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.
Surprise. Surprise.
Signal at green for Dave to get out of the EU.
JCB boss says EU exit could lift burden of bureaucracy on UK businesses
Construction equipment firm chaired by Tory donor says warnings on job losses are scaremongering
17 May 2015
The top executives of JCB, one of the UK’s biggest manufacturing companies, have said Britain should vote to leave the European Union if David Cameron fails to negotiate reductions to bureaucracy that weighs down UK businesses.
Graeme MacDonald, who runs JCB for its billionaire owners the Bamford family, said the EU was an important market for JCB but he dismissed concerns about the impact on business if Britain voted to leave the single market.
/..
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/may/17/jcb-boss-says-eu-exit-could-lift-burden-of-bureaucracy-on-uk-businesses
Lord Bamford, net worth £3bn, is a big Tory donor and was ennobled by Dave in 2013. Said to be pally with BLiar and P Charles. That fits.
“I’m surprised you haven’t learned that adopting full-scale support for whatever repressive regime is opposing the West is bound to get you into difficulty, intellectually speaking.”
It will take you some time Anon1 to be intellectually speaking in my opinion. Others should be the jugde of intellect not yourself. As to being pro-western I can be as pro-western as anyone if the cause is just. Here Mark Zuckerberg has banned some of the Ukrainian fascists for their aggression. I agree with him. You can’t be more pro-western than that.
“We will block content that contains open aggression, insults based on ethnicity or calls to violence,” said Zuckerberg.
He also commented on the statements of Ukrainian users that posts supposedly moderated from the Russian office of Facebook. The founder of Facebook said that the company has no office in Russia, and the Ukrainian users actually moderated by an international team from Dublin.
http://ukraina.ru/news/20150515/1013076870.html
Don’t care about this particular endless argument, but Resident Dissident (9:36) is quoting superseded bumph from the days of yore.
Sovereignty is responsibility. Ukraine is sovereign only to the extent that it complies with the UN Charter, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the Rome Statute, as a minimum. Leaving the chapter and verse of compliance as an exercise for the reader, we can see there’s a problem with respect to the ICCPR, ICESCR and UDHR. Ukraine has forfeited its sovereignty.
This Journeyman documentary was made a year or so ago. Things in the USA are even worse now. Britain has just voted for the same.
Wage Crisis – The USA’s new underclass
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_3zmBUCVcI
And as always the question is why do people put up with this shit?! Citizens in USUK are now really no different from those in places like China, with regard to human rights.
The police state is not coming, it’s already here, and the turkeys voted for it…
I’ve proved my point”
Indeed.
Sounds familiar?
‘… accuses the government of wiretapping 20,000 people, including politicians, journalists and religious leaders.’
Large protests in Skopje by Macedonians and Albanians combined.
Macedonia protests ‘to continue’ against PM Gruevski
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-32776204
I heard Guy de Launay’s report from Skopke two nights ago. Corruption is rife. Statues proliferate! The UAE have been allowed into Skopje to create a pastiche of towering buildings and a luxury shopping centre all of which are totally alien and unwanted by the people who are poor.
This is an older less critical report before the protests arose!
The makeover that’s divided a nation
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-28951171
BLiar’s been in of course.
Gruevski-Blair: Tolerance and peaceful conflict resolution http://vlada.mk/node/7395?language=en-gb
and the World Bank
PM Gruevski meets World Bank director Goldstein | Влада …
http://www.vlada.mk/node/9007?language=en-gb
23 Jun 2014 – Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski met Monday with Ellen Goldstein, the World Bank’s Country Director for the Western Balkans.
Not news. It hasn’t happened yet. It is a press release from Dave’s spinners.
PM To Renew Funding Vow For ‘Seven-Day’ NHS
In his first major speech since winning the election, David Cameron will reassure the public that the NHS is “safe in our hands”.
02:48, UK,
Monday 18 May 2015
Mr Cameron has committed to creating a “truly seven-day NHS”
David Cameron will commit to boosting the NHS by at least £8bn a year by 2020 and creating a “seven-day” service when he makes his first major speech since the General Election.
The Prime Minister will speak at a GP surgery in the West Midlands, where he is expected to reassure the public that the NHS is “safe in our hands”.
