The Rochester By-Election further destroys the intellectual case for the BBC’s decision that only male party leaders who support Trident can debate on TV before the UK general election.
The Greens got five times as many votes as the Lib Dems in Rochester, and are ahead of them in several recent national opinion polls. I do not posit the support of Trident as the criterion for inclusion, in any sense as a joke. Support of Trident stands as a good marker for adhesion to the neo-con establishment consensus. The establishment is simply not prepared for more radical views to be put before the public as a serious choice. UKIP is the chosen right wing vehicle into which disillusion with politicians should be channelled.
The BBC justification for including UKIP is that they have shown a “substantial increase in electoral support”, and the BBC argue that the Greens have not done so. There are two major problems with this argument.
The first is that UKIP’s “massive increase in electoral support” has been massively boosted by a huge amount of publicity given to UKIP for the last two years, especially by the BBC. The BBC is citing the effect of its own propaganda as justification for continuing that propaganda. If the Greens had been given as much publicity as UKIP, the electoral climate would be very different.
The second is that this appears to be a one way argument. If UKIP’s massive increase in electoral support can get them included, surely the Lib Dems total collapse in electoral support should get them excluded? The injustice of including the Lib Dems and not the Greens, when the Greens are beating them not just in opinion polls but in real polls, cannot simply be brushed aside.
We then have the SNP. There is a very real possibility that the SNP will have more MPs than the Lib Dems after the next election. Indeed, one recent opinion poll put them ahead of the Lib Dems in polling across the entire UK, even though all those SNP voters were just in Scotland. For the BBC to push so hard the line that we are “Better Together”, and then exclude the party supported by the plurality of Scots from UK debate, is an irony only the BBC cannot see. That some viewers of a UK debate would have no opportunity to vote SNP, would not remove their very real interest in understanding and questioning the views of what will be a major component of the parliament which governs them.
The Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP have female leaders and are anti-Trident, a symbol of their broad radicalism. All are, to use that crude measure, to the left of the parties which will be included. To be in, you have to be led by an identikit posh male and support Trident. That is the BBC test.
“If the Greens had made as much noise as UKIP, and found massive support for expressing some widely-held views, they’d have got the publicity. Having principles is no way to win. Go figure.”
They have made lots of noise for the last 25 years plus, on issues that matter such as environmental degradation, the Tobin tax, alternative energy, proportional representation, my biggest bug bear at present, and much more. Thing is if you are not one of the club, within the main party spectrum, the BBC will cut you out. Further they will try and interfere with people who dare to question their biased judgements.
But the moment the Greens make a gaffe, I remember the time when David Icke and Sara Parkin were dragged through the mud for daring to try and make the Greens more media friendly.
I would advise the SNP and the Greens to find themselves a foreign broadcaster with clout, an organisation that can’t be manipulated, one that can ignore the establishment bias.
And Doug, if there’s no Green party candidate in your area, how about it? As long as you pay your own deposit and are a member you will find encouragement and support from them.
To be honest, us here talking of a green vote for the future of our children, of a protest vote against the BBC gerrymandering debate, is going to disturb them a lot.
Quite a gathering.
22 November 2014
‘Democracy rocks’ for Nicola Sturgeon at Glasgow Hydro
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-30157986
http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/79201000/jpg/_79201364_snphydrocrowd.jpg
12,000 in the audience.
“When was the last time 12.000 people turned out to support a political party in Scotland,never is the answer” said Nicola Sturgeon today at the Hydro in Glasgow.
The atmosphere and the feeling of optimism was breathtaking to say the least, I can’t say how the 55% of no voters feel, but the 45% of Yes voters are more enthused, than ever, about Scottish politics, and politics in general.
Voltaire once said, “We must look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation.”
I’m not so sure that applies today, but,a political awareness, and a reawakening of a Scottish desire, of at least 45% of folk to push the boundaries of Westminster, is gathering pace.
Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changing, springs to mind.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7qQ6_RV4VQ
Another quote from Nicola:
“I know we did not win the referendum but don’t the parties on the other side look for all the world like they lost?””
