I am still waiting to hear May asked a question on the severely disabled or terminally ill having their benefits cut or on the increase in child poverty. I foretold accurately over a month ago that the Tories would run an election in which May does not debate and is sheltered from questioning. What I did not predict was the extent to which the media would be complicit in producing unquestioning soft sell puff pieces.
We have had Newsnight’s misty-eyed biopic. Today we have a frankly astonishing effort in the Guardian, plainly based on a Number 10 briefing, telling the entirely untrue story of how the decision to call an election came to May during an idyllic walk in Wales.
What is truly astonishing is that the Guardian feels no need to query the narrative they have been fed, or to so much as consider that other narratives may be true. Had it no effect on May’s thinking that a large number of her MPs – more than her majority – were about to be implicated in criminal prosecution over electoral fraud? Was the fact that the economy is just starting substantial deterioration a factor? Was she tempted by her huge lead in the opinion polls? No, of course not. The Guardian does not have to perish the thought as it never had such disloyal thoughts in the first place. This perfect wife and perfect Christian on the perfect walk with her perfect husband had a revelation from motives of perfect patriotism.
The truly scary thing is that the Guardian is what passes for a left wing newspaper in England. You expect such nonsense from the Mail or Telegraph. But that the BBC and Guardian are both kicking off the election with soft focus May puff pieces tells us a great deal.
This election is a battle between the MSM and the alt online media – I cannot see any other divide.
https://off-guardian.org/2017/04/21/google-now-threatening-alt-news-sites/
(P.S. I don’t think it is meaningful to describe the Guardian as ‘what passes for a left wing paper’ anymore. This is a dead trope.)
Exactly, mog. I would go instead for a ‘Dead Parrot’. A Norwegian Blue, of course.
Craig – I think the Tories are subtly throwing this election.
With the extra £1 trillion they have stolen from the nation, they know that the great western Ponzi scheme economics is coming to an end.
So cover it up with war and conflict and BoJo has told us that we would find it hard not to support the seppos in the imperialism.
So Corbyn and the SNP will inherit massive debt and little opportunity to fund and spending plans, as this will be offset by the plunging GDP.
We are in difficult times and we’re on the wrong side of history.
What do you think?
Got to admit, this has crossed my mind.
If so, it will be obvious as played out.
It will be ominous too.
Its certainly a way to avoid being labeled the party that shat on the economy. I am surprised that whilst some expected articles such as 1) the (lack of) meaningful media clip excerpts from corbyns speech 2) few articles still talking about corbyns leadership challenge several times in a single article. I havent seen a huge attempt at hiding corbyn which is a typical tactic. Makes me think perhaps there are other plans. That is unless there saving the real may-poll state propaganda and fake news for nearer the event.
The guardian is no longer a left wing newspaper it has shifted to the Neoliberal Democrats. I used to be a subscriber to the guardian but it began to suck up the right of left narrative.
So much fury from the left that Mrs May has called an election, the same people who were complaining that she lacked a democratic mandate. Doubtless if Jeremy’s Labour wasn’t polling the most hopeless figures ever seen for an opposition party they wouldn’t be so angry. 🙂
Corbyn when the election was announced said bring it on! Nobody on the left is complaining.
And Craig is commenting on the Guardian publishing blatant Tory propaganda.
We don’t live in s totalitarian state yet, no Guardain editor is going to get shot for not publishing Tory propaganda. So what’s going on?
Under Turkey’s Erdogan, you will not get shot for thinking something different to your Sultan. You’ll get shot for thinking. Al Zawahiri the CIA stooge in charge of Al Qaida, to whom the Muslim Brotherhood pay homage, once wrote that ‘ thinkers ‘ were ‘Ein ‘ i.e. spies.
‘What is going on’ is that one of this blog’s most persistent trolls is trying to divert a useful conversation, concerning the corruption of the media, into a partisan slanging match of the most tedious kind.
Can’t decide whether you post is old news, fake news, anti-Corbyn cut-and-paste-or all three at once, A1.
you of all should never use the words democratic or mandate, you are a mere subject to be accosted. But thanks, your admiration for JC and his excellent policies is duly noted.
I think that simply spreading Mrs. Mays arranged party meets and her Angst to face the public’s scrutiny on social media sites will make it clear that she is not interested in them. Bolton was her first rejection of public accountability, the elections will be her last.
But the narrative given here that May made the decision based on recent events – bad economic news, electoral fraud investigation closing in – fits in with May’s declared version of events, that is to say the decision was made over Easter. I suspect she made the decision long before then. I wonder who was in the know – given that the more prepared the Tory party could be, the better it could take advantage of a snap election.
Alastair-I agree. However the ‘Cover Story’ given by David Grossman to Emily Maitlis on Newsnight 20/04/17 was that May’s sudden decision had left the Tory Party unprepared to fight the Labour seats which are held with a majority of less than 5,000. Clearly these would be a major target for Tory propaganda and intentions. The clever little insert was almost exactly 1′ 30″ long. I quote D.G. “And it is highly unusual for a governing party to go into an election in that state of unpreparedness”. We have two possible takes here. Either this story is not true, or May has no idea what she is doing. In the latter case it looks extremely bad for the Brexit outcomes.
