The National newspaper has used that snappy headline over an excerpt from Sikunder Burnes they publish today. It is from the Chapter “Peshawar Perverted” and here is a brief extract of the extract.
These unpublishable moral delinquencies included paedophilia. Several British officers noted the children around Avitabile. Lieutenant William Barr was entertained to a nautch in 1839: “Amongst the number were a few children, varying from seven to ten years of age, who … are gradually being initiated into the mysteries of a craft most derogatory in its nature, as carried on in the East … Behind the governor stood two of his servants, a pair of diminutive Afghan boys … one of whom … would have made a remarkably pretty girl; he, however, looked quite out of place in attendance upon a masculine individual like Avitabile, and would have been better suited for the occupation of a lady’s page.”
SURGEON-GENERAL Atkinson noted of Avitabile the same year: “He lives in good style, and is distinguished for his hospitality, which has been amply experienced and acknowledged by the British officers… On every occasion, his table has been crowded with guests, and, according to oriental custom, the sumptuous entertainments always concluded with a grand nautch, his figurante-company of Cashmeer women consisting of about thirty, singers and dancers from the age of twelve to twenty-five.”
By 1840, Avitabile was entertaining so many British officers that he obtained a monthly allowance of Rs1000 towards the expense. Here we have one of those rare glimpses behind the curtain that reveals the truth about the “nautches” which were such a frequent feature of the lives of British officials: “At the same time the Government of India, who had heard of the disgraceful orgies which attended some of the entertainments, directed that none but the most senior officers were to be entertained by him, and gave the political officer an allowance of 500Rs a month, on behalf of the younger ones.”
So the senior officers got the disgraceful orgies, and the junior officers got dinner with Mackeson.
The National reproduce a large version of the most common sketch of “Alexander Burnes” to illustrate the book extract, despite the fact the book goes to some lengths to show it is not actually a sketch of Alexander Burnes. But you can’t expect picture editors to read books, I suppose. The print edition of the National also contains a sub-heading below this picture in what looks like Latin but isn’t. I have no idea why.
For a broader perspective on the book, there is an excellent account here of some of the themes I highlighted at a talk on Saturday.
As far as I can gather Sikunder Burnes has currently sold out absolutely everywhere except for a few copies left at Amazon, which bought up most of the stock. There were 19 other suppliers available through Amazon alone, but every single one has sold out. It is being urgently reprinted – for the second time – and the publisher assures me will be back in the shops before Christmas. Reminds me of Cabbage Patch Dolls!
**********************************************************************************************************************
Signed First Editions of Sikunder Burnes are now available direct from this blog! You can leave a message naming the dedication you want. Sold at cover price of £25 including p&p for UK delivery or £29 for overseas delivery. Ideal Christmas presents!!
Why not spell it psycowpat, and have done with it?
Difficult to be absolutely sure without seeing it, but the “subheading…in what looks like Latin” could be what the print industry calls “Lorem ipsum” text, or placeholder text. It’s nonsense copy that looks exactly as intended but is meant to be replaced later when the actual words are available. Just careless proofreading.
Thanks I think that explains it.
The Herald media group also put that in on pages if you are not a subscriber or have exceeded your free pageviews for this month. As a subscriber to the web version (£3 something a month) I do not see it, but I do often get screeds of it on the Herald to which I do not subscribe.
Wow I didn’t realise it was THAT racy! Why didn’t you say? I just thought it was some dusty old tome about Colonel blimps in India, I think I’ll get a copy now.
King, you should know Craig better?!
Fair point.
You should try the pop-up version…..
“and the publisher assures me will be back in the shops before Christmas.”
I have heard of slow boats to China, but slow boats to Malta?
Very glad the small initial quantity sold out but I still think your publisher is meek and miserly. Hopefully they will loosen their fist now a little and be more self-assured.
All good wishes.
How marvelous Craig, well done you!
Unfortunately the clowns at Amazon left my copy out in the rain for several days 🙁 I now have a very soggy book 🙁
Craig
Thank for this..i have the book just waiting for me to get through other stuff and writings… The national Mmm
Best wishes
At first sight of the heading, I thought it was something to do with Blair at No 10.
I think that research will show that I was the first to write that your publisher had a ‘bestseller’ on his hands.
Sex sells.
Varoufakis appears to be as confused as Assange. He claims here to have been unsurprised by Trumps win, and in the next breath expresses extreme surprise at the scale of the Latino and ex-Obama voting Trump voters. We all know how seriously to take the pallid Sage inhabiting the Ecuadorean Embassy…his confident assertions that Trump ‘wouldn’t be allowed to win’ against the vested interests of Wall Street and Clintons power-base turned out to be bilge. Thanks for that Julian, we’re all eternally endebted to you.
I want to know what these two were talking about.
At least Varoufakis is right about one thing, Putin is a war-criminal.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/brexit/2016/11/yanis-varoufakis-after-donald-trump-s-awful-victory-left-must-be-more
“Let me be clear, I consider Putin to be a war criminal and have done since he raized the Chechen capital, Grozny to the ground between 1999 and 2000”
How many people know, or even care, that Yeltsin killed more Chechens than Putin, yet nobody in the West ever bring this up !
Anyhow this probably explains why Varoufakis seems to be the one Greek that Craig actually likes ! 😀
Macky.
We didn’t realise at the time, but since Syria we now know the undisputed fact, that Putin did not accept the CIA utilising political Islam on his doorstep against him. He has since defended the Syrian people from the same menace with perseverance.
Futile to point out that the far-right of the neo-cons have more in common with the far right of Islam than either of them have with the people who they imagine they govern. Putin is a champion for freedom across the world against the megalomania of the CIA, and he is winning because he has the support of untold millions of ordinary Muslims.
“and he is winning because he has the support of untold millions of ordinary Muslims.”
Do you think that he would have had this Muslim support if either Russia was still Atheist, or himself was an Atheist ?
Macky. No. The Iraqis remember the predatory behaviour of the Soviets in their country.
Putin’s is a just cause.
Come off it Macky, all “leaders” are atheist amoral-pragmatists.
You don’t appear to be overly concerned with the killing-record of either of the two charmers yourself Macky.
If you mean that I don’t pretend to care for Muslim lives in order to make Russophobic point-scoring propaganda, then yes, I’m not like you, at all.
Don’t accuse me of being ‘Russophobic’…I’m phobic in regards every type of self-enriching plutocratic ultra-Nationalist thug thanks very much. Craig agrees with that assessment of Putin I believe, but then makes false claims about disseminating those views on RT, which like his David Babbs smear is a lie.
