I wish a speedy recovery, both physically and mentally, to the people stabbed at Leytonstone tube station. It must have been horrifying.
The following comments are in part predicated on a presumption that the media reports of the incident are broadly true. This comes with a serious health warning. At this stage after another tube station incident, we were universally assured that various official “sources” and “eye-witnesses” had affirmed that Jean Charles leapt the barriers and ran through the tunnels, wearing a bulky jacket with wires sticking out. All of those turned out to be absolute lies deliberately spread by the Metropolitan Police and the Home Office.
But assuming this time the account of his shouting about Syria is not lies, what we can see from video is that a single man in a very silly hat, armed with a very small knife indeed, can carry out a vicious terrorist attack with apparently no need for planning at all. Not even planning enough to get a less tiny knife from his kitchen.
Because, sadly terrorism is easy. As I stated recently, if I were crazed enough to want to kill somebody tomorrow, and did not care how I did it, who I killed or if I died myself, I could kill a few people without too much effort or planning. That is why the continual propaganda about “seven foiled ISIS terrorist plots” or “4,000 active Islamic terrorists in the UK” is quite simply untrue. If all those terrorists existed, they would not be so entirely unproductive. What the authorities do catch continually are fantasists, often children, boasting and “plotting” online about being terrorists. That is quite a different thing. It is worth noting that nobody has been charged over any of these seven foiled ISIS plots. Strange that, isn’t it?
As for the man in the silly hat, I fear he is mentally unstable. That is no comfort to his victims. The truth is, of course, that it is always the little people who get hurt. None of the 1% who foment, promote and profit from war have ever set foot in Leytonstone Tube Station. But their agenda is forwarded today. By its continual acts of violence and repression, the neo-con state eventually goads a mentally unstable person into a nasty, vicious and pointless act. They then use that act to justify more wars and repression.
For the security and armaments industry it is a very profitable cycle.
Kerry’s plan for regime change in Syria.
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2015/12/04-saban-forum-2015-israel-us-yesterday-today-tomorrow
Brookings Institute Kissinger, Albright etc headed by Martin Indyk, ex US Ambassador to Israel.
The Saban Forum is an annual dialogue between American and Israeli leaders from across the political and social spectrum, organized by the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.
Because past gatherings have allowed for an unparalleled level of dialogue, the Saban Forum has become a seminal event allowing government officials, policymakers and policy researchers, journalists and business leaders to engage in a candid exchange of views and generate creative ideas to address the multiple challenges that confront the United States and Israel in the Middle East.
Over the last nine years, the Saban Forum hosted many notable officials and private sector leaders, including President William J. Clinton, President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, HM King Abdullah of Jordan, President Shimon Peres, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Middle East Envoy Tony Blair, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice and Henry Kissinger.’
http://www.brookings.edu/about/centers/middle-east-policy/saban-forums
Haim Saban major funder of Shillary and AIPAC. He was born in Eqypt and now worth $3bn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haim_Saban
Troughers contd.
MPs continue to claim expenses for mileage worth as little as 13p, latest Ipsa figures reveal
Politicians have made 117 separate mileage claims for under £1 since the General Election in May, with one Conservative MP responsible for 17 of the MPs expenses requests
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/12037394/MPs-continue-to-claim-expenses-for-mileage-worth-as-little-as-13p-latest-Ipsa-figures-reveal.html
‘It comes as a Freedom of Information request finds Ipsa has been allowing politicians alleged to have broken rules to repay money and keep the incidents from the public.
Peter Davis, the watchdog’s compliance officer, has avoided naming individuals publicly by carrying out detailed “assessments” of complaints, but refusing to say they amount to formal “investigations”.
According to a breakdown of cases released by Mr Davis’s office, he carried out 40 “assessments” of allegations against politicians in 2014-15.’
IPSA spent £187k (our money) on legal fees fighting a High Court decision that MPs original receipts should be made available.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/9164745/MPs-expenses-receipts-to-stay-secret-IPSA-rules.html
Why so much secrecy about how OUR money is spent? We need a People’s Champion.
“You really are pathetic Fred.”
Another example of Nationalist harassment and intimidation of anyone who opposes them.
They claim it doesn’t exist, or say “well what about the Unionists” but here is the proof, argue against nationalism and you receive personal abuse from the cybernats.
