There is a mystery about the media coverage of the Newark by-election result. The most interesting thing about it was the abysmal failure of the official opposition, just one year ahead of a general election. The New Labour percentage vote actually dropped, and even just taking the New Labour v Tory vote, the New Labour swing from Tory was only 2 per cent. That is an almost unprecedentedly poor performance by an opposition in a by-election at this stage in a parliament, and a very, very plain indication of what was already obvious – that Miliband is not going to be entering the door of No. 10.
Yet Sky News, the BBC and the Guardian have virtually nothing to say about New Labour’s disastrous result. Both Sky and the BBC this morning managed to give their analysis on the by-election without even mentioning New Labour at all. What can be the cause of this reticence? Is it that they are not anxious to point out to Scots that their choice is independence or more Tory government?
Hain. I did say ‘best remembered for his stand against apartheid’ which is true, and not ‘most admired’ or ‘greatly commended’. They nearly all followed Blair like sheep with these exceptions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2862397.stm
The list of UK MPs who voted for the Iraq War refers to Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom House of Commons who voted in favour of Tony Blair’s New Labour regime motion for participating in the Iraq War. The vote took place on the 18 March 2003 and it couched its position as authorising “all means necessary for disarming Saddam Hussein.” Across all members, it passed by a majority of 263, with 421 in favour and 263 against. All Liberal Democrats voted against the war; 244 Labour Party members voted in favour (and tabled the motion), as did 139 Conservative Party members.
http://order-order.com/tag/peter-hain/
Guido Fawkes has always been on Hain’s case. In all about 70 posts going back to 2004.
The stats on the Iraq invasion votes was roughly this: The general public were split half and half – that’s with nearly all the media backing the war.
If you were a Tory MP, you were in favour because you were a Friend of Israel (over 80% members at the time).
If you were a Labour MP you were split like the public. Excepting members of the government and aspiring to be. In which case you were all in favour.
If you were a Libdem you were against. Though now in government, and their careers become part of the tangle – its all go for bombing Syria.
What a despicable bunch. They’d climb over the bodies of 188,000 (to date) to keep their own career advancement on track. Plus all the maimed and bereaved. They’d dress it up as loyalty to the government. Or to collective cabinet responsibility. Or kid themselves that they genuinely thought an impoverished country a continent away was really a threat to “world” peace. But lets call it what it was: they voted in alignment with their own career crawls.
Does anyone have a correct figure for the number of Iraqi civilians killed by coalition forces? It would seem that some of the more wild and ever-increasing estimates given (it is not uncommon to see the number 1.5 million today) are for the large part made up of Muslim on Muslim sectarian killings, lynchings, bombings, and so forth, as well as premature deaths brought about by lack of proper medical facilities, still included in the statistics over a decade after the invasion.
When does this rolling estimate finally end? Will the preventable death of an Iraqi woman due to heart failure in 2030 still be added to it? Are the numbers killed in a bus bomb today still to be blamed on the Americans?
Was the real crime of the Iraq War not the complete failure to understand that for a large part of the world’s Muslim population, brutal secular dictatorship is the only alternative to fanatical Islamism? And doesn’t that say more about the religion and its adherents than it does about the wrongs of the war itself?
And yes, I was opposed to the Iraq War and the Libya regime change, and I remain against any involvement in Syria, but not for the skewed “evil west” version peddled by the left on here.
Anon – if you look hard enough you’ll probably find a rough of what you ask for here
https://www.iraqbodycount.org/
I gave their front page figure. The toll of human misery unleashed on Iraq in 2003 was enormous. Pontificating about where you draw what lines around it doesn’t interest me.
I know I come up with some beautiful, witty and thought-provoking little phrases but I wished it has been me who said: “He is the lipstick on the neo-con pig.”
Glenn_UK I take my hat off. Hope the lipstick does not mark the apple when it gets stuffed in the pig’s snout.
Remember all the fuss when the BBC allowed Griffin on Question Time
Perhaps some of RT’s supporters here might wish to offer their thoughts on their favourite channel giving a platform to this fascist
http://rt.com/news/164372-marine-le-pen-preview/
Je
“I gave their front page figure. The toll of human misery unleashed on Iraq in 2003 was enormous. Pontificating about where you draw what lines around it doesn’t interest me.”
But looking at their fromt page I see this:
Friday 6 June: 110 killed
Mosul: 69 in mortar attacks and clashes.
Samarra: 7 by government forces.
Muwafaqiya: 7 by suicide bombers.
Sabaa al Bour: 7 by mortars.
Baquba: 4 by shelling and car bomb.
Falluja: 3 by shelling. Tikrit: 1 policeman by IED.
Ramadi: 2 by bomb at vegetable market.
Baghdad: 10 by mortars, gunfire, AED.
Eleven years after the invasion, that looks like Muslims killing Muslims to me, Je. So where do you draw the line?
Anon – that sectarian violence didn’t exist in Iraq prior to 2003 but I don’t care where you draw the line. Like I said, I’m not interested in pontificating about it. Last post on the subject.
