SECOND UPDATE The BBC has celebrated the lifting of election fair reporting restrictions by giving us a full morning of broadcasting that genuinely is 85% Tory. I find this astonishing. Following the Tory commentariat conversation that opened the show (see below), Andrew Neil has now done long individual interviews with three Tory MPs in a row – the Chair of the 1922 Committee, Anna Soubry and the smarmy Dominic Raab.
ORIGINAL POST
The BBC is institutionally incapable of reacting to the shift in the political spectrum revealed by the last election.
Astonishingly on Marr the papers are being reviewed by Toby Young (far right), George Osborne (right) and Polly Toynbee (Blairite right ). The old politico/commentariat bubble is entirely intact as far as the BBC is concerned. We are going to have Michael Fallon in a minute.
Finally, Jeremy Corbyn will be invited on. He is the one person who articulates what half the country believes, and whose existence the BBC cannot entirely ignore. But the straining and stressing as the BBC try to heave the Overton window back into place is palpable.
UPDATE
Wow the BBC is really going for broke now with The Daily Politics and a review of events between “independent” commentators Andrew Neil (Tory) Julia Hartley Brewer (Tory) Tom Newton Dunn (Tory, Political Editor of Murdoch’s Sun) and Steve Richards (Blairite). Followed by an interview with a member of the Tory 1922 Committee. Followed by another Tory MP!
The Guardian/Observer on the other hand might be struggling to come up with some sort of readjustment towards the views of its readership and away from the worst of the truly obnoxious overpaid right-wingers who dominate the paper. They are, in their Sunday guise of the Observer, carrying another barking mad article from Nick Cohen attacking Jeremy Corbyn. Cohen of course to this day maintains the Iraq War was a good thing and is horrified anybody should prosper who does not agree with him. But, given the extraordinary amounts of money they pay him for these witterings, they are peculiarly hiding it. Their star columnist’s new column today appears nowhere at all on their massive website front page. It did fleetingly, but has been well and truly buried.
(I do realise you can’t read that. I just posted it to show I had looked through the entire thing).
Here’s a video of Dimbleby rolling his eyes in a classic display of arrogance during a short interview with Emily Thornberry, who reasonably asked him why he accuses Labour of coalition chaos but didn’t pose the same to any Tory. It tells you all you need to know about the BBC’s bias and in particular this now way-beyond-retirement “journalist”:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2017/jun/09/emily-thornberry-gets-spiky-with-david-dimbleby-video
Not to mention the Guardians tag line – ”thornberry gets spiky with david”
All at the trough.
Emily Thornberry is pretty damned good!
Yes i take the point but what is interesting is that Emily has the nerve to speak back. Confidence in these things is everything, and the main benefit of the May humiliation ( blessed is the lord-I speak as a non believer but some things ae just hard to explain) is the restoration of the guts to talk back to these ‘entitled’ people. They are not superhuman although they like to seems so.
i look forward to a re-setting of the position of the broadcast media. My feeling is that the majority of BBC presenters are just narciussistic, sycophantic arse lickers. If the Labour party were in a dominant position. Andrew Neil would have his tongue out for the purpose of making sure of the ‘cleanest’ presentation of the ruling party. It is a very subtle process. I can’y actually get my head around how it works but it is definitely a part of the make-up of the human mind.
for varuous reasons completely unrelated to any particular interest, I remember hearing and following avidly all the reporting re Andrew Giliigan and the run up to the Iraq war. There was a strange moment when the BBC lost its position of relatively objective reporting and was ‘obliged’ to re-focus on the propagandist part of their function. Greg Dyke was ‘removed’. I don’t think the BBC has managed to re-assert its independence since then. It was a key moment.
“Yes i take the point but what is interesting is that Emily has the nerve to speak back. Confidence in these things is everything”
Yeah, but she’s posh.
Much more so than Dumbleberry, who’s only fake posh.
That’s where the confidence comes from.
Surprised media weren’t spinning it as “women puts cheeky man in his place”.
That’s the usual line for things such as this.
It’s not that she is posh, but simply that she is a calm focused clear thinking barrister with a life beyond politics. She is good news for Corbyn.
Emily Thornberry – aka (but not at election time 🙂 Lady Dugee – is posh ‘ma non troppo’.
What is true is that she displays the typical patrician confidence and sense of (political) entitlement which is the characteristic of so many upper-middle class Socialists, combined with an inability to recognise that anyone could possibly know better than she does.
