I was about to go into my box at the Lyceum Theatre last night when I received a text that there was a pro-independence demo on at Holyrood. So I abandoned my hosts (I did not feel quite as bad about this as I had stood for pre-theatre supper), fled the theatre and positively jogged down to parliament. I passed most of the demonstrators leaving on their way home, saltires draped over shoulders and Guido masks on top of heads. But there were still a few hundred there when I arrived, listening to unpractised speakers telling their very real stories: the independence cause continues to be a genuinely popular movement. One young demonstrator told me how proud they had been as they marched down the Royal Mile, with pedestrians homeward bound after a day’s work spontaneously stepping off the pavement to join the march, and the bars emptying. I then watched the fireworks bursting over Edinburgh.
I said a while back that if we won independence, I would move back to Scotland. Well, independence is now so inevitable I am indeed moving back, and have been flat-hunting. This is now an Edinburgh blog, and I hope from this weekend will have its Edinburgh home.
Lewes has been much in the news lately. Yesterday they were going to burn an effigy of Alex Salmond, and then didn’t. It is a conundrum why a town which genuinely retains the most radical popular political traditions in England, also is the most fervent place of practice of the reactionary art of catholic effigy burning. They vary this now by burning protestants, too. Cameron and Clegg have been done. I think my fellow Scottish Nationalists who got very upset about the potential Salmond burning were perhaps overreacting. The mistake of the members of the Lewes Waterloo Society was to fail to realise that Salmond is not merely another self-serving member of the political class; the selection was not based on race.
The tradition of burning Guy Fawkes reflects the undeniable fact that there used to be a genuine popular enthusiasm for parliament, which was seen as a bastion against Papal despotism, even long before the large majority of the population had a vote. Nowadays Parliament has become a very different kind of symbol. It symbolises an highly oppressive, authoritarian, narrow political class which shamelessly makes money at our expense, while furthering the interests of vast corporations which enforce the low wage economy and astonishing, ever growing, wealth gap.
The natural instincts of most people today lie with the man who tried to blow up parliament.
It is truly remarkable that, while the BBC and rest of the mainstream media gave hour by hour coverage of the democracy movement protests in Hong Kong, there was virtually no coverage of the violent and brutal treatment, over days, of the Occupy Democracy protest in Parliament Square in London. Nor any mention that there was far less democracy in Hong Kong under British rule than Chinese.
In Lewes, I once spoke to a flourishing political society which claims a direct descent from one founded by Thomas Paine himself- a vivid reminder to us in Scotland that there is a native radical tradition in Southern England, deep underground and waiting to be rediscovered. Lewes also has as its MP Norman Baker, one of the most decent men in politics, who recently resigned as a junior minister over the government’s entirely illogical “war on drugs” – illogical not least because of the drug habits of so many MPs. My current host, Hugh Kerr, when an MEP once made a speech in the European Parliament where he pointed out that many members were voting against drug liberalisation with whom he had personally participated in drug taking. An example of the excessive honesty that led to Hugh being forced out of the Labour Party.
Norman Baker was the subject of many vicious pieces in the mainstream media following his resignation. The crime of daring to think outside the box on drugs, and even worse crime of disagreeing with right wing nutjob and media darling Theresa May, meant that Baker had to be thoroughly monstored. But the most disgraceful and cowardly of all these attacks came from the Guardian of state stooge Alan Rusbridger. This is simply an appalling piece of journalism.
I have met Norman Baker a couple of times, and had a very entertaining conversation with him about Murder in Samarkand on Lewes railway station. The subject of UFO’s never came up. Indeed, if you google “Norman Baker, UFO” you get hundreds of media stories, all of them put out following Baker’s resignation and very evidently put about by Theresa May, for whom the Guardian is but a sounding board. In fact Norman Baker did once suggest in parliament that UFO cases deserved proper official investigation, which seems a perfectly rational view – and as the British government has, over decades, amassed thousands of files on UFO sightings, a view clearly widely held.
Baker’s other great sin is to believe David Kelly was murdered. Well, I think it is very probable indeed that David Kelly was murdered, and so, I suspect, do a very large percentage of the population. If the establishment is truly so confident that David Kelly was not murdered, it is remarkable that they refuse to have an inquest and allow a jury to decide the question in the normal way.
