Despite numerous representations and an Early Day Motion signed by the large majority of Scotland’s MPs, Theresa May has ordered that Majid Ali, a Glasgow City College student, be deported back to almost certain torture and probable death in Pakistan in just twenty minutes from now. I attended the demonstration on his behalf yesterday at the Scottish Office.
Majid is a member of the much persecuted Baloch minority. Two of his immediate family have been “disappeared” by the Pakistani military since his asylum application was submitted. There is no doubt that given the numerous MP’s who have raised his case, and the well-supported early day motion, civil servants will have put the decision to May personally. She was however not even prepared to grant a delay for a look at the evidence. May is very likely not merely pandering to the racist UKIP voting electorate – she is on the far right of politics herself. The callous sacrifice of Majid Ali is proof, if any more were needed, that this Conservative administration is nothing to do with Cameron’s purported “compassionate conservatism.” They are the nasty party indeed.
But it also gives a stark example of the meaningless nature of the “enhanced devolution” in the new Scotland Act. Majid Ali’s community and Scotland’s elected representatives all want to keep him here, as an asset to his community and to our country. But even once the new Scotland Act is passed, it still would be Theresa May and the London Home Office who are the arbiters in all immigration and nationality matters.
For me, independence is the answer, and the only way Scotland will be able to operate as an ethical state. But for those Scots gradualists who actually believe in this devolution distraction, the absence of any input in immigration matters is a crucial example of how inadequate the proposed “new powers” are.
The majority of all extant UK statute laws apply equally in England and Scotland, but in Scotland are enforced by different administrative and judicial processes. While the UK is unfortunately a single state, it will have the same laws and regulations on immigration applying throughout. But there is no reason whatsoever that, as with so many other areas of law, the administration, judicial function and discretionary powers under the laws should not be devolved from London to Scotland as regards persons in Scotland.
That this is not so much as on the table shows how sham are the proposed “extra powers”. And that Majid Ali is being deported by Theresa May against universal Scottish opinion, shows the contempt which this Tory government intends to display against Scotland.
Assuming the deportation go ahead, the next useful step is to put pressure on Theresa May through letters to MPs to account for what happens to him after his return. There is a chance that forcing the British Government to make enquiries of the Pakistani Government about him may just keep him alive.
“…all these old chestnuts…” i.e. myths, or to you, lies.” — Doug S
an old chestnut (informal)
a subject, idea, or joke which has been discussed or repeated so many times that it is not interesting or funny any more
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/an+old+chestnut
Straighten yourself out, Doug. Get your stuff correct. GIYF
Civil war may have been the alternative in 1947, but that was because of previous decades of mistaken policies. Until 1920, Jinnah was a leader of the Indian National Congress. An India that achieved independence (or even just dominion status) around then could have been a unified state, with constitutional safeguards for the rights of Muslims.
O/T in the unlikely event anyone is interested I have responded to Mr Goss’s latest smear re Kara Murza here. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/05/corruption-welcome-in-london/comment-page-4/#comment-531131
The Irish-American UK-basher should really make up his mind: first he says that the Hindu-Muslim split was the result of British divide and rule policies; but latterly he appears to be putting the blame on the British for not granting India independence 2O years earlier. The lad needs to make his mind.
Dare I say it? No one is interested RD.
RD at 8.41 pm. Thank you for your response to which I have responded with a little more credibility.
“A major reason for the Balfour Declaration establishing a Jewish national home in Palestine was that the British wanted to settle near the Suez Canal a national group that could be relied upon to resist any Arab attempt to take over the Suez Canal”
______________________
The above is what might be termed a “Waitrose” contribution to the discussion (as opposed to the “Tesco” contributions from the likes of Macky, Nevermind, Herbie, etc).
But anyway: “near the Suez Canal” – I wonder* if the writer of the above would tell us the distance between the Jewish National Home and the Suez Canal. Either miles or kilometres would do.
Secondly, I wonder* whether the choice of part of Palestine for the Jewish National Home might not have had something to do with where Biblical Israel was situated?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* “wonder” – copyright Lysias 2015.
Ben at 8.58 pm. I am interested. Others should be. 🙂
If I can interject for a brief moment: Partition on the Indian sub-continent created both west Pakistan (now known as Pakistan) and east Pakistan (now known as Bangladesh). This doesn’t seem to get mentioned.
But back to your normal programming…
No offense intended John. 🙂
Good to see you are fit as a fiddle.
The history of India is long, fascinating, complicated and deeply contested. It often is re-written to suit whatever narrative is being pursued. It would – and does – take volumes. We all – and I mean all British people, and more – at some level are products of it.