Oh, that patronising smile when challenged 🙂
I don’t care whether Thornberry is posh or not. Of all the Labour front bench she is the clearest thinking, by far the most articulate and has an easy, relaxed delivery. Of course that would be worth nothing without convictions to match, but her convictions are I think honest. Compare and contrast with Yvette Cooper, who has never been known to answer a straight question with a straight answer in a single interview.
Interesting to see Cooper shoving herself forward (Guardian today, many others last few) but still a mlllion miles from apologising to Corbyn for her rabid and repeated knifings of him over a period of two years. Corbyn faces many dilemmas and she must be the worst. I would rather have Abbott, for all her arithmetical fumblings, than this exemplar of blind, selfish, house flipping narcissism.
Did you enjoy Farron’s filibuster of Brillo Pad?
I did enjoy it actually. I thought Neil was going to spontaneously combust!
I hope Farron does it to the Bear from Bo’ Selecta! (aka Nick Robinson) next. ;o)
In some cases the intimidation is much less subtle and I think the attack on Andrew Giligan and Dyke was one of them. Another one was when MI 5 smashed the Guardian’s computers after the wekileaks revelation. The Guardian radically changed to a pre establlishment rag since then.
Never realized what nasty piggy eyes he has. Sorry pigs.
The 21st century has been, so far, the century of unintended consequences and that is why Trump became the potus, May the PM, the peoples mandate to Parliament to leave the EU, Scotland still a member of the Kingdom and why Corbyn may well be the next PM.
The common factor in all these outcomes, and the destruction of the Middle East is the incompetent use of propaganda. (lies and false flags fueled the revolt). Ironically the perpetual wars work in the US’s favour (making money, increases control and making more money)
The MSM helped all these thing to come about; lies, fake news, hysterical commentary, pathological bias, deliberate fake leaks and more lies; that more and more people are recognising for what they are
The internet has provided an antidote but now our security services infect it with the same incompetence they deploy to to manage public perception from media sources. The public have lost trust!
Corbyn really does not want no. 10 for another 2 years but the likes of Cohen will ensure he gets there.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/10/i-was-wrong-about-jeremy-corbyn-still-doubt-him
NB security services and government communication desks; if Corbyn is hit by further toxic conspiracies, if he succumbs to debilitating illness or if he falls off a mountain / commits suicide with a penknife then your bolts may well be shot.
@Peter – We have watched both MI5 and MI6 intervene in this election against Jeremy Corbyn.[*] The upper echelon of the parliamentary Tory party is now in terrible disarray, and in the course of the next week they may find they have nobody they can viably put in as prime minister.
In these circumstances, the murder of Jeremy Corbyn or his effective removal by illness is indeed a possibility.
One would have to be naive not to suspect that the terror attacks in Manchester and London, claimed by a state (Daesh) that receives funding from the Tories’ Saudi friends, were not intended to serve an electoral purpose. In the Tory echo chamber, and also in the UDA, Corbyn is a security risk whereas the Tories are “sound”. This is where the Tory Jeremy Paxman was coming from when he accused Corbyn of not liking the monarch. This is where CCHQ was coming from when it instructed that the standard canvassing tactic against the flakier of intending Labour voters was to assert that Corbyn was an “IRA supporter”. As soon as the election was announced, Tories at all levels were drooling like attack dogs at the thought of running a vicious campaign against Corbyn. Little did they realise that most people in mainland Britain don’t give a shit about the IRA. They were amazed when they found that their “Corbyn is a traitor” and “come to the Tories in time of trouble” propaganda didn’t work. For this reason – and I hope I’m right – another terror attack in the near future for party political purposes is unlikely.
But the same doesn’t apply to the removal of one or two specific individuals.
What has already been done to Diane Abbott? Remember that she said “Diabetes, in itself, would not stop me doing Woman’s Hour.” So what did? (Theresa May is also diabetic.)
(*) MI5: when MI5 files on Corbyn are referred to in the billionaire Tory press and MI5 itself makes no comment, that is MI5 involvement. One also saw a number of instances of activity during the election campaign by individuals with long records in the Northern Ireland security forces, with Protestant paramilitaries, or both. MI6: Richard Dearlove isn’t free to open his mouth as he sees fit, and if MI6 weren’t happy with what he said they would have told us.
I see Nick Cohen enlists Thangam Debonnaire to his cause. Her constituency voting figures are:
2015 Miliband election: Votes 22,900, majority 5,673
2017 Corbyn election : Votes 47,213, majority 37,336
What the BBC does wouldn’t be important if we didn’t pay licence tax (subscription only would be OK) and it was covered by FOI laws, but it’s not, and it didn’t have the spurious Charter to hid behind.
