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.
Two days ago, Jim Sciutto of CNN tweeted: “FBI says Flynn was cooperative and provided truthful answers.” Glenn Greenwald‘s comment: “There are competing FBI sources squarely contradicting each other, but since they all have anonymity, no consequences for whoever is lying.”
I would not conclude from this that anybody is necessarily lying. The evidence may be ambiguous and permit opposing conclusions.
The strongest reason I had for voting for Jill Stein was that she stood for peace much more clearly than the other candidates, certainly more strongly than Hillary. She also, unlike both Trump and Hillary, supported rights for the Palestinians.
I disagree with Trump on a lot of issues, Israel, Palestine, and Iran most of all, but the issue on which Trump’s enemies are attacking him is his attempt to have better relations with Russia. If his enemies defeat him, it will be over this issue, and the Russophobes will win. War with Russia will again be on the table.
And, in order to defeat Trump, the Democrats and the left are allying themselves with the CIA, which is much more dangerous than Trump or Putin. They are all seeking to establish as an accepted reality that the U.S. intelligence agencies can defy an elected government with impunity and can bring elected presidents and governments down.
Those who want Pence to replace Trump as president reveal that they want the warmongering agenda of Pence, and that they either want or give lesser importance to the crazy right-wing policies he would promote and very likely impose.
In any case, it’s clear that it’s the warmongering that they really want, and that it’s Trump’s wanting peaceful relations with Russia that is what they really dislike about him.
“In any case, it’s clear that it’s the warmongering that they really want”
_________________________
Says who (apart from you)?
What is becoming increasingly clear that an alleged supporter of Ms Jill Stein is coming out in his real colours.
I wonder if Ms Jill Stein was not a bit of a Manchurian candidate, put up to draw some liberal votes away from Mrs Clinton and thereby increasing the chances of Mr Trump getting through? The question would then be: whose Manchurian candidate was she?
Well put and a clear explanation of why the “internationalist Left” see Trump as preferable to the imposter “globalist Left” who promote the “humanitarian destruction of defenceless countries to save lives” on behalf of NWO.
Gorka and Evan Davis.
Donald Trump aide accuses BBC of ‘fake news’
17 February 2017
In a heated exchange between Newsnight’s Evan Davis an aide to President Trump, both the presenter and the BBC were accused of “fake news”.
First broadcast on Thursday 16th February, watch the full interview here
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-39000118
Read more
Trump launches stinging attack on media
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38998362
Peter Oborne was outspoken this morning on Radio 4 Today on the BBC’s reporting of Iraq and Libya.
He had a good go at Sopel and the Corporation for their lies and propaganda. Justin Webb is the presenter.
2hr 28mins following Sopel himself.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08g97fm
Many thanks for these. Only just got round to them. BBC called out at last. Who’d have thought it?
German parents told to destroy Cayla dolls over hacking fears
Ministry of Truth
we may be entering the Twilight World, where are no longer any truths
Why did the BBC give Blair top billing on the 6pm News? Enough to put us off our suppers.
Something about him setting up an institute in connection with this?
It might be Sharp Ears because the BBC are no longer ( if they ever were) impartial.
The BBC are completely for REMAIN
as is
Richard Branson
Robert Frederick Zenon “Bob” Geldof
Peter Mandelson
Neil Kinnock
Jack Straw
Tony Blair
get the picture
It could be that in this case he is right. If he were to save Britain from Brexit, it might be reason to look at the present rather than the past.
Ahh, I see you have little concept of democracy, also, Laguere.
I will attempt to explain.
The British people have never been whole-heartedly for Europe.
We were bummed into Europe, without consultation.
Later we were allowed a referendum but under a false premise.
Move on forty years and most have had it up to our eye-balls.
Dave calls a referendum, BREXIT wins.
That is democracy at work, slow but in the end
it wins out.
No need for Peter Mandelson, Neil Kinnock, Jack Straw, or Richard Branson or the BBC, you have been rumbled.
If the referendum would have to be run again because od E.U. insistance, the E.U. would be blown out of the water.
Britain has had more than enough, we are leaving, with or without your agreement.
Now incase you do not understand
FUCK OFF
“I disagree with Trump on a lot of issues, Israel, Palestine, and Iran most of all, but the issue on which Trump’s enemies are attacking him is his attempt to have better relations with Russia. If his enemies defeat him, it will be over this issue, and the Russophobes will win. War with Russia will again be on the table.”
The Angry Arab is interesting on this matter. He sees Trump as the Bull needed in the China Shop of Pretend Peace talks that began with Oslo:
” In Arab social media, there is real cheering: Palestinians and Arabs (who–unlike Arab oil and gas correspondents in Western capitals don’t act at royal orders) were cheering the end of Oslo and the American shooting down of the two-state illusion. People are more than happy that Palestinian struggle can go back to where it was before Oslo: a struggle for the full liberation of every millimeter of Palestine and the establishment of one secular democratic state where Jews and Arabs can live in equality and where no religious identify of the state (be it Jewish or Muslim or Christian) will be allowed. This will be accompanied by full return of Palestinian refugees to their homes, and where the immigration to Palestine will be subject to the consent of the majority of the population (as it was envisioned after ten years by the McDonald White Paper). The official end of the two-state nonsolution, however, requires the dismantlement of the PA collaborationist authority. …”
On Wednesday he went even further:”Trump is the first US president who is open to the idea of the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a secular democratic state in all of Palestine.”
He may be drunk with his own narcissism. He may be falling around and breaking the furniture. But it is furniture that, after 70 years of attempts to establish global hegemony- the dream of Hitler- needs to be smashed up.
