UPDATE
Ms Stella Creasy is offended by this article. At 8.14am this morning 5 December she tweeted:
“This is just an offensive and wrong article and I hope Mr Murray retracts.”
Nothing in it is wrong to the best of my knowledge, but if anything is, I should be most happy to retract it. Nobody has indicated anything is factually wrong so far. I have changed the title of the post to be literal rather than sarcastic, because that was the only thing about it that was “wrong”.
But offensive? Really? She must be a very shrinking violet indeed.
Given that the whole point of this article is to suggest that Ms Creasy believes she should be above criticism and above democratic accountability, for her to describe the criticisms in this article as “offensive” purely proves my point. It is not offensive. It is legitimate criticism of somebody who lives off my taxes.
For me, the inevitable conclusion is that a woman whose Wikipedia page states “Creasy has aristocratic family connections on her mother’s side, including with the Howards, Earls of Carlisle (through whom she is related to Polly Toynbee), the Cayzer family and the present (9th) Viscount Gort who is her fourth cousin” believes she is not answerable to the hoi polloi.
If she regards this article as “offensive” and something that should be retracted, and given she described the extremely polite vigil in the video below as “intimidation”, I think we can all form our own view of Ms Creasy and her sense of entitlement to rule.
For the benefit of the media, she is currently organising a “public meeting” with in fact a highly selected and vetted audience to be seen to be “open and democratic” and justify to her constituents her decision to blow up Syrian children. Expect wall to wall media coverage of stooges coming out saying she convinced them.
The original article of which she complained starts here:
There is a very natural temptation for members of the SNP to laugh without sympathy at the universal media hostility faced by Corbyn and his supporters. That is because we faced an equally massive and equally unrelieved torrent of biased media propaganda during the referendum campaign, and then the entire Labour Party, including its left wing, not only did not condemn the biased media but actively sought to promote it.
On top of which the corporate media is in utter confusion in Scotland, and still largely under instruction to boost Labour, it being at least unionist. The peculiar result of this is that an alien landing in Livingston and following the media would come to the conclusion that John McTernan must be leader of the country, given his ubiquity on media and the extreme deference shown to him, especially by the state broadcaster.
I am however of a peculiarly forgiving disposition, and take the view that two wrongs don’t make a right. What is by any standards fascinating is the way that the media use precisely the same tactics against Corbyn they used against the SNP. First you have the expressions of scorn, of incredulity that such a view could be held, the dismissive body language of presenters, the comment of “unelectable” presented as fact.
When all that does not work, you get the portrayal of anybody putting forward a view outside the neo-con consensus as fanatic, desocialised and violent. We experienced precisely this with the massive “cybernat” campaign of the mainstream media, in which independence supporters were presented as hideous thugs and bullies. This is precisely the narrative which is now being relentlessly deployed on all media for the last 24 hours against the supporters of Jeremy Corbyn. The narrative is reinforced by promoting a celebrity “victim”, preferably female and blonde. Step forward J K Rowling the first time, and Stella Creasy now.
Here is a shocking video of the hate-filled mob which besieged Ms Creasy’s constituency office, with the result that her staff dare not go to work and she herself felt intimidated.
Demonstration outside @stellacreasy’s Walthamstow constituency office against war in Syria – video @rhodri_jones
https://t.co/O9ULmc6ofU
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) December 1, 2015
Terrifying, wasn’t it? The truth is this was an extremely polite and quiet bunch organised in fact by the local vicar Stephen Saxby, who writes in Red Pepper:
This week I took part in a vigil with a wide section of the local community. I am deeply saddened by the misinformation about the vigil which has circulated in the media, and grateful to Sue Wheat for correcting the misreporting of the vigil.
I am also surprised that some in the party appear to be overly influenced by irresponsible coverage in the media, such as the Mail’s description of the peaceful people on our vigil being called ‘Hard-left hate mobs’ and the Mirror stating ‘Vicars, imams and net trolls target MPs’.
