I am in Tbilisi at the moment, where I spent this early morning drinking tea with some of the 2,000 strong Yazidi community. They see their religion as much more closely descended from Zoroastrianism than appears in most accounts I have read.
I very much enjoyed a visit to Tsinandali which was most useful for gaining a Russian perspective of the Great Game. I don’t have my books with me and am suffering a mental block as to whether it was Connoly, Abbott or Malcolm who visited Tsinandali. I had not realised that Griboyedov was married to a daughter of the house, Nina Chavchavadze. The murder of Griboyedov, Russian Ambassador in Tehran, by a mob rates little more than a footnote in British accounts of the Great Game, even though the British had bribed the religious authority to stir up the riots. What revisionist history there has been, has come from the Iranian side and falsely tried to obscure the fact that the refugees Griboyedov was sheltering were runaway slaves from harems.
This is a neglected recurring theme. When Shuja agreed the treaty already negotiated between Macnaghten and Ranjit Singh, the main stipulation he sought to add was that the British would return to him any runaway slave girls. The immediate motive for the ringleader of the attack on Alexander Burnes was that Burnes had refused to intervene to return a runaway slave girl who had sought the protection of another British officer. My fellow anti-imperialist historians have in general been guilty of emphasising rapaciousness by the British in these incidents and overlooking or excusing the slave status of the girls. Both aspects need to be faced squarely to write honestly the full facts of history. Tellingly, it is generally impossible to recover names of the girls involved.
Griboyedov deserves to be remembered for much more than his murder. An accomplished playwright and poet, he was a friend of Pushkin and had links to the dissident groups who attempted revolution in 1825. His murder left Nina a widow at either 17 or 19 by different accounts, and pregnant. She lost the child on hearing of her husband’s death, and never remarried. It is a tragic story which came alive to me in visiting the family home.
Griboyedov had fought Napoleon in the 1812 campaign, but had helped those Napoleonic adventurers Allard and Ventura evade a British blockade and go into service with Ranjit Singh. Griboyedov’s successor as Russian Ambassador to Tehran, Simonicz, had actually fought on the Napoleonic side against Russia, presumably in the Polish Legion. Nina’s sister was to marry a Murad nephew of Napoleon. The political elites of Europe melded quickly after the convulsion.
With which clumsy segue I shall note that the battle against the entrenched political elites of the UK appears to be going extremely well without me. I cannot express without a welling up of real emotion how happy I am that all I have been saying about the stultifying neo-liberal consensus and exclusion of dissent, and appalling burgeoning wealth gap between rich and poor, has found such massive traction between Jeremy Corbyn in England and the SNP in Scotland. I may have gone AWOL for a few days, but the cause of social justice appears in extremely safe hands.
The Irish people have more spirit and backbone than the British. They are still resisting the imposition of water charging.
Ireland and the Privatization of Water
Anti-Water Charge Campaigners’ Victory
by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin / August 10th, 2015
Anti-water charge campaigners had a major moral victory over government plans to make the people pay for the financial crisis when Eurostat determined that Irish Water had failed the Market Corporation Test. One reason given was that “sales must cover at least 50% of production costs. This is further amplified by the high number of households not paying their bills,” Eurostat said. It is estimated that “57% of the people are refusing to pay the water charges” and that of the 43% who did pay, many were intimidated by landlords or solicitors collecting for the state on the sale of a house.
The main irony of this tax is that it was not imposed by the EU:
‘In 2000, after 10 years of negotiations, the Water Framework Directive was finally agreed by EU member states. It was reported at the time that: “A compromise package on the legislation was agreed giving Ireland a derogation from a requirement to meter water. The directive allows member states to opt out of this obligation if it conflicts with national practice.’
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/08/ireland-and-the-privatization-of-water/
The author is also a painter in oils. His strong works have political themes. Gaza Ambulance, Odessa, Syria, Libya for instance. Impressive.
http://gaelart.net/
@N_
“Anyone know what tie this guy Anthony Jordan is wearing?
a strictly cropped version of the tie, when fed into google image search, magically resolves itself uniquely back to A.Jordan/Jersey & Haut de la Garenne, lots of websites show his photo including this French site which has been following Jersey for a decade.
http://wanted-pedo.com/pedophilie-au-royaume-uni-des-personnalites-mises-en-cause-par-loperation-hydrant/
http://wanted-pedo.com/angleterre-tout-va-tres-bien-madame-la-marquise/
They quote a recent UK Police source from Operation Hydrant thinking they have identified the scale of UK abuse networks by high profile pédés, currently running at 260+ public personalities, 43 from the music industry, 135 from TV/cinema/Radio, 76 from politics. . . which leaves how many royals/aristos? 75 orphelinats, 154 écoles, une quarantaine d’institutions religieuses, mais aussi des hôpitaux, des centres de détention, des sites militaires sont aussi concernés par ces enquêtes. Au total, 357 institutions sont visées.
