What comes out to me from the “Black Spider letter” correspondence of Prince Charles published today is how utterly obsequious Tony Blair and New Labour ministers were to him. No sign whatsoever of radicalism from the former “People’s Party” as they fell over to ingratiate themselves with the heir to the throne. I rather enjoyed Charles quite sharp tone to Blair.
I am fundamentally opposed to the existence of the monarchy. It will hopefully be replaced by a better system, but no human system is perfect. Given that we have a monarchy at present, you will perhaps be surprised to learn that I do not see anything wrong in Charles’ letters, which put forward views which are much what we would have expected him to hold. Of course there is interaction between the monarchy and government, and of course we should get rid of this hereditary element. But Charles’ lobbying is hugely less damaging and pernicious than the corporate lobbying I witnessed throughout my Whitehall career. At least Charles is not lobbying them for corporate advantage and giving large political donations at the same time.
While in my view he did nothing wrong in writing the letters, he and government are both very wrong in arguing they should be private. It is when it is secret that such attempts to wield influence between two branches of government – and monarchy is a branch of government – can be most simply perverted to ill ends. That such publication will not occur again because government has legislated to keep it secret, is an example of the privileged arrogance that prevents this from being a genuine democracy.
Altogether not that big a story and it gives Rusbridger and the Guardian the chance to pose as radical. I find the fact that what is published is so anodyne and unobjectionable rather suspicious – what has not been published? Rusbridger is of course the editor who complied enthusiastically with a GCHQ instruction to smash the Snowden hard drives. The existence of other copies does not justify this any more than it justifies book-burning.
By coincidence, a very worthwhile article by Michael Gillard that had been excised from the net has recently been republished, setting out how Rusbridger in 2002 conspired with Andy Hayman of the Met to bury an investigation into police corruption, including the burglary of the Stephen Lawrence inquiry. By a further coincidence I was having a pint with Laurie Flynn in Sandy Bell’s four days ago.
Hayman went on to be the promoter of the stream of lies about the murder of Jean Charles De Menezes and the publicist of numerous fake terrorist plots, before having to resign in a scandal involving nubile police officers at public expense in tropical islands.
Rusbridger and his extraordinary wig go on and on as a pretend opposition outlet, their reputation much dented by recent hysterical unionist output which exceeds the Daily Express. But Rusbridger’s continued usefulness to the establishment is not in doubt. The pose of publishing the most harmless of Prince Charles’ letters does little to help a threadbare disguise.
Appalling arrogance from the BBC
Mhairi Black cut off by Dimblebore 1min 54 in
AMERICANS PICK UP ON BBC SNEERS TOWARDS SCOTLAND http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMSBS9j2e3w
Robert Stuart’s tenacity is amazing. BBC lies on Syria reporting.
17 May 2015
BBC responds re: substitution of Newsnight footage
One hundred and eleven working days after the BBC said their reply may “take longer than 20 working days” I have received the below response to my letter of 5 November 2014 regarding the substitution of footage between two transmissions of an August 2014 edition of Newsnight.
After chasing via the BBC complaints webform and by telephone since February 2015, I was today informed by BBC Audience Services that a response had been posted to me on 11 May. As I had not received the letter, the customer services representative agreed to email it to me, which promptly occurred.
The nub of the matter, explained in full here, is that on 29 August 2014 Newsnight broadcast footage from the 26 August 2013 playground napalm bomb incident, accompanied by the narration “by chance, just as MPs voted, these images of a chemical attack were shown for the first time”. This was correct inasmuch as the BBC 10 O’Clock News of Thursday 29 August 2013 did indeed broadcast these images at the precise moment MPs were voting on the government’s motion on Syrian intervention. The veracity of Ian Pannell and Darren Conway’s reports is, however, strongly disputed.
/..
https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/2015/05/17/bbc-responds-re-substitution-of-newsnight-footage/
Craig’s post refers
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/10/bbc-propaganda/
Ref the original fabrication in BBC Panorama ‘Saving Syria’s Children’
Correspondence with the BBC over allegations that the Panorama documentary ‘Saving Syria’s Children’ broadcast on 30 September 2013 included staged sequences purporting to show the aftermath of an incendiary bomb attack on an Aleppo school on 26 August 2013
https://bbcpanoramasavingsyriaschildren.wordpress.com/
All is not well in the Queen’s Navee in Cornwall.
Royal Navy norovirus outbreak at HMS Raleigh leaves 70 ill
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-32770564
Dear Robert Get well and come back soon, Please!!
