Embarrassing Pasts 741


It says a huge amount about the confidence of the royal family, that they feel able to respond to their Nazi home movie with nothing other than outrage that anybody should see it. They make no denial they were giving Nazi salutes, no statement that the royal family did not support the Nazis. Of course the young children had no idea of the implications. But the adults most certainly did. The missing figure is the cameraman, future King George, who was filming his wife and brother displaying the family sympathies.

The royal family were of course German themselves – completely so. Since George I every royal marriage in line of succession had been conducted in strict accordance with the Furstenprivatrecht, to a member of a German royal family. The Queen Mother, who was of course not expected to feature in promulgating the line of succession, was the first significant exception in 220 years. She was evidently trying hard to fit in. But I am not sure German-ness has much to do with it. Nazi sympathies were much more common in the aristocracy than generally admitted. Their vast wealth and massive land ownership contrasted with the horrific poverty and malnutrition of the 1930’s, led the aristocracy to fear a very real prospect of being stood against a wall and shot. Fascism appeared to offer social amelioration for the workers with continued privilege for the aristocrats. It is completely untrue that its racism, totalitarianism and violence was unknown in 1933-4. They knew what they were doing.

Happily fascism was defeated. The royal family is of course only the tip of the iceberg of whitewashed fascist support – without even starting on industrialists, newspaper proprietors, the Kennedys, etc. etc. But the Buckingham Palace option of outrage that anybody should ever remember is very sad – still more sad that such a position gets such popular support.

We never did get round to shooting the aristocrats.

I am an optimist in politics. My experience of life has taught me that altruism is a far stronger human urge than selfishness. Modern political fashion is based on the denigration of the urge to cooperation, and I do not believe will survive.

Which leads me to believe we are now living in an embarrassing past. Future generations will look back at the massive and exponentially expanding gap between rich and poor, at the super state security services and near total surveillance, at the violent wars waged in ill-disguised annexation of resources, and be amazed that people could support it. I also think that enormous shame will attach to all those who support the excruciatingly slow genocide of the Palestinians. That will be part of our embarrassing past.


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741 thoughts on “Embarrassing Pasts

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  • Mary

    More information on the dangers at Devonport for those who deny the facts.

    Devonport: Living next to a nuclear submarine graveyard
    2 October 2014
    How dangerous is it to live next to a nuclear graveyard?

    They were once at the vanguard of the UK’s Cold War effort but much of Britain’s former nuclear submarine fleet now lies rusting in Devonport dockyard with its radioactive cargo still intact.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-28157707

    Perhaps the deniers would like to decamp to Devonport and try a bit of entombment in a ballast tank or contamination. There are many instances linked on the web.

    See how the privateers have been allowed to extract profits from this obscene trade. KBR, a Cheney favourite and one time subsidiary of Halliburton, mentioned in the link below are the contractors. Kellogg, Brown Root. Their history in the Iraq war consisted mainly of inefficiency and corruption.**

    Babcock buys Devonport dockyard for £350mh
    10 May 2007
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2808670/Babcock-buys-Devonport-dockyard-for-350m.html

    Babcock ..KBR..Weir Group..Balfour Beatty

    There is NOWHERE to put the spent nuclear fuel. Perhaps that accounts for the fracking push? Let’s bury it?

    **
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company)#Iraq

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KBR_(company)#Controversy

    ~~~~

  • Mary

    A little more on the plight of sick and injured Greek people. And this was a year and a half ago so likely a worse situation now.

    Tough austerity measures in Greece leave nearly a million people with no access to healthcare, leading to soaring infant mortality, HIV infection and suicide
    21 February 2014

    Austerity measures imposed by the Greek government since the economic crisis have inflicted “shocking” harm on the health of the population, leaving nearly a million people without access to healthcare, experts have said.

    In a damning report on the impact of spending cuts on the Greek health system, academics found evidence of rising infant mortality rates, soaring levels of HIV infection among drug users, the return of malaria, and a spike in the suicide count.

    Greece’s public hospital budget was cut by 25 per cent between 2009 and 2011 and public spending on pharmaceuticals has more than halved, leading to some medicine becoming unobtainable, experts from Oxford, Cambridge and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) said.

    /..
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/tough-austerity-measures-in-greece-leave-nearly-a-million-people-with-no-access-to-healthcare-leading-to-soaring-infant-mortality-hiv-infection-and-suicide-9142274.html

    Who lives and who dies on Samos? Now a single ambulance for a population of 30,000.

