You can see me speaking 24 minutes in here. Can’t work out how to embed this one. It was literally freezing and the very small crowd was understandable. I think four hour rallies outdoors in Scotland in midwinter are somewhat optimistic. I think we also need to face that the high excitement of the referendum campaign, where you could just put something out on Facebook and 10,000 people would show up, is behind us. What we have now is a period of hard graft towards the general election.
I think what I say in this short speech will give comfort to those in the SNP who blocked me as a candidate, because as usual I am joyfully off message. Shortly after me there is an amazing speech from Tommy Sheridan; his physical voice projection alone is astonishing! It was bouncing back off Salisbury Crags and Holyrood Palace.
This really is under 100 yards from where we live. That view of Salisbury Crags is what I see every time I look out the window. The balcony will be great once it gets a bit warmer.
Maxter
Well, if I hadn’t been invited I wouldn’t have known it was on, so might be to do with lack of publicity. But the street movement is dormant for the moment. Yes, I won’t pretend I wasn’t disappointed too.
Mark Golding
I am unconvinced by the Putin wasn’t invited story. It is true that you don’t generally send written invitations to Heads of State – normally your Ambassador will convey a verbal invitation to either the Head of State, should they have a chance, or the foreign ministry. Only if it’s welcomed, would you proceed to follow up in writing. I have actually done this, so I know the form. It’s to avoid the embarrassment of a refusal. It would be absolutely normal in this process, if one Head of State were meeting another, for them to make the oral invitation Macky.
So I am really unconvinced by the Putin wasn’t invited story. That seems to me very improbable. I do not regard Interfax as even slightly reliable if the story in any way concerns Russia.
Thanks for the laugh, Mary….
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/129074/outrage-over-question-time-slot-george-galloway
(It’s not as if the monomaniac Israelophile Melanie Philips didn’t pop up most weeks on BBC R4’s ‘Moral Maze’, is it? Sometimes presented by this xunt, too…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04nv97d )
Mark Gardner, of the Community Security Trust, said the organisation had raised concerns with police about potential heightened tensions outside the venue where the recording is to take place.
Veiled threat noted, I hope, George.
And, btw, not being exceptionalist at all, are we? The CST and the shomrim will maintain order, surely? Unlike all other communities in the UK, dependent on the official police as they are….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2905047/Jewish-patrol-cars-force-London-amid-fears-copycat-attack.html
Christ, they’ve even got squad cars. WTF is going on?
Just hope the Finchley brigade do not torch GG’s car.
Was the attack on Rabbi Cohen’s car last September counted as an antisemitic crime or was it discounted on the basis that criticism of Israel is itself anti-Semitic? Can we be told.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/watch-arsonists-torched-car-salford-7808421
This Q&A is of interest.
Lord Nazir Ahmed’s Written Question on Freedom of Expression, answered on 2nd February by Lord Bates:
Lord Ahmed: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria must be applied when classifying acts as hate speech or incitement to hatred and violence; and whether they have any plans to redefine those criteria following the recent attacks on the offices of the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.
Lord Bates: Part 3 and Part 3A of the Public Order Act 1986 (as amended by the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 and Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008) cover a range of offences relating to inciting hatred on the grounds of race, religion and sexual orientation.
For offences under both parts of this legislation, the criminal threshold has to be met in order for a person to be found guilty. For racial hatred the threshold test is that the words or behaviour used have to be ‘threatening’, ‘abusive’ or ‘insulting’ and intend to stir up racial hatred or having regard to all the circumstances racial hatred is likely to be stirred up. For hatred on the grounds of religion and sexual orientation, the threshold test is different; the words or behaviour have to be ‘threatening’ and the person must intend thereby to stir up hatred on the grounds of religion or sexual orientation. This part of the Act also sets out a provision for the protection of freedom of expression.
The government has no current plans to make amendments to this legislation.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Lords/2015-01-23/HL4387
PS Poor Rabbi Cohen who spoke out about Gaza.
From the last para of the report.
