Freedom Cheaper than Iraq War 764


A particularly mendacious lie by Danny Alexander puts the institutional start-up costs of Scottish Independence at £1.5 billion.  That is a cool half billion pounds cheaper than Scotland’s share of the costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars, even on the Westminster government’s blatant under-estimate of the war costs.

So Scotland can afford criminal invasions killing hundreds of thousands to ‘bring freedom’, but cannot afford the smaller cost of its own freedom!!!

The £1.5 billion estimate is mendacious in two ways.  Firstly, it is a simple recycling of a Canadian lie at the time of the Quebec independence referendum, apportioning with no argument 1% of GDP to startup costs.

Secondly, as nearly all the money will be spent in Scotland it is not a loss at all, but actually an increase to GDP, as any but the most nutty neo-con would be forced to acknowledge.  And it would be the precursor of government money spent annually in Scotland rather than England for ever thereafter.

Thankfully Alexander won’t have a job much longer – and if he thinks a penny of Scottish public spending is going in future to support his huge arse and deceitful mouth, he is very wrong.

 


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764 thoughts on “Freedom Cheaper than Iraq War

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  • Mary

    That was supposed to be one of my favourite poems from schooldays. I always found the scenario intriguing and mysterious.

    The Listeners
    By Walter De La Mare

    ‘Is there anybody there?’ said the Traveller,
    Knocking on the moonlit door;
    And his horse in the silence champed the grasses
    Of the forest’s ferny floor:

    And a bird flew up out of the turret,
    Above the Traveller’s head:
    And he smote upon the door again a second time;
    ‘Is there anybody there?’ he said.

    But no one descended to the Traveller;
    No head from the leaf-fringed sill
    Leaned over and looked into his grey eyes,
    Where he stood perplexed and still.

    But only a host of phantom listeners
    That dwelt in the lone house then
    Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight
    To that voice from the world of men:

    Stood thronging the faint moonbeams on the dark stair,
    That goes down to the empty hall,
    Hearkening in an air stirred and shaken
    By the lonely Traveller’s call.

    And he felt in his heart their strangeness,
    Their stillness answering his cry,
    While his horse moved, cropping the dark turf,
    ’Neath the starred and leafy sky;

    For he suddenly smote on the door, even
    Louder, and lifted his head:—
    ‘Tell them I came, and no one answered,
    That I kept my word,’ he said.

    Never the least stir made the listeners,
    Though every word he spake
    Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house
    From the one man left awake:

    Ay, they heard his foot upon the stirrup,
    And the sound of iron on stone,
    And how the silence surged softly backward,
    When the plunging hoofs were gone.

    ~~

    Who was the Horseman and why wasn’t he answered?

  • Mary

    Obama has fouled up on this prisoner release. A lot is coming out about Bergdahl’s ‘capture’ and the circumstances. One report says that he abandoned his post and fellow soldiers and that six military lost their lives in attempting to rescue him.

    Sgt Bergdahl: Army ‘May Pursue’ Desertion Probe
    Questions swirl over the details of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture as Barack Obama continues to defend the prisoner swap.
    http://news.sky.com/story/1274660/sgt-bergdahl-army-may-pursue-desertion-probe

  • Resident Dissident

    “It grieves me to think of the poor people being killed in the Donbass region. It is not important enough for the BBC or other UK corporate-owned mass media channels to report. But Obama’s threat to deploy NATO troops in Ukraine is. What a topsy-turvy, arse about tit, cocked up world we live in.”

    It grieves me too – but rather than worrying about Nato training exercises I am rather more worried about the Russian soldiers and mercenaries that Putin is allowing to infiltrate into the Ukraine in order to stir up the conflict even further. Of course if the great Satan were to indulge in equivalent behaviour then this is such a topsy turvy world that Mr Arse about tit would be the first to get his cock up.

  • Resident Dissident

    “But the real truth is something entirely different, as posted by a commenter below the article.”

    For those who are interested in the truth as what happened in Odessa rather than rather dubious Putinista propaganda might I suggest the following is a rather more balanced account – which ascribes responsibility to both sides – Mr Goss noticeably fails to note that gun shots were fired and Molotov cocktails were thrown from the building in his highly typical one sided accounts.

    http://3dblogger.typepad.com/minding_russia/2014/05/odessatragedy.html

  • John Goss

    “It grieves me too – but rather than worrying about Nato training exercises I am rather more worried about the Russian soldiers and mercenaries that Putin is allowing to infiltrate into the Ukraine in order to stir up the conflict even further.”

    Evidence? It is not the pro-Russian secessionists that are bombing schools and hospitals and parks. Not reported on your favourite channels. So Russia Today must be making it up I suppose.

    As to what happened in Odessa I should be interested to know too. Because all the indications are that those on the roof were wearing red armbands. I agree that earlier in the day there were provocations from both sides.