Gotta go with beau jeste earlier on. With brexit and economy meltdown coming may is desperately hoping she loses the election so not overseeing a shitty time for the country. Can she genuinely be as incompetent as she seems???
There have recently been some BIG choices.
When Scottish Tony Blair and Scottish Gordon Brown and Scottish Alistair Darling and Scottish George Robertson and Scottish Charles Falconer were running The United Kingdom, they started four wars and ran the country into the ground.
We were in such a terrible mess, that a coalition had to be formed to save our country from collapse.
Most unexpectedly, even with massive austerity “Tory Austerity” the Conservatives were returned with a wafer thin majority.
David Cameron called the Referendom on Voting.
The people of the U.K. voted to keep the status quo.
Then the Scottish referendum, the people voted to keep the status quo.
Then the Brexit Referendum, the people did not vote for what David Cameron suggested, they voted against the status quo.
D.C. resigned and Theresa took the rudder.
Theresa is now going to the country “United Kingdom”
to see if people back her for a Hard Brexit.
After the G.E.
we will know if the voters of
The United Kingdom back her or not.
This is known as Democracy.
And as we have been told it is the least worse system available.
Who told you? Did you believe them?
Michael Norton
” least worst system available ”
In Islam there are two last resorts for humans needing guidance in decision -making,
1/ Mashwara/ Consultation
2/ Istikhaira / Asking God for guidance to the best outcome
That’s how you know that Islam-ist Erdogan is nothing to do with Islam, because he abandons the institution for consultation known as parliament.
It si rather silly of you to suggest that the UK system is the best possible system since sliced bread in the best of possible worlds and the best of possible outcomes.
I call that tunnel vision, looking down the tunnel of a giant ship worm.
Here you go again with the “scottish” prefixes.Does it matter,other than for you to expose your nonchalant racism? It matters not a hoot they were/are “scottish”. They are all dyed in the wool Unionists.
U.K. Democracy? of a singularly twisted type.
You are an idiot.
How can a Scottish person be of a different race from an English, Welsh or Irish person.
Well, Michael, you have just made a distinction between the English, Welsh and Irish. Do you think there is a difference between yourself and someone from France, Norway, etc.?
“The following Monday, 10 April, having reached her conclusion, May spoke to the Queen. Next, she informed her closest advisers, and then sought the full approval of the cabinet.”
did ” her closest advisers” include Rupert Murdoch or Paul Dacre or their represenatatives. I wonder?
Her closest advisors are Satan and his family, variously dressed in grey tights, grey suits, grey Hammonds and grey husbands. Where’s Cameron who got us into this mess? buggered off – like satan.
Just had a quick look at the Guardian’s opinion section and saw these articles:
“The cause of death that dare not speak its name: austerity” – Gary Younge
“Property feeds the roots of inequality in Britain. Inheritance will entrench it” – Ian Jack
“If Theresa May really wants to protect refugees why does she fuel such hatred?” – Aditya Chakrabortty
Labour’s framing of public services as universal benefits is a canny move” – Frances Ryan
I put this in the Guardian’s BtL for you Craig 🙂
1,746 words in the sickly piece. Who is this Nazia Parveen person?
Oh! Previously at the Heil. That fits.
‘Nazia Parveen is one of the North of England correspondents of the Guardian, based in Manchester. She joined the paper in 2016. She previously worked at the Daily Mail. In 2011 she was named Young Journalist of the Year at The GG2 Leadership Awards. She can be found tweeting at @NParveenG ‘
https://www.gg2.net/Awards/ 😉
Labour never does well when it concentrates solely on domestic policy, rundown of health/social services, education etc.
It needs to widen it. A majority of people in this country are strongly opposed to our extremely aggressive and ruinous foreign policies – one war after another. (If you doubt me just read the comment columns of foreign policy articles in The Mail or Express). Corbyn needs to speak strongly on this. With UKIP – which is strongly against foreign adventures – in decline, there is a lot of votes out their which can be picked up on foreign policy.
A lot of Trump’s (and Sander’s) support in the US election came from strong dislike of aggressive foreign policies. So does Le Pen and Fillon and Melanchlon’s in France.
You’re right, this anti-war stuff is universally used by politicians as a hot-air slogan during elections.
Agree JohnF, ideally it could get lots of brownie points cross party if it would embrace a policy for electoral law change, if, for the first time ever elections will be fair and proportional, and that it will apply to all elections.
And if the Labour detractors are not playing ball and are helping the Tories to win, they should be expelled from the party.
Since the elections was announced over 100.000 young voters have registered, they will understand what it means to have a fair election and so does JC who benefited from an STV leadership debate.
‘They walked past spring lambs frolicking in green pastures, with only the sound of nearby rushing streams to accompany them.
And that, May said, is when she had her epiphany….’
It reminds me of Nicholas Witchell delivering gooey nonsense about a royal baby outside the gates of Buckingham Palace.
“‘They walked past spring lambs frolicking in green pastures… and thought to themselves ‘Am I going to be the one held responsible through my idiot Foreign Secretary’s war posturing against Russia and Assad, and my nasty Chancellor of the Exchequer continuing to squeeze the traditional British values of fairness and caringness, for all this loveliness to be destroyed.”
