I cannot tell you how delighted I am that Chelsea Manning is going to be released. Having done so much to reveal the truly sordid nature on the ground of the USA’s neo-Imperial aggression, Manning is a true hero. It is a shame that Obama is forcing her to undergo another five months of a truly hellish prison sentence, but still there is now an end in sight.
All of which adds to the mystery of Obama. He launched the most vicious War on Whistleblowers ever in American history. Obama’s people even went for whistleblowers like Bill Binney and Tom Drake of the NSA, whose whistleblowing happened pre-Obama but who Bush had not sought to persecute. So freeing a whistleblower is the least likely act of clemency to be expected.
Of course this all feeds in to the question of whether Obama is a good man frustrated or a charlatan all along, as a tick in the good man frustrated column. I still tend to the man with decent instincts who at the end of the day didn’t care enough to really fight for them.
The other good news is that Abdel Hakim Belhadj has been granted permission by the Supreme Court to sue Jack Straw and Mark Allen for his extraordinary rendition and torture. The unanimous dismissal of the argument of sovereign immunity is extremely important, as it rolls back the assertion that we have no protection from the state.
It is worth recalling Jack Straw lying through his teeth to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on 24 October 2005. Every single statement on the substantive issues which Straw makes here is now known to be an outright lie:
Q105 Sandra Osborne: I would like to ask you about the issue of extraordinary rendition. In response to this Committee’s report of last year on the war against terrorism, the government said that it was not aware of the use of its territory or air space for the purposes of extraordinary rendition. However, it appears that there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that the UK air space is indeed being utilised for this purpose, albeit mainly in the media. Some of the suggestions seem to be extremely detailed. For example, the Guardian has reported that aircraft involved in operations have flown into the UK at least 210 times since 9/11, an average of one flight a week. It appears that the favourite destination is Prestwick Airport, which is next to my constituency, as it happens. Can you comment on that? What role is the UK playing in extraordinary rendition?
Mr Straw: The position in respect of extraordinary rendition was set out in the letter that the head of our parliamentary team wrote to Mr Priestly, your Clerk, on 11 March; and the position has not changed. We are not aware of the use of our territory or air space for the purpose of extraordinary rendition. We have not received any requests or granted any permissions for use of UK territory or air space for such purposes. It is perfectly possible that there have been two hundred movements of United States aircraft in and out of the United Kingdom and I would have thought it was many more; but that is because we have a number of UN air force bases here, which, under the Visiting Forces Act and other arrangements they are entitled to use under certain conditions. I do not see for a second how the conclusion could be drawn from the fact that there have been some scores of movements of US military aircraft – well, so what – that that therefore means they have been used for rendition. That is a very long chain!
Q106 Sandra Osborne: The UN Commission on Human Rights has started an inquiry into the British Government’s role in this. Is the Government co-operating fully with that inquiry? Why would they start an inquiry if there were no reason to believe that this was actually happening?
Mr Straw: People start inquiries for all sorts of reasons. I assume we are co-operating with it. I am not aware of any requests, but we always co-operate with such requests.
Q107 Mr Keetch: They are not flying under US military flags; these are Gulfstream aircraft used by the CIA. They have a 26-strong fleet of Gulfstream aircraft that are used for this purpose. These aircraft are not coming into British spaces; they are coming into airports. Some are into bases like Northolt, and some into bases like Prestwick. Whilst it is always good to have the head of your parliamentary staff respond to our Clerk, Mr Priestley, could you give us an assurance that you will investigate these specific flights; and, if it is the case that these flights are being used for the process of extraordinary rendition, which is contrary to international law and indeed contrary to the stated policy of Her Majesty’s Government, would you attempt to see if they should stop?
Mr Straw: I would like to see what it is that is being talked about here. I am very happy to endorse, as you would expect, and I did endorse, the letter sent by our parliamentary team to your Clerk on 11 March. I am happy, for the avoidance of any doubt, to say that I specifically endorse its contents. If there is evidence, we will look at it, but a suggestion in a newspaper that there have been flights by unspecified foreign aircraft in and out of the United Kingdom cannot possibly add up to evidence that our air space or our facilities have been used for the purpose of unlawful rendition. It just does not.
Q108 Mr Keetch: I accept that, but if there were evidence of that, you would join with us, presumably, in condemning —–
Mr Straw: I am not going to pre-judge an inquiry. If there were evidence, we would look at it. So far there we have not seen any evidence.
Q109 Richard Younger-Ross: Our former Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has stated in a document to us: “I can confirm it is a positive policy decision by the US and UK to use Uzbek torture material.” He states that the evidence is that the aircraft that my colleague referred to earlier, the Gulfstreams, are taking detainees back to Uzbekistan who are then being tortured. Is that not some indication that these detainees are being transferred through the UK?Mr Straw: It is Mr Murray’s opinion. Mr Murray, as you may know, stood in my constituency. He got fewer votes than the British National Party, and notwithstanding the fact that he assured the widest possible audience within the constituency to his views about use of torture. I set out the British Government’s position on this issue on a number of occasions, including in evidence both here and to the Intelligence and Security Committee. I wrote a pretty detailed letter to a constituent of mine back in June, setting out our position. As I said there, there are no circumstances in which British officials use torture, nor any question of the British Government seeking to justify the use of torture. Again, the British Government, including the terrorist and security agencies, has never used torture for any purpose including for information, nor would we instigate or connive with others in doing so. People have to make their own judgment whether they think I am being accurate or not.
Q110 Mr Illsley: Foreign Secretary, the letter which you supplied to the Committee in March which gave the conclusion that the British Government is not aware of the use of its territory or air space for the purpose of extraordinary rendition was taken at face value by most members of the Committee at that time, before the election. We took that to mean that we were not aware of any extraordinary rendition, and that it was not happening. The press reports were therefore something of a surprise. Would our Government be contacted by any country using our airspace, taking suspects to other countries? Would we be asked for permission or would there be any circumstances where we would be contacted; or is it the case that it could well be happening but that our Government is not aware of it simply because we have not been informed, or our permission is not necessary?
Mr Straw: Mr Illsley, on the precise circumstances in which foreign governments apply for permission to use British air space, I have to write to you, because it is important that I make that accurate. What Mr Stanton on my behalf said in the letter is exactly the same: why would I, for a second, knowingly provide this Committee with false information, if I had had information about rendition? We do not practise rendition, full-stop. I ought to say that whether rendition is contrary to international law depends on the particular circumstances of the case; it depends on each case, but we do not practise it. I would have to come back to you on that question.
