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.
Arbeit Macht Frei was a back to work programme too.
Terrrrrrror arrests reach record level, says Metropolitan Police
Will we all end up being banged up?
What about athletes who are given Life Peerages, then can decide on our future?
Johnstone.
What is the point of interviewing HRH when he is above and beyond the Law?
Another incidence/propaganda article, picked up by the foreign press.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/vor-schottland-britische-kampfjets-fangen-russische-bomber-ab-a-1033786.html
‘Die russischen Bomber seien zu keinem Zeitpunkt in britischen Luftraum eingedrungen, so das Ministerium.’
Freely translated this means ‘the Russian bombers were at no time entering into UK airspace, according to MOD’.
If you think that this a little jumpy on our behalf, we’re not at war as such, then you could translate it as ‘UK air force jumps at the chance (shows its readiness) to interject Russian bombers in international airspace.(to show those Russians which way the wind blows)
Mary
“Where is your best mate? He seems to be fading into obscurity.”
___________________
No such luck for you, Mary. Just on my travels, which are, if I’m honest, rather more interesting and rewarding than correcting, exposing and reprimanding the Eminences and Useful Idiots all the time.
Plus : the comments on Prince Charles have been pleasingly positive on here, at least from the more intelligent and less obsessive posters, ad so there is less call for me to intervene at the moment.
Long live Our Gracious Queen and her successors!
The photo of Blair with Sen Saraki had no commentary.
This one of him with Buhari has yards of empty words.
Blair: Nigeria Has Won Global Respect, Promises Assistance
14 May 2015
Nigerian President Elect General Muhammadu Buhari receives Former British Prime Minister
http://www.thisdaylive.com/articles/blair-nigeria-has-won-global-respect-promises-assistance/209291/
The headline should read:
Blair greases the wheels and lines up new sources of income.
Q Why is his left hand resting on a cushion? Has he developed RSI from overdoing the hand gestures.
This happened at 4:16, an hour and a half ago, anybody seen them up there?
Unbearable to watch.
Two ‘Unts, One Farage, One May (Brian not Theresa) a Beddoes and a Dimblebore.
BBC1 14/05/2015 22.45
Question Time
David Dimbleby presents the topical debate from Uxbridge. On the panel are Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt MP, leader of UKIP Nigel Farage MEP, musician and campaigner Brian May and editor of the Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes.
Fancy £3.3m of our money being handed out to the parteis. We learn of these little nuggets of info only occasionally and accidentally.
‘Douglas Carswell, Ukip’s MP for Clacton, was entitled to £650,000 a year from the Westminster purse – £3.3million over the duration of the current parliament.
The cash, known as short money, is designed to help parties cover behind the scenes expenses at Westminster such as employing admin staff.
However Mr Carswell has refused the money saying “I just think it would be completely inappropriate for me to accept that money.”‘
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/577145/Taxpayers-back-Douglas-Carswell-s-refusal-of-3million-Westminster-cash?_ga=1.157489210.1851356533.1418232372
5.53pm Changed e-mail address again.
What’s Croatia like at this time of year?
NATO is playing hard ball in Antalya, they do not want to budge on their Ukrainian stance and are driving an aggressive debate with a Russia that has made concessions and opened up an animated debate during the last two weeks.
Do you anyone in NATO Craig? what are these Hawks playing at?
Russia and China are holding their first ever live sea manouvres together until the 21st. May, some ten ships, so there is some tension on US ships holed up in Naples,. Russia has for weeks attempted to soften its line, said that it is leaving the eastern Ukraine.
But, and this is typical for the Russians during cold war, they have also put a reactionary option on the table in Antalya. If NATO keeps expanding then it feels that it has no choice but to deploy a nuclear unit on its borders with Ukraine.
“Unbearable to watch.
Two ‘Unts, One Farage, One May (Brian not Theresa) a Beddoes and a Dimblebore.
BBC1 14/05/2015 22.45
Question Time
David Dimbleby presents the topical debate from Uxbridge. On the panel are Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt MP, Labour’s shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt MP, leader of UKIP Nigel Farage MEP, musician and campaigner Brian May and editor of the Economist Zanny Minton Beddoes.”
__________________
If it is unbearable to watch, why are you telling us it’s on, you silly bat?
Are you just wasting Craig’s bandwidth again with yet another presentation of your “credentials”?
May
“Fancy £3.3m of our money being handed out to the parteis. We learn of these little nuggets of info only occasionally and accidentally.”
_________________
Another egregiously sill post from the bat. Is the heat getting to her despite the leafy cover?
Mary moans about parties getting money from private individuals and organisations and now she seems to be moaning about parties getting money from the state.
BTW, every Western European state gives its political partiess money.
Wasn’t revealing her location the “trolling” offence which Mary used to get you banned from Squonk? How does she know yours?
Go easy on the Dingac..
“What’s Croatia like at this time of year?”
__________________
A little less leafy than Surrey……and of course much less prosperous at any time of year!
Thanks in part to your hero the late Mr Milosevic!
5.53pm Changed e-mail address again.”
_____________
Yes Mary one has to wonder why the sudden and continuous change.
Nevermind. In a phone call to BBC South a young Brit from Bournemouth who went to the Kurdish area of Syria to join the YPG told of his injury. He was speaking from the north eastern tip of Syria.
He is fighting ISIS or Daesh as he called them. He referred to NATO bombing the ISIS heavy weapons.