    Greek health cuts a matter of life and death on Samos
    January 22, 2015 http://medicalxpress.com/news/2015-01-greek-health-life-death-samos.html

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Juteman, I think that’s worth reproducing:

    Tony Blair (yesterday, to his stooges and all media):

    We have to take the ideology of Nationalism head-on,” he declared. “Nationalism is not a new phenomenon. When they talk about it being new politics, it is the oldest politics in the world.

    “It’s the politics of the first caveman council, when the caveman came out from a council where there were difficult decisions and pointed with his club across the forest and said: ‘They’re the problem, over there; that’s the problem.’ It’s blaming someone else. However you dress it up, it’s a reactionary political force.

    Tony Blair (on leaving office in 2007)

    I have been very lucky and very blessed. This country is a blessed nation. The British are special, the world knows it, in our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on Earth.

    WoS comment:
    We’re sure there’s a word for when you think your nation and your people are special and better than any other people or nation on Earth. It’ll come to us in a minute.

    Made me laugh, anyway. Thanks.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    While Radio 4 is giving positive airtime to the Blairite candidate, Liz Kendall*, and she is announcing to all media that she won’t pull out of the leadership contest, worth noting this:

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-should-not-have-voted-to-recognise-palestine-says-leadership-candidate-liz-kendall-10403675.html

    Maybe Lebedev’s Independent thinks this is a positive. I don’t. Wasn’t just her, though:

    Ms Kendall, Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper all also told the hustings even in London that they opposed the boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel.

    And, poor deluded FoI’s that they are, they’re still swallowing the ‘two-state-solution’ pap. Where’s their portal to that alternate universe? Close it.

    *Mandelson begat Umunna. And Umunna begat Kendall…

  • John Spencer-Davis

    I find the current denunciation of Jeremy Corbyn among the Labour Party elite astonishing.

    “a YouGov poll of people eligible to vote gave Mr Corbyn a shock 17 point lead over his nearest rival Mr Burnham.” (MSN).

    “It shows Mr Corbyn as the first preference for 43% of party supporters, ahead of Mr Burnham on 26%, Yvette Cooper on 20% and Liz Kendall on 11%.” (BBC).

    Instead of respecting the clear preference of the people who constitute the rank and file of the party, Labour MPs seem to be queuing up to disassociate themselves from the views of the people actually responsible for electing them. I really cannot get my head around it. If I were them, I would be asking myself what the fuck I was doing in the Labour Party if someone I disagreed with so profoundly was so popular in it.

    Kind regards,

    John

  • Alcyone

    Full credit to Craig for having countered the argument that Jeremy Corbyn was unelectable.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Instead of respecting the clear preference of the people who constitute the rank and file of the party, Labour MPs seem to be queuing up to disassociate themselves from the views of the people actually responsible for electing them. I really cannot get my head around it. If I were them, I would be asking myself what the fuck I was doing in the Labour Party if someone I disagreed with so profoundly was so popular in it.

    It’s a question of twisted perception, isn’t it? 34% of the electorate didn’t vote at all last time. And that’s very likely the sector that Old Labour took pride in representing. Instead, our Oxbridge elite is panicking that it’s lost the volatile swing vote, people who are at least keeping their heads above water, many of whom are Daily Mail readers. Insanity.

  • nevermind

    Go to do some work for two days and look what happens, the thread, like so many times is being turned to Hitler, hurray, don’t you just love to concentrate on what you have been brought up with, a weekly nazi related article in the local press, Hun headlines in the tabloids and broadsheets, England in a moody summer, on its way to fascism, what a prospect.

    Now to the facts, those who worked on the Autobahn were poor unemployed people who worked for their daily food, work fare, they did not dine with Herr Krupp or had the Thyssens for tea, Fred, they were slave labour, not paid, what a socialist Autobahn that was, for that matter, still is, but its more like a British rail track here today dadummm dadumm, dadumm, plate tectonics/ movements of time, is working its forces on the concrete slabs they laid.

    Hitler was a socialist, what a daft statement, he adopted socialism because it was the most popular most readyily available vehicle for his plans. He Ribbentrop and Sper were masters in schmoozing the German engineering aristocrats, those who had earned lots of dosh selling grenades and bombs and shells to all sides in WW1. The collaborators were many, not just European aristos, there were more industrialists in his pockets than socialist.