I think there may be times in the life of a British clergyman’s daughter, difficult though it might be for Craig to visualise, when she might decide she’s out of her depth and its time to pull the plug-hole. Or am I expressing too much faith in my fellow humans?
Pretty pathetic, really, when one has to dig up ‘Lakeland Poets’ type stuff to get a bunch of Neocons re-elected.
D_Majestic.
Our European civilisation started under Constantine the Great in 300 A.D., when he abolished the Unitarian belief in One God for Trinitarianism. By roughly 1200 A.D. and with the aid of the Spanish Inquisition Unitarian belief had been completely extinguished in France and replaced with Classical Romanticism. i.e. the worship of Love, Knights, garters, loose women.
Wordsworth didn’t invent Romanticism, he just celebrated the prosperity of colonialism, by which wealth stolen from the rest of the world enabled the start of the Industrial Revolution.
It would therefore seem to me to be absolutely logical for the propagandists for the neo-cons to draw on that Classical ( pagan ) and neo-Classical ( e.g. Stourhead House, Buckingham Palace revival of Classical Imperialism.
She was only a Vicar’s daughter, but didn’t follow what he’d taught her, and couldn’t do what she oughta !
The only man who ever moved me…
Can we please put treeza’s clothes back on?
I’m now suffering anorexia and extreme dehydration after seeing all these cottonwool, sycophantic articles and BBC propaganda crap sticking their tongues so far up the May’s rear ends – suffice to say, I now require a room capable of capturing projectile vomit from myself, such is my distress at this bunkum masquerading as journalism – I’m mixing my vomit with napalm and will forward to both the Beeb and The Guardian – explosive stuff as they say!
My eyes filled with tears reading Parveen’s beautifully evocative prose. Really. Gosh, what a lovely couple they must be.
J
A rise in child poverty is regrettable as is economic hardship that is visited on the terminally ill and the disabled.
But…what is the alternative, when you live in an economy that is entirely fictitious and where the citizenry are absolutely determined to refuse to recognize reality. Sure the media lies – but they are simply responding to the demand of the people that they be lied to to.
In Q1 of 2017 Central Banks have purchased $1 trillion in financial assets. That you will not ask why this provides all the answers.
It informs you that the election is a joke and that its outcome is as irrelevant as it is predictable. The only way to avoid full spectrum economic collapse is to initiate WW3 prior to the collapse of the economy. Whose fault is all this? You could start with the mass of the population that have elevated willful ignorance into a Religion.
Whatever poison you’re eating, I’m on the same one. But they don’t like it up ’em.
I’m intrigued by your post Loony, would you be willing to expand on it?
Sure. The financial crisis of 2008 was a debt crisis. This crisis was dealt with by the addition of more debt – a minimum of $60 trillion so far.
In 2016 global GDP grew by $3.9 trillion, in first 9 months of 2016 global debt grew by $11.4 trillion. This is a ponzi scheme, in order to prevent it being revealed as such Central Bank money printing has been deployed to drive up asset prices – real estate, stock markets, art etc and to drive down interest rates.
Historically the engine of economic growth has been access to cheap energy. The cost of energy can be measured as the Energy Return on Energy Invested (“EROEI”) – this is simply the amount of energy needed to access energy. In the 1950’s EROEI has a ratio of around 100:1 (i.e you consumed one unit of energy to access 100 units). This ratio has been in general and long term decline. Shale oil has an EROEI of around 5:1, wind around 18:1, solar around 5:1 and bio-fuels around 0.6 to 1.6:1.
This means that the economy must shrink – it is being prevented from shrinking by the addition of debt and the debt is secured against inflated asset prices. Money is being sterilized in largely useless assets and more money is being diverted into accessing energy. This leaves less money for everything else.
The west needs cheap natural resources and needs them on a massive scale. The only possible place that these resources can be found is Russia – hence the drumbeat toward war with Russia.
People can easily cope with a shrinking economy – look at the vast waste all around you. But this is not what is happening – there are endless special interest groups all demanding more for their particular special interest. Politicians of all shades seeking to bribe the electorate with newly printed money. Everyone demanding more growth and wailing about their human right to grow ever richer, every instance of bad luck or misfortune being blamed on some form of willful discrimination. People bemoaning inequality but not understanding that a necessary consequence of money printing is accelerating inequality. In the UK people could have bought a house 40 years ago for say £30,000 – that house is now probably worth £2 or 3 million. How can anyone 40 years younger possibly buy such a house today. People refusing to understand reality and almost begging the media to lie to them regarding the true situation – and then complaining that the media is full of fake news.
Good post loony.
Only thing i would add is that those with wealth ,power and influence who don’t want their incomes to shrink are the cause of the ww3 which started on 11/09/2001-
” In the UK people could have bought a house 40 years ago for say £30,000 – that house is now probably worth £2 or 3 million.”
Michelle Thomson can buy a house for £245,000 and it’s worth £315,000 by teatime.
Loony,
Looks like you visit The Archdruid Report hosted by John Michael Greer, who’s been writing weekly on these issues for a decade.
