I think you can measure the death of democracy by the sheer audacity of the propaganda that government can get away with. Michael Fallon today on the Marr programme churned out the “70,000 moderate rebels” lie with a smooth bland face, and mentioned only the Free Syrian Army when pressed on who they were exactly. This is dishonesty on an epic scale.
But the really breathtaking one was to follow. Fallon claimed that the UK had killed hundreds of ISIL militants by bombing in Iraq and caused not one single civilian casualty. This risible claim had appeared in the Daily Mail last week, which is to be expected. But that a government minister can state such an absolutely ludicrous lie before a major BBC journalist without being seriously pushed on the matter, really does say a great deal about what kind of “democracy” the UK now is.
As does the fact that a substantial number of MPs of the official “opposition” have spent the weekend actively colluding with government ministers to forward the government’s militarist agenda.
I am proud to say that Scotland seems largely immune from the prevalent jingoism. The idea that bombing Raqqa will prevent terrorist attacks in Europe is plainly so nonsensical, that it is hard to know whether people like Fallon have actually managed to convince themselves of it or not. What this all will do, of course, is reinforce the military/security state that the UK has become.
I have no doubt that the Iraq War was one factor in making the people of Scotland realise that the UK is not an entity that matches their aspirations for the way a state should behave. Splitting the UK is a process. This incomprehensible Westminster bloodlust for bombing will drive the division wider. As will the whole ambience of the Etonian government and the peculiar social behaviour of its inner group, as even our coy media is hinting at in its coverage of the Shapps/Clarke group.
I can sense Independence coming close with every new morning.
Strong stuff, I wonder if Zhirinovsky is good at the prediction game, or is it just hot air.
Zhirinovsky: “Turkey Is Finished; We Need Only Not To Interrupt The Destruction Of Turkey”
One hell of a speech, must watch stuff. Looks like the Turk’s days are well and truly numbered;
Read more at http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=03b_1448843018#2Fy0z2qyiSLSB4xR.99
Probably hot air..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Zhirinovsky
Surprised at you Brian for falling for the K claptrap. 🙂
Did you get to hear Mads Gilbert?
I don’t think Andy Murray is worried about gongs.
‘Ranked No 4
Andy Murray, Tennis
2015 Wealth: £48m
2014 Wealth: £40m
Murray’s increasingly positive image has seen his earnings swell, helped by a £15m four-year deal with Under Armour.’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/picturegalleries/11561664/Britains-richest-sportsmen-2015-including-Lewis-Hamilton-Wayne-Rooney-and-Andy-Murray.html?
He is involved in this destruction of Surrey’s chalk downland, for yet another golf course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tpPifvwHCY
http://www.cherkleycourt.com/documents/press/may/05_Full%20steam%20ahead,%20say%20Cherkley%20Court%20developers.pdf
He had £500k invested and will probably lose it. Good for the judge.
Out! Andy Murray set to lose £500,000 as High Court quashes plans for golf club
Another major loser will be the unique chalklands of the Leatherhead Downs, which some feel may never recover from the damage already done by the developers
22 September 2015
So much greed. The rich never have enough of everything but the poor get poorer. For instance, Fortnum and Mason have just reported record sales of their luxury food products and increased profits yet there is an increasing number of food banks in this country.
Did Obama give Turkey blessing for shooting down Russian jet? Here’s a clue…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEGuVGyhSM4
Brian, thanks for posting that long quote from the Dalai Lama at 8.31 this morning. Those are words well worth reading and re-reading.we are so desensitized.
@Rose
29 Nov, 2015 – 10:58 am
@Sixer
29 Nov, 2015 – 11:16 am
Well that makes three of us .. and counting!
I tried to post this yesterday but it’s still waiting moderation, the title gets picked up by PC software, funny, watch it quick before it goes..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLLttfoK87AdVfgpPodyXpr-Ngx9Df29V..
Unfortunately I know lots of people who actually believe that you can bomb a place and not kill civilians. No use even refering them to the interviews by some of those involved in planning, targeting or launching these clean killing machines, where they admit that their success rate is often not even 50/50. Or their well documented view that they consider killing scores of innocents for the sake of taking out or wounding one target a balanced equation. Those people are usually completely shocked – and then they go right back to watching/reading MSM news and believing it all…
@Fredi re: Gregor Gysi. Not that I like Gysi, but that’s a bad translation – obviously not an accident. He does not refer to the German people as Nazis nor is he happy that the German population is currently dying off faster than babies are being born.
