You would never guess it from the media but Lord Ashcroft’s latest major polling effort strips bare the entire lie about a Tory and Unionist bandwagon rolling in Scotland.
You would never guess it from Lord Ashcroft’s Tory agenda-driven report of the findings either. This tendentious nonsense ignores Scotland completely – indeed I do not think he even mentions the nation’s existence. No paid media journalist would ever dream of reading more than the executive summary of the report, and certainly would never comb through the data tables, which contain the actual information on which the report is just a gloss.
But the data tables break down the sample by “region”, of which Scotland is one, and thus give us a very great deal of information. The Ashcroft polls have a 10,000 sample and the Scottish sub-samples of over 900 are more than used for many standard Scotland only polls.
So here are the highlights:
It is indeed true that Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson is more popular than Nicola Sturgeon – but only in England.
Contrary to constant media propaganda, Nicola Sturgeon rates over 12% higher than Ruth Davidson. Invited to rate their performance from 0 to 100, Scottish voters gave Nicola Sturgeon a mean rating of 52.91% (Table 47) and Ruth Davidson 40.52% (Table 48). Despite Davidson being proclaimed by the media as the new Jim Murphy/Jesus Christ, including constant lying claims that she is the more popular.
But Ruth Davidson is very much more popular than Nicola Sturgeon – with the English. In every region of England, Davidson is widely preferred to Sturgeon.
There is no Tory Revival in Scotland.
Asked whether they would consider voting Conservative at the next Westminster election, on a scale of likelihood from 0 to 100, 65% of Scots voters answered 0-10 “there is no chance I would vote Conservative” compared to only 10% who answered 91 to 100 “I will definitely vote Conservative”. (Table 8)
The mean Tory score in Scotland on this scale was 23.84. This was narrowly behind Labour. (Table 9) Typically Ashcroft’s poll does not even ask about the SNP. But note this methodology gives a mean result that is higher than a party’s actual percentage vote: totaling the party mean scores for England gives you more than 100%. So Tory support in Scotland is running below 23.8% and below Labour.
Again this is completely contrary to the media propaganda that has been blasted constantly across Scotland.
Tory Britain is Totally Alien to Scots.
In answer to the question “Do you think Britain is on the right track, or heading in the wrong direction” Scots stated by a resounding 67% to 33% (excluding don’t knows) that Britain is heading in the wrong direction.
This compares to a clear majority in England that Britain is heading in the right direction. (Table 15).
Again contrary to constant media propaganda, Scots are much less obsessed than the English with controlling immigration. Only 28% of Scots named controlling immigration as one of the top three political issues, significantly lower than any region of England. (Table 19) A tiny 4% of Scots think immigration is the most important issue (Table 20).
But more revealing still is the ability to discern continued Scottish support for more left wing approaches to the economy. Here Ashcroft accidentally does us a favour by his exclusion of the SNP from the question.
Asked who would “have the best approach to growing the economy and creating jobs”, and not given a chance to answer SNP, Scots favour Labour over the Tories by a conclusive 46% to 36%. This compares to an equally strong preference for the Tories across England. (Table 25). Interestingly an extraordinary 15% of Scots plumped for the Lib Dems, presumably in reaction to no SNP choice being offered.
Again this is a devastating disproof of the media narrative that Scots have swallowed Torynomics. The Scottish preference for Labour over the Tories shows up in later tables on schools, the NHS, the environment etc.
Tory Scotland is a Myth the Media are Trying to Propagandise into Reality
As we gear up for the next referendum, I am cheered that the poll clears up the difference between empirical observation of the Scottish public and the picture portrayed by the media.
The media are lying.
The Blairite leadership of Scottish Labour betrayed their party by close collaboration with the Tories in Indyref1. As a result the party is in meltdown – but there is still a strong public sympathy for what might be described as real Labour values. This mantle has been taken up by the SNP.
But because the Scottish Labour Party as an organisation is a laughing stock, and because the Tories are highly hubristic and have convinced themselves of their own propaganda about their popularity, in Indyref2 we will face an open clash between Independence and Toryism. The Tories will no longer be lightly disguised behind Gordon Brown. Hard-faced anti-devolution unionism and City of London economics will be shoved down voters’ throats.
I have no doubt at all we will win this battle and finally achieve national independence again. If Ashcroft has the honesty to look at the message hidden in the unused data of his own poll results, the Tories realise it too. Which may explain their aversion to a referendum.
Apparently Theresa May has been a marshal today at the annual Good Friday road race in her Maidenhead constituency. Pointing the runners in the right direction. In contrast to her misdirecting the British people by first campaigning in lacklustre fashion for Remain during the EU referendum – she only did that to position herself for the party leadership and prime ministership – and then trying to herd us all down the hard brexit route.
That includes trying to herd Northern Ireland and Scotland towards hard brexit without even listening to pleas for a separate deal. It’s now coming to light that the EU had made preparations for a possible separate brexit deal for Scotland.
Instead Race Marshal May directs us all down hard brexit avenue on the race to the bottom.
Except for Ruth Davidson who is racing down Ermine Street and serving the British state like mad on the way.
Why are you talking about all this nonsense whilst the world is on the verge of WW3?
What kind of lunatics are you?!
