University Governance 701


I seldom post a reference to somebody else’s article, but I do strongly recommend John O’Dowd in Bella Caledonia on the “Scottish Democratic Intellect”. Long term readers will know that the changing of universities effectively into corporations, and the destruction of the democratic ethos in their governance, is one of my greatest sorrows. Several of O’Dowd’s themes are mirrored in my own Rectorial Address at the University of Dundee. Do read it. It starts with a good deal of knockabout comedy, but then gets serious, which is precisely how life at University should progress.

The University of Dundee refused to place my Installation Address in the University Library, thus ironically proving my entire point. It still is not there, and nor are Murder in Samarkand, The Catholic Orangemen of Togo, nor Sikunder Burnes – all of which proves precisely the point I was making. Long term readers will also be aware that the University Senate, at the urging of the Administration, refused after a debate to give me the honorary Degree routinely given to all Rectors, on the grounds I was “insufficiently distinguished”. They gave Honorary Degrees to Lorraine Kelly and Fred Macaulay, my immediate predecessors, so the yardstick for “distinguished” is somewhat woolly. I think it must mean “acceptable to the Establishment”. I do not crave honours, having turned down a LVO, OBE and CVO from the Queen. But the snub from the university hurt me deeply as I devoted much of my life to it, having been both Rector and President of the students union (twice). I think it is the only one of dozens of snubs from the Establishment to this whistleblower that actually succeeded in hurting.

Finally, I recommend as still very relevant the paper I helped write with Robin McAlpine, Allyson Pollock and Adam Ramsay for the Jimmy Reid Foundation on The Democratic University. I am in fact very hopeful that there is sufficient understanding among Scottish intellectuals of what needs to be done after Independence to root out the neo-liberal model from our universities. In this as in so much else, Independence will not be enough if we do not use it to institute radical government.


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701 thoughts on “University Governance

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  • Republicofscotland

    Well it’s all coming apart at the seams down South, with the non-existent NHS, posting its worst figures on health care (December and possibly January) since records began.

    Now we have a report by Age UK, saying that social care for the elderly is on the verge of collapsing. Hundreds of thousands of elderly folk in England are receiving no social care whatsoever, says the report.

    http://news.sky.com/story/report-social-care-for-the-elderly-faces-total-collapse-10769879

    Still not to worry, I’m sure when Brexit is finally negotiated and Britain pays it €57 billion exit fee to the EU, that Donald Trump, and the USA’s big pharma, will step in and bolster social care for the elderly. Unless of course you happen to be frail and poor, then you’ll be on your own again.

    I’m sure, Theresa May and Brexiteers will be delighted that England’s needy elderly, are already in splendid isolation, now for the rest of the country.

    • fred

      Two residential care homes have closed within ten miles of me in recent times.

      It’s about time the Nationalists stopped griping about what happens south of the border and concentrated on what is happening in Scotland.

      • Republicofscotland

        Meanwhile hospitals in England are closing quicker, than Theresa May’s chance of a good EU deal.

        A £22 billion blackhole South of the border, has led to at least 20 hospitals marked for closure.

        Along with the closures comes this.

        “The closure of more than 2,000 beds in acute and community hospitals and the loss of nearly 3,000 jobs to create a “smaller, more agile” workforce. :: Major re-organisations of emergency and maternity care.

        :: A massive move to “out-of-hospital” care with patients encouraged to manage their own health needs, aided by technology which may include “virtual doctors”. Primary care “hubs” will bring health services closer to home – in one case potentially using libraries to see patients.

        :: Hundreds of millions of pounds are to be saved by cutting prescription costs and in some cases rationing care or operations. In north east London, managers are considering a rule that specialist beds are restricted to those who require a minimum stay of 48 hours.

        :: A drastic reduction in face-to-face outpatient appointments with doctors using video links to assess and discharge patients.

        :: A wildly-varying deficit per head of population. In the Durham, Darlington and Tees area the amount that needs to be saved by 2021 is £216 per capita but in Surrey Heartlands the amount is more than triple at £768.”

        Yes your not seeing things one of the plans is to have YOU see doctors in the Library. Well I suppose at least you’ll be able to read about the demise of NHS England, whilst waiting for your appointment.

        Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/nhs/nhs-crisis-19-hospitals-face-axe-as-doctors-accuse-government-of-deliberate-underfunding/

        • fred

          The health service is devolved, what they do in England is really none of our business.

          The care homes that close in my area is our business, the Maternity Unit that closed in my area is our business, the shortage of ambulances in my area is our business.

          Unless you live in England the health service there isn’t going to affect you.

          • Republicofscotland

            It gets better.

            Meanwhile NHS England, a body that no longer exists, is in the process of closing 24 A&E’s at a time when the English NHS has posted its worst figures on care since records began.

            “One senior emergency doctor told i that the plans amount to proposal to “make the River Nile run backwards” by planning for a reduction in demand for A&E services at a time when Britain has a growing and ageing population.

            Read more at: https://inews.co.uk/nhs/nhs-crisis-revealed-overhaul-means-dozens-of-ae-units-face-closure/

            I feel sorry for the good people of England, who are about to be hit by a tsunami regarding health care.

          • treeline

            fred

            With the privatisation of healthcare in England there will be a reduction in the block grant from Westminster to Holyrood by the mechanism of the Barnett Formula. So that spending on the Scottish NHS is kept on a level with health spending on the privatised system in England.

            So you’re wrong in saying health privatisation south of the border is none of our business in Scotland.

          • fred

            @treeline

            Yesterday I drove over 250 miles taking someone from Wick to hospital in Inverness because of a current genuine failing in the health service in Scotland.

            That is what should concern people in Scotland, stand up for the Scottish people and fight for the Scottish health service never mind trying to make our disaster of a government look good by criticising the health service south of the border.

            But no, they don’t need to look after health, they don’t need to look after education, social services and policing can go to the dogs because as long as they keep dangling that inderef carrot the English haters will vote for them.

          • treeline

            fred

            Scotland faces a choice.

            The free health care system of the last 70 years with independence.

            Or the alternative.