+++++++++++ (since it seems I now am a monk of Iona)
That must be a ‘Lidl’ comment. 🙂
Mountbatten was not prescient by any means. Not that that fact diminishes his good intention.
Good intentions; the cheapest of human endearvors.
Some interesting background info about Partition here:
https://sites.google.com/site/cabinetmissionplan/mountbatten-and-jinnah-negotiations-on-pakistan-april-
Before he heads for Telfs to join his Bilderberg pals tomorrow, Thatcher’s child Gideon George Osborne announces the sell off of RBS for less than half the £46 billion with which we, the taxpayers, bailed it out.
Who are the likely buyers? More of his crowd who profited from the Royal Mail bonanza? At least Thatcher was more egalitarian by including ‘Sid’ in her stripping of state owned assets.
Chancellor Announces Plans To Sell RBS
The Government bailed out the bank during the 2008 financial crisis – propping it up with £46bn of public money.
http://news.sky.com/story/1499881/chancellor-announces-plans-to-sell-rbs
I see he has had advice from Rothschilds. Of course.
Forget the G7 summit – Bilderberg is where the big guns go
Covering issues from Europe to terrorism and IT, the lesser known Bilderberg policy conference includes prime ministers, CEOs from banks, airlines, oil and the arms industry, and even George Osborne
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/08/bilderberg-summit-forget-the-g7
For example, to be heretical for a moment, Gandhi has been turned into some sort of saintly figure by (for want of a better term) ‘The British’, or, as they sometimes are known in South Asia, ‘The Britishers’ (which to me sounds more like the title of a TV serialised historical romance). This sort of canonisation is exemplified in Richard Attenborough’s 1982 movie. Whereas in fact, Gandhi was a scheming politician and to his actions must be ascribed an important part of the responsibility for Partition and its horrors. The fact that he himself paid the ultimate price ought not distract from that analysis.
And the usual figures, Jinnah, Nehru and so on, too. Complex figures, all. Economics, of course, often omitted from heroic histories, was key.
Mountbatten was hopeless, obsessed as he was with self-aggrandisement. And then there was the upper class love affir b/w Nehru and Lady Mountbatten – something that is common knowledge in South Asia but which is never talked about in the UK, you know, the fact that Nehru was in bed with Mountbatten’s wife and Mountbatten was okay with it.
Bevin
Thank you for providing a link to the Counterpunch article. At last the underlying issues of he Syrian war have been given a good airing. Turkish and Iranian troops soon to engage in direct confrontation? let’s have a punch-up like Saddam Hussain’s war with Iran through Northern Iraq’s Kurdistan, but this time through Turkey’s Eastern Kurdish region.
We love punch-ups at Chatham House, especially when regional powers can wreck the lives of all the local Muslims. Did we all notice the BBC disinformation about UK approval of Harry returning from fighting Islamic state. Nobody must listen to mad people like Giyane suggesting that UK mosques are working with David Cameron to fight his proxy war against Assad. Please, please the man;s a loony. The BBC report clearly shows he’s lost his Baluchan marbles. We Tories are against Islamic state, please please don’t listen to that barmy idiot on that crazy CM blog. Your trusted friend, the beeb.
Dicky Mountbatten’s interests lay elsewhere.
I can’t imagine what pretzel twists Mohandas had to endure in order to achieve his dream of independence.
I don’t deny him the tools of politics when that is the edifice he must clambor over in his quest.
True love embodies three levels according to the Upanishads.
Love
Devotion
Surrender.
He was simply a human trying to transcend his condition and the condition of his fellows. If he were truly an adept of his religion he would wander living on alms. He chose attachment rather than detachment so he abandoned his principles to achieve some greater comfort for his fellows. I can’t condemn him.
Suhayl, if you was educated at a british public school as i was you would find nothing odd with that embarrassing situation you alluded to. Perfectly normal behaviour which should never interrupt the governance of Empire. now I’m sure you have other things to talk about or do.
Since we’re doing supermarkets.
Lidl do a very fine Brie de Meaux for £1.99 a slice.
Costs at the very least double the price in yer up-market fromageries.
And Waitrose are doing a French grass-fed unpasteurized butter for £1.89 250g.
Costs much more than double that in upmarket and even farmer’s markets.
Real food still available at very similar prices to the bog standard garbage the advertisers push people to buy.
Update
Make your own 8 oz jar of grass-fed Ghee for £2.50. Tescos are selling 2x250g Kerrygold butter for £2.50.
Cook with it, drink it, fry with it, bake, rub it into your skin etc. Keeps for six months.
And of course, these foods contain the full range of nutrients, unlike the pale pretenders.