The NHS was a major issue during the General Election campaign, with the Conservatives supporting a plan to fill an estimated £30bn funding gap by 2020.
Mr Cameron has also committed to creating a “truly seven-day NHS” by extending GP opening hours.
“There is nothing that embodies the spirit of One Nation coming together – nothing that working people depend on more – than the NHS,” Mr Cameron is expected to say.
“Our commitment is to free healthcare for everyone – wherever you are and whenever you need it.
“That means getting the best care and making that care available for everyone – free – wherever they are and whenever they need it.
“So I believe that together – by sticking to the plan – we can become the first country in the world to deliver a truly seven-day NHS.”
http://news.sky.com/story/1485818/pm-to-renew-funding-vow-for-seven-day-nhs
~~~~
What a travesty. The privateers and their little helpers, the Price Waterhouses, the Ernst Youngs and the like are queuing up.
Dave will discover that the staff such as the poorly paid and overworked nurses will not go along with his plans. They already work extra unpaid hours as they cannot and will not walk off the ward when they see a need. They will not accept pay cuts Dave, so be warned.
Mandatory training and CPD victims of short staffing, warns RCN
Nursing Times-28 Apr 2015
Nurses are continuing to miss out on mandatory training because of staffing shortages, a large survey by the Royal College of Nursing has …
Ditto from the state broadcaster but so as quick off the mark as Sky.
David Cameron renews NHS funding pledges
1 hour ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32772548
Tiresome – what’s the weather like in Shushanka Street today – perhaps you might wish to comment on who now has sovereignty over “former” Ukrainian territory as one of your less capable underlings seems to struggle on that one?
http://www.nhsforsale.info/uploads/images/slide-claims.png
Latest News
Fears over ‘land grab’ by private suppliers
Tory Election Chief’s firm lobbies for private companies
Private out-of-hours GPs deliver poor care
40% of contracts go to private providers
Filthy hospital ward ‘cleaned’ by private firm
Doctors criticise austerity health effects
BMJ: Next five years critical for NHS
http://www.nhsforsale.info/
Services privatised?
What’s happening to our NHS?
[..]
In 1989 the private firms had a relatively minor role in clinical based NHS care, but after the market approach was introduced and recently expanded, the opportunites for the private sector have greatly increased.
2013
GP surgeries
GP Our-of-Hours services
Walk in centres
Urgent care and minor injury units
Diagnostic services
(including pathology and imaging)
Maternity care
Advice about which services are commissioned
Decisions about patients are prioritised
Non-emergency surgery
(including treatment centres)
Run a whole hospital, including A&E
Community nursing
Up to forty other community services
(including podiatry, diabetes and physiotherapy)
Ambulance services
Prison health
1989
Mental health services
Small element of pathology and surgery
http://www.nhsforsale.info/privatisation-list.html
The topic seems to have disappeared as usual. Maybe this’ll make a change from bloody Ukraine…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3085573/Mandy-lobbied-Blair-Janner-peerage-sex-abuse-claims-Grandee-said-asked-Labour-leader-ennobling-ahead-1997-election.html
“It’s not just that I’m fond of you, which I am. it’s not just that you’ve helped me a lot, which you have. It’s because you deserve it ” (Blah @ Janner)
Blair again, sorry, but there’s very little the bastard isn’t complicit in when you start looking. Including Ukraine. (see also Viktor Pinchuk)
When others do this:
Nigel Farage: I want to be Ukip leader for the next 20 years
They are called undemocratic, autocratic, dictators, despotic, nazi, ……..
But this one spins it out as a kind heart only in pursuit of stability;
Of course this will now be spun as Nigel having a joke and he is not serious!
UK’s very own Mubarak has just entered building.
The Iraqi government has sent Iran-backed Shia militias to protect Ramadi. the Americans are not happy, but IMO almost anyone currently in the region would be preferable to IS.
Daniel :
“I’ve proved my point”
“Indeed.”
I’m not sure if you’re agreeing with me or being sarcastic.
If the former, thank you.
If the latter, why?
I was saved by an NHS team of cardiologists on Friday with a stent inserted up a blocked artery. Safely home again. Praise be to God.
