I shall again be running the bar – the Whistleblower’s Arms – at the Doune the Rabbit Hole Festival from 22 to 24 August at Cardross, Port of Menteith.
I find this festival, which is very much a lifestyle event and features mostly new talent, an extremely life-affirming experience. Last year it brought me back from a very dark place. Some of this blogs most active commenters and helpers have been among the volunteers over the last couple of years, keeping the event going. Personally for me the festival is necessarily centred around Williams Bros and Thistly Cross, but there is a tremendous variety of music:
The event is very family friendly, and also an amazing place to meet new friends. It does not have any specific political orientation, but I might fairly say that the vibe is very much in line with the kind of unconstrained intellectual space promoted on this blog. On top of which Cardross is an extraordinarily beautiful place. The variety of local food on site, ranging from vegan to game, is one of the things I really enjoyed. It is a not for profit event and nobody gets a salary.
Tickets are not expensive by festival standards, and certainly cheaper than a weekend break in a hotel. But there is also the alternative of working your passage – the festival still needs plenty of volunteers.
I am genuinely looking forward to it enormously. Hope to see you there.
“As the psycho bestrides the world, he now demands that Maliki changes or goes.”
That’s why we killed 100s of 1000s of Iraqis – to give them democracy then tell them who their leader should be and what he should do..
Blair was on MTP today and the gorgon Andrea Mitchell tossed him the obligatory Iraq/Saddam question and gave him plenty of room to equivocate, and with NO follow-up question.
Where, oh where would we be without this kind of reportage?
Bolder
What a strange request. Well, I left the civil service in 2004. At that time I was earning about 58,000 a year. I started work in 1984 I think on 14,000. Does that answer your question?
Mary
6 Jul, 2014 – 2:53 pm
“The Israelis have arrested six people described as nationalists for the murder of Mohammad. Assume that means settlers.”
Quite right Mary.
Anon please note:
The Israelis have killed six Palestinian youths, arrested 400 and demolished a number of homes in their search for the killers of the three Jewish youths and they have tightened-up the blockade of Gaza. All these actions are against international law but what the heck?
“Khdair’s mother told the Associated Press news agency she had no faith in the Israeli justice.
“I don’t have any peace in my heart,” Suha Khdair said.
“Even if they captured who they say killed my son… they’re only going to ask them questions and then release them. What’s the point?
“They need to treat them the way they treat us. They need to demolish their homes and round them up, the way they do it to our children”
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28182704
Update, 6 July: Arrests
“On Sunday, media reported that six suspects had been arrested in the killing of Muhammad. The suspects were not named but an Israeli official told media that they were “Jewish extremists.”
Israeli blogger Elizabeth Tsurkov reported on her Twitter feed that the suspects were associated with the Beitar Jerusalem football club whose fans are notorious for anti-Arab violence and racist chants.
She said that this information was reported by Israel’s Channel 10, in violation of a gag order.”
http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/video-shows-faces-suspected-killers-palestinian-teen#update
I notice that someone suggested on another thread last night that the trolls weren’t providing value for money. Anon’s latest outburst in presumably a response to that statement. I should ignore the someone, Anon, until there is a theme that involves a subject where you are so completely wrong. What more proof is needed that Israel are completely off the scale out of order after the US State Dept. articulates their outrage…
Back to PFIs and the privatisation of the health service. Milburn, one of the most avaricious of the Nu Labour crowd and a proponent of PFI hospitals, has done very nicely for himself. Also on Bridgepoint is Lord Patten late chair of the BBC.
Alliance Medical operate the Magnetic Resonance Imaging in my local NHS general hospital.
‘
‘Poverty tsar’ Alan Milburn makes a million
The private company set up by Alan Milburn, the so-called ‘poverty tsar,’ has made more than a million.
The latest accounts, for the year ended March 2013, show that the company has accumulated more than £1,357,131 in profits
By Tim Walker
24 Jan 2014
Alan Milburn may have become known as the “poverty tsar” after he accepted a job advising the Coalition on social mobility, but he is hardly on the breadline himself.
Mandrake hears that A M Strategy, the private company that the former Labour health secretary set up after leaving government, made more than £500,000 last year.
The latest accounts, for the year ended March 2013, show that the company has accumulated more than £1,357,131 in profits, which is £518,854 up on the £838,277 it had made up until 2012.
Milburn co-directs the lucrative business with his long-term girlfriend, Ruth Briel. Its accounts are abbreviated and do not, therefore, reveal the company’s income from sales or disclose payments, if any, to its directors. Since he left politics, Milburn has worked as a consultant to Bridgepoint Capital, a venture capital firm which has been heavily involved in financing private health care companies moving into the NHS, including Alliance Medical, Match Group, Medica and the Robinia Care Group.