The BBC are doing a wonderful job discrediting themselves and helping Corbyn to power. Leave them alone!
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_did_the_director_of_news_kno#comment-42431
Peter I have an FOI response with the same wording received February this year. It was in answer to a request asking why a report by BBC Russia’s Olga Ivshina regarding MH17 was aired and immediately taken down because it did not fit the official narrative. I blogged about it here.
https://johnplatinumgoss.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/bbc-takes-down-its-own-report/
All the text from “The information you have requested is excluded . . .” up to “. . . handle requests for information under the Act.” is the same as in the BBC’s answer to yours. And all the text from “Appeal Rights . . .” to “. . . Yours sincerely” is the same too.
It has clearly been written by the BBC’s legal department and is obviously standard and something from which whoever answers the FOI cannot deviate. While yours was signed by Noelle Britton mine was signed by Jeremy Hayes.
I intend to do a follow-up piece on this MH17 story but I am waiting for the right moment.
As so few people read my blog the effort is often not worth the candle.
Without a doubt John
“It has clearly been written by the BBC’s legal department and is obviously standard and something from which whoever answers the FOI cannot deviate.”
But they are digging deeper whilst they’re still in the hole.
I had thought Trump had coined “Fake News” I now realise I was wrong
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2013/10/fake-bbc-video/
They make stuff up, they report news before it happens and fake narratives.
Good value? Depends on which side of the truth you are on.
Criminals! Pure and Simple!
I remember too that exposure of Craig’s Peter regarding the BBC and fake chemical weapons news. They must have been doing this, one way or another, since Logie Baird’s first transmission. Thanks to social media we all know it now.
Put it on TLN
The BBC has also been a promoter of the White Helmets and in whitewashing the terrorist Islamists in Syria just because they oppose the current Syrian Government.
The non-political arm of the BBC, if such a thing exists, still produces decent, and sometimes good, programmes – especially Radio 4. My swipes are aimed at the specific political content. It is not just the presenters who are biased. If you look at the editors you’ll find an even more obvious Tory slant.
Yet it has to be faced that the vast majority of “BBC Bias” websites and blogs are in fact right wingers accusing them of left wing bias. The two cannot both be true, unless you somewhat adjust the accusation to be “The BBC is baised towards the establishment”, which is certainly true. I take the establishment to mean the Monarchy, MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Oxbridge, The Information Commissioner, The Judicial System, HMRC, most of the Military, The FCO, the Home Office, The Treasury, and by extension large corporations, the City, and of course the Press.
..And another worrying development. Many Labour blogs and left leaning tweeters are now using George Osborne’s “she’s a walking dead woman” as an opportunity to exploit those words AS THOUGH he was on their side, while forgetting that he’ll say anything he can to avoid facing his sacking for screwing the economy. The left needs to be more careful about manufacturing allies that do not exist.
Yes, it’s funny how many on here used to badmouth George Osborne until he started badmouthing Theresa May, isn’t it.
“many on here”. And nothing’s changed. You’re being naughty. Why not offer your wise counsel to those other blogs instead ?.
And in very poor taste sounding very much bearing a personal grudge. But loyalty to a party is another thing, as is teamwork. Don’t expect the Tories to fall to Labour’s summer of 2016 levels.
Leonard,
Don’t be daft we on the left are enjoying the schadenfrued of one idiotic Tory kicking another idiotic Tory.
Yes – I’M on the left too mate. I DO get it. But Gideon is beyond the pale whatever he says.
Old cop trick.
Let them fight amongst themselves for a while.
Wear eachother out.
Then you come in fresh and take over.
US tactics in both world wars.
George’s positive characteristic is his snarl and indifference to fake shiny PR smiley faces. It’s good he has taken up journalism. It suits him just as PR suited Cameron.
As for the non-political arm of the BBC programming, I must admit that much as I loathed Portillo as a politician, he has become an excellent TV and radio presenter for the BBC on subjects ranging from railways to meercats and beyond.
Nice of former head of MI6 Richard Dearlove, recently also retired from his Cambridge sinecure, to tell us that Jeremy Corbyn wouldn’t have passed MI5 vetting. What would he say about the chances of billionaire oligarch Evgeny Lebedev’s chum Boris Johnson?
Richard Dearlove was never in MI%, just a supporter of what Christopher Andrew falsely wrote about the Security Service.
MI5 let chjef Soviert spy Peter Wright run it until he ran out of gas.
Guess Corbyn is not enough of a covert lefty to pass now.
It’s pathetic scaremongering on dearlove’s part. He’s got a f**cking cheek, he’d support the elected government or resign.
