Yesterday the licensing man from Dundee Council went down the taxi ranks ordering saltires and yes stickers removed from the taxis. (would he have ordered No stickers removed as well? We can never be sure as there weren’t any.)
Having missed the train to my Cupar meeting last night, I got in a taxi (it’s not far) and the taxi driver was giving his side of the story. He said he told the council man that “There is an argument that he was within his rights to tell me to remove the sticker, but when he told me to take off my lapel badge, I told him that he was infringing my absolute right to freedom of speech under article ten of the European Convention.”
This campaign has been the most uplifting experience imaginable. It will not be possible to put the people back in the box of media-induced apathy after this.
One of the most unexpectedly invigorating aspects of the campaign is that in packed town hall meetings, I have been sharing the platform with people who are not good public speakers. If that sounds paradoxical, it is because often they have never done any public speaking before. Yesterday in Cupar there was an excellent lady who works in the NHS who had a deep knowledge of its workings and of the threats from privatization of its services, including the mechanisms by which these privatisations were being advanced. She believed that after a No vote it would not be possible for the Scottish NHS to continue to be insulated from some of these trends, and she explained why she felt that.
There was no polish to her quiet delivery, but her heartfelt sincerity and the depth of her knowledge held the audience in intent silence. She had never spoken in public before. It was truly inspiring.
The substance of the campaign is people in local communities actually talking to each other about what is important to their communities and they way their society is organized. I have never seen anything to compare this to. No wonder the politicians have no idea how to counter it. The happy lack of hierarchical power structures in the campaign on the ground seems to relate to the fact that so many women are coming forward as speakers – for the third time, I was the only male on the panel yesterday.
Better Together have women too of course. Just in case anyone has been living under a rock and hasn’t seen it, here is the Saatchi and Saatchi produced Better Together broadcast that set the campaign on fire. The many spoofs are great, but I think nothing quite equals the sheer comic genius of the original.
I have added this picture as pro-government commenters have started to come on the site with their ridiculous propaganda claims that NATO killed very few people in its 398 bombing raids on Sirte. What you see is just one street of scores in similar condition. You can believe your eyes or the propaganda.
Not My Scotland but Our Israel.
I could not believe what I was hearing on the BBC News last night but it is true. Ba’al and Brian have given links above.
Israel to take over West Bank land
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-29008045
There are no words for more of the Zionists’ abject cruelty. Retribution. Presumably God told them they could do more of the same.
However a reminder that ‘Thou shalt not steal’ is one of the commandments.
Another is ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house’
Exodus 20.17
~~
Here a US radio host takes on some Zionist Jews.
Watch: US broadcaster Mike Malloy wipes the floor with Israel apologists
Reasoning with a Zionist is an oxymoron. It is as self-contradictory as saying something is falsely true.
This, we have no doubt, is the conclusion everyone who has tried to have a rational, fact-based debate with Zionists would have drawn.
If that is also your experience – or if you have never had the misfortune of debating with a Zionist – then you will want to listen to the two short clips below from Mike Malloy’s radio show.
For those who don’t know him, Malloy is a self-syndicated American radio broadcaster from Atlanta, Georgia, who describes himself as “a traditional liberal democrat doing his part to return the Democratic Party to its liberal roots”.
In this clip, he routs a Zionist caller who uses the jaded argument that Israel, the aggressor and occupier, has a right to defend its ill-gotten gains.
http://www.redressonline.com/2014/08/watch-us-broadcaster-mike-malloy-wipes-the-floor-with-israel-apologists/
An Old Man and a Young Man in Gaza – A Poem
Jul 12 2014
By Heathcote William
An old man holds a placard that reads,
“You take my water, burn my olive trees,
Destroy my house, take my job, steal my land,
Imprison my father, kill my mother,
Bombard my country, starve us all,
Humiliate us all, but I am to blame:
I shot a rocket back.”
Here are some ungodly chants
From the Zionist Book of Psalms
Which are used to justify
Laying waste to a whole country
And to its inhabitants:
http://www.palestinechronicle.com/an-old-man-and-a-young-man-in-gaza-a-poem/#.VAQO1eF0z4Y
That is terrible news, Mary. At least the BBC have reported it, so is that progress? Still appalled that their main story from Friday morning onwards was the apparent abduction of a child from hospital by… his parents. Still one of its main stories this morning. A cynic might suggest that other important news was being obscured?