            Stay in the UK and have privatised health care in Scotland to match England’s.

            You can propagandise as much as you like but that choice is reality.

          • michael norton

            fred, the S. N. P. are not listening to the people of Scotland, they are a one trick pony

          • treeline

            fred

            The Daily Mail, like most of the papers in Scotland, have been selling fewer and fewer copies because they print untrue scare stories day after day.

          • Republicofscotland

            Treeline.

            As usual when you look into any link posted by Fred, (berating the Scottish government over something) you inevitably read at the
            bottom of the unionist rags that he links to that the gap is in the process of being closed as in this case.

            “Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Under this government, the number of consultant clinical
            radiologists working in Scotland’s NHS has increased by 46 per cent and the number of radiography staff has risen by over 24 per cent.

            “We have a £50million commitment to investing in new radiotherapy equipment, as well as training and recruiting specialists with an interest in radiotherapy.”

          • treeline

            fred

            “They can’t all be making it up”.

            Why not?

            They’re all owned by media moguls with a vested interest in opposing any political forces that don’t kowtow to neoliberalism.

          • fred

            @treeline

            If you follow the link to google I posted you will see that inews carried the story as well. Two of the links RoS posted were to inews, the other one to sky.

            Are you saying the stories RoS posted were lies? Or maybe you are saying the press tells the truth when publishing stories about England but lies when publishing stories about Scotland?

          • treeline

            fred

            The press and TV continually report the crisis in the health service in England but rarely do they tell their readers and viewers about the cause of the crisis. Namely the privatisation of health.

            The SNP government and the Scottish Greens have a full commitment to keeping the Scottish NHS a free care system. The Scottish NHS in crisis stories, as RoS said, when examined closely are gross exaggerations when they are not outright fabrications.

          • fred

            So the stories about the NHS in England are factual but the stories in the same papers about the NHS in Scotland are all gross exaggerations when they are not outright fabrications.

            I’ve gone as far as I can with you, it isn’t possible to argue against cognitive dissonance, you will believe papers tell the truth when they say what you want to believe and believe they tell lies when they don’t.

          • treeline

            fred

            You haven’t read my previous post carefully. The press doesn’t tell the truth about the Scottish NHS. The press tells the truth about the English NHS in so far as they report the crisis. They don’t generally examine the reason for that crisis which is the privatisation of health by Westminster.

          • Republicofscotland

            Lysias.

            I’m sure I read somewhere that Trump wants to bin Obamacare for good. I see England and possibly Wales heading in the direction similiar to that in the US, with regards to healthcare.

          • lysias

            Yes, one of Trump’s major campaign promises was to repeal the Affordable Care Act (the legislation that created Obamacare), and he still talks as if he wants to do so. But he’s also saying that he wants legislation creating a replacement enacted simultaneously with the repeal of the ACA, and the Republicans are having trouble agreeing on a replacement. So the repeal may well not happen this year.

          • glenn

            RoS: Trump most definitely promised to ditch Obamacare “on day 1”, but – like just about everything this moronic fascist said – it was a lie.

          • lysias

            Trump said in the news conference that he held earlier today that the replacement for the Affordable Care Act will be rolled out next month, March.

          • lysias

            Of course, Trump cannot just by himself either repeal the Affordable Care Act or institute a replacement. Both actions must go through Congress.

            Trump, Republicans set timeframe for introducing Obamacare replacement:

            Republicans, who control the White House, the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, have long vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act but have had difficulty agreeing on a detailed plan for replacing the signature domestic policy of former Democratic President Barack Obama.

            But announcements from Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan claimed progress.

            “We’re doing Obamacare, we’re in the final stages,” Trump told a news conference. “So we will be submitting sometime in early March, mid-March.”

            Earlier Thursday, Ryan told reporters on Capitol Hill that House Republicans would introduce legislation to repeal and replace Obama’s program after a 10-day recess that begins on Friday.

            “After the House returns following the Presidents Day break, we intend to introduce legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare,” Ryan said at his weekly press conference. Presidents Day is on Monday and the House returns on Feb. 27.

          • glenn

            Lysias: “Of course, Trump cannot just by himself either repeal the Affordable Care Act or institute a replacement. Both actions must go through Congress.

            Of course! So it was just empty promises by your boy Trump then? I don’t think that lying SOAB was qualifying it quite so finely, saying what he _would like_ to do with the coorporation of congress, the Senate etc. (which are all held by Repugs now) – rather, he made concrete and immediate promises.

            Wait… what’s that beep-beep-beep-beep sound… is something backing up (reversing) around here?

          • lysias

            Because it will take a couple of months to carry out a promise, you think that renders the promise empty?

          • glenn

            L: “Because it will take a couple of months to carry out a promise, you think that renders the promise empty?

            Erm… if he said “on day 1” and it didn’t happen on day 1, 2, 3… and no sign of it yet, yes – that’s a false promise. Unless, that is, you’re such a grovelling apologist for Trump that _nothing_ he says or does could possibly be a problem, of course.

            What’s the detail (or even general upshot) of this “beautiful plan” then, which will replace Obamacare/ACA? Still working on it eh? 🙂

  • Republicofscotland

    The Great Satan looks like making a big push in Syria, according to the Pentagon, Trump is considering put substantial boots on the ground in Syria.

    One would have to say that, Syria is a sovereign nation and Trumps soldiers would need be to invited under international law, but when has that ever stopped the Great Satan in the past?

    The official narrative, is to stop IS or ISIS terrorists, however in my opinion, the Great Satan and possibly some of its obedient minions will try to take out Assads fighters, Kurds and Iranian Houthi fighters who could later be deployed to Yemen, or even Iran.

    Afterall Netanyahu, probably begged his dear friend Trump to do something about Iran.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/pentagon-considers-sending-ground-troops-to-syria-a7582756.html

  • Republicofscotland

    Well Bibi must have done enough sucking up and brown nosing to satify Trump, so he said this.

    “I will do more to prevent Iran from ever developing, I mean ever, a nuclear weapon,”

    Trump added that he’d already given the green light, to more sanctions on Iran after the Iranian missile test a few weeks back.