Wasn’t Dearlove one of SIS’s hardl liners who would have gotten us all killed in that March 1986 showdown with the USSR if it had not been for all those spies leaking details about it to Mowcow?
Well, well!
‘Sir Richard is a signatory of the Henry Jackson Society principles. He is also a “senior advisor” to the Monitor Group – a consultancy and private equity firm which has been implicated in undertaking PR work for Libya and Muammar Gaddafi. In April 2013, it was announced that Dearlove joined the advisory board of Ergo, an intelligence and advisory firm.’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dearlove
Says it all.
On 8 June 2017, Dearlove intervened on the day of the 2017 UK general election in the The Daily Telegraph claiming “how profoundly dangerous it would be for the nation if Jeremy Corbyn becomes Prime Minister.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/07/jeremy-corbyn-danger-nation-mi6-led-wouldnt-clear-security-vetting/
How dangerous Dearlove is for the nation, we are not allowed to surmise.
Yeah, always best to remember that these guys are speaking for corporate interests.
For money.
Marr’s Twitter is full of the stuff.
https://twitter.com/marrshow?lang=en
The programme this morning.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08vdjk2/the-andrew-marr-show-11062017
I do admire Jeremy for the way in which he deals with Marr and types like him.
The neocons aren’t going to let go of their greasy ball just yet, but they are letting it slip. This is why I was so delighted even on the results of the exit poll at 10:00pm on Thursday night. Jeremy Corbyn has changed everything. I sometimes disagree with Alexander Mercouris, and I do know a little of his history (barrister – struck off). However, I think he is spot on with his analysis here.
“Corbyn’s success in the British election ends Britain’s involvement in neocon regime change wars”
http://theduran.com/british-election-deals-massive-blow-neocon-warmakers/
Extract
“The result of these years of unbending opposition to neocon and neoliberal policies is that Jeremy Corbyn has earned for himself the pathological hatred of Britain’s entire political class, first and foremost of the Blairite establishment of his own party.
The fact that Jeremy Corbyn in the face of all this hatred now stands within two percentage points of becoming Prime Minister of Great Britain whenever the next British election happens, is a political fact of enormous significance.
Already this is having a practical effect. With the immense authority Corbyn has achieved by winning 40% of the vote in an election in which the political class were convinced he would crash, and in which he has deprived the Conservative government of its majority, there is now no possibility of Britain joining in any more neocon and regime change wars.”
It just goes to show, how two-faced a flip flop Ruth Davidson really is, that she’s okay with her boss Theresa May’s loose alliance with a staunchly anti-gay party, as long as they’re pro-union.
You won’t hear Davidson complain that the DUP’s Ian Paisley jr, infamously once said that he was repulsed by gay people, and described them as offensive and obnoxious.
Nor is Davidson the slightest bit concerned that key figures of the DUP, were former members of the (UR) Ulster Resistance. A loyalist paramilitary organisation set up to “protect” Ulster.
I doubt that Davidson will fret over 157 page report into the infamous Loughinisland massacre in 1994, that saw the weapons used in the murders traced back to the (UR).
No Davidson and her band of nasty Tories, will flip flop again and again, as long as it benefits her boss at Westminster and maintains the union.
I agree, what sort of a person would get into bed with the DUP, have they no principles?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-30424810/alex-salmond-snp-could-work-with-sinn-fein-or-dup
63% of voters in Scotland supported Unionist parties on Thursday. The independence issue has subsided. The reason Ruth Davidson is being talked about a lot is to promote her as possible British Tory leader. When a new election is called, which could well be within the next week or so, it’s obvious that the Tories will no longer be led by Theresa May. She may not even survive the meeting of the 1922 committee tomorrow.
Could be tricky having a PM that wasn’t an MP.
LOL
The independece issue has not subsided, and I agree with Craig’s recent post which claimed that the mistake the SNP made was sidelining, or at the very least, softening the independence stance rather than keeping it at the top of the agenda.
A lot of Yes voters would have voted for Corbyn this time.
It would not be in their interests to call an election until they have a new “populist” leader in place.
I agree Fred, it would be a big mistake for the SNP. They should concentrate on independence and the Scottish electorate.
Infact I and I suspect many others, don’t want the SNP to take up their Westminster seats. By doing so it only adds to Westminster’s credibility.
Nationalist MP’s, shouldn’t go to Westminster, sometimes they become too comfortable, and desensitised to often cruel bills pushed forward by the Tory government.
RoS
Re your last paragraph, I disagree. SNP MPs have done tremendous work on various issues since 2015. Look at Mhairi Black’s work on pensions. There are many other examples too.