Chairman: We will expect a letter. Thank you very much
Yesterday, we had Theresa May’s unremitting hard Brexit speech, which made plain that pandering to racism on immigration was going to be the priority over every possible interest in her approach to negotiations on leaving the EU. The pound stirred slightly on hopes that her announcement that Parliament would be given a vote on the final deal, could give hope that the whole thing might be avoided. However it is plain that she meant that Parliament could vote on a leaving with a deal or just leaving with no deal.
I feel pleased with May’s speech on two grounds. The first is that its contemptuous dismissal of the views of the 2 to 1 majority in Scotland which wishes to remain in the EU, brings Scottish Independence palpably closer. Even after three centuries of subservience, at some stage a natural reaction to having your face ground into the dog food must set in. A second Independence referendum is now inevitable.
Secondly, the EU is actually an extremely successful union and the euro an extremely successful currency, perceptions which a rabid nationalist UK media have successfully distorted. It is impossible that the UK will find replacement relationships in fields from trade to external relations to security to education and scientific research, which are anything like as economically beneficial. It is not just internal EU trade – the EU’s external market access will never be bettered by the UK, and the common external tariff is much more liberal than commonly realised. For example there are effectively no tariffs on manufactured goods from Africa. I confidently predict a Brexit Britain will both impose and face higher external tariffs than the EU.
My optimism arises from the fact that the May thesis is so barmy – that all of this should be sacrificed to pander to the daft xenophobia of the English and Welsh who don’t like “foreigners coming in” – that I still cannot believe that the political system will allow it to happen. The idea that the basis of the country’s economy can be destroyed on the basis of the sloganizing of the semi-educated, will meet institutional resistance. I want Scotland independent, but I also want England to avoid the self-harm of leaving the EU. I am farily confident both options are simultaneously achievable.
The EU is “extremely successful” – on what criteria? What is its function? The euro is an “extremely successful currency” – how? Has it not demonstrated the fundamental flaws in its design that monetary economists warned of, a single monetary authority without a single fiscal authority, and a high risk of macroeconomic adjustment in “peripheral” economies by slow and painful deflation because depreciation is no longer an option?
It’s performing a lot better than the pound?
Comments section ruined by lying racists. I thought I’d escaped the Daily Mail.
A Wyatt,
A Wyatt,
May I enquire when does pointing out economic realities make a person either a racist, or a reader of the Daily Heil – are you now saying that the economic advisors to Bernie Sanders are racists, or in Clintonesque language “deplorable’s”, or do you have an inability to understand Prof. Wynne Godley’s warnings in 1992 and subsequent events following the GFC of 2007/8 which underscored how correct he was. Obviously, if pointing out inconvenient facts makes me a racist and a deplorable, so be it, but I think you’ll find I for one am a socialist and proud of the fact.
Some Communists left the party after Stalin’s show trials in the early 1930s.
Some Communists left the party after the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.
Some Communists left the party after the Soviet treatment of Eastern European countries after the war.
Some Communists drifted away after the Hungarian Uprising in 1956.
Some left after Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The hardline comrades who remained in the Western European Communist parties wanted their wavering comrades to disregard all of the above and cling to belief in the Soviet Union.
In a kind of similarity, Kezia Dugdale wants the Scottish Labour members who haven’t already drifted away to stay and support Scottish Labour’s endorsement of Brexit. To pretend that health privatisation, Trident renewal, demonisation of immigrants and TTIP aren’t taking place and to cling to a belief in the United Kingdom.
“The hardline comrades who remained in the Western European Communist parties wanted their wavering comrades to disregard all of the above and cling to belief in the Soviet Union.”
This was true of some. But not of all.
In many cases, and this was particularly so in the “Third World” , people stuck with the Soviet Union because with all its faults it was not Imperialism.
One thing that has become clear since 1989, and was clear to the people of whom I’m talking long before then, is that the idea that there are or were two competing imperialist projects, is wrong. Profoundly wrong: there is one Empire, it is one that we know well because it is the old British Empire, the post Columbian European Empire whose shape changes, whose capital city changes but whose nature never changes.
It didn’t matter to the Empire whether the government in Moscow flew a red flag, the Romanov double eagle or the banner of the Oligarchs’ Chamber of Commerce. All that matters, all that mattered, was that it deferred to the Stars and Stripes which is currently the Imperial flag.
The slogan “Neither Washington nor Moscow but International socialism” meant, in real terms “I don’t support Moscow.” Which is all that Washington cared about.
Most of the people who left the Communist Parties soon drifted out of politics. But many joined other ‘socialist’ groups, Trotskyite, Anarchist or social democratic.
It is no accident that most of the former Trotskyists are supporters of imperialist wars (aka Socialist Revolutions) in Syria, Libya and, essentially, even in Ukraine where death squads kill every form of socialist on a daily basis.
Many of the old Communists who remained with the party feel vindicated by the way in which eastern Europe has been taken over by fascists whose rule is much worse than that of the Communist regimes, who despite enormous economic difficulties-most originating in imperialist sanctions- did manage to keep poverty and ignorance at bay, to provide healthcare, shelter, employment and pensions. They are also vindicated by the manifold aggressions of the imperialists and look back with pride on the role that the Soviet Union and its allies played in supporting National Liberation movements when Imperialism was fighting against them. They feel that, had the old Soviet Union been around the Empire would have thought twice before attacking Iraq, Libya, Somalia and many other countries. Just as it came to regret having attacked Vietnam.
They feel I suspect, rather as Fidel Castro must have done, as Putin evidently does that by giving up its power to act as a counterweight to the Empire the last Soviet government did the world a terrible disservice.
There’s a good deal of truth in what you say. Nevertheless I’m not quite convinced about the good old days theory of the US and Soviets balancing each other out. The behaviour of the US in Latin America, South East Asia and even Western Europe during the cold war era can’t have been tempered much by the existence of the Soviet Union.
OU: In Latin America, you are right, always bearing Cuba in mind, that the Monroe Doctriune was honoured. Still the influence of Communists in Latin America was great. In South East Asia the struggle against “Communism” was a struggle against the Soviet Union, in Korea and elsewhere the USSR (and for example the GDR) gave important assistance to the anti-imperialists. So you are wrong, the USSR was a very important factor in deterring US aggression. As to Western Europe the CP was very important in several countries, France, Italy, Spain and Greece among them. Us policy was largely shaped as a response to the Communist threat. Which, of course, also included that of the Labour Left and other left socialist parties. Absent the Communist threat the neo-liberal revival would have occurred much earlier.