    The oppressive apartheid military state of Israel, is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign assistance since World War II. America’s military assistance to Israel has amounted to $124.3 billion since it began in 1962, according to a US congressional report last year.

    Those poor unsuspecting American taxpayers, not only are they supporting their own country but, they’re given billions of dollars in hand outs to Israel.

    • Loony

      Not really the kind of press conference that most people were expecting.

      Whatever people may think of Trump, and whatever his motives, he has succeeded in calling out the corrupt and venal cabal of semi literates who masquerade as the free press.

      His views on the press would seem to largely coincide with many of those on the left. Take John Pilger and Noam Chomsky as just 2 relatively high profile examples. Strange then that many of those on the left seem to regard Trump in much the same way as a Vampire regards sunlight.

      • glenn

        Oh yes, hats off! Anyone telling the truth about this incompetent moron is the Lügenpresse, and you give Trump automatic credit for “calling out” their lies in advance.

        Bootstrapping at its finest.

        Don’t you dare try to get brownie points from Pilger and Chomsky in your miserable apologia for this clueless fascist champion of yours. That’s a big no-no, so sorry Loony.

        • Loony

          Sorry Glenn I forgot you read the NYT (paper edition) and think it is all true.

          No doubt you think Iraq was chock full of weapons of mass destruction and that Hillary Clinton is President (don’t forget on election night she was 99% certain to win).

          Meanwhile Carlos Slim has just accidentally acquired wealth of $51.7 billion – and none of it came from skimming poor Mexican immigrants. Hence his opposition to Trump is motivated by pure altruism and a love of humanity. How exactly does the NYT (paper edition) explain its owners wealth? A little different to the truth would be my strong guess.

          You don’t like Chomsky and Pilger. try Goethe “There are none so firmly enslaved as those who falsely believe themselves to be free” – That is the exact market that the fake media are going for – and you seem oh so keen to embrace their lies. Ask yourself why you do this?

          Here is Leonardo da Vinci “It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end” If Trump fails then next up will be so much worse, for the people have had enough and they will not now be denied.

          • glenn

            Every assumption you make is wrong, Loony. I know you’re new around here and aren’t interested in checking those annoying things called “facts”, or you wouldn’t be making false assertions. Or are they “alternative facts” now?

            Stop lying, please. You do realise you’re lying, right?

        • Ba'al Zevul

          Trump’s policy is to ignore everything but his uncritical support base – which is admirable in its way, but it does rather mean that the lunatics have taken over the asylum. There’s probably nothing to be done but wait until the support base dimly realises that Trump is someone you would probably quietly ask your local barman to eject for persistently causing a disturbance.

          Trump may come across as simple-minded to someone who isn’t. But to someone who is, he’s family. And “no-one ever went bust underestimating the intelligence of the public” as someone once said. Hence, Loony.

  • Anon1

    Another horrific suicide bombing in the “Land of the Pure”. At least 70 dead at Sehwan, Sindh.

    • Dave

      Suicide bombing makes no sense, which is why its reasonable to assume there are no suicide bombings.

      • Anon1

        It makes perfect sense*. Murder and terrorize religious minorities until they leave, convert or die.

        *In as much as rational behaviour can be attributed to the followers of Allah.

        • Loony

          The attack was against Sufi’s who are regarded as heretics by mainstream Sunni terrorists.

          I wonder what they think of Christians or atheists?

        • D_Majestic

          You should actually talk to some real people once in a while. In my travels I was speaking to a restaurant owner in a M.E. country. Last year to be precise. He was as disgusted as any of us at terrorism. However he pointed out that suicide was forbidden (Haram) for Muslims. “These people cannot possibly be true Muslims”, he said. So-any thoughts, wise one?

          • Loony

            There are about 1.6 billion Muslims in the world – and most of them are perfectly reasonable and decent people. However it is estimated that somewhere between 15% and 25% are sympathetic to the more extreme interpretations of Islam.

            This is hardly surprising when you consider the monies expended by Saudi Arabia to spread their own Wahabbi interpretation of Islam. This has been going on for a long time and Western governments routinely turn a blind eye. The end result is that you end up with people who believe things like this

            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-35341256

            A restaurant owner will by definition have some kind of investment or stake in his community and is unlikely to want to destroy his business by blowing it up, or by blowing up his customers. There are hundreds of millions of people who have no such stake – that does not mean that they all want to blow things up, but it does mean that they have no investment that they are looking to protect and are much more susceptible to people selling them a bill of goods.

            This is the kind of thing that is sanctioned by the state in Saudi Arabia

            http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1874471.stm

            This is not some random nut job – this is official policy. It is this mindset that the Saudi’s have invested so much money in seeking to inculcate into the minds of the poor and the young. It is this mindset that the British absolutely know is being disseminated on a large scale and which they resolutely refuse to do anything about – preferring instead to whip up a chorus of abuse aimed at smearing as racists anyone that seeks to set out the scale of the problem

          • Anon1

            “You should actually talk to some real people once in a while.”

            I lived in Pakistan for two years. I have visited virtually every part of the country from Karimabad to Karachi. On one occasion I was just days short of being gunned down along with every other foreigner at a massacre in Northern Pakistan. If I can tell you one thing, D_Majestic, it is that the mosques of Pakistan are pumping out hate on an industrial scale.

            But returning to your armchair theme, just yesterday I was reading about the assassination of the governor of Punjab, for wanting to reform Pakistan’s blasphemy laws. The man who did it was showered with petals as he entered the court building. By lawyers. *Lawyers*

            This is a deeply fucked up country.

            It doesn’t matter whether it’s Muslim parents hacking to death their own daughter for smiling at a man, or mobs of fanatical Muslims burning a Christian couple alive over a brick kiln (in that instance they had to strip the girl naked and wrap her in cotton to make her burn better), there will always be plenty of “in my travels” idiots such as yourself who will apologise for such acts because you went somewhere once and were told that Islam is a “religion of peace”.

          • glenn

            Anon1: You’re talking about the brave and honourable Salmaan Taseer, I take it, who was murdered in cold blood by the cowardly scumbag who was duty bound to protect him. And there were violent demonstrations against that murderer when proceedings were made to bring him to justice.

