%20Jihadist%20recruitment&f=false

    And an allusion to Corinne’s excellent work:

    http://beforeitsnews.com/alternative/2013/05/soas-serves-as-mi6-training-ground-2660080.html

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