Martinned: I’m surprised that you cannot see in the current encirclement of Russia in eastern Europe the logic behind the USSR’s position at Yalta. To call the system of alliances and controlled governments in Eastern Europe imperialist is to misunderstand what Empires are. And what they are for.
Yup, the Soviet Union would never dream of trying to set up some kind of empire. Except of course in Eastern Europe. And the Middle East. And parts of Africa. And this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet%E2%80%93Afghan_War
Dream on.
The Soviet Union was already a empire, which was dissolved by the breakup. I don’t understand though how you make out that the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was empire-building. That would mean that the US in Afghanistan is there for building an empire, or even more pertinent, the US in Vietnam, the invasion of which was done for precisely the same reasons as the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.
Only if you think that the US were planning to annex – or otherwise permanently control – Afghanistand and/or Vietnam.
Well, well! Lord Hague of Richmond, aka Billy Fourteen Pints, currently residing in his grand mansion in Wales with Ffffion, has secured himself a new niche as ‘advisor’ 🙂
to Citi where he will join Lord Mervyn King ex Bank of England amongst others.
http://news.sky.com/story/ex-foreign-secretary-lord-hague-joins-wall-street-giant-citi-10732037
Didn’t the erstwhile PM and occupant of the Foreign Office do well. His interests are extensive as recorded in his Register on here.
https://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-hague-of-richmond/379
He is away from home a lot making speeches. Who would pay to hear his rot in those strangulated tones? Amazing.
Biog notes
Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State May 2010 – Jul 2014
Shadow Secretary of State (Foreign Affairs) Dec 2005 – May 2010
Leader of Her Majesty’s Official Opposition Jun 1997 – Sep 2001
Leader of the Conservative Party Jun 1997 – Sep 2001
‘Julian Assange and right of asylum
In August 2012, Hague declared that Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks organisation founder, would not be granted political asylum by the United Kingdom. Hague declared the UK’s willingness to extradite Assange to the Swedish authorities who had requested his extradition; thus Swedish prosecutors, unwilling to break diplomatic protocol, have deferred from interrogating Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador, London.
Hague confirmed the British Government’s position – that it is lawfully obliged to extradite Julian Assange. “We’re disappointed by the statement by Ecuador’s Foreign Minister today that Ecuador has offered political asylum to Julian Assange. Under our Laws, with Mr. Assange having exhausted all options of appeal, the British authorities are under a binding obligation to extradite him to Sweden. We must carry out that obligation and of course we fully intend to do so,” Hague confirmed.
Following The Guardian newspaper outcry over a Foreign Office note sanctioned by Hague sent to the Ecuadorian Embassy—in which it raised the possibility of the revocation of their diplomatic status under the Diplomatic and Consular Premises Act 1987—the Foreign Secretary reaffirmed the UK remained “committed to a diplomatic solution” and played down any suggestion of a police raid of the Ecuadorian Embassy, stating “there is no threat here to storm an embassy”.
The former ambassador Craig Murray warned that using the 1987 Act to raid the Ecuadorian Embassy would be in “breach of the Vienna Convention of 1961”. Russia warned Britain against violating fundamental diplomatic principles (Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and in particular the Article 22 spelling out the inviolability of diplomatic premises), which the Government of Ecuador invoked.
Hague is the subject of a portrait in oil commissioned by Parliament.’
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hague
Now Snowden is on his way to becoming a Russian. Hardly any secret why.
None at all: they gave him refuge and protected him when the most powerful and ruthless state in the world was intent on doing to him what it did to, his compatriot, Jose Padilla. It would be unnatural for him not to want to secure the option of permanent residence and civic rights.
It would be unnatural for him not to want to secure the option of permanent residence and civic rights.
Euh, we were talking about Russia.
(Also: “civic rights”???)
Yes, the rights of protection as a citizen. Russophobia is no more attractive than Negrophobia.
Excellent news about Chelsea Manning. I hope the promise is honoured under Trump.
Perhaps Assange has received some sort of assurance from Trump’s team that he would be treated favorably, after all Trump probably owes his election success to wikkileaks.
Indeed. And everyone knows you can trust Trump at his word…
Assange is a shrewd operator, would he really offer himself up to be extradited and face 30 years? He must know something we don’t.
Yes, that his followers will never blame him if he breaks his word.
He knows that the USA does not want a huge trial where the criminal invasion of Iraq is put under a legal microscope.
Given the current level of distrust of institutions among the public and the distaste across the political spectrum for ‘boots on the ground’ convicting Assange isn’t worth the troubles of the trial.
I very much doubt that this can be done.
I mean I doubt an incoming president can reverse the pardons.
Let us hope not, though it is easy enough to arrest someone who has just left prison. The reality is that Obama has cunningly insisted that the incoming government share responsibility for his actions: pursuing Manning, in the first place, and putting him in the worst sort of prison conditions. It cannot be forgotten that the soldier’s treatment, before trial was horrific and that Obama was totally complicit in his maltreatment. He knew everything that was being done, condoned it, trivialised it and took responsibility for it.
Then there is the fact that he prejudiced the ‘trial’ by insisting, Presidentially, that Manning was guilty.
Because Obama’s commutation of Manning’s sentence left in place many of the results of Manning’s criminal conviction (e.g., status as felon, bad discharge, deprivation of pay for period of imprisonment), Manning’s appeal of his conviction has not been rendered moot.
For many reasons, including the one that you cite, it is highly likely that a military court of appeals will overturn the conviction.
there is a big difference between a pardon and a commuted sentence, as any of our overseas posters can vouch for, Phil. I do not know whether this can be reversed or whether they could re-arrest him after he leaves the gate.
The commutation by Obama is final and cannot be reversed. However, I think it is always possible to bring new charges against Manning that are unrelated to the original charges.
“Of course this all feeds in to the question of whether Obama is a good man frustrated or a charlatan all along, as a tick in the good man frustrated column. I still tend to the man with decent instincts who at the end of the day didn’t care enough to really fight for them.”
Another possibility is that the USG didn’t want a successful suicide attempt from Manning. (This isn’t aimed at Craig, who responded with a dismal straw man argument the last time I engaged him, re Juan Cole).
definitive analysis of Trump dossier at Dances With Bears
WHEN GOING TO BED WITH DOGS IS NEWS, GETTING UP WITH FLEAS IS A SCOOP – HERE’S THE ONE ABOUT TRUMP’S BED, PUTIN’S BED
Posted By Richard Kochetov
too much to quote, must read
http://johnhelmer.net/?p=17010&print=1
Pre-EU the UK was known as the Sick Man of Europe. It’s about have one almighty relapse.
The UK’s now the Thick Man Of Europe.