BTW What is the Gaelic for “Bridge Closed”?
I seem to remember something about Pimco, no doubt unsavoury, which is in the news again in connection with Gordon Brown, in a previous edition of the Lobster.
Uninspiring plus. About 400 comments in response to this somewhat OTT garbled blogspot.
Fred:
“There’s a lot of it about but we can’t section them all or the internet would grind to a halt.”
Ha Ha. I wonder where it all comes from. Trump and Cameron launching lunatic head-choppers sans frontieres? Melt-down of capital replaced with QE paper money? Or are you talking about the paranoia of our leaders that the goldfish could have already entered them in their sleep?
$uccone:
“Ah yes, it was about time the Rothschilds were taken out of the cupboard and dusted off again, wasn’t it ”
Would that be gold dust?
Ian Cameron
“Uninspiring plus. About 400 comments in response to this somewhat OTT garbled blogspot.”
I agree, it was not one of Craig’s brilliant posts and to make matters worse the trolls clocked on at 5 pm yesterday and have talked utter nonsense continuously ever since.
“Imagine that, Israel bought up all our power generating facilities.”
Jeremy, Imagine that there is a law in Europe that allows anybody to generate their own electricity, person, group or community and that whoever holds large multinational interests, cannot force you to take their juice. Welcome to the EU.
For example, this is not only enshrined in the EU energy policies, but is also in the 2015 long term consultation on the future of the energy market.
” Moreover, new enabling technologies such as smart grids, smart metering, smart-home, self-generation and storage equipment are empowering citizens to take ownership of the energy transition, using these new technologies to reduce their bills and participate actively in the market. This needs to be promoted by the market.”
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM%3A2015%3A340%3AFIN
@ laguerre. Thanks for that link, which loads rather slowly here in the countryside. It seems to me that the comments are very mainstream and I can’t see direct interviews with ISIS officials or commanders/murderers in the field, it looks very much cut together from bits and pieces, its not a coherent account, imho.
IPSA is in bed with the troughers Mary, just looking at this list of expenses claims makes one wonder whether our representatives spend most of their times shuffling piles of receipts and tickets into order and writing little lists to IPSA. Voters causes and letters are such a bane, aren’t they Mr. Bacon, still no answer to my letters regards Syria?
The Tories were elected to protect the NHS and cut the Debt they have done neither.
The lying Unionists politicians in melt down in Scotland. 2016/17 in meltdown. Cut the dross. .
No it’s just that you really are pathetic Fred.
I travelled to Edinburgh early yesterday morning, traversed the country starting at the flood hit south-west, arriving during the rush-hour peak, it was a bit congested further out at Newtongrange and Dalkeith, and at the Leith end of the city bypass, slow, but moving, I’ve no idea if this was backing up more than normally. What foresight to have the new Forth Road Bridge almost ready to go, as the decades of unionist neglect of existing infrastructure, and failure to invest, take their toll.
I witnessed severe flooding in Hawick on Saturday, a rugby park under 5-foot of water, a Peugeot dealers flooded out which felt like insufficient poetic justice for Linwood, the Sandbed Junction of the A7 under deep water (I think the clue is in the name Sandbed), I got stuck on the wrong side of a terrifyingly enraged River Teviot, it felt and looked apocalyptic, difficulty of routing through the town not helped by the change of the High Street from two-way, to one-way. It did not flood there as seriously as before in 2005, though the sheer volume and the duration, 3-4 non-stop torrential rain, was far worse than anything seen before. Simple flood prevention such as keeping river courses clear of obstructions, to move the water along, works.
Through the worst storm for decades, the iconic Hawick Wilton Mills Clock Tower, one of the last real buildings of character in the town, which for god knows how long the local Tory press, crooked businessmen and councillors, Tories, posing as ‘Independent’ candidates have been determined to see pulled down, for filthy lucre, a building which they’ve said was unsafe, unstable, ‘could collapse at any moment’ and so on, stands still afte the tempest has passed, as solid as the day it was built, through the worst storm and hurricance force winds in local people’s living memory.
Mary
Thanks for your reminder (09.54 today) of the secrecy that still surrounds MPs expenses. I’d also like it to be required that MPs list all their beneficial interests in companies registered outside the metropolitan UK (ie in foreign countries or in the UK’s overseas territories and in the Crown Dependencies.