This is about the referendum and very funny.
Funny! The end of neoliberalism? Why Scottish independence could save the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pULblkS5uZI
Put on YT by Eric Swanepoel who worked for that excellent MSP Bill Wilson.
There is one of Craig in his list of YTs here
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCktJ9BxmsCwTy0dFoFsvSmg
Eric’s twitter has some good links.
https://twitter.com/rericswan
This is Bill Wilson’s Facebook. Glad he’s still going strong.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Dr-Bill-Wilson/112136225533433
and his old website
http://www.billwilsonmsp.org/
The top ten funniest jokes at the Edinburgh Fringe.
The top 10 were:
1.Rob Auton – “I heard a rumour that Cadbury is bringing out an oriental chocolate bar. Could be a Chinese Wispa.”
2.Alex Horne – “I used to work in a shoe-recycling shop. It was sole-destroying.”
3.Alfie Moore – “I’m in a same-sex marriage… the sex is always the same.”
4.Tim Vine – “My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him ‘Don’t be Sicily’.”
5.Gary Delaney – “I can give you the cause of anaphylactic shock in a nutshell.”
6.Phil Wang – “The Pope is a lot like Doctor Who. He never dies, just keeps being replaced by white men.”
7.Marcus Brigstocke – “You know you are fat when you hug a child and it gets lost.”
8.Liam Williams – “The universe implodes. No matter.”
9.Bobby Mair – “I was adopted at birth and have never met my mum. That makes it very difficult to enjoy any lapdance.”
10.Chris Coltrane – “The good thing about lending someone your time machine is that you basically get it back immediately.”
??
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-23753634
I’ve not been involved with the discussions of an independent Scotland anywhere near as much as I would have liked, but from I have seen, the discourse is abysmal when sticky issues come up.
First off all my declaration of my bias. I hate the British establishment and would like to see it collapse or at least take on a permanently incapacitating blow (as is happening via usury – don’t say you weren’t warned) Secondly, I would love to see an independent Scotland (it’s not based upon my first declaration).
The issues…
1) How Scotland could possibly be an independent nation when it’s tied to the pound sterling. I’m afraid allowing the desire for a ‘free’ Scotland doesn’t cut the mustard. Not only that, but the nearly completely missed aspect of Global corporations which make a mockery of national laws (See Pilgers ‘Breaking the Mirror’ for an example) also draw serious questions of ‘What exactly is independence anyway, and to want extent will can it be pursued? P.S. I do not take EU nations under the Euro to be independent, but rather statelets of the European state.
2) The Nuclear issue. I am worried that the de-nuclearisation of Scotland will never take place, but rather fall victim to the usual tricks, i.e. be tired up in a “review” for a near double digit amount of years only to find it “impractical” to move all the nuclear waste back to England and Wales (who will then ultimately pay pennies on the hundreds of pounds to some undeveloped nation to ‘store’ it for them, i.e. allow it over time to disperse throughout their lands)
3) The connection with NATO. Will Scotland remove itself from this Satanic club of killers. It bloody well should, but what when say Turkey tries again to draw itself into a war by flying a NATO plane over another countries territory with the purpose if having it shot down – pretexting a NATO response. How could a NATO Scotland avoid tat?
4) Pledges. Have any actually been made that are of clear benefit to the people of Scotland, and why on earth should we not expect these to be broken (as they were probably intended to be broken when first made)?
5) Little safeguard seems have been planned so as to stop the emergence of an over authoritarian government. Someone earlier asked about these ‘checks and balances’.
6) What laws about foreign interference with Scottish political decision making have are there? E.g. Foreign organisation companies (or even domestic companies) being involved with political campaigning?
7) What will be done to ensure versions of the slithering vermin in Buck palace don’t re-emerge in Scotland?
8) What are the proposals for prosecuting English and Welsh criminals (predominately in the corporate sector) for their fraudulent activities?
9) What part will religious values place in a newly independent Scotland?
10) How to ensure the awfully deceptive and pro-Israyhell BBC is purged from Scotland AND that nothing similar comes to take its place.
11) What costing / revenue attributing exercises have been done towards a Scottish NHS? How sustainable is a Scottish NHS over the next, say, 20 years?