          • Dave

            In western culture we don’t have “suicide bombers”, except we do, but they’re not called “suicide bombers”. Instead they’re called heroes who are awarded the VC for their “suicide missions”. For example the attrition rate for the rear gunner on a Lancaster bomber was very high and they took off with a farewell greeting of Good Luck! Or when soldiers are told to hold on or take a position at all costs, it was a “suicide order”!

            But despite the probability of dying the objective was not to get killed in a military campaign you wanted to win, unless like the Japanese and their Kamikaze pilots you were in desperate situation. Hence although portrayed as mad for propaganda purposes to spin their protest at the destruction of their family and country as a hatred of our freedoms, I don’t believe they would be fool enough to sacrifice their bravest troops in low level attacks. I mean if you had someone brave enough to kill themselves it would make more sense to to kill a General.

            Hence I’m sure most of the so-called “suicide attacks” are not “suicide attacks” because they involve low level targets, at which you could just leave a bomb and escape to plant another one later. So saying its a “suicide bomber” is code for saying its a “Muslim”, but as the target and tactic makes no military sense, it probably been planted by a “third party” as part of the pro-war narrative promoted by the neo-cons.

  • Republicofscotland

    Well those hypocritical dinosaurs (soon to be extinct) Labour at Holyrood, have spent the last ten years berating the Scottish government (SNP) over the Council tax freeze.

    Whinging day in and day out, how Labour run councils were at breaking point over providing services. Kezia Dugdale screamed at every opportunity, that the Scottish government needed to unfreeze Council tax.

    Well Council Tax was unfrozen, and councils can now raise Council tax in Scotland to whatever they feel is appropriate, however several of those hypocritical Labour ran councils, have decided to FREEZE the Council tax, after a decade of bleating on about how they desperately need to put it up, to maintain services.

    In reality though, Labour, and its Labour ran councils, only used the freezing of the Council a decade ago, as a point to attack the Scottish government. They moaned constantly that the tax needed to be unfrozen, but now that several Labour run councils have decided to keep the tax frozen it only proves my point, that Labour are a party of protest, and nothing else.

    Also those Labour run councils will be trying to win the popularity contest, for up and coming council elections.

  • Republicofscotland

    When will the UN wake the hell up, and realise that America is playing them at every turn.

    Trump tells Netanyahu that Israel has a virtual free hand as to what to do over the two state solution, it shocked the world, or it should have.

    Now the US ambassador to the UN, is telling the UN, that America is right behind a two state solution.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-ambassador-donald-trump-two-state-solution-contradicts-israel-palestine-conflict-latest-a7584386.html

    The UN’s HQ, really needs to be moved out of New York and into Europe, America has far too much say in the UN.

    Mind you the UN needs to take a bloody good look at itself, appointing a Saudi to a seat on the Human Rights Council, and it maybe offering a Israeli Z**nist the position of UN Under-Secretary General.

    • RobG

      Republicofscotland, nowadays things are so crazy that I find it hard to comment.

      I still think we are witnessing the collapse of the American empire, an empire that makes the Nazis look like boy scouts.

      Cue the biggest propaganda machine in history… the land of the free, the world’s policeman, humanitarian intervention, etc, etc.

      • Republicofscotland

        Rob.

        Indeed.

        I was just thinking that Britain has more security cameras per-head, than just about any other nation on the planet.

        We also have RIPA, the most intrusive law in the land far more intrusive than say in America and that’s saying something.

        Now we have the new National Cyber Security centre, which will be overseen by GCHQ, of course it will be punted to us a keeping our “businesses safe” from cyber attacks, but who’ll be perpetrating those attacks I wonder, and for whose benefit.

        This new spying facility, cost the taxpayer a cool £1.9 billion quid.

        As well as protecting businesses online, (the official narrative) the NCSC, according to Major-General Chip Chapman, the Ministry of Defence’s former head of counter terrorism, will protect the NHS’s computerised system.

        Ah that would be the NHS that was abolished in 2012, and is currently being dismantled at an alarming rate.

        • Loony

          Did you know that the “N” in NHS stands for National.

          Given your penchant for Scottish independence than a necessary consequence will be the dismantling of the NHS, since the “N” will no longer be capable of maintaining the meaning it was invested with.

          This being the case surely you should be actively supporting all preemptive efforts at dismantling the NHS. Some may say that it is a necessary, but not sufficient, precondition for Scottish independence.

          • Republicofscotland

            Looney.

            Firstly that why I’m pointing out the disgraceful way in which this Tory government is hellbent on dismantling the former English entity known as the NHS.

            Secondly healthcare is a devolved matter, NHS England and NHS Scotland are two complete different bodies.

            I take no pleasure in seeing the NHS in England and Wales for that matter, being systematically attacked by the British government.

        • D_Majestic

          £1.9 Billion? Cripes-that would have helped the NHS to some degree, or mended some of our third-world style roads. Or even saved a few thousand primary school teachers from being made redundant. So that the headteacher of one near me didn’t have to raise money by doing the Great North Run. Still-plenty of cash for failing Academies or the odd war effort.

    • Republicofscotland

      Re my above comment it should be noted that the vizele, that is Netanyahu, virtually begged Trump during his visit to recognise the stolen Golan Heights as Israeli lands.

      No American government or the international community for that matter, has ever recognised Israels claim to the Golan Heights.

      http://m.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-to-Trump-Recognize-Golan-Heights-as-part-of-Israel-481676#article=6017REE5QTIxOTdEOTA2NDQ2NzFCRkY3QzRBMDk1MzY0QUI=

      • michael norton

        When Syria becomes part of Russia,
        Russia / Syria will take The Golan back.

        example = The Crimea.

        • Republicofscotland

          Oh you mean like, when Britain renews its vows as the 51state, after the EU negotiators give it a a torrid time.