‘A neighbour, who declined to be named, said: “His views have angered a lot of people around here. A lot of families have boys in the Israeli army.”‘
Impeccable reasoning from the neighbour! Trust the ‘boys’ who committed war crimes in Gaza were not arrested at Heathrow on return just like those returning from Syria are arrested?
.
In response to Tony_OP moc
Good video…have a watch of this one!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZo1sXsC-68
the great, big, dull bulk of the nation will rub its sleepy eyes and try to make out why there should be a war, and will say, earnestly and indignantly, ‘It is unjust and dishonorable, and there is no necessity for it.’ Then the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have a hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will outshout them, and presently the anti-war audiences will thin out and lose popularity.
http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/02/02/3032
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/justice-on-londons-streets-the-jewish-way-1857591.html
Ok, ok, it’s just neighbourhood watch with big intimidating shomrim* guys on the streets instead of old ladies behind lace curtains, and it is antisemitic to suggest otherwise. Fine. I look forward to seeing patrol cars in police livery, and their occupants displaying the legend ‘ حارس ‘* buzzing round Muslim Asian areas. Don’t you? Bet the police do too.
*Translation – ‘Guard’
“So I am really unconvinced by the Putin wasn’t invited story. That seems to me very improbable. I do not regard Interfax as even slightly reliable if the story in any way concerns Russia.”
Craig, of one thing I am convinced. Good though you are on most subjects you are blindly opposed to anything to do with the Russian government and Vladimir Putin. Rory Suchet joined Russia Today and took a big dip in salary because MSM were not reporting the truth. You are well aware of western bias in your own dealings with our media from your personal experience. This young man (they’re all young men to me now) Finian Cunningham worked for the Irish Times, Mirror and Independent but is now based in East Africa. Honest journalists are hard to come by. The bright ones amongst us should be listening to them.
http://nsnbc.me/2015/02/03/mission-imperative-why-ukraines-western-backed-regime-is-targeting-journalists/
Personally Craig Occam’s Razor proposes otherwise in that Poland, which has criticised Moscow over its role in the Ukraine crisis, did not send a full diplomatic invitation to Putin, wary of the domestic political consequences of inviting the Russian leader.
In the long run who would want a ‘paedophile’ at a memorial service alioqui?
Mr Goss
Did you ever reply to Resident Dissident’s question about the Polish Solidarity movement?
I too would like to hear you on (1) what you felt about Solidarity at the time (did you welcome it?), and (2) whether you think the USSR should have intervened militarily to crush the Soldarity movement ( as it intervened militarily in Hungary and Czechoslovakia?
Thank you.
‘Newsletter – January 2015
Detention figures – According to the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), as of 31 December 2014, there were 5,528 Palestinians (West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza) held as “security prisoners” in Israeli detention facilities including 151 children. In the case of children this represents decrease of 3 per cent compared with the previous month and an annual decrease of 6 per cent compared with 2013.
According to the IPS, 47 per cent of Palestinian children and 90 per cent of adults continue to be detained in facilities inside Israel, in violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. A further 1,800 Palestinians were held in IPS detention as “criminal prisoners” including 34 children. Criminal offences include entering Israel without a permit, most frequently in pursuit of work.’
More statistics http://www.militarycourtwatch.org/index.php
Here is Cherie holding forth on the Magna Carta. Listen out for her hypocrisy.
Cherie Blair QC, Chair, Omnia Strategy
Cherie Blair QC talks to legal commentator Joshua Rozenberg (Mr Melanie Phillips, poor man) about the upcoming Global Law Summit and why it’s important to mark this significant anniversary, 800 years of Magna Carta.
http://globallawsummit.com/cherie-blair-qc-chair-omnia-strategy/
‘Cherie Blair CBE QC
Founder and Chair
Omnia Strategy LLP
Cherie Blair CBE, QC is the Founder and Chair of Omnia Strategy LLP, a pioneering international law firm that provides strategic counsel to governments, corporate and private clients. She is a Queen’s Counsel and wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. With over 35 years’ experience as a leading barrister specialising in public international law, human rights, arbitration and mediation, Mrs Blair has represented over 30 governments as well as numerous multinational corporations in international disputes.