If you listen to the original German, Gysi actually states that more Germans die than are born, and then continues by saying that fortunately the Nazis are not bucking that trend either and are therefore also dying out.
That translator is putting his own spin on some of the other words as well, but this segment is of course the worst transgression when it comes to translating the original script.
However, if I was responsible for his and his party’s messaging, I wouldn’t have let Gysi put that video out. Not only because it allows his opponents to twist his words so easily (in translation or otherwise), but also because that argument is unconvincing, populist and based on the long outdated concept of the population pyramid being the only demographic that is healthy for a modern society.
Brian, thanks for your reply.
Take the protest march in London for example. Over a million human beings marched to convey that they did not approve of War in Iraq. Such a clear statement was simply pushed aside by highly organised, structured, deceitful Power.
My wider point is that the muddied, conflict-ridden content of Human Consciousness that is common to all of us, regardless of whether we are English, Scot, Chinese, Russian, Icelandic, Amazonian could be radically changed/transformed if a certain no of us were to see things directly for what they are, who we are and light our own lamps. We also need to see that we are part of the environment and yes we are out there in space and part of the Beauty of the Eath and the Universe/Multiverse. In this miraculous Unity, there is a tipping point which can change/transform the content of Consciousness.
Mankind has taken a wrong turn and lets say metaphorically we have been headin South. We need now to go in any other direction: North, west, east but not south.
Its all very complicated, like the Theory of Relativity yet its also very simple like E=MC2
As long as we agree on the essential wisdom, the exact process of how change will come about is not important, except to say over millenia now man has not stopped killing man despite the best of efforts of social and/or political organisations.
I do recommend you watch the full video of K talking at the UN 30 years ago. It still rings as true today as it did then. Things have got progressively worse as you are well aware.
Spread the Love in your Heart; not nearly enough of it in this World although The Source is infinite! ;-). We are the impediment, we are the confusion, we are the conflict. Nature’s miracle is awesome.
Ah well, looks like Jezza has to accept the free vote. Sounds like his SC ganged up on him. In a way, this isn’t such a bad thing, robust discussion in cabinet, with the leader forced to compromise. I do wish they’d stop live texting Patrick Wintour, but you can’t have everything. This will be portrayed as a Corbyn climbdown, which it is, and be used as a reason for him to resign, which it isn’t.
2 day debate is good though. Old Cameron will have to justify his 70,000 unicorns, and will look even more of a prat. Alas, he has the numbers, so more air-strikes it is. Actually, we are probaby already carrying out air-strikes, they generally forget to tell us.
Charlie, thanks for pointing that out, I will include your comment when I post the link again.
Agreed the viability of the perpetual human population expansion concept is definitely unsustainable over the long term. In nature rapid die off invariably happens in those circumstances, it will be the same with humans, I’m sure.
Though I do love the Judge Dredd comics where it doesn’t happen.
On population. Firstly, eradicating poverty, and better education are required, because we really don’t want to get into hyper-Malthus territory. Also, spaceships. I am becoming increasingly suspicious about the lack of development in this area. It’s almost as though the sci-fi I read isn’t possible, and that can’t be right. Or maybe we have develeoped them, we’re jsut not being told, as per usual.
Something that annoys me is when people choose to have kids, when they can’t afford them. I don’t mean to be all Daily Mail here, but people really should make wise choices on these things.
“Ah well, looks like Jezza has to accept the free vote. Sounds like his SC ganged up on him. In a way, this isn’t such a bad thing, robust discussion in cabinet, with the leader forced to compromise. I do wish they’d stop live texting Patrick Wintour, but you can’t have everything. This will be portrayed as a Corbyn climbdown, which it is, and be used as a reason for him to resign, which it isn’t. ”
Matters of conscience should always be a free vote. I think it’s a good thing we have politicians capable of free and individual thought, able to weigh up the information available and come to a conclusion of their own not just blindly follow party policy. That is what democracy is all about.
I just wish we had some like them in Scotland.
Andy Murray trains all over the world and is hardly ever in Britain. Hs house is beside the airport but he doesn’t live there. He is a tax exile. He trains all over the world, especially in Miami in January. The longest he stay in one place. He owns a Hotel in Dunblane Scotland and spends as much time there as he can manage, espciallynwith his family. He spent years abroad training.
