I am of course immediately proved wrong 🙂 The Conference just remitted back a motion supporting the Scottish Government’s land reforms on the grounds they are too timid. There is life in this Party after all.
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I searched for “Stamp Duty” in Scotland and compared to England we are paying a lot more.
The new land Tax does not seem to be able to be compared with Stamp Duty in England.
I bet we are getting a raw deal.
I am wondering if a certain personality type would make a good business decision or, say to go to war and bomb a hospital.
Maybe being able to shave a balloon without bursting it is more important than communication skills.
“No, professional status certainly does not equate to political wisdom”
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It most certainly does not.
Nor does study at Oxford or the possession of “several higher degrees”. Why, I’ve come across bloggers who have all of those and still manage to be conspiraloons! 🙂
“… serving on the Council (Boule) was a real educational experience for Athenians, who allowed themselves to be instructed by those who were serving for the second time.”
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Seeing the above I thought to myself how strange – if the members were chosen at random, what would the chances be of someone being chosen for a second consecutive term?
But our Transatlantic Friend seems – consciously or unconsciously – to have anticipated that doubt because he went on to write:
“Citizens could serve on the Council no more than twice. The numbers are such that virtually all male citizens who lived long enough to serve must have served at least once”
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To be able to evaluate whether that is a reasonable comment it would be helpful if our Transatlantic Friend could let us know (1) the size of the Athenian population with the right to vote (2)the number of members of the Vouli and (3) the period of “office” of each Vouli.
“Curious to see how one talks about things like the Bullingdon Club in the German language, I looked for the German original of the Spiegel article.”
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Is that the same Bullingdon Club of whose existence you once claimed you were completely unaware during the four years you said you spent at Oxford University?
The SNP really need to beef up their Land Reform Bill, regardless of who it upsets, the problem in some respects is just finding out who owns what, with many acres of Scotland registered in god knows whose name, and through the secretive British Virgin Isles, who won’t reveal ownership.
One such toff who in my opinion, needs taking down a peg or two, is the Duke of Buccleuch who’s family inherited the land through the Duke of Monmouth, the b*stard child of Charles II.
Richard Scott, the dukes name, is the largest land owner in the UK.
Note to SNP, if they read Craig’s fine blog, please don’t send Fergus Ewing to deal with the duke, Fergus has been kissing Mr Scotts arse from day one on land reform.
Anna Missiou gives the demographic arguments in her book which I have cited.
I note that I make no claim that my academic degrees give me any right to particular political power. Far from it, I persistently advocate for the Athenian system that would give me no more power than anyone else.
Others, on the other hand (including the one who just criticized me again for advocating the Athenian system), persistently argue against the Athenian system.
I leave it to others to judge whether they do so for selfish reasons.
Another who I’d like to see brought to task, when referring to Scottish land ownership, under the reform bill, would be Viscount Astor, he owns 19,000 acres of land on the isle of Jura. Where his step-daughter Samantha Cameron, and his son-in-law David Cameron often holiday.
The Viscount has used very derogatory language when confronted by the SNP’s Land Reform bill, comparing the SNP to Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, does he forget, it was his establishment who knighted Mugabe in 1994.
Of course this national newspaper claims the Astor’s and Cameron’s are using land, amongst other assets as a way to tax dodge…..surely not?
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/david-camerons-in-laws-links-string-5108437
“Wisdom is usually associated with King Solomon. He had a neat way of judging which woman was the true mother of a baby. It’s a lesson worth remembering today.”
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No prizes Fred for guessing who’s pushing the King Solomon wisdom line, the opposite crowd claim King Nebuchadnezzer was a smart guy as well.
There are other thought to be wise men, no not Melichior, Caspar and Balthasar, but Confuscius, Buddha, or even a contemporary in Gandhi, still I suppose the list is long and varied.