I am shocked by Tom Watson’s statement on Radio 4 today that ‘any Labour members on that demo should be removed from the party’.
At the same time as I condemn intimidation of MPs or their staff, I reiterate that the vigil was not intimidation, and condemn those who seek to portray democratic, peaceful actions as such. This is also is a form of intimidation.
For my part, I shall not be intimidated into not speaking on issues about which I am passionate and alongside others within and beyond the Labour Party.
I refute the erroneous allegations about me and about our peaceful vigil, and look forward to continuing to support Stella Creasy as MP for Walthamstow, and the campaigns to elect Sadiq Khan as mayor and Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.”
It is astonishing that Tom Watson says that anybody in that video should be expelled from the Labour Party, and that the entire mainstream media has described it as “intimidation”. There really is a genuine attempt to delegitimise even the concept of dissent from the neo-con war agenda.
In truth, we all know that social media abuse does exist to a certain extent, just as abuse exists in every other form of human communication. But the one thing we learnt for certain from the Scottish referendum campaign, is that the media will report constantly any abuse allegedly from the anti-establishment camp, but will ignore the at least equally bad and quite possibly much worse torrent of abuse from supporters of the other side of the argument. The absolutely false connection of social media aggression uniquely to anti-establishment politics is an organised media propaganda trick as morally disgusting as it is pernicious.
The object to delegitimise a political view – be it Scottish Independence or Corbynism – is taken further in the current example. There is a concomitant media campaign to portray as an affront to democracy the idea of MPs facing reselection by party members – to portray the idea that an MP should have a lifelong right to the party nomination as norm.
This is a complete inversion of truth. The idea that MPs should be subject to reselection by members as the candidate at the end of the term for which they were chosen, is obviously in reality the more democratic. Should an MP be deselected, they have the democratic option to stand as an independent if they truly believe the voters were electing them, and not the party.
A final word on Ms Creasy. She has belatedly come out and denied the false reports all over the media that demonstrators gathered outside her home – though anyone who thought the Porsche Cayenne driving, Oxbridge Ms Creasy lives in a terrace in Waltham is very naïve. She is a fanatic supporter of Trident missiles and of any bombing opportunity going, and is precisely the sort of MP everybody should be trying to get rid of. Here is Andrew Neil exposing her for a shallow careerist fool:
Presumably that ranks as intimidation and abuse.
RD
“Just how many people have been killed by Assad’s forces in Syria?”
____________________
You’ll never get a straight answer to that from the Loonies on this blog, RD.
In fact, you will get either silence or immediate attempts at what-aboutery and/or diversion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
““Why the British public continues buying newspapers is out of range of my understanding””
Indeed. Some nasty people have been spreading rumours that Labour and Conservative MPs cheered when the result of the vote was announced. The papers have been printing it without even checking to see if it was true, which it wasn’t.
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/news/14123051.Why_we_voted_for_Syria_air_strikes__Swindon_MPs_give_their_views/
Who do you think would be inventing and spreading rumours like that?
“Question is why.”
I don’t buy the argument that some sort of existential threat is the cause of the main media coordination. It seems more like some sort of policy decision to me. Media ownership is confined to a very small group of people isn’t it. All of whom have a self interest in perpetuating the cartoon caricatures that passes as “news” now. The only nominal exception is the BBC and they were neutered and brought onside by the despicable Blair and Campbell after their Iraq debacle.
“Gladio London” is spot on.
ISIS is simply a re-branding of Al-Qaeda isn’t it? That brand became redundant after Osama BL was “killed” in Pakistan; you know, the killing with no photographs and no body. They still needed a cartoon bogey to use to scare us all in the GWOT. Hence IS/ISIS/ISIL/Daesh which they set up and have maintained via their ME proxies ever since. The “beheading” videos told you all you need to know about IS. Crass cartoon propaganda that any one with half a brain could see right through.
Glenn, sorry to hear about your friend, my deepest sympathy.