The one dimensional lefty outlook sees it as the evil west versus innocent little brown people. It’s quite patriarchal and patronising really. They come up with over-emotional phrases like “The toll of human misery unleashed in 2003”, but aren’t very good at the facts of who is killing who and why. It’s almost colonial. The little brown person can’t have any agency of his own – everything he does is due to the actions of Amerika. So religious fanatics go around blowing up bus loads of innocent people and still it’s all the fault of the evil west!
Anon – that sectarian violence didn’t exist in Iraq prior to 2003
Tell that to the Shia Marsh Arabs.
“Anon – that sectarian violence didn’t exist in Iraq prior to 2003”.
I’ve already dealt with this. Are you saying that without a brutal secular dictatorship, sectarian Islamist violence is the natural state of Iraq. Because that’s what it seems, and you’d be largely right.
But no, you still view it as harmless little brown people turned into violent islamists by the Americans. They cannot be responsible for anything they do, can they? Do you think your Iraqi religious fanatic was some sort of perfect ignorant savage before he was mobilised by the Americans to blow up his brethren in buses and markets?
Okay Anon. One more post. You are completely ignorant about me apart from the few comments I’ve made here. But you appear to think you know all about me. You decide I’m one of a group of other people you’ve got this attitude towards. You already know my entire political outlook: that I’m a “lefty”.
I didn’t say anything about the “evil west”. “little brown people” is your phrase. It has no relation to what I think at all. So… if I think the way the Iraqi state was dismantled in 2003 has some culpability for the violence there today then – I have a “little brown people” attutude. And I’m claiming they have no agency. That’s barking. You say using the phrase “human misery” for what has happened in Iraq is “over-emotional”. That is also barking.
Really my last post. I’ll leave the thread to whatever misrepresentations/slurs you want to chuck at me. You have this incredible ability to know all about how I think after all.
Read about what’s happening in post invasion Iraq, and why, from someone who knows.
Iraq: Sixty Nine Days In Fallujah General Hospital Emergency Department
By Felicity Arbuthnot
Global Research, May 07, 2014http://www.globalresearch.ca/iraq-sixty-nine-days-in-fallujah-general-hospital-emergency-department/5380996
~~
Read about the number of Iraqi people killed on Medialens. There has always been sufficient information for those who are really interested and who care.
‘Limited But Persuasive’ Evidence – Syria, Sarin, Libya, Lies (Alerts 2013) By David Edwards Last month, a ComRes poll supported by Media Lens interviewed 2,021 British adults, asking: ‘How many Iraqis, both combatants and civilians, do you think have died as a consequence … Created on 13 June 2013
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/alerts-2013/735-limited-but-persuasive-evidence-syria-sarin-libya-lies.html The first part
Propaganda: ‘The Dominant Grand Narrative Of Our Time’
‘A vanishingly rare example of the BBC propaganda system being blasted open was the special edition of the Radio 4 Today programme edited by the English musician PJ Harvey on January 2, 2014. In her opening statement, Harvey explained that she wanted to ‘do something unusual with the format and content of the programme.’ She invited people whom she considers ‘to be highly articulate, stimulating and extremely interesting to listen to – people who challenge us and move us to examine our deepest beliefs and feelings.’
Harvey’s guests included John Pilger talking about the propaganda role of the corporate media; Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, on the urgent need to democratise the warmongering UN Security Council (here at around 49 mins); Ian Cobain and Phil Shiner on torture committed by UK forces (here at around 2 hrs : 34 mins); and Mark Curtis on how Britain’s arms trade fuels oppression around the world.’
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2014/753-propaganda-the-dominant-grand-narrative-of-our-time.html
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I see that it’s Anon’s and Resident Dissident’s turn today on this blog. H having a day off at the Derby?
If you want more lies about Putin, ZBC had Robert Brinkley on this morning ref Ukraine. Chosen for his partisanship presumably.
Last in Kiev in 2006 as British Ambassador! ie 9 years ago.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b045xnt7 1hr 14mins in
Preceded by BBC reports from Steve Rosenberg and David Stern from 1hr10mins in
Here is Brinkley on CNN in February 2014
Brinkley: Protests echo Orange Revolution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q35bPY6BS-M
“I see that it’s Anon’s and Resident Dissident’s turn today on this blog. H having a day off at the Derby?”
Jealous that your paymaster doesn’t allow you a day off – at least he/she/it no longer appears to require you to post at 4 o clock in the morning UK time.
Je
You believe the 188,000 figure is the responsibility of the prosecutors of the Iraq War. You have made no such allegation against the Iraqi extremists who kill each other and innocent bystanders on a daily basis, whose actions make up a large proportion of the IBC statistics you blame solely on the invasion. Over 100 killed yesterday alone. Are those deaths the fault of the Americans?
Because you are unable to see or admit to any agency on the part of Iraqi extremists, but keen to pin all the blame on America, it is fair to say that you have a rather patronising view of the Iraqi people – totally unable to do anything without America causing them to do it. Blowing up a market can’t be seen as evil, it’s just an inevitable consequence of the greater evil which was the Iraq War. All subsequent deaths must be attributed to that one event, the highest number possible for the longest period of time. And using emotive language to boot.