The UK is yet one more criminal state – but the people of the UK have acted to curtail that criminality by voting to leave the EU. Finally the sun can be glimpsed through a crack in the clouds.
It must hurt EU devotees to realize that the British people have instructed you to get your boot off the throats of the Greek people and indeed all of the peoples of southern Europe. It is true that today, yesterdays people are lining up to heap vitriol on the British and to threaten them with savage economic punishment – but the dream is over and you were the dreamers. Soon the British people will be reinforced by the actions that will be taken by the citizens of many nations currently enslaved by the EU.
The faux liberalism of the EU is vomit inducing. You embrace refugees and cover them with your egotistical tears.whilst simultaneously enacting an agricultural policy designed to prevent Africa from ever being capable of its own economic development.
Oh how we love Syrian refugees – because after all we are responsible for the destruction of their country. How we deny that there are any Ukrainian refugees and we did not destroy their country and if we did then it was only because they deserved to have their country destroyed.
Now look at the EU- so big and so strong, bravely threatening Russia with sanctions that hurt only the citizens of the EU and all because you were instructed to do so by the US.
Well my EU loving friends the US is NOT instructing you to threaten the people of the UK – and so it is a racing certainty that you will not. As an Englishman once noted “and now this voice is brave and it wants to be free”
Loony
“Finally the sun can be glimpsed through a crack in the clouds”.
Aye. That’s all Brexit Britain has to look forward to.
The Sun
Crack
Clouds
You think that becoming a complete tax haven will not support criminality? Interesting view on morality, obviously those with white collars can never be criminal.
The term “Sick man of Europe” has at times been applied variously to Germany, France, Portugal, Greece, Spain and Italy and others.
We will be stronger for Brexit as the EU is on the verge of collapse anyway. As its second largest contributor we are well off out of it and looking forward towards the rest of the world.
How about the Ottoman Empire, Anon?
BrianPowell,
Where do you get these silly ideas from, and why do you repeat such claims. Now, and for your benefit, the UK and its then allies went to war with Germany in 1939 to stop Germany taking over all of the Continent – many enlisted to stop a nasty German regime holding sway over Europe and gave their lives in order that this did not happen. The economic cost of this War/Struggle was huge, made worse by the accumulated debt of the last Great War. In a nutshell, if it were not for the bloody British, its then allies and the Soviet Union after July 1941 there would be no bloody Europe, instead you’d have had a Greater German Reich. Obviously, this is most overly simplified, but please stick your ‘sick man of Europe’ nonsense where the sun don’t shine.
Why ?
“From the fact that the May thesis is so barmy ”
___________
Barmy, but out to intentionally damage the economies of the Home nations, by foisting a hard Brexit upon them.
May’s delusional approach, has seen respected think tank after think tank produce frightening figures that show hundreds of thousands of jobs will go, and that ordinary citizens will see thousands of pounds cut from there incomes.
The poor brainwashed sods, in England and Wales, who voted leave did so after weeks of media attention aimed at blaming immigrants for their woes. They forgot so easily, that it was a succession of Westminster governments that destroyed their once important heavy industries, but offered nothing in its place.
May’s twisted comment, that “calamitous self-harm” would occur if the other 27 EU nations resorted to punitive measures, was surely a sign trepidation, and ironic in the fact, that May is currently inflicting self-harm on the Home nations.
Add too this Boris Johnson’s (the clown prince of Westminster) inept intervention on the matter, comparing the EU to Nazi Germany and “punishment beatings” over Britain’s decision to leave the EU, and a picture begins to emerge of a Brexit cabinet, already on the backfoot, and intimidated.
It won’t be the millionaire cabinet of Thersa May that will bear the brunt of a shambolic EU whipping when it comes, no it will be the poor, and low income families already struggling to make ends meet, that will be the vicitims of May’s splendid isolation plans that will see, Britain become a parochial minded tax haven off the coast of Western Europe
Don’t worry about it, Scotland will be leaving soon.
Well said.
So Obama acts to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence. Maybe he is a good man after all, because oh look he also got the US to vote against Israel at a recent UN vote. What a nice man. He also decided to send 3,000 US Marines for a nice holiday in Poland.
Or could it be…That his every action is a political calculation to make life as difficult as possible for Trump. US public opinion is already split and here comes Obama just levering the fissures wider with every last opportunity. What a nice man…the only US President to leave office having been at war for every single day of his Presidency – so whatever hos instincts are he clearly felt deeply enough to have other people fight on his behalf every single day.
Unemployment in Scotland rose by 11,000 between September and November 2016, according to official figures.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) data shows that unemployment in Scotland now stands at 139,000.
The number of Scots in work over the period also fell by 14,000, a figure which is higher than the drop seen across the UK as a whole.
Scotland’s unemployment rate now stands at 5.1%, while the UK rate is 4.8% – its lowest rate for more than 10 years.
Ministry of Truth
Scotland not doing as well as England, before we do HARD BREXIT
It’s Westminster that controls Scotland’s economic levers so the responsibility for unemployment lies with them. So many economic projects for Scotland have been knocked back by Westminster governments over the years. From knocking back carbon capture or branch factories to stopping the setting up of film studios and vetoing the proposed headquartering of the British Irish Council in Edinburgh, Westminster’s game for decades now has been to keep Scotland feeling like a failure. All the while squandering the oil revenues on military equipment and military misadventures.
When Scotland becomes independent people will realise the difference in having a government that has the power to consistently make positive decisions on behalf of the nation instead of one that says no four times out of five.
It is indeed a good parting shot from Obama, that he’s decided to commute Chelsea Manning’s ridiculously long sentence. I doubt Trump would’ve taken that course of action, if his determination to keep Guantanemo bay, is anything to go by.
Obama’s motive for the turnaround, will for now remain unknown.
Staying on Trump for a moment, there’s a plethora of articles doing the rounds, espousing that Trump is not politically, or fiscally competent for the job of POTUS, and I tend to agree with most of them.
Now lets transfer that line of thinking over the pond with regards to Theresa May. Is she politically equipped to handle not just the job as PM, but to oversee the daunting task of Brexit? In my opinion, May is way, way out of her depth.
Her record as Home Secretary is not a good one, May presided over a myriad of failed and botched immigration policies, as Home Secretary, she blamed everyone (but herself) for the dismal failure surrounding immigration into the UK.
Theresa May had a torrid and unsuccessful time as Home Secretary, especially with regards to immigration, is it any wonder then that Theresa May is transfixed on the freedom of movement and halting it in all its forms.
http://reaction.life/theresa-may-failed-home-secretary-bad-choice-pm/
From Reprieve by e-mail
[..]