The French site claims that there have been many pedo trials since the 80’s, but these typically imprisoned a single individual, and somehow ‘magically’ missed the underlying network aspect of the problem, and there is mention of MI5 getting in the way of a ministerial arrest or two as recently as 2013.
to end on a Corbyn note, and a tie note, but obviously nothing to do with the above, the DT today has a news heading “Corbyn hints at Russia ties as he surges further ahead in Labour poll” Hilarious propaganda!. . . Make it all Putin’s fault, again. I didn’t bother to waste my time on the article. . .
meanwhile Russian TV Perviy Canal was yesterday also strangely obviously propagandic, briefing the audience for a quarter of an hour that the reason UK has protest cows in Asda & and farmers going out of business due to the low price of milk, is all because of the Russian imposed EU import sanctions blowback to the UK. Er, No! Hilarious propaganda again – UK historic pinta deliveries to the Russian federation was a measly 1% of their imported milk product market. . .
“Brian and Fred I had no idea that the weather has been so bad in Scotland that there is no grass on which to put the cattle out to pasture and there is still snow on Glencoe! That is according to Sky News. Are they exaggerating?”
The SNP are blaming Westminster.
I’d already read it, irrelevant to what i was saying.
What you said (5.36 on the 10th):
“Brian Soutar, is neither a MP representing Scottish interests or a SNP MP” (earlier poster quoted)
He was nominated for a knighthood by Alex Salmond after making large donations to the party
What the link you claim to have read and to be irrelevant said:
Scottish ministers, most particularly Alex Salmond, had no involvement.”
He concluded: “Given those facts checked out with the Permanent Secretary and the Honours Unit there appears to me to have been no breach of the Ministerial Code by Alex Salmond as First Minister and he should be wholly exonerated of any breach.”
I can keep this up for days, Fred.
Have you tried masturbation Fred? it can be much more satisfying than boring the tits of us with your repetitive nothings for your kicks.
“I can keep this up for days, Fred.”
Keep it up as long as you like it makes no difference.
What part of what I said was factually incorrect? Which part wasn’t true? Are you saying Brian Souter didn’t get a knighthood or are you saying he didn’t make a large donation to the SNP?
“Have you tried masturbation Fred?”
Fuck off.
You bastards are not capable of rational debate without personal attacks and intimidation.
Have you tried not being a wanker?
You said: “He was nominated for a knighthood by Alex Salmond”
I linked to Lord Fraser of Carmylie, after his official investigation of well-known truthteller Tommy Sheridan’s similar allegation, unequivocally saying he wasn’t. And he said:
Scottish ministers, most particularly Alex Salmond, had no involvement.
Seriously, Fred, you need help. Your reality is at odds with reality.
Think that should get me an FOADR, eh?
Fuck off.You
bastardsare not capable of rational debatewithout personal attacks and intimidation.Tut.
Villages and small towns are having the life blood ripped out of them by the Post Office who are closing down branches.
More small Post Offices face closure as officials cut costs: Hundreds set to be moved into supermarkets and other shops
Hundreds of town and village post offices are being closed to cut costs
Bosses are demanding sub-postmasters move their shops to other stores
If they refuse, their post office could be forcibly moved to another venue
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3082382/More-small-Post-Offices-face-closure-officials-cut-costs-Hundreds-set-moved-supermarkets-shops.html
There has even been a three part documentary on BBC2 – http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/jul/30/signed-sealed-delivered-inside-the-post-office-review-bbc2
It was very sad to see the PO woman driving around giving the postmasters and postmistresses the news that their life’s work was being ended. The PO even have flip charts which were flicked at the stricken people in case they had not understood the spoken message being given.
‘The documentary doesn’t put it like that – it’s fair and balanced. So we are not just with Carol, Ian and Anne; we are with Chris, too. And with Post Office manager Caroline, who is responsible for network transformation and whose job is to go around with ultimatums and presentation packs in her Prada bag. “It isn’t a closure programme,” she says. “It’s actually a modernisation programme.”’
A smart alec ‘entrepreneur’ was shown driving around in his Porsche car as he was about to snap up his third Crown post office premises to add to his retail stationery empire. He gets the franchise to stick a small PO counter within each.