“I note that I make no claim that my academic degrees give me any right to particular political power”
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No indeed – and nor does they appear to enable the writer of the above to resist the lures of conspiracy theories and to avoid a certain astonishing tendency to advocate unrealistic political theories.
Lysias You are causing our friend a lot of bother and have become the object of his attention! LOL.
Mary, that is another strong argument for the Athenian system, is it not?
For sure, Lysias.
‘…Nor does study at Oxford or the possession of “several higher degrees”. Why, I’ve come across bloggers who have all of those and still manage to be conspiraloons!’
That’s nothing, I’ve met folk on this blog who have all those and still manage to be official narrative huggers. How sad is that?
These characters know which side their bread is buttered!
Sad is the fact that our dear leaders having realised their friendly oligarch owned media are no longer cutting the mustard so they are sending these paid/ideological stooges to mess/clutter up the independent non profit media. In the hope of keeping the narrative current for a little while longer.
It’s clear now, Nicola is a traitor to the Scottish nation. It’s long past time to stuff a comprehensive motion down her throat. The SNP hierarchy is following the CIA-authorized playbook to the letter, slicing and dicing your rights to deny them piecemeal. Fracking is inextricably linked to Scottish self-determination by the human rights principles of A/RES/65/223:
http://docbox.un.org/DocBox/docbox.nsf/GetFile?OpenAgent&DS=A/RES/65/223&Lang=E&Type=DOC
If the SNP nomenklatura cannot affirm A/RES/65/223 verbatim or by reference, they have forfeited the vote and the trust of the Scottish nation. Your true representatives are then not CIA-vetted SNP tools but the peoples and delegates of ALBA and other nations. You’ll never be free of Britain without internationalism from below.
So far Mathieson is making a fair fist of being Justice. minister. He has cleared up a problem left over by the previous incumbent, ie new women’s prison in Greenock. Was astonished to find out he has no past history in The Law, that’s how good a job he’s doing.
As for life in the party. Never doubt it. It’s the best party in the UK,………because it has to be.
It must be remembered that the Dead Sea Trolls are here simply to prevent BDS, any sign of ship UK sinking and the rats will be off to Latvia !!
“Anna Missiou gives the demographic arguments in her book which I have cited.”
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Not all of us have the time to read her book, Lysias.
So you might answer my questions so as to help us evalutae your claim a little better. The questions were:
“(1) the size of the Athenian population with the right to vote (2)the number of members of the Vouli and (3) the period of “office” of each Vouli.”
Not too difficult for a man of your expertise, surely, and not taking up too much of your time.
So off you go! 🙂
Anybody who is interested in the questions should make the time to read the book.
I remember you expressing disbelief that I could possibly be reading as many books as I claim.
Maybe some of us make the time to read books.
And I should have thought that anyone who posts so much could easily find the time.
KoWN: “That’s nothing, I’ve met folk on this blog who have all those and still manage to be official narrative huggers. How sad is that?”
Brilliant.
Words fail me.
The politico scum and their media whores are actively covering-up child sex abuse and murder.
And that includes all the scumbag trolls who post on blogs like this.
You (trolls) are vermin, total fecking vermin.
Your hour is coming.
Well.
Looks like the whole ISIS thing was a Western conspiracy to deceive.
Anyway.
The Russians have halted not only the Oded Yonin plan for a Greater Israel, derived of the remnants of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon etc, but they’ve also halted the broader assault upon Russia itself.
For how long, who knows.
The soft underbelly of Europe is looking very tender.
Another area where Russia and indeed European interests are coming under increasing pressure.
Hard to pipeline through failing states.
Europe may well have to be destroyed again to prevent her fully trading with Russia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geographical_Pivot_of_History
Corbyn Clear On Trident As He Takes CND Role
The Labour leader signals his unwavering determination to fight the renewal of Trident by becoming a vice president of CND.
17 October 2015
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is facing a major split in his party over whether Britain’s nuclear deterrent should be replaced, has become a vice president of CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament).