“So… if I think the way the Iraqi state was dismantled in 2003 has some culpability for the violence there today”
You’re changing your tune. Nothing you or anyone else has written here has attributed anything other than full culpability to the invading forces for the violence seen in Iraq today.
“You say using the phrase “human misery” for what has happened in Iraq is “over-emotional”. That is also barking.”
Your full phrase was:
“The toll of human misery unleashed in 2003 was enormous”.
True enough, but you cite the IBC front page, which includes violence to the present day. Furthermore, you previously wrote “They’d climb over the bodies of 188,000 (to date) to keep their own career advancement on track.”, further proving that you hold Western politicians responsible for the total number of deaths in Iraq to the present day. If that isn’t using overly emotional language to make a disingenuous and factually incorrect point then I don’t know what is.
Again: “You say using the phrase “human misery” for what has happened in Iraq is “over-emotional”. That is also barking.”
Deliberate misquoting. Note: you now say “what has happened in Iraq”. Your intial use of the phrase was directed at what has been caused by the invasion, as I have shown above.
All in all a textbook lefty moron who believes the little brown people would all be living in peace and prosperity if it weren’t for the evil west.
“If you want more lies about Putin,”
You mean like the one you exposed about his height also posted on RT?
My tip for the Derby:
An E/W bet on True Story. It’s come down a bit since I put mine on but very much worth a punt.
Mary 11:49 am
Please come up with some opinions of your own rather than endless copy & paste. Thanks.
Likely just that Newark was a safe tory seat so there was never much chance of Labour taking it. Add the UKIP surge (aided by the BBC) and the question became how well UKIP and the tories would do, not how well Labour would do.
It is not totally impossible Milliband could become PM. LibDems would welcome a coalition with him rather than Cameron if the arithmetic makes it possible. One way to guarantee another Cameron government is to leave Scotland out of the arithmetic.
“I see that it’s Anon’s and Resident Dissident’s turn today on this blog. H having a day off at the Derby?”
_______________
Well, I’d much rather be AT the Derby than IN Derby.
Better even than leafy, prosperous Surrey!
Je 7 Jun, 2014 – 8:06 am
…. and if you were an SNP MP, you were against. The SNP is also against bombing Syria.
If you don’t want foreign countries bombed in your name, vote “YES” in September.
Anon I have plenty of opinions of my own as you have probably noticed over the years much to your discomfort. Never sure which Anon is which though.
R2D2 I was awoken by the storm. Very dramatic here. What was it like where you live or are in another country?
Where is Habbakuk/Habbankuk?
~~~
All those hypocritical gangsters who were assembled in Normandy yesterday have returned to their countries. What a terrible waste of fossil fuel carting them around, especially that used for the obscene Air Force 1 and the convoy of armoured Cadillacs brought over for the purpose of conveying the extrajudicial killer-by-drone and his entourage.
Gentleperson
“Sorry, but you have been “gate-keepered” by a hackneyed tactic on page 67 of the hasbara handbook!!”
____________________
It’s page 45, you fucking fool.
**********************
More seriously, various turns of phrase of yours remind me of that chappie who got banned – “English Knight” or whatever his name was.
Does it matter if you’re reappeared?
Probably not, it’s only a matter of degree in the end : the Eminences are barking, you are woofing.
*********************
Dump rubles, reals, rupees and renminbis – buy £, $ and shekels!
Duncan, you can be rest assured that the bussed in Tory minions tried their best to scare Lib Dems into voting for them, the result is marred by ‘scary votes’, and, as so many did not bother to vote, represent another win for the non voters and the party political oligarchies they gave a hand up by staying at home.
No irony…
Lord Pearson of UKIP:
“Our democracy requires that we have more than three peers in the House of Lords when we’re getting 27% of the vote in the latest national election.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-27738940
Putin is a just a few inches shorter than the chocolate billionaire not many as the BBC implied. The chocolate billionaire is twice the width of Putin (too many chocolate bars perhaps). Putin is visibly the fittest by a long chalk.
http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/06/07/world/07putin1_now/07putin1_now-articleLarge.jpg
I would like to see Poreshenko bare chested on a horse, that is if he could actually mount one.
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1133558/original.jpg
The dog that did bark:
‘Poroshenko’s inauguration speech has sent a message to Novorossiia and Russia:
No federalization
No state status for the Russian language
No recognition of the Novorossian political leadership
Full and unconditional surrender of the Novorossian Defense Forces
Crimea will forever belong to the Ukraine.
He could not have been any clearer: that is basically a declaration of war and an ultimatum. This is also a full endorsement of the “Banderastan project”.’
Will the Neocons get their new Cold War? Will Ukraine go down in flames, taking the EU with it? Will the Europeans have to pay for their gas in roubles, renmimbi or gold rather than US dollars? Will European leaders show spine and act in their countries’ interest, rather than pander to the global terror state? So many questions.
Still, it’s not all doom and gloom. Susan Rice has announced that the US will supply lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, but only to the ‘moderate vetted component’ – who will most certainly not pass it over to the extremists that actually do the killing, no siree bob.