In a nutshell, the debt longterm is unsustainable and history suggests that sooner or later they debt-based monetary system will implode, which means: ‘Welcome to a new dawn/era.’
Further, cheap and abundant energy sources are at an end, and, present technology will not replace our present energy requirements for the level of consumption we are at, a consumption that is debt-fuelled by the way.
Asset price inflation, fuelled by huge dollops of debt is a massive problem, we are now in Tokyo-land as far as commercial and housing stock are concerned – the banks loan 90% of their capital/created debt out on fixed assets, loans to the productive economy are now minimal and have been for at least 25 years – soon it will take 1000 years of salary to purchase a home, so better control the banks I say.
In the long run, well the rich buggers at Davos think they have it good and that in any crisis they’ll do fine. That’s hubris though, as most buggers are going to lose their heads, but, let them dream on.
In the coming re-adjustment, it’s the middle class that will lose the most and find it hardest to cope with the coming crisis – luckily, the workers and non-workers have been starved of real cash for so long that by a miracle they still manage to survive – essentially, this is localism and it’s highly sustainable.
Anyhow, plenty of interesting sites to read/discuss these issues, such as Naked Capitalism – its a pity Greer has stopped Blogging for a while, as his posts were always interesting.
Do you starve the sick man, or let out his suit. That’s what they used to say. Starve is austerity. Letting out the suit is inflation. Austerity is painful for the debtor. Inflation is painful for the creditor if the debt is to be repaid in a currency controlled by the debtor, but otherwise if the debtor has to repay in a currency controlled by the creditor.
So as a state (1) don’t borrow off another but if you do (2) only agree to repay with your currency and (3) always make it okay to just print to repay. Oh and keep a big army and media.
Who would agree to such lunacy? Why would I lend you gold or oil for monopoly money.
We are heading to a place where we have never been before.
Austerity does not work. The debts are too big – look at Greece, plenty of austerity but still the debt rises. Austerity was tried in the UK for a matter of months – all you got was riots and rising debt. If austerity leads to rising debt then austerity is nothing more than punishment of the weak by the powerful, No-one gains anything.
Money printing is designed to trigger inflation – and it does inflate asset prices. When those assets are residential property, money is sterilized and that prevents more general inflation. Additionally you cannot trigger wage inflation, Most jobs are useless and so if wages rise jobs disappear. The installed manufacturing base of China is sufficient to meet global demand for manufactured products – this is deflationary. We stand on the threshold of an AI revolution so more jobs will go. Driver-less vehicles will destroy all driving jobs. This is deflationary
High debts need low interest rates – this destroys pensions, which in turn destroys demand. This is deflationary..
Energy supply is unstable. Low prices trigger a collapse in CAPEX. High prices trigger demand destruction. In all probability there is no longer an equilibrium price.
What do most people understand by public services? Probably services paid for by a local population in order to benefit that same population. Notionally this gives the funders some control over these services. Public services are now financed by debt, not by taxpayers. If the taxpayers are not paying for them then what have these services got to do with taxpayers? This triggers a political crisis, and leaves the electorate confused – think of NHS privatization.
Education is just a name – in reality it is a debt machine. No rational person would pay the costs of a university education, Therefore it is imperative for the school system to produce irrational people. It is a strange kind of education system whose main purpose is to produce people stupid enough to purchase more stupidity. This has consequences for society as a whole.
There is too much resistance to any form of meaningful reform which would mean a debt jubilee, a managed shrinking of the economy and the dismantling or destruction of most supra-national organizations. So, the only alternative is war, and a war that is sufficiently large so as to be commensurate with the debt. That most likely means war with Russia or China or Russia and China together, That means lights out for everyone. Everyone will be responsible, but it is a racing certainty that the last actions of everyone will be to blame everyone else.
Loony, on your post at 00.09 this morning you make some interesting points. You say how do debt financed public services relate to the tax payer because the tax payer has not paid for them. They do relate and the tax layer has paid for them in the sense that an increase in money supply reduces the value of what money he has retained ie his share of the pie decreases.This is perhaps analogous to the shareholder, whose dividends are paid for by borrowing not profits (I have not understood why this is not fraud save perhaps because it is disclosed but the dividend loving shareholder such as the pension fund trustee and money manager ignore it because they need their dividend and so blinker themselves).
I disagree that paying for education is stupid, although it depends on the education you buy, who you choose to educate you, what you buy and whether you are intelligent enough to “eat” your learning, make it your own and convert it into something useful for yourself.
However, what I really wanted you to explain, and I think Welsh King was getting at this too is your conclusion. You have not joined all your dots. Why do debts result in war? Are you saying (1) the intention is to pay through inflation, but that has failed even so why war? (2) that there is some historical correlation between sovereign debt and war in which please give examples and distinguish between wars by creditors to collect and wars by debtors to avoid. In the case of wars by debtors to avoid paying creditors, who has funded such wars? (3) Are you saying that war generates economic activity sufficient to stimulate the economy to pay off debt? (4) Are you saying war arises out of despair ie to obfuscate the situation, throw the dice and tell new stories?
(5) Or, that there are those who have generated a business of designing, building and implementing death because it is how they make money and stay in power?