To be fair it would be very difficult for the Palestine Authority to force the one state solution by disbanding and telling Israel to take over, because they wouldn’t and the blame for the resulting famine would fall on the PA. But ironically if it was promoted by America, everyone would fall in line, because to work it would inevitably involve equal rights for everyone in the new one state with international guarantees.
Zionists in the diaspora would be happy at having a united Israel with Jerusalem as its capital and the Palestinians the same at having a united Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Of course the reconciliation needed will be difficult, but easier once the malign influence of the neo-cons is removed.
The “Angry Arab” is talking poop when he opines that “Trump is the first US president who is open to the idea of the liberation of Palestine and the establishment of a secular democratic state in all of Palestine.” As for Oslo, it was killed off on “911” in 2001. Neither the US nor Israel nor the UN were ever serious about a two-state solution, as everybody in the Middle East knows.
When Trump says no to a two-state solution, he means
a) allow the Jewish-supremacist state to remain in existence
b) allow it to rule over millions of people who live in the territory it controls without giving them the vote
c) allow it to commit massacres against them at will
He doesn’t mean a secular democratic state in all of Palestine. He is not “open” to that. He doesn’t even mean power-sharing.
What Trump wants, what he supports and what would happen if the Two State farce were ended, are as Khalil suggests very different things. That is what I meant by a Bull in a China Shop-the Bull has no intention of reducing the store owners to bankruptcy, but that is what happens.
Of course he doesn’t mean power sharing or equality. He is simply offering the Likudniks so much rope that it is inevitable that they will hang themselves.
In history most eventualities fall under the heading of ‘unintended consequences.’
Bevin read the runes
A- The Palestinians must accept the existence of a J****h State!
B- A single state.
Thus paving the way for expulsion of the Palestinians from their lands and homes to outside the single state. This is not going to be a case for the Palestinians to get equal rights and full fledged citizens of a single state.
What you see is the continuation of the hundred year war which is already seventy years old and in its last decade has take a turn for the worse and its intensity.
Although the sham of the excuse for the two states was not going to be a case for a viable country but Bantustan , but it is now taking a turn for more sinister and soon the world may witness the expulsion of the Palestinians as it was back in 1948.
It seems very clear to me that the Zionist bolt is shot. They cannot do worse than they have done. when I call the Israeli government ‘fascist’ I use the term advisedly not as mere abuse. And fascists have a death wish- they have no sense of proportion, no idea of when to quit while ahead. This is a country in which the inmates are running the asylum-every kind of nutcase, from the dementedly racist settlers who burn Palestinian babies to the weirdest kinds of religious fundamentalists (supported by Christians in the US and elsewhere who see Israel as a sign of Christ’s imminent return-and $25 a month buys you a place in heaven-) to people who pull up deck chairs to watch Gaza’s schools being bombed… these people dominate the Knesset.
And the reality is that Israel has never been, in relative terms, weaker militarily: quite apart from the deterioration of Defence Force morale there is the totally new phenomenon of an army forged in the crucible of war, in Syria and Hezbollah and the many other militias-armed populations- which model themselves on it.
Israelis would be foolish not to make peace with their neighbours and to reach an accommodation with Palestinians. And they will, because the only alternative is catastrophic.
The option of expelling more Palestinians no longer exists.
Does your support for secular states extend to the case of Iran?
Quite. And to Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar and Pakistan?
Which also means that the first three states will be mandated to become *functioning* democracies? And that people like the above are going to start agitating every day for these countries to become just that, and to give hard-working migrants their human rights of naturalisation and start accepting their fair share of refugees from the various war-torn countries in the region?
And that serious escalating sanctions will finally be placed on the unruly Islamic Republic of Pakistan which Anon described so well earlier?
Nice Tag-Teaming, guys. Erofl.
I wouldn’t trust Trump for any statement he made; it’s not worth the pixels it’s written on. From what I know of the Angry Arab, he’d have the same attitude.
I wouldn’t trust him either. So what? The number of options is very limited. The great mistake people make is to over rate the power of the US government and to underestimate that of the Palestinians and their many supporters around the world.
This is one of those situations in which in order to win all the Palestinians must do is to refuse to surrender. And they won’t.
The original Zionist project was to provide a homeland for European Jews and was initially successful in its visionary socialist aim, but instead of agreeing to share the land they got too mad and greedy and wrecked the project by losing the vision to win the war! The fact is the diaspora is increasingly assimilated and the many Jewish immigrants aren’t Jewish and others use it as their criminal HQ. And its a generational and clannish thing, a bit like the Republicans in Ireland, many recognise the world has changed and its time to do a deal to save their souls, but it wont happen without America.
Iain McWhirter has a first class piece on his blog about indyref2. His message? Keep it simple. No need this time for a 670 page White Paper. All pro indy people should read Iain’s post. It’s excellent.
Is that Squirter McWhirter?
Re Craig’s comment – “the yardstick for “distinguished” is somewhat woolly. I think it must mean “acceptable to the Establishment”
—————
Of course it does. But when a University where you have been Rector does not put your rectorial address, or your books, in their library it also says something about university governance, or rather how petty some segments of academia can be. It seems to me that increasingly some Universities are not about free speech or even academic freedom – on a whole number of issues – but about enforcing conformity. Fortunately there are other universities who value free speech . It is not easy being a whistleblower and, part of the price of being one, is putting up with pinpricks from those who are consumed by petty jalousies or by a need to signal their conformity with the herd.
