The overruling of a European Court judgement to assert individual privacy, and the anti-democratic rushing of emergency legislation through parliament where no emergency exists, are the antithesis of liberalism. So of course is the jettisoning of all the Lib Dem manifesto pledges on civil liberties.
It is not news that Nick Clegg has become the poster boy for a politics utterly devoid of principle, organised purely around the desire of individual politicians for wealth and power. But even with all that background, I found Clegg’s enthusiastic ratcheting up of the fear factor over the “need” to protect us from virtually non-existent threats, utterly reprehensible.
At his press conference with Cameron, Clegg actually quoted the non-existent “liquid bomb plot to bring down multiple planes” as the reason these powers were needed. He even made a direct claim that telephone intercepts had been instrumental in “foiling” the “liquid bomb plot”. That is utterly untrue. The three men eventually convicted had indeed been under judge approved surveillance for a year. In that year, they made no reference to a plan to bring down airplanes, because there was no such plan. The only “evidence” of a plan to bring down multiple airplanes came from a Pakistani torture chamber. There never was a single liquid bomb. 90% of those arrested in the investigation were released without charge or found not guilty.
The three found guilty had done little more than boast and fantasise about being jihadis. That is not to say they were nice people. They may even have done some harm, though if Clegg were in any sense a Liberal he would not be supportive of imprisoning people in case they one day do some harm. But they had never made a liquid bomb or made a plan to bring down multiple airlines.
The point is, that while any ordinary member of the public could be forgiven for believing in the Liquid Bomb Plot, given all the lies of the mainstream media, Clegg has to be aware that he is spreading deliberate lies and propaganda to justify this “emergency legislation”.
Still more ludicrous was the failure to address the elephant in the room – Snowden’s revelation that the NSA and GCHQ indulge in vast mass surveillance, of the communications of millions of people in the UK, with absolutely no regard for the legal framework anyway.
In the last few weeks there has been a concerted effort to ratchet up the fear of the extremely remote possibility of a terrorist attack. We have seen, as first lead on the news bulletins and front page headlines, the jailing of two young men for “terrorism” for fighting in Syria, when there was no evidence of any kind that they had any intention of committing any violence in the UK. We have the absolute nonsense of the mobile phone in airports charade. We had days of the ludicrous argument that ISIS success in Iraq will cause terrorist attacks in the UK. Now we have the urgent need for this “emergency legislation”.
Why is the fear ratchet being screwed right up just now? What is this leading up to?
“I have the sneaking suspicion that you’re not seeking to learn but merely trying to wind me up”
Projection, is a much misunderstood concept. 🙂
Anybody else get a request from 38 degrees to fill out a survey?
I thought the survey was designed to deliver the opinions they wanted to hear, and said so in the ‘Any other issues?’ field:
Mary to Peacewisher
“Please don’t feed the trolls.”
Very similar to “Ba’al Zevuls”‘s plea to NeverHadAMind “pleeeze don’t respond to it”.
Not your blog, Mary, not your blog and not your business to tell other commenters what to do.
Found it. I’d forgotten about it and did not return to the thread after making my brief comment. Here it is:
“Unfortunately, Scotland is not short of useful idiots”
Said Vronsky, to which I replied:
“One of them is Alex Salmond, which is very unfortunate indeed”.
In my view Salmond has failed to face up to the currency issue, so the bankers are happy. He’s committed Scotland to the EU and as a result the Scots won’t be able to reclaim their valuable fishing grounds. He’s failed to contemplate the nationalisation of the oil-fields, so the oil campanies are happy. He’s committed to retaining the monarchy and NATO membership. He calls it independence but what’s actually on offer isn’t independence at all. All the major vested interests are happy so “useful idiot” doesn’t seem inappropriate to me.
Hope that helps, apologies for not responding earlier.
Ben
“Projection, is a much misunderstood concept.”
_______________
California Ben, that must be about the zillioneth time you’ve inserted a superfluous comma between the subject and verb of your “sentences”.
Is it ignorance, is it instinctive like a dog cocking his leg at a lamp-post or have you hit on a new way of projecting one of your gnomic utterances?
And now go and have another smoke, you know it’ll inspire you.
List of the 124 Palestinians, Including Whole Families, Killed Since Tuesday
Saturday July 12, 2014 11:16 Saed Bannoura – IMEMC News Report post
The following is a list of the 124 Palestinians killed by Israeli air bombardment since Tuesday, July 8th. These are the names that have been confirmed by medical sources in Gaza. An estimated 900 Palestinians have also been wounded, with some losing limbs and others disabled for life. The majority of the wounded are children, according to the Ministry of Health. All of the casualties listed below are victims of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza since Tuesday July 8th.
http://www.imemc.org/article/68429
R2D2
Your ‘post’ at 12.32 pm merited about 3 secs of my reading time and that was 3 too many.