These members of the European Parliament are calling on the European Union to break diplomatic ties with Israel and implement sanctions against the country because of the war crimes it has committed against the people of Palestine.
The delegation of 13 MEPs has just returned to Brussels from the Middle East and played a video to journalists showing a Palestinian child dying in the back of an ambulance. The delegation describes what Israel has done to the people of Gaza as genocide. The 50-day Israeli war on Gaza left thousands dead and tens of thousands wounded.
The delegation of MEPs is accusing the West of turning its back on the Palestinian people by not taking action against Israel. The politicians accuse Tel Aviv of continuing to break international laws by engaging in land grabs to build settlements in Palestine. The United Nations aid organisation, UNRWA, estimates that it will cost 800 million euro to reconstruct the buildings and infrastructure in Palestine that were recently destroyed by Israel during its 50-day bombardment of Gaza.
In the meantime hundreds of thousands of people will effectively remain homeless. The agency says 90% of the water in Gaza is now undrinkable, disease is spreading and it predicts that the area will be uninhabitable by the year 2020 unless the international community gets behind the citizens of Palestine.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/10/378256/eu-delegation-israel-has-committed-genocide/
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It would appear the tables are beginning to turn on Israel, not before time I might add.
Improved comment by Kempe 22 Nov, 2014 – 3:53 pm
It was a remark about your good self dismissing the JIT report before it’s even been published! Very open minded.
Kempe
22 Nov, 2014 – 3:53 pm
………………………………………………………..
That’s the best post you’ve ever made Kempe!
Node, good statement. I think it is wrongly attributed to Abraham Lincoln. George Eliot said something similar.
“Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving us wordy evidence of the fact—from calling on us to look through a heap of millet-seed in order to be sure that there is no pearl in it.”
However it’s already too late for some whose reputations have gone before them spreading their barren millet-seeds everywhere while the some of us are compelled to cast our pearls before swine.
The Mayor of London’s planned £60m “garden bridge” over the River Thames in London will have no legal public right of way, it has been announced.
The bridge, likely to be a popular tourist attraction, will be privately managed by a trust and large groups will be asked to call ahead before visiting due to its limited capacity.
Protests and cycling will be banned on the new bridge, which will be closed at midnight when views over the Thames are at their most dramatic and the tourist crowds have dispersed.
The bridge’s owner is also exploring the possibility of holding “a limited number” of private events on it, when it could be closed to the public.
£30m of the money for the attraction is coming out of London’s squeezed transport budget, despite Transport for London announcing yet another increase in fares set to come into force next year.
Central government is contributing another £30m for the bridge, which has high-profile celebrity backers including actress Joanna Lumley.
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£60 million quid on a Garden Bridge, at a time when austerity cuts are at there highest, even then there’s limited access to the public, to the bridge.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boriss-60m-garden-bridge-will-have-no-public-right-of-way-no-protesting-and-no-cycling-9872176.html
Royal Bank of Scotland has admitted that it had over-estimated its financial strength during recent stress tests designed to ensure the stability of Europe’s biggest banks.
The taxpayer-owned bank released a statement on Friday afternoon saying that it had miscalculated the key measure of resilience under simulated shocks to the financial system.
Instead of comfortable passing the European Banking Authority stress test, as it said it had last month, RBS narrowly made the minimum capital ratio required to pass the test.
The announcement was the latest embarrassment for RBS, the day after it was hit with a £56m fine for a 2012 IT failure.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/rbs/11246228/Royal-Bank-of-Scotland-admits-overstating-financial-strength-in-stress-test.html
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Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank, give a man a bank, and he can rob the world.
Iceland had the right idea, when they let their inept and bust banks sink, they then jailed the lying banksters.
What did we do, we threw buckets of cash at them so they and their rich political partners kept their heads above water. We’ll be paying for that mistake for decades to come.
George Osborne last night attacked European judges after they backed a ‘perverse’ EU cap on bankers’ bonuses.
