I had been spending the last few days living here in Avatime district while visiting Ghanaian friends nearby. Away from internet, TV and any other distraction, it has given me a chance to ponder what next to do with my life.
This has been a real problem. Have submitted Sikunder Burnes to the publishers, and while there is still editing and proofs, a huge amount of time is now free. My determination to dedicate myself to working for Scottish independence led to my comprehensive rejection by the SNP. This left me confused as to what I might usefully do with my life. I suppose the question I have been pondering is, what good am I?
I have come up with a potential answer, and will out it later this week.
Climate change deniers should come to Ghana. Not only have changing rainfall patterns devastated the hydro-electric system, life has become extremely hard for farmers. The last decade has seen the highly predictable wet and dry seasons become wildly unpredictable. It has been unseasonally raining heavily on me all over Ghana. The situation is extremely difficult for farmers. Mango farmers are now praying for relief from the rain for the next six weeks or the mangoes won’t flower. The continuing rains may already have adversely affected next year’s harvest. Meeting cocoa farmers today. Am now in Kumasi.
More of the nonsense. People in Spain and Portugal are protesting about it.
‘Special Ops Forces undergo rigorous training at NATO’s Trident Juncture 15
6 Nov. 2015
Often working out of sight, Allied special operations forces play a key role in any military operation. That is why they have been training alongside their land, sea and air counterparts in Trident Juncture 2015, NATO’s largest military exercise in more than a decade. The rigorous and diverse training, taking place in Italy, Spain and Portugal, has helped to hone the skills and readiness of special forces from nine Allies and one partner nation to perform all possible tasked missions as part of the NATO Response Force.
[..]
Over 1,000 special operations forces and different special operations aircraft participated in Trident Juncture 2015. They came from Allies Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the United States, as well as partner Finland. In total around 36,000 personnel from more than 30 nations participated in the Trident Juncture exercise.’
http://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news_124496.htm
Poppy mania in town; lots of children in uniform. Not a white poppy to be seen.
Monteverdi’s comment, 6 Nov, 2015 – 10:57 pm, contains a link that doesn’t work due to a capital letter. Here’s a link that should work:
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/06/garden-bridge-mobile-phone-signals-tracking-london
“I was just wondering whether you knew if any British shipyards had bid for the contract. If so – and leaving aside the question of price – whether you happen to know if they had the capacity to deliver the four ships within the time required.”
_____________________
Habb.
I can’t answer the first part of your question, but the answer is probably not, but, as you say putting cost aside, for a moment, the MoD could’ve backed shipbuilding in Britain, prior to the loss of Portsmouth.
Why abandon your heavy industries when other nations have made great successes of theirs.
Westminster sold Portsmouth out in favour of BAE in Glasgow, in a placating manner to appease those who favoured the union.
Portsmouth a truly English historic port that goes back to Tudor times and beyond, had its shipbuilding heritage decimated last year.
So Westminster now by the looks of it doesn’t have a capable ship building yard in England a renowned seafaring nation. Ergo shipbuilding contracts to a degree go a begging around the world, whilst skill crafts men are/have been made redundant.
Ironically the appeasement of the unionists in Scotland has created a state of the art ship building facility at BAE in Glasgow.
Meanwhile a flagging shipyard at Port Glasgow has received help from the Scottish government in the shape of ship building contracts.
Pity this Tory government hadn’t the foresight to do the same for Portsmouth.
Meanwhile the media push poverty porn non stop, in their attempt to demonise the less fortunate. In truth benefit fraud cost Britain very little compared to tax evasion, yet the media doesn’t attempt to investigate or demonise this as much as they should.
The Tax Research association reckons UK tax evasion amounted last year to £119.4 billion pounds. Yet HRMC has cut staff by 43% over the last 10 years.
Looking behind the scenes it’s patently obvious that successive Westminster governments have turned a blind eye to their big business buddies activities when it comes to tax.
Turning a blind eye has cost society in the UK over the decades, billions of pounds that could’ve been spent on societies ails, instead the monies have lined the pockets of big business, and dare I say their political chums.
Westminster and their mouthpiece the media, have been turning the middle classes against the poor using benefits for decades to take the spotlight off their activities regarding their very rich corporate buddies, and the non payment of taxes.
http://www.thenational.scot/comment/mhairi-black-ask-why-does-tv-attack-benefit-claimants-but-not-tax-evasion.9705
Surely this missile (that never was) spin is proof of a dreadful truth-the plane was downed as a geopolitical quid pro quo. Is it what satanyahu came to London to tell Cameron?