Right, Fred, there are other concerns than having national independennce, like having a Protestant Republic in this day and age, proscriibing amnyone, like Catholics, gays and other alleged trash
Ian Paisley Jnr is obviously a repressed homosexual. J
Is that speaking as a professional psychotherapist John? As my friend Habby would say, would you like to tease that out a bit?
Dead man, J Krishnamurti, talking:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h55TMI4zP10&list=PLfmo22Z–KLKKsTZgQIdu8rBWS8qRj4yz
PS In case my friend IrishU is reading, I would love to hear your thoughts on the present dynamics.
Hello Alcyone,
I should start with saying that I have no time for the DUP and I personally find their brand of unionism both repellent and extremely counter-productive to the aim of keeping Northern Ireland within the Union. That said, the reaction of some in the British media, on social media and on this blog is hilarious – a mixture of hyperbole and total misunderstanding of politics in Northern Ireland, particularly comments about the DUP’s modern connection with the UDA.
Moving on, and briefly, the results from Thursday’s election represents both an opportunity and a threat to Northern Ireland. The opportunity – well, this one is the easier of the two to explain. By having an increased voice at Westminster, the DUP can extract beneficial concessions during the negotiations leading up to Brexit. Even though the DUP supported Brexit, there is considerable disquiet about the effects this will have on Northern Ireland, the loss of CAP subsidies (Ulster’s farmers tend to vote unionist and overwhelmingly DUP), the loss of EU infrastructure monies and the negative effect on trade if a ‘hard’ border came into being with the South. If the DUP can secure extra money from the Treasury to look after their farmers and build some more roads then they will look good back home and it will help with the next Assembly election.
The threat to Northern Ireland comes from the increased polarisation of politics here, out of eighteen constituencies only one, North Down, was not won by either the DUP or the abstentionist Sinn Fein. Increased political polarisation is not needed and it deals a further blow to the likelihood of resurrecting power-sharing at Stormont in the near future. Furthermore, if the Tories are dependent upon the support of the DUP to remain in office then there must be significant doubts concerning the impartiality of the British Government during the talks aimed at restoring devolution in Northern Ireland.
That, with another Guardian/Observer piece, informs us that the Blairite counter-revolution has begun:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/peter-hyman-labour-election-corbyn
We’re back to the interesting notion that Blair could have won hands down without the support base Corbyn inspired…doubtless because his corporate-friendly policies would have bought the media off. Not so sure Murdoch would concur. Whatever, it’s now clear that Tony will not be forming a new party, especially as the Libdems have gained seats and look a damn sight more centrist than Tony ever did. Instead, he’ll subvert Labour to the worst of his ability, as before.
So a steady drip of anti-Corbyn briefing will now commence, particularly in the Graun, Independent and BBC, with trumpets sounding from the other side in the Standard.. Within the month, but not too soon, The Institute For Tony Blair’s proprietor will issue some damning faint praise alongside a faux-self-deprecating ‘I am not worthy, dudes’ and insights as to wot you gotta do to win in 2020….abandon all principle, woo some billionaires, and surge to the Right.
Mystic Ba’al out.
From a speech by a DUP leader in November 1985:
“Oh God, we call upon Thee, we pray this night, that Thou wouldst deal with the Prime Minister of our country (…) In the name of the Blessed Thyself, Father, Son and Holy Ghost – we hand this woman, (the Tory prime minister) over to the Devil that she might learn not to blaspheme. We pray that the world may learn a lesson through her fall and through the igonominy to which she shall be brought. Oh God, in wrath, take vengeance upon this wicked, trecherous, lying woman.”
Here are your allies, Tory scum!
And another corking speech by a DUP leader.
pleased to see you made it on GlobalResearch .com I love that site. Oh and yours too..
Wings Over Scotland have posted the latest of the Journey To Yes films. And it’s none other than former Scottish Labour spin doctor Simon Pia.
Forget Thursdays vote. The Yes movement encompasses so much more than SNP support. We go on from here. We go on to win independence.
reel guid.
Yes, the Scottish independence movement, is a broad church.
And lots of soft unionists waiting to be converted. Wanting to be converted.
True, but watching some of ITV’s election night coverage was a shock. It was virtually 100% about the Tory party and May’s failure to secure a majority, Labour simply didn’t feature. Much as I recognize huge BBC bias, ITV seemed exponentially worse.
ITN hasn’t shown any news since 1981.