To what extent does Dundee University depend on funding from the central government in Westminster?
Last month I was working in Coventry University as an Electrical Improver, the JIB’s classification of an electrician who does not possess NVQ 3. I prayed my midday prayers in a communal area and at the end of day I was turned off site. I know there is a potential for prayers to cause offence, and it happens on this blog. Craig compared my faith to being a homosexual, something unpleasant but which had to be tolerated for equal opportunities’ sake. I took that as a purely political tongue-in-cheek comment on a political blog. I didn’t take offence.
The point is, university governance, like everything else in neo-liberalism, is now highly politicised. The reason for this is that a small group of highly political sheep-dogs can manage a much larger group of very little-politicised sheep. If we sheep who detest politics play their dirty games, we get the blame for being trouble-makers. No, the sheep-dogs will get into trouble if they scare or molest the sheep. They get put down if we lose our lambs. Nuff said.
“The University of Dundee refused to place my Installation Address in the University Library (…) (T)he 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’. (T)he snub hurt me deeply (…) I think it is the only one of dozens of snubs from the Establishment to this whistleblower that actually succeeded in hurting.”
Had they treated me that way, I’d probably have told them to shove it up their arse. None of those prats has ever in their stuck-up lives had the courage to blow a whistle.
For those who missed it, here’s some highlights from the quite extraordinary press conference that President Trump gave yesterday (8 minute clip)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaqARGQflUE
I’ve never seen this level of open hostility between a US President and the press. The military-industrial complex (which includes the corporate media) are obviously conducting a coup against Trump, and they are trying to push a new cold war with Russia so that they can keep receiving trillions of dollars of dumb US tax payer’s money. Trump said that he would ‘drain the swamp’, and naturally enough the swamp creatures are fighting back.
The question that many of us are asking, though, is whether Trump really is a good guy, or is this all a battle between two crime families battling for control of a business?
Trump has long been calling for a big and costly (and, in the view of this retired officer, unnecessary) military buildup, so it isn’t just the dollars.
lysias, I agree. There’s so many anomalies when it comes to Donald Trump that it’s really a tough one to try and figure out.
Thanks for this link. Be aware that Trump is protected in the White House and elsewhere by his own private security force, commanded by Keith Schiller and forming part of the Trump Organization. The CIA won’t be able to waltz through the door at a National Security Council meeting and arrest the fucker.
And they will also have trouble arranging for him to be assassinated because the Secret Service mysteriously fails in its job, as happened in Dallas.
I agree, but will add that this isn’t a half-hearted attempt to take Trump out. It’s full-on stuff, completely egged-on by the presstitutes. Maybe we’ll see a new form of subversion from the totally out of control US security services? (and I may also add that the UK security services are completely in bed with their totally corrupt US counterparts)
Excellent thoughts that had passed me by. Very interesting. Thank you.
Newly installed Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is cleaning house (although maybe it’s just carrying out orders from the White House). State Dept. carries out layoffs under Rex Tillerson:
Scottish Nationalism appears to have gained a new recruit in the personage of one Tony Blair. Given that this man is undeniably Scottish perhaps he sees a role for himself as Emperor of Scotland.
Presumably and in the event of an independent Scotland – the English could sue Scotland for the devastation this man has wreaked on their society and their reputation in the world. Sadly the carnage inflicted by this Scotsman on England pales into insignificance compared to the destruction he has wreaked around the world.
No doubt ardent Scottish nationalists will be be busy seeking out any non malignant part of Blair that they can attach themselves to – sad to say a venture doomed to failure
I thought the same as you at first. I thought Trump and Putin must be getting behind the breakup of Britain, moving Blair’s lips to help them.
But having read the speech I don’t think the reference he made to Brexit boosting the case for Scottish independence is much to write home about. Blair works in a propaganda world. He just meant that the SNP have used the Brexit vote in that way in their publicity, which they have. The Remain movement that he wants to fire up again is unlikely to say let’s stay in the EU so Scotland won’t go independent.
Ahh.. Glasgow Shows how QT should be done –
“A spectacular display of thoughtful, reasonable debate from the audience in Glasgow left viewers wondering if they’d tuned in to the right programme.”
Re
Last Night’s Question Time in Glasgow –
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/bbc-question-time-glasgow_uk_58a6b7cde4b07602ad536271?
You could spend the rest of your life posting things that show Scotland in a good light.
None of it will compensate for the fact that Scotland produced Tony Blair. How Scotland can atone for that escapes me – maybe if it puts itself into voluntary isolation for a few thousand years. There must be something deeply rotten in a society capable of producing a person like that.
He’s about as Scottish as SunTory whisky. Schooled in Durham, a spell at a private boarding school in Edinburgh, then Oxford, after a year dossing in London, and back to the North East of England again to get elected to Parliament.
He’s one of yours, he’s done nothing for Scotland, he even stole hundreds of square miles of our seas. There’s no way you’re going to dump him on us.
So who went into the 97 election with a promise of a devolution referendum in their manifesto then?
Tony Blair is as Scottish as they come
and he is one of the biggest scumbags of all time
Scottish my hairy arse.
And you come a close second in the scumbags league wi you Scottish Donald pish.
Seems anyone you take a dislike to must be “Scotch”
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair was born in Edinburgh, Scotland
For Bowie fans, who may or may not be familiar with this clip. It was posted on YouTube last month, and it’s the first time I’ve seen it. It’s Bowie giving an address at an American university way back in 1999…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZNEvTYVo4s
Sorry RobG not my cuppa. I once drove these guys to London though:
http://en.mediamass.net/people/ozzy-osbourne/deathhoax.html
Fake news is Zion’s MSM swamp-creatures fight-back against Trump’s draining of the neo-con swamp.
