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.
” 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.”
Oy vey. If only I had known sooner those wise words Glenn. Not that I can restrain myself, you understand. 🙂
half hour of speaking.. Fantastic stuff.
Looked a bit rocky at first…And No Body Guards… MM
Theresa uses DiD for some PR.
Surely better to sort out the historic child abuse scandal than spending her time with Ms Young. Is she electioneering?
‘Theresa May ‘battered and bruised’ over EU arrest warrant
Theresa May said she had not intentionally deceived MPs over the vote
The Home Secretary Theresa May has said she was left “battered and bruised” after recently denying MPs a vote on the European Arrest Warrant (EAW).
Speaking to Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, Mrs May suggested she could have handled the situation differently.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30154290
~~~
G Brown is said to be doing no more electioneering. He is going out ‘on a high’, that being the selling out of the Scottish people.
Sky Sources: Ex-PM Gordon Brown To Quit As MP
After more than three decades at Westminster the former Labour prime minister is to step down, Sky News understands.
http://news.sky.com/story/1378498/sky-sources-ex-pm-gordon-brown-to-quit-as-mp
Good to hear of these selfless Britons going out to Sierra Leone. May they ALL return home safe.
Long live OUR NHS
More than 30 NHS staff from across the UK will depart for Sierra Leone to join Britain’s fight against Ebola.
More than 30 NHS staff from across the UK will depart for Sierra Leone today (22 November 2014) to join Britain’s fight against Ebola, International Development Secretary Justine Greening and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt have announced.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nhs-volunteers-deployed-to-fight-ebola-in-sierra-leone
Well done, Craig. I don’t know whether to be sorry for you about the rain lashing down you outside the mother of parliaments or for Habbabkuk who has suffered so many years of being accused of being a troll. He has given up trolling briefly and risen to the level of shill, along with Mark Regev and Peter Lerner. Salary implications maybe involved too.
Pity so many Israelis don’t agree with him:
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.615674
The list of the 13 MEPs who visited Israel in September should have been very easy for the ‘reality checker’ LOL to find.
Here it is.
Martina Anderson- Sinn Fein, Ireland
Lynn Boylan – Sinn Fein, Ireland
Matt Carthy – Sinn Fein, Ireland
Takin Hadjigeorgiou -AKEL, Cyprus
Pablo Iglesias – PODEMOS, Spain
Iosu Juaristi – Bildu, Basque Country
Marisa Matias – Bloco, Portugal
Younous Omarjee- Front de Gauche, France
Teresa Rodriguez – PODEMOS, Spain
Lola Sanchez – PODEMOS, Spain
Neoklis Silikyotis – AKEL, Cyprus
Angela Vallina – Izquierda Plural, Spain
Miguel Viegas – Portuguese Communist Party
European United Left/Nordic Green Left
Facebook.com/guengl
Twitter @guengl
GUE/NGL delegation arrives in Palestine – but Israel refuses MEPs entry to Gaza
http://www.guengl.eu/news/article/gue-ngl-delegation-arrives-in-palestine-but-israel-refuses-meps-entry-to-ga
Forensic Video Analysis: Nowarah’s Killer Identified
November 22, 2014 20:41
Defense for Children International – Palestine has published a video analysis, conducted by Forensic Architecture, which identifies the Israeli soldier who shot and killed 17-year-old Nadim Nowarah six months ago, in the West Bank city of Beitunia.
CCTV footage from DCI-Palestine analysis release
According to WAFA Palestine News & Info Agency, DCI-Palestine said in a recent press release that “although Israeli authorities initially asserted that no live fire was used by soldiers during the May 15, 2014 protests, one border policeman, whose name has not been released, has since been arrested by Israeli police and faces manslaughter charges.”
See 11/12/14 Israeli Policeman Arrested in Connection with Teen Killings
DCI-Palestine noted that the arrest was made after it released a video footage from security cameras which captured the fatal shootings of Nowarah and 16-year-old Mohammad Abu Daher, as well as an autopsy’s ruling that a live bullet was the cause of Nowarah’s death.
The rights organization commissioned Forensic Architecture, a research agency which provides spatial and media analysis, to investigate video footage which captured the fatal shootings of Nowarah and Abu Daher. A team of architects, video and audio specialists analyzed the CCTV footage from the four security cameras, along with CNN released footage from the same incident to identify Nowarah’s shooter, “Soldier A”.
Forensic Architecture, WAFA reports, is funded by the European Research Council and hosted by the Center for Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London.