On Sunday, three men were executed by firing squad, in a disgraceful breach of international law. Ali Al-Singace, Abbas Al-Samea and Sami Mushaima were the first to be put to death by the Bahraini authorities since 2010.
Read their stories here.
Victims of horrific human rights abuses, not criminals – the stories of three men executed by firing squad on Sunday
http://www.reprieve.org.uk/update/victims-horrific-human-rights-abuses-not-criminals-stories-three-men-executed-firing-squad-sunday/?
Now, we’re working on the cases of two more prisoners who face imminent execution in Bahrain – Mohammed Ramadan and Husain Moosa. As with the three men executed on Sunday, their death sentences were based on ‘confessions’ extracted through torture and handed down in sham trials.
Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has refused to confirm whether any steps were taken to prevent these executions – or whether action will be taken to stop the upcoming executions.
What we do know is that the UK government has provided extensive assistance to the Bahraini criminal justice system – the system that made the execution of these torture victims possible. In the last 4 years, the UK government has paid more than 5 million pounds to train police officers, prosecutors, judges, and even then prison guards in the death row prison where Ali, Abbas and Sami were held.
More to come on what we can all do to save our clients from the firing squad.
Thank you,
The Reprieve Team
++++++
Recent British visitors to Bahrain
Theresa May 6 Dec 2016
David Cameron 5 days ago
Boris Johnson Dec 2016
Philip Hammond June 2016
P Charles and Croc wife Nov 2016
and so on.
So nobody here, on a human rights website, has any views on those executions in Bahrain? They are illegal in international law ffs.
I agree with you. But I don’t feel it necessary to tell you so. I’m sure that the great majority of those reading your comments agree with you. Cheer up and get well soon.
I am as well as I will ever be thanks Bevin.
I do, sharp ears, but I’m tired of reiterating the same hurt and HR abuses when our representatives are doing SFA. Bahrain is living on borrowed time as the majority there are Shia’s, one day will be D day for them and they will roll all over the crooks in power.
thanks for reminding us nevertheless, if we are not talking about does not mean we are ignorant to it. Just as In Yemen, the UK has a lot of questions to answer.
But the Saudi’s run this country with their oily hands, I’m surprised that they are not pursued when shopping in Oxford Street
Cheers Nevermind.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon visiting my 4 month old first grandchild for the second time. What’s with the guilt trip? Objecting to the way the world is organised doesn’t always make it easier to scratch a living. Even the trolls are not here full time.
Bahrain is one of those oil-wealthy countries which are used to bankroll the criminal projects of USUKIS.
USUKIS exceptionalism means that we can do anything we like and nobody else can object, a viewpoint shared by the Arab monarchies.
It is an unfortunate fact, stated in the Qur’an even about the occupants of Mecca, let alone Bahrain, that God will punish the oppressors who live even in those Holy places if they deviate from their religion, in this case by falsifying evidence, false imprisonment, torture, abuse, and assisting the enemies of Islam in attacking and controlling the Muslim lands.
The rulers of Bahrain and Meccah will be thrown into Hell-fire, without exception. There is no compulsion in Islam.
I’ve heard lots of rumours about Boris Johnson (like he’s even worse than Donald Trump). However I did used to get called Boris, and I do like my Boris London Free (old farts) Travel Card. I think he did a reasonable job as Mayor of London, but the reason I like him, is because he is very quick at saying what he thinks, and it is often very funny, and sometimes true.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/18/david-davis-parliament-will-not-block-brexit/
“Europe’s Brexit negotiator blasts Boris Johnson’s World War II comments as ‘abhorrent’ ”
Boris Johnson has come under fire after comparing French President Francois Hollande to a World War II guard administering “punishment beatings”.
Downing Street came to the defence of the Foreign Secretary just hours before the European Parliament’s chief Brexit negotiator urged Theresa May to condemn them.
Guy Verhofstadt described Mr Johnson’s comments as “abhorrent” and “deeply unhelpful.”
The Prime Minister’s official spokeswoman brushed off suggestions that the Foreign Secretary should apologise, describing his comments as a “theatrical comparison”
She dismissed the row as a “hyped-up media report” and said she was not aware of any complaint from the Elysee Palace.
Mr Johnson’s comments came during a visit to India, when he was asked about a reported comment from one of Mr Hollande’s aides, who said Britain should not expect a better trading relationship with Europe from outside the EU.
The Foreign Secretary responded: “If Monsieur Hollande wants to administer punishment beatings to anyone who chooses to escape, rather in the manner of some World War Two movie, then I don’t think that’s the way forward.
“It’s not in the interests of our friends or our partners.”
Boris J yn Knowitall a top pren i’r sefydliad.
Tony
With all due respect to your opinions, Boris is a prostitute to political necessity, best Etonian friend of war-criminal Cameron, who resigned before he becomes a mouth-frothing post-war-criminal like Blair. Cameron sold half his soul to the devil, and Boris Johnson has taken stakes in the other half striking his blonde neck instead of Cameron.
Are 2 half war-criminals better than one full one? Boris jokes in order to disguise his evil intent to continue British Imperialism from where Hitler disconnected it in WW2. ” I am only a half-war-criminal, half human.
He is a disgusting toff worm, who will be picked off by the thrushes for all his wriggling, as soon as he has usefully decimated his quota of Muslims for the NWO.
A spiteful, promiscuous, duplicitous, blonde Dutch Calvinist, apologist for proxy-terror, worm, with a flip, flip-side of cheeky humour. Please don’t be taken in by him.
O/T a bit of a surprize
Syria conflict: Russia and Turkey in first joint air strikes on Islamic State
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-38667895
IS was targeted in the suburbs of the town of al-Bab, Aleppo province, where Turkey suffered heavy casualties last month battling the group on the ground.
Staying on the woefully incompetent Theresa May, who said “There will be no membership of the Single Market – the UK will instead try to negotiate a tariff-free customs agreement.”
Well her aggressive posturing, along with her gaff prone Foreign Secretary is doing the UK no favours whatsoever. May’s unmovable stance on free movement (in my opinion is on a par of stupidity, that matches Idi Amin’s expulsion of Asians from Uganda circa 1972) will be the rock that her deal flounders on.
May also wants a “special deal” for the banks in the City of London. Of course the other 27 EU nations will just roll over and say yes. However back in the real world, if the CETA deal is anything to go by, then May and her splendid isolationists, have their work well and truly cut out for them.
Republicofscotland,
I am not suggesting that the powers that be in control of the City of London have any moral authority, but I suggest they probably have have more financial control and influence than any other financial centre in Europe.