Somebody once said that when the elite get too powerful they write the script of their own opposition.
=> Zion has created Trump as a forged opposition to Zion’s neo-con swamp, and fake news is fake opposition to the forged opposition, to make the forged opposition look less fake. @?@$@!@?.
These people write Hollywood. It really isn’t hard for them to write a few dumb tweets.
Zindigi !!
Sorry, Zindigi is Urdu for Life.
Berklee is not a university, you fool; it’s a renowned school/college of music. Shows how little you know about the music world, also reflected in your rather poor taste of music. Things can only get better.
I am an authority on the music of Max Reger. Does that help?
Trump just tweeted that most of the mainstream media are “the enemy of the American People.”
He left out the Washington Post for some reason.
lysias, a little way up this comment thread I posted a link to edited highlights of Trump’s extraordinary press conference yesterday.
This next link is completely unedited, and shows in full what he actually said about the presstitutes, right to their face (9 minute clip)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-URYdrYEMk
I’m running out of superlatives when it comes to Donald Trump.
But is he actually real?!
The whole text of Trump’s press conference is posted on the White House Web site, at https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/02/16/remarks-president-trump-press-conference
This is somewhat disturbing.
It can clearly be read as an attack on the 1st Amendment and is grist to the mill of all those keen to label Trump as a Fascist or “literally Hitler”
However there is clearly a problem with the media and the cabal of GE, News-corp, Disney, Viacom, Time Warner and CBS have already effectively rendered meaningless the 1st Amendment. Even these entities are understandable as they are pursuing what they believe to be their own best interests.
Much less understandable is the BBC – these people seem determined to lead the pack in terms of fake news. For what possible reason are the BBC once again promoting Blair. Why is the BBC adopting such a confrontational attitude toward Trump? What does it have to do with them? Separately I note that the BBC have been requesting Russians to wear masks so as to make them appear “more scary” for a British audience that the BBC has decided needs a further dose of anti Russian venom.
Maybe there is no model left for a free press and it needs to be destroyed – certainly Trump appears to be of this view and seems to have appointed himself as destroyer in chief. If you ever bother reading or listening to the bile that the media pumps out it is hard to argue with this perspective.
I agree Trump’s tweet is disturbing, but I also agree that the corporate media has amply deserved Trump’s criticism.
Changes to the law that break up the domination of communication by a few corporate entities might make the media once again worthy of First Amendment protection. It was the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (signed by Bill Clinton) that made a lot of the previously prohibited consolidation possible. It could always be repealed. And antitrust enforcement by the U.S. federal government might break up the consolidated media entities. (Although Trump is so business-friendly that I wonder if he would be willing to do that.)
This is Ronnie Barker’s rhyming slang sermon from 1976. Enjoy. smile
“A long time ago, in the days of the Israelites there lived a poor man. He had no Trouble and Strife – she had run off with a Tea Leaf some years before – and now he lived with his Bricks and Mortar Mary, and being very short of Bees and Honey and unable to pay the Burton on Trent he was tempted to go into the Bristol and see what he could Half Inch. He would say to Mary “I will take a Ball and Chalk into the town and buy some tobacco for my Cherry Ripe. He put on his Almond Rocks and his Dicky Dirt and his Round The Houses and set off down the Frog and Toad until he reached the outskirts of the Bristol. One day his Bricks and Mortar gave him some money saying “Here is a Saucepan Lid go and buy food. A loaf of Uncle Fred and a pound of Stand at Ease, but bring me back what is left to buy myself a new pair of Early Doors for my present pair are full of holes and I am in a continual George Raft.”
But instead of returning with the Bees and Honey for his Bricks and Mortar’s Early Doors he made his way to the Rub a Dub for a Tumble Down The Sink. He became very Elephants Trunk and Mozart and when the landlord of the Rub a Dub called Bird Lime the man set off towards his Cat and Mouse reeling about all over the Frog and Toad and drunkenly humming a Stewed Prune. It came to Khyber Pass that as he staggered along he saw on the pavement a small brown Richard The Third. He stared at it lying there at his Plates of Meat and he said, “oh small brown Richard The Third how lucky I did not step on you.” He picked it up and put it on top of a wall where no one could step on it. A rich Four by Twoish merchant who witnessed the deed put his hand into his Sky Rocket and took out a Lady Godiva and handed it to the man saying. “ Here is a Lady Godiva for your Froth and Bubble.” The man took it and the Richard the Third flew back to its nest.
When the man arrived home his Bricks and Mortar was sitting by the Jeremiah on her favourite Lionel Blair. The man said to her “here is a Lady Godiva which I earned by a kindly act. The woman was overjoyed and said. “Thank you father now I can have my Early Doors. “And I can have a Tumble Down the Sink that kindly act has ensured that we both have enough to cover our Bottle and Glass
Brexit ‘‘is not inevitable’‘ and can be stopped by the will of the people.
That is the view of former British prime minister Tony Blair who has said he will make it his ‘‘mission’‘ to persuade Britons to ‘‘rise up’‘ and change their minds about leaving the EU.
http://www.euronews.com/2017/02/17/tony-blair-urges-britons-to-rise-up-against-brexit
Labour should finish Tony Blair before he finishes Labour.
His cancer still plagues the party. It’s all for the Tories to lose.