“Don’t accuse me of being ‘Russophobic’”
Pull the other one; at least you didn’t deny your fake concern for Muslims.
“I’m phobic in regards every type of self-enriching plutocratic ultra-Nationalist thug thanks very much.”
And a lot of good it’s done ya.
Perhaps if you analysed the world in terms of the competing interests you’d have a much better understanding of what’s going on.
Howling at the moon isn’t analysis.
Despite what msm think.
All my neighbours are Muslim as I said months ago…everything’s hunky dory round here, sorry to disappoint you. The only faux thing here is you I’m afraid…you seem supremely unconcerned by Trumps election, are a huge fan of the likes of Putin and his court of thugs. And you’ve got the gall to be posing a leftist, what a sick joke.
“All my neighbours are Muslim”
Why does that remind me of something ?
Chin-up Jimmy boy, you too can cure yourself;
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/28/alt-right-online-poison-racist-bigot-sam-harris-milo-yiannopoulos-islamophobia
Macky :
You’re the one who’s unconcerned about Trump as evidenced by your post the other day matey. Breitbart is your organ of choice it would seem.
Sure Jim, everybody who didn’t want to see HRC win, is a raving Trump supporter, and yes Breitbart is my favourite organ of choice, but only in some surreal alternative Jim World.
I refer you back to your post in reference to the Independent article I posted on Assange’s idiocy and the dangers posed to the world by Trump. Chomsky agrees with that assessment of those dangers. You seemed highly amused. I rest my case.
“I rest my case.”
LOL ! You have no “case” !
You are still smarting from posting a very crude hit-piece on Assange, which I exposed for the pile of manure that it is;
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/11/setting-world-rights/comment-page-1/#comment-639078
Thanks for posting the link, saved me the bother.
“Thanks for posting the link”
More than welcome, but I think the pleasure is all mine ! 😀
“all leaders” are atheist amoral-pragmatists”
Even Jesus, Gandhi ? 😉
But my question was iro the attitude of Muslims towards a allied leader who was seen to be at least sincere in his religion, as opposed to one of no religion. or a mockery of belief in religion.
Not sure about the reason for the hostility towards Yanis Varoufakis. He is one of the very few left thinkers who has any kind of intellectual handle on the huge mountain of thinking, doing, and campaigning that anyone who is inclined to social democracy and not inclined to follow the vindictive, destructive veering towards Mussolini style fascism and nationalism we see with Trump and Farage/UKIP. We are heading into very serious ideological territory and it will need people like Varoufakis to find some direction. The scale of the problem is immense because we are not only trying to deal with social justice (after years of the abandonment of the principle of social justice before fiscal favours to the rich by Blair, Brown and the Clintons) but also trying to deal with the real crisis looming, relating to the environment and environmental justice and the problem of what to do about the pre-eminent place fossil fuels in the economic existence of so many people, and all the problems that are developing, as we speak, in food production and the nexus between that, and the (enabling) oil related technology of food production.
By environmental justice I am suggesting that the immigration we are seeing is being fuelled not only by warfare and competition over oil, but also over environmental degradation due to climate change.
The prospects are grim, and the unfortunate truth is that a blustering, bullying imbecile like Trump is not going to do anything worthwhile for anyone except maybe his family.
I have the greatest respect for Varoufakis, I was posting links to his lectures fairly frequently several months ago..he’s been predicting the rise of the right and warning of the dangers posed by Putins malign influence for a long time now. I’m just surprised that he’d still be maintaining contact with such an transparent chancer as Assange, the widespread popularity of whose idiotic ideas has helped Trump into office. Wiser voices such as Chomsky’s were warning of the strong likelihood of a Trump victory a long time ago, and advising people to ‘hold their noses’ and vote Clinton, but would Julian see the bleedin’ obvious? Oh no. Thanks again Julian.
Having said that, Varoufakis’ latest essay ‘The Minotaur’ is pretty good. In Prospect I think.
https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-chinese-debt-global-imbalances-by-yanis-varoufakis
Project Syndicate not Prospect.
Varoufakis is mentally unbalanced. Insofar as the Greek public still remembers him, it is with a sense of wonder that such a sad clown could ever have been appointed Finance Minister at such a crucial moment for Greece.
“Insofar as the Greek public still remembers him”
You have obviously never met any Greek people, very,very political, and certainly know their past politicians.
Most Greek politicians go to ground rather successfully after they have done their little bit to fucking up the country, Macks.
Eminently forgettable (except perhaps for the amounts with which they have lined their pockets), they are soon forgotten.
Yannis Varoufakis is no exception (although I am prepared to agree that no pocket-lining occurred in his case. BTW, if you know the Greeks d Greece so well, you’ll of course know thqt his wife is seriously rich…?)
Totally avoided the point (as usual) that exposed your ignorance, Greeks never forget their politicians, especially the ones that were crap; and expecting anybody to believe that most Greeks have forgotten Varoufakis is especially laughable in light of his prominence during the crucial & unprecedented OXI Referendum.
As to your comments about Mrs Varoufakis, I take great pleasure in reminding you that you are the hypocrite that’s always criticising others for “gossip” & for mentioning other people family members.
Always pleased to be able to pleasure you, Macks.
And you are of course right in what you say about mentioning people’s relatives but I thought I’d break my own rule this once. But not of course to comment on the relative’s religion or whether he/she is gay and so on…
You see, Macks, there is at last one commenter on here (she knows who she is) who is always ferreting out that this or that minister is a millionaire, the implication being that their wealth insulates them from the mayhem their policies bring about for the man in the street.
So, just this once, I thought I’d turn the tables, so to speak, and point out the seriously rich nature of Mr Varoufakis’s wife, the implication being that her serious wealth insulates the seriously far left wing Mr Varoufakis from the effects of his disastrous behaviour and “policies”.
I use the word “policies” loosely, of course.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM
Common People
Well I see that you have the sense to admit that I was correctly calling out your hypocrisy, and I’m amused by your contorted efforts to justify it; last I checked, Mr Varoufakis wasn’t a member of Houses of Parliament, or even serving with the EU, in fact I don’t think he has any power over us at all, so why are you so vexed about him ?! Most interesting indeed ! 😀
BTW you are spoiling me, all this specious squirming at getting caught out, it’s really a pleasure that just keeps on giving ! 😀
PS Have you found any Greeks yet that don’t know Yanis Varoufakis ?! 😀
“Varoufakis is mentally unbalanced.” Thank you for sharing your expert diagnosis, Dr Habbabkuk. Would it be a further beach of medical protocol to reveal some of the observations which led you to this conclusion? Other than that of not sharing some of your opinions, naturally. Avec mes remerciements anticipés.