If drink gets a hold of you it is hard but not impossible to get free of.
If the grief becomes too much get help. It is available, and it is effective.
My very best wishes as always.
Robert.
“I don’t buy the argument that some sort of existential threat is the cause of the main media coordination. It seems more like some sort of policy decision to me.”
Yeah, but why.
The whole point of having a seemingly diverse media is to give an impression of debate, discussion and democracy.
Most of that has been thrown to the wind over the past number of years, particularly since 911.
Why.
Remember. There are existential threats out there.
They’re not military or terrorist threats.
They’re economic and financial.
““Gladio London” is spot on”
Or it could be New York, LA or Washington. The US effectively withdrew from Syria last week and may need a nudge to return to the fray.
“Remember. There are existential threats out there.
They’re not military or terrorist threats.
They’re economic and financial.”
Ok I get your drift, and yes I agree.
I would add environmental as well. Not the global warming/climate change stuff that they waffle on and on about with no empirical evidence. But the nuclear/chemical/pharmaceutical/GMO etc etc that seems to get forgotten about in the obsession with climate. Convenient for the polluters wouldn’t you say?
Fukushima is one case in point. The main media silence about that is deafening.
Too true.
Cheers, Pete.
Glenn I am sorry to hear about your friend and I agree Alcoholism is a filthy disease, and in so many cases it is a creeping affair, not many people realise they have an alcohol problem until it is too late!!! My condolences from what you say you seem to have been very close.
====
Robert the season of drink is upon us and no one (the lads) wants to be the first to have a drink the bet shall be testing our metal to it’s limits in the next few weeks!!! I know I will not be swimming in the North Sea!!!! 🙂
===
Herbie you have got in a nutshell however won’t you agree that the flawed financial and economic principles and fraudulent practices thereof are the threats that so far seem to have not been even registered as in the case of the bankster bail outs! That socialises the bad debts of the banksters so that the profits of the said banksters remain in place.
Res Dis
Clearly four planes is not much, it is tokenism, but that is the point. I don’t believe we should ever take a decision to bomb people for token reasons. And I believe the fact that we did was born of the febrile irrational atmosphere that presided in the House. It’s not often I find myself in agreement with Max Hastings, but he was brilliant on Question Time a couple of weeks ago, making similar points to the ones I am outlining here.
‘What would you suggest as an appropriate reaction – extra detention after school?’
I’m not being flippant, but why should there be a ‘reaction’? What about turning the other cheek?
Glen
My condolences to you.. wishing you some peace.
Tony M.
“You don’t become ‘the Syrian people’ merely by crossing the border armed, into Syria.”
Great words.
THIS SHOULD BE BROADCAST EVERY DAY – And Rammed Dow the Throats of those who Voted for it..Creasy, Ben Ect.
Bear in mind these School children had a Close call…Heartbreaking
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKdj4ivbkyo
[ Mod: Caught in spam filter, timestamp updated ]
—
Resident Dissident 8:52 am
“Of course Stella Creasy’s tangible achievements against pay day lenders will rankle with those who make a lot of noise and vitriol but actually in the end achieve bugger all.”
Alternatively…
“Of course Stella Creasy’s support for austerity created the conditions in which payday loans thrived even though this rankled with those who make a lot of noise and vitriol but actually in the end achieve bugger all in terms of making work pay.”
Britain is slowly burning. Partly your (plural, impersonal) own fault, as it’s clearly the system that is causing it, yet you keep playing its rotten game, slipping on the handcuffs that it dangles in front of you.
Moving forward…
The former head of the government’s legal service has accused Downing Street of “contempt for the rule of international law” after it quietly abandoned a key plank of the ministerial code.
http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/oct/26/ministerial-code-no-10-showing-contempt-for-international-law
https://www.bihr.org.uk/news/the-british-institute-of-human-rights-warns-prime-minister-about-erasing-international-law-from-government-handbook
“ISIS is simply a re-branding of Al-Qaeda isn’t it?”