    Why did he purge the socialist party and hounded them down once he had his position in the Reichstag, Fred, why did he send socialists into concentration camps?

    I find you rather simplistic views of the greatest thing ever to hit these isles is rather sparse, that our [paid sidekick anon should support you is not surprising.

    The thread has morphed but for what its worth one comment on Radio 4 this morning stood out, that’ the embarassment to Government and standing of paedophile Government ministers was much more important than the lives of children’. Now why wopuld this Government not want to recognise the UN rights of children?

    Because Britain is a paedohile’s paradise. Thanks for the royal pictures that did not get publicised.
    I’m sure there are lots still to come out from Jersey’s Haute la Garenne. and other children’s homes.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    He Ribbentrop and Speer were masters in schmoozing the German engineering aristocrats, those who had earned lots of dosh selling grenades and bombs and shells to all sides in WW1. The collaborators were many, not just European aristos, there were more industrialists in his pockets than socialist.

    Sorry to perpetuate this one… (you’re wasting your time with Fred, btw. If Herr H. came back from the dead and told him in person he detested socialism, Fred would contradict him. Fred is just doing it to annoy. Successfully, I am sorry to say)…but you forgot Robert Ley. Who diverted the confiscated union funds into Kraft durch Freude and the nascent Volkswagen project. The latter netted Ley millions, as people wanting to buy the car saved their money in prepayment accounts – and lost it when the factories were turned over to military production. Thanks for the detail on the DAF’s treatment of its workers in practice.

  • fred

    “Now to the facts, those who worked on the Autobahn were poor unemployed people who worked for their daily food, work fare, they did not dine with Herr Krupp or had the Thyssens for tea, Fred, they were slave labour, not paid, what a socialist Autobahn that was, for that matter, still is, but its more like a British rail track here today dadummm dadumm, dadumm, plate tectonics/ movements of time, is working its forces on the concrete slabs they laid.”

    Didn’t Stalin use slave labour too?

    “Why did he purge the socialist party and hounded them down once he had his position in the Reichstag, Fred, why did he send socialists into concentration camps?”

    Didn’t Stalin have purges too? Didn’t he send Communists to the gulags?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    http://wingsoverscotland.com/not-getting-what-you-dont-not-wish-for/#more-73607

    So let’s just recap what we know:

    – Labour didn’t want the Bill to get a second reading.

    – The motion proposed that it DID get a second reading.

    – so the only logical thing to do is vote against the motion, you’d think.

    Except they didn’t. Other than about a fifth of its MPs – who “rebelled” against the whip by voting for the thing their party actually said it wanted – Labour abstained.

    There were no grounds for confusion. It wasn’t like the infamous vote in the Scottish Parliament where Labour voted against free school meals, but claimed they were partly doing so because the SNP had worded the motion in a partisan way such that it supported independence.

    The vote last night was on the nine words (of the motion) That the Bill be now read a second time, nothing else. Labour said they didn’t want the Bill to get a second reading, then when asked “Do you want the Bill to get a second reading?”, decided to say “Um, well, we’re not sure”.

    (Despite having said that they definitely didn’t in a vote just minutes earlier).

  • nevermind

    Didn’t Stalin used to divert threads and attention from the facts by accusing Hitler of the same thing?

    making out Hitler was a socialist means that socialist those days also get covered in fascism, does it not? when in reality they were opposed to many of his excesses.

  • fred

    “Didn’t Stalin used to divert threads and attention from the facts by accusing Hitler of the same thing?”

    Didn’t Communist China use slave labour too? Didn’t Communist China have their purges like the Cultural Revolution?

  • nevermind

    In the absence of Craig’s interview with Julian, here is one with der Spiegel about Wikileaks and what kept it alive during the attacks from states. He explains about the recent increased activities and what this means for the future.

    “Assange: We are drowning in material now. Economically, the challenge for WikiLeaks is whether we can scale up our income in proportion to the amount of material we have to process. ”

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/spiegel-interview-with-wikileaks-head-julian-assange-a-1044399.html

  • nevermind

    Fred, you made a false assumption in calling Hitler a staunch socialist, didn’t you?
    hence your procrastinating, flailing arms pointing in all directions but to yourself.

