Brian Taylor of BBC Scotland said last night he picked up at Holyrood that the other unionist parties were pleased that UKIP had won the former Lib Dem seat in Scotland and stopped the SNP getting a third. That was the most revealing moment of last night for me – it showed the vicious irresponsibility of the Better Together campaign, and exposed the lie that UKIP are outsiders.
The other moment worth watching was Alex Salmond confronting Dimbleby that the BBC had given UKIP four times as much coverage time in Scotland during the campaign as the SNP. Dimbleby tamely responded that his complaint should be directed to BBC Scotland. The BBC’s promotion of UKIP again explodes the myth of UKIP as outsiders.
The Unionist camp’s pathetic attempt to claim that UKIP’s 10% and fourth place in Scotland, squeaking one seat, shows Scotland is the same politically as England where UKIP got 29% and came first, is desperate politics. That in order to make that point they were happy for a racist party to marginally represent Scotland in Europe, is a sign of the total moral bankruptcy of the Better Together neo-con British Nationalist programme.
New Labour are completely screwed. To only beat the Tories by 1%, when there is a huge UKIP voteof which a significant slice will go back to the Tories, shows there is no chance whatsoever that New Labour will win the UK general election.
The people of Scotland have a very simple choice in September. Independence, or another Tory government which will probably pull the UK out of the EU, and might very well be in coalition with UKIP.
New Labour won almost nowhere except London. It is the party of London., with a leader who has never in his life lived outside London. But it is a fascinating fact that of all the class, educational, geographical and other statistics you can correlate with New Labour success, the factor with the strongest correlation of all with the New Labour share of the vote is the prevalence of postal voting. New Labour can win only where the system is open widest to abuse through massive scale electoral fraud.
Some of this is straight fraud – postal ballots being given to ghost voters, non-existent people on the register. That is very much more prevalent than you probably imagine. But mostly it operates through the deprivation of the privacy of the polling booth. In a polling station nobody is supposed to be allowed to look over your shoulder (although there were disgraceful scenes in places in Tower Hamlets, Wood Green and Newham). But if you receive your ballot paper in your home, you are extremely vulnerable if you live in a situation where others are able to enter your home and demand to check that you have voted the right way before you post your ballot. That is beyond doubt the situation both of many family members, particularly affecting women, and of certain highly hierarchical and patriarchal communities. Postal ballot distortion is an absolutely disgraceful blot on British political culture. It is also fundamental to New Labour’s ability to salvage something from a disastrous electoral performance.
There is indeed a very nasty undercurrent of racism in England at the moment. I live in one of UKIP’s strongest areas and this racism cannot be wished away. In fact I do not believe that Farage is personally racist, and I believe he is genuine not tactical in his abhorrence of the French National Front. But I do believe Farage has pandered to and encouraged people who are racists, and that there are a great many racists within UKIP. These people must not be allowed to become a ‘respectable’ part of politics and must be confronted wherever they appear.
I have argued for years that the UK is not a democracy in that no real choice is offered between the main political parties. Their policies are all the same. If the range of possible policies on any one issue were enumerated from 1 to 100, New Labour, Lib Dem and Tories offer you choices in the range 81 to 86. The electorate has noticed, and people are sick of it. People have noticed all over Europe too. The politics of neo-con consensus and its lackey media is happily dead. This is a change that will not stop. Once we imprison enough neo-cons who ripped off the public and the taxpayer, perhaps they might concede that it turns out history had not ended after all.
It is true that UKIP’s support does represent an upsurge of dissatisfaction with the political elite, and that also is part of an unarticulated rage at the astonishing growth of inequality of wealth in society and the vast shift of resources to the billionaire middlemen in the financial sector who do extremely little for it. It is good that rage is building, and Syriza show in Greece that it can be constructively channelled. But it is much more often and with much more success diverted in order to awake volcanoes of atavism, and rage that should be directed at plutocrats is instead turned on foreigners. The danger is letting that analysis divert you from the fact of how very, very real and very, very nasty that atavism is in the dispossessed classes. We are in a dangerous place. The neo-con establishment is fanning racist flames.
At school, we were taught about the years of revolution in Europe of 1830-32 and 1848-9. Those revolutionary years coincided with Asian Cholera pandemics, which undoubtedly played a part in driving people beyond endurance. You can of course argue that poverty and famine assisted the spread of the pandemics.
This current year of European change has also been sparked by economic distress, and seen an increase in poverty marker diseases, some of which we had hoped had effectively vanished. But plague has been a cause. Europe has suffered the most devastating plague of bankers in history.
The disillusioned should not blame immigrants. Immigrants are victims too. Turn your wrath on the bankers, the billionaires and the neo-con parties who do their bidding. Another world is possible.