Plod came on to say that he will probably be arrested on his return. The young man said that there are hundreds of British and Americans fighting with him.
~~~
There was little discussion in the election build up of our ‘foreign policy’ nor of our wars of aggression.
If I have heroes, they are not politicians. More likely humanitarians like Mads Gilbert or journalists like John Pilger and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden or Julian Assange.
I do remember NATO bombing the place to smithereens in 1999. Such recent history but almost forgotten. Blair and Clinton still stride the planet.
http://www.beograd.rs/cms/view.php?id=201271
The 1999 NATO Crime Against Serbia – Theos An Ine (Alexiou-Bregovic)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP1foKaXrdc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO_bombing_of_Yugoslavia
Robert C
Yes, you are almost right. I had to look it up and the monarch, who is head authority of the justice system, is indeed above the law but lesser royals even the 1st in line, Charles, are not. His sister was once prosecuted for speeding.
http://royalcentral.co.uk/blogs/is-the-queen-really-above-the-law-1625
Thanks for that Mary, we are witnessing a bout of international sabre rattlin’ and the fact that NATO’s excrescent Cameron has just won his erection will make the Chickenhawks in the US feel really bitty, those big mouthed arms dealers and manufacturers who are not pleased at peace, they love nothing better than a break up of the EU, nothing better than having your flinch man in place, now they start rocking the cradle and Ukraine is their keyhole to open the whole door.
Ah well, we will take anything, as long as the potholes get fixed and the promise of ‘no tax rises’ for the next term is for real, what a mad fckuing world.
Johnstone.
Thanks for that information.
I would like to see a cop try to arrest the Queen or Charles or William. The two males next in line.
Anne does not have the same status as Charles.
Oh no Robert not more discrimination it gets everywhere
In reality no modern democratic society can continue with the Ruritarian notion that there’s single family born to rule the lives of others.
Even if the Windsors were a model family which they’re not,the concept of it all is archaic.
To add to this the Royal family cannot go on retaining powers even informal ones,that declare the country to be at war,nor to command the House of Commons to do this or that.
The Royals should have no say as to when and how a government is formed at Westminster,nor should they have the right to dissolve a government.
Cheers for linking to the annotated Gillard article on my blog.
You may be interested to know that Hayman crops up a fair bit in the research of the Undercover Research Group, which focuses on investigating the nexus of state-corporate-policing interests, particularly in terms of the undercover ‘spycop’ scandal.
The latest from Greece by courtesy of Habbabkuk and the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
About 2015 Greece and not 500BC Athens (apologies to our Transatlantic Oxford Greatsman).
“Creditors push for reform proposals as talks resume
Negotiations between Greece and its creditors resumed at the technical level via teleconference on Thursday. Meanwhile, with pressure for a deal growing as cash reserves dwindle, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis proposed that Greece push back the repayment of bonds held by the European Central Bank.
The so-called Brussels Group, comprising representatives of the government and the country’s creditors, spoke by teleconference on Thursday. The Greek side was based at the Maximos Mansion while Varoufakis convened a separate meeting with his general secretaries at the ministry. According to sources, the technical talks focused on lingering differences between the two sides: the size of the budget gap, which will determine the extent of the measures that Greece will be obliged to take, pension and labor sector reforms, as well as changes to value-added tax. Another teleconference is understood to be planned for Friday with the Greek team expected to travel to Brussels over the weekend ahead of a possible face-to-face meeting on Monday. According to sources, creditors want Greece to present them with a list of proposed reforms in the coming days, preferably by Sunday.
Earlier in the day government spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis admitted that the creditors were pushing Greece on certain thorny issues including private sector wages which they continue to regard as too high.
Varoufakis did not go into detail about reforms being discussed. But he told Parliament that VAT on the Greek islands, many of which enjoy a favorable status, will not be increased before summer.
Comments made by the minister earlier at a conference sponsored by the Economist, according to which the scheduled repayment of Greek bonds held by the ECB this summer should be pushed back, caused a stir. Varoufakis noted, in comments later in Parliament, that the idea of a “swap” between the Greek government and the ECB “fills Mr Draghi’s soul with fear,” referring to the bank’s president, Mario Draghi. He added that the ECB chief “is in a big struggle against the Bundesbank.”
In a related development, Bundesbank chief Jens Weidmann criticized the ECB over its provision of emergency funding to Greece, noting that it is not the role of the ECB to finance governments”
To be noted, with regard to the last para, that the EU Treaty specifically rules out deficit financing of EuroArea members by the European Central Bank.
Off topic, but an interesting read, (providing you are not a rabid Russophobe of course !);
http://journal-neo.org/2015/05/13/why-i-wept-at-the-russian-parade/
Cutting and pasting. Tut. Tut.
Could have done it my way and saved some bandwidth.
Creditors push for reform proposals as talks resume
Negotiations between Greece and its creditors resumed at the technical level via teleconference on Thursday.
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_14/05/2015_550056
Someone. Teach him how to copy and paste a link.
Tim
“Wasn’t revealing her location the “trolling” offence which Mary used to get you banned from Squonk?”
————
I doubt it, if only because Mary herself told us she resides in Surrey (I admit that the “leafy” is mine).
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“How does she know yours?”
——————–
Does she? I believe Crioatia was mentioned in a recent post of hers, or perhaps by one of the other Eminences. She probably just liks the sound of the word (and why not, indeed?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Go easy on the Dingac..”
_____________________
Convince me…. 🙂