No. Although they started out as a branch of Al Qaeda in Iraq they soon split as their aims are different and beliefs more extreme. Al Qaeda fought against Western imperialism, they arose because America built bases in Saudi Arabia during the first gulf war. IS are religious fundamentalists, like the right wing Christians in the west, they believe in the end times and the clash of civilisations. Their aim is to kill or convert Shia Muslims and create a theocratic state based on Wahhabism.
£400/day in your pocket + travel expenses is most peachy for training ‘moderate rebels’ in Syria.
TEHRAN (FNA)- Spokesman of Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions) popular forces Jafar al-Hosseini disclosing that captured ISIL leaders have acknowledged receiving logistical backup and intelligence support from the US.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13940803001157
Fedup, glad to hear you and your pals are still off the booze, WELL DONE.
I have often felt like asking, ” how are you doing?”
What about turning the other cheek?
Oh and that will stop the next Paris? Isn’t that pretty much the strategy that was employed in the beginning with Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain?
Brian, I agree entirely.
Poor we souls they have no chance against us!
Fred
I agree that AQ are not ISIS, but they also believed in a Caliphate and followed Wahhabism (or at least a derivative thereof) . As we know from the extreme left in the UK sects which often share similar beliefs are often the most bitter enemies.
Heroic combat cunt Habbakuk reaches an apotheosis of Zionist whataboutery with his nasal whine demanding acknowledgement of “wars, malnutrition, environmental damage and various other things,” proving that the Jewish State can go ahead and commit genocide because, What about Neanderthal extinction??!
Fedup
“won’t you agree that the flawed financial and economic principles and fraudulent practices thereof are the threats that so far seem to have not been even registered as in the case of the bankster bail outs! That socialises the bad debts of the banksters so that the profits of the said banksters remain in place.”
I think that the extreme financial liberalisation that took place from the 90s on was itself the weaponisation of finance, the better to fight emerging competitors.
That’s not working so well.
The other game is to ensure Russia, China, Iran etc are restricted in their access to European markets, particularly in terms of pipelines, railroads etc.
That’s what Syria and the Ukraine are about.
Turkey, Israel, Saudi, and the Gulf outfits have their own local interests which are ancillary to the larger plan.
That doesn’t seem to be working so well either, particularly since these local players may well escalate things before the major players are ready to commit.
But sure, private banking is simply a fraud.
There are many better alternatives out there such as this guy’s work:
https://www.sbs.ac.uk/academic-profiles/richard-werner
What the West ought to be doing is pursuing a new Bretton Woods. Should have done it some time ago.
The longer they leave it the bigger the price they pay, and the concern is that they leave it so long that war is preferable.
And some believe that we’ve already passed that point.
It’s criminal that innocent people have to suffer for their greed.
Fred tries to give an irreligious mercenary-led conflict a brush over with religious obfuscation.
RD from his bath-chair has resorted to the old cartoon bogeyman game.
A N Other suggests improbably that the US has walked away? Preposterous.
12.20pm The truths must be faced
As I have said before, Palestine is the hinge of our humanity.
“Although they started out as a branch of Al Qaeda in Iraq they soon split as their aims are different and beliefs more extreme”
Same same but different as they say in Thailand.
Whatever, both AQ & IS have helped facilitate the most tremendous theft from taxpayers in the “West”. Literally hundreds of billions of $/£ squandered on chasing shadows in the so called GWOT. The war that is so so convenient for the bad guys who rule us. The war with hardly any casualties in the “West”. Your chance of being killed by terrorism here in uk is infinitesimally small. Driving your car is far far more risky. Some sense of perspective is surely called for.