Merkel Turns to British Secret Services as Islamist Threat Grows
“In February, German intelligence warned of a massive increase in the number of Islamists in the country over the past four years. Hans-Georg Maassen, head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), said the number was rising on a monthly basis.
“We receive between two and four credible tips on planned terrorist activity in Germany each day,” he said, adding: “We have to recognise that we are living in a different situation now than was normal.”
That’s all you need to know.
The number is believed to have risen from around 100 in 2013 to over 1,600 currently.”
Air China suspends all flights to North Korea. China warns that war could break out at any moment and Japan prepares itself for a North Korean “emergency”
North Korea has promised a “merciless response” to any aggression and is believed to have the capability of firing some 11,000 missiles per hour into the South and
Given the foregoing it may be time for a small appetizer as to what firing 11,000 missiles per hour may look like
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bWt81vhIyY
I do hope that events in Korea does not impact on really important matters such as Scotland freeing itself from the yoke of English oppression. It is, after all, important to keep a sense of perspective.
North Korea to strike U.S.A. bases in Asian Pacific & S. Korean presidential palace if US attacks – KCNA
https://www.rt.com/news/384736-north-korea-targets-us-military-asia-pacific/
I expect the North Koreans will take out the Carl Vinson Nuclear Aircraft Carrier, maybe they’ll also take out Guam
and maybe Diego Garcia
Guam
In addition to on-shore military installations, Guam, along with the rest of the Mariana Islands, is being prepared to be the westernmost military training range for the U.S.A.
Guam is currently viewed as a key military hub that will further allow U.S. military power to be projected via sea and sky.
The U.S. military has proposed building a new aircraft carrier berth on Guam and moving 8,600 Marines, and 9,000 of their dependents, to Guam from Okinawa, Japan.
Interesting backgrounder on N. Korea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ba3dgDUtE9A
Apparently they’re quite good at making missiles, which they sell to Iran and Pakistan and other places.
And of course the US has nukes in S. Korea.
Hard to believe the US is ready for a war, as such, but certainly plenty of opportunity for mistakes, provocations and whatnot, on Chinese and Russian borders.
But you’d expect that China and Russia are fully appraised of US intentions, given recent meetings.
This really is like being in an insane asylum.
Yup.
That’s the idea.
This war hungry drunk act is a means of putting competitors on edge.
Contradicting himself ten times before breakfast, flip flopping all over the place, 180 degree turns, sudden strikes without warning, duckin and divin here there and anywhere.
Hard to figure what he’s gonna do next.
That’s the point.
Trump’s buffoonish demeanour allows him to carry this off rather well. His language is imprecise, colloquial, idiomatic, and delivered in a matey way.
Easy to brush off anything he’s previously said, as if it were only the lads in their cups from the night before.
Bit like Johnson’s act, in a way.
Mercurial’s the word.
I will repeat yet again (for the third time, I believe) that if America attacks North Korea this Easter weekend there is every likelihood of a nuclear first strike by Russia and China.
Do you fecking egits understand what that means?
RobG – You could be right, in which case it is game over. However there are reasons to suppose that any attack on the DPRK could be a kind of JV arrangement as between the US and China.
How else to explain China putting the squeeze on the NK’s by banning coal imports. If China intends attacking the US why would they be massing forces on the NK border?
The only people that are going to get stiffed are the NK’s and possibly (probably) the SK’s. No-one actually knows what the true capability of NK is – if it is at the high end of the range then it is goodbye Seoul. Whilst none of this is good it is possible that the rst of the world be so revolted by the carnage that the warmongers have their fingers forcibly removed from the buttons of ultimate destruction.
Loony, there are no reliable reports that China is massing troops on the North Korea border, although it would make sense for them to do so.
I’ve no idea what you’re going on about coal.
North Korea does have nuclear weapons, although as yet they are still low yield weapons (in the low kiloton range). Ie, North Korea is not a real threat to anyone… except to the complete lunatics in Washington.
Let’s hope that we all make it through to next Easter Monday, because there are real lunatics in control of this world, and they sure as hell aren’t in North Korea.
The deadline here is election day in South Korea which might, once again, produce a government dedicated to the idea of making peace and organising re-unification.
After 107 years of being ruled by foreign imperialism and almost seventy five of unwanted division, and almost seven decades after the armistice that ended the carnage of the Korean war, the people of Korea want to negotiate peace and recommence the history of their civilisation.
That worries the US, which has thwarted peace since the last war, changing regimes to keep the peacemakers out of power and using its massive influence to bolster right wing, authoritarian and fascist forces in both the state and the military.
In that period of time it has built up a considerable Fifth Column (Park and Ban Ki Moon are both examples) based on the collaborators that Japan developed during its period of rule.
It looks as if the Chinese PLA has moved troops to the border in anticipation of a massive movement of refugees in the event of war. War being the polite name for an unprovoked US attack, an illegal act and the supreme war crime by the United States.
If anyone knows of a more accurate description of the people running the United States than lunatics, it would be interesting to hear it. My own view is that they are simply evil, stupid, greedy and spoiled by lives in which they have been spared the hazards of criticism.
The lunatics, suffering from a quivering fear of causing offence are the cowards running the other countries which customarily support the United States in everything it does. They are the lunatics, and it is because the US government and media is able to assure its fellow americans that the world is behind them in their assumption of international policing, that Washington is able to proceed with impunity.