Thanks too for your reminder (7 December at 9.01 pm) of Craig’s valiant campaign in the Norwich North by-election in 2009 (when I ended up running the campaign office – Ingo was Craig’s tireless agent – as I had a wonky knee so was not good at canvassing). That also brough back memories of Craig’s May 2005 General Election campaign in Blackburn against his former political boss, Jack Straw. In the light of the postal votes scandal in Oldham, it’s worth remembering that the Labour party in th North-west had quite a track record of electoral fraud (sometimes brought to book, but not always. In that 2005 election 28.33% of the “valid” votes cast were postal ballots. Anyone interested in an account of that election can email me – [email protected] – for a copy of “The Green Goddess in Blackburn” (also, to my surprise, published by a feisty editor in “Password”, the magazine for members of the FCO Association ie retired UK diplomats). Postal ballot fraud is facilitated by the failure to publish details of numbers of postal ballots issued and used by pollinhg areas.
YouKnowMyName
8 Dec, 2015 – 4:36 am
“Were the CIA’s interrogation methods effective?”
Leaving aside the fact that the question “Isn’t torture just plain WRONG?” never even entered what laughably passes for ‘public debate’…
The much-publicised and discussed Senate Intelligence report of 2009 tried to argue (totally unconvincingly) “Yes”.
However, the un-publicised, undiscussed Senate Armed Services report of 2007 revealed that the answer is “Yes”, only when the intended outcome is NOT to reveal the ‘truth’, but to produce false intelligence, ultra-convenient and useful to the furthering of the Neo-Con/NWO agenda. (In other words, it greatly assists the tail in wagging the dog).
—-
Mary
8 Dec, 2015 – 4:54 am
“When I hear people saying we can’t afford the NHS (in other words turn it into a private medical insurance model) I say ‘We can afford £6.2bn for two aircraft carriers though, redundant before they are commissioned’ there is silence.”
Quite.
——–
Laguerre
8 Dec, 2015 – 9:41 am
Having discovered you are an arabist…
Will be interested to watch your video link later, when time permits.
If you yourself have time… What do you think of Patrick Cockburn’s (revised) “The Rise Of Islamic State” (I thought it gave great clarity to a very complex matter).
And… Do you happen to know what has happened to Tim Mackintosh-Smith? Is he alright? Is he still in Yemen? I can’t seem to find any information on the net.
This made me smile Nevermind. I know that the CoOp and the CoOp Bank are separate entities but it serves them right for closing down all the PSC bank accounts.
East of England Co-op counts cost after 20% discount accidentally applied to all its stores
7 December 2015
http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/east_of_england_co_op_counts_cost_after_20_discount_accidentally_applied_to_all_its_stores_1_4339815
I don’t think their Mr Grosvenor is quite up to the mark.
Tony M @ 11:17 am
“the Sandbed Junction of the A7 under deep water (I think the clue is in the name Sandbed)”
Nice one. 🙂
Some attempted interference with the internet by BiBi and Tzipi.
Youtube Becomes Israel’s New Battleground against Palestinians
by Jonathan Cook
December 7th, 2015
Once it fell to politicians and diplomats to solve international conflicts. Now, according to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responsibility lies with social media.
Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, headed off to Silicon Valley to meet senior executives at Google and its subsidiary YouTube late last month. Her task was to persuade them that, for the sake of peace, they must censor the growing number of Palestinian videos posted on YouTube.
Netanyahu claims these videos spur other Palestinians to carry out attacks, exemplified by the weeks of stabbings and car rammings against Israeli soldiers and civilians.
After the meeting, the foreign ministry issued a press release claiming Google had joined Israel’s “war against incitement”, and would establish a “joint apparatus” to prevent the posting of “inflammatory” videos. Google denied last week that any agreement was reached.
/..
http://dissidentvoice.org/2015/12/youtube-becomes-israels-new-battleground-against-palestinians/
Glad they failed, or so we are led to believe.
Tzipi is another ardent Zionist and has been fomenting trouble leading to the current unrest in the Palestinian community.
Deputy FM: I dream of Israeli flag flying over Temple Mount
While PM insists he will maintain status quo at religious site, Hotovely declares Israel should show its sovereignty there; opposition MK: Sack her today
http://www.timesofisrael.com/deputy-fm-i-dream-of-israeli-flag-flying-over-temple-mount/
The Saudis are keeping prices low because they don’t like fracking.