Through Omnia Strategy, she advises corporates on issues relating to their Global Corporate Citizenship with a particular focus on Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights in Business. Blair is also the Founder and Patron of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, a charity that provides programmes for women entrepreneurs in developing and transition countries.’
Here’s a question, by way of illustration: If Hitler had included the Jews in his master-race BS, does anyone think they wouldn’t have gone along with it? Particularly considering how enthusiastically they are adopting most of the master-race philosophy, treatment of “the other”, propaganda, dehumanising and military aggression towards their own victims.
_____________________________________
Apologises Glenn for missing your question.
In answer to the above question, I’ve no idea whether the Jews would have gone along with Hitler’s plan, I cannot in all honesty condemn or condone the Jews with regards to the above question.
The answer to the second part of the question, yes the Israeli’s appear to have taken over the mantle of their historical abusers.
………………………………..
“Not at all, RoS, I’m just noting (with no small amount of dismay) how partisan people can be in their criticism.”
__________________
Tell me Glen what do you mean by partisan, and could you be more specific as to why you feel dismayed, about my comments, with regards to their criticism.
thanks.
“The Jews” have never done anything any more than “the Christians” or “the Muslims”. They all vary in their beliefs and in their actions. So the likely answer is some would have and some would have refused to.
Clark, I usually broadly agree with most of what you say, but you seem to be way off the mark with this one:
“Peacewisher, depleted uranium is less radioactive than natural uranium; that’s what’s depleted about it. It’s still a nasty poison chemically, so it’s best not to make munitions from it and fire it into things, because that liberates it as dust.”
You appear to be spouting the same old nuke loon’s line about ‘external radiation’, which is the only thing the nuke loons accept, as opposed to ‘internal radiation’; ie, if any of this crap gets inside your body you’ve had it.
If you want some undestanding of depleted uranium (which is basically nuclear waste that has been through the fission process, and is nothing like natural uranium, which we’ve had millions of years to adapt to) you might want to listen to this talk given by a former head of the Pentagon’s Depleted Uranium Project. Bear in mind that Dr Rokke is talking about the first Gulf War (1990-1991), when Iraq invaded Kuwait, and Bush senior was in the Whitehouse. He describes it as the ‘most toxic war in history’. The sad thing is that one year after Dr Rokke gave this speech we got Round 2. Dr Rokke speaks for the best part of an hour, but it’s well worth listening to, as he gives an expert’s knowledge of depleted uranium munitions, and particularly how it’s almost impossible to decontaminate vehicles and other military equipment that’s been irradiated by depleted uranium (everyone wondered why the Americans left behind in all the Middle East wars billions of dollars of military equipment. It was because it was too irradiated):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvEictROTko
I could go on and on with this, but the level of self-denial one finds on comment threads is quite astonoshing (hence my deckchair on the sidelines).
At my earlier suggestion, folks could search for something like ‘dying animals in the Pacific’, you can also search for ‘USS Reagan sailors lawsuit’. You can also look at the WHO World Cancer Report released this time last year, which stated that cancer rates will go up by 70% over the coming decades, meaning that 8 out of every 10 people will get cancer. This WHO report was released shortly after UNISCEAR (United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation) released a report saying that only a very small number of people will die as a result of Fukushima; Fukushima, of course, being the worst disaster in human history. Cue the hollow laughter. Oh, and if you want some inkling of just how corrupt the WHO is, I strongly recommend this interview with Alison Katz, a sociologist and psychologist who worked for the WHO for 18 years, and has an intimate knowledge of the corruption and outright criminality that goes on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEG7nUQOGI
It seems fitting that my post here comes at the end of a long comment thread, because I know that no one will take a blind bit of notice of it, anyway.