I cannot bring myself, however, to believe Russia and China (currently the last best hopes of all mankind) will not prevail upon the US to put an end to these provocations in which, not unsurprisingly, the revanchist Abe government of Japan is joining in.
bevin, it only needs a couple of hundred thousand people to peacefully march on Washington, or Westminster, etc, for all this total nonsense to immediately end.
Unfortunately, people will probably continue believing the bullshit propaganda right up to the moment that they are incinerated.
Not necessarily lunatics, but take the border man, the Graham, the Armstrong, the Nixon and the Eliot from the feuding borders to colonize Ulster and then see him travel further afield to colonize the New World and establish the USA and you see a glimpse of part of the American mind. There are noble idealist minds too in the story, but those square jaws that understand borders and conflict are a constant theme in the American legend and especially so today.
Though I should add we all have our own borders, our own border reviers, our own scapegoats and blind spots.
bevin
The similarities between US conduct in the Korean and Vietnam wars are numerous. Yet the myth persists that the US was engaged in a relatively benign UN sponsored police action in Korea.
The US dominated the UN at the time – this was well before the non-aligned movement at the UN – and the USSR refused to take part at the time because the US had insisted on Taiwan being given membership to the exclusion of China. UN Secretary General was the totally pro US Norwegian Trygve Lie.
The similarities between the wars in Korea and Vietnam are considerable. The US propped up far right fascist regimes in both conflicts. The US widely used napalm and saturation bombing on civilians in both wars. The US deliberately scuppered peace talks during both wars to keep them going. US troops committed atrocities on the ground against civilians. Washington also worked closely with people who had been Japanese collaborators in Korea and Vietnam.
Yet to this day we are supposed to believe that the US/UN fought an honourable war in Korea and the isolationism of the North Korean regime came out of nowhere. That the US is in no way responsible for creating it.
The only people that are going to get stiffed are the NK’s and possibly (probably) the SK’s
…. DEFINITELY the SKs, which shows how much loyalty the US feels for its allies. Similarly the US is happy to keep goading Russia, safe in the knowledge that its European allies will suffer the consequences if it kicks off. Hence the logic of Scotland achieving independence and getting shot of Trident as fast as it can.
Tomahawks manufactured in Scotland unleashed by The Scottish Donald on Syria ,
not in any way legal.
This report on Sputnik is a reminder of the extent to which the trolls’ characterisation of Assad’s government as that of a butcher is libellous.
There are butchers in the region and they work for Uncle Sam, Wholesale Killings inc.
I’m sure you could help this lovely lady with her Amazon orders
http://nypost.com/2017/04/13/assads-wife-shows-how-out-of-touch-she-is/
and further evidence of the reliability of Sputnik and the honesty of your other hero
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201704141052643722-russia-putin-income-declaration/
New York Dolls – Frankenstein (1973)…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMO3JCrsDx4
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-civilians-killed-us-jets-bomb-isis-chemical-depot-deir-ezzor-syrian-mod/
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/12/syria-where-the-rubber-meets-the-road/
https://www.thenation.com/article/words-are-also-deeds-unverified-stories-and-the-growing-risk-of-war-with-russia/
Do you think that, you could ‘make it’ with Frankenstein…?
(and I’m not even going to get onto what the non-English media are saying about all this)
Silence, and death.
Usual thing.
Most of us might not be around by next weekend, but you have to have your Easter holiday nonsense.
Well if RobG and Bevin are right then we all have better things to do than listen to them, and if as is considerably more likely they are wrong again then we all have better things to do than listen to them.
Don’t you mean Theresa May since she is a Trump sycophant unlike Nichola Sturgeon who has spoken against him?
Just a simple question norton.
You obviously think england is successfully on the up due to brexit.
And that scotland will fold if it becomes independent…while england prospers.
So why continue to bleat about it on a pro indy piece on this blog? If you are that sure england doesn’t need the union then jog on….why doth you protest so much
?
Ex CIA boss Panetta has raised the alarm on Korea, he would know, Kim may have plans for California if attacked by the US. Its funny how the SoS gets panicky when its walnut farm comes under attack, but not the gentiles property. A bit like the meleikowalskys of this blog.
Bill Gates is advising everybody to back up their Microsoft Cloud, Seattle could be another target for Kim not just LA/SF. Mr Kim is certainly not Mr Dao. It took Kushner/ivanka and 90 Chabad rabbis for Trump to do a U turn on Syria but what have they advised on N Korea?
Is Craig in Doha?
‘Saturday 15 April, Doha, Qatar, Al Jazeera Forum. Speaker on “State Crisis and the Middle East.”’
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/02/upcoming-speaking-engagements/
Worst nightmare for European Union,
as French election could be between TWO candidates wanting Frexit
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/791408/French-election-European-Union-nightmare-two-candidates-want-Frexit
After weeks of polls predicting a showdown between Mrs Le Pen and Europhile socialist Emmanual Macron, Mr Melenchon has had a sudden surge in the polls after performing well in the television debates in the run up to the unpredictable election.
—–
I actually think a show down between the far left and far right, both very cautious about the benefits of the E.U.
would be rather refreshing for France and for the E.U.