You couldn’t make this shit up. All this hot air about terrorism by jihadists and their pals. When it is self evident that the biggest terrorists of all are western governments! Their body count is far far higher. They kill far far more civilians too. I bet that France killed more innocent civilians than were killed in Paris when they bombed Syria in reaction. But of course you will never read about them in our so called free media
Listen to George Monbiot’s excellent response to the second question on Any Questions last night. He was applauded by the audience in Leeds Trinity University,
Are we right to enter into airstrikes in Syria without a credible plan for ground troops?
19mins in following David Willetts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06qmyyl#play
Willetts, now ennobled, is the Executive Chair of the Resolution Foundation, a think tank that ‘works to improve the living standards of those in Britain on low to middle incomes’,. No irony that he was part of a government that has made many people’s lives in those categories much much worse. He is laughing in our faces?
http://www.resolutionfoundation.org/about-us/mission/
His biog. Note Ditchley!
‘David Willetts joined the Resolution Foundation as Executive Chair in June 2015. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London, Governor of the Ditchley Foundation and a member of the Council of the Institute for Fiscal Studies.
He was Minister for Universities and Science, attending Cabinet, from 2010-2014. He was the Member of Parliament for Havant from 1992-2015. Before that David worked at HM Treasury and the Number 10 Policy Unit. He also served as Paymaster General in the last Conservative Government.
David has written widely on economic and social policy. His most recent book ‘The Pinch’ was published by Atlantic Books in 2010.’
Monbiot was followed by the windbag Red Tory Margaret Beckett. She voted for war.
In case you have not come across Ditchley.
A gathering place for the gangsters in charge. There is an American and Canadian version too.
http://www.ditchley.co.uk/the-foundations/the-ditchley-foundation/the-council
http://www.ditchley.co.uk/the-foundations/the-ditchley-foundation/honorary-governors
http://www.ditchley.co.uk/the-foundations/the-ditchley-foundation/the-governors
“Turkey will have a permanent military base in the Bashiqa region of Mosul as the Turkish forces in the region training the Peshmerga forces have been reinforced, Hürriyet reported.
The deal regarding the base was signed between Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioğlu, during the latter’s visit to northern Iraq on Nov. 4.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-military-to-have-a-base-in-iraqs-mosul.aspx?pageID=238&nID=92113&NewsCatID=352
The Iraqi Kurds have been supported by Israel. Barzani is their man.
They don’t get on with Syrian Kurds.
One would imagine that the Turks liaised with Israel on this. The US are saying that it’s nuffin to do with them.
The Iraq govt are pissed:
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/iraqi-president-says-turkish-deployment-inside-iraq-violates-international-law.aspx?pageID=238&nID=92114&NewsCatID=352
Meanwhile, the Israelis are a bit miffed with the US:
“Unfortunately in the current situation Russia is playing the most significant role, then the United States. We don’t like the fact that King Abdullah of Jordan is going to Moscow. Egyptians are going to Moscow. The Saudis are going to Moscow. This should have been very different. And we believe that the United States can’t sit on the fence. If you sit on the fence the vacuum is filled and Syria is an example whether by Iran or the Shia axes supported now by Russia or by Daesh, by ISIS. It shouldn’t have been,” Ya’alon told the annual gathering examining the US-Israel relationship.”
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Yaalon-US-cant-sit-on-the-fence-on-ISIS-436372
Maybe the US will sit on the sidelines a bit, like in the two previous world wars, and move in when everyone else is well knackered.
Cute, eh.
“Oh and that will stop the next Paris? Isn’t that pretty much the strategy that was employed in the beginning with Nazi Germany and Franco’s Spain?
”
The strategy that the likes pf Resident Dissident followed with Franco and Hitler was barely disguised and enthusiastic support. Not unlike the current attitude of the right towards Turkey and, Hitler’s last redoubt, the Ukrainian coup regime.
It is very clear: Turkey supports ISIS, as does Qatar and Saudi, and the UK France and NATO give them full diplomatic support as well as ferrying arms to them, and through them, to enable them to kill Russians rescuing their comrades.
Its ancient history now but the record of Tory appeasement and support for their ideological kin the fascists is very clear.