Let’s start by ending the UK and setting Scotland free. It is not illegitimate to judge an idea in part by the quality and motives of those who oppose it. The full range of the neo-con establishment prefer racist isolation for a neo-con UK to a free Scotland. Just look at them. Then kick them where it really hurts.
“As usual it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. As I said before, place persons. They appoint place persons ad infinitum.”
And approved by Parliament as a whole. But yes, people get nominated who are popular with the rest of Parliament. I can’t imagine George Galloway, who I think is a valuable MP, getting nominated for it.
It’s like Ofsted. Answerable to Parliament directly.
Sinister HabbyWubbyBubbyTubby,
No i aint a socialist;Skinner and Benn never interested me.
I am 106 years old.
Page 1 of The Sockpuppet Troll manual dictates the need to use deceit abd subterfuge.
I busted you on your first post here,renember?
Obviously still rankles with you doesnt it? Your whole fake mission was blown.
Guess thats why you resort to sinister gang-stalking of certain posters eh?
Now go and change your string vest will ya?
You are the Rupert Pupkin of this blog.
Ben The link for the sacked UKIP councillor is http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/28/ukip-councillor-sacked-newly-elected
Before I must have tagged the captcha answer on to the end!
No need to put the boot in on GG Tubby. You persist in seeing it all as a fair playing field. It is not. There is preferment and there always has been. Safe pairs of hands and stooges for the lobby groups are what is called for and willingly offered.
I expect you know of the large number of MPs in each of the three main parties who belong to Friends of Israel groups. There are also the All Party Parliamentary lobby groups for various causes. Little transparency in all of them.
There is hidden patronage in these lists. Note some of the connections behind those who are supplying assistance to MPs and/or their assistants.
This is the first of many lists A-C. Look at the names of Christine Aird, David Chaplin and Clare Chipp for instance. They all went to Auschwitz either under the auspices of BICOM or the Holocaust Education Trust.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsecret/140519/staff-01.htm
How many people would know of the existence of these registers and/or look at them?
Contents
Introduction
Purpose and Form of the Register
Administration of the Register
Complaints
Information and advice about the Register and the rules governing it
Section 1: List of Staff
Abbas, Y to Corrigan, R
Costa, F to Harji, E
Harkins, J to McCourt, D
McCracken, M to Sagar-Fenton, B
Salisbury, E to Zuchowska, H
Section 2: List of Sponsoring Members
Abbott, D to Creagh, M
Creasy, S to Hammond, S
Hancock, M to Mann, J
Marsden, G to Roy, L
Ruane, C to Zahawi, N
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmsecret/140519/contents.htm
Tubby Isaacs….wouldn’t trust him to run a whelk stall. And no, he isn’t Habbalaff.
Out of interest, Straw’s entry
STRAW Jack
Deborah Crewe Freelance writer/ghost writer/editor: BCSG (business services), Simon & Schuster (publishing), Hamad Medical Corp (health), West London Synagogue (religion), Civil Service Selection (civil service selection).
Daniel Sleat Overseas Visits: 6-7 June 2013, to Istanbul, Turkey to attend a conference with Jack Straw MP. Flights paid for by ‘Rethinking Global Challenges: Constructing a Common Future for Turkey and the EU’(a project based in Turkey), which is co-financed by the EU under the IPA ( Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance) programme in Turkey. Gifts and Benefits: British-Turkish Forum (the ‘Tatlidil’) met the cost of my accommodation, food, transport and fee for assisting the organisers of a Tatlidil conference I attended in Edinburgh from 1-3 November 2013. British-Spanish Tertulias met the cost of my accommodation, food, transport and fee for assisting the organisers of a conference I attended in Oxford from 22-24 November 2013.
and I see Rachel Kinnock in Miliband’s long list. She went to work for Gordon Brown’s office in the HoC originally.
Jives 🙂
‘I busted you on your first post here,renember?’
Remind me of the date. I think it was November but which year? Did he go for me because of my Israhell postings or my gender? I like to think it’s the former. Certainly an obsessive, persistent and unpleasant troll.
Mary,
Aye,round about that date if i recall correctly.
Straight in with weird questions about your hens or summat.Think he tried to conflate your pro-Palestinian purview with anti-Semitism or summat nuts like that,
Spotted the eejit right away…:.)
Don’t think he’s really ever forgiven me for blowing his mission right off the bat…lol
Isn’t that right HabbyBubbyWubbyFlubby?
Mary,p.s.
2012
Tubby, I was there and have first hand experience of the machinations by the local Labour party. Blackburn is a rotten borough and party politics has got us to this point.
once again I plead for demarchy, I’d rather have a normal person sitting there, inexperienced by all means, than a brazen power hungry party politician who has nothing but his own ilk in mind. Voting is so passee, so forcing everyone, by default, to take part, by including their NI numbers, would at least be fairer than what is going on now.
Thanks Jives. So 18 months of it. Seems longer and very tedious.