Norman Baker’s true crime was not to be a fully paid up member of the political class. He had never been a special adviser or political assistant. he had some hinterland, other interests, and did not confine his thinking within the tiny sphere of neo-con orthodoxy beyond which the corporate media will declare you a nutter. Politicians must all look the same, and Theresa May and Nigel Farage are now the only acceptable templates.
Some long winded hypocrisy, from former Chief Rabbi, in the UK Jonathan Sacks.
http://www.redressonline.com/2014/11/jonathan-sacks-preacher-of-israeli-hasbara/
RoS
WoW!
“…the newly created law gives the Rights of Nature to exist and flourish without toxic trespass whereas previously Nature had no standing in the court of law.”
Take a celebratory harmonic ride to Mendocino here with Kate & Anna McGarrigle,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7KsDv1K8-k&list=RDV7KsDv1K8-k#t=5
O/T
Are the plods losing the plot?
6 November 2014
Girl hurt in Nottinghamshire police gun accident
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-29943441
6 November 2014
Gwent Police mistakenly spray ‘hot chilli’ at four-year-olds
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-29944507
Whilst my thoughts on what happened to David Kelly was most likely murder the idea that something good would stop someone suicidal from killing themselves just isn’t the case.
Listen to Robbie Savage talking about the death of Gary Speed.
Here – in counterpoise to the obnoxious utterings of certain Israeli rebbes (regularly quoted on here, with great glee) – are the fragrant offerings on YouTube of a Kuwaiti preacher called Tareq al-Suwaidan:
“The most dangerous thing, the greatest enemies facing Muslims, are the Jews”
and
his appeals that “every Muslim mother should breastfeed her children with hate for the sons of Zion so that a new generation will arise to efface them from the face of the earth”.
_________________
His Schengen visa has been revoked.
Is there much American anti-russian funding and if so from when ? lots of conjecture here: http://johnhelmer.net/?p=11930
[Economist editor/Author] “Anne Applebaum has been paid unaccountably large sums of money, according to official yearly income declarations by her husband, the ex-foreign minister of Poland, Radosław Sikorski….”
snip
“In the absence of an explanation of where so much money has suddenly come from, Polish sources say they suspect that in 2012 the US Government restarted the financing of think-tanks, academics, books and journalism to produce anti-Russian material, which was once a feature of psychological warfare campaigns during the Cold War. That history, including the names and records of the Anglo-American literary establishment which was on the take, can be found in the London publication, Who Paid the Piper?: CIA and the Cultural Cold War by Frances Stonor Saunders”
An example of these efforts is a publishing conduit in Amsterdam which was funded by the CIA for thirty years, called the Alexander Herzen Foundation. Its task was to assist in the smuggling out of the Soviet Union of manuscripts from dissidents, and to publish and promote them in both Russian and English. The foundation started in 1969, and reportedly closed down in 1998. Fifteen years later, a foundation of the same name has begun handing out fresh money for the same regime-change purpose.”
..Khodorkovsky.. is working with Legatum and Applebaum to “jointly commission a series of studies to analyze the challenges of Russia’s transition from the former Soviet Union. The first paper of the series was a study of Russia’s postmodern dictatorship, and following works were dedicated to corruption issues in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. All these papers became the basis for panels in London and Washington, DC (the latter co-sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy).”
NED is a conduit for money from the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID). The costs of their current spending on the Ukraine civil war have been documented in closed-door hearings in Congress.
All of this hype from Polish statutory ministerial declarations! should’ve been shredded like for our MPs? The pro-US website that might seemingly cough up half-a-million to the right person at the right time is here http://www.li.com/ (the same IP address for Legatum was used pre 2012 for
xi.com, lip.com & prosperity.com (alternative health provider?)
“A secret file which is said to contain the names of paedophiles with links to the British establishment and which is rumoured to be locked away in archives at the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, could be made public as part of the Government’s child abuse inquiry.”
_________________
“Said to contain…” “rumoured to be…”
Sounds solid! 🙂
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PS – The Bodleian does not have “secret files”.
Dad! 9 29pm here and 6 39pm on Cover-up thread.