The former Labour MP, pictured, is also vice-chairman of the Lloyds Pharmacy advisory board and has landed numerous consulting posts for giant firms such as Pepsi and the accountants PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Milburn will be on the Labour leader Ed Miliband’s strategy team for the next general election, along with fellow Blairites Lord Mandelson and — unbelievably — Alastair Campbell.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/10593106/Poverty-tsar-Alan-Milburn-makes-a-million.html
A disgusting hypocrite. Do you remember him resigning ‘to spend more time with his family’?
~~~~
Labour gets into bed with private medicine
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2000/nov/19/socialcare.policy
19 November 2000
‘Britain is at the European cutting edge of this liberalisation. Last Monday Milburn confirmed this by inviting consortia to bid for 18 controversial new Private Finance Initiative hospitals worth £18 billion. PFI is a financing mechanism which allows private companies to build hospitals and rent them back to the NHS at considerable profit. The advantage for the Treasury is that infrastructure projects are kept off balance sheet.
Most health industry insiders acknowledge that PFI is an expensive way of building new hospitals which means less money is left to spend on patient care. But Milburn said he wants to see PFI extended ‘beyond the hospital gates to include GP surgeries, community pharmacies, health centres, intermediate and long-term care facilities’.’
So much coming out at the moment it is difficult to know which to highlight.
But this one is really remarkable:
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/06/child-abuse-coverup-1980s-lord-tebbit
Go Norman!
Israel’s purging of Palestinian children – don’t mention The Occupation – John Hilley
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1404669987.html
“So much coming out at the moment it is difficult to know which to highlight.”
https://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/david-cameron-and-theresa-may-establish-a-national-inquiry-into-allegations-of-organised-child-abuse
Thanks, Fred. And thanks to Tom Watson for starting this off! What a massive response… more than Blair petition already, but in any case can’t see the latter escaping an inquiry scot free (gulp… pun not intended(!), “Squeaky clean” might be better).
Just passed 50,000.
Yow! Tom Watson is a hero. Twice over, because he drew attention to the phone hacking scandal.
And Police starting to find a way round being leaned on by going outside the UK to conduct interviews:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10950138/Westminster-paedophile-ring-allegations-Scotland-Yard-detectives-trace-victim.html
“Yow! Tom Watson is a hero. Twice over, because he drew attention to the phone hacking scandal.”
Yes, just what he was hoping imbeciles like you would think. This stuff’s been doing the rounds for ages.
So why has it gone viral now, Anon?
And why are you calling those who wish child abusers to be brought to justice “imbeciles”?
Because he reads a lot of stuff on the internet, decides what has enough credibility to not make him look like an idiot, publicises it and then bathes in all the glory as the fearless campaigner. And then imbeciles like you say “Yow! Tom Watson is a hero”, while ne’er a Labour paedo was touched.
My Wife and I and some of our Friends have had a Completely Brilliant Day…then we got home…and I read The Daily Telegraph…I wrote this…its what it is…
I still have an open mind about David Cameron..I can’t quite work out…if he is incredibly Stupid..or Incredibly Clever..But I Really Fancy His Wife…and No I have Never Done Cocaine…maybe she hasn’t either with Tricky of Massive Attack…But Why Exactly Did Massive Attack Have To Change Their Name From Massive Attack To Massive…just Before We First Started Bombing Innocent Women and Children To Hell in Iraq…You Remember Way Back Then..10 Years Before…The First Time We Bombed Iraq To Hell…and then killed over half a Million of their Children in The Sanctions and Madeline Albrite said The Price is Worth It …and The Cow Hilary…Said We Came We Saw…and Now He is Dead….
You People..You Really Are The Scum Of The Earth….Come on Catherine Ashton (Baroness of Upholland)…in some Kind of Defence….Don’t You Realise How Evil These People Are?
Can you please do something to try and protect us from them…
They Really are Not Nice..and You are The EU Foreign Minister….You must have some influence.
I know I got some of the dates wrong…but not the historical record. We need to defend ourselves from these horrible people.
Tony
I asked Janet(Of The Daily Telegraph) and Melanie Phillips (Of The Daily Mail) to come along…but it was on the wrong side of The River…but The Invite Was Wide Open…The Young Kids…Maybe From The BRIT…close by were Soul Sisters..and so was I.
I did invite them…
We were There Today.
We got The Train.
Tony
I could Never quite work out Why My Wife has Bought Him a Seriously Magnificently Beautiful Card…she did show me it…but who is he…he is about my age..but he looks about 75..and when he is talking to her…he sticks his hand down…the back of his pants…He Really Does Not Look That Good…but although at least 2 stones heavier than me..and looking..well 40 years older than me…He has All These Beautiful Pretty Girlfriends…Absolutely Loads of Them…He has a Ruck Sack…and He Doesn’t Take All These Girls For Long Walks In The Countryside…He Takes Them on for example a Kinks Tour…Through The Streets of London..I just don’t get it…If it was Craig Murray..Yeh Sure O.K…He is Probably Someone Incredibly Famous..Now what Exactly Dose Ray Davies Look Like..I’m Fairly Sure It is Not Jimmy…Nor The Bass Player..and Anyway We Have already Got Tickets to See Robert Plant at The Roundhouse…not been their either. I don’t know all the people my wife knows…but She is so FAST…How did She Know That?