So long, and thanks for all the fish…
Baal-Komodo
“Ok, ok, it’s just neighbourhood watch with big intimidating shomrim* guys on the streets instead of old ladies behind lace curtains”
_________________
Was it by any chance the fear of running into “shomrin guys” that caused you to abandon your ideas about demonstrating peacefully* outside your local synagogue?
* hissing and waving a poster.
And I thought Sharia Law was bad, now we have the Brown Shirts, Oops I mean’t Shomrim patrolling the streets, with equipment and training from the police.
I mean Islam has no quasi- cops patrolling the streets with stab proof vest and batons, they even have their own vehicles that looks remarkably similar to police vehicles, the police imposters are even allowed to detain suspects, until police arrive.
Hasn’t anyone read the police act.
Police Act 1996 s 90 created offences relating to the impersonation of a police officer:
(1) Any person who with intent to deceive impersonates a member of a police force or special constable, or makes any statement or does any act calculated falsely to suggest that he is such a member or constable, shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale, or to both.
(2) Any person who, not being a constable, wears any article of police uniform in circumstances where it gives him an appearance so nearly resembling that of a member of a police force as to be calculated to deceive shall be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale.
(3) Any person who, not being a member of a police force or special constable, has in his possession any article of police uniform shall, unless he proves that he obtained possession of that article lawfully and has possession of it for a lawful purpose, be guilty of an offence and liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 1 on the standard scale.
@RobG : “It seems fitting that my post here comes at the end of a long comment thread, because I know that no one will take a blind bit of notice of it, anyway.”
Oh, you’d be surprised, Rob 😉
@Glenn
3 Feb, 2015 – 8:40 pm
Thank you. Good to hear, because although both interviews I link to above are lengthy, they go into stuff, all backed by facts, that you won’t mostly hear even in the so-called ‘alternate media’.
If anyone doubts the veracity of these interviews I can provide further links.
The Rokke interview might give some insight into why some Islamic nutters are queueing up to kill us (the use of depleted uranium weapons are one of the biggest recruiting tools for the jihadis).
The Katz interview might give some idea why not many westerners on these comment threads understand what I’m talking about.
RobG, 7:19 pm:
RobG, I haven’t watched the video yet, I’m short of time.
Proper depleted uranium is what’s left after uranium enrichment. Natural uranium contains about 99.3% uranium-238 and 0.7% uranium-235. U235 is fissile and can therefore be used as nuclear fuel. U238 is fertile, meaning it can be transmuted up to become fissile plutonium, but it is not fissile itself. Depleted uranium has less U235 and is therefore most definitely less radioactive than mined uranium.
There is also “dirty DU” which comes from reprocessed “spent” nuclear fuel. This contains traces of plutonium and neptunium. I dread to think what else might be in this stuff, but it is still less radioactive than mined uranium.
I’m totally opposed to using any kind of uranium to make munitions. On impact it becomes an aerosol which gets widely dispersed and is easily ingested. It is very chemically toxic, compared with which its tiny radioactivity is insignificant.
But I was answering Peacewisher’s concern about future contamination from stockpiles of depleted uranium, not munitions. There is far more proper depleted uranium, leftover from uranium enrichment, than there is dirty DU from reprocessing. But the radiation from both of these substances is insignificant. And chemically, they won’t have the ill effects seen on battlefields unless they somehow become converted to aerosols – we’re talking thousands of tonnes here, so it’s not going to happen.
Regarding the World Health Authority, if you search you’ll find that in matters nuclear, the WHO is legally required to defer to either UNSCEAR or UAEA, I forget which. Yep, cover-up territory.
RobG, I have a layman’s interest in nuclear technology. I have read Chris Busby’s Wings of Death and understood some of it (more than you did apparently), and I’m inclined, at my present level of knowledge, to accept his argument that isotopes from the nuclear industry are much more harmful than the authorities admit. But that doesn’t make depleted uranium highly radioactive. It isn’t, and you shouldn’t underrate its chemical toxicity because you’ll be barking up the wrong tree.