There is a minimum global debt mountain of $200 trillion. Much of this debt has been used to fund consumption – ranging from social security payments through to spending $35 to $100 on a cup of kopi luwak coffee, Some of it is secured against property – but the property has no intrinsic value beyond its utility value.
So you either write off the debt or secure it against real assets. If you are looking for real assets worth more than $200 trillion then you are looking at Russia. Russia is estimated to hold 30% of the worlds remaining natural resources. It holds 40% of global gas reserves and has vast deposits of oil and coal. It has globally significant reserves of gold, diamonds. iron ore, manganese, titanium, nickel, platinum, tin, copper, phosphates and copper. It is rich in rare earth metals. It contains 20% of the worlds timber and has vast and productive agricultural lands.
If all of this natural wealth could somehow be used to collateralize $200 trillion of debt then the debt becomes manageable and you can party on in a wild consumption frenzy. The prize is enormous and so enormous risks can be taken, and are being taken.
Small wars keep the industrial-military complex ticking over and some people get rich whilst running no risk to their own safety and well being. This is different. Salvation can only be achieved if the Russians surrender or if the west can return to sanity. Sanity needs to come from everyone – from the nefarious cabal of “leaders” right through to the average person who is addicted to consumption. Neither outcome looks likely, and so I will leave you with some prophetic words from the Clash
“N I like to be in Aferica,- a beating on that final drum
N I like to be in USSR – making sure these things will come
N I like to be in USA – pretending that the wars are done
N I like to be in Europa – saying goodbye to everyone”
Ok thanks Loony for your explanation. Is the bulk of that wealth in Eastern Russia?
Thanks!
Your welcome.
Loony – all money is fictitious as are most human constructs, they exist by consensus and they can be replaced by consensus. There is absolutely no reason for people to starve on this planet but we all agree, including it seems the starving, by consensus that some people should starve. It’s a sorry state of affairs – but it can be changed. The big problem with humans is we like to believe untruths and the press exists to promalgate them.
Did you know that before the 18th century there was little evidence off the existence of supposed black or white races. In order to protect the slave trade a massive media initiative was set up to ‘prove’ to Europeans that Africans were inferior and there for not worthy of concern. It was startlingly successful, in fact so successful that it’s a policy that is still very actively persued by governments to this day. Racism is an institution of control but it’s not reality it again is reached by consensus and could be removed within a few generations.
Your are obviously very concerned about all this stuff, but you shouldn’t let it overwhelm you. We should all be asking ourselves ‘what can I do to change the world around me for the better’
A reply in Guardian comments kinda says it all: Clarity…
‘If I wait until 2020 I’ll have wrecked the country with hard brexit and WTO terms, Scotland will have voted for independence and our failed economic policies will have screwed so many lives that I wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning the election.
Hmm…
Better call an election now then, while the polls are still good.’
Clarity.
Except that Scotland won’t have voted to leave, Brexit will have been a success, and the economy will be doing fine. 🙂
A1-In an alternative reality of garish purple CGI from whatever passes as a Disney Studio, somewhere in the fourth dimension.Rofl.
We shall see.
Great news for all us Corbyn fans. Jeremy is going to hang on as leader after he loses the election in June, according to close aides.
Marxists never resign. They have to be deposed or lynched.
This twit Jeremy is such a clever chappie. He can send a bowl down the green. Enough to make you vomit knowing of the destruction of the NHS that he has overseen and that all these Tory types he is with will be putting their little crosses against his name.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/watch-jeremy-hunt-play-little-12928367
Somebody should have taken the opportunity and kicked him in the balls as he was bending down, resulting in an NHS hospital visit, removal of the set of knackers, promising him a great future and career as a falsetto in a church choir.
It is a very ominous situation. With two crises approaching, one economic and the other born of the domination of US Foreign Policy by a combination of third rate arms salesmen, who qualified for their positions by rising through the ranks of the armed forces, and likudniks, with the fascist death wish they inherited from Jabotinsky, the last thing any country needs is leadership that the Tories have on offer.
Now is precisely the time for a sensible, moderate, pacific voice like Corbyn’s to contradict the nonsense we can expect-and have seen in recent days- from Washington DC, where the inmates from the secure unit are now firmly in control of the asylum, including the pharmacy.
In domestic policy terms the days when people start dying in the streets and riots constantly erupt are also close to realisation. The neo-liberals have had their uninterrupted and long run, now the bitter fruits of their callousness and cannibalism are ready for harvest. No wonder that Scotland is tip toeing discreetly to the exit.
An arms salesman here. Evil personified.
Arms company that sold missiles to Gaddafi is a ‘role model’ for post-Brexit trade, Fallon says
The Defence Secretary also said the Government is backing more arms sales to Saudi Arabia
Jon Stone Political Correspondent |
24 hours ago|
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-michael-fallon-mdba-arms-company-sold-gaddafi-missiles-saudi-arabia-sales-a7695296.html
MBDA Inc = US corporation
http://www.mbda-systems.com/
bevin
There is nothing to have an election about. The NHS batterers can’t beat public opinion, the EU batterers can’t beat pro-EU businessmen and women. The only reason for this election is, as you say, Trump is frustrated that his NATO allies are messing with him. If US policy is to back dictator the Muslim Brotherhood/Al Qaida/Daesh whatever you want to call it, against Assad so that they can build their 20 lane motorway from London to Japan, how come a little piece of shit like Assad is holding up the mighty US of fucking A from accomplishing their global hegemony game?
