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.
Personally, I don’t agree with destruction, of property, or much else.
Bibi is going to have a much tougher time of it than Dave with a majority of two, an uncertain coalition and a fraught atmosphere in the Knesset. No leave allowed and no breaks. Imagine the same applying in the HoC. No trips to Israel with the Friends of Israel groupings!
‘Netanyahu’s new government already on shaky ground
Israel’s Knesset convened May 18 for its first official meeting since the presentation and swearing-in of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government. The new ministers have begun getting accustomed to the new, difficult political reality forced on them. Since Netanyahu’s fourth government is based on a very slim majority — 61 supporters in the coalition versus 59 in the opposition — ministers and Knesset members (MKs) in the coalition will have to remain firmly grounded, ready to vote at any given moment in the Knesset plenum.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/05/israel-new-government-netanyahu-kahlon-opposition-obama.html
The successful Portuguese Revolution of the Carnations, where they finally got rid of their dictator, was peaceful, btw. Ditto Chile and the ‘No’ vote.
NB:
“On Tuesday May 22nd, 2007, Phil Pritchard and Toby Olditch were declared ‘not guilty’ of conspiring to cause criminal damage. In the early morning of 18 March 2003, just two days before the bombing of Iraq started, they had broken into the airbase at USAF Fairford. They carried with them tools to damage the planes, nuts and bolts to jam the aircrafts’ engines, pictures of ordinary Iraqi civilians and paint symbolizing blood and oil. They also carried warning signs for attaching to any damaged planes which would help alert aircrew to their action. The two men acted nonviolently in a way which would not result in harm to anyone, including the military personnel at Fairford. They intended to stay with the planes and tell the operators what they’d done2
RD: “which forms of protest have achieved their objectives and why and which failed” – exactly, more research needed.
And yet, ‘we murder to dissect’…
“Who are on the councils and how is the consensus determined? The lack of structures for determining this does lead the whole process open to manipulation doesn’t it?”
Anarchy works in the society we live in now, everything isn’t governed by state much is self regulating. When you go to the supermarket checkout you stand in the queue and wait to be served, there is no law saying you have to, no sign on the wall it’s just consensus that that is how we do things.
“Grow up and remember to switch the lights off in the dorm.”
Nice one Mary. Made me smile. What happens when the lights go out and Noddy, The Toytown Idiot and other sharers in some future Blytonian graduation ball is frightening.
I think that’s what Phil is saying – the tacit acceptance of consensus is being used by corporations – as evinced by the people wrestling gamely with self-service machines. But in fact, it’s more ‘obedience’ than ‘consensus’ – how can you argue with a computer?
In anarchist terms, the process of consensus is a dynamic, evolving, interesting process, which, probably, results in a decision.
Suyahl,
Jazz rock fusion you say eh?
Well this got some but other good shit too..
Enjoy A Master…
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bCvlXpKeGzk
Oh Dear Mr Goss was up late last night after lights were out trying to cause trouble – and as ever he still doesn’t do his homework which includes answering a long list of back questions that he has ignored over the years. Instead he just diverts and diverts.
Villager
“Brilliant one Habby @ 20h03 and good evening to you!
Btw, did you notice something unusual about ‘Sochi’s’ punctuation? I have to draw on my forensic experience here. ……etc…”
____________________
Thank you, Villager, and good to read you again.
I don’t know whether “Sochi 2.0” is currently posting under another name as well, but I do believe that this is one person – an anti-semite – who changes his name regularly. Probably goes all the way back to “English Knight”.
Surprised that people like Mary, who never fail to express concern when people’s gravatars change (but the name remains the same), remain silent in the case of this particular individual.
@Suchi 2.0 “Bwahaha..” (Map of the territory showing areas not under Hewish ownership in green as “Palestinian”).
As I see it Israel has two justifiable choices:
(a) Annex all occupied territories and make the people there full Israeli citizens and permit Palestinian refugees to return. In short, form the fully secular state that Craig referred to. IMO it is unlikely that Israel will do this, since it would no longer be a Jewish state.