      • D_Majestic

        Well, RoS-when one posts summat on ‘ere, one learns a few things, doesn’t one? From people who assume one has made one trip abroad-and that one to Benidorm ! Lol. I am reminded reading you and RobG here of the old Chinese curse much loved by the playwright David Rudkin. We couldn’t have ever imagined living in more “Interesting Times” than these.

  • michael norton

    Extreme Right Wing Francois Fillon probe stays open as Extreme Right Wing Marine Le Pen rises in FRENCH presidential polls
    http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-election-prosecutor-idUKKBN15V0WH
    Conservative presidential candidate Francois Fillon’s woes piled up on Thursday when France’s financial prosecutor chose to pursue a probe into the fake-work scandal that has dogged him, and as far-right rival Marine Le Pen gained in the polls.

    Two polls showed Fillon, once the front runner, being knocked out in the first round of the two-part vote.

    Prosecutor Eliane Houlette said after receiving a police report that she was keeping open an investigation into the Fillon jobs scandal.

    So where is the left in France?

    • michael norton

      Fillon and Le Pen are Far Right, Macron is described as a centerist,
      so that’s the top three dogs in the race, where are the lefties?

      Where is Rob’s dog?

      • Republicofscotland

        Michael.

        You’ve been posting dozens of comments on the French elections and its lack of left candidates, however Emmanuel Macron, served in Hollande’s socialist government, as well as the second socialist Valls government.

        I do wish you’d do some homework before posting.

        Macron resigned in 2016, in order to lauch a presidential bid in 2017 as a social liberal, under his “En Marche” movement, which appears to be quite popular with the French electorate.

        Social liberalism in France, has much in common with leftist policies.

        The bookies in Britain have Macron as slight favourite to win.

        https://m.oddschecker.com/t/politics/european-politics/french-election/next-president

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_liberalism

        • bevin

          ” Emmanuel Macron, served in Hollande’s socialist government, as well as the second socialist Valls government.”
          It is you who should be doing homework: both governments were neo-liberal Blairite affairs. Macron was a member of the “Socialist” Party for about three years.
          Or do you think that Blair and Brown were Socialists too?

      • Laguerre

        Fillon is not far right. He’s an old-fashioned Catholic Conservative. Macron is a Blairite, in effect.

        • Laguerre

          Standard right-wing rubbish. The Nazis were socialists, weren’t they? Not just using socialist in their name to mislead.

    • lysias

      Hollande has been such an unpopular president that it has badly hurt his party.

      Sort of what’s happened to the Democratic Party here in the U.S., only considerably worse.

      • glenn

        Would you like to compare the popularity of any Democratic Party leader in the past decade or so, with that of any Republican Party leader? (eg, Obama verses Dubbya, W. Clinton Vs St. Regan, etc.)

        Any comment on the historically low popularity of your boy Trump for a new incumbent?

        • Loony

          The answer is more fake news – Trump explained all this at his press conference.

          Popularity is derived from polls. The polls are fake and so the results are fake. How do you think they got things so wrong on Brexit and Trump and are now getting them wrong in France? The answer is fake polls.

          In the US they were ringing up households asking to speak to the youngest voter in the house. This gave a bias to the Democrats. They knew all this – but then started to believe their own manufactured lies.

          • glenn

            Oh, the Great Leader “explained” it all, did he? Heh! 🙂

            It’s all fake – just trust the Gropen-führer, because only He has the Truth! Ze Great Leader Haz Ze TRUTH!

            Clearly you’ve “Jumped the shark”, as they say in the business.

      • glenn

        QQ Lysias: Why does Loony answer for you so often?

        “Loony” has caught me out a couple of times, answering so swiftly with a name right next to yours, in a direct question to which he/she was not asked, with no by-your-leave for the interruption.

        Unfortunately, I thought these replies were from you on a couple of occasions recently, hence my attitude to you lately. Sorry about that.

  • lysias

    Trump just said in his press conference that good relations with Russia would be a good thing because they would avoid the “nuclear holocaust” that is always possible between two countries armed as much as the U.S. and Russia are. And he’s actually being criticized for mentioning the possibility of a nuclear holocaust. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/16/trump-raises-spectre-nuclear-holocaust-amid-questioning-russia/

    No matter what Trump says, the anti-Trump idiots will find something to criticize in it.

    • Hieroglyph

      Some on the left still refuse to give Trump credit for axing TPP. They don’t like Trump, they are wary of what will replace it, and so – their ‘thinking’ goes – he isn’t due credit for destroying TPP with the stroke of a pen. I’m really not sure how to respond to this. Evidently their hatred of Trump has blinded their reason, and anything I say will be drowned out by cries of ‘apologist’ or, worse ‘Trumper’.

      Well, Trump followed through on a campaign promise, on day 1, and destroyed a terrible ‘free trade’ deal. I will give him credit, if nobody else will. Maybe this will prove the only good thing he does, but still, I don’t find Trump an especially hateful figure (unlike Clinton). Actually – and here I lose my entry to the left club forever – I am beginning to think Trump might be a Churchilian figure: the man for the hour. We all know Churchill was a shady opportunist, a deeply flawed man, and very, very conservative – but the UK needed him.

      I’m comparing Trump to Churchill. I begin to wonder if I’ve lost it, too.

      • glenn

        Trump does deserve credit for axing TPP (if it goes down, as seems likely now).

        About campaign promises… Hitler said he’d start rounding up Jews and various other undesirables, and in all fairness, he was true to his word!

        Ehem. Being incredibly racist, sexist, brash, bullying crooked and bigoted is not a virtue, even if you made it clear beforehand. Being a hypocrite is not one of Trump’s failings. Being the things he made it obvious he was and is, is.

      • Resident Dissident

        “I’m comparing Trump to Churchill. I begin to wonder if I’ve lost it, too”

        Wonder no more..

    • glenn

      So why did he resign, hmm? Why did your boy Trump accept the resignation, if it’s all lies, lies, lies, hmm?

