It is no secret that Alistair Carmichael is a friend of mine. Not least because he told parliament so in 2005:
“The Government’s signals to the Uzbek regime have not always been helpful. I am thinking especially of their treatment of my old friend, the former ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, who has done us all a great service in graphically highlighting the appalling human rights record of the Uzbekistan Government.”
Alistair was one of very few MPs who raised the dreadful human rights abuses in Uzbekistan even before I got there. He has a genuine interest in human rights worldwide, and had a much better motivation in going into politics than the large majority of politicians. He was never anything like a diehard unionist in personal conviction. I felt quite proud for him when he was asked during the campaign what would his role be in negotiating for the UK the conditions of separation after a Yes vote. He replied that he was Scottish, and he would be on the Scottish, not the UK side.
I have never chosen my friends by my politics, and I am not one of those people who is only happy in the company of those who agree with me. I am happiest with a few drinks and a good argument in intellectually challenging company. I also do know that all human beings are flawed, and I don’t expect perfection. So I have no intention of ending friendship with Alistair.
All of which makes it hard, but I have to say that I really do think he needs to resign as an MP, and to do so immediately.
It was not just a mistake to leak that memo, it was wrong. It was even more wrong because he himself believed it was written in error and did not give Nicola Sturgeon’s true opinion. But in an election in which the Scottish Lib Dems faced wipeout, he saw the advantage of playing this trick. That was wrong on many levels. I would add that I feel very confident that Alistair would never have done it without consulting Clegg first. Clegg should resign too. And instead of the usual Cabinet Office stitch-up, there needs to be a real inquiry into the whole history and production of that extraordinary minute, and whether Alistair was set up to do it. The Scottish Government needs to be an equal partner in constituting that inquiry.
Alistair has no alternative but to resign because he then repeatedly lied about what he had done. It is much better that he goes now with a full and frank apology to everyone, especially his constituents. When you have blatantly and repeatedly lied about something, you cannot expect people to give you their trust again. That it even seems a possibility is an example of the erosion of ethical standards, of which Tony Blair is of course the greatest example as liar, mass murderer and multi-millionaire.
But we should not lose sight of the real lesson. The corrupt and rotten structures of the UK state are so insidious that they can take a fundamentally decent man like Alistair and lead him to behave so badly. There is something within the rotting organisms of UK institutions in their decline from Imperial power and dependence on corrupt banking and corporate systems, that infects almost all who enter them. While I worked for the FCO I saw really nice colleagues, decent men and women I worked with, go along with organising what they knew to be illegal war in Iraq, and with facilitating the torture and extraordinary rendition programmes. Because that was what paid their mortgage, looked after their children, and above all gave them social status as high British diplomats.
Westminster gives untramelled executive power to a party with just 23% of the support of the registered electorate. The majority of parliamentarians are unelected Lords a great many of whom are themselves mired in corruption – and some much worse. The organs of state power are used to facilitate the flow of money from the poor to the very wealthy, which is the actual cause of the deficit in public finances. The rewards of being on the inside are sweet; those outside are measurably dispossessed of wealth, and measurably alienated in politics. The media is controlled by this corporate state.
Alistair Carmichael’s story is not the story of a bad man. It is the story of what happens to a good man who buys in to UK power structures. The real lesson of the sad story of this period in Alistair’s life is that the UK is evil, corrupt and corrupting, and that the UK state needs swiftly to be broken up.
Not much here on the World Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) whereby the form of war is said to be accelerating to informationization, nor on the path of in depth civil-military integration (CMI) with its joint building and utilization of military and civilian infrastructure.
China’s Military Strategy document makes for interesting reading.
“The traditional mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned and great importance has to be attached to managing the seas and oceans”.
The “weaponization” of outer space, always keeping nuclear capabilities at the minimum level for counter attack and intensifying training in complex electro-magnetic environments and complex weather conditions.
A strategic partnership of coordination between China and Russia.
Fostering a new model of military relationship with the US armed forces.
??????
A sacrificial lamb has been provided for the bankers.