Tony
Front of The Pants…I could Understand..But The Back???…Maybe it’s really Long…My Wife Does Like Ganesh.
What information, if any, will she bring and what action, if any, is being taken?
May to address MPs on sex abuse claims
Houses of Parliament
The home secretary is to give a statement to Parliament on the row over the Home Office’s handling of historical child sex abuse allegations against public figures
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28189072
~~~
Then there’s this. How many of us would get a private office inside a government department?
Paedophile group leader ‘stored material at Home Office’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28187357
Israel and the Palestinians
It’s about Mind over Matter
by Anthony Lawson / July 6th, 2014
Ever since the three Israeli teenagers went missing, police and army units have besieged Palestinian towns and villages in the area; their houses and shops have been ransacked and atrocities have been committed; Gaza has been bombed, and the death toll is still rising, yet international leaders have remained largely silent, when they all know that such reprisals amount to collective-punishment which is a War Crime.
A young Palestinian boy, 16-year-old Mohamed Abu Khdeir, was abducted and killed in a suspected revenge attack by Israelis on July 2. See how Britain’s prime minister reacted to his death.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/07/israel-and-the-palestinians/
Plus a short video very much to the point.
7 July 2014
Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill nine Palestinian militants
Three uses of the word ‘militant’ in this report. Just to drive the point home that the Palestinians are ‘militants’ and the Israelis are ‘soldiers’.
No irony from Bibi.
‘We will not allow extremists, it doesn’t matter from which side, to inflame the region and cause bloodshed”
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli air strikes on Gaza kill nine Palestinian militants
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-28189031
…No other senior executive would be allowed to operate like this; he would be sacked but Blair continues to make money amid the misery and chaos in the Middle East – some of it a legacy from his days as British PM.
This latest deal as an adviser to Al-Sisi has been packaged together in a project funded by the United Arab Emirates. The programme is being supervised by the management consultancy Strategy which is part of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Their aim is to attract investment into Egypt’s failing economy and a donors’ conference sponsored by oil-rich UAE, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia will follow in which Blair will be a keynote speaker.
Of course, we are told by Blair’s people that his decision to embark on this latest scheme was not being done “for any personal gain whatsoever”. During an interview with The Guardian newspaper his spokesperson insisted he would make no money out of Egypt, and neither would any of his organisations. “He is giving advice, he will have meetings, that’s all,” she said adding that he “is not a formal adviser”.
Perhaps the question to ask would be how much is he being paid by the Gulf States promoting this scheme to give Al-Sisi some credibility …
Ay, there’s the rub.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/blogs/politics/12542-blair-makes-money-not-peace
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/07/doune-the-rabbit-hole-2/#comment-464879
al Sisi’s austerity plans.
Glad I was not listening.
The abhorrent Regev on BBC today programme again!
Posted by Richard27 on July 7, 2014, 9:36 am
Israeli mouthpiece Mark Regev was only on the BBC’s hawkish Today programme last Friday and now he was on again this morning to whitewash Israeli policy. The Israeli embassy must have a hot line to their studio
The BBC must love satire, especially Israeli Satire; no doubt Regev repeated the narrative that those who burnt alive a 16 year Palestinian child were just bad apple “Extremists”, not at like his peace seeking & peace loving Government, that thinks nothing of burning Palestinian children with White Phosphorus. The message is hardly subliminal !
This will interest Nevermind, and others.
The Politics of the Eastern Daily Press
http://www.communicationethics.net/journal/v11n3/v11n3_feat2.pdf
‘An establishment newspaper’:
The politics of the Eastern Daily Press
This paper analyses the political stance of the
Norwich-based Eastern Daily Press. It uses Nick
Davies’s notion of ‘churnalism’ and Herman
and Chomsky’s Propaganda Model to explain,
in particular, its editorial positions on the monarchy
and British foreign policy. Moreover, the
evidence presented suggests that the EDP’s
ownership and, to a lesser extent, its reliance
on advertising are key reasons for its political
stances. Interviews with journalists, politicians
and a prominent academic support the overall
argument. The paper concludes: ‘Archant’s
monopoly in the region has a worrying influence
on dissent.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2681854/Family-beg-former-PM-Tony-Blair-help-free-BBC-reporter-held-Egyptian-prison.html
He is now allegedly working behind the scenes to influence his good mate Sisi.
Hmmm. Unworthy of me, I know, but he’s had seven years as ‘peace’ envoy to get a few of these released –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_prisoners_in_Israel
including
15 minors who do not know even know why they are being detained…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palestinian_prisoners_in_Israel
let alone the 691 prisoners rounded up in reprisals for those bloody settler kids:
http://www.petra.gov.jo/Public_News/Nws_NewsDetails.aspx?Site_Id=1&lang=2&NewsID=157233&CatID=13&Type=Home>ype=1
Give up the day job, Tony. Stick to greasing dictators.