The project consists of multidisciplinary spatial practitioners — architects, artists and filmmakers — who undertake architectural research within the framework of international humanitarian law and human rights. Their investigations have provided evidence for international prosecution teams, political organizations, NGOs and the United Nations.
http://www.imemc.org/article/69807
Thank you Mark for your consistent ringing of alarm bells about Israel viz Iran. After the 2008 world banking coup, Israel has dared to do a deal with political Islam, exchanging land acquired for Israel by the amphetamine-loaded Israeli/Islamic Screwdriver from Syria for promises of future direct attacks against Russia to release the former Muslim colonies of the USSR from continuing Soviet-style oppression.
The creation of a Greater Israel under our noses in the closed off battle-fields of Syria brings forward the need for Israel to strike at Iran in order to defend its territorial gains.
Israeli strikes on Iran are now inevitable.
Ukraine’s Nazi’s attacks on Russia, including MH17, have created a war atmosphere which will make Israeli strikes look surgical, and this political and military assault on Russia will reassure Political Islam that Israel is going to keep its side of the bargain to liberate Muslim eastern lands.
Political Islam’s rape of Syria by friendly and not-so-friendly branches of the Israeli Screwdriver will make the grabbing of parts of Syria by Israel and the Israeli assault on Iran look like peace-keeping in comparison.
Iraq was destroyed in a previous chapter and is being told to shut up complaining about Kurdistan’s vast new oil gains.
2005 Headlines: The democratic nation of Israel has taken security measures it deems necessary for protection of its sovereignty by extending its borders 1500 miles into the former Republic of Syria and air-strikes against Iranian nuclear installations. UK P.M Miliband says damage is ” restrained “.
Forgive my poor attempt at Haaretz journalism. Where’s a Habby-shill when you need him?
p.s. ( Israeli promises will never be fulfilled. Don’t tell political Islam )
‘This will prompt the ISC to strongly recommend that working relationships between the security services and internet companies need to improve.’
MI5 Spared Major Criticism Over Rigby Killing
A “substantial” report to Parliament will focus on what happened after MI5 tried to recruit Michael Adebolajo as an informant.
http://news.sky.com/story/1378535/mi5-spared-major-criticism-over-rigby-killing
~~~
“What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.”
They Thought They Were Free Milton Mayer The Germans 1933-45
http://disinfo.com/2013/10/excerpt-thought-free-germans-1933-45-milton-mayer/#sthash.r3zma5Rc.dpuf
Re: the leaders debates. As the ‘three main parties’ policies are so similar, why not have just one representative from them? That would free up space for a representative from a right party (UKIP, DUP), a left party (Greens), and a nationalist (SNP, Plaid, Sinn Fein).
At least then viewers would see a policy-based argument.
Interesting comment here from the ‘D’ notice office about elements of the UK Security State “pretending” that they had a ‘D’ notice (with 14 cops in uniform) on Elm House.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/22/media-gagged-westminster-child-abuse-ring
Was the Snowden UK media ‘reporting’ over the last 18 months inhibited by a real or by a ‘pretend’ defender advisory note?
@Goss
“Unfortunately the majority is sheep. When all the sheep wake up it might be too late. They might wake up in the abattoir.”
The Labour Party infiltrator yet again demonstrates his contempt for ordinary people. At least Mary only went part of the way when she referred to the “sheeple”. Of course this contempt for ordinary people and belief that change can only be brought about by an undemocratic elite (or democratic centralism as they refer to it with no sense of irony) was exhibited by the one of whom they will brook no criticism and whose project they still find so difficult to reject (we are still awaiting Mr Goss’s views on Solidarity and other free trade unionists (and other sheep as he no doubts calls them) who were the main trigger in bring the project to its timely end.
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1913/may/21b.htm
I don’t think it was by chance that Orwell took up these animal references in Animal Farm when he demonstrated so clearly what happens when you have an elite that has contempt for the ordinary people, even when that elite initially portrays themselves as in opposition to the ruling elite. Animal Farm was the prophecy, the Soviet Union was the lesson in history and still the likes of Mr Goss never learn.