The boss of the Post Office, Paula Vennells, has a ‘£250,000 basic salary topped up to around £700,000 in recent years’.
I am so pleased that Jeremy Corbyn is doing so well. How great it would be to get our Labour Party back in the hands of the people. Meanwhile other countries have no representation for many sectors, especially the poor. Elections have just finished in Haiti full of irregularities again and the result will not be known until 18 August. The recent history of Haiti demonstrates what can be expected in Ukraine if the shaky government there does not fall.
In Haiti in 2004 came a coup which overthrew the legitimately-elected government of Aristide, since which time people-power has been virtually eroded. Where once there were elected mayors, today the president selects compliant puppets. Aristide was exiled and the party he led, Fanmi Lavalas, was not allowed to stand candidates for above a decade, after which its power-base had all but vanished. Today the people have no real political representation and elections have become a farce. For their own benefit this has got to change. Dady Chery is the world authority on her native Haiti. I really recommend this book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/We-Have-Dared-Free-Occupation-ebook/dp/B012V8HGS2
This book “is a history book, a sociology book, an ecology book, and yes, it does have a political message, but what elevates it above the commonplace is the moving language in which it is written. Dady Chery is a poet and this book has its own soul. There is a fire in the hearts of Haitians which cries freedom. That fire will never be extinguished and its glow is felt on every page. Buy it. You will not be disappointed.”
“Seriously, Fred, you need help. Your reality is at odds with reality.”
The reality is that Brian Souter was nominated for a knighthood after making a large donation to the SNP. I never said there was any ministerial wrongdoing.
Mark Golding
Yes, definitely. The axis of evil is a severe case of projection from a highly disturbed animus. How did this collective insanity come to wreck the Muslim world? And isn’t the survival of the Afghani, Libyan, Syrian etc populations in spite of co-ordinated sabotage by the US a sign to the US that there is more to Islam than just being a poisonous projection of their own moral pinnacle of self-righteousness?
Many US citizens are converting to Islam.
The reality is that Brian Souter was nominated for a knighthood after making a large donation to the SNP. I never said there was any ministerial wrongdoing.
What you said was: “He was nominated for a knighthood by Alex Salmond”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/08/in-safe-hands/comment-page-2/#comment-543303
He wasn’t. He couldn’t have been. The Scottish Government decided in 2007 that ministers would not make nominations. And for the n’th time,
…it was asserted that a nomination came from the Scottish Government that Scottish Ministers either approved the nomination or at least had some involvement in its submission.
“In fact… (the assertion was wrong)… Scottish ministers, most particularly Alex Salmond, had no involvement.”
Your statement was therefore wrong. Wrong beyond any argument. Wrong as an economist on acid. Wrong.
Your earlier statement, that
Sir Brian (was) nominated for his services to homophobia.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/08/in-safe-hands/comment-page-2/#comment-543283
is also wrong. (And I’m prepared to bet you don’t give a rat’s arse* about homophobia, and probably sympathise with it) Indeed, I have taken pleasure in showing everyone other than you, who cannot conduct a rational debate, to be utterly and persistently wrong on several occasions. Your motivation for making such demonstrably false assertions can only be malice.
Now, is Craig a neonazi? You never did provide a reply to that question.
*
Or sheep’s arseI have taken pleasure in showing everyone other than you, who cannot conduct a rational debate, to be utterly and persistently wrong on several occasions.
Would perhaps be better expressed as:
I have taken pleasure in showing everyone that you, who cannot conduct a rational debate, have been utterly and persistently wrong on several occasions.
Corbyn will be in Scotland at the end of the week with meetings in Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow. All are sold out already so Scots will have to queue round the block and listen outside, just like their English comrades.
I meant to add this:
http://www.jeremyforlabour.com/events
He’s the man to get the Scottish Labour vote back if anyone can. NuLabour’s going to look like an even stupider bunch of corporate capitalists if they don’t take account of that. They should ditch their placemen for a start.
“Around 30 degrees C in Tel Aviv this morning and Jewish and Arab Israelis are enjoying the beach in perfect harmony (you wouldn’t have seen that in aopartheid-era South Africa!) . . . off to the beach now for some swimming, lounging, flirting with the girls ad, of course, some beach footie if I can rustle up some equally energetic souls.”
When you get back from the beach here are some photographs of those who never grew old enough to play football on the beach, killed on Netanyahu’s instructions.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=160628797603059&set=gm.1652563474957020&type=1&pnref=story
That is why the petition was raised which you call “vexatious, silly and has no chance whatsoever of being taken seriously, never mind succeeding.”