I see the trash are still trolling busy as ever:
https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=medieval+rabbit&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSigEahwELEKjU2AQaAggKDAsQsIynCBpgCl4IAxIoiRSIFPMD2R2MFNodhxT7E74I3QmxIoUngTiHOIY9_1iiHLYg4hDizKRowBOINxKYjDiubvnuxQJoHz9AyOh5Xd32OWNVB_1zWr20QgO4cXddaURzPVf0sQBNTaDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIElpo5yww&sa=X&ei=WsRZVYaPIYLCywPlmICIBw&ved=0CB0Qwg4oAA&biw=1024&bih=652
Let’s see now: the US conducts air-strikes on “ISIS” positions near Ramadi. Shortly afterwards Iraqi troops withdraw, having run out of ammo. “ISIS” then takes the town. Anyone would think the US hit Iraqi ammo dumps!
Apparently Ramadi has fallen. The US may have been afraid to do much bombing there because of the risk of civilian casualties.
The only hope of retaking it may be Iranian-backed militias, but they will be attacking in Sunni areas. Kerry is confident that Ramadi can be re-taken, but the Iraqi government must be worried, to put it mildly.
“The US may have been afraid to do much bombing there”
The bombing lasted for several hours.
“because of the risk of civilian casualties”
Hello?
Rene
Be careful you are being led up the garden path. The specter of Jihad must be perpetuated and blamed for and the continuing destruction wrought by western nations on Iraq
Glad you were saved Giyane. Take care now.
None of us can do without the NHS whether in an emergency or otherwise.
In the US that procedure would have been charged at $thousands. A majority of personal bankruptcies there are due to inability to pay medical bills not covered by insurance or excluded from insurance.
So they just knocked me off facebook. Crackdown begun? They have done it before, asking for “name conformation” credit card, passport stuff, whatever.
My bad, they just wanted my second name. But why now? Strange it happens at particular times.
The shit has hit the fan, even DM is worrying about the “democracy” now, all the blame game blaming the voters, and their choices ringing hollow, and can no longer mask the stench, or cover up the truth, hence the fess up;
We’re ruled by a cosy elite who all go to the same dinner parties
Ah yes Node,very amusing indeed for a second I thought it was Foxy Bingo.
No doubt though RD’s lingua franca,is a little bit more sophisticated.
On July 8th this year the Chancer of the Exchequer will make a speech,rolling out a second budget,this new budget won’t be hindered by a coalition partner,nor will it be tempered with caution.
It will infact like Hitler’s 1941 Reichstag speech,be a declaration of war, a war on the poor,sick and disabled of Britain.
The balancing of the books on the backs of the less fortunate of this increasingly unrecognisable country,is the number one priority of the Tory government.
Pleased to learn you’re safely home Giyane. If you smoke the time has come to stop.
Interesting to see Pope Francis canonise two nuns from 19th Century Palestine,before it was so shamelessly usurped from under them.
Any it would appear that Christian’s across the Middle East are being persecuted,from Islamic extremists,and the hope is that the canonisation,will draw attention to this outrage.
No doubt the real reasons for the victimisation of Christian in the Middle East will go right over the heads of those who caused this religious unrest,they know who they are,and so do we.
Ishmael don’t give them any information. It seems like you might have been hacked. One way they do this is to ask for confirmation by email and then they take over. If you use Paypal check that there are no transactions you did not make. It is not likely to be Facebook.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/hackers-over-facebook-account-26609.html
Interesting Hilton article, Fedup. While we can only hope he’s sincere, it’s an extremely surprising snap at the hands that feed him, and unless he’s prepared to keep his head above the parapet, the likely view will be that he’s the appointed token dissident voice, generously permitted to exist by the extremely democratic and fair minded etc etc Tories. As in “We feel your pain, little people, but unhappily we can’t do much about it even though our mad friend Hilton keeps asking us to.”
It would be good if someone with Hilton’s experience of the elite oligarchy in action could outline his thoughts on a practicable reform of the system. In which, as he says, the same elite circulates endlessly between the corrupt and legally immune City, lobbying businesses and the laughable government.
Another Scottish hero, McNeilly. Sooner or later the British regime will have to face facts: the state is too corrupt and degenerate to be trusted with weapons of mass destruction. The Scottish nation can insulate itself from British recklessness and incapacity only by defining its own foreign policy grounded in the UN Charter, the International Bill of Human Rights, and the Rome Statute.