The Chancellor had mounted a legal challenge to the cap but the European Court of Justice, ruled the curbs were ‘valid’ and legal.
The judgment triggered a furious reaction, with the EU accused of attacking the City of London and riding roughshod over Britain’s right to manage its own economy.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2842474/Tory-fury-Brussels-backs-bankers-bonus-cap-despite-warning-City-salaries-soar.html
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So in banking circles, and to George Osborne it is described as “Perverse” to cap a bankers bonuses.
But its not “Perverse to use Zero Hour contracts, or leave terminally ill people with no benefits, or even take someones spare room from then with the Bedroom Tax, even if they use that room for medical equipment.
Its not considered “Perverse” to spend £100 Billion quid renewing Trident, nor build two aircraft carriers that have no planes to land on them. Its not even remotely “Perverse” to built new, Nuclear submarines.
Serbia is not planning to impose sanctions on Russia, said its President Tomislav Nikolic after meeting EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn. The latter said the EU expects Serbia to bring its policy in line with the European one if it seeks to enter the union.
Nikolic said that Serbia is not planning to introduce sanctions at the moment, though admitting the country is seeking EU membership which implies an obligation to pursue common policies, including foreign.
http://rt.com/news/207451-serbia-eu-sanctions-pressure/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
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It would appear that the Serbian President is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Who will apply the most pressure, to him Russia? or the EU?
Who said:
‘From the beginning of humankind there has been brutality, conflict, intrigue, the destructive obsession with a narrow self-interest. But throughout all human history, never has been extinguished that relentless, unquenchable desire to do good. To act not only in self-interest and sometimes to even to act in defiance of it.’ ?
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair accepting his Save the Children ‘award’.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2844299/Presumably-Mr-Red-s-Mr-Brown-days-Tony-Blair-evokes-Tarantino-classic-Reservoir-Dogs-takes-THREE-bodyguards-afternoon-stroll-Manhattan.html
The Global Legacy Award for The Right Honorable Tony Blair, former prime minister, United Kingdom, who was recognized for leading the G8 nations at Gleneagles to pledge to “make poverty history” and steering these nations to agree to relieve $40 billion in debt owed by poverty-stricken countries and also for his continued commitment to Africa through his Foundation – the Africa Governance Initiative. LOL
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=8rKLIXMGIpI4E&b=8943305&ct=14353063¬oc=1
I hope they are flooded out with complaints.
RoS:There is never much pressure needed from Russia.Serbia’s relation to Russia is almost brotherly.And Europe ,well,they were part of the NATO offensive.Serbia wont forget the non UN sanctioned attacks on their bridges and other infrastructure.
The Balkan conflict was the first where we saw NATO attack civilians first and the military second.It has now become their signature as we saw in Libya.
So when it comes to the crunch,Serbia every single time would go with Russia no matter how many cherries they get offered.
And the other hard place is not so much the EU as it is Washington.EU is a marshmallow.
Craig
The BBC will continue to do whatever they blooming well like!
This is because, like their establishment counterparts round the central area of london, they are above the law, which as is well known,( unless one has been living on Alpha Centauri for the last 50 years), only applies to the rest of the UK outside the area described above.
WOW,
what an ELECTRIC atmosphere at the HYDRO.
here is the SNP film of full event, it may be just me but i thought the sound low on some of it…but its fine over all..
Alex speaks at – 58;20 in
Nicola Speaks at 2hrs 16 mins in
But before Nicola..a great wee rap choon at 2hrs 07 mins, Brilliant lyrics…even i aint strong on rap.
Looks like this thing aint going away.. well done SNP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqfVICUKtl8#t=18
“That’s the best post you’ve ever made Kempe!”
Thank you.
Silence is indeed golden and I’m hoping my example will be widely copied.
Goodnight.
