The Trident Test 310

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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.

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310 thoughts on “The Trident Test”

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  • Resident Dissident

    Mary

    Now you have drawn yourself into the debate with your link, I am sure that you can use a search engine to plug the gaps in your memory, perhaps you might wish to engage or are the thoughts of Comrade Lenin on the subject inviolable tablets of stone that cannot be bettered?

  • Republicofscotland

    “Craig was in London today.

    Occupy Democracy – Parliament Square, London.”
    _________________________________

    Well done Craig, I take my hat off to you, for having the courage of your convictions, to orate in the heart of London.

    A lesser man or woman would have kept their heads below the parapet.

  • Republicofscotland

    “I could not be bothered to look up the three names we were given, but I would bet a penny to a pound.”
    ____________________________________________

    Habb

    Of course you couldn’t be bothered to look anything up, you never do, nor do bother to post links, infact, all you bother with is deriding other comments, no surprise there then.

  • Republicofscotland

    Neil Findlay, Sarah Boyack and Jim Murphy the three stooges, of the Labour branch in Scotland, when asked what their policies would be if elected in Scotland, failed to give any convincing replies.

    Gordon Brewer the host,of Politics Scotland, finished with a cutting remark when you work out what your policies will be let us know.

    On a more positive note, (Nick Clegg will be furious) Willie Rennie (Lib/Dem) manager of the Scotland branch, has advocated the devolving welfare to Holyrood, after reading that the Smith Commission received 140.000 letters from the public on what the new powers should be.

    Meanwhile the joint architect of the “Vow” Gordon Brown, the Daily Record being the other culprit, has decided to retire from politics.

    Gordon Brown, a renowned “Champagne Socialist” has said he wants to concentrate on his (Lucrative) charity work, Hmm.

    http://order-order.com/2014/04/04/new-figures-show-gordon-and-sarah-brown-office-booming/

  • John Goss

    Thanks Node, Theresa May on Desert Island Discs, hey? I hope they send her to an abandoned Guantanamo Bay alone, that whatever music, and book, she chooses, she will occasionally, as the good Christian she professes to be, dip into the Bible and learn what it is she should have done, rather than what she did.

    Today’s message is on separating the sheep from the goats. “For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger (foreigner) and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.” Her own interpretation in practice being: “the hungry should starve to death or get a job, the thirsty should die of thirst; the stranger (foreigner) should be sent back to where that stranger came from after being rendered to the US for torture first or left to rot in solitary; the sick should have private plans or not get sick; the naked should get themselves dressed before they get abused by a Tory peer; those innocents, especially strangers, not in prison should, be sent there immediately regardless of whether they are guilty or not; all prisoners should be denied visits, be placed in solitary confinement and the key should be thrown away.”

    A stark reminder Theresa May.

    “I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.”

  • Mary

    You really are a piece of work Resident Dissident. You did the so called ‘drawing in’ by referring to me by name. I want nothing to do with you.

  • Republicofscotland

    On top of the 12.000 SNP members at the Hydro in Glasgow yesterday, the RIC (Radical Independence Campaign) had 3000 supporters next door in the Armadillo, or to give it its proper title, the Clyde Auditorium.

    The RIC and SNP and other like minded political parties, like the Greens and Plaid Cymru, have individual policies and agendas, but for the first time ever, they’ll come together as one during and after the 2015 GE and pull their votes, to opposes, Westminster policies they don’t agree with.

    http://munguinsrepublic.blogspot.co.uk/

  • John Goss

    Good cartoon Peacewisher. It is true too. Poor Paddington. Lost and alone in London with a UKIP couple, wearing red poppies, walking past and calling him a scrounger. My generation fought racism, but so did the media. That has changed somewhat.

  • John Goss

    “Gordon Brown, a renowned “Champagne Socialist” has said he wants to concentrate on his (Lucrative) charity work, Hmm.”

    He’s seen how well Tony’s doing from it. Neither of them know any more about socialism than Resident Discontent.

  • Rob Royston

    I wonder if Gordon Brown decided to leave politics because of the arrest of the ex-Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates on corruption charges.
    The alleged corruption happened before the Portuguese government was persuaded to remove the lead investigator from a criminal investigation, that had made Britons Arquidos, and thus got the investigation shelved.

  • Peacewisher

    Paddington epitomised our caring attitude in the 70s, and Marf really hit the nail on the head with that one.

    From what I remember, John, Make Poverty History was a Gordon Brown initiative, with Blair being dragged along only reluctantly. That’s another reason why the “Save the Children” award was misplaced.

  • Resident Dissident

    “My generation fought racism”

    And so they did – but you seem to have forgotten how to do so when it comes to your friend Putin whose treatment of Russian immigrants makes Theresa May look like a saint (why else do you think he is so popular with Canspeccy)

    http://www.refworld.org/docid/4b7cee862d.html

    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/11/north-korea-russia-extradition-agreement-defectors
    http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/11/russias-immigrants-facing-crackdowns-and-xenophobia/
    (though I appreciate that for some that extradition to death in the workers paradise will not be seen as much of a punishment)

    http://world.time.com/2013/10/14/russia-responds-to-anti-migrant-riots-by-arresting-migrants/

    http://theworldoutline.com/2013/08/russias-poor-treatment-illegal-immigrants-exposes-tensions/

    http://www.jta.org/1931/07/05/archive/jewish-immigrants-from-russia-protest-bad-treatment-in-riga

    (slipped this one in to show that not much has changed from the good old days)

  • Resident Dissident

    Since Mr Goss is such an expert on socialism perhaps he might wish to tell us if and when it died out in the government of the Soviet Union and whether or not he believed Solidarity and other free trade unions in the Soviet bloc were advancing the cause of socialism.