I seem to have detected a note of panic within recent days from other EU based financial power centres when the implications suddenly dawned on them with regards to movement and control of capital without the same access to the City of London.
Maybe The Queen has a view on this too.
They could of course always go to Venice, The Vatican, Amsterdam or New York.
Tony
Peoples opinions regarding numbers are not that interesting – it is the numbers themselves that are important.
There were a maximum of 80,000 Ugandan Asians expelled from Uganda, and the fact that you reference the event indicates that it was a significant event. At the moment the UK is seeing annual immigration of about 340,000. This is equivalent to an event 4 times larger than the Ugandan Asians taking place every single year.
Expelling Asians from Uganda adversely affected to Ugandan economy. What do you think the effects will be on the economies of southern and eastern Europe who are effectively expelling many more people from their economies every single year.
One of the most terrible things that occurred during his presidency was the continuation of torture of detainees in Guantanamo prison. Captured at the age of 15 Omar Khadr spent 10 years there.. released in 07/2012 to Canadian prison.
Moazzam Begg.. on the boy he witnessed becoming a man
Walking, talking, congregational prayer or reading the Quran aloud was an infraction of the rules. To punish us we’d be isolated in the “sally port”, our heads hooded and our hands shackled to the top of the door for hours. This was hard enough for us able-bodied men but when it happened to Omar it broke our hearts. But again, Omar was tranquil and never complained despite his horrific wounds. In fact, when he recited the Quran in his soft, gentle voice he appeared more serene.
Omar was an adult by the time Obomber became president ..He had the power to to intervene but he did not..this in my view tells us what kind of man he is behind the smooth rhetoric and false sincerity
Obama also went to considerable lengths to prevent the publication of the Senate Report on torture. He has done all in his power to protect the banks, corporations and those in authority who abuse their powers.
It is no coincidence that he comes from Chicago’s Democratic Machine and that his friend and former Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, the Mayor of Chicago, runs interference for the appalling Chicago Police Department.
Still some people will miss him, just s others will not:
http://angryarab.blogspot.ca/2017/01/missing-obama.html
“the euro an extremely successful currency” – successful for whom? What is the youth unemployment rate in Greece, Spain, Portugal and France these days? Maybe if the EU and Euro more more successful on the mainland fewer people would want to emmigrate? Just because the politicians cherry-picked a time when the various economies “converged”, there was no guarantee they would stay that way.
As for semi-educated, if you increase the supply of labour without increasing that of housing, don’t be surprised if wages stagnate whilst the price of housing soars. National averages of course conceal wide local variations, as the Bank of England Chief Economist has recently spoken about. But what do I know, I only have a (relevant) degree.
Good news on Ms Manning though.
Nice one Crimea
Crimeans invite Marine Le Pen to visit peninsula – I bet they don’t invite the congenital idiot Hollande
https://www.rt.com/politics/374076-crimean-residents-invite-marine-le/
FRENCH Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux told reporters the blast was a “major and highly symbolic attack” in an area visited only days ago by FRENCH President Francois Hollande.
Mr Francois Hollande was in MALI last week to attend an Africa-France summit, at which topics including security were discussed.
http://news.sky.com/story/more-than-50-killed-in-suicide-bombing-at-mali-military-base-10733513
More than 50 killed in suicide bombing at Mali military base
France’s interior minister says the bombing is a “symbolic attack” in an area visited by Francois Hollande last week.
I’m going to unplug my mouse and keyboard for this one, otherwise I might very well lose it.
Britain’s foreign minister warned France on Wednesday against World War II-style “punishment beatings” after Paris indicated that it would not accept improved conditions for the UK outside the single market.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170118-brexit-uk-johnson-warns-france-ww2-punishment-beatings
French presidential hopeful, ex-PM Valls slapped during campaign stop
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VqA8u8X0-I
If the French Economy is currently, slightly bigger than the U.K. Economy, partly that is explained by the collapse in Sterling, since our Freedom Referendum, partly it is because of French State Aid to French corporations.
Without the backing of the French State much of French Industry would turn instantly
to dust.
““the EU is actually an extremely successful union…there are effectively no tariffs on manufactured goods from Africa””
That industrial powerhouse…
Does anybody think that with regard to Assange’s promise to submit to extradition, Obama’s commuting of Manning’s sentence was to use what I think is an old Scottish saying “setting a Sprat to catch a Mackerel”?
Julian made that promise before Manning’s sentence was commuted. Maybe he thought it would never happen or maybe Obama is calling his bluff, either way no request for his extradition has yet been issued by the US so it’s pretty much meaningless. He might still have to submit to the EAW and go back to Sweden though.
Why Khadr’s story is so important is because it illustrates how utterly debased Human rights have become as a result of US so called exceptionalism manifested in its ‘wars on terror’
http://video.aljazeera.com/channels/eng/videos/guantanamos-child—omar-khadr/4282861323001
…Omar Khadr is not only the youngest person ever convicted of a war crime in modern history, he is also the only person ever charged with “murder in violation of the laws of war” – despite the fact that hundreds have died in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq since 2001 and despite the fact it was never a war crime to kill a soldier in conflict until the US rewrote the laws of war after 9/11
http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/witness/2015/06/guantanamo-child-omar-khadr-150531111517474.html
Is it April Fool’s day already? According to this the BBC are too “fact check” stories, yes that’s right you did read that correctly, – BBC and fact-check, those words don’t go together.
The BBC will also seek out misleading stories masquerading as news, I think they should start at their London HQ building, that will keep them busy for decades at least.
“The BBC can’t edit the internet, but we won’t stand aside either.”
“We will fact check the most popular outliers on Facebook, Instagram and other social media.”
“We are working with Facebook, in particular, to see how we can be most effective. Where we see deliberately misleading stories masquerading as news, we’ll publish a Reality Check that says so.”
http://www.thecanary.co/2017/01/17/bbc-facebook-team-police-social-media-turn-pretty-ugly/
Indeed,
I note all over the internet today is the wonderful fact that the Propaganda Chief of news at the BBC, Ms Laura Kuenssberg, has been given a small slap on the hand for her news item relating to Mr Corbyn and the ‘shoot to kill policy’, or lack of support thereof for dealing with terrorists, seems Ms Kuenssberg decided Corbyn’s actual words did not undermine him, so she made up a story to keep her Tory handlers happy, as well as her New Labour handlers. Suffice to say, for this ordeal Ms Kuenssberg will be Knighted for her services to politics and democracy.
Maybe this site has fallen victim to the spreading contagion of fake news.