“Oh” says May, ” We can’t fight because of what happened last time in Iraq in 2003, and Libya in 2013″.
” If you haven’t got a mandate, ma’am” replies Trump, ” go get yourselves a nice big one, don’t care how you do it , tell ’em they’re voting for peace and Great Britain”
“Oh” says May, ” I’ll go and call an election, and and and I’ll tell them it’s for peace and Great Britain. Sir ”
” I like your style, May” replies Trump ” now run along”
The fact is that nobody in the Muslim world except some UK Pakistanis with psychological problems from having kow-towed to British imperialism too long, and who are trying to regain control by fighting the neo-con cause for them, wants the new dictator chosen for them, either the Muslim Brotherhood Al Qaida takfirist nor the Saudi Daesh ones. USUKIS renewed determination to force US policy to work, against the wishes of the Muslim populations, will cause terminal blowback against the Zionist NWO.
” Yes.maybe,” says Trump, “but by the time that happens I’ll be gawn”
What crises? Is there war pending with Russia? No?
Then it’s all good.
Should I tag that ‘snarkasm’?
Maybe we’ll hear that voice from Le Pen or Melenchon.
I read that Le Pen is a cat lover. In fact, her final campaign appearance on Friday, before it was canceled because of the shooting, was scheduled to be at an animal shelter.
As we will soon be on to a discussion about whether to expect “flase flag” terrorist attacks in the runup to voting, what do people think about the Dortmund attack http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39664212 ?
Capitalist terrorism?
I’m expecting a phone message soon: GCHQ: Patsies needed urgently. 49 days work @ £25.00 p.h. Some weekend work. Long hours. Long pension in Jahannam. Please contact Treeza T: +44 1242 221491 Full training given.
YB, beyond the ‘ism’s, the age-old factors of greed and violence.
Btw, the Guardian to me is infinitely less important than my eggs at breakfast. Craig needs to do better, what do you think; of late, very ordinary?
But the Guardian IS left wing, Craig. Just try posting anything below the line which is politically incorrect — not libellous, abusive or threatening, just a position their staff don’t agree with — and you won’t believe how fast it’ll be taken down. If no-platforming is not the textbook definition of “left wing”, I don’t know what is.
Still say, better a cotton-wool election than a mothballed Brexit.
And also, better a Murray post on the election, than on Scotland.
Alas,they are both bound up together and tied with a gordian knot.
Alcyone is one of the Pleiades – Alcyone, designated η Tauri (Eta Tauri, abbreviated Eta Tau, η Tau), is a multiple star system in the constellation of Taurus. Approximately 440 light years from the Sun, it is the brightest star in the Pleiades open cluster, which is a young cluster, around 100 million years old.
I came across this little verse in Issue 74 of Poems in the Waiting Room when I went to the surgery recently for a blood test.
The Pleaids
‘Who are ye with clustered light,
Little Sisters seven?’
‘Crickets, chirping all the night
On the hearth of heaven.’
John Bannister Tabb (1845-1909)
Hope you like it.
I like it. Good things poems in waiting rooms.
I will repeat the link to the Guardian piece that Craig talks about here…
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/22/the-walks-give-clarity-how-wales-hike-helped-pm-decide-on-next-step
Read the piece if you want a laugh.
More importantly look at the reader’s comments
Most people (CIAdian readers, at least) are no longer buying into the bullshit.
Where the bee sucks, there suck I.
In a cowslip’s bell I lie.
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly.
CIA’s got Phil on tape with Cheesy Pizza pie!
Shall I compare thee to an election day?
Thou art more hateful and intemperate.
Rough winds do shake the snarling bile of May.
Can’t some wit do a skit on ‘I wandered lonely as a cloud…..’ ref our dear leader’s walk in Wales.
I see she stayed here
http://penhall.co.uk/
Just under £300 B&B per night for 2 people
yesterday and the last three days before the busy humming of my neighbours bees was droned out by the incessant noisy war games played out above by the war bees.
Mr Fallon is an exemplary warmonger and coward whop will hide away in a bunker, as he is preparing his flock of overbearing, overweight sea gulls to meet their maker.
They rarely fly in Wales as they are far too heavy.
Sharp Ears
No riff raff. As Basil Fawlty would say.
I could do ‘To the Tories, to Make Much of Time’…
Gather ye plaudits with old May,
Propaganda’s still a-flying;
And this same party that squirms today
Tomorrow will be dying.
(Nah; probably better if I shut-up.)
I wandered lonely as a Tory
That floats on money o’er vales and hills…
Nope, I shall resist.
In the spirit of McGonagall…
In yonder hill there stood a dookit, it’s no there noo, cos some c@#t (Tory?) took it! ?
Ian Murray when he resigned from Labour’s front bench said that Jeremy Corbyn “needs to look at himself in the mirror”.
Now just ten months later Murray was launching his campaign to retain Edinburgh South by being pictured with a tray of cupcakes with JC4PM on them.