DoNNy
Some Detailed Skulduggery, Evil Plans Long in the making Re Libya…
Here’s a section from a long Piece –
“The NSC restricted access to the top-secret plans to about two-dozen officials. Flower contained two subcomponents: “Tulip” and “Rose.” Tulip was the code name for the CIA covert operation designed to overthrow Qadhafi by supporting anti-Qadhafi exile groups and countries, such as Egypt, that wanted Qadhafi removed from power. Rose was the code name for a surprise attack on Libya to be carried out by an allied country, most likely Egypt, and supported by American air power. If Qadhafi was killed as a result of Flower, Reagan said he would take the blame for it.”
It also just so happened that the Obama Administration’s US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates, who was the deputy director for intelligence at the time, endorsed Rose, the military subcomponent of Flower.
Since NATO toppled the Jamahiriya government, this is exactly what has happened in Libya. A free for all has come about, which has spilled over into neighbouring states such as Niger. There are multiple factions and different administrations including the Transitional Council in the District of Tripoli, the Misrata Military Council in the District of Misrata, several self-styled Emirates in Cyrenaica, and Jamahiriya loyalist and tribal governments in the Western Mountains and Fezzan. There have even been fusions where Jamahiriya loyalists and anti-Jamahiriya militias have joined to fight all others. The end product has been lawlessness and Somali-style civil war. The state has basically been “failed” by the US and its allies. Post-Jamahiriya governmental authority is only exercised by those in power outside of their offices and a few spaces. Violent crime has proliferated. Tripoli and other major cities are being fought for by different factions and Libyan weapons are being smuggled into different countries. Even US officials, which helped midwife the groups running rampant in Libya, have not been safe from the turmoil they helped create; the murder of US Ambassador John Christopher Stevens in Benghazi on 12 September 2012 is testimony to this.
Oil and gas production has been stopping. National assets have been sold off to foreign corporations and privatised. Libya is no longer a competitive economic power in Africa anymore. Nor is Libya a growing financial power. Tripoli virtually transformed from a debtless country to an indebted one overnight.
There is also a great irony to all this. The warplanes of the US-supported Libyan regime that has replaced the Jamahiriya began bombing Libyan citizens in 2014 as battles for control of Tripoli raged. The US, European Union, and NATO have said nothing about this whereas in 2011 they started a bombing campaign and war on the basis of false accusations the Jamahiriya government was doing exactly this. The deceit of these players is more than evident.
plenty more @
http://www.globalresearch.ca/libya-then-and-now-an-overview-of-natos-handiwork/5415563
RepublicofScotland: ‘I think the BBC has given Farage and UKIP coverage, (in the same way you’d give someone enough rope to hang themselves)in order to blacken their name, especially through their immigration policy.’
Are you joking? The BEEB has been fluffing UKIP for months, either because the BEEB is easily distractible and desperate for ‘interesting’ news, or more likely because they know that the Conservatives are pretty sure they will NOT get a majority in the next Gen.Election, and are desperate to go into coalition with UKIP rather than pal up with the LibDems again (and certainly not Labour or SNP – ha!) So the Tories lose a few to UKIP – it’s in their interest to lose a few there, so they’ll drag the Tory Party to the right, where the billionaires reside and rule. BEEB has to be nice to their overlords, to keep the licence fee for a little while longer, so managers can keep their inflated salaries until retirement, and the right-wing drag dooms the lower ranks to privatisation, Murdoch-ville and penury.
What’s this – the truth?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30158978
You could have knocked me down with a feather. Russia’s point of view leads this piece; the US’ MO is laid bare (kind of). Just like in Syria, I suppose it’s too obvious for even the BBC to ignore forever.
The Green Party remaining in the shadows of the political spotlight preserve
a dichotomy preferable to the main stream democratic liberal thought.
What a Green Party manifest is then kept out of the electorates mind’s eye whose self expression is thus contained and the source of their expression concerned only with the pandering policies of the conservatives, labour and UKIP. Hence we are of limited nature.
Economic growth with claret not clarity.
The new anti-establishment party in Spain, Podemos, is now polling ahead of all the other parties, including the major ones.