You know ‘you’re not worth it’ as the ad doesn’t say!
Any actual contributions to this blog forthcoming from you?
Yes Hab,…..======================
*******you know it’ll inspire you_______________
————I noe what you mean++++
It’s very irritating.
Gaza today
I wonder if anyone would agree with me that there is a strong case to be made for indicting the Hamas leadership for war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law? War crimes against against the Palestinian people in Gaza, I mean.
The case against the LHamas leadership is that they launch indiscriminate rocket attacks against Israel from heavily civilian-populated areas in Gaza in full knowledge of, and reckless disregard for, the reprisals which they know Israel will undertake, thereby causing many deaths, including of women and children, and much human suffering among their fellow Gazans.
Their day will surely come!
Hamas will have to wait in line for any war crimes to reach the surface. The ICC moves apace glacially. This hasn’t even broken the surface yet.
“The flour mill attack was not the most serious incident of the war: although nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in just three weeks, no one died at the mill. However, because it was a civilian building producing food – the only operational mill in Gaza – the incident received particular criticism from Goldstone, who concluded that the building was hit by an air strike, the attacks were “intentional and precise”, and they were “carried out for the purpose of denying sustenance to the civilian population”. He added that the attacks violated the fourth Geneva convention and customary international law and may constitute a war crime.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/feb/01/gaza-war-report-accuses-israel
“What is this leading up to”
We are being softened up for another war, obviously. As you know war is good for business and those against that are left leaning softies. Is is sad that there are so few commentators like yourself to point out the flaws in the war logic, while there are so many like Blair, Campbell and Co. who would urge us into more senseless slaughter.
The non-existent liquid bomb threat is all part of the agenda to keep us terrified and mutually suspicious, mutual suspicion will stop us from organising. Monitoring our communications will keep the government one step ahead of the game.
Surely it was from that sense of suspicion that led Orwell before his death to produce the list denouncing various of his contemporaries to the secret service, an act that for me forever blights his reputation.
Habba
The war crime Hamas undertake is in launching their rocket attacks against Israel not to mention their endorsement of suicide bombers in the past or their various human rights abuses against those Palestinian citizens who do not share their philosophy. The response by Israel goes way beyond self protection and also constitutes a war crime by any normal sense of that definition.
I suspect that Hamas is trying to whip up things at present so as to strengthen its position within Palestine, especially given that it no longer gets much support from the Muslim Brotherhood with Egypt. Netanyahu is engaged in something similar largely because he wants to demonstrate his “strong man” credentials to those trying to outflank him on the right. The sooner this symbiotic relationship between the extremists on either side is broken the better for everyone – of course some here cannot wait for the next Intifada as they somehow believe that this sick game is the means by which they believe progress will be made, with ordinary Palestinians and Israelis just acting as dispensible pawns in their rather sick game.
Mary
For Truth and Justice
I estimate that you must have contributed around one million comments to this blog by now, a large proportion concerned with Israel and various ideas about the Jews.
I was wondering, could you perhaps provide us with one single comment you have made condemning Muslim violence?
You’ll agree that Muslim violence is vastly more prevalent than Jewish violence, so it stands to reason that a self-professed human rights campaigner and believer in truth and justice will be able to produces scores of examples in response to my above question.
Over to you.
Did the USS Jimmy Carter soften up the area for an eruption and earthquake in Iceland by the USS Connecticut by hitting Japan again off Fukushima just to make sure that Tokyo stays in line too?
“Did the USS Jimmy Carter soften up the area for an eruption and earthquake in Iceland by the USS Connecticut by hitting Japan again off Fukushima just to make sure that Tokyo stays in line too?”
No.
Has anybody said that Gaza was being missiled/bombed/shelled for some weeks with the pretext that Hamas was deemed guilty for the kidnapping and murder of the three illegal immigrants?
Death might have been chosen for some of those injured. The blast injuries will be terrible as will the amputations whether by Israeli shell and shrapnel or on the operating table from necessity.
What did the Rabbi equate one Jewish fingernail to? I think he said one thousand Arabs. No. I got it wrong. It was one million.
http://devrolijkemoslim.blogspot.co.uk/2006/05/one-million-arabs-are-not-worth-jewish.html
“What did the Rabbi equate one Jewish fingernail to? I think he said one thousand Arabs. No. I got it wrong. It was one million.”