(It’s lazy, but hey, it saves time thinking up something originalTwo can play the posting the same stuff on multiple threads wheeze…)
Ah, clerics…..Bless them!
Here’s another one in a “Family Magazine”
A warning to squeemish Jews,
“It will be interesting to see whether they leave the assembly of the Amalekites [Palestinians] in extermination camps to others, or whether they will declare that wiping out Amalek is no longer [historically] relevant.”
Rabbi Dov Lior
http://azvsas.blogspot.ie/2011/01/arabs-to-ovens.html
And another,
“We have to make sure that no Palestinian individual remains under our occupation. If they (Palestinians) escape then it is good; but if anyone of them remains, then he should be exterminated”
Rabbi Meir Kahan
http://www.imemc.org/article/21527
YouKnowMyName (well, actually we don’t. But never mind)
Your mention of Anne Applebaum is surely a suitable occasion for me to recommend strongly a splendid book of hers called “Iron Curtain : the crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956” (Allen Lane, London, 2012). Impeccably and extensively sourced (including of course from the National Archives of the countries concerned), this book documents the beginnings of the late, unlamented Soviet bloc.
“Squeemish” ??
“Every Muslim mother should breastfeed her children with hate for the sons of Zion so that a new generation will arise to efface them from the face of the earth”.
(Kuwaiti hate preacher cited on the previous thread)
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Sound like an encouragement of genocide to me.
OoPs, can’t be, he’s not a rebbe!
Habbaflage , if something is locked away in archives with no access to the general public then it is Secret !!
And if it isn’t ,what is its status ? Part Secret ? Victoria’s Secret ?
Or read all about it ?
What is your opinion ?
WTF is new about clerics cheerleading slaughter?
Do bears still shit in the woods?
We have established on that other thread that this loony preacher is stuck 2000 years back in time.He was talking about the Golden Calf.
We cant believe people that dwell in the past can we Habba ?
Are we to believe that people who believe in a fictitious being that has given them a piece of land that belongs to someone else are sane ? Just like this preacher , its insane.
DonnyDarkness
I know you’re not being serious – just indulging in some fun on a dull TV evening, perhaps – or taking a break from scoffing Schnitzel or sitting on Strudels – but, hey, why not, I’ll play along and pretend I’m taking this seriously; 🙂
Why should this “secret file” have been locked away in the Bodleian rather than in some Ministry or SIS safe, do you think?
First the voters slap Obama, now Putin.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-nuclear-security-usa-russia-idUSKBN0IP24K20141105
“WTF is new about clerics cheerleading slaughter?”
__________________
Absolutely nothing.
Happy you agree that some Muslims clerics also preach genocide and that the phenomenon isn’t limited to rebbes.
You’re progressing nicely.
Habbadadalotsch
If you wanted to play along you would have given your opinion.
Either you don’t have one,or “they” haven’t provided you with one.
or
Since you say they don’t have secrets, provide us with some proof of their “openness”.
You were doing so well Habba !
“We have established on that other thread that this loony preacher is stuck 2000 years back in time.He was talking about the Golden Calf.”
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Sure he was, DonnyDarkness, sure he was.
If he was talking about the Golden Calf and his remarks have no contemporary significance, why do you call him “loony”?
@Habba
YouKnowMyName (well, actually we don’t. But never mind)
Oh but I’m sure that you do know my name, IPv4 cloud/frequency of posting/UDID etc, and have my dossier to hand
You know that 20 years ago MI5 used to open a file on little old ladies who wrote a letter to their local evening newspapers, complaining about something/anything! Nowadays anyone real with half a conscience warrants a ‘selector’ in the Menwith TURMOIL machine. What real safeguards do we have against the current potentially fascist UKUSA bloc? Personally I think it is little, off the wall things like how the Finnish national intelligence databases have just gone all FOI.
Anyway, I do like to hear both sides of a story, so thanks for that book recommend!
Looks like the intelligence agencies may have been intercepting privileged confidential communications between lawyers and their clients in cases brought against the government.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/06/intelligence-agencies-lawyer-client-abdel-hakim-belhaj-mi5-mi6-gchq
5566hh you wrote:
” “Nor any mention that there was far less democracy in Hong Kong under British rule than Chinese.”
