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.
Phil
“Not sure if this is the info you are looking for but council houses were not subsidised. Rents covered costs. Rents were fairer due to things like macro planning, state buying power and the absence of shareholders.”
_____________
Thank you, Phil.
I wasn’t trying to say – at least not at this stage – that council house rents were subsidised, nor that they were fair or unfair. I just wanted to know how (on which basis)their level was determined. Can you – or anyone else – give more info on what is meant by “rents covered costs”? Which costs, over which period, etc….
Peacewisher, you’ve actually disproved your own suspicions. Battlefield toxins have created birth defects, but those battle zones still support life just fine.
“@Dreolin: yes, what an admission that was! And what a mess Ukraine has become as a result of the (illegal, obviously!) coup.”
The brass neck of him!
I get so angry sometimes at those in Washington that I can barely speak. Or write.
I have to go off now and read for a while because if I stay online, I won’t be able to sleep.
Peacewisher: Did you know Brian Haw? It’s possible, if you were one of his mates, that we’ve met. I saw him for a fairly lengthy interview back in 2006, and we stopped for an extended chat again around the start of 2008. Spoke with a number of people around him first for some time, who were rather keen to check that I was both on the up-and-up (before taking up most of his afternoon), and not completely clueless, so as not to waste his energy.
Lysias
Your post at 23h06 contains two major errors of emphasis and interpretation.
1/. I should not see the Transatlantic Marketplace somehow as a one-off. It would be more accurate to place it in the more general context of the efforts to liberalise (with the aim of expanding) international trade and commerce which started after the last war under the auspices of GATT and which continue under the WTO. The WTO is the name of the game now, cf the decade long efforts of Russia and China to be admitted to membership.
2/. I think you over-estimate the power of a single Commissioner and a single Member State to shape EU policy in this field. After all, it is the entire Commission which has to sign off on starting trade talks and it is the entire EU, in the shape of all its Member States, which signs off on the outcome of trade negotiations.
RobG, 10:21 pm gives a wrong impression here:
Now I agree there’s a cover-up and an attempt to divert blame from nuclear pollution onto other environmental factors – this cover-up is an expression of the powerful nuclear lobby, associated as it is with the military and political power of nuclear weapons.
But the contents of the world’s nuclear power reactors and the “spent” fuel they’ve produced present a far greater long-term threat, simply because there are thousands of times as much nuclear material involved than there has ever been for the nuclear weaponry.
Fukushima should be on RobG’s list. There’s a cover-up in progress, the meltdowns presumably still continuing, radioactive water being discharged into the ocean.
@Clark: I think you’ll find depleted uranium is much more than “just” a poison. Very many examples of birth defects as a result of 1991 bombings, and that was the whole point of Brian’s protest. But did that stop them repeating the outrage in 2003?
@Glenn: no… but I saw and read what was on his stand and was quite in awe of the complete lack of fear despite his location.
Peacewisher, don’t underestimate chemical poisons; our bodies work on chemistry. Some spiders make toxins that will kill you in minutes rather than giving you cancer in decades. There are multiple toxins dispersed by modern weaponry, many of them compounds, many containing mercury – it’s impossible to do proper research in such places. Brian’s campaign was against war. I don’t think Brian Haw had much technical knowledge of radioactivity.
Beware the nuclear bogey-man, it leads people to make mistakes. Many things extracted from beneath Earth’s surface carry radioactivity. Large quantities of radioactive substances are released by burning fossil fuels. And depleted uranium is definitely less radioactive than uranium straight from a mine.
However, some so-called “depleted uranium” may actually have come from nuclear reprocessing rather than being a waste product from uranium enrichment, and could therefore be carrying other isotopes.
”
So Mr Goss do you believe that the Militant Tendency of which Tommy Sheridan a “supporter” (or member as Mr Kinnock would like us to call them) was or wasn’t trying to infiltrate the Labour Party? Did you ever support the Militant Tendency?
What were your views regarding Polish Solidarity – and organisation like Syriza and Podemos that stood against the establishment in its own country?
I wouldn’t like to impute your motives – but a few facts would be nice? You are not usually one to hold back on your opinions.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/01/sam-adams-award/comment-page-2/#comment-505530
It is important that we are not made to look silly by software, which I suspect happens. I know for a fact that with WordPress there are editing facilities not available to ordinary users. Unfortunately they have total control. They may even be responsible for:
“Other commenters on here might moght loke to conform.”