You don’t seem to understand how special the chosen people are, Mary.
So it was just intended to keep the Japanese Defense Minister on track when he had his press conference with SoD Chuck Hagel minutes later.
“What did the Rabbi equate one Jewish fingernail to? I think he said one thousand Arabs. No. I got it wrong. It was one million.”
Hate feeds hate – nothing new I’m afraid but some still want to play their which came first, the chicken or the egg games.
Resident Dissident
Thanks for that.
“The war crime Hamas undertake is in launching their rocket attacks against Israel not to mention their endorsement of suicide bombers in the past or their various human rights abuses against those Palestinian citizens who do not share their philosophy.”
_____________________
Actually I would only classify the first two of the above as war crimes – but war crimes NOT against Israel or Israelis but against Palestinians in Gaza. The Hamas leadership should be indicted for war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law against PALESTINIAN GAZANS, for the reasons I set out in my post at 15h50.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“The response by Israel goes way beyond self protection…”
Yes, I agree, but it is meant to go beyond. It is meant to be dissuasive. The fact that despite previous experience the Hamas leadership is not dissuaded says more about the Hamas leadership than about the Israelis.
****************************
Anyway, keep up the good work – the Eminences have either fallen silent or are in full flight.
“So it was just intended to keep the Japanese Defense Minister on track when he had his press conference with SoD Chuck Hagel minutes later”
____________
Again – no.
Third time lucky?
And this one is a nice example of the type too. Hate in their ‘hearts’.
‘This is what “Israel’s” right to exist means.
“Cut off power to Gaza dialysis patients, Moshe Feiglin, Knesset deputy speaker urges
“The blood of a dialysis patient in Gaza is not redder than the blood of our IDF [Israeli army] soldiers who will, God forbid, need to enter [Gaza],” said Moshe Feiglin, the deputy speaker of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, on Wednesday.”‘
~~~
Tim Llewellyn who got out of the BBC, unable to take any more of their stuff, said on Facebook. Sent by a friend –
Have taken the liberty of copying the contextual comment from Tim Llewellyn:
‘Tim Llewellyn I have a cherished picture, taken in 1998, of myself and a BBC camera crew standing alongside the crippled Sheikh Yassin, the founder and then leader of Hamas. He was a visionary Palestinian, even in his terribly depleted state. What he, and his outfit Hamas, wanted and want, quite simply, is their land, the land that Britain handed over to the Zionists between 1918 and 1948. Hamas won’t succeed probably, but it’s not a bad aspiration. Gaza, a fact the BBC hasn’t mentioned for about 20 years, is 90 per cent populated by the Arabs the British and Jews threw out in 1948.
I was lucky, and so was the BBC camera crew, that we didn’t have to wheel Sheikh Yassin’s chair too far. This old and sick man who could hardly speak or move was bl…. into smithereens by a rocket from an Israeli Apache helicopter, sitting in his wheelchair. Those nice bodyguards would have been made dust alongside him. That’s the reality of Israel. Anyone they don’t like they kill, and John Kerry and William Hague turn over restlessly but manage to get back to sleep.’
So when the USS Connecticut triggers the eruption and subsequent earthquake at Hekla, the ensuing cloud and waves coming Scotland’s way will just be seen as unexpected collateral damage!
This is the entity’s very own Mr Nasty to whom that quote is attributed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Feiglin
Resident Dissident
11 Jul, 2014 – 10:39 pm
“Did anyone notice how many Russians with past or current connections to the Putin regime were involved in the recent Tory fundraising shindig?”
Yes we did, and…?
Good plan for all those wishing help with assisted suicide.
Return flights offered to Islamic Caliphate in Iraq. Return flight will be taken by exchange person from Iraq looking to stay alive to see another day in the UK.
Resident Dissident
12 Jul, 2014 – 9:12 am
“For those who still harbour any illusions about Mr Galloway”
What illusions RD?
Explain yourself.
Good plan for YES campaigners in Scottish Independence Vote.
If result is NO, get Kurdistan President Barzani’s son, head of Kurdish Intelligence, USUKIS Intelligence, and leaders of three exiled Islamic groups to capture Carlisle, to get ISIS to seize Scottish oilwells and sell the oil to Israel. Then advance to Birmingham.
If the Scots had got any brains they’d have done that long ago.
Two + 2 = 5
http://www.voltairenet.org/article184657.html
Good plan for Renditioners, Paedophiles, International Expense Fiddlers and International Terrorists.
Don’t do it, then you won’t have to be ridiculed round the world for losing all the evidence.
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/3/7/1299540453752/08.03.2011-Steve-Bell-on–008.jpg