Take two to try in put this in the right place !
“all leaders” are atheist amoral-pragmatists”
Even Jesus, Gandhi ? ?
But my question was iro the attitude of Muslims towards a allied leader who was seen to be at least sincere in his religion, as opposed to one of no religion. or a mockery of belief in religion.
Still nothing about the Duke of Westminster coughing up death duties on his 9,000,000,000 pounds holdings, thanks to that previous one being allowed to take advantage of that provision for those killed in WWII not having to, though he died a natural death about a decade later.
That’s why people with almost all the money just keep getting richer, though the last Duke was most giving to charities, and concerned about staff, allowing current debauchery to be much more hidden.
£3,600,000,000 ? Still not quite enough to pay for Hammond’s budget hole.
Second reprint? Congratulations!
I quote from the website The Islamic Far-Right in Britain. link : https://tifrib.com/
Haitham al-Haddad link :https://tifrib.com/haitham-al-haddad/
“The jihad was allowed also through stages and then the final stage is to fight everyone until they establish the law of Allah. The first stage after migrating to Medina the Prophet was allowed, allowed to fight those who fought against him. Then the Prophet was commanded to fight those who fought against him. Then the Prophet, and that is the final stage as Ibn Qayyim said, and this I think all scholars agree on this, the Prophet were commanded to fight everyone until they established the law of Allah.”
Under the takfir philosophy of Saudi Salafism and the Muslim Brotherhood, Al Qaida and IS have fought against Muslim Iraqis, Syrians and Libyans amongst many others in Pakistan, Afghanistan Africa and Europe, who never fought against them, but whom they declared to be kafir/ non-Muslim.
There is no grounds in the laws of Islam to fight against Muslims, nor to enslave them nor run them out of their homes and lands in order to wage war against the legal government. There is no precedent for this disgusting behaviour in the history of Islam, until the Saudi Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood introduced the terrible innovation that you can declare non-Muslim anyone who is not from the same sect as themselves.
This innovation was the fruit of centuries of infiltration by USUKIS whose purpose was to ignite mayhem and civil war amongst the Muslims. The political Islam that has ransacked the MUslim countries in my lifetime is now fully exposed as having no historical precedent, no philosophy except the philosophy of Macchiavelli and now no executive in the non-Muslim world post-Cameron and Obama, who will supply fig-leaves for their murderous betrayal of Islam.
Political Islam is now running around like a headless chicken trying to destroy the evidence of its crimes before another popular movement rises against their proxy handlers, such as Hollande, Merkel, Poland etc.
When all their sponsors have been removed, they will also be removed leaving the MUslim lands at the mercy of the colonial powers, in the same manner as Africa and India before them.
“Amongst the number were a few children, varying from seven to ten years of age, who … are gradually being initiated into the mysteries of a craft most derogatory in its nature, as carried on in the East ”
Nothing comes closer to what we have witnessed in the aftermath of the ravages of wars conducted against the Muslims in recent years, in the refugee camps, in the villages of occupied Syria and Libya than this predatory behaviour of the colonial British.
The crimes of political Islam will be remembered until the day of Judgement, like we now remember the slave-traders of the Caribbean who were Muslim. Kaffa billahi shaeedah/ Sufficient is Allah as witness to their crimes.
shaheedah witness
http://belltoons.co.uk/bellworks/index.php/leaders/2016/3985-060516_TORYMULLAHS
Who will proxy Al Qaida and IS now that Cameron and Obama are gone?
I have just read the interesting account by Phil Willshire (PGReporter) of Craig’s talk on Saturday. It is very good.
Sorry it was James not Phil Willshire.
https://pgreporter.com/about/
So the repulsive Emily Tenbelly is to attend Fidel’s funeral instead of Jeremy (who bottled it as usual because he is weak and can’t live up to his principles).
Can there be any sight more revolting than the spectacle of this rich, sneering creature saluting a communist dictator whilst holding the working class of this country in obvious contempt?
Honestly, it makes me want to throw up.
Since you claim to be very familiar with Jeremy Corbyn and his principles/policies, perhaps you would care to list them here..?
At least he has principles to stick to, unlike others I could mention, such as David Cameron, William Hague, Count Hammond and blood-red lipsticked May.
May heads a Tory government that maintains transphobic laws on the grounds that we are somehow ‘shocking’, yet her taste in clothes and make-up is absolutely gross. A blood-sucking vampire could have chosen better;)
“Can there be any sight more revolting than the spectacle of this rich, sneering creature saluting a communist dictator whilst holding the working class of this country in obvious contempt?”
How about this rich, sneering creature holding the working class of this country in obvious contempt ? :
My 15-minute encounter with the Prime Minister – Please share
LOUISE TRETHOWAN -v- THERESA MAY
This month I paid a visit to my Member of Parliament at her Maidenhead constituency office. She’s Theresa May, the Prime Minister, writes Louise Trethowan.
I’m an Australian who’s been living in Britain for 18 years, so I can vote in elections here as a qualifying citizen of the Commonwealth. I voted for Theresa May and I voted for Remain.
But after the EU Referendum, I emailed Mrs May to say how concerned I was about the Brexit decision, and my worries about the impact on my small business, a bistro in Poole.
She wrote back to say, “We’re going to bang the drum for Britain!” – yes, she really did write that. I replied that this was a most unsatisfactory response. She then invited me to meet her at her constituency surgery.
I was to have 15 minutes with the Prime Minister.
My first impression was that she seemed very cold for someone who relies on votes to keep her job. Really, she could do with going to charm school.
I opened with my concerns about racism at the top of government. She refuted this robustly. But I reminded her of statements such as, “British jobs for British workers” and “British doctors would be better for the NHS” and of course Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, calling for companies to produce lists of their foreign workers.
Mrs May went on about wanting to ensure that UK companies were investing in UK workers. But I replied, “If I advertised for a British employee, I’d be very rightly on the sharp end of the Equality Act.” She had to agree with that.
I then presented Mrs May with a copy of the EU Referendum ballot paper. “Where on here does it say we were voting to reduce the number of EU citizens in the UK?” I asked. “Well it doesn’t,” she replied. “But the government has reports that the level of immigration is a concern.” I asked for references, which she couldn’t provide.