  • RobG

    Even funnier than George Carlin is the MSM’s reaction to President Trump. MSNBC, CNN, BBC, SKY and all the rest keep banging on about Trump and his ‘fake news’, and yet these presstitutes have been pumping out fake news and propaganda for decades. Here’s an example from today’s ‘Morning Joe’ programme. You might notice that whilst the overpaid muppets on these channels are eager to steam in to Trump there is no mention of the wars and mayhem during the Obama administration, or the fact that if Hillary had become president there would have almost certainly been war with Russia (all backed-up by Britain and the other spineless vassals of the American empire)…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EdgaqkVnsE

    I still think that Mika looks like a 1980s porn star.

    • glenn

      Sorry, RobG… what “wars and mayhem during the Obama administration” would that have been?

      And your “fact”, viz, “the fact that if Hillary had become president there would have almost certainly been war with Russia” – your projection about the future is now a “fact”?

      Good grief, it’s getting increasingly hard to keep up with what a “fact” is these days!

      • bevin

        “Sorry, RobG… what “wars and mayhem during the Obama administration” would that have been?..”

        Libya, Yemen, Syria, the ‘surge in Afghanistan’, numerous interventions in Africa, the $5 billion coup in Ukraine and the massing of NATO troops on Russia’s borders….and much, much more. As I’m sure that you are well aware.

        • glenn

          bevin, as I’m sure _you_ are aware, this is nothing more than an extremely light continuance of US administrations for hundreds of years. Did you expect a period of peace an enlightenment? Come on, stop pretending that any administration in the US can be turned around with one new executive.

          This is not an apologia for Obama, he was quite a disappointment for me personally, but seriously – what did you expect, even at the best, in all seriousness? Why pretend Obama was particularly bad – do you want to provide cover for this maniac Trump? I do not understand your apparent soft spot for this clear fascist.

  • michael norton

    As a result, 92 employees were made redundant around Christmas 2014.

    I bet the robbing bitch supports the S. N. P.

      • lysias

        I think I’m going to adopt for you the same policy I long ago adopted for the self-confessed snitch: never reply to you.

        • glenn

          That’s fine – no need for a reply. I’ll just keep pointing out your lies, sorry, “alternative facts” while you keep praising this miserable useless fascist. And you just keep your tail between your legs, and make goddamned sure you don’t answer back.

          It’s a good policy for someone as weak, cowardly and untruthful as you – just ignore any awkward facts and questions, and pretend that this is a virtue.

          • bevin

            What an extraordinary and juvenile diatribe, Glenn.
            It has no bearing on the nature of the many valuable contributions that Lysias makes to this commentary.
            Is it not possible for you to disagree on a matter on which disagreement is very reasonable, without slipping into the cheap invective of suggesting that Trump is fascist (which is very debatable if you know anything about fascist regimes, as I’m sure that you do) and that his opponents, who appear to include the neo-con warmongering Establishment, the MIC and most corrupt machines politicians in the Democratic Party, are fighting against fascism, are allies in the ‘Resistance’ ?

          • glenn

            Bevin: I have long held you in respect, even when I’m baffled at your positions sometimes. You seem to be aimed in the most correct direction, IMHO, then favour a most illogical course.

            Anyway, you may have missed some of my conversation with Lysias, which had put us rather at odds with each other. This was not a comment out of the blue. In consideration, it was probably a bit injudicious – Lysias, no hard feelings intended, just a robust exchange of words, of course.

            Back to our discussion – I find it extremely hard to reconcile any sympathy of Trump and his programme, surrounded by the people that he’s chosen, with furthering a progressive cause in any way.

            Could you help me out here, and tell me why Trumpsters are to be supported? And why I should be happy to be derided and mocked by Lysias, Looney and others simply for quoting a rather innocuous article from the NYT?

          • Habbabkuk

            “to be derided and mocked by Lysias, Looney and others ”
            ______________________

            You shouldn’t put Loony – who is genuine, whatever you think about his views – in the same bag as certain others.

          • bevin

            Trump is not to be supported…. Except against undemocratic conspiracies rooted in the Military Industrial Complex and carried out by their agents in the media and the intelligence community.
            And note, the support is for Constitutionalism and representative democracy, without illusions as to their perfection or perfectibility, as the current alternative to a fascist/corporatist coup.
            The support being given by ‘progressives’ to their worst enemies-the MIC- is not unlike the support given (and I made this mistake too) for the Sisi coup in Egypt as an alternative to the appalling Morsi Muslim Brotherhood government. Trump is the US Morsi- the military alternative, supported by the Deep State, is much more dangerous, and will be much more difficult to dislodge- as the current crisis indicates.

    • Laguerre

      I wouldn’t advise you to quote the Mail, Lysias. Immediate discredit. This is a particular issue – minorities against the racist police – it is not a general issue which is likely to affect the election (in my view, at any rate), because it is nothing new. Barbès is a known area for ethnics, therefore riots there. The Mail article exaggerates by raising false associations (e.g. close to Montmartre. Well yes you can see the one from the other, because Montmartre is on a hill. Inner Paris is not very big.). There’s no effect of these events on anyone else (says he looking out of the window to see if a riot is going on).

      • Habbabkuk

        “The Mail article exaggerates by raising false associations (e.g. close to Montmartre.”
        __________________

        The Mail – and those who keep quoting from it on here – rely on people not checking the facts. It – and they – drop their turdlets and then scurry away.

        • Ba'al Zevul

          But I bet the Mail gets more views than we do. Can’t fault it for its opinion of Blair, either.

  • Arby

    “…Independence will not be enough if we do not use it to institute radical government.” As with Brexit and in all such situations. Unfortunately, The Right is always more powerful and is better placed to take advantage of shocks to the system. Which is no excuse to not fight for social justice. It underscores that need.

    • Anon1

      Nice one from the Don. Laughter all round on this side of the pond when Sopel told him of the “impartial, free and fair” BBC. Trump has got the measure of these scumbags in the liberal media.

      Golllum getting his arse handed to him on Newsnight is also worth a watch.

  • Braveheart

    “Scottish intellectuals”? Is that some kind of oxymoron?

    I mean to say, only last week you were asking us to remember how “Braveheart” (A Hollywood fabrication) told the King of the Union what he could do, etc, etc, yet here you are now giving us “Somebody did me some wrong” songs about the University of Dundee. Oh I’m so sure that “Braveheart” would have been sniveling into his whisky the way that you are now Craig.