Fracking is a complicated process which involves pumping large amounts of money into the SNP’s bank account.
Easy come, easy go, Fred.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2013/07/19/uk-government-unveils-worlds-most-generous-tax-breaks-fracking
I guess you prefer (headchopping, stoning, public flogging) Saudis to Scots. As long as they’re Tories. Who seem to have discovered some potential in fracking
http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/uk–energy-minister-gets-tough-on-subsidies–backs-fracking_100021410/
You’ll love this link, Fred. Absolutely right-on Unionist to the bone. But, who’s raking it in from fracking? The SNP? Ah, no…
http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/the-tory-partys-friends-with-benefits-give-lie-to-grant-shapps-membership-spin/
Mary
“More prop. We are given a sneaky peep round HMS Queen Elizabeth by the BiBiCee’s Arthur Anderson. Good to see how our £6.2bn (and counting I reckon – imagine all those cost overruns by the sub contractors) is being spent.
Tour the Royal Navy’s largest ever warship
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35035097
When I hear people saying we can’t afford the NHS…etc, etc…”
______________________
UK Govt spending on health (mainly the NHS) runs at around £130 billion per year.
That’s roughly £650 billion over 5 years.
The new aircraft carrier will cost £6,2 billion over that same period.
Less than 1% of govt spending on health.
Is that disproportionate?
Mary
Since you have obviously given the matter much thought and have probably devoted much research to it, I wonder if you could briefly sketch out what you think should be the size and future rôle of Britain’s defence forces, how much should be spent on them and which of the current conponents (eh, Trident, aircraft carriers, land forces, RAF, etc…) should be reduced or got rid of altogether?
Thank you (and sorry to ask you to do a bit of thinking for a change – but you do post on the subject quite frequently).
This is the kind of obfuscation that the keyboard brigade are there to create and get away with heir unconscious drivel. Spending on the up keep of the workforce is not an expenditure but an investment that will accrue the return on the capital deployed, that is further reduce the risk of major outbreaks and epidemics so illustrated in the case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
Further note the aggregation over five years, how about over the next one hundred years so the the percentages can look more favorable?
These keyboard disinformation miscreants divert the facts to suit their warmongering agenda because, as always they have on their minds the welfare of the their sponsors the military industrial complex. Moreover their cause ie the shitty strip of land would be more vulnerable, as the sponsors fire power diminishes and forces the zionists to stand on their own feet instead of relying on the firepower of their “friends” ie those benighted nations under the control of the necon scum!
The taxpayer underwrites risky arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and and to the tune of 400 billion each year.
if these poor manufacturers of killing machines, implements and ammo can’t finance their own business, what sort of business is it?
How far would 400 billion go in updating drains, building reservoirs and safeguarding the 40.000 house owners in the North who have been disrupted by the sheer force of the new normal, i.e deluge and ‘once in 250 years storms’ which now occur frequently, sort of every ten years?
Maybe spending money at the realm at home, rather than joining greedy warmongers in the ME, maim and kill, will keep us much safer.
But hey what is there to be said about todays fascism/neocon desperation for control of the last few resources, trampling over international law, human rights, the rights of nations and our children’s right to a peaceful humane future.
Habbakuk,
Will be interesting to see if you get any response to your question beyond some lofty admonishment for being a troll.
Nevermind,
£400 billion a year subsidy? Seems far too high, have you a source?
In idle moments most people’s thoughts turn to bridges I’m sure.
I mentioned the above because this small area is one in which future development must be considered especially carefully, because it may be key to any plans to reconnect the severed ends of the Edinburgh to Carlisle rail line. The railway must cross the sometimes formidable River Teviot, the old rail bridge is gone. The successful, if ugly, but fortunately half-hidden from view Leisure Centre sits on old train station site, which in any case wouldn’t serve well for the newer outlying parts, or indeed the centre of the town. And whatever happened to the planned, promised M7 Motorway to replace the gnarliest cart-track parts of the shocking A7?
One way or another rail or road connections to this part of the country need work, people still make out or update their wills before embarking on travel above thirty miles.
Fedup
“UK Govt spending on health (mainly the NHS) runs at around £130 billion per year.