Then, I produced an infograph showing that EU workers added more to the economy than they cost. She didn’t appear impressed, but then the mood changed.
She emphasised, not just strongly but crossly, that “the British people have voted for Brexit and the government is committed to making it happen” and started pointing at my face across the narrow desk.
I asked her to please not point at my face as I considered it rude. “People point at me all the time,” she replied. “Indeed,” I responded, “it’s rude, so please refrain.”
I then presented her with a pie chart with voting numbers showing that only 37% of the electorate voted for Brexit, which was not the majority of “British people”. She didn’t really have an answer for that. I told her that I shouted at the tele when I heard her say that “the British people have spoken” when it was really only 37%.
She asked me if I accepted the result of the Referendum. I replied, “Certainly not!”
We then spoke about my personal concerns about Brexit. In addition to my day job as a Human Resources Manager, my husband and I own a bistro with an EU citizen chef. She could not, however, guarantee EU citizens’ the right to remain in Britain after Brexit.
I emphasised my concerns about the increased costs of food and wine for my bistro following the fall in the value of the pound. She started talking about exports, but I replied that I couldn’t export the steak and frites we cook in the bistro. I needed assurances from the Prime Minister. “We will ensure a strong economy” was all she could do.
She said, “We’re going to get the best deal.” I said, “That’s a hope, not an action.”
I gave the analogy that the Brexit “best deal” rhetoric was like me saying I want the “best holiday” without knowing where I was going, how much it would cost, how I’d get there or where I’d stay. Mrs May replied that the government would not give details of their negotiations.
I reminded her that Donald Tusk, President of the EU Council, said there’d be either “hard Brexit or no Brexit” and I was inclined to agree. Mrs May responded, “I am sure I have more experience in negotiating in Europe than you do!” I said that arrogance was not helpful.
I then showed her a screen shot of Boris Johnson’s speech the day after the Referendum when he said that we could still live, work, study and retire in the EU. Could she clarify the Foreign Secretary’s comments as clearly this was not going to be true. She blustered and said, “He wasn’t Foreign Secretary then”. But I wasn’t sure what difference that made.
By this point I knew we’d probably never be friends. I asked her that given Maidenhead had voted overwhelmingly for Remain, would she vote against Brexit should she lose in the Supreme Court case? She replied that she was a representative and not a “delegate” and was not obliged to be the voice of her constituents.
I said the people of Maidenhead may find this interesting in the next election. She said anyone who didn’t understand this didn’t understand the role of an MP. I said I thought there were many who didn’t understand this.
Time was up. I finished by telling her there was a huge groundswell of opposition to Brexit.
But I don’t think she’s listening. She’s arrogant and extremely defensive. She also looked very tired. In my years of ‘people watching’ as an HR Manager, I’d say she is very much out of her depth.
I don’t think I’m on her Christmas card list.
• Louise Trethowan is Australian who moved to the UK in 1998 and was granted indefinite leave to remain in 2003. Louise is a human resources specialist for a large social care organisation that supports people with learning disabilities and autism. She also runs a bistro with her husband and an Hungarian chef.
https://twitter.com/Reasons2Remain
……all very well for the well heeled and filthy rich people of Maidenhead to vote to remain in the EU. It would be ghastly if the cost of their next German engineered car increases post Brexit.
Try asking those scraping a living off social benefits in council estates in the North of England who can’t get even the most basic of factory or farming work because they have been undercut by hoards of Eastern Europeans shipped in by corrupt gang masters, living ten to a house and sending their wages and benefits for their children who they may not even have, home. They may have a different story than some Australian HR manager with her own business too.
We in the UK really have been sold down the river by forty or more years of EU rule and corruption. Soon this night-mere will be over for good.
+17 million
— She wrote back to say, “We’re going to bang the drum for Britain!”
I cannot think of anything that more perfectly sums up how vacuous she is.
Thank you, Macky, for sharing that illuminating Louise Trethowan interview.
Yes…thanks. But the link would have sufficed.
I do humbly apologise, but I don’t assume that everybody has a Facebook account, which is where the Twitter link leads to.
Sounds like it was written by Will Straw
Anon
Yes, you have a point – how come Mr Cor-byn isn’t hastening to La Habana (as the locals and their sympathisers call it) to pay homage?
Most surprising as do believe I saw a most fawning tribute from Mr Cor-byn to the late El Lider** on this blog a couple of threads ago, brought to our attention by one of the regular commenters.
I think you’re right – he’d like to go but he’s afraid to because your sensible Labour voter might not take kindly to Mr Cor-byn going to gush at the Old Thug’s funeral.
_______________________
** I have taken note of someone’s comment that Mr Castro’s favorite title was “El Comandante” but I prefer not to use that term because it reminds me too much of the titles “Duce”, “Fuehrer” and even “Conducator” (the last was used by El Lider’s Romanian buddy, who came to such sad end)
Wikileaks has now released more than half a million US diplomatic e-mails from the year 1979…
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/pressrelease/
With all the recent speculation about Assange, I would say that this latest release is significant, not least because the neo-con madness began in 1979, and has taken us to where we are now at. This Wikileaks release of 1979 documents is not happenstance. It’s surely a sign/signal.
In light of recent stuff, I would venture not to trust anything from Wikileaks outside their domain site. All their social media seems to have been compromised by the vermin.
As usual, when Wikileaks dump a huge amount of documents, it takes a lot of time to go through it all, so don’t expect immediate comment on it from the real ‘alt media’.
The neo-con madness started in 1979 with UK bankruptcy. Mrs Thatcher had to borrow from Saudi Arabia and they in turn demanded change to their evil fascist version of Islam. At the same time, like you or me being given a credit card for the first time, Mrs Thatcher instigated the change from real banking in real money to leveraged money in IOUs.
France still retains both its banking integrity and its incorporation of trade union power into company policy, which Mrs May is holding a fig leaf to cover corporate greed by insisting workers have a say. They will never have a say again. The corporate mentality in the UK is that managers control the expectations of the workers, leaving the directors to profiteer on low pay. You cannot simultaneously have an expensive management class who is paid to limit worker say and at the same time give workers a say.
The 9 Downing Street memo on Brexit is interesting because it refers to French ” due process “. UK coporate thinking operates on “due diligence ” which is the opposite to due process. Due process is a system whereby the aspirations and legal rights of all are respected; due diligence is where none of the aspirations or legal rights of workers are considered but management cover its back for any failings of management, such as unprofitability, sackings, or accidents by limiting its responsibility for the consequences of its mistakes caused by not consulting the workforce and putting responsibility for their non-consultation onto their managers and workforce.