Blair castrated the BBC in 2003 because they produced evidence that he was lying about Saddam’s WMD. This 2017 election has not just castrated him, but de-fenestrated his bid to scoop up brownie points from Corbyn’s predicted demise. Corbyn is the elected leader of the UK. It’s only a matter of time before the right-wing status quo, the landowners, the press, and Blair’s fellow castrators of public opinion, gives in to the reality that the British people don’t want them. We can do it the easy way, or you could find Jeremy Corbyn making Mrs May a laughing stock by defeating her at every turn in parliament and leave her gibbering at PMQ. Not surprising that the status quo are becoming more falsetto. Soon they will be at bat pitch, undetectable to normal human ears.
No. Those people don’t give a rat’s turd what the British people want. Even if the British people (as a whole, or some simulacrum thereof) knew what it was. The elites will not accept the current state of affairs. Plan accordingly.
No Thatchler murdered TradBBC in the late 80s.
The debate on Brexit has thus far focused on the fortunes of the world’s most indulged spoilt child – i.e. the West. It is the West which has cynically tried to keep all the goodies for itself and has put up all manner of trade barriers to that end. This is why I want to see a world trading system that is totally free from any restrictions or barriers, as it is the only way in which the Third World will be allowed to catch up in terms of prosperity and living standards. The EU and, especially in the field of food policies, the US have been major obstacles to this, which is why I have been opposed to both for a very long time. The Third World badly need two things: (a) tax-free access to the Northern hemisphere for their food products, and (b) inward investment which will create millions of jobs and start the multiplier effect that increases living standards. This inward investment should come through a partnership between the public and private sectors. The income derived from their agricultural products will help to build up the funds needed for this purpose. So what I am advocating is a hybrid free trade/Keynesian stimulus policy, which is difficult to realise as long as the West remains as short-sighted and antagonistic towards the Third World as it currently is. Unfortunately no political party will grasp this particular nettle – no votes in it, see? – so I remain very pessimistic about the future. Protectionism never works, as Trump will find out to his cost if he ever gets to implement the tariff policy on which he staked so much of his political capital during the election campaign.
How would you propose to persuade BIS IMF World Bank etc to not only see things your way, but to change their mo in order to achieve a fairer world order?
In order to make progress (something that I assume progressives wish to make) it is necessary to dismantle the EU. This can most obviously be achieved by the British acting as a battering ram to smash and destroy the main institutions of EU power. Contemporaneously NATO needs to be dismantled – and in this regard Trump continues to offer hope.
The ambition of Trump is so great in scope that either he will likely fail or be forced into some form of compromise. Either outcome should (when viewed in the context of the perilous state of the overall US economy) lead to a fatal undermining of the role of the US$ as the world reserve currency.
In aggregate all of these things should provide the space for the creation of a more multi polar world with Russia, China, the US and Europe all operating as independent entities and each with a proportional degree of influence on the world stage.
All of this would fatally undermine the hegemonic ambitions of entities such as the BIS, the IMF and the World Bank and hence, if they continue to exist at all, then they will exist in order to support the needs and interests of the people as a whole.
Forces are in play that add momentum to all of the things described. The main risks to a successful resolution are twofold. The extreme character traits of those with their hands on the levers of power – they may well prefer a species ending war to relinquishing power and influence. Not much can be done about this beyond a popular demand that the law be applied to all and that criminals be investigated, prosecuted and punished. That people like Tony Blair continue to walk free suggests that this is more hope than expectation.
The second main risk is the abject weakness of the mass of the citizenry in the west. Either they are completely ignorant of reality preferring instead to commemorate the dead with songs about “dick bicycles and wrist icicles” or they demand results without ever being prepared to pay the price necessary to obtain those results. Always looking to blame someone else and never prepared to accept any form of personal responsibility.
Sure a lot of things – like dismantling NATO are beyond the control or direct influence of the individual, but a lot things are not. No-one has forced the population of the UK to acquire 1.3 mobile phones per head of population. They have done this themselves and they alone are responsible for their own greed and demand for ever increasing consumption of substantially everything.
Even here people endlessly complain about the BBC – never acknowledging that they voluntarily choose to engage with the BBC and voluntarily choose to fund the BBC. Marginal economics means that only a small percentage of people need to abandon financing the BBC and the whole rotting edifice will collapse. Some people, especially the young, seem to be moving away from any form of reliance on the BBC. This offers some hope. Whether it is sufficient to offset the seemingly religious devotion to the cult of stupidity worshiped by so many remains to be seen.
How people must disappoint you, having minds and desires of their own, and not your fundamentalist tendencies.
If you have a mind and a desire for a species ending war at least have the honesty to say so out loud. Banal sniping may serve to massage your own ego, but beyond that your point is both inane and insane.