    You sue as hell were never one who suffered any hardship, were you? “Blub!” “Blub!” Blub!”

    • Brianfujisan

      Heart Features

      Go and read it Again EH

      ” You sue as hell were never one who suffered any hardship, were you? “Blub!” “Blub!” Blub!”

      Asshole

    • Alcyone

      Viciously neurotic or neurotically vicious?

      And at this time of the morning, upon waking up. One can only feel pity for people who are lost in this world, struggling, struggling, struggling; coping, coping, coping.

      Please look up the etymology of the word ‘cope’, it’s very revealing:

      cope (v.) Look up cope at Dictionary.com
      late 14c., “come to blows with,” from Old French couper, earlier colper “hit, punch,” from colp “a blow” (see coup). Meaning evolved 17c. into “handle successfully,” perhaps influenced by obsolete cope “to traffic” (15c.-17c.), a word in North Sea trade, from the Flemish version of the Germanic source of English cheap. Related: Coped; coping.
      http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=cope

  • michael norton

    I did not think I could loathe the Middle East Peace Envoy /failed politician /messiah
    his self-belief, just takes my breath away, what a despicable anti-democratic person he is

    Tony Blair has said it is his “mission” to persuade Britons to “rise up” and change their minds on Brexit.

    Speaking in the City of London, the former prime minister claimed that people voted in the referendum “without knowledge of the true terms of Brexit”.

    He said he wanted to “build support for finding a way out from the present rush over the cliff’s edge”.

    • michael norton

      I did not think I could loathe Tony Blair any more,

      now i hold him in utter contempt for ever.
      I feel cheated, because I voted for him, the first time, he conned me, I also feel shame that I fell for his charm.

      • Anon1

        Sorry but I don’t have any sympathy for anyone who fell for Blair, even if they went on to loathe him. It was obvious what he was.

  • Chris Rogers

    Tony Bliar is the greatest Prime Minister the UK has ever had, indeed, he’s the greatest leader of people the World has ever produced, and that includes Jesus. I trust Tony Bliar will be honoured one day by removing Nelson from his pliath in Trafalgar Square and erecting a statue of the Great Leader instead in his place, one where the bugger is hanging from a Gallows with his neck broken. Such is my love for Tony Bliar!

    • michael norton

      Tony Blair, also wants Scotland to be Independent, so Craig and Tony could find themselves on the same soapbox

      • Iain Stewart

        “Tony Blair, also wants Scotland to be Independent”
        Now that is news, Michael.
        The last I heard (it caused a fuss at the time) Mr Blair was saying that anti-dependent Scots were vindictive Neanderthal councillors (I quote from memory). I thought until now that he still wanted us to be subordinate, so thank you for the update.

  • Habbabkuk

    Vice-President Pence would be an excellent replacement for President Trump were the latter to find himself the subject of impeachment proceedings.

    Perhaps excellent enough to persuade more than a few Republican lawmakers….

      • lysias

        Pence, unlike Trump, has a long history of supporting neocon warmongering policies. Aside from that, he’s a religious nut of the extreme right. Those who want Pence to replace Trump as president reveal a lot about themselves.

        • Ba'al Zevul

          Sounds like he’d suit the GOP a damn sight better than someone with zilch political experience, a prediliction for the big lie and a complete inability to take responsibility for his own actions. And some find it hard to imagine that Trump is a natural peacenik, too –

          http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/1.769002

          He needs a war.

          He needs a war to reconcile the contradictions of a populist and extravagantly self-contradictory election campaign, in which he vowed to rebuild the military to historic levels while also slashing government spending. He needs the kind of war that could make good his vows to revive heavy industrial manufacturing and the mining of “beautiful coal.”

          A war would free him to green-light mammoth corporate monopolies, and to provide the ultimate pretext, the emergency imperative, for abrogating on a massive scale the most basic of constitutional guarantees to individual freedoms – gun ownership excepted.

          You can relax, anyway, Lysias. The Moscow line is beginning to lose focus on Trump, and while it may not be so happy with Pence, it has Europeans to subvert too and your instructions may be rather sparser for now.

          • lysias

            What do you mean, “instructions”? Are you insinuating I get instructions from Moscow? That’s just the sort of cheap insinuation that the Russophobes are now using against all who oppose their frenzied efforts to bring about a war with Russia.

          • Ba'al Zevul

            Are you outraged yet? Heh.

            Here’s something for you to call fake news, anyway. But expect a slackening of the ardour with which your favourite sources of information promote Trump, while at the same time paying lip service to peace, freedom and, er, well, not sure about democracy… aren’t you one of the ones who wants Russia to keep Crimea? Trump isn’t*. Nul Putin-points.there.

            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39004987

            *This week. Perhaps.

          • Habbabkuk

            Fake-indignantly to Baal:

            “What do you mean, “instructions”?…..that’s just the sort of cheap insinuation that..etc…”

            The great Insinuator insinuated, eh? 😉

          • Ba'al Zevul

            @ RoS – What the upstart Romans did is no concern of Mine.

            But the author, in his laborious fabrication of symbolic significance, is mistaken, as My prophetic powers will reveal, in thinking that Trump stands against globalism in general. He is against the free movement of people on his own patch, but he is not against the free expropriation of peoples’ labour and possessions by global capital.

            (Nor do I eat babies – to anticipate the more usual libel -. They are disgusting.)

        • Habbabkuk

          ” Those who want Pence to replace Trump as president reveal a lot about themselves.”
          _______________________

          But perhaps not as much as those who loudly and frequently proclaimed the merits of Ms Jill Stein (including “I gave a lot of money to her campaign” – LOL) before posting a flurry of comments praising The Donald. Ongoing.

  • Anon1

    BREAKING:

    “Tony Blair Issues Rallying Cry for Britons to Rise Up and Block Brexit”

    ____________

    Lol. Fuck off, Tony.

  • John Spencer-Davis

    Just answered a YouGov survey which included the following question, approximately: (Can’t give the exact wording as I can’t get back into it.)

