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.
Cross posting two apt comments on Medialens
Is Cameron still looking for his Falklands election gambit? Humanitarian Bombing once again? If at first you don’t succeed, bomb bomb bomb again!
Posted by CJ on September 2, 2014, 4:08 am
Cameron ready to bomb without Parliamentary approval – hidden in the small print of this report:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11069129/UK-could-join-American-air-strikes-in-Iraq-and-Syria-warns-David-Cameron.html
“Asked if he was ‘open to direct military participation’, Mr Cameron said: ‘I don’t rule anything out. I don’t think we should.’ He added: ‘If there was a direct threat to British national interest, or indeed, as in the case with Libya when we had to act very, very rapidly to prevent a human catastrophe, the British Government must reserve the right to act immediately and to inform the House of Commons afterwards.’
Is Cameron looking for his Falklands moment – it didn’t happen with Libya despite his continuing lies about preventing a human catastrophe and ignoring the complete destruction of the country by that very intervention (in direct contravention of the UNSC resolution)? Obviously, this military campaign would have to be personally authorised by him to get the glory – and if it goes wrong, well no-one will know before the next election will they! I mean most people still think bombing the Serbs was a humanitarian intervention and that there really were 30,000 Benghazi civilians at risk in Libya, chemical bombing by Assad in Syria, and a Russian invasion of Ukraine etc etc.
Some even believe that 9/11 wasn’t a carefully planned inside job
Posted by marknadim on September 2, 2014, 4:49 am, in reply to “Is Cameron still looking for his Falklands election gambit? Humanitarian Bombing once again? ”
Though rightly resented by many, as Thatcher was, for carving up UK, with 90% of mainstream behind him he can win again with or without a bit of ‘heroism’, especially against Ed M and rest of Labour crew who make a pretty easy punchbag themselves, when they should be ripping Tories to pieces given state of play.
Both UK and US have elections soonish so bombing likely to increase; as good a time as any for some ‘hard decisions’, as they like to call it.
http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/thread/1409627322.html
Just to alert you to Panorama on Monday 8th September, which is titled ‘The War of the Tunnels’. It’ll be on at 8.30pm on BBC One, and repeated on the 11th and 12th in the early morning on BBC Two and the News Channel.
Here’s the description on the BBC website:
‘The War of the Tunnels
For seven weeks, Hamas rockets roared over the border into Israel while Israeli bombs pounded Gaza. Panorama’s Jane Corbin goes deep into the underground tunnels where battles have been fought, to investigate the war that has devastated Gaza.
What has each side really gained in this war and can there be a solution to the conflict which is fuelling hatred and fear all over the world?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006t14n/broadcasts/2014/09 ‘
The presenter is Jane Corbin, who presented the travesty that was Panorama’s programme on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla in 2010, which led to the BBC Trust upholding three of the points we made in our complaints about that programme relating to accuracy. The editor of War of the Tunnels is Ceri Thomas, who used to be the editor of the Today programme until about 18 months ago, and we know what the Today programme is like on Israel.
Best wishes
Amena Saleem
Fair News – Monitoring the Media’s Coverage of Palestine and Israel
Palestine Solidarity Campaign
T: 020 7700 6192
E: amena.saleem at palestinecampaign.org
W: http://www.palestinecampaign.org
Doug Could you please tell us what it was that you didn’t like about Peter Oborne’s short piece.
Why the silence over the assault on George Galloway?
By Peter Oborne Society
September 1st, 2014
2382 Comments
George Galloway after the attack pboto
Last Friday evening a British MP suffered a vicious assault on a London street. George Galloway, a 61-year-old, six-times-elected politician was beaten up for three minutes by a brutal and determined assailant in broad daylight, and was admitted to hospital as a result.
There are grounds for assuming that the motive was political, and the assault occurred due to Galloway’s criticism of Israeli actions in the Middle East. The assailant was reportedly shouting comparing Galloway to Hitler, and shouting about the Holocaust.
There is something very disturbing about the response to this event by the mainstream British political establishment. Mr Galloway has received no public message of sympathy from a single MP from any party – nothing from Speaker Bercow, from the Prime Minister, or from any of the other elected political leader.