The clever wheeze is in the use of the word ‘due’ to describe good management and appalling management practises used currently in the UK. The 2 systems sound similar. In effect middle manager pay has risen exorbitantly because they have been made to take responsibility for the management of the risks to safety and profitability caused by non-consultation.
Ultimately consultation = success, aka Japanese cars, non-consultation = catastrophe like Fukushima.
Obviously there are excellent businesses in the UK that consult and succeed, and there are others, like Jaguar Rover, which have retained the failed model of top-down control, and these will, in spite of billions of pounds of investment collapse like their sister Tata/Corus.
Brexit will sort out the sheep from the goats. Collaborating with European businesses forces management to good practise. Collaborating with corrupt management allows UK businesses to cut corners and fail.
Will you be able to buy a toaster which lasts for 10 years with a 2 year warranty, when it is sourced directly from China without meeting EU protocols? No.
… having worked at Jaguar Land Rover recently, I was amazed at the outdated management practices and in-built class hierarchy at play there. I thought I had been beamed back to the 1950’s and not into a supposedly luxury car maker for the 21st century. It has only been the massive cash injection from Tata that has resurrected it but the outdated management principles and practices of yesteryear live on in spite of having a German CEO. I have previously worked in German companies and the difference in attitude is stark, Unions representatives treated with respect and co-operation. Sad to say the UK still has along way to go, no wonder productivity is so poor compared to Europe.
Parky
I refuse to work there. Agencies always seem surprised when I tell them why.
E-mails? They’d only just been invented in 1979. Cables, I think.
I am wondering what useful purpose is served by releasing 37-year-old material, older than many current politicians, and generated in an entirely different international environment. Fine for historians, even though most of it will be chaff, but wouldmn’t Wikileaks be better actively pursuing current issues rather than being merely a repository for random hacker dumps?
Someone with a more balanced perspective on the relative importance of Wikileaks :
https://youtu.be/ntA0hP-EoI0
And a sane perspective on the Arab Spring as well, counter to the absurd conspiracy theories espoused by some of the regulars on this site.
Varoufakis and Chomsky in conversation :
https://youtu.be/iw4PDVoVxS0
congrats to getting heard at last, don’t sell those rights to the film too cheap, coming to think of it, find the finance, catch David Tennant, who might want to put some finance in himself (he seems to have Alexanders stature and nature).
An actor funded film?
@ Anon1. Its not up to the opposition to send their top man, but the Government. But Mrs May is too frit to talk to Putin and or other world leaders in the ascendancy.
She will not be talking trade or relations with any of them because she is not a diplomat at heart, but a City slicker trained accountant. Why is she not taking this sad opportunity to make positive progress.
What of her Brexfast agenda and future prospects if she is not even trying. Is she still placating the Tory party Mk2 now that Nuttjob is selected to lead UKIP?
Thank you for this review! Good reading!
Shocking reporting from our state broadcaster today.
Headline: ‘Aleppo Syria battle: UN alarm as 16,000 civilians flee advance.’
First paragraph: “Up to 16,000 civilians have been displaced by the Syrian government’s advance into besieged rebel-held areas of the city of Aleppo, the UN says.”
Sixteenth paragraph: “Mr O’Brien said initial reports indicated that up to 16,000 people had fled their homes in eastern Aleppo in the past few days for government- and Kurdish-controlled districts, or other rebel-held areas.”
So those “fleeing” the Government advance are fleeing into Government-controlled areas! But we don’t find that out until near the end of the article.
Very naughty.
And they still haven’t told us that the “besieged” civilians were prevented from leaving east Aleppo by the heart-eating head-choppers.
Mike
“are fleeing into Government-controlled areas!”
Are they? Mmmm. I understand they are mostly fleeing into the Kurdish district. In Aleppo the Kurds are currently siding with the government but it is inaccurate to say the people are “fleeing into government controlled areas”.
“I understand they are mostly fleeing into the Kurdish district.”
That is wrong. The correct description is “some”, not “mostly”. Shaikh Maqsud is quite small, and couldn’t take all. As Mike says, the language used by the BBC is quite shocking. Already this morning on Radio 4, the catastrophic defeat that the jihadis suffered yesterday has been totally erased from history. The obvious basic point is never mentioned that 40% of East Aleppo having been taken, and only 16,000 civilians came out, where are the other supposed 250,000? They would be standing should-to-shoulder in the remaining patch, if they ever existed. The situation cannot conceivably be like the BBC describes it.
Laguerre
Fair enough. Where are you getting this info about the numbers?
Nearly all the descriptions yesterday were of people fleeing to the government area. I was giving you the benefit of the doubt.
I refer you to the sixteenth paragraph, which is an exact quote.
Sorry to go off-topic but there is something I consider important that I would like to add to this thread, which although in the category of popular threads has a Comments Closed message. It concerns Maddy McCann.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/04/the-strange-case-of-gordon-brown-and-the-mccanns/
John, I take it you’ve been following developments that centre on a certain fast food restaurant in Washington DC, that came out of the Wikileaks releases during the presidential race? For those not familiar with all this here’s a good primer…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4OP–ZXOjc
The connection to Madeline McCann left me quite gobsmacked.
I feel sick having watched three quarters of that. What evil people.
This country has a rotten record for sexual child abuse. One report follows another.
This time, it has been revealed as happening in the football world. Still happening? Who knows.
A short debate today in, where else, the House of Commons. No irony.
Historical Sexual Abuse (Football)
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2016-11-29/debates/09CF4012-ED09-4633-BFD1-AAC07B052904/HistoricalSexualAbuse(Football)
Sharp Ears, when commenting/reporting I sometimes make mistakes (like all of us do), but I can verify just about everything in the video I link to above (some of it is speculation), because I’ve checked it all out; but you don’t have to believe me: there’s now a huge amount of material about this all over the internet.
I chose the above video because in my opinion it gives a very good precis of what’s going on.
It was put out by a young English woman by the name of Tara, who posts as ‘Reality Calls’ on YouTube. If interested you can find her channel here…
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9vwJXx7DR-3zSub4mwQNFg/videos
Like everything in this hall of mirrors we now find ourselves living in (thanks, Habba & Co) you have to naturally treat it with suspicion; but Tara does seem genuine to me (and at the time of writing, no advertising on her site).
“I chose the above video because in my opinion it gives a very good precis of what’s going on.”