“These members of the European Parliament are calling on the European Union to break diplomatic ties with Israel and implement sanctions against the country because of the war crimes it has committed against the people of Palestine.
etc, etc, etc….
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/10/378256/eu-delegation-israel-has-committed-genocide/
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It would appear the tables are beginning to turn on Israel, not before time I might add.”
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I fear not, Republicofscotland – and certainly not by the European Parliament.
The Press TV report obviously omits a couple of small but interesting details, relying probably on the fact that its viewers will know little if anything about the European Parliament, how it works and its political composition. It is a good example of how Press TV – and by extension those gullible enough to relay its misinformation – seeks to hoodwink its viewers.
Firstly: the Press TV link starts with the words “EU delegation. Now, the EP has “delegations” to a large number of third countries; these are officially constituted delegations with membership from across the EP political spectrum. But the “EU delegation” in question is not one of those. It is a self-appointed group of 13 like-minded MEPS, representing only themselves and in no way the EP itself.
Secondly, both Republicofscotland and his Press TV source speak of “these” MEPs. But, apart from one readable nameplate and two soundbites, we are not told the names of “these” MEPs. We have three names and no clue as to who the other 10 are.
And it gets even better – we are given no indication of which EP political grouping any of the 13 belong, not even the three whose names we are given. In other words, we are not told whether they belong to one or more of the large political families in the EP (Centre-right, Liberals, Socialists…) or whether they are part of the ragtag and bobtail of the rather flakier MEPs who go under the name of “non-inscrits”.
I could not be bothered to look up the three names we were given, but I would bet a penny to a pound that the female Irish MEP Martina Anderson is Sinn Fein and the Cypriot Neoklis Sikilyotis is from the Cypriot Communist party. By no stretch of the imagination representative in any way of the European Parliament.
One must therefore unreluctantly conclude that Republicofscotland’s optimistic “the tables are beginning to turn on Israel” is -once again – based on sand. 🙂
@Anon: Yes. Parliament had already been dissolved three weeks before, so they didn’t have to support the conservatives, who were clearly going to lose. Champagne on the taxpayer may have been over the top, however!
Craig was in London today.
Occupy Democracy – Parliament Square, London.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vz17uQrPWPs
https://twitter.com/occupydemocracy
Now we know!
Yesterday at the UN the US, Canada and Ukraine voted against this resolution and a number of states, including all members of the European Union, abstained.
“Combatting glorification of Nazism, neo-nazism and other practices that fuel contemporary forms of racism discrimination , xenophobia and related intolerance
http://www.un.org/en/ga/third/69/docs/voting_sheets/L56.Rev1.pdf
@Sofia: Interesting break down of voting at UN. Israel voted yes, but EU members all abstained. How bizarre! Plates moving?
@Habbabkuk: Were it not for that smiley at the end, I would have appreciated – yet again – a sharp reality check (for which you have earned considerable – if unmentioned – credit here). With that smiley – and only that I’m obliged to note – your post looks like a smug put-down, the rubbing of noses in the fact that might triumphs yet again.
Perhaps you were pleased with the cleverness of your refutation, and that should not be denied you. A now sadly deceased friend, way before his time, once pointed out that persuasion is an incremental act, and pretty much never happens by proving someone wrong, particularly in public. It only entrenches their position, and makes them work harder to prove you wrong.
But then, hell – I’m as guilty of the practice as anyone else, but I’m going to try a bit harder not to.
Great public speaking, Craig. Can’t be easy winning over a handful of people on a dreich afternoon, un-amplified, in a public square with traffic and distractions all around. I wondered at first if it all might turn a bit cringe-making, but by the end, they didn’t want to let you go. The guy taking the video was adding the odd bit of commentary to your speech, and you could hear him being won over too.
I liked the way you suggested that people-powered independence politics in Scotland could be a catalyst for real change in party politics throughout the UK. You neatly introduced the idea that Scottish Independence could benefit everyone in the UK.
Enjoy your break in Spain, and come back refreshed.
Great speech, Craig. Be sure to check out Podemos when you get there.