Well let me inform you that the petition has already passed 29,000 signatures and there should be a government response after 10,000 signatures for which we have been waiting for 2 days. Even somebody with Noddy’s arithmetical skills could work out that nearly 20,000 signatures have been added over the last forty-eight hours. 100,000 signatures makes the petition eligible for parliamentary debate. I forecast it will shoot well beyond that quite quickly making your above statement fatuous and possibly indicative that you have been taking too much sun.
As to your fantasy girls, God spare ’em.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/105446
I’m afraid I’m not big on petitions. Not a criticism of anyone who signs them, or posts them online, I just tend to avoid. Think they are just guilt-assuaging, but that’s just me.
It looks like Corbyn has, somewhat unbelievably, won the leadership, if polls are to be believed. I’m genuinely not quite sure what to make of this Corbyn-mania, and the prospect of his being leader. In a way, I guess the relentless propaganda, the relentless glib Nu Labourism kinda seep into the psyche, and cause me to have doubts about how Corbyn will manage in the new role. He’ll get slaughtered from Day 1, of course. His enemies in his party, and his enemies in the media, will keep telling us that he leads a fractured party, and he needs support in the media; all the while of course, the internal enemies will try to shaft him, and the media enemies daily malign him. So, his enemies are correct, because self-prophecy is a bit like that. However, the Indy election has shown us that people, especially younger people, simply pay the corporate media little or no heed. Also, that Nu Lab is completely despised, and, basically, has no constituency. So, mayhaps Corbyn could do just fine? Certainly, up against Cameron in PMQ’s, he can do well, because Cameron is just flannel and bullshit, which only works against those who aren’t quite as good at flannel and bullshit.
Personally, I am delighed if he wins. Not so much because I am a major league Corbyn fan – I’ve really not followed the election closely enough – but because the result would be a huge Fuck You to Blair, Blairism, and all his infernal works. Blair still – even now, unbelievably – seems not to understand the anger towards him. And if little acolytes can’t understand, they simply ‘aint bright enough to be leader. Kendall for one is almost a charicature of a Nu Lab politico. Hopefully Blair will no longer be so protected, and we’ll learn a bit more about him, and his actions, if Corbyn wins. That could be interesting …
Meanwhile in Ukraine the ultra-right has asked the Roman Catholic Pope to canonise Andrey Bandera, father of Stepan. Sorry it is in Russian.
http://tvzvezda.ru/news/vstrane_i_mire/content/201508101305-d9yb.htm
Yandex translate gives:
“Ukraine is going to canonize Bandera is the father of Stepan Bandera. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church already collects necessary for this procedure documents to guide them in the Vatican.
The recognition of the blessed in the Catholic Church is the first step on the path to beatification of saints.
Meanwhile in a village in the Ternopil region in Greco-Catholic Church installed a stained glass window depicting the father of Stepan Bandera.
After the First world war, Bandera Sr. acted as one of the organizers of the coup in Kalush district, became involved in the formation of the residents of the surrounding villages nationalist military units and providing them with weapons, previously hidden in 1917. Later Andrey Bandera moved in Stanislav (now Ivano-Frankivsk), where he became a member of the Ukrainian national Council, Parliament of Western-Ukrainian people’s Republic, proclaimed in the Ukrainian lands of the former Austro-Hungary, and later entered the service of the Ukrainian Galician armychaplain.
“OUN” – the Ukrainian far-right nationalist political organization which has reached the highest activity in the 1930s, under the leadership of Stepan Bandera, one of the most famous ideologists of Ukrainian nationalism of the Nazi collaborators and partner of Nazi crimes. In Russia the activities of the OUN recognized as extremist and banned.”
“Nu Lab is completely despised, and, basically, has no constituency”
Yes, the notion that Corbyn is unelectable, as espoused by a pathetic neo liberal faction that has lost two elections on the bounce, always stretched credulity somewhat.
John- I see the sealion
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Male_southern_sea_lion.jpg
has been sealioning, from its Wolverhampton rockpile (my Habbbreak, thanks to a server idiosyncracy, is still working… 🙂 ) :
Around 30 degrees C in Tel Aviv this morning and Jewish and Arab Israelis are enjoying the beach in perfect harmony (you wouldn’t have seen that in aopartheid-era South Africa!)
Ask him which beach that might be. Only two ‘Tel Aviv’ beaches encourage , er, mixed bathing, and one of them’s nearer Jaffa.