“Just for the record I would never write “their are atrocities on all sides” so I can only assume there (not their) is a facility to make decent people, (those who are trying to bring awareness to the sleeping many) look stupid. I suspect that this will be exposed one day. If you have any doubts about my command of English read my thesis.”
The above is what I wrote, not what is presented in the comment above.
I have been writing about Craig Murray today on The Daily Telegraph..probably no one noticed..and someone was trying to wind me up..I get a lot of that..anyhow I wrote this which has nothing whatsoever to do with religion or politics..I was writing about Quality..
“intemperate” ? I come from Oldham..wtf is that supposed to mean??
Oh I am feeling a bit intemperate today..I must go and do something about my intemperateness..Are You A Roman Catholic Priest or Something..Haven’t you had a little boy Recently..or what the fck??
Are you one of these??
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAY46NW7EDo
I just like blonde sexy girls
Yeh Probably All Of These..
intemperate
ɪnˈtɛmp(ə)rət/Submit
adjective
having or showing a lack of self-control; immoderate.
“intemperate outbursts concerning global conspiracies”
synonyms: immoderate, excessive, undue, inordinate, unreasonable, unjustified, unwarranted, uncalled for; More
antonyms: moderate
given to or characterized by excessive indulgence, especially in alcohol.
“an intemperate social occasion”
The video I did last night..well I knew the photography was probably O.K…cos of the beautiful back lighting..but what Really Blew Me Away was THE SOUND
I must admit, I had been testing and complaining and sending the cameras back…I ain’t buying shiit..
I find it hard to believe that this little camera did that..I didn’t even use the external mike..I am looking at this thing in my pocket..I bought it second hand..for less than half the price..but it looks brand new to me..and the lens too is something else..
I was right at the front…and it was Rather LOUD…and I am going deaf..This camera took it all on board..and got it and processed it (well some of us write in machine code)
I have met some of these lads on a training course in London
Well done Sony..But Your Latest Stuff is not as good..I guess you English guys got Fired…a bit like The chocolate ain’t it..??
All We Get Now is American Shiite.
Tony
“According to the Herald newspaper Labour are to roll out the messiah of politics, Gordon Brown, to thwart those pesky nats (Fred will be pleased).”
Fuck off and die nasty Nazi holocaust denying Jew hating retard creep.
Habbakuk
“Can you – or anyone else – give more info on what is meant by “rents covered costs”?”
My comment was simple, short and fairly unambiguous. Rent covered costs. i.e. Rent paid for the building and maintenance.
“I wasn’t trying to say – at least not at this stage – that council house rents were subsidised, nor that they were fair or unfair.”
Oh I see. You were asking for others to dig out info to fit your preconceived notions. Sorry reality doesn’t fit.
Clark
I meant “global warming propaganda”.
RobG
I share your frustrations about reformist agendas and, obviously, nuclear weapons. However, the end is nigh assertions probably do need some strong resources to be convincing.
I share your despair at how we behave. However, for all sorts of reasons which I will talk about later when I have time and if you’re interested I have more faith in human nature than you seem to. I’m not saying we are not way off course or that our survival is certaion. But I do believe that we have the capacity to build a better world.
“intemperate” ? I come from Oldham..wtf is that supposed to mean??
Pissed. Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Better roasted than grilled!
Leaders To Be Grilled On Issues Facing Young
Young people are set to take on Britain’s political leaders over the issues that matter most to them as part of #AskTheLeaders.
http://news.sky.com/story/1419321/leaders-to-be-grilled-on-issues-facing-young
What leaders? I did not know that we had any.
So what have he and Poison Gove (and now Morgan) been doing for the last 5 years? Setting academies and free schools in place at vast cost to the tax payer to the detriment of local authority schools.
Cameron attacks school ‘mediocrity’
Almost 3,500 schools in England rated as requiring improvement face being forced into new leadership, under plans to be announced by David Cameron.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31087137
Policies for improving schools had ‘no effect’, finds parliamentary inquiry
Committee says impact of coalition’s multibillion pound converter academy programme for raising performance in England is ‘inconclusive’ http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jan/25/government-policies-improving-uk-schools-had-no-effect-parliamentary-inquiry
Note the ‘£multibillion’.
At a (sic) Ingerlish garden centre near you…
http://usvsth3m.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/il_570xN.695660566_rou1.jpg
Clark
lysias, 11:06 pm, I suspect it was rather the other way around. Because the great powers knew what these politicians were doing to children, they had perfect blackmail material to make them agree to any policy they were told to follow…
________________
Spot on.