Global Research, May 17, 2015
Azerbaijan: Mafia State
Police in Baku arrested Nizami Piriyev, a high-profile Azerbaijani businessman closely associated with President Ilham Aliyev.
Mr Piriyev, media reported, was charged with various financial crimes. He is in prison ahead of a trial in what appears to be a spectacular public fall.
One of Azerbaijan’s richest men, Mr Piriyev was the official owner of the Azerbaijan Methanol Company, a large and high-profile operation on the outskirts of Baku.
He paid for former British PM Tony Blair to fly to Baku in 2009 to open the plant. Mr Blair, criticised for taking cash from governments with dubious human rights records since he left office in 2007, was photographed at a press conference in Baku sitting between Mr Piriyev and his son, Nasib.
http://www.globalresearch.ca/azerbaijan-police-arrest-businessman-linked-to-tony-blair/5449941
Piriyev worked for Gazprom.
Here is BLiar with Piriyev.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/azerbaijan/6728429/Tony-Blair-funded-by-obscure-oligarch.html
Mary
“Mhairi Black cut off by Dimblebore 1min 54 in”
_________________
Excellent – Ms Black was misusing her victory speech. Why should the UK BBC give too uch airtime to a separatist?
More generally, I should caution people against going into min-orgasms about how wonderful Ms Black is and the great things she is predicted to achiee.
The example of the equally fiery and almost as young Ms Bernadette Devlin refers……
Mary
“Global Research, May 17, 2015
Azerbaijan: Mafia State
Police in Baku arrested Nizami Piriyev, a high-profile Azerbaijani businessman closely associated with President Ilham Aliyev.
Etc, etc, etc….”
____________________
Isn’t is remarkable th
Isn’t it remarkable that the only times the pretentiously-named “Globalresearch” addresses corruption (and worse) in the former Soviet Republics is when they can connect it to a Western public figure.
If there’s no Blair or Cheney involved – zilch, total silence.
Globalresearch are anti-Western cunts…..who for some strange reason still live in the West. LOL
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond last week assured us there had been no leaks from Trident. What he didn’t tell us was that there was “a planned and deliberate gaseous discharge.” Radiation levels up tenfold, no warning for locals, but that’s OK because the duplicitous bastard used a form of words which meant he couldn’t be accused of lying. That’s why Scotland needs to get rid of both Trident and Westminster.
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-f84d-Trident-leak-sees-radiation-levels-soar-to-new-high#.VVjQPeS37tQ
“I challenge you to quote anything from it which supports your claim that “The law effectively legalized discrimination against LGBT people and cast them as second-class citizens.”
Come on then RD.”
I won’t since it wasn’t my claim – the law in Putin’s Russia (as in the USSR) is never to be taken too literally. If they want to get you they will and if they don’t it can be ignored (witness the massive capital outflows which in theory need CBR permission). Lets just say there are not many LGBT people who would take a complaint to the Police unless they were keen on another beating. The general lack of tolerance of homosexuality in Russian society is a disgrace in a modern society and Putin and his cronies do precious little to encourage any change.
Of course Mr Goss will never see any fascist tendencies in the Putin Youth
http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1646809_1416346,00.html
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/dec/08/putin-russia-elections
http://imrussia.org/en/politics/420-the-fate-of-the-nashi-movement-where-will-the-kremlins-youth-go
http://seansrussiablog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Nashi.jpg
As for Goss repeating his slur against my family I think the following is probably a suitable riposte especially given his love of Korean monarchy.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd8jfi_george-brassens-le-roi-des-cons_news
I wonder if Mhairi will ignore the SNP whip and vote against the reintroduction of fox hunting in England. I’m sure Mary will approve of all the wildlife that will be terrified and then ripped to shreds while the SNP sit on their hands.
Resident Dissident
I’m astonished. Perhaps I let myself be influenced, despite myself, by all the SNP propagandists on here!
Is SNP policy really pro-hunting?
Goss did you notice the ride of Lavrov when he arrived to meet Kerry?
He arrived in a white Победа (meaning victory) pronounced Pobeda, and explained to Kerry too!
That old dog is not a light weight diplomat, he knows every trick in the book and this trick to rob Kerry’s nose in the poop was a nice one to remind him (Kerry) who has won this round,
Mary
I’ve heard of there Berkshire Hunt if course, and was iust wondering whether there any hunts in leafy Surrey that you’re aware of?
Thanks.
Mary
I’ve heard of the Berkshire Hunt of course and was just wondering whether there are any hunts in leafy Surrey that you’re aware of?
Thanks.