KOWN pelican also carries other suggestions. Leaving aside Pelicans owls and vultures are somewhat obvious so how about the Ibis? (apologies to any ibis browsers).
Garden Bridge.
Estimated construction cost £175m.
Boris/Mayor of London and Gideon/Treasury have pledged £60m Remind them it is OUR money!
Income raised ‘voluntary’ £12.65m
Spent so far on ‘pre construction costs’ !WTF £7.65m
http://apps.charitycommission.gov.uk/Accounts/Ends46/0001155246_AC_20141031_E_C.pdf
The chair of the trust is Lord Mervyn Davies. A banker. That’s handy.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mervyn_Davies,_Baron_Davies_of_Abersoch
The list of his interests is long.
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-davies-of-abersoch/3879
The bridge is the idea of Joanna Lumley.
Her other idea was to get retired Gurkhas over here. Elderly couples from Nepal mooch round the centre of the town of Aldershot where there is nothing much to do. I have seen that there is little interaction on the streets with the locals, presumably because of the language problem. They look lonely.
Now Lumley has annoyed the Aldershot residents by calling them racist. You can see from this article that it is not the case.
http://www.gethampshire.co.uk/news/local-news/joanna-lumley-under-fire-branding-9343915
http://www.timesofisrael.com/star-studded-us-gala-raises-31m-for-idf-in-one-night/
Usually Beverley Hill’s ‘ Star-studded ‘ Charity events are organised to help children in need , as opposed to helping subsidize an intermediary to speed their early demise .
Yawn. Glances at watch. So what’s the plan Craig?
Fwl. Ibis? Ah now I remember another reason why I chose pelican: three sylables 🙂
I’ll chuck this into the mix:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2015/11/04/voices/time-come-honorable-retreat-tokyo-2020-fukushima
Here’s former Ambassador Murata Mitsuhei, speaking in September 2012 via a video link at the Coalition Against Nuke’s Congressional Briefing. Murata’s command of the English language is at times comical. What he’s talking about is deadly serious…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R44zKsU_Cgw
Murata Mitsuhei is one of the few high profile people who speaks out about Fukushima, but of course I can guarantee that most people reading these words will have never heard of him.
Likewise with Katsutaka Idogawa, the former mayor of Futaba, in Fukushima Prefecture, who was interviewed on the Sophie Shevardnadze show on RT in 2014…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oFOc9CmPjg
And I should also add that I’ve never seen bollocks on the level of this:
“A fundamental overhaul of global aviation security is required in the wake of the Russian passenger plane crash, said senior industry experts, amid fears that flight safety is being compromised at many international airports”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/07/new-era-airport-security-sinai-terror
Psycho May will no doubt be rushing through more ‘terror legislation’, on the back of MI6 Johnnies, all on tax payer’s money, telling us that the ISIS we created are a threat.
These scum should all be in jail.
Thanks for all the Haiku’s, poets, thanks for the link to Mhairi Black, RoS, pointing to the very issue I’ve been banging on for weeks.
Why procrastinate over p…y 4.4 billion for two weeks, without mentioning the 119.4 billion that is bypassing the exchequer into tax havens. were there are some untaxed 8.5 trillions pf whatever denomination are decaying in musty old bank accounts.
Money that will not be invested, money that does not finance infrastructure development, because it never was taxed.
Its time to focus on those who have been undermining the system and society by evading accountability, using public service as a cover for whatever they like. feeding of it, as hangers on and as cogs in the engine.
A second chamber? yes, but lets make it inter changeable, No life peers at all, preferably a random selection, rather than a FPTP party political stitch up/vote.
now back to my book, ‘Wir sind die Guten’ by Mathias Broecker and Hans Schroeder. All about media manipulation of the public with regards to Ukraine. also reading, as a counter so to speak, ‘zero zero zero by Roberto Saviano, both riveting reads.
22.22hrs. good night
Good to hear from you Clark, I had a 404 message from the Guardian and wanted to read the article, thanks.