The BBC has served the first stab in another attack on Corbyn’s back, legitimising sordid campaigns to graze our MSM for more approval, more proof of his decadence……
The BBC does not have to shadow the right wing press and it can stick to its impartial line, the brief it received from the public.
To the substantial issues. yes the politically divided and uneducated public was mislead with lies, political bravado and showmanship, as well as innuendo and fear mongering that was daily breaxfast,
Blair should be tried at the ICC, he lied to Parliament, and started an illegal war imho, does it still mean something? He is not fit to being promoted by a national broadcaster with principles, He’s caused hundreds of Hillsborough;s during his attack on Iraq, how does that balance? this lawyer is a irrelevance.and should not form public opinion, unless you want to make piratry your base for the judiciary
Labour’s Tony Blair’s BREXIT call ‘condescending’
http://news.sky.com/brexit
The three-time election winner also warned that leaving the EU gave the S. N. P. a more credible case for SCOTTISH independence.
Mr Blair hit out at Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour, saying that in the absence of what he called an effective opposition,
pro-Europeans needed to build a movement that reaches across party lines.
“The debilitation of the Labour Party is the facilitator of Brexit. I hate to say that, but it is true,” he told the audience.
In response, a Labour source said: “No wonder we are still trying to recover from Tony Blair’s legacy when he has such contempt for democracy.
“What he doesn’t seem to realise is people voted Leave precisely because they felt let down by 13 years of the Davos leftism he is still trying to flog.”
Mr Blair’s rallying cry has sparked speculation he would like to create a new pro-Remain political party made up of Blairites, Liberal Democrats
“Mr Blair’s rallying cry has sparked speculation he would like to create a new pro-Remain political party made up of Blairites, Liberal Democrats..”
I wish he would. He could take enough Tories with him too to form a government-until the election which would reduce the lots of them to a handful.
It was a sad day when he was not appointed head of the European Commission- he is the personification of the, (sorely needed) kibosh.
Debilitation is a posh way of saying fucked up. We know exactly who fucked up the Labour party with his US poodling and war-mongering. With Blair it all boils down to re-writing his personal failures in the light of his personal successes.
” Look at it this way, if I hadn’t fucked up the Labour Party by attacking Afghanistan and Iraq, we would not now have Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya and Turkey, nor would we have had a neo-con government in US, UK and Israel, deploying proxy Islamic terror, once described by Tory Foreign Secretary William Hague as an unconventional foreign policy. It’s not unconventional, it’s the alternative to my and Bush’s direct illegal interventionism in the Middle East, and it has been tested in Ukraine, as a precursor to many future invasions of ex-USSR satellites. ”
” Let’s face it, Er, the monster which we created, a Federal EU, capable of deploying US aggression against the ex-Soviet empire was never intended to be just a trading circle of close neighbours. It was always intended to be an extension of the US NWO hegemony into ex-USSR countries, just as Britain created Israel to be an extension of US power in the Middle East. Don’t think that by pretending to worry about UK economic failure, I am the least bit concerned about the role of Europe and its proxy Islamic army pushing US hegemony towards China. The UK has a role through NATO in that continual war. It’s just that the God-awful stupid mistakes I personally made by sticking my neck out in 2001 to 2003 are holding back the Federal EU’s credibility to further extend US hegemony over countries extending East.”
” My thanks to the British Bollocks Corpse for writing my speech. I will always do what I@m told in future: exterminate..exterminate… EXTERMINATE!!@@*?”
The Guardian is yet to realise the guards have changed! :
“Yet, when Mr Blair speaks, audiences listen – and on this occasion he had something of substance to say. His was a well-reasoned case made with judicious authority – and by framing the argument between supporters of Brexit “at all costs” and the rest, he showed a familiar skill for appealing to all those, leavers as well as remainers in this case, who abhor the obsessive or fanatical approach. That in itself is worth appreciating in a week when the US president degraded his office and alarmed audiences in a rambling press conference marked by petulant incoherence and wilful ignorance. Mr Blair reminds us what it was like to have grown-ups in charge.”
Steve Bell, the cartoonist, has resigned from the paper acknowledging that the whole paper itself is a veritable laughing stock.
The Guardian can’t decide whether to be a beggar or a prostitute. But a rag-tag-hag she is. Now please carry on and kiss the other cheek of Blair’s arse.
You should have heard Shelagh Fogarty on 5Live yesterday. Sounded like she was having multiple orgasms live on air.
Interesting – was she moaning, groaning or screaming?
Perhaps ‘purring’, as an ex-PM say.
Gushing.
I hope the BBC sent her the bill for the dry-cleaning.
Why not address the arguments of what Blair was saying rather than the ad hominem?
Given that Boris Johnson during the referendum campaign was clearly saying that we could leave the EU while staying in the single market and opinion polls show that we want to stay in the single market; could you please explain how there is any mandate for a hard Brexit that includes leaving the single market?
RD, I won’t educate you on how democracies work–too tedious and I have better things to do.
But I have assumed you are quite an articulate chap. So, have you said here at any time the things that Blair is now saying? If you, as you seem to believe, think they are the pinnacle of (after-the-event) arguments, how come you haven’t made them yourself?
Key point: leaders and strategists worth their salt are supposed to be able to think beyond the end of their noses. In the long run-up to the referendum, I don’t recall anyone proposing that there should be a roadmap charting several referendums for whatever reasons. Nor did Parliament in it’s paramount Wisdom propose or set out such a course. Where then was your favoured political genius, the Evil personified prick Blair whose cock-and-bull you are now sucking? I’ll leave you to it, while I’m beginning to wonder, even though I know you don’t love Putin, you may be an in-the-closet lover of the Russian system.