And this is a good introductory little report; as you would expect there is a MSM blank on this, but I wonder if this story will eventually transit from CT Sites to Alternative Media Sites.
http://vigilantcitizen.com/vigilantreport/pizzagate-4chan-uncovered-sick-world-washingtons-occult-elite/
No RobG, It wasn’t that. However I am sure that it will be approved even though off-topic. And so it should. There is clearly a hidden language which appears to be fostering child abuse revealed by Wikileaks. And the Podesta brothers being in Portugal at the time, in collaboration with prime-ministerial protection, it seems, of those responsible for Maddy’s possible murder, stinks.
I have not checked whether comments have been opened again on the Maddy link but recently I came across a very good piece of investigative journalism, not from MSM but no surprise there, but by an individual called Richard Hall.
http://www.richplanet.net/rp_genre.php?ref=185&part=1&gen=4
Although it took me three days, on and off, to watch all four videos something really worried me. Not just the cadaver dog and blood-smelling dog which independently pointed to the same areas in the McCann’s apartment but political intrigues. Something is very much amiss.
I have been persuaded. I was not always of this view but there certainly needs to be a proper police investigation even at this late stage. A few years back I was working in Melton Mobray, Leicestershire, shortly after Maddy’s disappearance. There were Maddy posters everywhere and collection boxes. At that time I believed the official version and felt extremely sorry for the McCanns to have lost their child. Naturally I made a contribution to help in the search for her. This now bothers me. It is not the money so much as a feeling of being duped. Now of course I want to see further investigation. Thank God for the alternative media.
Well done Richard Hall.
I should stress I do not know whether the McCanns have had anything to do with the loss of their daughter Maddy or any knowledge about her disappearance. They were extremely neglectful. Their testimonies have been very contradictory. I do not consider them to have been good parents in Portugal. Somebody needs to get to the bottom of this.
John I saw Richard Hall’s videos and afterwards took a look round the web. It seems there is a huge community out there interested in the McCann case, not just the usual conspiracy theorists, but criminologists, retired detectives, forensic statement analysts and numerous other professionals. There seems near total consensus in agreement with the Portuguese police that the abduction was staged and that Madeleine died in the flat (presumably accidentally) two or three days before the claimed date. The only people who seem not to believe this is the British Government – the remit of the new police investigation, Operation Grange, was not reinvestigate the disappearance of Madeleine McCann but the ‘abduction,’ thereby completely precluding an open-minded re-examination of the evidence and of course discarding the judgement of the Portuguese police. In view of that, what are we to make of this material now hurtling round the internet claiming that the Pedestal brothers were involved in an abduction that almost certainly didn’t take place? Sounds like pure disinformation to me. I also think one of the e-fits looks so uncannily like John Podesta that it has to be deliberate. It looks too close and I suspect who ever came up with it had the photo of the real guy to work with. I have absolutely no idea what that means though.
“I have absolutely no idea what that means though.”
This may give you more to think about;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OIrEKSRkxs
“I have absolutely no idea what that means though.”
None of us do. That’s the problem. That’s why the case needs reopening.
From the start according to the Richard Hall videos and other sources including this blog, Clarence Mitchell, gave up his post as head of Tony Blair’s Media Monitoring Unit (then headed by George Brown) to become spokesman for the McCanns following their arrest as suspects in the case. What a decision that was! Somebody with all the media contacts who could spin stories largely has he pleased gave up his job to take on a missing child case. It’s remarkable. You have to question why?
There is so much here that does not add up.
Melton Mobray = Melton Mowbray
Socialisim goes down the pan in U.K.
and France
Record low for Francois Hollande with 4% approval rating
Old Labour record low in U.K.
it’s a new dawn for the Extreme Right Wing Nutters
Some stuff about the (largely ignored) French involvement in the Middle East…
http://www.gearoidocolmain.org/french-corporation-lafarge-sued-collaborating-daesh/
In France there’s still large scale civil unrest in the major population centres, against ‘globalisation’ (aka neo-con madness). The state of emergency has been extended yet again and is now, to all intents and purposes, permanent. The government is using the state of emergency to clamp-down big time on all dissent.
It’s no different in the UK, except for the fact that no one is protesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/19/extreme-surveillance-becomes-uk-law-with-barely-a-whimper
What’s that Rob, a link to the Guardian? Wonders never cease.
It’s just force of habit, to a time when society hadn’t gone totally insane (as the Guardian now has).
“In France there’s still large scale civil unrest in the major population centres” Hi Rob. I can’t say I noticed any of that crossing Lyon this evening. Where are you reporting from?
Another psychopath, Erdogan, has either sent troops into Syria to overthrow Assad or has made the idle threat that he has. He reminds me of Hitler, shaking hands with all world leaders, and doing just what he chooses. These are dangerous times.
http://theduran.com/urgent-turkey-invades-syria-remove-bashar-al-assad/
According to Hürriyet, this admission by Erdogan is not about a new operation, but an explanation of the already existing Turkish actions, made during a seminar. They haven’t got very far so far. It’s not a massive invasion. Erdogan can be quite Trump-like.
You might be right Laguerre but all the Russian press are quoting Erdogan’s remarks about overthrowing the Assad regime. Who knows what is happening behind the scenes? Is Erdogan saying this to curry favour with the US? Is he worried that with the recent gains in Eastern Aleppo by Syrian troops that territory he hoped to take from the Kurds looks less likely to succeed?
The rebels (ISIS) are virtually surrounded to the south and west by the Syrian army and to the east by Kurds. It might be just bluster. But it is worrying. Christmas is not going to be happy for everyone this year.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-entered-syria-to-end-al-assads-rule-president-erdogan.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106709&NewsCatID=352
Russia hopes Syria’s Aleppo situation can be resolved by end of 2016
https://www.rt.com/news/368677-aleppo-resolved-russia-bogdanov/
If the Turks stopped buying oil from Islamic State.
If the Turks stopped re-supplying the “moderates” with weapons /ammunition.
If the Turks stopped assisting the White Helmets.
If the Turks pulled their troop /proxies out of Syria.
Things might get resolved, sooner.
Nato’s Erdogan is attacking Syria? Even if NATO removes Assad, who is one of NATO’s very own brutal dictators, the Syrian people will never accept a NATO stooge in his place , whoever they are.
It is not NATO’s place to destroy Muslim countries on the pretext of removing its own fully paid-up torturers like Gaddafi. We need to dismantle NATO which instigates the torture, destroys the infrastructure and flies in some arsehole from the nest of spies in London to secure the country’s assets over the next 100 years.