You might also enquire how often, and under what conditions, West Bank Palestinians are allowed into Tel Aviv at all. One occasion would be Ramzan (one day, out by 10pm), but finding others would be an educational exercise for him.
Greece stays in the Eurozone. Syriza have bowed down to the EU fascists.
The Greek people are not happy.
I see that Craig is joining in the debate in the comments section over at the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/11/yougov-poll-jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-should-we-trust
Shame he’s not discussing things on his own blog too.
This is how western democracy works in Ukraine. First you get rid of the communists, then you murder opposition journalists and politicians, then you stop the broadcast of Russian language programmes. The latest prohibition is against Russian singers and artists. Welcome to western democracy Kiev.
This is an improvement from the BBC but it still cannot resist another gibe, despite there never having been any evidence of Russian state military participation in the civil-war.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33839418
Of course it has had plenty of support in the countries which paid for the coup. Canada would not let the concert pianist Valentina Letitsa play at the Toronto Symphony Hall because of her support for Donbas. So there we have it. Like Nazi Germany this creeping fascism has already got a firm grip on the state machine. And it has many allies. Wake up you sleepy dullheads! Get off the largactyl. Give your brains a breath of fresh air. Flush out the propaganda.
http://sputniknews.com/world/20150408/1020639158.html
Ba’al at 1.01 pm. Great picture. I would repeat the questions you ask, and valid points you make, but I think we’re in the queue behind Jon. 🙂
Edward Heath is getting defended in some remarkable ways.
1) “It’s easy to talk ill of Ted Heath, but it was a different world then” – food hack and mirror-loving snob from the US, Paul Levy in the Torygraph
2) (here I paraphrase) “It’s all untrue about him, because he didn’t invite me back to his flat for some uphill gardening when I kept fluttering my eyelashes at him on an aeroplane. He just said he wanted a nap, and I’m so beautiful – it wasn’t as though I had spinach on my teeth or anything” – gay paedophile Jonathan King in the Spectator
3) (again, I paraphrase) “He was asexual, and in any case, even if he did want to rape or murder children he would have sat on his urges and put his career first” (or, not paraphrasing, he would have been “too conscious of the implications for his reputation and career to take risks of that kind“- former Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong in a letter to the Times. Armstrong’s the guy who has been exposed as being aware of allegations that an MP was a paedophile abuser and who stood there and did nothing about it. If the MP actually was a paedophile abuser, as seems very likely, rather than being a font of wisdom on any related issue Armstrong should be in the dock as an accessory.
These are the kind of creeps leaping to Heath’s defence.
I’ll add another piece, because of its stupidity:
4) “Ted Heath a paedophile? Not until he’s proven guilty
The former British prime minister has a right to his presumed innocence.” Aaron McKenna in the Journal – OK let’s not mock this mentally challenged man in Ireland – a country riddled with child-abusing priests – who believes that the same laws apply to the dead as the living and doesn’t get the point that many victims of child abuse aren’t keen on speaking out but should have it made easy for them to do so, for their own good and the good of society. But defending Heath in this way discourages not only his own victims from coming forward, but also the victims of other celebrities and powerful people – and the victims of non-family child abuse generally, because when are these crimes ever not about power?
There have been numerous other ridiculous articles of a similar type throughout the Tory press.
The whole message is “If you’re going to say someone famous and posh abused you, shut the fuck up“.
Are they panicking?
@J.Goss “I am so pleased that Jeremy Corbyn is doing so well. How great it would be to get our Labour Party back in the hands of the people.”
he used the word hope, John, if he wants to provide real hope for ‘the people’ then he should listen to Will self who , in a discussion with Andy Ternan made it clear that a fair proportional voting system comes before all else.
No more distortion of the people’s voices by marginals and or safe seats, we can’t go on being governed by popular minorities of the same old same same, the party politics under FPTP has wrecked this country.
I have not voted and will not vote for anybody that still hides behind party politics, however much historic brimborium surrounds the Labour party. It is also the Labour party under people such as Jack Straw who defiled, defrauded and used the FPTP system to manipulate votes and voters, so if Jeremy really wants a brand new start, that would be the first measure to tackle.
despite its importance to us all, PR is easily trumped yb other needy causes, and no doubt the MSM will try and tell him that he should do XYor Z. The BBC will be gently trying to coax him into supporting their cause of continued domination and untruth, whilst trying their best to unseat him.
MJ, what Guardian page is playing Craig today? can’t find him unless he’s writing under a moniker