I know that Mr Galloway is a very controversial figure and that many people, for honourable reasons, disagree very strongly with his views. Yet that is irrelevant. The attack on Mr Galloway is beyond doubt an attack on British democracy itself.
It is a basic principle of our political culture that men and women must be able to speak up for the causes they believe in without threats or violent reappraisal. This attack on Mr Galloway comes just days after the Labour MP Jim Murphy was forced to abandon campaigning in Scotland for the No campaign. He cited intimidation and was advised by police to end his campaign.
Had an MP been attacked by some pro-Palestinian fanatic for his support of Israel, I guess there would have been a national outcry and rightly so. Why then the silence from the mainstream establishment following this latest outrageous assault on a British politician?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100284716/why-the-silence-over-the-assault-on-george-galloway/
@Mary re Doug
I’m also somewhat mystified if the forthcoming election is being used as an excuse not to offer sympathy, etc. The attack on GG was clearly nothing to do with the referendum vote.
I also thought Peter Oborne’s piece was reasonably measured. However, feelings and sensitivities are obviously running high.
If Scotland votes to leave the United Kingdom what happens to Andy Murray’s Wimbledon victory, or even his U.S. Open victory? Is it back to Fred Perry? Or will Scotland still be considered British?
Interview with George Galloway about the attack. 9mins
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=UUzSq7O3MmG-EF0Gq68uSjPw&v=zrFSG-yUzNs
This is how they misdirect, lie, kid along, erode away, and corrupt all that is decent and human;
Clearly pleased by the attack
a href=”http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/08/st-andrews-speech/comment-page-2/#comment-475422″>Then lie, in a most vociferous manner, to suppress the issue.
================
Guano any thoughts of supremacy is a mental disease, and a total fantasy. Fact is there is no socialism in zionistan, those very few exceptions to the brain dead Jewish supremacists, are far from having any influence, and are used only for window dressing, and get pulled out in any crisis situation that cannot be washed away with the usual methods. However they can be as good as any Palestinian to be kicked around and attacked.
The concentration camps were filled with communists, and socialists, to being with in the nazi Germany (gauge for ultimate standards of evil). That is despite the fact that zionist scum have hijacked the WWII for their land theft purposes, and made it a war purely on Jews. So it should be natural for any socialist in zionistan to end up in a concentration camp, as they are the enemy too. In fact any one who is not a Jewish supremacist is an enemy.
As the assault on Galloway proves.
The apartheid South Africa used to do tricks like that too.
a href=”http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/08/st-andrews-speech/comment-page-2/#comment-475422″>Then lie, in a most vociferous manner, to suppress the issue.
Then lie, in a most vociferous manner, to suppress the issue.
Two links came up à propos Adam Werritty News.
Man linked to Werritty scandal hired by Tories’ election strategist
The Independent-Aug 10, 2014
In 2011, it emerged that the firm was one of several companies with security interests to fund the international flights of Adam Werritty, close …
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/man-linked-to-werritty-scandal-hired-by-tories-election-strategist-9660383.html
How Liam Fox narrowly avoided becoming the third Foreign Office …
Daily Mail-Aug 13, 2014
Forced out of office in 2011 because of a controversial friendship with a businessman/adviser, Adam Werritty, hawkish Fox, 52, was offered a …
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2724478/EPHRAIM-HARDCASTLE-How-Liam-Fox-narrowly-avoided-Foreign-Office-minister-desert-PM.html
Israel slammed for West Bank land expropriation
By Ben Wedeman, and Susannah Cullinane CNN
September 1, 2014
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/09/01/world/meast/mideast-israel-west-bank/index.html
Fred, You were right for once.You do know your Banksy’s.Impressed.
Someone had sent the pic to me and I assumed Banksy had been busy. There’s a front page about it this morning in the Scotsman, although most seem to be quite happy that his art work is being recycled in good taste.There are a few that think the original was altered and are horrified.