I know this is off-topic, but I’m sure Craig and others will be interested in it, as it could expose Uzbek cotton:
‘Is your T-shirt clean of slavery? Science may soon be able to tell’:
https://www.japantoday.com/category/technology/view/is-your-t-shirt-clean-of-slavery-science-may-soon-be-able-to-tell?utm_campaign=jt_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=jt_newsletter_2016-11-30_AM
‘….Over 264 brands have signed up to a global pledge set up by the Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN), run by the California-based charity As You Sow, vowing not to use Uzbek cotton until the government stops using forced child and adult labour.
“I think many consumers would be appalled to contemplate the notion that their garment they’re wearing could be the product of human trafficking,” Hayward said.
He said Applied DNA Sciences was primarily working with two different types of DNA – an engineered DNA made from a botanical source that allowed it to track that fibre back to its origin.
It was also trying to identify the natural DNA found in cotton fibre that allowed researchers to know which species the cotton fibre is and where it comes from.
He said this gave hints that could provide a trail from finished goods back to the crop although the level of analysis had not gone far enough yet to be truly forensic.
But he said it would let a retailer or brand owner pick up their level of attention and investigate a bit further into their supply chain – particularly as they are facing mounting pressure from governments to ensure supply chains are clean.
“We do expect that in the next year or two it will be forensic and we will be able to distinguish the global cultivars of cotton based on their point of origin,” he said.
“While our project is not yet complete we can certainly discern the differences between some Uzbek strains of cotton versus American sources of a similar cotton … the DNA tells a story and it’s very commercially and also relevant to humanity.”…..’
Speaking of psychopaths, Theresa May presides over an unelected parliament in every sense. Cameron’s election win was obtained through a combination of lies, an unelectable Labour Party under that smarmy git, what was his name, Ed Stone? And oh yes, 29 MP’s obtained their seats through fiddling their local election expenses. If you ride your bike on a pavement, steal a bar of chocolate or lie down to sleep in some of our towns and cities you can rely on our boys in blue to be all over you like flies on shit. Let’s hope they’re still all over this:
https://www.channel4.com/news/pms-chief-of-staff-drawn-into-election-expenses-scandal
Nowhere in the Tory prospectus did it say “We will continue the discredited policies of the last century by privatising your NHS against all wisdom, evidence, common sense and the will of the public.”
These loathsome thieves must be kicked out, and promptly. We all need to roll up our sleeves and begin working toward something we believe in.
To our police forces, simply do your job, or your children will be left behind as well.
To the public, your enemies are not in Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan or Yemen or Libya, in Russia or china. They are in your government. They work in your daily newspaper. They populate your television. And they are constantly inviting you to hate your neighbours and look away from the rape of your state, go buy your gadgets, your monthly clothes, your fine foods, your shiny cars so you can drive around all day by yourself, tend to your stocks and shares and forget about it. And while you’re at it, be afraid.
The real menace has always been the monsters we create, real and imaginary, they are us.
Save Our NHS. While we still can.
Time line: http://www.electionexpenses.co.uk/
Please share it. Enough public anger could force this up the agenda.
Will do J. I appreciate your posts which contain the truth. The people are asleep with regard to NHS privatisation which continues apace.
Destabilize. Demoralize. Dismantle. is the mantra of Hunt & Co.
North Lincs NHS Trust are currently offering £45k per annum for an “Equality and Diversity Lead”.
Just saying.
I would have thought that all through history, the growing and processing of cotton was undertaken by exploited workers,
Whether unpaid ( perhaps slavery) or poorly paid.
So, if you have ever felt the need for a pure cotton shirt, the cotton has most likely been grown/produced by workers who have been exploited. How do you think they can sell a shirt for five quid,
yet they do and make a profit.
Not necessarily Michael. The United States and Australia are both major cotton exporters. They produce using mechanised farming, they don’t use forced labour. Uzbekistan uses forced labour that is, as you say, the same methods and principle as historic cotton slavery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv3FTpsa_3I
sorry that link gets tangled in the google privacy mosquito-net
http://www.songlyrics.com/bobbie-gentry/ode-to-billy-joe-lyrics/
Mechanised farming- using vast quantities of insecticides, using machines belching out diesel fumes, on land stolen from subsistence farmers- is not much better than other methods of growing cotton on Egypt, India, China, Africa and elsewhere.
As to forced labour it can be found at every link in the production chain, sweatshops most notably but throughout the economy.
This one works
http://en.musicplayon.com/play?v=338054
Re cotton production, there is quite a good argument for the replacement of cotton with hemp. Hemp can be used to produce a linen like cloth. i notice that it is beginning to appear in the high street in composite forms. Ten years ago it was very much the choice of grown up hippies with plenty of money and t was sold in niche outlets.
the argument revolves around the environmental benefits of growing hemp compared to cotton, which is a rather demanding crop in terms of the requirement for deep and nutrient rich soils hence it grows well in the delta /alluvial areas of Egypt and the southern states around the Mississippi river. Not sure about Uzbekistan. Assume cotton cultivation there is also on some kind of good quality soil.
The argument is also that hemp cultivation is suppressed because it is feared that people inclined to produce cannabis (recreational drug) would exploit the hemp cultivation to hide their activities. Hemp is the same species of plant (Cannabis sativa) but the variety or cultivar used for textile production is very low in the psycho active substances.
I sometimes think that the most effective way of combatting or resisting, is our ability to choose products and origins of products. No doubt unscrupulous suppliers and dealers obscure and circumvent this process but it is certainly worth a try.
One of the matters that often troubles me about the contributions made here, many very interesting no doubt, is the absence of any real cvoncvern about environmental issues. I notice that Gerge Monbiot is trying quite hard to unmask the great Trump charade. Trump, astonishingly, conforms almost perfectly to the dodgy dealer snake-oil salesman/gun runner to injuns/ unscrupulous business operator/gangster/dodgy rancher/ that is such a stereotype in ‘westerns’. His demeanour, speech, body language, dress sense, hair style all conform to this ‘character’. I can’t make up my mind if he is sub consciously channelling that character stereotype, or whether the stereotype is just extremely perspicacious. Whatever it is we can be sure that Trump is a product of the simplistic fantasy world of the mythological American ‘new world’ . George Monbiot is making a very clear connection between Trumps connections -his advisers and confidantes and the corrupt world of ‘think tanks’ and lobby organisations funded by large corporate players. There is not a scrap of doubt that Trump is a major threat to the anything that resembles considered and rational choices. I find it troubling that so many people are so unaware of the potential catastrophic consequences of this lunatic and his coterie of scamming liars, crooks, and deluded quasi religious crackpots. We are seeing the true ascendancy of a Crackpotocracy.