I find your caricature of people and what they think inane. That is my point.
Thank You for what I regard as a balanced analysis Loony. You’ve covered all the bases as well as can be expected. I don’t for one nano second underestimate the potential either way, although I do sense a glimmer of optimism when I look at the attempts toward a multipolar world from this side of the globe (SCO etc) but I’m also -as are many others here-inheritors of the legacies of WWll. Those of us who grew up in the shadows of the bombings of Rotterdam Dresden and London etc and have wanted nothing more than world peace ever since – I know it starts within 🙂
Even POTUS Trump has given up on May, canceling his visit because it would likely spark large protests.
The draft dodger is not big on courage.
Gove is the new Environment Secretary.
Michael Gove on the environment:
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11858/michael_gove/surrey_heath/votes#environment
IOW, not a clue. Keep ’em coming, Theresa!
Let’s have another one then..The current Tory mess can’t form a government. They all hate each other’s guts.
“Labour now has a six-point lead over the Tories, new poll finds ”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-lead-theresa-may-conservatives-tories-survation-poll-general-election-a7784171.html
Apologies for posting this here, but thought it worth posting.
Those lawyers accused of making up false claims re Iraq war compensation claims have been cleared of all charges:
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2017/jun/09/law-firm-leigh-day-cleared-over-iraq-compensation-claims
Thanks. The verdict, as much as anything, demonstrates that there is still justice of a kind, and integrity in the legal profession. It was one solicitor who was responsible for the misjudgment, Shiner, and he has been struck off. I hope Leigh Day, a Birmingham firm, continue to pursue allegations of torture against whoever has committed it.
“…the misjudgment…”
May I be the first in these columns to thank the many Scots who voted for the Tories who providentially saved the day from the UK falling into real chaos.
May might yet prove she is capable of real flexibility and personal change in her style and approach, something that I would question about the ideologically driven Corbyn.
Btw Craig I thought you had pledged you were going to stop bashing the BBC.
It’s very tired of you to accuse Corbyn of ‘ideology’ especially in contrast with a leader and a party who killed hundreds of thousands at home to pay for, among on other things the cost of financialisation, the cost of killing an unknown number in Libya and Syria, formerly two of the wealthiest and most moderate societies in Africa and the Middle East, now all but destroyed, the cost of trident and the cost of redistribution of wealth upward to a percentage whose wealth doubled in the last seven years.
It rather suggests you don’t understand the meaning of the word.
Er-‘Real chaos’? What on earth could be worse than a totally discredited PM and government going into a cosy arrangement with a party containing creationists and dinosaur-deniers? Do tell us. Chaos is upon us. Total Tory chaos.
What sort of a party would contain creationists and dinosaur-deniers?
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13198467.Christian_MSP__science_can_t_disprove_Earth_created_in_six_days/
The US Republican party is full of them. Denying climate change, a woman’s right to choose, gay rights, evolution and human rights are absolute essentials in order to be a Republican politician these days.
The Sloth, our useless politicians (with some rare exceptions) are thinking…well soon it’s “School’s Out” and we can all go on holiday for the next 3 months…
Well its not all over yet. I know you lot are pretty useless at the best of times, but you are supposed to be representing us lot – and forming a Government.
The only way you can do that – is to have another General Election..so get on with it. School is not out – there is no summer holiday for you lot..Get back to work. What do you think we pay you for?
Call another General Election now. Hold it in say 6 weeks time..Come on Get on with it.
We Really Like some of you – but most of you are to be honest – not very good. if you want to go on holiday – fine – just don’t come back. You won’t be missed.
Tony
The reaction to the failure of May and the Tory party is exactly as expected. Surely everyone knows that the commercial MSM, many Blogs and, of course, Aunty BBC are just propaganda outlets for the 1% super-rich City of London elites who really run our once democratic country, Luckily the majority of the British public stopped believing the rubbish being pushed at them by all official news outlets many years ago. The immense success of the Labour campaign shows most of the electorate can see through this disinformation miasma. BTW, the reason that most polls seem so inaccurate these days is that they have also been subverted and are being use to try and shape, rather than reflect, public opinion.
“BTW, the reason that most polls seem so inaccurate these days is that they have also been subverted and are being use to try and shape, rather than reflect, public opinion.”
It’s sure beginning to look something like that.
Anyone has to be flexible to agree to a mysterious coalition with ythe DUP.
Is May going tok get it off the hook for assassinating Colin Horner?
And I suggest just good farts for the Scots who voted for her, and Ruth.