Tokyo 2020
a risk to all goers
generations pay
lives lost mean
little versus large
apes
Republicofscotland
Your original post contained the following:
“These four ships will carry Royal Navy helicopters, and support other ships, it’s an absolute disgrace and an affront to British shilbuilders, and steel fabricators that their government won’t support them in their time of need.” (present tenses).
However, in your reply to my question, you now say:
“So Westminster now by the looks of it doesn’t have a capable ship building yard in England a renowned seafaring nation.”,
thus admitting that there is not the necessary shipbuilding capacity for building the four ships.
How, therefore, can the govt be “affronting” and “not supporting” British shipbuilders which do not exist (in terms of capacity)?
Grateful if you would clarify.
Mary
You say – by cutting-and-pasting from a source – that
“Speaking in Westminster Hall, John Mann MP said he had a copy of a Dickens dossier – so-called because it was given to Geoffrey Dickens MP who in turn handed it to Leon Brittan in 1984.”
If true, this is of course good news, but I was just wondering if your source had anything to say on whether Mr Mann (MP) has made his copy of the “Dickens dossier” available either to the wider public or to the competent authorities (eg, the police).
If not, does your source speculate on when he intends to do so or, if he does not intend to do so, why not?
Grateful for your clarification.
Compliments to almost all. The Great Troll Freeze seems to have produced some sluggish responses due to the hypothermia of commentia dementia. Keep it up Doods and Dudettes.
Emetic, anyone?
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/boris-johnson-heads-for-israel-to-boost-capital-s-tech-links-a3108566.html
“Israel is famous for its zesty, seething, start-up culture….”
Quite so.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/assets/news/20772/eight_col_000_Nic6355907_crop.jpg?1406696379
Ben
Thank you for that insightful and very substantive comment.
And now go and roll another one.
It wants me to keep ‘rollin’ ? What does that means in today’s jocular lexicon? I don’t wish to speculate, but the lack of perspective on idioms which relate seem to be a bit short on Historical perspective and date the comment somewhere prior to Bliar’s epic rule. I could be wrong on the facility of derogation, but not the foundation.
Ancillary Copyright 2.0: The European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink
by Julia Reda
The European Commission is preparing a frontal attack on the hyperlink, the basic building block of the Internet as we know it. This is based on an absurd idea that just won’t die: Making search engines and news portals pay media companies for promoting their freely accessible articles.
Earlier attempts at establishing this principle resulted in Germany’s and Spain’s ancillary copyright laws for press publishers. These attempts backfired – with tremendous collateral damage. In the European Parliament I was able to defeat repeated attempts by EPP MEPs to sneak into my copyright report text passages asking for an extension of these laws to the European level. But this newest attempt is the most dangerous yet.
According to a draft communication on copyright reform leaked yesterday (via IPKat), the Commission is considering putting the simple act of linking to content under copyright protection. This idea flies in the face of both existing interpretation and spirit of the law as well as common sense. Each weblink would become a legal landmine and would allow press publishers to hold every single actor on the Internet liable.
snip
Posting, sharing and sending links is a trivial every-day activity. It is impossible for both users and internet platforms to examine the legal status of every link. Content can change constantly online, so these examinations would actually have to take place constantly. What is more, every link leads to texts or pictures copyrighted by someone – no matter whether they know it or not; no matter whether they want to profit from this or not.
Subsequently there will be legal uncertainty, confusion, and waves of dissuasion carrying legal fees for everybody – it would sever the Internet’s neurons in order to promote the interests of the few. We can not let that happen!
https://juliareda.eu/2015/11/ancillary-copyright-2-0-the-european-commission-is-preparing-a-frontal-attack-on-the-hyperlink/
Habbabkuk,
Oh do shut up you trolly sock puppet.
Everyone here knows your remit.
Its not even annoying any more..
Just tedious predictable drivel on your line manager’s bark.
You gotta hand it to shpielberg, not content with the English villains in the Bond series, he came up with the jihadi John cameos. And now its Kogelmavia time, these chosen devils are in a right Ovadian bubble, they think we goyim are just animals to be fooled and lied to with complete impunity?!
Habba here is a classic example. The question really is, are we going to have to take care of them or is it the Makers responsibility?
The rule of thumb I use about UK intelligence reports is that they always lie. If UKplc says the Russian plane was brought down by an IS bomb. it definitely didn’t happen.
