I just had to sit through a whole bloody tennis match to find out about the new Dr Who.
I remember watching the first transformation, from William Hartnell to Patrick Troughton, with my sister when I was 8. The transformation itself was the most technically amazing thing then seen on TV, and I remember distinctly our deciding we liked Troughton a lot more, with his cheery trews and little flute. People forget that Hartnell’s Dr Who was himself part of what was scarey about the original series, a rather more alien character than subsequent doctors.
Anyway there are probably few people alive who have watched more Dr Who than I have over 50 years. (There, that’s an unexpected confession about my private life). And I cannot see any problem at all with a female appearing doctor. It is an alien life form, for goodness sake. If it can travel through time, regenerate and always speak English despite being from Gallifrey, it can appear in different humanoid sexual roles.
What Dr Who requires is an excellent character actor, full stop. And the series has been astonishingly, if not uniformly, well served.
But there will only ever be one Tom Baker.
The reason it seems that nearly everyone wants to move to England is that us English people are by far the least racist people in The World..and the Weather is Great Too.
People like The English Craig Murray who accuse us of being Racist can eff off back to Scotland with The Scottish
ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR…and we will rebuild Hadrians Wall to keep em there in Scotland.
Us English have never been so abused and its mainly because The Scottish don’t like us. They even make it obvious.
Well fine – Stay in Scotland Then.
Us English and Weslh much prefer The Irish.
Tony
What a clever argument.
A better way of solving the Korean crisis is making a peace treaty over its war which guarantees the borders of each regime rather than engaging in international media finger-pointing and military demonstrations which threatens its resumption.
The Korean War 1950-53 ended in an Armistice, A conclusion of the war was never enacted. This gave the USA the ability to maintain a military presence in Korea and a staging post for future conflict with China and the Russian East.
The recent hostilities were used to install THAAD missiles in S,Korea against the wishes of the people and Govt of S.Korea. These missiles are intended to be used as intimidation against N.Korea ,China and Russia
The Military Industrial Complex requires an enemy. Without an enemy, there is no need for the near $1000 billion budget for its military /security Establishment.Too many self-interested people are feeding from this trough for it to end.
The phoney Islamic terrorist threat does not have the same sophisticated weapon requirements, when you are fighting little brown men with AK 47’s.
N.Korea ,China and Russia fit the bill as suitable war opponents. Washingtons silly games continue until a mistake is made in this high risk game and a Nuclear conflagration ensues.
Now that the self appointed world police, the US has managed to move its base out of Seoul South Korea, and away from NK artillery, the Great Satan, can now further plan the demise of NK.
The new city sized US base cost $11 billion dollars, and will house 45,0000 personnel and their families.
US taxpayers, don’t know which way to turn, the poor sods are funding Israel, and the Industrial Military Complex Machine. Meanwhile some American’s can’t even afford health care, America is one fucked up country.
http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/07/30/530096/US-military-new-base-South-Korea-Col-Scott-Mueller-Camp-Humphreys-North-Korea
Meanwhile the oppressive apartheid military state of Israel has raided a building that houses international news agencies. In an attempt to drown out Israeli activities, armoured vehicles surrounded the building, soldiers then intimidated journalists, removed computers and damaged office quipment.
It’s not the first time Israeli forces have committed such a foul act on the international free press.
https://www.rt.com/news/397960-rt-west-bank-hq-raided-israel/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=aplication_chrome&utm_campaign=chrome
No doubt the journalists’ unions in the Arab countries of the Middle East and in Iran will be up in arms about this. foul attempt to stifle press freedom.
“foul attempt to stifle press freedom.”
Indeed Habb, Israel is a foul nation, when it comes to stifling freedoms, I’m pleased you concur.
That’s right. They should be throwing homosexuals off of buildings rather than allowing them to parade their sexuality through the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem whilst allowing the stifled press to report on it nationally. What a backward regime. Wasn’t it a palestinian judge that sent former israeli president Katsav to jail a few years back?
So Trump has mumbled a veiled threat to Congress, in the form of bail outs for Insurance Companies and bail outs for Members of Congress will end very soon, if a new healthcare bill is not approved quickly.
Jeez, Trump can’t wait to dismantle America’s Affordable Care Act. One of the few legacies that Obama left that is worth anything.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-appears-to-threaten-members-of-congress-with-bailout-tweet-a7867106.html
“Affordable Care Act”
$1500 a month is affordable apparently.
Aren’t payment amounts reached according to you medical cover and income?
This lays out the cover and groups.
https://www.thebalance.com/how-much-will-obamacare-cost-me-3306054
“Bronze – Has the lowest premiums, but only pays 60 percent of your health care costs. Pick this plan if you don’t expect a lot of medical bills.”
“Silver – Pays 70 percent of your covered medical costs, but the premiums are higher than the Bronze plan. ”
“Gold – Pays 80 percent of your costs, with higher premiums than the Silver plan.”