(b) Form a viable Palestinian state in the occupied territories. This would be incompatible with stealing the best land and water for settlements. This one is possible, but difficult, as the Israeli right wing would prefer to expand settlements, not give them up.
I’m glad that I’m not Palestinian.
Phil
“Ok, a poorly made irrelevent point. Shame you didn’t respond about the subject though.”
___________________
Perhaps I should have done but the discussion was going well and was interesting and so I contented myself with reading the contributions and saw no particular need to intervene. BTW I do agree with the point someone made about you being sincere.
Cheers, Fred’s supermarket queue is an excellent example of the unacknowledged cooperation everywhere. And TC’s extrapolation to struggling with a checkout is a great metaphor, although anarchism is not about struggling with machines, it’s the struggle with excessive authority (i.e. most of it).
That consensus is pervasive is beyond question. It exists everywhere within our society. Capitalism could not exist without the cooperation it denies.
That anarchism can work is beyond question. The notion that we are incapable of hierarchy free association is blown out of the water by the fact that this has already worked under various circumstances. The Hobbsian cries of “but men are irrepressible savages” is proven to be not true. I cannot overstate this. It works.
Chris; “..the comments section has reached peak-troll”
Indeed, the trolls & their enablers have turned this thread into such a toxic cess-pit, that a even couple of long term gate-keepers have ventured out to flaunt their deceptions.
Meanwhile Perfidious Albion carries on business as usual with its newly mandated Agent, who proved his worth with Libyan blood;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/hillary-clinton/11616018/Britain-hid-secret-MI6-plan-to-break-up-Libya-from-US-Hillary-Clinton-told-by-confidante.html
“Great post, Technicolour (9;22pm 20.5.15)!
I didn’t know a lot of that info. – esp. wrt the 2003 protests and the research in general. So I’ve really learned something. It’s really good to know and such information is something of an immunisation against apathy and political depression. Thanks!”
_____________________
Seconded.
Victoria the witch of Kiev who knows all about the snipers of Maidan was in Moscow last week, and very lovey dovey looking just like she was distributing pies at Maidan?! Reminds me of Aussie shirtfronter Abbot, who lost all conviction after Putin whispered something in his ear about MH17. What do we make of all this? Has Russia done a geopolitical barter (Syria/Iran) with the neocohens?
Where are the likes of these moral giants now? We only have moral pygmies.
‘On July 9, 1955, with Rotblat in the chair, Russell read the Manifesto to a packed press conference. The document contains the words: “Here then is the problem that we present to you, stark and dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?… There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death because we cannot forget our quarrels? ….” Lord Russell devoted much of the remainder of his life to working for the abolition of nuclear weapons.’
Remember Your Humanity
by John Scales Avery / May 20th, 2015
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/05/remember-your-humanity-2/
Wee Ginger Dug: Trident is Viagra for an ageing empire
May 21st, 2015
TRIDENT whistleblower William McNeilly is now in military custody. For many of us, he is a hero, not a criminal. He should get a medal, but he’ll probably get a jail sentence for letting the public know what most of us had suspected for quite a while – that Trident is a disaster waiting to happen. An online petition to pardon William McNeilly has already received thousands of signatures. We can only hope that the government will pay attention.
Of course, nuclear warheads are designed to cause disaster, but the UK’s nuclear deterrent is accidentally unsafe as well as deliberately unsafe. It’s so unsafe that it might not blow up half the planet when it’s supposed to, which is allegedly a bad thing, or it might blow up half of Scotland when it’s not supposed to, which is definitely a bad thing.
Every day the MoD plays Rosneath roulette with Scotland’s future and the future of the globe. And this is all supposed to make us feel safe. Do you feel safe? I don’t. And neither did William McNeilly, who actually served on the Trident submarines, which is why he blew the whistle on the fatal farce that is the UK’s nuclear deterrent.