Their policy is to abstain on hunting in the UK Parliament – it seems to be one of the few areas where they think it is important for the English to be allowed to vote for themselves – those English foxes can look after themselves by all accounts. Of course blasting small birds to smithereens is a core Scottish industry that the SNP have always been keen to protect.
The reality is that the SNP sitting on their hands will not be good for English foxes.
The Surrey Union Hunt doing a bit of soon to be legalised (by the SNP) animal cruelty
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/fox-found-dead-surrey-union-8391834
“Globalresearch are anti-Western cunts…..who for some strange reason still live in the West.”
WikiLeaks have a similar policy I understand – so much so than Russian anti-corruption campaigners set up their own version RosPil.
Resident Dissident “I won’t since it wasn’t my claim”
That is a pathetic and duplicitous cop-out even by your standards. For the second time today, you are absolving yourself of responsibility for the links you post. Why do you post them then if you don’t stand by what they say? Could it be that you don’t care whether they’re true as long as it serves your purpose? If you get off with it – result. If someone points out that it’s a load of deliberate misinformation – it’s nothing to do with me, guv. It is no wonder you are so disrespected on this blog. I’ll rephrase my challenge to circumvent your weaselling get-out clause :
I challenge you to quote anything from the so-called ‘anti-gay law’ which supports the claim made in YOUR link that “The law effectively legalized discrimination against LGBT people and cast them as second-class citizens.”
Clearly they have rattled the resident keyboard warrior afflicted with a grandiose personality disorder, whose tolerance has been stretched hence the profanities used and in particular the sexist and vile reference to vagina (none of the usual suspects pointing this out) finding it strange that these critics should be living in the west.
Of course the addled brain of the said GPD cannot comprehend the long shot that these may actually be Westerners who are sick of the way their countries are being governed. Unlike these foreign elements/fifth columnists who are assigned to this blog to keep sucking up to the establishment and reinforce the same narrative.
Fedup
“He arrived in a white Победа (meaning victory) pronounced Pobeda, and explained to Kerry too!
That old dog is not a light weight diplomat, he knows every trick in the book and this trick to rob Kerry’s nose in the poop was a nice one to remind him (Kerry) who has won this round”
_____________________
Wow, a major diplomatic victory indeed!
With ministers like that, no wonder Russia’s doing sooooo well!
Is Habakkuk/Habbabkuk sloshed or is there some motor dysfunction occurring to account for the typos and aborted messages? Perhaps the paramedics should be called.
He and RD are a totally pathetic pairing. And a waste of space.
Clearly has no idea about wikileaks either.
Fedup
“Of course the addled brain of the said GPD cannot comprehend the long shot that these may actually be Westerners who are sick of the way their countries are being governed.”
________________________
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, people who were that sick of the way their countries were governed tended to emigrate and seek a better life in a country offering more promise, didn’t they.
Like to the US, England, Canada, etc…..all countries I’m sure you deeply dislike.
Fool!
“Perhaps the paramedics should be called.”
________________
If they were, Mary, I certainly wouldn’t spend as much time on here telling people about it and seeking sympathy from your “peers” as you did.
Mary
What’s your position on the fox-hunting ban, Mary?
A good thing or a bad thing?
And what do you think about SNP policy on it?
“I’m astonished. Perhaps I let myself be influenced, despite myself, by all the SNP propagandists on here!
Is SNP policy really pro-hunting?”
________________________
Astonished,astonishingly gullible more like.
The SNP has a long-standing position of not voting on matters that only affect England. The Hunting Act is one such matter that purely affects England and Wales, and so SNP MPs would not vote on this issue. However, SNP MPs will always be a voice for the protection of our environment and wildlife.
The Protection of Wild Mammals (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament in February 2002, making Scotland the first part of the UK to ban traditional fox hunting and hare coursing. There are no plans to repeal the Act in Scotland.
RD you really must try harder if wish to get a rise out commentors.
Fox hunting continues almost as it did before the ban so I can’t see that it makes makes much difference whether there is a repeal, except that it can be done openly once again.
Of far more interest to me than “the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible” is to see the fine and ancient sport of hare coursing return, as this should never have been included in the ban in the first place. It was a sad day indeed to see the participants of the last Waterloo Cup, among them many of Pakistani heritage who cherish this sport greatly, leaving the field in tears as their sport was taken from them by a spiteful Labour government with not only very little understanding of what goes on in the countryside, but open contempt for it.
Here is a very good film for anyone wishing to know more about hare coursing:
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3IaEzF99jFQ