The whole point of the the euro is to transfer the wealth of Europe to Germany, and it is doing so successfully. If this is something that you support then yes the euro is “an extremely successful currency” But stop and ask yourself how likely it is that non German Europeans will be content to play their allotted role of human sacrifices dying on the alter of German efficiency?
If Scotland does like “foreigners coming in” then you are luck because there is no shortage. The population of Africa is rising by 80 million people per year – and I have no doubt that there are many hundreds of millions of Africans that could be reasily enticed to move to Scotland. Why Scotland could have a population approaching 1 billion within a few short years. It is all so easy just take a look at how the exponential function operates.
Obviously there is absolutely no intention of asking the existing Scottish population how they would feel about such a policy – perhaps that is because there is concern that Scots have been infected with English and Welsh racism. After all what else but racism could possibly explain any reticence about welcoming hundreds of millions of new neighbors?
Even the most dedicated purveyors of fake news would likely balk at the kind of garbage contained in this post
“If Scotland does like “foreigners coming in”
_________
Looney.
You obviously have no real inkling with regards to Scotland and immigration, let me enlighten you.
Scotland doesn’t control immigration, it’s a reserved matter. Every year thousands of decent people looking to work and make a life in Scotland are denied by those chinless tossers at the Home Office, in recent times Goodwill and Brokenshire, are the two HO henchmen who’ve stopped those people.
The consequences of allowing a foreign government to control your immigration policies is a aging population.
It seems that Theresa May and indeed England and Wales has a fear and loathing of Johnny Foreigner, and voted for Brexit, to stop anymore of those pesky people arriving.
However in Scotland’s case immigration is useful, but in reality independence will be required as May is very unlikely to devolve immigration to Holyrood.
“The whole point of the the euro is to transfer the wealth of Europe to Germany”
How so Looney, could you please elaborate a bit more.
Some refugees turned up in Scotland and then decided life was better in Raqqah after all.
“It seems that Theresa May and indeed England and Wales has a fear and loathing of Johnny Foreigner, and voted for Brexit, to stop anymore of those pesky people arriving.”
As Home Secretary, Theresa May presided over the greatest numbers of immigrants entering this country in its history.
“As Home Secretary, Theresa May presided over the greatest numbers of immigrants entering this country in its history.”
__________
You omitted to add, that she made such a pigs ears of the job that, the influx was not a intentional one.
May then proceeded to blame everyone under the sun, except herself for the opening of the flood gates.
May’s not competent enough to run a department let alone a nation. The EU negotiators will run rings around her, it will then be very interesting to see who she blames for that debacle.
Germany has a powerful export focused economy – It makes good products, you most likely have some of them yourself. This gives Germany a positive trade balance. If Germany were an independent country then it would have a strong currency making its exports more expensive and imports cheaper. This would act to bring the German trade balance into equilibrium.
As Germany shares a currency with a variety of countries all of whom are economically weaker than itself means Germany has a currency that is weaker than it otherwise would be. This means that it can continue to expand its exports. Germany is incentivized to destabilize its currency partners as this further weakens the euro and further aids German exports.
All those exports serve to destroy the industrial bases of the countries importing German products and hence creates unemployment and poverty. At the edges unemployment is masked by the exporting of unwanted workers to the UK and poverty is masked by ECB monetary policy which allows people to continue buying German products even though they have no money.
If you want a specific example consider the German submarine deal with Greece. It was a condition of an EU “bailout” to Greece that the Government purchased a number of German submarines. These submarines were more expensive than prices then prevailing in the submarine market – but the idea was that not only did Greece get submarines there would also be a technology transfer allowing Greece to build its own submarines in the future. Subsequently the Germans bought the Greek company who were to be the recipients of the technology, and claimed that this satisfied the technology transfer obligation. Ultimately Germany closed down most of the operations in Greece and relocated them to Germany.
This is how it works. This is how it is intended to work.
“As Germany shares a currency with a variety of countries all of whom are economically weaker than itself means Germany has a currency that is weaker than it otherwise would be.”
_________
Strange logic Looney, I’d have said that Germany brings strength to the Euro, thus aiding its neighbours who use the same currency.
“All those exports serve to destroy the industrial bases of the countries importing German products and hence creates unemployment and poverty”
But those other EU nations export to Germany as well, including manpower, that helps sustain the German workforce, that’s why it’s called the Single Market.
“If you want a specific example consider the German submarine deal with Greece. ”
I suppose Greece has many creditors, that don’t have a hope in hell of getting their money back, purchasing goods or companies could be a way forward to clawing back at least some of that money.
However Germany is also open to that approach with China buying up or investing heavily in at least 40 major companies in recent years.
http://thediplomat.com/2016/11/china-and-gemany-the-honeymoon-is-over/
Try to understand that Greece is a just a conduit through which money flows to Germany.
The ECB and the IMF advance money to Greece – Germany is only on the hook for a small percentage of that money. The money that is advanced to Greece is immediately remitted to Germany in exchange for submarines that it neither wants nor needs.
Germany then uses the super normal profits that it has earned on the submarines to buy up Greek industrial facilities and close them down. Thus Greece pays to destroy itself.
you are totally wrong in the head looney, why don’t you go for a job with the BBC as fake news provider or propaganda hack, then you can talk up problems in Europe a little and wind up the negotiators to get your desired outcome, i.e the Uk fascist walking away into the economic Jungle, just love to see UK farmers coming off subsidies and struggling to make ends meet on the world market.
Food prices have gone up by 10% during the last few month dummy, how long before you’ll join the foodbank queue. Whilst you wait try and convince your fellow poor to vote for the Tories again, well they did not really win the last election, they cheated,
And most of the UK voters like you don’t give a flying fcuk, they are conditioned to serfdom and being led by pirates.
“Why don’t you go for a job with the BBC” particularly made me laugh, as if the BBC is not pro-EU!
So long in this country yet still so little understanding of it, you have to feel sorry for Nevermind and his little Brit-hating tantrums.
nevermind – Your level of delusion and your sense of self entitlement runs deep.
The EU is a German racket and is provable by reference to evidence. Donald Trump understands this – hence his broadside aimed at Merkel and BMW. The Germans themselves know that Trunp is on to them, hence the German Foreign Minister, Hans Walther Steinmeier interfering in the US Presidential election by labeling Trump a “hate preacher” (You may recognizer the tactics as they are the same as yours)
So food prices are rising – what do you expect to happen in a society that has dedicated all of its resources to demanding cheap food and expensive housing. UK farmers have been suffering for years – just look at their suicide rates. Strange how you only seem to care about the suffering of others when it suits your agenda to do so.