The move signals Mr Corbyn’s commitment to keep fighting for the scrapping of Trident ahead of a Commons vote on the issue in the coming months.
Mr Corbyn was rebuked by colleagues last month for undermining the internal Trident debate after bluntly stating that there were no circumstances under which he would authorise use of the weapons.
He said he would “not press the nuclear button” if he was prime minister, adding: “Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction that take out millions of civilians. They didn’t do the USA much good on 9/11.”
Labour’s official policy remains to support the submarine deterrent, which is based on the Clyde, despite the party leader’s opposition.
The veteran left-winger has been vice-chair of CND, which campaigns for unilateral disarmament by the UK, for many years.
He had been due to address the organisation’s conference in London this weekend, but he is now said to have other engagements.
CND said that while Mr Corbyn was stepping down as vice chair in recognition of his increased workload, he would take on the role of vice president instead.
“He didn’t want to resign from CND, so he decided to accept a vice president role,” a spokesman said.
General secretary Kate Hudson said: “This is a fitting tribute to a very principled man with a lifelong commitment to CND and the cause of nuclear disarmament.
“Working together, with enormous support from across society, we will prevail against Trident and secure a crucial step towards global disarmament.”
http://news.sky.com/story/1571115/corbyn-clear-on-trident-as-he-takes-cnd-role
Good to see the drink is talking for RobG during the witching hour.
Westminster Parliament to hold an emergency debate on October 19th to debate the ubiquity of spying, on MPs!
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20151016/08085932560/uk-politicians-to-hold-emergency-debate-after-spy-tribunal-says-gchq-is-permitted-to-put-them-under-surveillance.shtml
Oh, and those of us who are mildly paranoid about the security/privacy balance should occasionally visit the diagnostic website https://howsmyssl.com
Note that even a rating of “good” is currently under debate, as there is some evidence that around 2/3rds of VPNs & HTTPS can be peeled-open by nation-states such as US/UK/RU/CN (based on expensively solving for ‘common’ 1024bit Diffie-Hellman primes)
The unwillingness of our Transatlantic Friend Lysias to answer the rather simple but highly relevant questions I asked at 18h48 yesterday (and repeated at 23h27) seems to indicate that his claim is without foundation,
That claim read as follows:
“…serving on the Council (Boule) was a real educational experience for Athenians, who allowed themselves to be instructed by those *who were serving for the second time””
Just as a reminder,I was wondering what the chances were that, in the system of random selection so admired by our Friend, it was possible that some people got to serve a second term.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surely providing the figures which could help to back up his claim should not be difficult for someone who once claimed he had done a course in statistics as part of one of his higher degrees….
and, of course, for someone who claims he read for the Literae Humaniores (= Greek and Roman classical studies) degree at Oxford University…
The greatest bar to understanding what is happening in Israel is the partisanship of the media, and especially the BBC. This morning, the main UK propaganda programme, Today, had Johnny Diamond from Jerusalem (quoted earlier and incorrectly by the BBC as the capital of Israel).
The BBC is dominated by Zionists. A fact. He spoke of Jewish injury and death as predominant, and of ‘incitement’.
He did not refer to the present death toll or that there are over 1000 Palestinians injured and 30 killed.
He omitted to say that Palestinians in the ineptly named West Bank might have been ‘incited’ by settlers, check points, flying checkpoints, water cut offs etc etc. for decades.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06hk68b
43 mins in.
Not in the running order. Obviously a late addition. Vitriol.
We also see on the Sky News website Mr Danon at the UN holding up a Netanyahu style placard displaying some anti Palestinian lies/propaganda.
Palestinian Children ‘Shown How To Stab A Jew’
Israel’s ambassador to the UN claims Palestinian school children are being “taught to hate” instead of learning maths.
http://news.sky.com/story/1571110/palestinian-children-shown-how-to-stab-a-jew
Israeli children of course are not subject to anti Palestinian propaganda.
http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/israeli-children-sign-their-missiles_18.html