Suhayl
One day the Asian Muslim population will realise that we Brits hated the colonial upper class twits at least as much as they did. They screwed us more than they screwed you.
This war in Syria demonstrates like a movie the way in which the British upper classes get Muslims to rule over and murder other Muslims. They give privelege and power to one class to kick the shit out of all the others. There will always be politically ambitious Muslims who will sell themselves like Faustus to the British shaytan/devil.
why do Muslims hate the British public when it is obvious that we the British Muslims of today have absolutely no control or influence over the David Camerons Theresa Mays or William Hagues who give power to Muslims over muslims, to destroy and plunder.
The British public of the time of the British Raj had no control whatsoever over the bastards of colonial rule. Racial hatred of ordinary UK people is an injustice which will take a long time to heal.
State propaganda of the worst kind…
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/10/how-isis-crippled-al-qaida
… and from a news organisation that’s now funded by one of the most corrupt banks in the world.
Guardian RIP.
Herbie
I have a very good brother/friend who maintains that extemely purified ghee is good for you. Rubbish, all these fats are bad for you and give you coronary artery disease like me.
However if you normally keep your mobile phone in your left shirt pocket communicating with microwave phone masts continually, you might be doing damage to your coronary arteries.
I ignored the advice for years but now I had the heart attack/ blocked artery I won’t be putting it over the stent area again, believe me.
When my Irish parents visited me at Oxford right after I had finished my studies there, and we went on to London after that (before going on to Ireland,) my persuasion and their own exposure to ordinary English folk quickly persuaded them that hating the ordinary English was indeed an injustice.
“I have a very good brother/friend who maintains that extemely purified ghee is good for you. Rubbish, all these fats are bad for you and give you coronary artery disease like me.”
I’m sorry, Giyane. I can’t agree with this.
The fats which are bad for you are those quite unnatural lipids that were introduced into the Western diet in order to improve efficiency of production.
Look at trans-fats in particular. A poison to the body. Very useful though in prolonging the shelf-life of products beyond what a natural product like butter would allow.
Funnily enough, natural saturated fats contain within themselves the remedy to many diseases of the Western diet.
I think it’s reasonable to say that today GPs are recommending butter over the vegetable oil products.
There’s been quite a shift from an emphasis on fats to sugar as the main problem, for example, even in public health policy.
Maybe Atkins was right.
Lysias
“When my Irish parents visited me at Oxford right after I had finished my studies there, and we went on to London after that (before going on to Ireland,) my persuasion and their own exposure to ordinary English folk quickly persuaded them that hating the ordinary English was indeed an injustice.”
I find that an extraordinarily humanitarian statement. Thank you. With regard to British sabotage of its neighbour Ireland enough truth and heart-break have given breathing space to mourn and understand the full extent of british evil and betrayal. Not so with india and Pakistan. As Craig mentions the massacres, vaster than Glencoe, have never been aired. The rape of Muslims by the British, never reached a chink of disclosure or closure, except by the obvious whiteness of skin colour of many Asian men.
As with Ireland and Africa, China and aborigines of Australia and North America, the pain drags on. one day we will know for certain that in 2015 US UK and Israel raped and destroyed Syria, using Muslim terrorists of Takfiri Islam , the shite interviewed in the Guardian article. Anglo-saxon oppression just goes on and on. Hell was built for them.
Britain has never stopped its cynical stirring of sectarian strife;
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/09/us-bosnia-srebrenica-britain-idUSKBN0OP1I420150609
Giyane, I was a grammar school boy.
I agree with you wrt racial hatred and the class dynamics of Empire and so on.
The kindly Chancellor had more to announce last night.
George Osborne considering £5bn cuts to child tax credits
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-33089711
It’s for the good of the poor of course.
‘Changes would cut entitlements for about 3.7 million low-income families by about £1,400 a year, the IFS said.
Political allies of Mr Osborne say the move would increase incentives to work.’
The photo of him displaying his hard face was well chosen to accompany this piece.
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/83552000/jpg/_83552471_027634670-1.jpg
Savile Play Left Victim ‘Physically Unwell’
A woman abused by Jimmy Savile says the production – although “impeccable” – has made her realise she has “a lot to deal with”.
http://news.sky.com/story/1499988/savile-play-left-victim-physically-unwell
‘The man behind the production, Jonathan Maitland, has said he has no regrets about the project – which received a long applause from the audience on its opening night in London.
Describing the story as one of the most important in the past decade, the journalist added: “It affects the way we treat children, whether we believe our children, the way we bow-down cravenly before celebrities and the limitations of our libel laws.
“It’s a story that absolutely has to be told, but if you tell it in this way, you can shine a light that current affairs and factual programmes just can’t reach – and that’s the point.”‘