“NATO sees Ukraine as already loser”
Absolutely. It was the fear that Ukraine would join NATO that started the trouble, and as it hasn’t joined, there is no obligation to protect it. NATO would like to walk away from this one, but it’s righteously worried that Russia will move on to “protect its Russian populations” in the Balts, and maybe take a slice of Poland too. Which it is obliged to protect.
Cameron is merely spinning and obfuscating this one – he’s only a PR man, after all.
I could wish that the general view here were not so sympathetic to Putin’s Russia. Intense cynicism, to match that expressed re our own dear leaders, should be the order of the day. Putin isn’t a misunderstood good guy. He’s an ex-KGB hood, worse, he’s a very bright one, and he’s really not that bothered about a liberal democracy or human rights stuff.
And he’s playing chess, while everyone else is playing SuperMario…
Ba’al Zevul – Putin is a psychopath. He has much of the kind of NAZI ideology that Hitler had. Militaristic nationalism with abandoned socialism and an indifference to the loss of human life.
Cameron appeased him by covering up the Polonium attack. Europe’s answer to the seizing of Crimea was a travel ban on a handful of people. So he goes further and further. The west has stoked a disgruntled Russia with it’s actions. And is now led by Obama, possibly the weakest wet tissue of a President the US has ever had.
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_12_17/Barack-Obama-is-the-weakest-US-President-of-all-times-2449/
The answer to Putin was strong, immediate sanctions when steps were first taken against Crimea. Instead Europe’s concern is short term economic interests – which will be more self-damaging in the long run as well as letting Putin stomp through Ukraine. If they’d acted strongly to begin with Putin would have had to back down – and there wouldn’t have been costs.
I don’t think he’s a psychopath, actually. Though he’s certainly a nationalist despot, and the poor bloody Russians expect that in their leaders.
What has been tying the West’s hands throughout has been its – particularly Germany’s – dependence on Russian gas supplies and their safe transit through Ukraine. Any arrangement which maintains these is going to be acceptable, and bugger the ethics. It remains to be seen whether this dependence will trump our realisation that the Baltics are also on the to-do list.
It’s part of the Resource Wars.
Police Scotland was set up so that some administrative tasks could be combined thus releasing funds for more active policing duties.
Policing in Scotland may be notionally devolved but look at the police website and you will find some little anomalies. Here is one from the Police Scotland website.
“The training of our armed officers accords with the UK National Police Firearms Training Curriculum and our practice and policy accords with the guidance contained within the Armed Policing Authorised Professional Practice document, both of which are maintained by the UK College of Policing. The College of Policing provides independent oversight of Armed Policing training, with scheduled formal inspection from this body due to next take place in 2015. In addition to this, Police Scotland sits on the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Armed Policing Sub Group which ensures that issues of UK significance are fully considered within the Scottish context. “
The whole furore over armed police was a set-up job in the anti-independence press in the Highlands – and it was a long time in the making. The first I saw of it was at the start of June when there was an article about the number of licensed Rifle and Shotgun holders in the Highlands and Islands – that front page article was illustrated with a picture of a handgun. Alarmist articles continued intermittently with for example one implying that there “could be armed officers at family friendly Belladrum hitting the front page in late July/early August. I didn’t see the rebuttal on the front page (I don’t buy the paper), I only found it on the internet. Most of the articles were accompanied with lurid photos of gun carrying police, but with no identifiable location – and quite a few were clearly not Scotland. One at least looked more like a gun catalogue publicity shot. The press attack culminated with the incident outside MacDonalds in Inverness. That was a patrol that was sent in response to a report of an altercation where there was a man wielding a knife. I do not think that it was chance that a very professional photographer was around to capture the event.
It is happening in England too, it is just that the press is very shy about reporting it. Why?
As, of course, is the Baku – Puglia mega pipeline project (TANAP/TAP) with which our very own psychopath is so lucratively connected. This will certainly reduce the West’s dependence on Russian pipework and politics:
http://bankwatch.org/bwmail/60/euro-caspian-mega-pipeline-another-blair-rich-project
@Bjsalba
“Policing in Scotland may be notionally devolved but…”
I already covered this in post:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/08/my-scotland/comment-page-2/#comment-475985
Whatever opinion is held on Putin, he is several steps ahead of our psychopaths and their attempt at sanctions. He only has to turn off our supply and we freeze with much of Europe.