  • nevermind

    Thanks for that latest sabre rattling from Bibi, what a surprise, yawn,
    this from a September ‘tablet’, our old herald Z. Brezcisnki calling for the UAS to shoot down israeli jets should they so much as attack Iran.

    more of the should/would/could variety.

    http://tabletmag.com/scroll/16498/if-israel-attacks-iran?utm_source=outbrain&utm_medium=referral

    @ RoS An alliance of political parties is a great idea, especially if they go into an election with a five/ten point policy agreement offer to the electorate.

    For that realisation, they all would have to work hard to come up with such manifest, a good few weeks before the vote, lets hope proportional representation for all in England is part of it.

  • Vronsky

    In Scotland it’s pretty much ***GAME OVER*** for the BBC. New broadcast media, including radio and TV channels, are being created through crowd funding and redirection of the BBC licence fee. The ‘buycott’ strategy: don’t refuse to pay – just pay someone else. We’ll need a moment or two to pull this together, but watch this space….

    TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Craig still hasn’t replied to my invitation to speak. Find some way to have your marketing team withdraw their fingers from their arses, Craig.

  • DoNNyDarKo

    I saw we were getting our own newspaper that was Independent minded,had no idea that things were moving on the TV front as well.That’s great news Vronsky.
    Since Wings oS came on the scene I now do my own research on what the politicians say and check if possible if true.
    We are lied to continuously and Labour are probably the worst of the lot.
    Gordon Brown is getting out because he’ll lose his seat.But he’ll get his Lordship and his company will be fed enough dough to keep him and his wifey comfortable.He’s done his bit for his masters the NWO.He has kept Blair out of jail,Britain in Europe and then Scotland in the UK.There’ll be the odd high profile speech to keep his bloated figure and ego satisfied.
    The British Govt act just like any company would and reward their employees for sticking to company policy and keeping the gravy train on track.
    Business as usual.

  • Mark Golding

    ResDis exclaims or babbles, ‘Mr Goldings half cracked conspiracy theories.’

    ‘Spilling the beans’ has consequences and more than once I have been called a ‘911 denier’ and the thrust of my argument disparaged with disdain in contempt of evidence either in plain sight or kept under a strict secrecy that guarantees at best ruin or worse curtains and darkness if divulged.

    That argument insisted the stimulated and reclassified ‘Cold War’ is being fabricated by the Useless Sequiturs (US) who need an Orwellian ‘enemy of the State’ or real life Trotsky to justify its military-industrial complex that is bankrupting the country and brutalising the world, while enriching the UK/US oligarths to the detriment of civil society everywhere.

    Rather than stab the whistle-blowers in the back or goof out proven conspiracy theory as treacherous or uncodified, we can use our intelligence and simply ‘follow the money’ to understand the British and America hegemonic foreign policy that must protect their banking systems esp. when trading energy reserves and esp. when you are broke near collapse – this piece is a good example and clarifies the need to oust Assad for a western leaning moron:

    http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/pipeline-politics-in-syria/

    With a modicum of thought Russia, China, India, Iraq, Iran, Libya and indeed Africa are analogous to this construct.

  • Republicofscotland

    RoS

    “Alan Bissett reads The People’s Vow at the close of the Radical Independence Campaign conference”
    ______________________________________

    Thanks Mary.

    I already posted a link to it at 3.44pm but thanks anyway.

  • John Goss

    If you want to take out a subscription to support Global Research you can do so here:

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/arm-yourselves-with-knowledge/25337

    There’s a wonderful quote from David Rockefeller at Bilderberg in 1991 at the beginning. I won’t spoil it. But those who have consistently called me a conspiracy theorist and denied that these big bankers and global manipulators are after world domination can eat their weasel words. Aaron Russo pointed out that Nathan Rockefeller told him the same thing about an ‘event’ (9/11) that would be blamed on Muslims, and how they would be searching in caves, when they created the event themselves in order to change the global structure of the planet.

    I would be happy to post the Nathan Russo link again should anyne request to see it.

  • Republicofscotland

    “@ RoS An alliance of political parties is a great idea, especially if they go into an election with a five/ten point policy agreement offer to the electorate.

    For that realisation, they all would have to work hard to come up with such manifest, a good few weeks before the vote, lets hope proportional representation for all in England is part of it.”
    __________________________________

    Yes Nevermind, I have to agree.

  • Resident Dissident

    Mark Golding

    With another modicum of thought it might also be realised that the Putin and the Chinese autocracy also have their own military industrial complexes to maintain and are not disinterested in oil and money as well. Another modicum of thought will also lead to the view that there are a whole load of other competing interests in this World – some honourable, some not so – which mean that the same conspiracy theory cannot be used to justify every single event, and excuse any abuse of human rights by those who oppose the US. Perhaps a little more thought is required than Mr Golding’s modicum.

  • Resident Dissident

    If you want to take out a subscription to support Global Research

    Why? I can get the gist of what its says here from the links provided here – $95 for a book from Michel Chossuduvsky does appear a liitle steep.

    re the Russo/Rothschilds nonsense read here

    http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Aaron_Russo

    Did Mr Goss air all this Rothschilds conspiracy stuff when he was busy infiltrating the Labour Party? How does it go down in his present political home?

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