No chance when the masses stream into Primark and similar for cheap clothing at prices indicating cheap labour in its production and manufacture.
Yes the material sold there is derived almost entirely from mineral oil. ie. various synthetic/man made polymer substances.
you may have heard of the little plastic balls that are used in various cosmetics and toiletries which are too small to be filtered out and end up being taken in by marine organisms, much to their detriment and much to the detriment of the productiveness of the seas and oceans, which of course is not good news for us. Even worse and much less known about is the huge amount of fibrous material -microscopic and very insoluble, that is washed out to sea and infiltrates living organisms and disrupt the ecosystems .
This is a direct result of our laundering habits and the probable main culprit is man-made polymer fibres as these are very resistant to biological breakdown, Natural fibres are also a problem but may be less so due to their capacity to be dissolved and degraded by micro-organisms.
At some point we will have to begin to address such problems. It will mean huge changes in our now habitual use of resources and use of technology that causes this. There is of course the possibility that technology can be used to create (say) washing machines that filter and trap these fibres but the implementation of measures is entrirely and deliberately put secondary to the capacity of corporates (the deliverers and owners of technology) to make profits. We are at the mercy of the ‘market’ . Market has now acquired in this new technical era, a meaning which obscures any connection to realities. The ‘market’ as defined by our current political and academic classes is a very narrow, blinkered set of values which favours the established owners of deliverers of technology such as washing machines. There is ‘competition’ but there is virtually no directing force which creates competition in delivering equipment and technology that conserves environments and conserves the social conditions that sustain such these very ‘enterprises’.
Competition is two edged-it takes its leads from competitors and actually avoids true innovation much of the time, because it is cvheaper and easier to offer illusory or phoney benefits which are ‘marketed’ by largely spurious or insignificant, but hyperbolic claims.
The problem we have now is that politicians have surrendered that sphere of defining how technology serves us, and our long term needs, to an entirely false interpretation made by the corporate producers. How else could we have a car industry that is enabled to poison the air, and in effect kill large numbers of people, and which continues at this very moment (even with the wide knowledge of its harm, at so many levels) to market qualities and ‘values’ such as ‘go faster’-‘bigger’ ‘more luxurious’ shinier, ‘more sexily shaped’- ‘Jeremy Clarkson type fantasy world values’ that were first explored by Marinetti and futurism, in the early 20th century and inspired much of the thinking behind Fascism.
It seems odd that despite the widespread knowledge of all this, that it persists in the outward form of Trumpism , ‘Brexit’ and even in the politics of Labour and Tory. Consumerism, and the expansion and sustaining and propagation of consumerism is the game being played by all these political actors.
If (by no means certain) humanity survives the next eight decades, this era will be seen as a period of dangerous mass delusion.
A little light reading for Julian Assange from George Monbiot of the evil MSM Guardian :
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/30/donald-trump-george-monbiot-misinformation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
yes it makes grim reading indeed. Also the comments made here above by Macky at 14.28. While the report of the interview with Mrs May is probably tendentious, i was struck by the observation on her body language, and her tired look.
“But I don’t think she’s listening. She’s arrogant and extremely defensive. She also looked very tired. In my years of ‘people watching’ as an HR Manager, I’d say she is very much out of her depth.”
If there is any truth at all in the quality of her responses to the constituent, she is in big trouble.
That is more or less my impression of her. I think (and predict) that she is going to hit a political impasse in the not too distant future, probably in the form of a rampant and irrational right wing-some kind of ‘ party coup’ and will cease to be prime minister’
Trouble is brewing. If this comes to pass it will generate an even bigger crisis.
But Trump stopped the war with Russia…..he is benighted. What could go wrong?
The only question of interest is: Is Monbiot lying or does he believe this drivel?
Given that the Guardian is required to lie on behalf of its masters then it had better make sure that it understands the difference between truth and lies otherwise it will lose its trusted status as main liar to the “educated” classes.
The Guardian was at the forefront of blaming the recent murder of a Polish man in Harlow on racist Brexiteers. Now a 15-year-old boy has been charged with manslaughter.
“It appears this was not, as widely reported, a hate crime.” says the CPS.
Will the Guardian set the record straight? Somehow I doubt it.
The Saudis cried ‘Uncle’? Why? Their production costs are around $20 ppb.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-11-29/oil-trades-near-2-week-low-as-discord-threatens-opec-supply-deal
Saudi production costs are irrelevant – what is relevant is Saudi spending commitments, and they just can’t be funded with oil prices where they are now. Any cut in spending and look out for civil unrest.
No doubt the Saudi’s were buoyed by their ability to successfully threaten the British they thought they would try the same trick with Russia. I guess the Koran fails to provide any useful guidance as to the capacity of Russians to endure suffering. To top it all off the Russians are busy slaughtering Saudi proxies in Syria. Strange days indeed Mama!
Fresh Round Of Spending Cuts Spell Trouble For Saudi Economy
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dominicdudley/2016/09/06/fresh-round-of-spending-cuts-spell-trouble-for-saudi-economy/#98b3e3260e92
The Saudi government is about to take the ax to its spending plans once again. According to a story by Bloomberg, the government is planning to slash the budget of government departments by a quarter, merge some departments and ditch around a third of its major projects worth more than $20bn.
In an economy which is already slowing down sharply as a result of previous austerity measures – and which still relies heavily on state spending – the latest cuts are unlikely to do much for the popularity of the regime, or the state of the economy.
The government may feel that it has little choice in the matter. Low oil prices mean that oil export revenues are down by around $200bn from their 2012 peak, according to London-based Capital Economics. That’s equivalent to around 30% of the country’s GDP and helps to explain why the government ran a 15% budget deficit last year.
Of course Saudi Arabia is the main partner in the coalition of the willing slaughterers of The Yemen, too.
That costs BIG MONEY
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Arabian-led_intervention_in_Yemen
Operation Decisive Storm
As of 10th December, 2016, more than 2,500,000 people had been internally displaced by the fighting.
Why do you not hear United Kingdom politicians constantly bleating about the poor people being burned out in The Yemen, where are their White Helmets pulling babies out of rubble, whilst filming themselves, for daily consumption.
Yet Syria is never out of the BBC, Yemen, barely a mention, yet, in may ways they are comparable war disaster zones.