I was called a traitor by a Conservative MEP in a committee meeting of the European Parliament to which I was giving eyewitness evidence on the UK’s complicity in torture and extraordinary rendition. Doubtless that is recorded in the minutes of the meeting, which means I am marked down on a forest of European Parliament paper as a traitor in each of the European Union’s 24 official languages.
Nobody turned a hair, least of all me. There were some giggles as the Tory MEP immediately walked out of the meeting, which was viewed as childish. But nobody thought of it as way outside the normal levels of political discourse. Indeed it was quite mild by European parliamentary standards. It is, of course, perfectly true that I used to represent the United Kingdom and now it is my dearest wish to destroy it as an institution. It is therefore arguable that I am technically a traitor. I am not scared of names.
My Scottish readers will have realised that this disquisition on treachery is a reference to the Labour Party’s published dossier of evil cybernats. The majority of those cited qualified as evil because of use of the word traitor. I am devastated I did not get included. I am unsure that my ego will ever recover.
It seems to me that, in an argument which revolves around what constitutes a nation, the idea of treachery to the nation is one that logically is bound to intrude, on all sides. Indeed it can be shown to intrude into the entire discourse around unionism and nationalism over centuries. I have used the term myself.
It seems to me context is important. There is a legitimate discourse on whether treachery to either the United Kingdom or to Scotland is involved in the independence conundrum. To make plain that some consider a position or act as traitorous has a place in robust political debate. I deplore the idea that politics must be reduced to genteel commonplaces over tiny areas of disagreement. Passion is important. But to imply violent retribution is different, and comes under bullying and threat.
“Traitor” should not be shunned like a racist epithet. It carries a meaning which is important.
Habbabkuk; “Judging by the amount of bilge you yourself produce I should imagine your water bills are sky-high?”
No sky high water bills, I tend to ignore you most times, which helps cut down on extra showers !
O/T A sad loss.
Elizabeth MacLennan obituary http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2015/jun/29/elizabeth-maclennan
As an actress and a writer in her own right, she was the widow of John McGrath, the playwright of the wonderful The Cheviot, The Stag and the Black Black Oil. She also co-founded the 7.84 theatre company. In better and optimistic times.
Returning to your oration and the mentioning of Libya.
The meetings of Blair and Gaddafi spring to mind,when in 2004 Blair offered the hand of friendship in a Bedouin tent outside Tripoli.
Blair’s second meeting with Gaddafi took place in 2007, the same month as the Scottish elections were held.
The Deal in the Desert, as it came to be known,was to let BP gain access to Libyan oil fields.
In return Libyan prisoners held in the UK would be repatriated back to
libya.
Just another day at the office of Westminster as they go about their dirty deals, nothings changed.
“I tend to ignore you most times,”
____________________
Then there must be a second “Macky” on here.
Why, you’re positively Pavlovian 🙂
Mary
There you go, Mary – spelling corrected! 🙂
““David Dimbleby presents topical debate from Grays in Essex. On the panel are Conservative health secretary Jeremy Hunt MP, Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn MP, Anne McElvoy of The Economist, comedian Shappi Khorsandi and Douglas Murray of The Spectator.”
McElvoy is the wife of S Times editor Martin Ivens.”
____________________
Is there a Mrs Jeremy Corbyn, a Mrs Douglas Murray and a Mr Shappi Khorsandi?
I think you should tell us.
The Man from Blarney has fallen strangely silent.
There is no shame in admitting that one also posts on Mondoweiss.
Cameron versus e-commerce, which I can’t see him winning;
http://uk.businessinsider.com/david-cameron-encryption-back-doors-iphone-whatsapp-2015-7?r=US
One for you Ba’al;
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/01/hillary-clintons-emails-reveal-cherie-blairs-keen-lobbying-for-qatars-mozah
I think that by saying nothing I will increase the probability that readers here will take a look at Mondoweiss.
Everyone is entitled to look at, and even post on, Mondoweiss – it’s a free country.
“Demonstrations, schemonstrations. You’re seeing all the liberals on the street: everyone else is behind bombing Gaza (for peace) again. Here’s another rally:”
So someone else who, like the Israeli government, dismisses the strong voices for peace inside Israel. The fact is that the people of Israel are no more culpable for re-electing ‘bloodthirsty warmongers’ (or however Mary referred to them) than the people of the UK. The fact is that there is a passionate presence against the occupation in Israel itself. The fact is that, according to a series of polls, the majority in Israel want peace negotiations, not to blast the Palestinians out of the equation. The fact is that the majority of Palestinians want peace negotiations too. To discuss this reality, Komodo/Baal describes as ‘bickering’.
RoS, KOWN, I agree that Clare Daly is a gutsy MP. How we could do with MPs like her, not afraid to challenge the sycophants.