Trader accused over Libor ‘was greedy’
Tom Hayes
Former City trader Tom Hayes is accused of being “dishonest and manipulative” and a “ringmaster” in his alleged attempts to rig Libor rates, a court hears.
1 hour ago
Explaining the Libor saga
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32879690
The case is being given full welly on the BBC Six O’clock News. Ms Emma Simpson is the reporter.
Thank you for your observations John. Other tabloids also seem to have the photos. I see they are Sun/News copyright.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095586/Lord-Janner-steps-London.html
Mary, Your so militant. I really do respect it. I could never maintain it, just seeing all this stuff.
Do you vote? Never seemed to hear you advocative much traditional political stuff.
Just thinking, If i’m more true to myself I don’t think I can support any political party to represent me. Perhaps it’s always a foolish idea. I don’t think government’s or nations states are legitimate. So i’d guess challenging it as an individual, or group of free individuals is the only things that seems right.
Hay ho, live and learn.
live and learn.
Or re-remember.
Mary
“‘The letters – 27 memos to and from the heir to the throne, the prime minister and ministers in six government departments – relate to an eight-month period from September 2004 to April 2005, and were the subject of a Freedom of Information Act request by the Guardian journalist Rob Evans. The government has spent more than £400,000 on legal costs to fight the battle.’”
__________________
I entirely agree with you that The Guardian has occasioned a considerable and avoidable waste of public funds in pursuance of its silly attempt to make public the Prince’s private letters (with the misguided aim, doubtlessly, if making the Prince look ridiculous).
The Guardian has behaved reprehensibly and it should do the right thing – namely, reimburse the govt the public money it forced it to spend.
Mary
“A sacrificial lamb has been provided for the bankers.
Trader accused over Libor ‘was greedy’
Tom Hayes…etc, etc, etc…”
_____________________
Mary, I thought you belonged to those who waxed eloquent on here about no bankers having been brought to court for various misdeeds?
I take it, therefore, that – contrary to the general tone of your post – you are in fact pleased that Mr Hayes has been brought to justice? That you approve?
Mr Scorgie
“Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)
26 May, 2015 – 4:13 pm
“TeleSur, Press TV, Russia Today – all 100% state owned by more-than-dubious régimes.”
“Their offerings should be taken with a strong dose of salt.”
……………………………………………………………………….
As should yours Habbabkuk.”
_________________________
As so often Doug, you miss the point.
TeleSur, RT and PressTV are frequently linked to on here – including, perhaps, by your good self – as oracles of truth.
Whereas I am not.
This is why a tablespoon of salt is required in their case.
HABBABKUK… 1st in the series of great, great things he’s said. 26 May 2015…(a note for the diary)
4:44 pm “the Monarch will continue – and will, happily, surely outlive those misguided individuals who still call for its abolition. HRH Prince Charles will prove to be an excellent successor to his mother when the time comes.5/. And after he has passed on, his son Prince William will prove to be an excellent successor to Prince Charles. I’m delighted”
6:31 pm “I entirely agree with you that The Guardian has occasioned a considerable and avoidable waste of public funds”
Life would be so dull without these little Inconvenient Truths.
Reminds me of the mindless expressions of support for the reigning regime that I remember having to read in Neues Deutschland in its Communist East Germany days.
Not so much support (although it is there, of course!) as a statements of facts.
Fact…..as opposed to fantasy. 🙂
Slugs don’t much like salt.
The operative word is ‘for’.
“A sacrificial lamb has been provided FOR the bankers.
He’s a lamb to the slaughter instead of those at the top. Geddit?
Try looking at a few of these biographies like Jenkins’ and Rake’s.
http://www.barclays.com/about-barclays/barclays-corporate-governance/the-directors.html
@Fedup: “Sir Malcolm Bruce: Commons would empty very fast if lying MPs had to quit
MPs could not be excluded for telling a lie: “If you are suggesting every MP who has never quite told the truth or even told a brazen lie, including cabinet ministers, including prime ministers, we would clear out the House of Commons very fast, I would suggest,” he said.