That’s roughly £650 billion over 5 years.
This is the kind of obfuscation that the keyboard brigade are there to create”
________________
Those are facts, Fedup, not obfuscation. Van you tell the difference?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Spending on the up keep of the workforce is not an expenditure but an investment that will accrue the return on the capital deployed”
_____________________
So you see spending on health merely as spending on one of the factors of production, intended to increase the return on another factor (capital).
That’s an interesting observation from one of this blog’s great humanitarians and moralists.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“These keyboard disinformation miscreants divert the facts to suit their warmongering agenda because, as always they have on their minds the welfare of the their sponsors the military industrial complex.”
____________________
Oh, so the obfuscation has become facts again, eh? Thanks you for that belated admission.
And actually what is on our minds is national defence first and foremost, bot the interests of the “military-industrial complex”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Moreover their cause ie the shitty strip of land would be more vulnerable, as the sponsors fire power diminishes and forces the zionists to stand on their own feet”
_____________________
Israel and the Zionists again, eh. A good example of what is wqs getting at the other day, namely that all good conspiracy theories are based – despite appearances – on the most simple of ideas. Ie, in this case, “It’s all Israel and/or the J**ws”.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Fedup, I urge you to seek psychiatric help as soon as possible. It’s available on OUR NHS.
Mick
Thank you for your comment but I’d advise you not to hold your breath.
Re the following bit of Nebelmind’s post your were querying:
“The taxpayer underwrites risky arms exports to countries such as Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bahrain, Qatar, Turkey, and and to the tune of 400 billion each year.”
I should imagine that was either ignorance or deliberate misinformation.
Nebelmind’s use of the word “underwrites” would appear to indicate he us talking about export credit guarantees. If he is, he should know that export credits guarantees are a form of govt backed insurance against the risk of the buyer not paying up. It is highly unlikely that most (if any) of the buyers would not pay, given that they are states in good financial standing and not individuals or companies. Consequently, even if Nebelmind’s figure is correct, it is unlikely that more than a fraction (if any) of those guarantees would ever be called in and so represent a charge to the UK govt and the taxpayer.
If, on the other hand, he meant to say that the UL govt gives the countries he mentions £400 billions worth of military assistance every year then he is even madder than I thought.
Hope that helps.
please do find it yourself Mick, you are a journalist are you not?
Export credit Guarantees are not secured by the personal accounts of Government minsters or their outside UK interests, but by the taxpayer.
diffusion and pathetic trolling as usual.
Update video from George Galloway on “The Killings of Tony Blair”.
He brandishes a copy of the “post produced and final version” and tells us he’s “meeting a top international distributor of great repute” this afternoon.
Coming to a cinema near you, and all other platforms, soon.
Lets sell the useless heaps of metal that it’s scrap value would be in thousands and not billions the keyboard defence brigade fashion;
Mrs. Miggins you cannot warm your home because your paltry pension won’t afford the profiteers and privateers ransom prices of energy, that is OK because you can always wrap up well and throw a couple more blankets on yourself sitting in that cold dark sitting room of yours. Mrs. Miggins you are aware that nation needs useless submarines with even more useless missiles and all manner of other toys for the benefit of Admirals and their cohorts to feel important and hang some more brass and gold braids on their play uniforms?
Mrs. Miggins you won’t begrudge the 43 pounds a second navy ships now will you? (note how cheap and affordable the mass killing constructs are now?)
This is the kind of low life scum trick to sell useless bits of metal that have no intrinsic value other than enriching the scum bags who invest in manufacture of such useless kit at huge profits with an insatiable appetite for more of the same taxation funds.
Fact that this specimen plaguing this broad along with the rest of its’ zionist support brigade jump into the defence of the massive expenditure in all mass murder and oppression constructs, ought to be cue as to the extent of flim flam these agents of foreign powers will resort to, in their attempts to make acceptable the unacceptable and intolerable!
Stalin’s secret police used torture for two purposes: (1) to get the false confessions needed to justify the arrest (and eventual punishment, often fatal) of the persons tortured; and (2) to get lists of further people to arrest, to make up the quotas that Stalin demanded.
The CIA, whose job it was during the Cold War to learn as much as it could about the Soviet Union, was well aware of this fact.
It was the CIA that submitted to President W., immediately after 9/11, the order which provided for torture, and which he signed.