One feature of democracies is that people have the freedom to try and persuade others to change their minds and I’m afraid that did not stop with the 2nd referendum on the membership of the EU. This is a freedom that is available to all including Tony Blair – who I don’t think he is arguing that the usual democratic processes should be ignored. We have already had 2 referendums on the issue – there is nothing that stops a further change of mind should the population agree Blair’s argument that what is now being proposed is not consistent with what was promised. If there was an attempt to propose such a change without seeking democratic consent, then it clearly would be typical of Mr Putin. But there isn’t – so it isn’t.
It is quite noticeable that you avoid a direct answer to my questions and just provide further ad hominem argument.
There was no mandate from the referendum or given to Parliament in the General Election for a hard Brexit involving withdrawal from the single market ( and the labour market protections that it provides) – I have said this a number of times here before, and have yet to hear a reasoned counter argument.
In the run up to the referendum I don’t recall any of the leavers setting out a road map or plan as to how ewe should leave – you are right that this should have been challenged, but it wasn’t by either of the political failures that led the two main parties, but that doesn’t rule out the validity of such a challenge for ever and a day. Chamberlain became Prime Minister on a platform of supporting appeasement – thank heavens that your argument did not hold sway then.
So suppose we have another referendum and suppose enough people have changed their minds to swing it the other way? What then? Do you say “that’s it the people have decided” or do you then let them have another referendum in six months to see if they have changed their minds again?
Holding referendums till one gives the result you want then stopping is not democracy, not even remotely democratic, it is using referendums as a tool to enforce your dictatorship. It makes referendums the tool of the despot.
Fred if people actually want a third or fourth referendum and use constitutional means to achieve one that is their prerogative, just as it is your right to argue against such a choice. My guess is that once we see the final shape of the Brexit deal which is negotiated then the electorate will only want one further referendum for many many years.
When exactly did I get to vote on a reckless exit from the single market?
Perhaps what people actually want at present is to leave the EU but to stay in the single market – but the leaders of the two main parties are against pursuing such an option. Isn’t this the dictatorship that to which fred refers?
As the decisions to join the Single Market (the EFTA in 1960) and the EU (then the EEC in 1973) were taken separately why isn’t it possible to take separate decisions on leaving those bodies? It isn’t as those wishing to leave the EU were not arguing that they were separate decisions
https://www.brugesgroup.com/alternatives-to-the-eu/42-issues/alternatives-to-the-eu/61-71-said-they-would-prefer-britain-to-leave-the-eu-and-join-efta
We live in a representative democracy, in a representative democracy the people don’t decide on every issue, they go to he polls every four years to elect someone to make decisions for them. There was only one UK wide referendum between the Europe votes of 1975 and 2016, one referendum in 40 years they are not the norm. That is how politics works in Britain you can’t claim it is undemocratic just because you didn’t get the result you wanted.
So when did a majority of our representatives campaign fight an election campaign on leaving the single market?
Also, are you really so arrogant as to believe that the British people who voted clearly to leave were sucking up everything that Boris was saying? You really are so simplistic.
I did think Boris’s line of the British people rising up and turning off their Blair-faced televisions was a clever one.
No it just confirmed our Foreign Secretary’s anti democratic tendencies. But who is involved in deciding what form of Brexit we should have?
No I’m not – perhaps you should look at what the opinion polls to get an idea as to what aspects of a possible Brexit the population support and don’t support. Are you so arrogant to believe either that there is only one possible form of Brexit, or that the British people might not want some say in the matter, or might even wish to change their opinion when they see what is actually negotiated?
Opinion polls are irrelevant – what is relevant is constitutional law.
In the UK sovereignty resides with the people. The people consent to delegate their sovereignty to Parliament for specified periods of time. General Elections are the mechanism whereby the people periodically renew their delegation of sovereignty.
This delegating of authority serves to make Parliament the body in which sovereignty is invested. In the case of the EU referendum Parliament elected to return sovereignty directly to the people so that the people could opine directly on continuing EU membership.
Via the procedure of a referendum the people have instructed Parliament that it is their sovereign will that the UK withdraw from EU membership. The people have offered no opinion as to terms of withdraw – they have merely confirmed that they require Parliament to undertake and enact such measures as may be necessary to give meaning to their sovereign instruction.
Parliament is obligated to withdraw the UK from membership of the EU. If Parliament will not carry out the will of the people then it should be dissolved and reconstituted such that its membership will be capable of enacting the instruction that it has received from the ultimate sovereign power (the people).
This is how things work in a society governed by the rule of law. People seeking to manufacture arguments to the contrary are in essence seeking to undermine the rule of law. Your position is all the more bizarre as you mostly confine yourself to pointing out problems in Russia – a country where a lot of the observed problems stem from an insufficiently developed legal system.
Where Have I, or Tony Blair for that matter, said that changes should be made without reference to Parliament or the people in another referendum or General Election. You are just creating a straw man that doesn’t exist. To say that it is not allowed to argue for change from the status quo is fundamentally undemocratic.
Thank you for that well-reasoned comment Loony. I knew at the outset that it would be tedious arguing with RD on a Sat morning, but I really didn’t think that he would be that evasive of answering the highly intelligent arguments that were being made.
While i know he is a card carrying member of the Labour Party, I had no idea that he is a resolute Blairite falling for the political spin of a blatant mass murderer. That really speaks volumes of his judgment and his, on this occasion, second-hand opinions. He also seemingly wants to take no responsibility for his comments, or lack thereof on the subject of Brexit over the last two full years.
thank you also for your lucid explanation on my questions re Saudi Arabia of yesterday.