Ian’s been carping at Corbyn since last year so it would be interesting to know when he had his Damascene conversion about Jeremy’s leadership. Must have been fairly recently. Even Tuesday afternoon perhaps after May called the election.
Loony’s economics lessons point to a dreadful conclusion, one that coincides with Naveez Ahmed’s at the time of Trump’s election viz that peak oil and the urgent need for mineral resources are driving Trump’s foreign policy. The focus is on colonialism. Collective desire to look the other way from racist exploitation has been documented in the UK since Queen Elizabeth the first’s reign. It isn’t a new thing and it isn’t going away soon for all the political correctness or faux socialism of the Guardian.
The Asian spy house in my street is regularly visited, like a wasps’ nest by Kurdish and Pakistani agents and by English plain clothes police men or women. For all I know in my heart of hearts I collude with and condone the exploitation of foreign lands i.e. colonialism, just be choosing to remain in my birthplace, the UK. I believe that is a true accusation from myself to myself about choosing to remain. They say when you point your finger at least three fingers are pointing back to yourself.
But it is pointless to complain about USUKIS exploitation of foreign lands without mentioning the confederacy of the occupants of those lands in their exploitation. For an Asian Muslim to seek the brownie points of the UK government by spying on an English Muslim is disgraceful. And for Muslim men and women to work as proxies in destroying the livelihoods and houses of Muslim men and women in Iraq, Libya, Syria or Somalia , against the express commands of Islam is beyond my jurisdiction. Allah has clearly stated in the Qur’an that hell-fire will be their destination.
I only contribute to this blog, day after day, to reach an English, white Christian audience which I believe to be sane, because the custodians of the religion of Islam are in direct contravention and contradiction of their religion and must therefore be judged to be insane. All I can hope to achieve here is to be part of an alternative reality, in general concensus with most other contributors to the fact that colonialism is illegal, whether it be by democratic mandate or not, whether by agnostics or Muslims, whether it be in our century or in all the centuries preceding.
If anybody here holds the view expressed by my Kurdish Al Qaida friend that the world is in permanent flux and war the natural condition, politics/lies is the life-blood and religion is malleable in interpretation, then I declare myself here and now permanent enemy to them. Or as Allah says to our prophet SAW about the confederates with the enemies of Islam who pretended to be Muslim: ” Forgive them or don’t forgive them, I will never forgive them. They break the peace and settled arrangements and drive innocent people into death and or destitution.
The only mandate which Mrs May and her party will gain by holding this election, trying to force through the bombing of Damascus and the Syrian people, will be a mandate for us to kill them, the non-Muslim colonisers and their confederates in Islam. I repeat:
The only mandate which Mrs May and her party will gain by holding this election, trying to force through the bombing of Damascus and the Syrian people, will be a mandate for us to kill them, the non-Muslim colonisers and their confederates in Islam
O/T
A little glimpse of how the world works:
http://mondoweiss.net/2017/04/tillerson-brought-sheldon/?utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=58fb715a04d3017cf41b96b5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
So once again Scottish Labour prostitutes themselves out, in this particular case the clarion call comes from Ian Murray, as he begs for support from the Tories to keep him in a job through tactical voting to thwart the SNP.
Of course we have seen Labour down South traipse through the corridors of power, to vote with their Tory brethern on many matters. Both parties stood side by side to defeat Scottish independence.
Meanwhile Nick Clegg, who sold his soul to sit beside David Cameron, is in the running to try and hold onto his constituency. As Tim Farron fails to rule out a coalition with the Tories, if they come a calling again. Alistair Carmichael, has a slim majority, but due to his scandalous prevarication, known as “Frenchgate” will he survive? Will he ask Labour and the Tories to get behind him? In this GE, I feel anything is possible.
Add in a whole plethora of Scottish Tories (some only recently elected) are chomping at the bit, to head South to serve at Westminster, not a wee kiddy on parliament, as they say.
Finally Willie Rennie the branch office manager for the Libdems in Scotland, got a taste of the real world when visiting a farm in Fife the other day. Rennie was unceremoniously put on his community grass, by a tup, is that a omen for the Libdems in Scotland on the GE, I wonder.
Why is it that an unpopular and down on its heels political party is getting so much attention by some posters, is it because they do have some secret admiration for them or their policies, or is it to give them some free publicity here?
there is no such thing as negative PR, its all PR…..just askin’
Nevermind.
If you are referring to Labour, and more specifically the Scottish branch office, I have no affinity whatsoever with them.
There was a time in Scotland in particular, that Labour could’ve put up a chimpanzee in a suit with a big red Labour rosette, and it would’ve won comfortably.
Labour in Scotland took the popular vote for granted. Those days post-Jack McConnell are now thankfully long gone.
Labour hammered the nails of serious decline into their coffin, when they stood hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder, during the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, with their (supposed) arch enemy the Tories.
I’m sure I heard Keir Hardie turn in his grave that day, in fact I suppose he’s been burling like a carousel ever since, going by Labour’s unlimited affinity to their Tory kin.