The history of this issue is quite interesting and I think Mr Murray and readers may be interested in the following articles, particularly the first:
http://qz.com/279013/the-secret-history-of-hong-kongs-stillborn-democracy/
http://www.asiasentinel.com/politics/hong-kong-city-broken-promises/ ”
Thanks for your post with those interesting links about HK’s history. If you have any more interesting links on HK’s history please post.
(I would like to ascertain which elements of Noble House are rooted in which historical facts and what is simply fiction. Are there any aspects of truth to how the Taipan finds a solution to the run on the bank?)
hABBArelapse: You still don’t manage to play along,nor answer any questions.
The guys a loony because he’s preaching about a past as if it was last week, and even you know that it was abit before that they danced and rejoiced around the golden calf.
I have no problems with people having religion,but to treat anything from 2 or 3000 years ago as if it had any significance today is lunacy… Right ?
Here, Peter Hitchens explains how Scottish nationalism will transform Britain into a collection of manageable chunks to be fed into the Euro-blender and destroyed for ever.
Notice how any part of the UK can have a referendum on reducing the powers of London (and Northern Ireland can vote to leave the Union altogether, any time it wants to).
But nobody can have a vote of any kind on reducing the powers of Brussels, let alone on leaving the EU.
The truth is obvious, but nobody observes it.
Brussels rejoices to see Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland becoming ever more separate from England.
It would like to see England itself Balkanised into ‘regions’ – and the new multicultural republic of London under President Boris is a major step towards that.
First the voters slap Obama, now Putin.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-nuclear-security-usa-russia-idUSKBN0IP24K20141105
Really, the ethnocentric/narcissistic swamp is full. No more room for wannabes. The democratic republic theory has failed as surely as Athenian democracy. Time for a change, doods.
and dudettes..
sorry. last two meant for another site.
Ben @ 11.59 –
Isn’t this rather a statement along the lines of ‘we don’t see any future in 5+1 as it is blatantly designed to further US interests, and we shouldn’t have been mug enough to lend our name to it in the first place. The IAEA is the proper forum for discussing nuclear security and that is where (explicitly, at the bottom of the article) we will discuss it.’
Given that Iran is a potential Chinese market, wouldn’t be surprised if Chinese support for the conference was muted, too.
What’s going on in Labour HQ? I thought Miliband had employed the US election mastermind who worked wonders for Rahm Emanuel and Obomber?
500th anniversary of Ye-olde GCHQ
“Americans love Magna Carta because the principle that no person is above the law, that there is an entitlement to some form of due process of law, has become enshrined in the US constitution as well as the constitution of the various states,” he told The Telegraph.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11214882/Magna-Carta-highlights-shared-US-UK-love-of-liberty.html
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“The documents show that MI5 – which handles the UK’s domestic security – show that between April 2011 and January 2014 the agency has no rules barring spying on lawyer-client communications, and would pass these snooped-on chats to the government’s legal eagles for consideration.
MI6, which handles foreign intelligence, has virtually no safeguards to protect lawyer-client confidentiality. Some rules were added in September 2011, shortly before the Libyan trial began, but even these have an exemption if “extremists” are involved.
The UK’s eavesdropping nerve-center GCHQ came out looking somewhat better. The agency has had a prohibition against feeding lawyer-client communications to the government since 1999, but for some reason this was relaxed in 2010 to allow some information to be shared with the state’s lawyers.
MI6’s ‘policies’ are so hopeless they appear to have been jotted down on the back of a beer mat. This raises troubling implications for the whole British justice system. In how many cases has the Government eavesdropped to give itself an unfair advantage in court?”
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/07/british_government_spying_on_lawyers/
_____________________
the Applicants [Bureau of Investigative Journalism] submit:
a. First, that the conduct of the United Kingdom in relation to the soliciting, receipt, search, analysis, dissemination, storage and destruction of interception data in respect of “external communications”, in particular with regard to their impact on journalism and newsgathering organizations and their privileged information and communications, is incompatible with Articles 8 and/or 10 ECHR
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2014/09/14/a-summary-of-the-bureaus-application-to-the-european-court-of-human-rights/