Says it all, dos it not”
Yes Fedup, it does say it all. If Sir Malcolm were intending to placate the electorate with such an ‘excuse’ then I feel it instead sounded more like an admission of failure, confirming the corrupt state of affairs that we already suspected.
@Doug Scorgie
26 May, 2015 – 3:40 pm
I’m sure we can all make an educated guess as to who the likes of Habba works for; which makes a bit of a mockery of the notion that we live in any kind of ‘democracy’.
The hardest thing to make people understand is the total moral vacuum that these vermin inhabit.
These vermin are now totally in control of the UK, and they’ve got their talons on the pot of gold; ie, tax payer’s assets, which the vermin are stealing as fast as they can, whilst telling the public that everything is the fault of the immigrants, or Europe, or ISIS, or any other idiotic bogeyman that they think a gullible public will swallow.
There will be a backlash to this highway robbery, and it ain’t going to be pleasant, particularly for the Habbas of this world.
But Habba @ Co are too dumb/greedy to understand that every reaction has an opposite reaction.
John Spencer-Davis
26 May, 2015 – 5:54 pm
Mary
26/05/2015 5:34pm
“Lord Janner takes stroll”
One of the chief considerations given as grounds for not holding a trial of fact regarding Lord Janner’s alleged offences was that there was no risk of future offending.
If Lord Janner is fit enough to walk about unsupervised, there is quite clearly a high risk of future offending, so a trial of fact would be appropriate. Alzheimer’s Disease can have the effect of dissipating sexual inhibition in any case, so under no circumstances should this man be permitted out unaccompanied.
Having said that, the photo isn’t very clear. He appears to be in a car park or some such. Perhaps there is somebody with him.
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Hi John, let me have a go since what you got was a predictable non-response.
1. I believe that a trial of the facts should take place, regardless of the risks of Janner offending again. Clarity of the facts is a valid and legitimate objective in itself.
2. Stroll or no stroll, I have good reason to believe that the man is going through inner hell regardless go the technical medical evaluations. And so he should. As a practitioner of psychology, I am curious if you would agree to that. The working of the mind, the conscience, the probable guilt, the fall from success, the social impact, the confinement, being under the lens, the uncertainty, so on and so forth.
3. A trial of facts will also quite rightly affect his family, who I believe are not just being deceitful, but also financially manipulative.
4. On the small point of the photographs. I think if you include the photos at the Mail, it appears he is being escorted into a car.
5. I happened to note his shoes. It reflects that the man, for all the money he’s made in his life, the man has no class.
6. Ayurvedically, Janner is a predominantly Vata constitution and living out his Vata period to boot. He is therefore prone to anxiety, which could explain his dementia. Wouldn’t his age, condition and medication suppress his libido, probably quite substantially? Even if he were fooling us totally about the degree of his affliction, I would consider him very unlikely to re-offend. So back to where I started, speaking equitably, imho, the trial should go as far as it practicably can, i.e. a trial of the facts. After which, to ensure public safety, as abundant caution, certain legal constraints could be placed upon him, e.g. to not be left unchecked.
Disgraceful creature!
PS Anybody aware of how he could be stripped of his Lordship title?
Hayes has Asbergers syndrome. Habbabkuk, Hasbara syndrome. It makes you short, plastic and pink or green hair flows out of the space where there should have been brains
Do we have any reason to suppose that Lord Janner has a conscience?
I think there have been no recent examples, but doesn’t a bill of attainder passed by Parliament deprive a noble of his title and noble status?
Giyane
26 May, 2015 – 8:31 pm
“Hayes has Asbergers syndrome. Habbabkuk, Hasbara syndrome. It makes you short, plastic and pink or green hair flows out of the space where there should have been brains”
G, since all you do is follow ‘a’ book, I think God gave you a large brain by mistake. All you need is a small chip of a brain that records and captures your book through which narrow prism you approach the whole world and your shoddy little life.
Of course, you can change that, by letting yourself out of the prison of your making.
Lysias
26 May, 2015 – 8:32 pm
“Do we have any reason to suppose that Lord Janner has a conscience?”