What exactly is your argument – kill a Greek so that I can exercise my divine right to cheap food. Try and grow up and appreciate how self centered and self serving your arguments truly are.
Nevermind,
Much of what Loony has stated with regards Germany and the Euro is essentially correct, with the exception that its by a cunning desire that Germany desires economic hegemony over much of the EU, the reverse would be true from a practical political perspective, but from the economic perspective Germany’s extreme fear of price instability and its fetish to adhere to monetary and fiscal policies to underscore price stability, epitomised by the Bundesbank and replicated via the ECB has caused considerable economic harm to many EZ members, most notably those in the Southern periphery. Obviously, and something that seems to have past many a Remoaner by, is the fact that we have witnessed a massive ‘bait & switch’ exercise in bank debt caused by recklessness being hoisted on to the shoulders of the EZ’s taxpayers following the GFC of 2007/8, which of course was the main driver behind the Euro Sovereign Debt Crisis, which is far from over. Now, you may not like these facts, but regrettably economics and economic history do not lie given all known facts, and, as stated previously massive forewarnings by many eminent an economist that monetary union would be a disaster without processes in place to enable massive fiscal transfers in times of crisis, much as that which the USA enjoys with its single currency and federal state fiscal transfers. Again, a good starting point is Prof Wynne Godley’s 1992 LRB Essay detailing the defects of the EU’s rich into monetary union, which has managed to undermine the political and economic cohesion of the EU via deflationary pressures and fiscal spending rules that require austerity to balance the books, or allegedly balance the books in reality. Indeed, by not joining monetary union the UK escaped much of this madness and enjoyed a stronger economy than that of many of its EU peers, who’s economies were marred in debt-inspired deflation and recession, meaning perversely enough that many a person from these nations headed to the UK for employment, hence the UK was acting as a safety release valve for the EZ, which did not go amiss by the UK electorate who’s own living standards on the whole were declining, a matter exacerbated by Tory-imposed austerity from 2010 – lets just say we had a strong chemical reaction, one that resulted in Brexit.
“As I argued in my 2003 book Princes of the Yen and an academic research paper (Werner, 2006), the ECB was not modelled on the successful Bundesbank in Frankfurt, but the disastrous prior German central bank, the Reichsbank, which created asset bubble and bust, deflation, hyperinflation and essentially caused the economic chaos that helped bring Adolf Hitler to power, after which the Reichsbank, under the leadership of the same man that had created this chaos in the 1920s, then reflated rapidly, rendering this previously marginal fringe-politician highly popular. The problem with the Reichsbank was its excessive independence and lack of any accountability to German institutions or parliament whatsoever. Thus the founders of post-war Germany were wise to change the new central bank’s status by significantly curtailing its independence: the Bundesbank was made accountable and subordinated to Parliament, as one would expect in a democracy. It became probably the world’s most successful central bank. While the Brussels centralisers, when pushing the Maastricht Treaty (signed in 1992), portrayed the ECB as having been modelled on the successful Bundesbank (also situated in Frankfurt), the truth could not have been further from it. Instead, the ECB was made independent from and unaccountable to any democratic assembly, as well as to governments. The ECB had in fact been modelled on the disastrous Reichsbank. “
https://professorwerner.org/shifting-from-central-planning-to-a-decentralised-economy-do-we-need-central-banks/
James,
Many thank’s for linking to Prof. Werner, who unsurprisingly, is well respected by his peers in the heterodox school of thought in economics, as such, only a fool would argue with his wisdom, so happy to be corrected for my own lapse in referring to the Bundesbank alone.
Chris Rogers, Please could you insert some paragraph breaks, unless you are German? My small Anglo-Saxon brain can’t cope with such large earfuls of prose.
Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10095976/Germany-drops-its-longest-word-Rindfleischeti….html
My response went on a little longer than intended and pressed ‘Post’ before reviewing – as we don’t have an ‘edit’ capability, I’m afraid it will have to stand as it is.
Airdrie and Shotts MSP Alex Neil reacted angrily to the announcement.
He told BBC Scotland: “It really makes my blood boil that all these fat cats in the City of London who brought the financial crash upon us all these years ago, they’re still walking away with big bonuses.
“The people who ran the Airdrie Savings Bank, many of them on a voluntary basis at board level, are now having to face this closure because of the regulation resulting from the greed of the FAT cats in London.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38669275
Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank to close dozens of branches
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-38669280
The Clydesdale and Yorkshire banking group (CYBG) is closing 79 branches with the loss of 400 jobs.
The Unite union said the closures represented a third of the bank’s branch network.
The move was described as the largest-ever closure plan by the bank.
This can’t all because of Brexit – can it?
Will be interesting to see how this pans out.
It sounds as if work has gone on behind the scenes to coordinate Chelseas’ release, and Julians’ promise to exit the Ecuadorean embassy. We’ll have to wait and see.
Big question for now, is what will the police do about a bail absconder on the street…_
He didn’t promise to leave the embassy.
He promised to submit to extradition to the USA if she was pardoned. She’s not been pardoned and he’s not been charged with anything in America.
I note the worthless Julian Assange has already gone back on his promise to face trial in USA if Chelsea Manning is released. What a surprise! It seems there is no promise he makes that he does not break!
If you choose to sign the Official Secrets Act, or another country’s version then you must know that there are going to be some unpleasant facts coming your way and some of them are not necessarily going to appear in a coherent context. If you don’t like those facts and you blow the whistle you should expect a judicial process. I don’t include elected officials and government ministers in this. The sentence should be a proportionate deterrent, but there should be a public interest defence. You can’t have people simply saying its unlawful. That is not enough. It should be worse than that. Let juries decide. If the whistleblower thinks they are in an evil realm then they can defect.
On Scotland Wales and NI it’s going to be fascinating to see if any have imagination and courage on their forthcoming tax powers.
Off topic, but for those who have read James Rickards’ The Road to Ruin should IMF Christine’s comments about wealth distribution be heard with a sense of foreboding. She says that is the way to respond to popularism. Hell,, we are all conspiracy theorists theses days. Everything is a conspiracy eg falsified diesel emissions across several manufacturers for years. So why not consider what happens in the next financial crash crisis. Rickards says assets will be frozen. Wealth distribution would be the way to spin it. It seems that on this blog left wingers support Trump against the global socialist elites, whereas it makes sense from my perspective for wealthy right wing libertarians to support Trump. The one key thing they want to protect is private wealth. I guess no one remotely believes a Davos message of wealth redistribution.
Interesting times.