By the way KOWN I’m going to be in Oxford tomorrow. I’ve booked to see a play “Like a Chemist From Canada” in the Burton Taylor Studio of the Oxford Playhouse. It is directed by Victor Sobchak and written by Lewis Owens. It centres around the friendship in Oxford of Dmitri Shostakovich, Isaiah Berlin, Trevor Roper and others.
A double whammy next Wednesday.
1. Gideon’s ‘More Austerity is Good for You’ Budget.
2. The EU Parliament vote on TTIP which was originally postponed due to massive protest.
‘Dear constituent,
TTIP and ISDS – Call to action by Keith Taylor MEP!
Breaking news! We’ve just been informed that the postponed vote on the European Parliament resolution on TTIP has been put on the agenda for Wednesday 8th July.
MEPs will be voting on the resolution as a whole, but also on a whole array of amendments to the text.
Among these is a compromise amendment on the investor-state dispute mechanism, or ISDS. The compromise amendment suggests replacing ISDS courts with some kind of ‘new’ system, but there is no further explanation or details. As long as there is any system in place for investors to sue governments, as the compromise calls for, it is still ISDS. The fact that the Parliament’s President is trying to spin this as something different by giving it a new name does not change anything.
The compromise amendment has been agreed by the largest groups in the European Parliament: the centre-left Socialists & Democrats (which includes the UK’s Labour MEPs), the centre-right European People’s Party, and the European Conservatives and Reformists group (which includes the UK’s Conservative MEPs) and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (which includes the UK’s Liberal Democrat MEP).
On Wednesday, all MEPs will get a chance to vote on this amendment and the resolution as a whole.
The Greens are calling on citizens, trade unions, NGOs, towns and regions and businesses to speak out and contact their elected representatives and hold them to account on this attempt to privatise justice and infringe democratic rights.
How you can help
This is our last chance to make sure that damaging ISDS provisions are not given the green light by the European Parliament. MEPs need to know the full force of public opinion on this threat to our national laws and our democratic rights.
Contact your other MEPs before Wednesday asking them to oppose TTIP and the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS).
– use Write To Them to email your MEPs directly with your own concerns
– use the 38 Degrees campaign to send a quick template email
– call your MEPs in Brussels to let them the reasons you’re opposed
– spread the word! Share your concerns on social media, tweet your MEPs, encourage your friends and family to contact their MEPs, use Greens/EFA resources to campaign.’
~~~~~
Contact your MEPs.
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meps/en/search.html?country=GB
https://www.writetothem.com/
“It centres around the friendship in Oxford of Dmitri Shostakovich, Isaiah Berlin, Trevor Roper and others.”
___________________-
Is there any special reason for omitting Trevor-Roper’s first name?
“The fact is that, according to a series of polls, the majority in Israel want peace negotiations, not to blast the Palestinians out of the equation. The fact is that the majority of Palestinians want peace negotiations too. To discuss this reality, Komodo/Baal describes as ‘bickering’.”
___________________-
Hush, Tecnicolour! Do not seek to question the wisdom of mighty Zeus sitting on the heights of Mount Olympus.
“Is there any special reason for omitting Trevor-Roper’s first name?”
If you can do it, why not me? 🙂
Exit the Clown, stage left……
Finance Minister Varoufakis says he will resign if the “YES”s win the referendum.
A future govt should put him and PM Tsipras on trial for treason.
Monseigneur
Did you think that “Trevor” was his first name and “Roper” his surname?
Shame on you and I shall ask the Oxford City authorities to prevent your entrance.
Sell your theatre tickets now. 🙂
Yes, I made it clear those weren’t your exact words, Mary. The fact remains that you cited the re-election of Netanyahu, with 25 percent of the vote, as a condemnation of ‘Israelis’: how do you feel about condemning every one of the British, including yourself, since 26 percent of whom voted Blair back in?
*them*, not *whom*
What’s the Le Carre quote for? Presumably he wasn’t talking about Jews Against Genocide. Or Israeli Women in Black. Or, or, or….
“Shame on you and I shall ask the Oxford City authorities to prevent your entrance.”
He was a historian I never read. I preferred E.H. Carr (on Soviet Union) E. P. Thomson and Frederick Engels(on English Social History) though I picked up the other Hugh’s “Spanish Civil War” once, weighed it against Laurie Lee’s “As I walked out one Midsummer Morning” and “A Rose for Winter” which combined seemed the lighter option. Pity about Trevor Roper falling for the Hitler Diaries hoax. 🙂
The British electorate have long been dumbed down.
It only took them 8 years or so to wake up to Tony Blair. Zionist that he is.
Still Tony can’t venture out much in the UK these days without citizens lawfully arresting him.
Will the same be true for BiBi?
Not on your nellie!
That Technibibi is the difference.
Yes, I bet you preferred the Communist historians you mention. 🙂 Why am I not surprised?
And as for Trevor-Roper falling for the diaries hoax, well, everyone’s allowed to make a fool of himself once. And in your case, repeatedly (your RT regurgitations on Ukraine and Putin refer) 🙂
Stop Arming Israel: new revelations
The UK is still arming Israel, and importing its ‘battle-tested’ weapons.