    Are you in favour of the UK pursuing an interventionist policy (protecting civilians and promoting democracy) or an isolationist policy (non-interference in the affairs of other nations)?

    Most ridiculous question I’ve ever seen. I told them exactly what I thought of the question and the assumptions that lie behind it. I’ll let you know what their response is.

  • bevin

    I just posted this response to a comment by Glenn late last night. It is current enough to be worth posting here, if the moderators do not object, in response to a couple of subsequent remarks.
    Trump is not to be supported…. Except against undemocratic conspiracies rooted in the Military Industrial Complex and carried out by their agents in the media and the intelligence community.
    And note, the support is for Constitutionalism and representative democracy, without illusions as to their perfection or perfectibility, as the current alternative to a fascist/corporatist coup.
    The support being given by ‘progressives’ to their worst enemies-the MIC- is not unlike the support given (and I made this mistake too) for the Sisi coup in Egypt as an alternative to the appalling Morsi Muslim Brotherhood government. Trump is the US Morsi- the military alternative, supported by the Deep State, is much more dangerous, and will be much more difficult to dislodge- as the current crisis indicates.

  • Republicofscotland

    One has to wonder at Blair’s clarion call for a second Brexit vote, such is the toxicity of his brand, that in all honesty he must be a Brexiteer plant. Aimed at putting off any remainer from railing over Brexit for good, for fear of being associated with Blair.

    Still he does point out one glaring fact that Brexit, makes the likelyhood of Scottish independence a not to distant reality.

    As the arse continues to fall out of Sterling at an alarming rate, the Joseph Roundtree Foundation, predicts a 10% rise in the cost of living in Britain due to Brexit, which will push more than four million British citizens into poverty.

    The pound has fallen 16% and Deutsche bank (a bank with limited credibility in my opinion but nontheless) has predicted it will fall at least another 16% putting close to the Euro and Dollar.

    Imported goods and holidays will cost a considerable bit more, and the EU hasn’t yet wiped the floor with David Davis and his Blundering Brexiteer.

    http://www.thenational.scot/politics/15098420.Gordon_MacIntyre_Kemp__Labour___s_federal_dream_is_a_surefire_route_to_political_suicide/?ref=mrb&lp=5

    • Ba'al Zevul

      One doesn’t have to wonder. One merely ignores the greedy old flaneur’s vapourings while subjecting his activities to close scrutiny.

  • Republicofscotland

    Well it looks possible that Brussels could do a separate deal with Scotland in an attempt to keep it in the EU, according to a leaked European Parliament document.

    However Theresa May and her Blundering Brexiteers, insist no deal will be done under separate banners.

    A section of the leaked document, appear ominous for the Blundering Brexiteers.

    “The EU will set the precedent for a country leaving the EU. The “withdrawal approach” taken by the UK and the EU, here will become the framework for any other country trying to leave the bloc.”

    “Brexiteers will be worried this means it’s in the EU’s interests to put off any other perspective leavers and make this process as difficult as possible.”

    “It all makes the prospect of the “cliff edge” more likely, where the UK achieve no trade deal, no transitional deal, and the systems in place, like border controls, effectively collapse two years after Article 50 is triggered, which should be by the end of March 2019, causing widespread chaos.”

    In my opinion, the other 27 EU nations will make an example of Britain’s exit. They will come down with a heavy hand on Britain and barter such a poor deal, that it will send a loud and clear signal to other EU members, that says you cannot leave the EU and expect a good a deal as a full member.

    Yes it does look inevitable that Britain will be a cautionary tale, of woe, and disaster. To be told in and around EU chambers to any EU ministers thinking of doing a Brexit.

    http://www.thenational.scot/news/15098461.Europe_is_willing_to_consider_a_special_deal_to_keep_Scotland_in_the_single_market__leaked_report_shows/

  • Republicofscotland

    “WikiLeaks has released three classified CIA espionage orders revealing details of an alleged seven-month long spying campaign by the agency ahead of the 2012 French presidential election.”

    “The documents disclose that all of France’s major political parties were targeted for infiltration by the CIA’s human (“HUMINT”) and electronic (“SIGINT”) spies.”

    https://www.rt.com/usa/377619-wikileaks-cia-election-france/

    No doubt the Great Satan is currently involved in the French presidential race, covertly of course.

    The Great Satan’s neferious tentacles have been spread throughout Europe, and the world for that matter for decades, influencing decisions in foreign governments for their own benefit.

    I recall reading that the Great Satan, intended to invade Italy in 1948, if the Italian voters returned a “legitimate” communist government.

    http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/declassified-how-america-planned-invade-italy-save-it-russia-19401

    Back to the present and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has appeared before a parliamentary committee, examining alleged US surveillance in Germany.

    Edward Snowden also revealed that when he was posted to Japan, with US intelligence, that the US intelligence offered the Japanese government the know how to spy on its people.

    Snowden claimed the Japanese, turned down this offer, as it was not the right thing to do in the eyes of the Japanese authorities. Snowden added that the US intel agencies went ahead and hacked the Japanese infrastructure anyway.

  • Habbabkuk

    Interesting to see how certain commenters have broken cover now that the election’s out of the way. Ms Jill Stein, weep!

    • michael norton

      I would like to ask a question, on elections.
      How come if you are on the left, you will be wiped out?

  • Republicofscotland

    Meanwhile the Saudi led slaughter in Yemen, has come under attack from Human Rights Watch after the Saudi led coalition (which includes the Great Satan, and not forgetting Britain’s role of supplying weapons, and Cluster bombs to its ally Saudi Arabia) bombed a school killing school teachers and children alike.

    HRW, has asked the UN, to put Saudi Arabia on the “shame list” for breaking International Humanitarian Law. However the UN, which has allowed a Saudi to have a seat on the Human Rights Council, caved in and has done nothing. Could it be down to the hundreds of millions of dollars, that Saudi Arabia donates to the UN hmmm.. surely not?

    Of course it would answer the question, as to why a country with a terrible human rights record and a inherent repressive regime to boot, has managed to procure a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, and like Israel be allowed to openly flout UN laws.

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