What makes it even more galling is that there is no prize in this game of plutonium poker: it’s not just Scotland that has nothing to gain. Not using Trident means we waste billions of pounds, using Trident means we waste a world. But Scotland has everything to lose. An accident could easily pollute the Clyde forever and turn the West of Scotland into a radioactive wasteland that’s uninhabitable for generations – a Faslane Fukushima with glow in the dark fish suppers. The fish would be deep-fried even as they came out the water.
/..
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/wee-ginger-dug-trident-is-viagra-for-an-ageing-empire.3185
Continuing the Scottish theme…
Why don’t we care about land reform?
May 21st, 2015 Lesley Riddoch
DOES the Scottish public actually support land reform? It may seem like a strange, even dangerous question for a land reformer to ask. But to assume the Scottish Government can win a fair redistribution of Scottish land without vocal support may prove even dodgier.
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/lesley-riddoch-why-dont-we-care-about-land-reform.3194
‘Speaking about land reform in more than 300 meetings I invariably get no reaction to the fact 523 landowners own half of the private land in Scotland and 15 own 10 per cent of it. That situation is extraordinary, weird, unfair, and unlike any other democracy in the developed world. And yet, it evokes no anger, surprise or comment. This is how completely disconnected we have become from Scotland’s primary asset – after its people.’
Yes, I think the reaction that Lesley Riddoch gets from the public to the anathema that is Scottish land ownership springs from 2 factors firstly that the statistics are so outlandish as to be almost unbelievable and secondly that the believers were indeed all ‘Born Kneeling’
And thanks Mary for the William McNeilly information
..” whose career has declined sharply from its mid-1990s high” – disparaging bad-mouth from postiche adorned Rusbridger:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/apr/22/putin-proposed-steven-seagal-as-russian-envoy-to-us
RD: Just had a quick look at the Stop the City protests. Even the brief entry in Wiki doesn’t make them sound like a failure: they framed a question, brought widespread attention to the problem, and were clearly the forerunners of Occupy.
“The Stop the City demonstrations of 1983 and 1984 were described as a ‘Carnival Against War, Oppression and Destruction’, in other words protests against the military-financial complex. These demonstrations can be seen as the forerunner of the anti-globalisation protests of the 1990s, especially those in London on May Day and the Carnival against Capitalism on 18 June 1999. They were partially inspired by the actions of the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp.
Activities that formed part of these events were separate day-long street blockades of the financial district (‘The City’) of London – which supporters of the protest argued are a major centre for profiteering, and consequently a root cause of many of the world’s problems. One blockade involved 3,000 people, which succeeded in causing a £100 million shortfall on the day according to The Times. Around 1,000 arrests were subsequently made by the police over 18 months.”
“DOES the Scottish public actually support land reform?”
Have you ever been to the Highlands Mary?
What was it you didn’t like about it?
Superb trailer for ‘We Are Many’ – the film of the anti-war protests.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOpa8y2TIy8
Really
21/05/2015 9:24am
Would you mind explaining exactly what you mean by the word “neocohens”? It’s not a word I like the look of much.
Thanks.
John
John Spencer-Davis
I think you’ll find that “Really” is the same Jew-hater as “Sochi 2.0”.
No, sorry, but the thread’s freeform now, and this was too good to ignore:
http://jide-salu.com/2015/05/21/embarrassing-inefficient-researchers-left-tony-blairs-rep-lord-mandelson-red-faced-at-apc-policy-dialogue/
In which ‘Lord’ Mandelson, wheeled into Nigerian president Buhari’s APC conference unexpectedly to deliver Blair’s speech for him – it is not yet known if Blair was eaten by bears or just had a hangover – was introduced by someone who had read his Wiki entry. You know, sacked twice, expenses, Hinduja passports…
Fortunately, perhaps, the buildup didn’t mention the noble lord’s sexual orientation, which is one not encouraged in Nigeria –
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/03/nigeria-anti-gay-law-hiv