Down and Dirty in France
How Marine Le Pen is facing wipe out in FRENCH election after COMPUTER BLUNDER
A MONUMENTAL computer blunder could cost Marine Le Pen the French general election as 500,000 citizens
living outside of France have the chance to vote TWICE.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/792112/Marine-Le-Pen-French-election-votes-computer-Emmanuel-Macron
I wonder who thought this wheeze up?
Half a million people received duplicate polling cards in the post, which would allow them to cast two votes at the first round of the election, held on April 23.
French authorities confirmed they would not be investigating the potential electoral fraud until AFTER the election, when retrospective prosecution may take place.
This could crush Ms Le Pen’s dreams of surging to power, as most French nationals living outside of their country are not right wing – demonstrated by the fact many feel they depend on the European Union (EU) to guarantee their stay in foreign countries.
The establishment are absolutely desperate for her not to win
as it would up-turn the E.U. apple-cart
It wouldn’t surprise me if this was deliberate but i can’t see it having an effect.
The individual benefit of casting an extra vote is close to zero. The risk of voting twice is substantial. Very few people will do so.
Remember what they did to D.S.K. last time.
I wouldn’t put anything past Hollande and his henchmen.
I still think there will be a massive false flag any day and Hollande will cancell the elections, cos they are in a State of Emergency.
Hollande then can rule as dictator.
Don’t often agree with you, Michael-but yes-I think that this could well be part of a larger plan.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/why-are-we-so-surprised-that-boris-johnson-lied-when-he-s-been-sacked-for-lying-twice-before-a7105976.html
The sarin in Syria was flown by drone from Jordan , which is totally controlled by Israel, from a joint Saudi and Israeli base which is used to support Al Qaida and Daesh.
Boris Johnson lied.
http://www.voltairenet.org/article195989.html
“It seems that the White House has folded under pressure from the British, who are determined to preserve at any cost the jihadist system that they have created”
Meanwhile the leader of the former opposition, who was created image by image in an animation studio modelled on Wallace and Grommet, has been replaced by a wax model of himself.
Giyane is Pakistan part of ‘political islam’?
Thierry Meyssan tunes back in – In “Sous nos Yeux” he wrote:
The behavior of our leaders seems to have become irrational: under the pretext of saving the Libyans from a dictator who could have killed them, we massacred 160,000; To overthrow the Syrian regime, we collaborated with al-Qaeda, while we accuse it of the September 11 attacks and we fight it in Mali; To defend the European peace project, we supported the Nazi coup d’état in Ukraine; Etc.
The world has become gloomy: since September 11, torture has become commonplace, states have been wiped out, more than a million refugees have rushed to Europe, more than three million people have been Killed by the Western wars, chaos settled in the wider Middle East. Apparently, for nothing.
Apprêtez-vous à vivre un choc.
Thierry Meyssan is a complete lunatic.
Readers should read up about him : West-hater, lover of every repressive regime on the planet provided it is anti-USA and anti-Western, conspiracy theorist.
Steve Bell is a genius:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/series/if
Lighten up folks, in more ways than one.
As Habby warns us: Do not go a whorin’ after false Gods…
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/04/14/exclusive-michigan-trump-voters-lose-faith-gone-far-now-wrong-way/
Children’s commissioner Tam Baillie calls for smacking ban
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39608086
he claimed that even children in Zimbabwe are better protected than those in Scotland.
Is it still April Fools Day?
This just shows the crass stupidity and casual racism of those masquerading as liberals and progressives.
Consider that the infant mortality rate in Zimbabwe is 25.9 deaths per 1,000 births. In Scotland the figure is 3.7 per 1,000 births. Still I guess you don’t need any protection if you are dead already
Who hired this person and what kind of of human being would want to pay his wages?
Given the now clearly apparent nature of Scottish Tory candidates shouldn’t they change their name from Scottish Conservatives to the British Defence League?
Will the mad madmen take us to MAD?
Turkey – on the brink – Sunday
*The Prime Minster’s office disappears in favour of a new vice president
*The President becomes head of government and state, but can maintain party political ties
*The President will be able to enact laws by decree and dismiss parliament
*Parliament will no longer be able to scrutinise ministers
*Parliament’s powers to investigate or impeach president will be limited
The no campaign says this would take Turkey back to the age of the all-powerful Sultans, and be the first step in destroying Turkish democracy, and replacing it with an authoritarian theocratic-leaning regime.
http://www.euronews.com/2017/04/13/turkish-referendum-result-could-make-or-break-erdogan
This is a ghastly man, who really does see himself as The Sultan of Turkey
So the most warmongering and murderous regime, (the USA) in the world, is threating or more appropriately meancing a tinpot dictator, in Kim Jong-Un.
Every president of the US, had laid down his marker with a war of his own, Trump is picking his targets. Trump is a stubborn fool, relying on his chief of staffs to advise him on how to get the huge military industrial complex machine moving.
Even his spokespersons appear amatuerish, Mike Spence’s inane blunder is on Hitler and the use of chemical weapons is a school boy error. These fools could lead us into a devastating war.
As for the sycophantic press, they’re hyping up the tension, between China, NK, the US and Russia. One has to wonder what China’s president Jingping makes of Trump, a clumsy fool, but a dangerous one possibly.