Scotland got rid of the red Tories in May. The rest will be gong soon. May 2016/17
Andy Murray and team complains Lawn Tennis Association lets down tennis in Britain.
“Andy Murray trains all over the world and is hardly ever in Britain.”
So the only thing Scottish about Andy Murray’s tennis playing is his genes.
Ethnic nationalism is a dark path to go down.
Mary, this will show you why you believe Krishnamurti is all ‘claptrap’, since you’re destined not to understand it.
“Uncovering the me
When we are aware of ourselves, is not the whole movement of living a way of uncovering the ‘me’, the ego, the self? The self is a very complex process which can be uncovered only in relationship, in our daily activities, in the way we talk, the way we judge, calculate, the way we condemn others and ourselves. All that reveals the conditioned state of our own thinking; and is it not important to be aware of this whole process? It is only through awareness of what is true from moment to moment that there is discovery of the timeless, the eternal. Without self-knowledge, the eternal cannot be. When we do not know ourselves, the eternal becomes a mere word, a symbol, a speculation, a dogma, a belief, an illusion to which the mind can escape. But, if one begins to understand the ‘me’ in all its various activities from day to day, then in that very understanding, without any effort, the nameless, the timeless, comes into being. But the timeless is not a reward for self-knowledge. That which is eternal cannot be sought after; the mind cannot acquire it. It comes into being when the mind is quiet, and the mind can be quiet only when it is simple, when it is no longer storing up, condemning, judging, weighing. It is only the simple mind that can understand the real, not the mind that is full of words, knowledge, information. The mind that analyses, calculates, is not a simple mind.”
So, how do you think the Syria vote will go. I think it will pass (not because i want it too), i cant see as many conservative rebels as the last Syria vote.
Phil, good to see you maintain your rationale, despite all the childish taunting one has observed here.
It’s worth having to hand the precise words used by Michael Fallon when talking to Andrew Marr on 29 November. I have been listening to the full programme. In talking about the “recent” deployment of UK precision bombing in Iraq, Fallon said: “Our estimate is that there hasn’t yet been a single civilian casualty.” I suggest that those writing to their MP in advance of tomorrow’s debate and vote on bombing (as I will be doing) might include these words in quotation marks and ask questions on the lines of. Does the reliability of this estimate influence your views on the justification for a UK bombing campaign in Iraq? Do you consider that estimate credible? In view of the claim that the UK’s Brimstone missiles are more accurate than any other weapons being deployed in Iraq and Syria by other forces, do you think it would be responsible for the UK to carry the full burden of the bombing campaign? Are you concerned that the UK would be joining in a campaign by the US and other forces using systems that are less reliable in managing (in some magical way) to avoid civilian casualties?
Jeremy Corbyn was properly sceptical (when talking to Andrew Marr) about the ability of missiles to distinguish between jihadi combatants and Syrian civilians.
A friend has reminded me of another point worth making to MPs in terms of Fallon’s absurd claim of “no civilian casualties”. That concerns the prime ally we would be embracing in bombing Syria. We would be working with a country that chooses to remain outside key provisions in international law. The refusal by the USA to allow an independent investigation under the Geneva Convention of the bombing of Kunduz Medicin Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Afghanistan is just the most recent example. There has been no pressure on USA from the UK over this. So we could end up being party to more such atrocities but with no influence. Never mind the routine civilian casualties that more bombing in Syria is bound to cause, including some caused by the UK.
I don’t understand why Corbyn wanted a two day debate. There are questions that need and have to be asked but 2 days worth of questions?? Plus i cant see anybody having a different view at the end of two days than at the end of one.
Phil, at 2;22pm: Perhaps because the more the Govt’s policy on this is examined the more likely it is to fall apart, or at least be seen to be without proper substance. And that might have led to the question, is there another agenda here because the one they are positing does not add up. People might well change their minds. Also, this is taking this country to war in Syria; it is a major decision and ought not to be rushed. the more debate, the better.
As Conservative MP, Edward Leigh asked, ” Are we on this side [the Conservative side of Parliament] going to be allowed a free vote?”
indeed. No-one in the media has posed that question. Why isn’t the Conservative Party allowing a free vote?