By chance, I came home from the pub a couple of nights ago and turned on the TV, in the middle of The Godfather. Some American senator was sitting on a bed, baffled and distraught, while a blood-spattered dead woman lay on the bed beside him. He kept repeating over and over how he didn’t know how it could have happened. And he’d didn’t remember. Obviously he had been drugged. Standing over him in the room were some sharply dressed mafia hoods. They reassured him there was nothing to worry about, the girl was a stranger there, no one knew her, no family or friends. They could clear up the mess, get rid of her and no one would ever know. The mafia guys added in calm, reassuring voice:
‘All that will remain is our friendship.’
Phil
Absolutely no preconceived notions. You’re being too suspicious.
“My comment was simple, short and fairly unambiguous. Rent covered costs. i.e. Rent paid for the building and maintenance.”
_______________________
Surely it must have been rather more complicated than that?
If the rent on a council house merely covered the building cost (and perhaps the cost of the land) plus an amount for maintenance then surely it should have dropped sharply after say 25 years once the building cost had been recovered (in the same way as a mortgage is finally paid off after “x” years)? But that was not the case, was it?
Could it not therefore be argued that councils were making a substantial profit after, say, 25 years by not lowering the rent to cover only maintenance?
You’re obviously bored, Komodo. Why don’t stand outside a synagogue and hiss for a couple of hours?
It is wearisome to scroll through exclusive conversations of a specialised nature while forming a barometer of opinions from contributors posts on the progress of Craig’s re-entry into statecraft that may well deliver an honesty to prod at current political agendas.
I have to say I was disappointed no mention here of the insult to President Putin, having not been invited to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the grimmest symbol of modern history.
– at the very least, it would have reminded the world that the advance of Stalin’s Red Army forced the SS to abandon the extermination camps in the east. And yet the muted row over the Russian president’s absence is a reminder that this particular chapter in Russia’s second world war history was, and remains, full of contradictions.
This while the British and Americans were fiendishly more interested in securing money together with the scientific expertise to make weapons of mass destruction.
I myself, are compelled to recognize the extermination camp as the ultimate capitalist factory, where the workers were murdered when no longer useful. This may well bring home the importance of evolving our terms of democracy and what the SNP can contribute to this reexamination and movement.
Mary’s post on schools (above) reminded me of something on the BBC (radio) yesterday to the effect that efforts should be made to ensure that childrens’ maths skills needed to be improved; the example given was that they should be able to master fully the 12 times table by the time they left primary school. That would seem quite reasonable to most people, I should have thought. But what was interesting was that the news item also reported the immediate reaction of someone from (I think) one of the teachers’ unions, who claimed that that objective would “simply put yet more pressure on pupils and teachers” (or words to that effect).
Would anyone like to comment on that reaction, which I, for my part, found rather astonishing.
“needed to be improved” = “should be improved”
Mark Golding
“I myself, are compelled to recognize the extermination camp as the ultimate capitalist factory, where the workers were murdered when no longer useful.”
_________________
Ann interesting comment but for the fact that the only extermination camp (we are talking about Belzec, Chelmno, Maidanek, Treblinka, Sobibor and Auschwitz-Birkenau)with a significant “work” element was the Auschwitz-Birkenau complex.
The others were simple extermination camps were the arrivals were herded into the gas chambers (or shot) in short order.
Hence the reference to “capitalist factories” is erroneous.
Mark Golding
“I have to say I was disappointed no mention here of the insult to President Putin, having not been invited to the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial ceremony to mark the 70th anniversary of the grimmest symbol of modern history.”
Putin chose to make it an insult. He could have attended anyway, as did many who hadn’t been especially invited. And it’s hardly a surprise he wasn’t invited, given recent events in Ukraine (he was invited to the last commemoration ten years ago).
“I myself, are compelled to recognize the extermination camp as the ultimate capitalist factory, where the workers were murdered when no longer useful. ”
A good contender for loony left comment of the century.
Habbabkuk
Yes, I will comment. I share your astonishment, although it might be more accurate to say I am shocked but not entirely surprised by the comment. Coincidentally, I was just thinking yesterday that of all the things I was taught in school there probably isn’t anything I have used more frequently in subsequent life than my ‘times tables’. I doubt a day goes by without my performing some simple piece of mental arithmetic using them. I’m just grateful that the 3 ‘R’s were not regarded with such disdain when I was in school.