12) Similar question to #11 but on the topic of education.
I realise these issues don’t make for good soundbites, although the nuclear (or should that be “unclear” ??) issue has had a couple of shallow thought lines said in its general direction.
Hopefully some good responses will be forthcoming here (or some good PRE-READ links at least)
Regards.
ROS – Yes ISIS/ISIL/IS or the ‘jayvee’ team according to Obama, are US funded.
The UK/US/IS game plan is plainly subterfuge with US drone/air attacks on ‘jayvee’ captured US armament concentrated near the Mosul Dam, allegedly averting flooding the US embassy in Baghdad , while at the same time ISIS fights for the Rabia/Yarubiyah border crossing and Highway 47 to have a direct connection to Syria’s Hasakah province.
Ad Interim Israel prepares a tactical nuke strike in Syria and I wait for Congress to approve the ongoing US drone ‘scam-strikes’ on ISIS in Syria which is the main thrust of this deceit.
Thanks for the morning jokes Mary, always good to start the day with a smile ! 🙂
“Don’t know about the contracts of employment, but much of what is happening in Police Scotland is indeed worrying.”
Yes. Already here in the Highlands we have had the only main road into the county closed for a day because they closed the local police control centre. Now if someone rings the police they are talking to someone a hundred miles away in Inverness, they have no local knowledge and if they use an outside contractor, such as a recovery firm, it is local to them not us.
I thought a Scottish government was supposed to give us more control. As far as policing is concerned here in the far north what little control over our affairs we had is being taken away from us and being shipped south. Armed police patrolling the streets we nave no local say in whatsoever, they take their orders directly from Edinburgh.
“Thanks for the morning jokes Mary, always good to start the day with a smile ! ”
They are all old jokes. Literally, those are last years winners.
You can see this years winners here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-28838287
“Given the number of people actually occupying fields is rather low, they won’t represent very many votes. No support is fragile and falling”
Thanks for your account and first post here after the public meeting at Cupar, JG. The existing deferrence and economic necessities between field and house, to keep it simple, are a decisive factor,imho, and one can expect the same arm twisting, as I have witnessed at the ballot box in Blackburn, vociferous so called counters who are explaining to those coming forward to vote in not uncertain terms, that their jobs depend on x y or z.
Thats how British democracy works for ethnic minorities, you are either told by your family elder, invited to party speeches, fed and told to vote as you should, or blackmailed with your husbands/wife’s job on the line.
Expect every dirty trick in the book, Craig and myself seen a few during the last ten years and beyond, and watch those ballot boxes, ideally have them sealed with your/everyone elses seal, but do not reveal your seal until absolutely necessarry, so they can’t be replicated at the last minute.
Reject a count on the next day, demand that votes are counted when the ballot closes, whatever time, its really important.
This one is for Mary the sleuth. Norwich Conservative announced their candidate from Surrey, due to the lack of locally able and willing candidates to loose, an exciting contest in Norwich south with no Independent candidate bar UKIP’s, the rest are all minority party politician. Who is she, why us?
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/tory_candidate_for_norwich_south_announced_1_3751310
Fred; “They are all old jokes. Literally, those are last years winners”
New to me, and funnier than this year’s, but thanks anyway !
@Nevermind
The Unionists are ahead in the polls and odds on favourites at the bookies.
Why on earth would they be stuffing ballot boxes?
Those with the incentive to cheat are those who would otherwise loose so why are you accusing the Unionists of cheating before the referendum has even took place?
Another chunk of Palestine has been annexed and stolen by zionists, in retribution for their own crimes,i.e. the cadre of rogues/Isis? hired by Israel to cause the false flag killing of two young soldiers and one civilian teenager, the cause for the latest carnage and now the reason given for the stealing of more land.
Because they can, with impunity, because Obama is licking AIPACs boots.
Its not the US that is leading the latest initiatives in Iraq, as Mark G was already hinting at, imho it is the zionists and Isis in unison who are tearing the fabric of borders apart, licking their lips at the possible gains in oil gas and water.
This, regardless of what twaddle charles Crawstalk writes, will be another provocation to an already ravaged society in Gaza, seemingly the only entity that is prepared to oppose this fascism.