Watching press and media reports the focus, was on Trumps chocolate cake, and not the possibility of military action.
The West in my opinion, is complicit in following the Great Satan’s lead. You can see this being played out in Securtiy Council meeting, with Britain and the US especially, upping the propaganda rhetoric, and dubious accusations thrown around to boot.
All it takes for it to escalate, is a trigger happy Sergeant William Dyke, to fire the first shot.
Agree – Republicofscotland well said!
Scottish Tory branch office caught up yet again, in xenophobic remarks. This comes on the back of Ruth-less Davidson’s vile backing of the rape clause.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15226300.Scottish_Tories_engulfed_in_racism_scandal_with_at_least_seven_council_candidates_now_in_the_spotlight/
‘We are bringing a bad name to Islam’: Malala condemns Mashal’s lynching
“Malala lamented that some Pakistanis have forgotten the message of peace given by Islam, saying: “This was not just the funeral of Mashal Khan, it was the funeral of the message of our religion Islam.”
She said the Holy Prophet (PBUH) had never advised his followers to “be impatient and go around killing people”.
Malala said Pakistani people often complain about the presence of Islamophobia in the West and that other countries are “maligning our name”.
“No one is maligning the name of your country or religion… we ourselves are bringing a bad name to our country and religion,” she said.
https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2017/04/15/we-are-bringing-a-bad-name-to-islam-malala-condemns-mashals-lynching/
___________
1. Glad to hear her speaking out.
2. She is only partly right: the birth of Islam is rooted in violence.
3. That includes all kinds of physical violence like chopping off hands to jihad, and non-physical coercion.
4. It would be good to see her reject Islam.
5. The best possible silver lining about Islam is if people of all organised religions were to question and reject them all.
6. Most followers of religion think their religion is better than another’s.
_____________
Moreover, here’s an interview with Mashal Khan a day or so before he was lynched in the most horrific and barbarian of deaths. Can anyone translate this please or aid in that process? i imagine it’ll soon surface.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uf95l8_C_-g
Pakistan, is in my opinion a quasi-lawless state, which perscutes non Muslim sects. Even the politicians are far too afraid to rein in the perpetrators who carry out killings, they themselves are frequently murdered.
Those murders are almost always trumped up blasphemy charges. Malala, in my opinion hasn’t a hope in hell, of changing the fanatical religious attitudes that penetrate all aspects of Pakistani society.
RoS I appreciate your sentiments but there are no non-muslim sects left in Pakistan afaik. They are just a very sick and depraved society. I agree about “Malala, in my opinion hasn’t a hope in hell, of changing the fanatical religious attitudes that penetrate all aspects of Pakistani society.” Or anybody else for that matter. They make me sick to my stomach, especially when I think that they have the Islamic nuclear bomb and Saudi Arabia is a joint-venturer in that. This is one of the most nauseating facts of our times. and the root of much of the evil in the whole world today.
Craig’s ascription of people as evil is a teddy bears’ picnic relatively.
There are around 2.5 million Christians living in Pakistan (circa 2005).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Pakistan
It is fairly common to read stories of Pakistani Christians being gunned down or blown up leaving church, or lynched, or imprisoned awaiting a death sentence, over trumped up blasphemy laws, on hearsay accusations.
Mods , if you are there, please moderate these racist outbursts from Alcyone.
Here we go again . They don’t like it up ’em:
“RoS I appreciate your sentiments but there are no non-Jewish sects left in Israel afaik. They are just a very sick and depraved society. I agree about “ Netanyahu, in my opinion hasn’t a hope in hell, of changing the fanatical religious attitudes that penetrate all aspects of Israeli society.” Or anybody else for that matter. They make me sick to my stomach, especially when I think that they have the Israeli nuclear bomb and Saudi Arabia is a joint-venturer in that. This is one of the most nauseating facts of our times. and the root of much of the evil in the whole world today.”
On reflection Giyane, yours is a clearly motivated anti-semitic attack.
The Pakistanis are not a race, they are a mistake of a nation. Punjabis, Kashmiris and Sindhis straddle the India Pak border. The Baluchs the Iran-Afghan_pak borders, the Pathans the difficult Afghan-Pak border.
Address Malala’s point:
“No one is maligning the name of your country or religion… we ourselves are bringing a bad name to our country and religion,” she said.
Why don’t you?
Alcyone. Your words , not mine.
Pakistan is wholly the work of successive British Viceroys who, throughout the C20th, did everything that they could to prevent muslims and other Indians from uniting against the Empire.
The invented ‘crimes’ of the Soviet Union, the Hoax Holodomor, for example, are never forgotten on these boards but the living crimes of the British Empire, evidenced in the form of neo-wahhabi bigotry in Pakistan, the hatred in Palestine, in Sri Lanka and everywhere else (Guyana etc) that Britain ruled, is treated ‘as if it never happened.’ As if it were impossible for Tamils to live in peace with Ceylonese, or muslims to exist in Burma, or shia and sunni to live in harmony in the Gulf states and Iraq.
No regimes on earth have produced more lasting suffering than those which ran the British Empire. And this should be a cause, among us, for thought not moving on to project the crimes of the ruling class on others.
“Pakistan is wholly the work of successive British Viceroys who, throughout the C20th, did everything that they could to prevent muslims and other Indians from uniting against the Empire”
Bevin.