” I really didn’t think that he would be that evasive of answering the highly intelligent arguments that were being made.”
A bit rich since you have avoided answering the questions I raise.
I’ve made a number of comments on Brexit over the past two years if you bother to look rather than engaging in ad hominem comments.
It seems the recent US Seals’ raid onYenen wascounter productive even in terms of its declared aims in that the tribal leader killed was strongly against Al Quaeda and his killing will take mane tribesmen awaty from the Saudi/UA side.
http://www.sputnikne.ws/d9rG
The weaponised anthropologists working for the US should keep themsles aware of shifting loyalties and the US/UK remember that the House of Saud relies on tribal support or at least acquiesence and in my view, and that of some of the Al Thani of Qatar,but not of course Habbakkuk,that is waning as the money runs out.
Talking of money, the Oroville dam in California almost collapsed from lack of maintainace.The great Mahrib dam in the Yemen provided irrigation and supported a flourishing civilised society for almost a thousand years (c.500B.C,-500A.D). before collapsing from neglect.
Ah yes the counter productive raid in Yemen – where some claim that the insurgents (or however you describe the target) had advance warning and were well prepared to defend themselves.
Could it be that the State Department has been infiltrated by agents of the Muslim Brotherhood. It would certainly explain the wholesale clear out of State Department officials. In his role at Exxon Tillerson was so distrustful of the State Department that Exxon established its own internal “mini State Department”
This article provides further background
http://fmshooter.com/alleged-muslim-spy-ring-rex-tillerson-right-clean-house/
Aint it funny how the purveyors of fake news seem exclusively focused on evidence free Russian penetration of the US but seem uninterested in actual evidence of an alternative source of penetration.
“The First Minister tweeted in response that she was “not his biggest fan”, but added: “There’s a quality of analysis & argument in Blair’s speech today that has been totally lacking from Labour to date.”
That’s everything you need to know about this thick-as-two-short-Scottish-thorough-bread’s intelligence and intellect.
Craig, when will you drop the Nationalist’s bit from between your teeth? What is more important to you–so-called Scottish ‘freedom’ or Freedom of the Mind?
Could anyone actually explain what the French government mean by a
State of Emergency
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/768863/Protestors-clash-with-French-police-again-over-brutal-police-rape
French police felt the brunt of the protestors anger as they were targeted with molotov cocktails.
—–
I had thought I’d understood, that demonstrations were only allowed, if approved by an organ of the state?
Paris unrest: Banlieue youths see French state as the enemy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39011298
‘The state is enemy’
Attacks by police, residents here say, are pretty common.
But this provoked real anger. Protests erupted across the French capital – cars were burned and property destroyed.
——–
So is Rob correct, the real reason for imposing The State of Emergency is not Islamic Terror
but to subdue the populace?
Jonquières, Vaucluse, adjacent to Orange
50 tons of gas cylinders eXplode in France, a heavy lorry, may be to blame?
http://www.ledauphine.com/vaucluse/2017/02/17/une-serie-d-explosions-vue-pres-d-orange-vaucluse-jonquieres
The fire was caused by a heavy vehicle, according to the initial findings. The zone is secured within a 500-meter perimeter of the gas storage plant, while fire starts have multiplied in the fields around the transport company Robert Sciacqua, caused by the burning gas cylinders Propelled in the sky.
Orange has much association with the Foreign Cavalry Regiment
This town is also home to Air base Orange Caritat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange-Caritat_Air_Base
this is from where they took off to bring down the Germanwings aircraft.
So a sensitive spot.
also the all weather fast response air base is home to
a permanent Dépôt atelier munitions spécialisées (DAMS) detachment; this is a headquarters unit responsible for all Special Ammunition Storages in France.
Yes-Rob is correct, IMHO.
This interview with Greenwald is well worth watching. Very articulate, even if I don’t agree with all his views on Trump’s policies, but that isn’t really what this discussion is about.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/2/16/greenwald_empowering_the_deep_state_to
Greenwald: Empowering the “Deep State” to Undermine Trump is Prescription for Destroying Democracy
The forthcoming Presidential Elections in France continue to get dirty.
It seems the European Union are now aware, that if Marine Le Pen, does well, the E.U. will be staggering back on its hind legs,
waiting for the coup de grâce.
http://www.france24.com/en/20170217-france-marine-le-pen-fake-jobs-scandal-eu-parliament-fillon-presidential-election
French investigative news site Mediapart and weekly Marianne on Thursday published extracts of a report by the European anti-fraud body (OLAF) which claimed that Le Pen had admitted to falsely employing at least one of her staff as an EU parliamentary assistant.
“Pence, unlike Trump, has a long history of supporting neocon warmongering policies. Aside from that, he’s a religious nut of the extreme right.” (“Lysias”)
____________________________________________
Is it not curious that certain posters who now ardently support President Trump (having apparently changed their minds since his election victory) now seem happy to denigrate Mr Pence – who, readers will recall, was President Trump’s very own choice for Vice-President?
But it is curious how certain commenters now denigrate
Strange how mas murderers and war criminals don’t seem nearly so bad when they say what you want to hear.
https://twitter.com/NicolaSturgeon/status/832576913331871744
What you’re really telling us is that you’d prefer a one dimensional and cartoonish figure leading the SNP so you could easily disparage them. Instead you have a clever and stateswomanlike figure who sees nuances and ye jist cannae staun it.