I noted Guano’s comment on the welcome dissent within Israel to the egregious actions of its government (and long may the dissent continue). But while we are on the subject of people supporting those with feet of clay perhaps Mary, with her in depth knowledge of Gaza, might wish to point out where we can find examples of the dissent of the Hamas Government in Gaza (or what even happens to those brave people who try), Mr Scorgie (based on holiday trips) could do the same for Cuba, Mark Golding could elucidate on the treatment of those who disagreed with the Lion of Damascus (and that includes Simba and his dad) and Sofia can do the same for “Novorossiya” remembering of course Saker’s advice that lying about the actions of the Russians (and especially those belonging to the KGB) is of course to be encouraged. Mr Goss is of course free to assist Sofia but he may still be busy on his apologia for selected actions of the Soviet Union such as the suppression of Solidarity and other trade unions – or perhaps he will surprise us.
Re: the leaders debates. I would prefer separate debates between those leaders who might realistically become PM (i.e. the leaders of the Labour and Conservative Parties) and then separate debates involving all those parties who might realistically hold the balance of power/be in a coalition.
The electorate need to know what such parties might demand in return for their votes and what are their red lines – we cannot have the democratic fraud which occurred with Craig’s last party at the last election being repeated with his next Party (or others) – where we end up being saddled with something that was not promised or was different from that which was promised.
By all means also have a leader’s debate where they are made to reveal their positions/tactics on coalition negotiations as well – but we need positions on coalitions in the open and not hidden away.
@ Reident disodance.
Viz , Resulting in some illegal and immoral war and occupation defying democracy and instigating detioration of peoples.
To a socialist is unthinkable and unfathomable.
Don’t knock those who seek uncomparitive peace.
“Resulting in some illegal and immoral war and occupation defying democracy and instigating detioration of peoples.
To a socialist is unthinkable and unfathomable.”
I never said it was or wasn’t – it isn’t, but then neither is contempt for ordinary people, support of extreme nationalist or religious viewpoints, support of those who mafia style economies or have no respect for human rights.
@ Resident Disodance
Thanks a useful consideration. ” contempt”
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contempt
Have a good day.
“Met Chief Bernard Hogan-Howe says police foiled four or five terror attacks in 2014.”
(BBC)
…………………………..
Four OR five?
Doesn’t he know for sure?
Great speech Craig – I thought they’d come for you at one point when the cacophony of sirens reached a crescendo then stopped. Power to your elbow and hope this gets all the publicity it deserves.
Resident Dissident; “support of those who mafia style economies or have no respect for human rights”
Are you talking about the UK [xxxxxxx] ?
[craigmurray.org.uk – There, fixed that for you]
😀
Craig’s photographer at the talk yesterday (above at 11:55PM), if it is he who gives the dry asides, sounds like Tony Gardner, who played the cafe owner in Jac Dee’s sit com Lead Balloon.
@Craig P. What you see makes sense to everyone except those within the Westminster bubble. Unfortunately, the bubble seems to control matters like political appearances on the media.
ResDis – I shall not illuminate the negative connotations of Syrian government resistance when the United Savages (US) are training 5,000 <strike terrorists militants a year while systematically destroying Syria’s infrastructure with targeted bombing.
Ad interim U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said he and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan had discussed a transition of power in Syria away from President Bashar al-Assad during a four-hour meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/22/us-mideast-crisis-usa-turkey-idUSKCN0J60KC20141122
I will if I may recall the mobile phone images from a young women in Damascus. One image revealed her cousin, his once happy face had been impaled on a metal spike. The spike was one of many in a fence enclosing a public park in Raqqa, a remote provincial capital on the Euphrates River in central Syria. Along the fence were other decapitated heads that children had to pass on their way to the playground.
The woman’s cousin and his five comrades were soldiers in the Syrian army’s 17th Reserve Division. The Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) had captured them when it overran the Tabqa military airfield, about twenty-five miles from ISIS headquarters in Raqqa, on August 24.
We recall it took only months to displace the pro-democracy demonstrators with the US armed and Saudi/Qatar financed, Free Syrian Army. The secret plan advanced by Chatham House, the International affairs so called think tank was to be an FSA repetition of the Western air campaign that deposed Muammar Qaddafi in Libya kept afloat for this purpose by international condemnation of Assad’s purported (pretended) use of chemical weapons traversing Obomber’s ‘red line’ parody.
This plot ground to a stalemate through lack of air support hence the mutation to ISIS/ISIL or Islamic State. (Please read Patrick Cockburn The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the New Sunni Uprising Islamic State was calculated to ensure the one objective that eluded the FSA: it would bring American airpower into the Syria massacre while displacing 3 million Syrians as refugees.
Some 800,000 Iraqi/Syrian civilians, many who fled their homes in terror with just the clothes on their backs, are in need of shelter assistance, while 940,000 lack basic winter household items.