  • John Goss

    The Walter de la Mare poem Mary is very good apart from the scansion (which I guess does not matter any more). It is in some ways reminiscent of The Highwayman by Alfred Noyes, one of my favourite poems, and one for which my mother won an elocution competition when she was a girl. It begins:

    The wind was a torrent of darkness among the gusty trees,
    The moon was a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,
    The road was a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor,
    And the highwayman came riding—
    Riding—riding—
    The highwayman came riding, up to the old inn-door.

    Full poem here:

    http://www.potw.org/archive/potw85.html

  • Tony M

    It is difficult to understand institutionalised Russophobia in the US and the UK establishment asylums, as the Bolshevik/Communist elements around which their hatred coalesced were not, did not self-identify as Russian, were responsible for overthrow and murder of the (admittedly awful) Tsarist regime, the extermination, a holocaust of some 20 million Russians and Ukranians in hate-fuelled purges, oft cited as the height of Communist depravity and awfulness, but which were were rather obviously not carried out by Russians or Ukranians, and the hated Communist regime is not represented by or related in any way to the remaining survivors of that systematised abuse and extermination , unequalled in human history who remain, though much reduced in their native lands, as powerless and unthreatening as their peasant ancestors.

    The successors of those despotic Communist fiends, their titular and biological descendants began leaving Russia and other former Soviet republics in their millions – the chosen elite elements and thuggish petit-bourgeois – beginning in 1991 under Gorbachev, with the exception of some few remaining oligarchs, all left Russia, mainly for Israel.

    So how come the US and UK continue in their fatal infatuation with Israel where their one time, all-time, greatest enemies now repose, whilst continuing in their persecution of the peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia in another phoney old cold-war, and seek either to kill them still, in megadeaths or to enslave them as their departed Communist masters enslaved them in hard labour, ignorance, fear, penury, dispossession and servitude, except this time round they call it capitalism?

  • Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO

    “So how come the US and UK continue in their fatal infatuation with Israel where their one time, all-time, greatest enemies now repose, whilst continuing in their persecution of the peoples of Eastern Europe and Russia in another phoney old cold-war, and seek either to kill them still, in megadeaths or to enslave them as their departed Communist masters enslaved them in hard labour, ignorance, fear, penury, dispossession and servitude, except this time round they call it capitalism?”

    Simple. Self-interest and the bullying compote which attends power. Human nature is the most predictable behavior of all.

  • John Goss

    “Well right up until his undemocratic last minute rejection of the EU deal in favour of the one offered by Moscow which lit the blue touch paper.”

    Al Jazeera might sound like it is eastern news outlet, and may once have been, but it is actually the western-backed mouthpiece of that sheikdom of human rights’ abuses, Qatar. I would give it no credibility whatsoever having been awarded the 2022 World Cup by nefarious means, and a country which accepted five exchanged and tortured Guantanamo internees originally from Afghanistan. God, their lives are going to be hell until Qatar becomes the US enemy. It is owned by the 7th richest man in the world (Wikipedia) and is full of shit.

  • Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO

    “Al Jazeera might sound like it is eastern news outlet, and may once have been, but it is actually the western-backed mouthpiece of that sheikdom of human rights’ abuses, Qatar. I would give it no credibility whatsoever having been awarded the 2022 World Cup by nefarious means, and a country which accepted five exchanged and tortured Guantanamo internees originally from Afghanistan. God, their lives are going to be hell until Qatar becomes the US enemy. It is owned by the 7th richest man in the world (Wikipedia) and is full of shit.”

    CHEERIO, John. I was hoping someone would say that.

  • Habbabkuk (La vita è bella) !

    “What was sofia’s last post?”

    _________________

    Who ?

  • Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO

    Sofia is the gently sublime avatar who dogs your ragged ass, havasack.

  • Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO

    Semantics will have to take a back-seat.

    avatar (n.)
    1784, “descent of a Hindu deity,” from Sanskrit avatarana “descent” (of a deity to the earth in incarnate form), from ava- “off, down” (from PIE *au- (2) “off, away”) + base of tarati “(he) crosses over,” from PIE root *tere- (2) “to cross over” (see through). In computer use, it seems to trace to the novel “Snowcrash” (1992) by Neal Stephenson.

    The meaning has to do mostly with sofia’s playful MAYA style. Like God having a good laugh when we pratfall.

  • Ben-LA PACQUTE LO ES TODO

    Oh, man. This is fucked up

    https://news.vice.com/article/why-was-the-fbi-investigating-michael-hastings-reporting-on-bowe-bergdahl

    “Three years into the disappearance of Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan, Michael Hastings — the journalist whose reporting cost General Stanley McChrystal his job — wrote a Rolling Stone story on the missing soldier, a piece which the magazine called “the definitive first account of Bowe Bergdahl.”

    Hastings, who died in a car accident in Los Angeles in June 2013, had unparalleled access for that story.

    He spoke to Bergdahl’s parents, who had by that time stopped talking to the press, following “subtle pressure” from the army, and he quoted from emails the young soldier had sent to them, documenting his growing disillusion with the war and the US military.