  • fred

    “Fred, you made a false assumption in calling Hitler a staunch socialist, didn’t you?
    hence your procrastinating, flailing arms pointing in all directions but to yourself.”

    It was Hitler who called himself a Socialist.

    What I said about Russia and China is true isn’t it?

  • Ba'al Zevul

    As our own fascist state advances its agenda (slowly, now. No putsches please)

    https://www.cfoi.org.uk/campaigns/stop-foi-restrictions/

    The government has announced a new Commission to examine the FOI Act and consider what further restrictions should be imposed on the right to know.

    This is likely to involve considering new measures to:

    (1) prevent the disclosure of government policy discussions

    (2) strengthen the ministerial veto

    (3) reduce the Act’s ‘burden’ on public authorities.

  • nevermind

    I was not discussing Russia and or China, Fred. You don’t have to admit you’re wrong.

    Q@Ba’al. They are clamping down as fast as they can dismantle the social welfare and care system. Osborne’s undermining of the discussions to stop off shore havens whilst he’s cutting benefits for those in work is outrageous. I wonder what the detail of those negotiations were and how Osborne & Government have frustrated progress.

  • Habbabkuk (buy generics)

    Mary

    My post about the Greek NHS’s failure to make greater use of generic drugs and thereby save money for said NHS without negative effects on patients has obviously got under your skin.

    Why?

    It’s no good you “countering” my post by posting voluminous material about the alleged deterioration of the Greek NHS either = the two things have nothing to do with one another.

    You should also know that the Greek NHS has always been piss-poor and a scandal. This predates the crisis by decades.

  • Mary

    So poor that it got a rating of ‘relatively efficient’ from the OECD in 2009.

    ‘Nevertheless the health system was considered “relatively efficient” before the crisis despite a variety of problems including a fragmented organization and excess bureaucracy, according to a 2009 report for the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

    But it has been unable to respond to the growing crisis. The European Union and International Monetary Fund, which provided a €130-billion lifeline to Greece in March, have demanded big cuts to the system as part of a wider package of austerity measures.’

    Greek health system in poor condition
    KAROLINA TAGARIS ATHENS — Reuters
    June. 14, 2012
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/greek-health-system-in-poor-condition/article4261988/

  • Ba'al Zevul

    http://www.mortgagestrategy.co.uk/news-and-features/sectors/regulation/regulation-news/budget-osborne-to-name-and-shame-serial-tax-avoiders/2022419.article

    £750M to HMRC to pursue avoiders*. Name and shame avoiders, they’re trembling in their boots. No legislation re. publication of beneficial ownership or unscreening LP’s. Not that such legislation would ever be applied seriously:

    On a number of occasions, the courts have declared some of the tax avoidance schemes to be unlawful. This has not been followed-up by any investigation or even recovery of the cost of fighting the schemes.

    Big accountancy firms are often the brains behind the schemes but no firm or partner has ever been fined even after the schemes have been declared unlawful. The same firms are given taxpayer-funded contracts, such as those relating to privatisation and Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Their partners advise HM Treasury and other government departments. The firms fund political parties and also provide jobs for former and potential ministers.

    In April 2013, the government introduced rules to ban companies and individuals who took part in failed tax avoidance schemes from being awarded government contracts. So far, no such business has been barred.

    http://leftfootforward.org/2015/02/tax-cheats-cost-far-more-than-benefits-cheats-yet-far-fewer-are-prosecuted/

  • nevermind

    Thanks for that Ba’al, explains why he is frustrating/undermining international comprehensive talks to reign in tax evaders and access the hundreds of billions owned to the exchequers.

    It shirley appears as if Osborne is a tax evader himself.

  • Ba'al Zevul

    Think it’s a bit deeper than that, Nevermind. Much of our GNP is derived from what is effectively money-laundering, and his finances would be in even deeper shit if the lines from the City of London to the tax havens were cut. We are in fact a *virtual* tax haven. Our headline rates are, while low, and not very seriously enforced on rich companies or individuals, not as low as the BVI or even Jersey. But we have a huge stock of very creative accountants who know how to move money around. Also a lot of prestige property for sale, in a politically restful setting.

    Osborne can’t think longterm, and he’s boxed into City thinking. Investment in industry is something proles do, and it doesn’t make his mates as obscenely rich as gambling on the exchanges, printing money or selling debt.

    So let’s go after that 0.7% of benefit claimants who are cheating instead. All media please copy – G.O.

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