Standard Life’s Far Right Board needs exposing:
Keith Skeoch, Executive Director of Standard Life, is on the Board of Reform Scotland, the neo-conservative lobby group which wants to abolish the minimum wage, privatize the NHS and pensions, and still further restrict trade unions.
It is difficult for Tories openly to campaign against Scottish Independence as everyone in Scotland hates them, so they do it with their corporate hats on. This is most of the board of Standard Life:
Garry Grimstone, Chairman, “lead non-executive” at the Ministry of Defence, London
Keith Skeoch, Executive Director, right wing political lobbyist
Crawford Gillies, Non Executive Director, Chairman of Control Risk Group, of London, the “security consultancy” of choice for ex MI5 and MI6 officers
Noel Harwerth, non-executive Director, Director of “London First” – [Honestly, I am not making this up]
David Nish – Chief Executive, Member of the “UK Strategy Committee” of “TheCity UK”. “TheCity UK” being a body of the City of London.
John Paynter, non-executive Director, was vice chairman of JP Morgan Cazenove until the 2008 crash
Amazing that lot oppose independence, huh?
Standard Life also threatened to leave at the time of the devolution referendum and gave out No campaign materials to staff. “Leave” of course is a relative concept – the above bunch just pop up from London from time to time to check on how the serfs are doing.
I published this information on 27 February when they last tried to influence the independence debate. Standard Life is again trying today to influence the referendum campaign by a press release claiming it will move key departments to London in the event of independence, enthusiastically amplified by the BBC, Guardian and all the other reactionary media.
Well, here is an opposing press release, from me. If anybody thinks that an Independent Scotland will be a place where major strategic companies can still be controlled by swivel-eyed right wing ideologues, they may get a very nasty shock from the people of Scotland.
Friendly dictators
Abacha, General Sani —————————-Nigeria
Amin, Idi ——————————————Uganda
Banzer, Colonel Hugo —————————Bolivia
Batista, Fulgencio ——————————–Cuba
Bolkiah, Sir Hassanal —————————-Brunei
Botha, P.W. —————————————South Africa
Branco, General Humberto ———————Brazil
Cedras, Raoul ————————————-Haiti
Cerezo, Vinicio ———————————–Guatemala
Chiang Kai-Shek ———————————Taiwan
Cordova, Roberto Suazo ————————Honduras
Christiani, Alfredo ——————————-El Salvador
Diem, Ngo Dihn ———————————Vietnam
Doe, General Samuel —————————-Liberia
Duvalier, Francois ——————————–Haiti
Duvalier, Jean Claude—————————–Haiti
Fahd bin’Abdul-‘Aziz, King ———————Saudi Arabia
Franco, General Francisco ———————–Spain
Hitler, Adolf —————————————Germany
Hassan II——————————————-Morocco
Marcos, Ferdinand ——————————-Philippines
Martinez, General Maximiliano Hernandez —El Salvador
Mobutu Sese Seko ——————————-Zaire
Noriega, General Manuel ————————Panama
Ozal, Turgut ————————————–Turkey
Pahlevi, Shah Mohammed Reza —————Iran
Papadopoulos, George ————————–Greece
Park Chung Hee ———————————South Korea
Pinochet, General Augusto ———————Chile
Pol Pot———————————————Cambodia
Rabuka, General Sitiveni ————————Fiji
Montt, General Efrain Rios ———————Guatemala
Salassie, Halie ————————————Ethiopia
Salazar, Antonio de Oliveira ——————–Portugal
Somoza, Anastasio Jr. ————————–Nicaragua
Somoza, Anastasio, Sr. ————————-Nicaragua
Smith, Ian —————————————-Rhodesia
Stroessner, Alfredo —————————–Paraguay
Suharto, General ———————————Indonesia
Trujillo, Rafael Leonidas ———————–Dominican Republic
Videla, General Jorge Rafael ——————Argentina
Zia Ul-Haq, Mohammed ———————-Pakistan
“The working class must first take possession of the organised political power of the state and by its aid crush the resistance of the capitalist class and organise society anew”.
(Friedrich Engels: Letter to Philipp van Patten, 18 April 1883, in: Karl Marx & Friedrich Engels: ‘Selected Correspondence: 1846-1895′; London; 1943; p. 416-417).
“The task of the proletariat . . . is to seize State power. . . . The seizure of state power means the destruction of the State apparatus of the bourgeoisie and the organisation of a new proletarian apparatus of power. This new apparatus of power should embody the dictatorship of the working class… that is, it should be the instrument for the systematic suppression of the exoloiting classes and for their expropriation. . . . The dictatorship of the proletariat must be the lever for the immediate expropriation of capital and for the abolition of private property in the means of production and their transformation into national property”.