Mrs Merkel is being challenged by Agent Cameron, or so we are being told.
Row brews as Angela Merkel backs Juncker as EU chief
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-27646218
“Monetary policy is a serious issue. We should discuss this in secret,
in the Eurogroup […] I’m ready to be insulted as being insufficiently
democratic, but I want to be serious […] I am for secret, dark debates”
— Jean-Claude Juncker, 20 April 2011.
Nice one Jean-Claude!
Not a one day wonder apparently.
UKIP’s Rise ‘To Continue At General Election’
Millions of people who voted for UKIP at the European elections will continue to back the party in 2015, says a new survey.
http://news.sky.com/story/1272514/ukips-rise-to-continue-at-general-election
There is nothing on the BBC website about this poll.
Off course not Mary, the BBC serves those in power and would not want to fail at that.
UKIP will carry on making waves because the wider majority can’t be bothered. The only move that would change the equation, is if they make voting a lawfull duty, a must. But it would turn off the churlish.
But if you receive your ballot paper in your home, you are extremely vulnerable if you live in a situation where others are able to enter your home and demand to check that you have voted the right way before you post your ballot. That is beyond doubt the situation both of many family members, particularly affecting women, and of certain highly hierarchical and patriarchal communities. Postal ballot distortion is an absolutely disgraceful blot on British political culture. It is also fundamental to New Labour’s ability to salvage something from a disastrous electoral performance.
There is indeed a very nasty undercurrent of racism in England at the moment. I live in one of UKIP’s strongest areas and this racism cannot be wished away. In fact I do not believe that Farage is personally racist, and I believe he is genuine not tactical in his abhorrence of the French National Front. But I do believe Farage has pandered to and encouraged people who are racists, and that there are a great many racists within UKIP. These people must not be allowed to become a ‘respectable’ part of politics and must be confronted wherever they appear.
Postal voting is non-ballot voting; alluding to people with “certain highly hierarchical and patriarchal communities” is a cowardly euphemism when the point is that postal voting is non ballot voting per se.
“These people must not be allowed to become a ‘respectable’ part of politics”
All of the parties support the British Nationality Act so all of them are racist. Most of them also supported Bliar’s wars of racial extermination which is rather more racist than moaning about Rumanians.
The BBC have brought Paxman into the fray now on the No side of course.
Paxman: a ‘head of steam in Scotland for hating English’
1 June 2014
VETERAN BBC broadcaster Jeremy Paxman has said the campaign for Scottish Independence is being fuelled by a “hatred” for England in a radio interview, sparking an angry response from Yes campaigners.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/paxman-a-head-of-steam-in-scotland-for-hating-english.24373517
The Sunday Herald editorial disagrees with Paxman.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/sunday-herald-view/paxman-is-missing-point-of-this-debate.24374542
Prof Robertson who reported on the extent of BBC bias against the Yes campaign responds. Copied by the Medialens editors here.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1401702491.html
PS The Herald seem to think Paxman is in line for the chairman’s job although they incorrectly say Director General.
The threats are coming thick and fast now.
King of BAE Systems.
Scots Independence: BAE Systems Chief’s Fears
The head of the defence giant voices concerns about shipbuilding and staff pension schemes if there is a yes vote in Scotland.
http://news.sky.com/story/1273599/scots-independence-bae-systems-chiefs-fears
Public bodies in Scotland hand over £500,000 of taxpayers’ money to CBI
Paul Hutcheon
Investigations Editor.
Sunday 1 June 2014
TAXPAYERS have poured in nearly £500,000 of public money to an industry body caught up in a bitter row over its opposition to independence.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendum-news/public-bodies-in-scotland-hand-over-500000-of-taxpayers-money-to-cbi.24374448
Perhaps it’s a good thing Craig is away. His BP would be shooting up as the fevered Vote No campaign intensifies. A daily cannonade from them now.
eg on the BBC website.
Independence fiscal forecast updated
An independent Scotland could face bigger spending cuts and higher tax rises than previously predicted, according to latest update from the IFS.
IFS updates post-Yes fiscal forecast
Scots face independence ‘fiscal gap’
What’s going on in Scotland?
Special Report: Scotland Decides
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-27690028
~~
Criticism
Left-wing think tank Tax Research UK has said that “Institute for Fiscal Studies is a body that persistently recommends tax increases that benefit the wealthiest in society at cost to those who make their living from work and the poorest in society”.
Richard Murphy has also, in The Guardian, described the IFS as having “a bias towards the neoliberal view that suggests that labour should be heavily taxed whilst capital is left virtually tax free”. He added: “Whatever the motive, the IFS’s claim to be unbiased appears to me shaky”.
Who funds it? We are not told. Income £6m. Spending £5.8m
Charity no 258815 The accounts will be on that ref on the CC website.
One of its co-founders http://www.chowndewhurst.com/john-chown.html Tax advisers.