The UN is finished as a political body, it has been finished for decades, a slow trickle of blackmail, arm twisting, false flagging and lack of moral spine, has brought it to an end. We are now in the leviathan era of world domination, are told what to think and do by those who can threaten and scare us, so the flames of freedom and self determination eminating from Scotland are a beacon to us all, they represent hope and humanity.
“Why on earth would they be stuffing ballot boxes?”
Well Fred, the simple answer is, thats what political parties try and do to keep in power, even when they are favourite, whatever obsessions the bookies have with their odds.
The NO campaign can’t kill the ideals of Independence, its out there, a big and powerfull genie that does not fit back into the bottle, however much they might try. A close vote/win will not be enough for the ‘disabled together’ campaign, they will have to win with at least a 10% margin to make it stick, for that they will do anything and it is essential to watch the ballot boxes and polling stations.
Those who are counters, ensure you have a camera on you and enough water to last the day. Another tip for counters, be polite if people speak to you, don’t hassle them with questions as to what their voting numbers are, its unecessarry.
I detest counters as they are merely there to remind you of party political pressures and their wishfull thinking, not your free vote. They can be obnoxious and intimidating to say the least.But, if the No side organises them, be there to watch their actions!
Fred’s right as always. 😉 Sorry. My lot were on the front page and I did not therefore think to look at the date.
“Well Fred, the simple answer is, thats what political parties try and do to keep in power, even when they are favourite, whatever obsessions the bookies have with their odds.”
But surely the side to expect to cheat is the side likely to lose if they don’t.
It’s simple logic.
Never heard of her Nevermind. I don’t know any Tory types so have nobody to ask. Wonder what the husband’s job of ‘government relations in Brussels’ consists of? She sounds very well embedded in our rotten establishment. I will dig around.
Just to say Nevermind that your post @ 10.24am is excellent. Says it all.
~~~
A relative to whom I sent Craig’s Cupar post passed it around saying:
‘Craig Murray is a remarkable man http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ Sidelined by the establishment because he tells the truth. Was our ambassador to Uzbekistan where he found the most terrible torture proceeding in 2001 – with CIA and MI6 knowledge. Year before the planned bombing and invasion of Afghanistan and ”9/11”.
Has his downs but brilliant most of the time as a writer and thinker. The Scots need to get shot of the Westminster sewer, and so do we.
“But surely the side to expect to cheat is the side likely to lose if they don’t.”
Your simple logic maybe, as someone who has fought a few elections and helped many candidates I have seen most of what I said.
Its not the side that is hopefull to change the status quo that has most to loose, but the side that has already carved up the vested interests, the side that does not want their cartwheels to come off, their cosy relationships to change.
And to be told by Murphy that he’s been pelted with eggs by a mob, a man who sees nothing in the destruction of Gaza, the pelting of innocent children with bombs and he does not want to comment on it, is like being told by Dracula that drinking blood is bad for you.
Many are yearning for the same detachment from minority party politics in England, Mary, soon to be free to reform itself after this vote goes the yes way.
The No campaign seems to have the delusion that this vote would be the end of the story should it go their way, it is not! Young people will look twice at the shambles the union represents and vote for their future in a free and Independent Scotland.
Without checking, I fear that Lisa Townsend’s current boss might be a CFoI judging from this.
Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: Israeli Teenagers (Abduction and Murder) (1 July 2014)
James Morris: Notwithstanding the Minister’s remarks about the need for restraint, does he not agree that Israel faces a toxic combination of brutal terrorism, as revealed in this particular incident, and of rocket attacks from Gaza and that as a sovereign country it has the absolute right to defend and protect its citizens against these threats?
No need to check.
Name of donor: Conservative Friends of Israel
Address of donor: 45b Westbourne Terrace, London W2 3UR
Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): costs of visit; £1,525
Destination of visit: Israel
Date of visit: 5-8 October 2013
Purpose of visit: meetings with Israeli companies, Government officials and think tanks to explore the challenges of cyber security
(Registered 22 October 2013)
and to AIPAC too
Name of donor: The American Israel Education Foundation
Address of donor: 251H Street, NW Washington DC, 20001, USA
Amount of donation (or estimate of the probable value): £1,285
Destination of visit: Washington DC, USA
Date of visit: 21–24 May 2011
Purpose of visit: To attend the American Israel Public Affairs Committee 3-day forum on homeland security and counter-terrorism, to facilitate a conversation between American, European and Israeli allies.