    Hastings also spoke to several unnamed men in Bergdahl’s unit — soldiers who, we now know, had to sign a strict nondisclosure agreement forbidding them from discussing the soldier’s disappearance and search with anyone — let alone one of the top investigative journalists in the country.

    ‘Michael and Matt both worked really, really hard on that story, and I know for a fact that they did it in a way that completely angered the US military and the US government.’

  • John Goss

    Great piece of journalism from Hastings, Ben. And a first. The exchange for the poor man who walked out of his military post into captivity was exchanged for the Guantanamo Afghanistan prisoners sent to meet further justice or slavery in Qatar. Pity the spooks got Hastings. He was a good reporter.

  • Kempe

    “Al Jazeera might sound like it is eastern news outlet, and may once have been, but it is actually the western-backed mouthpiece of that sheikdom of human rights’ abuses, Qatar. I would give it no credibility whatsoever.. ”

    I suppose I had no right to expect any more. Whatever the source any truthfull timeline of events in Ukraine will tell you the same, not that anyone with a memory greater than that of a goldfish should need telling. Unless of course you find it upsets your worldview and you want to forget it.

  • Mary

    The gangsters/war mongers are freezing President Putin out of their meet of the G7. On their agenda is a discussion on how to reduce Europesn reliance on Russian gas. LOL

    The G7 was relocated from Sochi to Brussels.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2014/06/03/politics/obama-europe/

    Notice that when Obomber meets another head of state, a handshake is not sufficient. He lopes towards the recipient wearing his silly mindless grin, shakes their hand and then places his other hand on their shoulder, thus possessing them. Such s nice man and so touchy feely. You would never think he was a killer.

    eg with Komorowski yesterday.
    http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/140603121705-05-obama-poland-0603-horizontal-gallery.jpg

  • Jay

    Democracy and corporations work together with the share holding public to conduct the geopolitical situation worldwide.
    It’s a free for all folks wealth is taken and funneled and entertainment is yours to enjoy.

    Self determination that’s it.

    Let’s hope for an ease in tensions and good discussion for a better future.

  • John Goss

    “Wiki any better for you?”

    Well yes, except it finishes in February. The first killings, as we have previously established came from, rogue elements in the Maidan crowds. But that was in January. The nonsense about Yanukovich not signing the European agreement was turned into an issue by Yatsenyuk and the fascist parties of Svoboda and Right Sector he spearheads. Poroshenko has not signed the agreement either and does not look likely to either. Mug up Kempe for God’s sake.

    http://nsnbc.me/2014/05/29/ukraine-poroshenko-asks-eu-wait-association-agreement/

    As to the west’s reporting on the war by Poroshenko’s forces on Eastern Ukraine it is non-existent. Another hospital was bombed yesterday killing two patients and other patients were carried to a basement. Mug up Kempe. One day I hope you will realise, like NATO seems to have done with Syria, that overthrowing elected governments is wrong.

  • Mary

    People ‘more negative about Russia’
    People’s views of Russia have strongly deteriorated since last year, the latest 24-country poll conducted for the BBC World Service suggests.

    Fancy that BBC? Join in the kicking why don’t you. How were the questions framed?

    More of the black propaganda. Iran and North Korea get the treatment too.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/27685494

  • Mary

    The Zombies meet for their last session before the UKIP rout takes place in 2015.

    Queen’s Speech set to outline pensions reform as Coalition bids to prove it is ‘no zombie government’
    Reform of pensions system at centre of Government’s final programme, but Ed Miliband accuses Coalition of delivering ‘more of the same’ insubstantial legislation
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/queens-speech/10873629/Queens-Speech-set-to-outline-pensions-reform-as-Coalition-bids-to-prove-it-is-no-zombie-government.html

    Her Maj, their ruler, will arrive in a new coach cannibalized from other relics of the EmPyre. Made in Oz by a loyal subject, its cost not mentioned but paid for by the Australian government!! and the maker Mr Frecklington.

    Queen’s Speech 2014: New three-tonne coach unveiled
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27688923

  • Mary

    An interesting biography of him.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes

    Different times. How would his lecture tour be received in modern day America?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Noyes#War

    I see a son-in- law became Lord Nolan, the judge, who became the chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. Some hyperbole in his Guardian obit.

    ‘.. “Lord Nolan .. made a profound mark on national life by substantially cleansing the Augean stable of corrupt politics as founding chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life.”.’

    No visible signs of that cleansing.

  • babushka

    Mary I took a look at that story you linked to, on the Australian maker of this carriage.

    Luverly luverly luverly eh?

    I can’t quite believe people fall for this crap, when they are struggling to pay basic utilities bills!

    Sorry I can’t quite keep up with conversations here-like you in days gone I am caring for my mother with Alzheimers and 90 year old father who is not coping with Mum!

    Keep up the great work and do not waste energy on those who do not value You.

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