Oh yes St Nicola can do no wrong, see the heavenly glow from her face,a countenance most divine. Bow down and worship her spread rose petals before her where she walks. All hail the supreme leader.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ChsSVCjWsAAi4e5.jpg
Scotland gets more like North Korea every day.
As I sometimes say (where appropriate and necessary):
Do not go a-whorin’ after false gods!
How am I “deflecting” attention from the Westminster troughers?
On the contrary, by widening the list of troughers to include Scottish troughers l’m probably drawing even more attention to the troughing phenomenon as such.
And that, in turn, will ensure than the Westminster troughers will get more attention also.
Why don’t we ask Mary, who frequently pinpoints troughers, to adjudicate?
I read somewhere that Ms Sturgeon and her husband, who is apparently the boss-man of the SNP (General Secretary or something?) , pull in around a quarter of a million £s p.a. between them.
A nice little earner in fact.
Were I a certain commenter – which I am not – I would be tempted to use the word Troughers.
Getting paid the set salary for a job doesn’t make someone a trougher and you know it. You’re just trying to deflect attention from the unionists at Westminster who are the world champions at troughing.
You might be interested in this op-ed
France: Another Ghastly Presidential Election Campaign; the Deep State Rises to the Surface
by Diana Johnstone
17 February 2017
As if the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign hadn’t been horrendous enough, here comes another one: in France.
The system in France is very different, with multiple candidates in two rounds, most of them highly articulate, who often even discuss real issues. Free television time reduces the influence of big money. The first round on April 23 will select the two finalists for the May 7 runoff, allowing for much greater choice than in the United States.
But monkey see, monkey do, and the mainstream political class wants to mimic the ways of the Empire, even echoing the theme that dominated the 2016 show across the Atlantic: the evil Russians are messing with our wonderful democracy.
The aping of the U.S. system began with ‘primaries’ held by the two main governing parties which obviously aspire to establish themselves as the equivalent of American Democrats and Republicans in a two-party system. The right-wing party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy has already renamed itself Les Républicains and the so-called Socialist Party leaders are just waiting for the proper occasion to call themselves Les Democrates. But as things are going, neither one of them may come out ahead this time.
/..
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/02/17/france-another-ghastly-presidential-election-campaign-the-deep-state-rises-to-the-surface/
[Diana Johnstone is the author of Fools’ Crusade: Yugoslavia, NATO, and Western Delusions. Her new book is Queen of Chaos: the Misadventures of Hillary Clinton.]
Actually, Diana Johnstone has a more recent book out than “Queen of Chaos”. It’s the memoirs of her father, Paul Johnstone, which she edited and to which she added introductory and final chapters. Paul Johnstone was a high-ranking bureaucrat in the Defense Department, and his memoirs, entitled “From MAD to Madness: Inside Pentagon Nuclear War Planning”, document many of the current abuses already occurring during the Cold War.
Thanks Lysias. That was the Counterpunch blurb. It obviously needs updating.
Cheers.
Nicola retweeted this from the Scotland Politics page of the BBC website.
Tony Blair says independence case is ‘more credible’ after Brexit
17 February 2017
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-39002351
There is no irony in the fact that one of the NATO warmongers like Lord George Robertson of Port Ellen has an Honorary Doctorate from Dundee (and from 9 other universities) and that Craig, a pacifist, does not.
Robertson’s current interests on the HoL register.
Category 1: Directorships
Non-executive Director, Western Ferries (Clyde) Ltd
Category 2: Remunerated employment, office, profession etc.
Senior Counsellor, Cohen Group (US-based consultancy) **
Adviser, BP plc
Occasional journalism
Member, International Advisory Board, Equilibrium Gulf Ltd (provision of geo-strategic advice to governments and companies)
Adviser, North Asset Management
Category 4: Shareholdings (b)
Liberty Global plc (acquired Cable & Wireless Communications plc) (telecoms)
Weir Group plc (engineering)
Harris Tweed Hebrides Ltd (retail) (interest ceased 24 January 2017)
Category 6: Sponsorship
The Member receives a limited amount of secretarial assistance from BP plc
Category 7: Overseas visits
Visit to Istanbul, Turkey, 14-16 March 2016, to address conference of Turkish Army War College; travel and accommodation paid for by college
Visit to Hamburg, Germany, 22-23 September 2016, to address Conference of the Urban Land Institute; travel and accommodation costs covered by organiser
Category 10: Non-financial interests (a)
Director, Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust Trading Company
Non-executive Chairman, BP Russia Investments Ltd (subsidiary company of BP plc)
Non-executive Director, Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo
Category 10: Non-financial interests (b)
Elder Brother and Member of Court, Trinity House
Category 10: Non-financial interests (d)
Member, Advisory Council, Centre for European Reform
Category 10: Non-financial interests (e)
Trustee, British Forces Foundation
Chairman, Council of Management, Ditchley Foundation
Member, Advisory Council, International Institute of Strategic Studies
Member, Advisory Council, European Council on Foreign Relations
Chairman of Trustees, FIA Foundation
http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/lords/lord-robertson-of-port-ellen/672
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cohen_Group
Nice photo of said William Cohen with ‘Captain Adbulhakim Albadir, Assistant President for Safety, Security & Air Transport at the Saudi Arabian General Authority for Civil Aviation during a recent trip to Saudi Arabia.’
http://www.cohengroup.net/
Get the picture?
Not sure Craig’s a pacifist. In favour of peace, certainly, but who isn’t? The question is, on what terms?