(Registered 16 June 2011)
How lovely.
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=24855
The twerp Abbott is being ever so helpful towards the war effort of the evil USUKIsNATO axis.
Australian military aircraft to supply arms to Iraqi Kurds
By Peter Symonds
1 September 2014
The Australian government is rapidly escalating its involvement in US-led military operations inside Iraq with the announcement yesterday that Australian military aircraft will transport arms and ammunition to Kurdish peshmerga militias in northern Iraq. Australia joins Germany, Italy, France, Canada, Britain as well as the US, in shipping military hardware to the Iraqi Kurds.
As the Obama administration steps up military action in Iraq and extends its spying operations in Syria, Prime Minister Tony Abbott has signalled Australian support for a wider war against Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militias. While Abbott declared that Australian combat troops would not be involved, Fairfax media reports this morning that elite SAS forces will accompany the arms shipments.
/..
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/09/01/irau-s01.html
A Green wanted it debated but was ignored.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gsPjq4aFqc
Some 400 jihadist and 20 ex Bundeswehr soldiers are fighting for isis, making it necessarrry to find a mechanism of controlling their activities for whence their principled stance is being replaced with a whimper for family, mum and home.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/german-weapons-for-kurds-may-be-used-on-radicalized-german-soldiers-a-989194.html
Speaking as a German ex soldier, I find that their split loyalties, contraire to the oath they took when they signed up to defend German soil, is somewhat stretching it. Some clever lawyer will find reasons for intervening in their right to return home to Germany and I can’t blame them for it.
As for the same solutions proposed here, does this mean any soldiers who fight abroad as fully paid mercenaries will also have their acces back home denied? Are these mercenaries an organised profession? or are the business like Jihadists, posting their accounts online and bragging about their financial probety, in a different categorie.
Are all the fascist jihadies/Academists fighting/loosing in the Ukraine now stateless? without a place to return to? or are these laws just for jihadies?
http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=5&cad=rja&uact=8&sqi=2&ved=0CC0QFjAE&url=http%3A%2F%2Frt.com%2Fnews%2F158212-academi-blackwater-ukraine-military%2F&ei=klUEVNXzM8O40QXO5oDICw&usg=AFQjCNFgxFqTXkIc9R66dP-g_UxnnyS-4Q&bvm=bv.74115972,d.d2k
Scotland woul;d do well in keeping out of NATO and joining in with the non aligned such as Norway.
“The No campaign seems to have the delusion that this vote would be the end of the story should it go their way”
Do you think it would be the end of the story if the Yes vote won?
@ Mary
“The twerp Abbott is being ever so helpful towards the war effort of the evil USUKIsNATO axis.”
Indeed. I think you are being way too kind in calling Abbott a ‘twerp’ though. I type from Australia. Abbott is a fucking idiot, a hard-right ideologue, and I can’t say too much more. Shall I say, I think he has appears to have a touch of Blair about him. In the future, should be ever have an enlightened, civilised Earth, they will ask ‘how did people like Blair\Abbott\Obama’ ever become leaders?
For what it’s worth, in Abbott’s case it’s pretty obvious. He has mentors and protectors from the ‘Big End’ of town, the most powerful of whom is Murdoch – though I think it’s important to note that Murdoch is far from the only one. Abbott, like Cameron, is a curiously protected bloke.
As to his support for arming Kurds – inc. the PKK, a ‘terrorist’ group about which he hasn’t been asked – this is just the price on the ticket really. You support the NATO oligarchs or they ruin you. Abbott’s fall, when it happens, will be swift, and interesting, and I personally think he won’t last 3 years. But his successor will do much the same.
It would be nice if my comment that’s awaiting moderation could
be looked at. Thanks. The irony that it’s not published hasn’t
escaped me.
I wonder why it has been contained?
I think you’ll find Norway’s in NATO Nevermind. But agree , Scotland should stay out of the Killer Club.
Johann Lamont defends the advert that has scared off Scottish women. She said she knows women like that.She’s backing the Nag that lost her the prize.
And Banksy speaks profoundly once again.
https://twitter.com/thereaIbanksy/status/506226623931514880/photo/1
Apologies Ne’rmind, It was a quote and not you.