Any reason to suppose that there is a limit to your stupidity?
Giyane, sorry I don’t mean to be harsh but, seriously, please think three times before you write some of the rubbish you write on here. More than likely, you are another good person, sadly wasted.
At any rate glad to hear your angiography successful, you have a new lease of life.
Here’s something interesting from a Continental msn.com website.
The conspiracy theorists will be silenced once and for all.
Is it too much to hope that they will keep a cork up their arse until 2017 and the release of the docs?
_________________________
“L’un des plus grands mystères du XXe siècle va-t-il s’éclaircir? Le site Politico révèle qu’en octobre 2017, 40.000 documents concernant l’assassinat du président John F. Kennedy seront déclassifiés. Ils devraient permettre de faire le tri parmi les innombrables théories sur la mort du président, tué à Dallas en novembre 1963.
Parmi les plus célèbres, Lee Harvey Oswald, le tireur, aurait agi pour les services secrets cubains. Ou pour les services secrets américains. Ou pour les services secrets soviétiques. Les documents prouveront-ils des liens entre Oswald et l’un des ces pays? 1.100 documents proviennent de la CIA. D’autres concernent un certain Edward Hunt, agent de la CIA qui sera plus tard impliqué dans le célèbre Watergate.
Cependant, la déclassification de ces documents pourra être annulée à tout moment en cas de veto du président. En effet, la CIA ou le FBI pourraient estimer que certaines archives exposeraient des personnes encore vivantes.
Aujourd’hui, seuls sept archivistes ont accès à ces documents.”
Dreoilin for when you pop in here: I had a hearty laugh at the rejoinder you posted last night re the metaldehyde slug baits.
I imagine the sourpuss heeded your warning as she was yapping away here before eight this morning.
Still seems to have some obsession re slugs gnawing away in her inner world.
[mods – recovered from spam, submitted at 12:03]
Mary
“As some here are unable to copy a link, here are the facts on TeleSUR as per Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeleSUR
La Nueva Televisora del Sur, a public company sponsored by:…etc, etc…”
_______________________
Exactly – a “public company”, ie a govt. owned organisation (for the ownership, see Mary’s link. 51% owned by the Venezuelan govt and 49% owned by some other South American govts, as I said.
As I also said, to be treated with due caution.
The examples of RT and Press TV refer.
“I think there have been no recent examples, but doesn’t a bill of attainder passed by Parliament deprive a noble of his title and noble status?”
Dunno. Task assigned to secretary of the blog. She also to start a signature campaign in conjunction with Lysias, as appropriate.. forthwith.
Habba, a link would be nice; but in the meantime here’s the original Vanity Fair piece that your French language quote is talking about…
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/politics/2014/10/secret-service-jfk-assassination
And forgive me if someone else on this thread has already linked to the latest on our demented Lord Janner…
http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5565/lord-janner-re-appointed-to-law-committee-despite-dementia
Habbabkuk (la vita è bella)
26 May, 2015 – 4:44 pm
“And after he has passed on, his son Prince William will prove to be an excellent successor to Prince Charles.”
……………………………………………………………………………………….
I predict Habbabkuk that Prince Charles will not become king or if he does he will not last long.
We shall have to wait and see.
William is much more photogenic; young, handsome and ideal for the pro Royal propagandists.
Who needs Charlie boy? He’s a liability (and a nutter).
William is also the son of Princess Diana. Which may well mean that the Powers That Be in the UK will not allow him to succeed to the throne.
Any more than their equivalents in the U.S. could allow Robert Kennedy or JFK Jr. to live to become President.
I am sure Craig, and many other decent people who comment on this blog, will be pleased to learn that fellow whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu got married a week ago. Let us hope they will have many years of happiness together after the appalling way the apartheid state of Israel has treated Mordechai – who long ago became a Christian. He is still not free to leave Israel even though the whole world knows about Israel’s nuclear stockpile. But be pleased for him and his wife Kristin.
https://www.causes.com/posts/953464-vanunu-mordechai-and-kristin-joachimsen-married-may-19-20154?