At the top of the tree is a monkey eating fruit from its backside a long sausage stool emerges which is tenderly grasped by the US monkey and chewed, Beneath this sits the UK monkey, slowly drawing out the extended poo sausage and inserting it into its mouth. Vital vitamins are thus recycled down the food chain. Eager to get involved are Saudi Arabia monkey and Turkey monkey, each in turn swallowing the nutricious waste.
If Theresa May is hoping her nasty poopers charter will get us to self-censor, she’ll have to take the Obama sausage out of her mouth and tell us properly. I can’t understand ‘ Youg gag goo gake gat gausage ow youg mough ‘
Anyway, who is the top monkey eating the fruits at the top of the tree?
Clue: ask Habby
You paint a delightful picture, Giyane, have you ever tried setting it to Lemon Jelly?
Two totally unconnected stories from the smoky/mirrors geopolitical/intelligence world, brought to us breathlessly this morning on Radio Four FM, the cultured part of the powerful state media machine:
1) gchq heard British jihadis/SAS with nice identifiable regional accents celebrating after the slaughter of the Metrojet 244
2) lord Coe applauds the French police raid on the Monaco office of the Lausanne based (still with me?) international Olympic committee anti-doping squad. Many exciting doping stories to come, with blackmail & slushfunds, targeting , initially, which nation? – named by the bbc – go-on, have a guess!
Please Sir. Please Sir. I know. Was it Russia? 🙂
~~~~
Top item on Sky News website, needless to say, chosen from all the many other horror stories from WWII.
‘Piles Of Corpses’ – Veteran On Horror Of War
Col Leonard Berney says he will never forget what he saw at Belsen as events take place across the UK for Remembrance Sunday.
http://news.sky.com/story/1583443/piles-of-corpses-veteran-on-horror-of-war
They do include a video listing ‘conflicts’ in which we were involved 1914-2015 from WW1 to Afghanistan but Libya was not mentioned. The video started with a burger advert.
Another video included of an interview with a badly wounded Afghanistan veteran who will be laying a wreath today. The ads on that was for UEFA tickets sponsored by Pepsi Max and the burger one again. Incongruous.
There is a welter of the war prop today. This on the ‘war on terror’ from Lord Carlile in the Mail and reviewed on BBC a few minutes ago.
‘As Mrs May says, such challenges mean we must allow the security services the proportionate tools they need to protect us from the ever more complex, technically sophisticated and secret actions of dangerous enemies like IS as well as the criminals and cranks who use the internet to damage and even endanger our lives.
There is another uncomfortable truth: voluntarily we have given away a huge percentage of our privacy to the private sector. The so-called ‘privacy policies’ of major internet based companies, including the social networks, are no such thing.’
Sacrifice a little privacy to support our spies, says anti-terror tsar: LORD CARLILE warns how without UK intelligence MORE planes might have blown up over Egypt
8 November 2015
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3308827/Sacrifice-little-privacy-support-spies-says-anti-terror-tsar-LORD-CARLILE-warns-without-UK-intelligence-planes-blown-Egypt.html#
The same Lord Carlile, recipient of £400k from his consultancy formed with his best mate Mr Scarlett latterly i/c MI6.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2015/11/down-from-the-mountain/comment-page-1/#comment-560042
YCNMIU
The Mail on Sunday print circulation for October was 1,406,607 copies just below the Sun on Sunday’s at 1.5m
YKMN – Anon1 seems to have disappeared, was he hired to do one of the regional accents by 8200? In the final analysis all these semites are the same,Baghdadi Bobs all ! The Russians will easily find parellels in this Sinai “allahakbar” chatter with the mavimarmara and al-Ghouta faked audios. The shoot down is possibly what bibi was in London recently for, but the devils are forgetting its not some dumb rag-heads, they are now dealing with Boris the Bear. The one who had been listening in all along on noodlemans conversations with pyatt, before swooping to grab the Crimea rook, and chess game over.
Missile misses British plane with 189 on board, no worries?!! Gimme a break, but its crypto shlomo cameron in an Ovadian bubble, us goyim may be lied to with impunity. Its sick!!!
Mary 8 Nov, 2015 – 8:07 am incongruous indeed Mary, absolutely alien, as if some mutation has disconnected this species from others.
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/carter-u-s-must-prepare-for-challenges-from-russia-china-1.377771