I agree that the British committed atrocities in India the Amritsar Massacre is one, and the Bengal Famine is another, and when they saw their “Indian Jewel” slipping out of their grasp around 1947/48, the conspired to divide the people, and create Pakistan.
However, from the 12th to the 16th century, the Muslim Mughal empire, established a ruthless and bloody empire across India, including what is now modern day Pakistan.
This is not true at all. The Mughal Empire would not have lasted long had it not been relatively benign in its treatment of the people.
It made, for example, much smaller demands on the peasant cultivator than the Empire came to do. Look up the Land Settlements in Bengal and Madras for example- the Ryots, thanks to the weird theories of Ricardo and Mill on rent, were expected to give the government well over half of their produce.
You appear to be basing your opinions on the imperialist histories which Scotsman like James Mill used to justify the empire and get themselves cushy jobs for life. For their sons too.
Good to read of the purity of the USSR and the unbridled evil of the British Empire. No-one could ever accuse you of over simplifying matters!!
Take a look at the crimes committed in East Timor and ask when was either Indonesia or East Timor part of the British Empire. Take a look at tensions between Han Chinese and Uighurs. What has that got to do with the British Empire?
Take a look at Chechnya and recall that the recent Stockholm carnage was inflicted by a man from Uzbekistan and that the St. Petersburg subway bombing was perpetrated by a national of Kyrgyzstan. Stockholm was never part of the British Empire and Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were all part of the joyous and wholly innocent USSR.
There is a common theme – but it is neither Britain nor her Empire. Can you guess what it is?
“There is a common theme – but it is neither Britain nor her Empire. Can you guess what it is?”
Emmm.
Proxy terrorism?
An old empire favourite.
Aren’t the Uighurs supported by the Western empire?
As are disruptive elements in Chechnya, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.
I’m sure Craig knows a bit about this.
bevin
“No regimes on earth have produced more lasting suffering than those which ran the British Empire”
The British empire always divides and rules even when it isn’t an empire, by being a he/she troll like Alcyone or lying when he/she is supposed to be helping the world like Boris Johnson.
It’s what the British do.
The kind of remark proffered by bevin and your comment on it are the products of one dimensional thinking, which if offered in other circumstances would be instantly seized upon as the product of a racist and xenophobic mindset.
How do you get away with writing off the slaughter of somewhere between 15 and 20 million Chinese during World War 2 and the approximately 45 million Chinese killed in Mao’s “Great Leap Forward”
Somewhere between 8 and 8 million Soviet citizens died in the famine of 1932-3. Estimates of deaths as a consequence of internal soviet repression are as high as 60 million.
Pol Pot killed approximately one third of the population of Cambodia.
It is estimated that as a consequence of Mongol aggression the population of Persia was reduced from 2.5 million to 250,000.
What has any of this got to do with the British? What an inane and puerile analysis that seeks to load responsibility for these rivers of blood onto the British. What a sneering, ignorant, and condescending argument to suggest that this staggering loss of human life pales into insignificance compared to the crimes of the British.
It would appear that your loathing for the British is matched only by your ignorance.
“What has any of this got to do with the British?”
Well.
Pol Pot was assisted by the British and US.
For a start.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2014/04/how-thatcher-gave-pol-pot-hand
Pol Pot was assisted by the British – but he did not kill at the behest of the British. That was entirely his decision and his responsibility (or perhaps also the Professors in the French university in which he was educated).
Anyway all stories need a start, a middle and an end – so why not address the totality of the comment and let us all know in what way Genghis Khan was acting as a British agent or exactly what hold the British had on Mao that made him kill all those people in the Great Leap Forward. Or maybe how the British forced the Spanish to voyage to the Americas and kill, destroy and pillage most of what they found there.
“Pol Pot was assisted by the British – but he did not kill at the behest of the British.”
He wiped out a traditional culture. That’s Western policy.
For the rest.
It’s not that complicated, Loony.
Genghis Khan was a long long time ago.
The West including Britain have been running the world for quite some time now.
They run the world’s institutions.
Their’s is the policy followed and whatever actions are needed to keep the policy on track is down to them.
This could change, of course.
I don’t blame the British people.
They’ve been run by continentals since the mid 1500s.
“Or maybe how the British forced the Spanish to voyage to the Americas and kill, destroy and pillage most of what they found there.”
Yeah. The Spanish, The French, The British, The Belgians, The Dutch.
It’s all the same thing, you see.
All these benefitted from investment from what is now northern Italy.
Along with the tricks of the trade, of course.
And of course Mao and China.
Yale in China, eh.
Rockefeller thought he was doing a great job.
Who created the Chinese tiger?
What you need to understand is that there has been only one world power for a while now.
What you’re seeing in the world today is the outworking of their policy.
Everyone else has adopted a defensive posture to that.
Loony: “Somewhere between 8 and 8 million Soviet citizens died in the famine of 1932-3. Estimates of deaths as a consequence of internal soviet repression are as high as 60 million.”
These figures are derived from anti-Soviet propagandists such as Robert Conquest. They have been refuted by serious historians so often that it is clear that, for those like Loony and Babbabkukk who love to cite them, the truth is irrelevant.