If only the ‘united queendom’ had not been so profligate in the use of the Scottish resources.
Putin breaks ground on Russia-China gas pipeline, world’s biggest
September 01, 2014
http://rt.com/business/184176-russia-china-gas-siberian-power/
Agents of Awe and Boredom
There are quite a few these infestations as we well know. They are easy to spot after awhile.
Just run their iterations to FFT analysis and they will be exposed .
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
Shameful silence of the UK corporate media, and the apolitical class on the assault of the zionist zealot on George Galloway, clearly is an indication that;
‘If this can happen to Galloway, it can happen to anybody’
The disgusting and shamefully tacit support for Jewish supremacists’ terror tactics is an objectionable and unacceptable mode of conduct of the UK Media. These have been largely ignoring the assault, and the political class have been refusing to even mention, or acknowledge such a blatant act of terrorism. This should spur every ordinary man and woman to raise a stink about this unholy support for Jewish supremacists and their extreme ideology that are evidently enjoying the universal support of the UK establishment.
“It’s very painful to walk, to move, even to speak because I sustained a dislocated jaw, quite bad head injuries, and very badly cracked ribs,” he said.
Just for shits and giggles, have a look at this conversation:
http://www.pprune.org/spectators-balcony-spotters-corner/536465-no-callsign-over-london.html
You’re not paranoid – they areout to get you.
From your link for which thanks Dave Lawton.
‘Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.
Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups” which spread what he views as false and damaging “conspiracy theories” about the government. Ironically, the very same Sunstein was recently named by Obama to serve as a member of the NSA review panel created by the White House, one that – while disputing key NSA claims – proceeded to propose many cosmetic reforms to the agency’s powers (most of which were ignored by the President who appointed them).’
I was jeered at by one of the trolls (can’t remember which one as they are indistinguishable) for naming Ms Samantha Power, one of Obama’s many female mouthpieces, as Mrs Sunstein. LOL
@Mary re Sanctions:
I think the first set of sanctions were justifiable, because of Russia taking over The Crimea, whatever the reasoning for it.
Anything beyond that has been an attempt at bullying and it has backfired on the stupid people who are supposed to be running the EU in our interests.
It seems obvious that the hawkish of the neocons would see nothing better than war between the EU and Russia, to aid their strategy for a New American Century.
What should have happened with Ukraine is what happened to Czechoslovakia in 1994. Essential two peoples locked together in the same country, and they should have been allowed/allowed themselves to separate into e.g. West Ukraine and Novorussiya. If that was what they wanted and it was stopped by Russia, then that is obviously disappointing. But I think Yeltsin was in charge then, so it would have worked, WUk probably would have joined NATO…
Just think, everyone would be “happy”. West Ukraine would be part of EU, suffering the same austerity as the rest of us, Novorussiya would be struggling to remain socialist/democratic. But no one would be dead, or full of hate for their neighbours.
latest poll leaving the union on a knife edge
Who is sorry now?
This is from 2013. A BBC production,so no SNP bias. What it does set out is pretty much the truth from the start until now.There’s lots of oil.Too much in fact.
At one point this documentary makes one think that the Oil Wars in Iraq,Libya have been made to curb production for national oil industries,making the way for Big Private Oil.
It explains that oil financed Thatcherism and a generation in the North on the dole. It highlights local hero Clark on the Shetlands who managed to keep London from destroying the Islands and much more.
The oil argument isn’t the reason why most people want independence,but this disses the argument that its about to run out.It isn’t anytime soon.
Not only that,Scotlands expertise is an unspoken about asset along with the oil.Neither should be squandered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_9iod_IWmw
Well worth a watch.
@Passerby… hopefully, those who have been telling lies. It takes some considerable degree of incompetence to throw away a 15%+ lead in three months. Better if “Better Together” did not ever exist. Of course it could be a Conservative conspiracy to get a permanent Tory government in England & Wales.