Our new report Arming Apartheid, produced with War on Want and Palestine Solidarity Campaign, reveals that the UK licensed more than £4 million of arms sales to Israel in the four months following last year’s devastating attacks on Gaza.
https://www.stoparmingisrael.org/arming-apartheid/
Britain still arming Israel despite fear weapons will be used against Gaza Exclusive: Fresh arms deals worth £4m were approved by Britain within weeks of the conflict
Thursday 02 July 2015
The Government has been accused of ignoring its own evidence that British weaponry may have been used by Israel in its assault on Gaza last year after fresh arms deals worth £4m were approved by Britain within weeks of the conflict.
Figures seen by The Independent reveal that the UK gave the go-ahead for dozens of military exports to Israel, including components for drones and air-to-surface missiles, in the immediate aftermath of Operation Protective Edge, which claimed more than 2,000 lives, including those of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.
/..
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-still-arming-israel-despite-fear-weapons-will-be-used-against-gaza-10357621.html
This to the present backdrop of the Zionist supporting Cameron gearing up to attack Syria under the guise of eliminating ISIS. Israel already has the Golan Heights.
Craig,
You said this:-
“It is, of course, perfectly true that I used to represent the United Kingdom and now it is my dearest wish to destroy it as an institution. It is therefore arguable that I am technically a traitor”
you are the person who finds himself this way:-
A. Insider – who had detailed knowledge.
B. Outsider – ostracised and lambasted.
C. Human being – finally – who fully appreciates that there are things that human beings should do and other things that humane persons who happen to be human beings ( some of us at least) – should not do.
So – kneel – take your punishment – you naughty boy.
Courtenay
RE: Islam, ISIS, Palestine, Israel, some facts:
The vast majority of Palestinians are Sunni Muslim.
The ISIS headcases are Salafists, an ultra-conservative movement within Sunni Islam, and are funded by elements in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as Britain and the US.
Apart from making token announcements about the plight of the Palestinians, ISIS have never attacked any Israeli targets.
ISIS are a rag-tail army of about 30,000 who don’t have any heavy weaponry. no proper communications equipment, and no effective command and control structure; yet we’re told constantly that ISIS are a threat to the West.
ISIS has been armed and funded by USUK in an attempt to overthrow Assad in Syria.
The Syrian regime are Shiite Muslim.
Shias are a minority in the Middle East but by a quirk of history most of the region’s oil lays within Shiite areas, these being eastern Saudi Arabia, southern Iraq and southwestern Iran.
If these Shiite regions became independent and formed some kind of alliance (an alliance that would be very hostile to the US and UK) they would control most of the world’s oil.
The actions of USUK in the Middle East are not to protect the interests of their own people, it’s not to ‘keep the petrol flowing’. It’s all about large corporations making bucketloads of money out of other people’s natural resources; and the US and UK governments don’t give a jot about how many innocents get slaughtered in the process.
Harriet Harman, the current Ersatz Leader in spe said that Labour is as worried as the Tory’s and that they will look afresh at Bombing Syrian City’s.
The past lack of precision will make it possible for them to hit Assads troops as well, without much reprimand, so her complacency is multifold and the old US target of Syria and Iran are still alive and well as targets to be thrown into chaos.
Mind Harriet is not that keen to speak out/up about the Paedohile Information Exchange she was administering, she goes real coy when it comes to paedohilia, but she likes a bit of warmongering and tub thumping.
My local MP Richard Bacon today voiced his doubt, and rightly so. If we want to stop IS then we have to interfere with the financiers and their profit margins here in London’s City, whether they are Qatari or Saudi backers. We could stop their transactions and arms purchases, as well as stop their off shore killing of money. Why Killing? because it sits there, doing nothing, stale, not a medium of value exchange between trade of goods and services. Money that does not work is taking money out of the systems, it causes economies with lax tax regimes, such as Greece, to collapse.
https://i.imgur.com/9dBk0AA.jpg
when Greece agreed to write off German debt to the tune of 50%
People here may be interested to read about Trevor-Roper’s attitudes towards Scotland.
RobG
“The actions of USUK in the Middle East are not to protect the interests of their own people, it’s not to ‘keep the petrol flowing’. It’s all about large corporations making bucketloads of money out of other people’s natural resources;”
___________________
Is it not time that people stopped talking this sort of bollocks and got real?
The “large corporations” (and, by the way certain countries of whom I’m pretty sure you approve – eg, Iran and Venezuela) do make a lot of money out of oil. They make it by supplying the rest of us with a commodity without which the modern world would grind to a stop rather quickly.
It’s possible that you might survive a little longer than most in your little lotus-eating retreat in Poitou-Charentes but the rest of the populace would be in deep shit if the oil stopped flowing.
Do you believe the oil should stop flowing, Rob?
Lysias – don’t bank on it. But they are interested in your erudite posts on Mondoweiss.