Most of this stuff originated in the John Birch Society’s propaganda which had free rein in much of the US media and was massively promoted by the CIA through its network of publications during the Cold War.
No doubt there are still those who believe in the German atrocities in Belgium, in 1914 and the hundreds of babies torn out of incubators by Iraqi troops in Kuwait. Such Loonies cannot expect to be taken seriously in public debates. They probably should not be allowed out without keepers accompanying them.
Loony.
Genghis Khan only turned against the Muslims because they killed his envoys , breaking universal custom and specifically Islamic law. A similar fate awaits those political Muslims who have murdered and disenfranchised millions of inhabitants of Libya, Syria , Pakistan, and Afghanistan by making a confederacy with the USUKIS superpower block. Terror is universally condemned and specifically breaks all Islamic law.
Sorry to be so multi-dimensional by seeing how arrogance has been crushed.
There is an understanding in the hadeeth of Islam that Syria and Saudi Arabia will be safe havens for believers as the world becomes less ordered. I have no doubt at all that political Islam thinks that it is the fulfilment of that prophecy by forcing practising Muslims against their will into conformity to their confederacy of Muslim-haters and themselves.
They are mistaken. This is the intention of the British dive and rulers, to make Islam so toxic that no-one in their right mind would consider engaging with its ideas. Right now I am working in student accommodation, in the bedrooms of the scantily dressed, highly educated, young ladies from across the world. If I followed my desires, I’d probably lose my job in one second. So why does the company choose someone whose religion informs them not to follow their desires?
The he/she troll Alcyone wrote above that Islam was extremely violent from the start. So how come our prophet SAW endured years of torture at the hands of the polytheists of Mecca? This disgusting enslaving of free women and slaughter of disbelievers followed many years of education to people who buried their daughters alive and feuded interminable over trivia. Sorry to break the one-dimensional view presented by the trolls.
Gordon Brown. New Labour donors. Labour First Ministers. PFI. Get the picture?
The reference must be to the enormous South Korean/CIA propaganda machine which spends millions annually inventing stories, of the ‘Uncle torn to pieces by mad dogs and fed to pet piranha fishes, later served to unsuspecting children, at Commie tyrant’s order’ sort.
Or it could be to the media which re-publishes them without making any effort to establish whether, for example, the said uncle is actually dining at the Eiffel Tower with the head of UNESCO.
There is much wrong with North Korea, I imagine, but it isn’t going to give up its hard won independence easily.
The BBC still avoiding the Scottish Tory candidates scandal. They made a mention of Ken MacBrayne on the web pages the other day. He’s so extreme they couldn’t ignore it. Nothing about the wider problem of several candidates disgracing themselves and the party. No mention on Radio Scotland.
If a candidate from a pro-independence party had said or tweeted anything even a tenth as vile as what these Tory candidates have said it would have been saturation coverage. It is all starting to be eerily reminiscent of Weimar Germany when illegality and vile behaviour by extremist activists on the right was tolerated, ignored or treated leniently by the authorities, while those on the left were scapegoated by those same supposedly democratic authorities.
BBC Radio Scotland Fraudcasting Daily On 92 – 95 FM.
I was looking on the BBC web site for news of Peter Wishart’s vile tweet and there was nothing about that either.
Pete Wishart’s tweet could be called silly, a bit immature and tasteless but also a bit funny. Based on the good guy/wank series of sketches in the TV comedy Chewin’ The Fat. He insulted no individual. Just had a go at some political parties. You might not like it. Fair enough. But it could hardly be called vile.
Compare that to Tory Ken MacBrayne’s truly appalling online comments that called for violence against the First Minister. There is no comparison.
It can be called vile and I have seen it called vile.
I read of Ken MacBrayne on the BBC web site a few days ago, quite rightly they published it and quite rightly he was immediately suspended from the Conservative party.
Peter Wishart’s vile tweet on the other hand has been ignored by the BBC and ignored by the SNP. Does Nicola Sturgeon think such behaviour is acceptable from a Member of Parliament? Why does the BBC publish the indiscretions of Conservative council candidates but ignores those of SNP MPs?
Perhaps because on tweet was about a specific individual, with no link to humour whatsoever, while the other was not about a specific individual and was an attempt at humour – although the latter was a complete ‘fanny’ (link to humour in the same programme) to post such a tweet in this sensitive climate.
As an aside, I suspect there are more ‘wanks’ than ‘good guys’ in all political parties. Unfortunately, this isn’t an attempt at humour.
fred
Several Scottish Tory candidates with links to Britain First or the BNP. One Tory candidate saying online that Angela Merkel should be hanged for being pro-Muslim. Another telling Muslims to “shut your whingeing mouths”. And Ken MacBrayne’s numerous vile comments regarding violence against Nicola Sturgeon.
And the BBC pretending it’s not happening apart from a low key web page report of MacBrayne’s comments which they could not be seen to ignore completely otherwise it would have made their unionist bias just too obvious.
So you want to compare all that with an SNP MP putting the word wank after Liberal Democrat as a joke. Really Fred?
I’m asking why it wasn’t reported by the BBC? I’m damned sure if a Labour or Conservative MP had posted anything like that on twitter it would have been headline news and they would have been disciplined by their parties yet SNP MPs seem to get away with it. Another case of BBC pro-Nationalist bias.