(Invitation to the 1st Congress of the Communist International, in: Jane Degras (Ed.): ‘The Communist International: 1919-1943: Documents’, Volume 1; London; 1971; p. 2)
“Cuba sends six tons of medical supplies to Gaza”
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I thought – inter alia from reading various posts on here – that the Satanic Israelis were blockading Gaza (including medical supplies)?
That rather puts the lie to that, doesn’t it…..
ResidentOfKZs
“MP’s staff, travel and accommodation costs reached £103 million last year, up from £99 million the previous year and £95 million in 2009.”
__________________
Good grief!
It’ll be interesting to see what Scottish MPs’ staff, travel and accomodation costs will amount to once Scotland is independent.
Hope you’ll be following and reporting back, RoS!
“Read about Lord Kestenbaum.
Jonathan Andrew Kestenbaum, Baron Kestenbaum (born 5 August 1959) is the Chief Operating Officer of RIT Capital Partners plc. He is also Chairman of Five Arrows Ltd …etc, etc, etc…”
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Is that another of the “Jewish names” you are so gifted at identifying, Mary?
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Habbabkuk says fight bigotry, intolerance and racial and religious hatred.
““The task of the proletariat . . . is to seize State power. . . . ”
Well, good luck with that. If you are thinking of a separate Scotland as the latest venue for that experiment may I suggest the following:
Salmond and co. have spent a long time playing divide and rule politics in order to create their own fiefdom. It has been nearly a life-time’s project for some of them. You’ll be able to knock me down with a feather if, having met with success, they do anything as quaint as handing over power to the people, even if that were possible.
Back to Kestenbaum and his interests.
His Lords Register.
Lord Kestenbaum
Category 1: Directorships
Director, J Rothschild Capital Management Limited (investment managers)
Director, European Capital Holdings (investment fund)
Director, Graywood Limited (consulting)
Director, Windmill Hill Asset Management (investment manager)
Director, EDRRIT Limited (financial services)
Category 2: Remunerated employment, office, profession etc.
Chief Operating Officer, J Rothschild Capital Management Limited (investment managers)
Consultant, Doder Trust Limited (philanthropic organisation)
Category 10: Non-financial interests (b)
Chancellor, Plymouth University
Category 10: Non-financial interests (e)
Trustee, Rowley Lane Recreation Trust
Trustee, Blavatnik School of Government Foundation (charitable company limited by guarantee)
Trustee, Covenant and Conversation Trust
~~
Doder Trust Ltd is registered in Bermuda. The list of companies there is thousands long. No information unless you pay for it.
The EDRRIT mentioned is a ‘strategic partnership between Edmund de Rothschild and the Rothschild Investment Trust’. They don’t salt away herrings. They salt away £millions.
‘The combined cash at bank value for all businesses where Jonathan Kestenbaum holds a current appointment equals £8,983,066, with a combined assets value of £174,105,817 and liabilities of £23,723,809.’
The Blavatnik School of Government is ‘The Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, in Oxford, England, founded in 2010, is a school of government. The School of Government was made possible due to a £75 million donation by Leonard Blavatnik supported by £26 million from the University of Oxford.
Len Blavatnik (Russian: Леонид Валентинович Блаватник, Leonid Valentinovich Blavatnik) (born June 14, 1957) is a Ukrainian-born American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He has made his fortune through business via diversified investments in a myriad of companies through his conglomerate company, Access Industries.
Nuff said.
” they do anything as quaint as handing over power to the people, even if that were possible.”
They don’t give anything up voluntarily. Government should fear the People, but as you say the people are afraid of the government.
It’s Pavlovian and very, very predictable.
I wrote this for Mary’s attention, following a potted but long biography about Lord Kestenbaum she had kindly posted:
“Is that another of the “Jewish names” you are so gifted at identifying, Mary?”
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and lo and behold, within half a day, Mary provides a further extensive information on Lord Kestenbaum!
Had I said nothing, she wouldn’t have posted that second lot.
One can reel Mary in like a fish!
“Mary”..I continue to be enthralled by your encyclopaedic and erudite epistles on here, expressing,and conveying,as they do, that marvelous minutiae, which unfailingly, serves to put a more forensic flesh on the bones of the many, always informative and intriguing anecdotes, and peerless parables, delivered by Craig, and the more often than not,less than transparent credentials and bona fides, of the assortment of machiavellian miscreants, behind such complicit and collusive, conspiratorial conundrums. Could you perhaps, now also, give us a clue, as to who the real ‘Mary’, might be. I know for certain ,that it isn’t Mary ‘Marquis’, but you can forgive me, for such tangential,and nostalgic reminiscences, if not exactly, extant, loose associations and comparisons. Might you even have your own entry,in ‘Whos Who’, itself…. ??????
Actually I had been digging on the multi tentacled Kestenbaum since my earlier post but the Bermuda company registrations foxed me unless I paid for info on a website and why would I do that?
PS. I am a self starter and do not need the services of a troll to set me into investigative mode!