Many families are living in makeshift shelters and damaged or incomplete buildings, doing their best to survive in incredibly harsh conditions. Old people and children are particularly vulnerable.
From accurate reports and images we understand the United States bombed ISIS-held towns, with the predictable civilian casualties and targets that turned out to be grain silos and private houses before Britain started(then stopped) bombing Syrian infrastructure now exposed by an RAF navigator.
The dichotomy of US foreign policy towards the Middle-East is best illustrated by:
Poking into a murky history recalls Nixon and Kissinger ‘black balling’ Hafez al-Assad in the early 70’s for being pro-Soviet. The 1973 Egyptian/Syria war to regain territories stolen by Israel prompted Kissinger to say in Damascus:
Withal, I developed a high regard for Assad. In the Syrian context he was moderate indeed. He leaned toward the Soviets as the source of his military equipment. But he was far from being a Soviet stooge. He had a first-class mind allied to a wicked sense of humor.
In 1974 the Useless sequiturs (US) open their
spy centerembassy in Damascus, but Assad père meddled in Lebanon making him persona non grata in Washington. Early 80’s we note Maggie Thatcher and buddy Reagan granting or conceding with Israhell to drive Assad’s army out of most of Lebanon. Daddy Bush the CIA god-father yo-yo’d over Hezbollah, then broke the ice when this crook and his secretary of state, James Baker, asked Syria to take part in the war to expel Iraq from Kuwait.After the World Trade Center false-flag, the US rendered terrorism suspects to Syria for torture. That relationship ended with the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri in 2005 and Syria’s humiliating withdrawal from Lebanon after it was accused of conspiring against Hariri.
It seems to me the young Assad entered the stage like a huge experienced elephant with a colossal memory.
Old Assad had a way with these things too http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1982_Hama_Massacre
Could Resident Dissident please refrain from having a go at me when replying to another person’s comment with which I had no connection.
I cannot remember using the word ‘sheeple’ very recently anyway but here is a link.
Sheeple: Why You Should Feel Sorry For Them
http://www.alt-market.com/articles/1826-sheeple-why-you-should-feel-sorry-for-them
“We recall it took only months to displace the pro-democracy demonstrators with the US armed and Saudi/Qatar financed, Free Syrian Army.”
When the pro-democracy demonstrators were active and Syrian refugees were fleeing the brutality of the Assad regime in their hundreds of thousands – did we hear anything from the likes of Mark Golding in their support? No we heard nothing whatsoever but a concerted attack aimed at stopping any western support of the more progressive forces within Syria, attacks on those offering humanitarian aid to the refugees, and whitewashing of Assad’s attacks on Palestinian refugee camps. If you want an explanation for the growth of the evil despots within ISIS – you will do better to look here and the total mismanagement of Iraq post invasion rather than Mr Goldings half cracked conspiracy theories.
“but Assad père meddled in Lebanon”
Understatement of the year – funny how one persons full scale occupation is just reduced to meddling by the sycophants.
Theresa May is on Desert Island Discs tomorrow.
Favourite song – Police : “Every Breath You Take (I’ll be watching you)”
Book – ‘Mein Kampf’
Luxury – Gove’s balls
@Node… LOL!
Excellent speech Craig,and cleverly manoeuvred around certain issue that will break one day, your preparatory work is excellent, as always, loved the humorous end. Very much hope that some Scottish constituency will choose you, so you can speak within the crumbling halls of Westminster soon….
@ Tim There seems to be a trend of this kind of behaviour, Tim, something about the principles of power.
There is M. Focaults interpretation and John Rawls libertarian principles of legitimacy, but its seems to be made up as one goes along. The projections of power are more directed against the democratic principled citizen, used to force legitimacy than anything else.
The aspects of influence which distorts power are fascinating and complex, but there seems to be a scale of application to it, from vaguely applicable, via a normal spectrum that is globally comparable power, to maximum regressive power,retention of all rights by the state/individual/party collective.
This sort of medieval power is also apparent in China, and despite the current presidents seemingly smiling relations at the G20, China’s ruthless occupation of Tibet and the perfidious thoughts promoted by the Han Chinese that religious and other thinking people are second class and have to be treated as such, is but one of the indication that China is already led by a communist power elite that has the financial levers at a hand.
China has an equally bad colonial streak as the rest of us one might say.
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/711242-thailand-will-have-blood-on-its-hands-if-refugees-are-sent-back/