Probably because they thought it was too silly to report.
Right wing extremism in the Scottish Tories however is too serious to ignore, which is what the BBC is generally doing.
I have followed MPs from other parties on twitter and I have never seen anything like it. They treat other politicians with respect, even SNP politicians who have, let’s face it, done nothing to earn any respect.
Blatant BBC bias that’s what it is, the SNP have IRA sympathisers and Settler Watch terrorists as candidates and extreme right Putin supporters as activists while their MP posts disgusting comments about the other parties on twitter and it all goes unreported.
Talking of North Korea Bernhard at Moon of Alabama has an explanation of the root problem
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/04/the-reason-behind-north-koreas-nuclear-program-and-its-offer-to-end-it.html#more.
It is worth reading. And thinking about. It makes a pleasant chamnge from the MSM.
“BEIJING, March 8 (Xinhua) — China proposed “double suspension” to defuse the looming crisis on the Korean Peninsula, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.
“As a first step, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) may suspend its nuclear and missile activities in exchange for the suspension of large-scale U.S.-Republic of Korea (ROK) military exercises,” Wang told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People’s Congress.
…
“Wang said the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula is mainly between the DPRK and the United States, but China, as a next-door neighbor with a lips-and-teeth relationship with the Peninsula, is indispensable to the resolution of the issue.
“FM Wang, ‘the lips’, undoubtedly transmitted an authorized message from North Korea: “The offer is (still) on the table and China supports it.”
“North Korea made the very same offer in January 2015. The Obama administration rejected it. North Korea repeated the offer in April 2016 and the Obama administration rejected it again. This March the Chinese government conveyed and supported the long-standing North Korean offer. The U.S. government, now under the Trump administration, immediately rejected it again. The offer, made and rejected three years in a row, is sensible. Its rejection only led to a bigger nuclear arsenal and to more missiles with longer reach that will eventually be able to reach the United States.
“North Korea is understandably nervous each and every time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large yearly maneuvers and openly train for invading North Korea and for killing its government and people. The maneuvers have large negative impacts on North Korea’s economy.
“North Korea justifies its nuclear program as the economically optimal way to respond to these maneuvers.
“Each time the U.S. and South Korea launch their very large maneuvers, the North Korean conscription army (1.2 million strong) has to go into a high state of defense readiness. Large maneuvers are a classic starting point for military attacks. The U.S.-South Korean maneuvers are (intentionally) held during the planting (April/May) or harvesting (August) season for rice when North Korea needs each and every hand in its few arable areas. Only 17% of the northern landmass is usable for agriculture and the climate in not favorable. The cropping season is short. Seeding and harvesting days require peak labor.
“The southern maneuvers directly threaten the nutritional self-sufficiency of North Korea. In the later 1990s they were one of the reasons behind a severe famine. (Lack of hydrocarbons and fertilizer due to sanctions as well as a too rigid economic system were other main reasons.)…”
Those who prefer to cherish the “rogue state” “run by madmen” “unpredictable” myths are, of course, welcome to do so. It would assist humanity, however, if they kept their fantasies to themselves.
Forum-sliding Bevs with your foot-long copy-pastes.? (We do know how to click on links you know.) Now answer this one from Loony, in reply to yours, if you can. Pull your weight.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/04/media-tory-lies-stripped-bare-ashcroft-poll/comment-page-5/#comment-668445
The answer is very simple. In general it is no refutation of my argument regarding the British Empire to point out that other enormities have occurred elsewhere.
More specifically in the case of East Timor the Indonesian invasion was cleared with the British and US governments in advance, both supplied the Indonesians with weapons and ammunition. Both used their propaganda machines to defend the Suharto regime-which they installed- from international criticism. Read Chomsky on the matter.
So far as Indonesia is concerned, there is no doubt that the killing of about a million supporters of the PKI during and after the Suharto coup followed detailed instructions and lists supplied by British Intelligence in Singapore and the CIA.
As to Central Asia, Craig has written about the Great Game-this is its venue-and Britain was a major player in it for more than two centuries. Tension between the Han Chinese and various minorities, including Tibetans, has never been unrelated to western attempts to destabilise China from the west.
Regarding Chechens, the British envoy in Constantinople, David Urquhart, was supplying the resistance to Russia long before the Crimean War.
This support for Chechen ‘independence’ continued into the 1990s and probably still goes on.
Perhaps you and Loony could do a bit of basic reading before asking questions that, if not every, most schoolboys know the answers to. You might want to look up Sir Stamford Raffles on the matter of British involvement in Indonesia. Then there is Joseph Conrad…
Excellent news here.
Neil Clark has started legal proceedings against Oliver Kamm and The Times
Following a large donation Neil has reached his target and posted this today:
‘Thank you to everyone who has helped me reach my target of £10,000 to enable me to start legal action against my obsessed stalker and his complicit employers. I have instructed my lawyers to start proceedings. This has been a long time in coming, but thanks to your help I can now do what my stalker and serial defamer and his employers clearly believed that I would never be able to afford to do.’
https://fundrazr.com/41BlC1
Background on here. http://neilclark66.blogspot.co.uk/
So Iraq is cooperating with the Syrian airforce to bomb Islamic State
but America bombs Syrian airforce – not Islamic State,
anyone got any eXplanations?