RoS, I suspect Keith Hardie was not spinning in his grave, as SLab have nothing to do with him, whatsoever! Corbyn’s impressive speech the other day will not benefit SLab either, as they have back-stabbed him at every turn. Keir Hardie lives on though, but more through Mairi Black et al.
Enjoy your weekend.
JOML.
I’m sure Hardie, if alive today would’ve expounded the benefits of Scottish independence. Would Hardie even recognise the current Labour party and its values? In my opinion, I think not.
It is interesting to watch the demise of the Labour party, who at one time, could call out thousands of manual workers to protests and marches. By in large though most of those industries are now no more than a fading memory.
However Labour should still be endeared to those principles, and rights that the common man fought hard for some workers rights were gained through the spilling of blood.
As the great Jimmy Reid once said, “I never left the Labour party, they left me.”
You have a good one as well JOML. ?
That the Guardian has been taken over by the reactionary right is clear. There have been so many strange article recently. In February hey wrote a glowing tribute to Louise Mensch a couple of days after she tweeted that Rusbridger should be jailed. At the time of the Golden Shower fake news they ran a story about the M16 goon who made it all up that was clearly prepared by the security services.
The ascent of Mensch may be the most bizarre feature of a truly bizarre year. Whoever at the CIA identified her as the perfect front woman for a disinformation campaign will no doubt be expecting a promotion. She has wrongly accused over 200 people of treason in only 3 months. She has an almost unique combination of stupidity, lack of shame and hunger for fame. That Americans take her seriously sums up the intellectual crisis in their nation.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/menschs-list?utm_term=.mjxl1PXBq#.xhyrplm3W
So Nigel Farage has said that he won’t stand in the GE, he doesn’t have to in my opinion, as he has a safe seat on Question Time, one I fear UKIP will never cede.
Farage, who comes across a commoner, a pint and fag and a laugh with lads, is his natural persona, as the media keep telling us. Will instead, fight for Brexit in Europe, whatever that means. The last few times I’ve watched his performance on the EU stage, he’s acted like a condescending buffoon, maybe that’s his ploy, to shirk those foreigners into giving Britain a good deal hmm… good luck with that one he’ll need it.
Anyway dear Nigel, added that the Tories will win the GE by a landslide, I’m sure he’ll have a pint and fag to celebrate it, if his prediction comes to fruition.
Nigel is the leader of Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy
in Europe.
He is staying put till they break his fingers ( £250k/year)
There appears to be a few lines of thinking as to why Theresa May, called a snap election. The most obvious one is that the polls put Labour way back of the bus and the Tories in the driving seat.
Another is that the CPS could say those Tory MP’s have a case to answer over expenses, and a snap election should (if Lynton Crosby’s correct) negate that little matter. Umpteen by- elections could’ve been lost, severely damaging the PM’s Commons majority.
Then there’s Jeremy Corbyn, by all accounts a very affable chap, who probably means well. However, I feel he’s let the Tories clean off the hook by not holding May to account over the calling of the snap election. The timing is right for May, but in my opinion, bad for Jeremy and Co.
Theresa May however is running scared of debating with other leaders, incumbents usually are, with the concensus being that they have all to lose and very little to gain. Theresa May definitely falls into the latter category.
When asked by the press, why she didn’t want to debate with Corbyn, a shrewd Theresa May retorted, I engage with Mr Corbyn every week in PMQ’s. I doubt the PM, will have such a simple excuse for the press and the masses when Brexit begins to bit, still for now, she seems to have found the emergency exit.
You’re a bit late to see through Commercialbbc and the Private Equity Guardian but it’s nice to see you’ve caught up. Regards
Meanwhile, Willie Rennie, yes him again, got all misty eyed, when he spoke of how he’d love the Libdems to win back (from the nasty SNP) Charles Kennedy’s old seat, Ross, Skye and Lochaber.
I’m sure both Kezia Dugdale and Ruth Davidson, must get all choked up themselves, thinking of seats in Scotland they’d love to win back from the dastardly SNP.
Add in nationwide, that if the polls are to be believed, then Jeremy Corbyn will need a rather large box of tissues.
Of course the SNP are not immune to the bright lights of the media, any drop in seats for the party, even a meagre one or two, will be seen as a disaster a SNP meltdown, by the unionist press. Nevermind that they’ll still have the largest party at Holyrood, the focus will be entirely on the lost seats.
RoS
I expect there will be multiple reasons Theresa has plumped for a Summer 2017 election.
It should give her more Members of Parliament, which could help her push “stuff” through more quickly.
It might strengthen her hand with the E.U. towards Brexit.
It will likely secure her position in the country ( people will no longer be able to call her unelected).
Yes, it will shroud the local difficulties with election fraud.
It will stick it to the S. N. P.
I expect the last will be the most satisfying for her, she despises Nicola.
55 by-elections might have been high up her list. It will be interesting if these same MPs stand come June, although I suspect that the Tory machine would be the guilty party rather than the individual stooges.
Charles Kennedy was ineffective in stopping the Nigg and Kishorn oil rig fabrication yards closing during his long reign. Nigg has reinvented itself, while it’s great to hear this week that Kishorn in now back providing employment in Wester Ross. Here’s a tune to celebrate!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U_i49qdVtyY