Thanks for the video which I will watch. As I said, this is something I’m interested in.
RobG, I am totally opposed to uranium munitions. I’m trying to set people straight about nuclear stuff because anti-nuke campaigners have repeatedly discredited themselves by demonstrating their ignorance of nuclear science.
Consider; the anti-nuke activists lobby a government minister about the “radioactivity” of depleted uranium. The minister goes to the nuclear scientists, who say “eh? It’s barely radioactive, we handle it all the time using only latex gloves. Here, look at these radiation meters” And the activists have just lost traction with the government minister, yes? They should have stressed the chemical toxicity.
Habbabkuk, 7:29 pm:
Are these “shormin guys” to be feared?
RobG, 9 minutes 40 seconds in, Rokke confirms what I wrote earlier; “Now uranium immediately starts out… Your primary problem is heavy metal, not the radiological components. It’s the heavy metal components. So you need to do chelation just like you do for lead poisoning”.
Clark, we can argue the toss about depleted uranium. Here’s a piece from Dwmocracy Now:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNi_1pbSqGY
(Warning: not good if you have a weak stomoch)
And you wonder why they all want to kill us…
And please listen to everything Rokke says.
His talk was from decades ago.
No one is allowed to stand up and say this anymore; at least, not without being killed.
Ain’t western democracy wonderful.
Typos are, as usual, down to my knackered computer.
Peacewisher
In further response about the entire stock of DU as a hazard for the future, much of it is stored as uranium hexafluoride, a form from which the uranium could easily be dispersed in water leading to it being ingested. It needs to be converted into an insoluble solid, preferably before the civilisation storing it collapses.
RobG:
13 minutes: Rokke is absolutely right that DU is far more harmful when ingested, but he introduces a confused or confusing claim of increase in alpha emission. Alpha emission should still be considerably lower than that of natural uranium. If he’s right and it was significantly higher, this would presumably indicate contamination with other radioactive isotopes. This would suggest freshly or badly reprocessed material which should never have been used, a breach of specification by suppliers. He’s clearly angry at this point, and I don’t blame him at all. The way he stumbles over his words could suggest he’s gagged on this matter (commercially?), and absolutely furious about it.
RobG, I don’t just watch videos and have an emotive response to them. I’m less than fifteen minutes into Rokke. The rest of my time I’ve spent checking facts, working things out and composing considered replies, here and on the Auschwitz thread. I want to go to bed. I don’t “argue the toss”, I give you the benefit of what knowledge I have, to the best of my ability.
I suspect Rokke knew exactly what he couldn’t say without getting killed, and he didn’t say it, which was why he was quaking with rage at that point. Has he, or the subject of your second video, been killed?
RobG, first thing I thought when I woke up is that I should apologise for getting snarky at you. I’m over-tired and rather annoyed; the discussion on the Auschwitz thread has taken a lot of my time (heartfelt thanks to Glenn on that thread) and I thought you’d thrown yet another hour of video at me to evaluate, but I see that the Democracy Now vid is less than twelve minutes.
Still, not wasted time as it made me think about the long-term dangers of DU (for those not crazy enough to make it into projectiles and fire it at armoured plate). It needs to be made into an insoluble solid. It must not be left as UF6 as much is at present. And if a substance is highly radioactive and they’re calling it DU, they’re concealing what’s really in it.
RobG, if you want help with that laptop, contact me by e-mail or at squonk.tk
Hammond is visiting Indonesia, that outpost of democracy. NOT
What’s he up to?
Indonesia
2014 country by country
Freedom in the world – partly free
Index of economic freedom – mostly unfree
Press freedom index – difficult situation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_freedom_indices#List_by_country
The list makes interesting reading.
Chilcot appearing before the FAC Committee (Rifkind and co)
very shortly. Will the hearing be televised?
Iraq Inquiry: Chilcot to face MPs over delays to report
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31007987
~~~
Did anyone see Michael Cockerell’s documentary about the HoC last night? The place and what goes on within is a farce if we did not already know.