The Tories are certain to get rid of Theresa May. Lets be serious here – she is absolutely completely useless. The best thing the Tories can do, if they want to stand a chance at the next General Election is to give the job to Boris. Yes, I know he has been lying through his teeth as Foreign Secretary really trying to p1ss off the Russians, but even he knows he is talking complete bollocks and so does everyone else…Not only that…he occasionally lets the truth slip out – and he does have a great sense of humour…but no don’t give the job to Boris..give it to Amber Rudd..and then you are certain to be “successful”.
We all know Jeremy’s going to get the job – so just get on with it. Even most Tories I know voted for him.
Tony
This is why I don’t have a television.
Craig, you are, as so often, wonderfully right in these observations.
But the BBC’s bias can be subtle, alongside the more crass and obvious examples.
Who saw the clever lie in the BBC online news headline today saying: Jeremy Corbyn: ‘I can still be prime minister’ ?
The language cunningly suggests the posture of a whingeing loser, but that is not remotely true of Corbyn’s quite unselfish, magnanimous position, as he clearly sets out in the accompanying Marr interview vid.
John Ward in fine form (he very occasionally does speeches too – not in Craig Murray’s class (but he did play for the other side on a Sunday morning (he still has a lot of loyalty). He didn’t use to do these conspiracy theories (so we don’t nag him) or we’d get banned.
This is spot on and funny. (He does come from Manchester)
“May reshuffles her pack of wolves”
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2017/06/11/may-reshuffles-her-pack-of-wolves/
Tony
The BBC does whatever the government of the day tells it to. What exactly don’t you understand about that?
But on the other hand I do like what The Guardian is saying:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/11/the-guardian-view-on-the-reshuffle-weak-weak-weak
I do love the words “Mrs May’s last feeble bid to cling to ebbing power”….
Die Maybot, die!
Aren’t you Scots the lucky ones as Lord Neuberger’s Supreme Court comes to Edinburgh. You are actually being told who’s really in charge as this C17 style Elizabethan progress takes place. Cost? Who knows.
UK Supreme Court to sit in Edinburgh for the first time
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-40241851
‘Lord Neuberger, the president of the Supreme Court, said the move provided an opportunity for members of the public and lawyers to observe the workings of the court first-hand.
A panel of five judges, including Lord Neuberger, are expected to hear three cases over the four days they are in the Scottish capital.
They include a case about sham marriages and another relating to national planning policy.
The third concerns the rehabilitation of certain types of prisoners. Lord Carloway, the Lord President of the Court of Session, will sit on the panel to hear this appeal. ‘
Cardiff and Belfast on the itinerary?
The new Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor, replacing Truss who has been demoted, is David Lidington Con Aylesbury since 1992! A strangely empty Register of Interests. The regulatory two CFoI visits to Israel are shown but nothing since 2012.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=10361
‘Lidington was also criticised by local newspaper the Bucks Herald for claiming £115,891 in expenses in one year, almost double his salary.’ So he really is one of the troughers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Lidington
So Tony Blair’s needless, US aping Supreme Court is coming to Auld Reekie to make us Scots feel awfy important.
And one of the cases they’ll be hearing is about sham marriages. Oh the irony!
The result was good for Corbyn ironically due to a neo-con conservative campaign that confused him with a Palestinian that backfired, but it seems to be an optimum vote for them that will only ever deliver a hung Parliament rather than victory as the conservatives did very well too, with the other parties squeezed out. Which means coalitions are becoming the norm and better this was reflected in an honest and more transparent way with voting reform as it can’t be right for so many seats to be won on a handful of votes.
Meanwhile in the Land of the Pure, a creation of the British Empire, Pakistan who then created the Taliban who then co-created AlQaida, which then spawned ISIS and it’s many affiliates:
“Court in Pakistan sentences man to death for ‘blasphemous’ Facebook post
Pakistan has strict anti-blasphemy laws, and anyone accused of insulting God, Islam or a religious leader can be sentenced to die ”
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/shia-muslim-man-sentenced-death-pakistan-court-blasphemy-facebook-guilty-a7784336.html
All funded and ideologically supported by Saudi Arabia, their brothers in arms. What kind of ‘culture’ produces this kind of thinking in the 21st century?
I wonder what Craig has to say as a human rights activist and ‘internationalist’ and his advice to the FCO? And commenters on here? Not our problem, too far away in another corner of the world, let it go unnoticed. I also wonder how much foreign aid Britain sends to Pakistan annually?
Should Pakistan be subject to BDS and it’s cricket team banned?
Recently a young journalist student was lynched to death in a University of all places while authorities stood by.