“Platinum – Pays 90 percent of your costs, but has the highest monthly premiums. It will make sense to pick this plan if you have a chronic health condition.”
“Platinum – Pays 90 percent of your costs, but has the highest monthly premiums. It will make sense to pick this plan if you have a chronic health condition.”
Or plan on getting old.
The British government through the DFID, giving millions of taxpayers money to help keep a corrupt dictator in power in Kenya, under the guise of promoting democracy in the country.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4743152/Fury-Britain-gives-30m-aid-fund-Kenya-s-election.html
Meanwhile children go hungry in Britain, police, nurse, firemen/women numbers are cut, and the English NHS is on its last legs.
The actions of the British state and its agencies come in for unremitting criticism from a number of people. Its surveillance powers, intended to counteract terrorism and organised crime, are a good example.
However, the powers of monopolistic, leviathan state agencies seem far more worrying.
I refer of course to the events surrounding the death of the eleven month old Charlie Gard a few days ago.
Readers will need no reminding that the beloved National Health Service decided that Charlie Gard should be allowed to die “with dignity” and to this end refused to let the baby’s parents take him to the United States to undergo experimental treatment. This refusal was supported by the various courts to which Charlie’s parents appealed in an attempt to overturn that NHS decision. To be noted that taking him to the US would not have cost the NHS (and, thus, the taxpayer) a penny since the parents had already raised the money through an appeal to which numerous members of the public reacted more than generously.
So here we have a situation in which the beloved National Health Service acted in an entirely oppressive manner by disregarding the wishes of those most directly concerned – the parents of the child – and steam-rollering what were their their most elementary human rights. SHAME ON “OUR” NHS !!
Such behaviour is totalitarian and deeply sinister and must surely rank with other medical outrages such as the killing by Nazi state agencies of the mentally disabled in the 1930s and 1940s. It is typical of the overwheening power of state bodies and demonstrates the extent to which collectivist and inhuman behaviour still reigns in the Britain 0f the 21st century.
There can be no better example of why it is essential for freedom and human rights that state monopolies like the NHS be broken up once and for all.
Suggest the poster should apprise himself of the important facts in this tragic case. Melanie Phillips in today’s S Times has written about it. She is married to Joshua Rozenberg who has been reporting it for the BBC. Both of them have the facts.
She has put her article on Twitter from which the poster in question will learn some facts. .
https://twitter.com/MelanieLatest/status/891631705680998400
A cruel and ignorant campaign
July 26, 2017
http://www.melaniephillips.com/cruel-ignorant-campaign/
“There can be no better example of why it is essential for freedom and human rights that state monopolies like the NHS be broken up once and for all.”
Fret not Habb, I’m sure this Tory government, has plans on dismantling the NHS in England, after Brexit has been implemented.
If there are more cases like that of Charlie Gard – and I am sure there are – then such a dismantling might be a good thing.
State Leviathans like the NHS are inimical to freedom and human rights.
By contrast to the (presumably) down trodden and whipped police/intelligence state, you show us the vision of a striding behemoth in the rudest of health, the National Health Service itself, like some raging colossus out of Goya.
but seriously, can I get your dealers phone number?
The NHS did not “decide” this. The Courts backed the doctors’ decisions, as Melanie Phillips points out. She tends to agree with you on other things, so I would listen to her on this one.
Think posters should be concerned about US claims about North Korea being a nuclear threat to it and the rest of the world when it is the result of the Pentagon making earthquakes which it has repeatelly claimed are nuclear tests, and that it is developing missiles which can allegedly contain nuclear bombs to its shores.
Despite loony Trump’s claims, China has never helped it ignite hydrogen bombs.
Remember Hodge, the Tory leader of Surrey CC, and the secret ‘sweetheart deal’ from the government to help out with their funding earlier this year?
Surrey County Council ‘sweetheart deal’ row escalates
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-surrey-39226133
Remember Hodge, the Tory leader of Surrey CC, and his secret deal with Boris to allow Ride London to take place on Surrey’s road?
http://road.cc/content/news/98327-surrey-county-council-accused-signing-five-year-prudential-ridelondon-london
Prudential Ride London has now morphed from a cycle ride for the people, some raising funds for charity, into a semi commercial set up. Professional cyclists take part in time trials and there are apps for the purpose of competing. So residents have been ‘kettled’ for the day and businesses have been closed due to the road closures. There are even doubts about the legality of the road closures, denied by the organisers of course.
http://www.getsurrey.co.uk/news/surrey-news/ridelondon-facing-claims-secret-racing-13394624
So much for fascistic Tory Britain in action.
First time I’ve heard Tories slammed for favouring cyclists over motorists! It’s cracking fun, mate, open to all. Get yourself a bike and join in next year!
16.05 Obtuse or deliberately missing the point?
Anyway, it’s all over for another year. The professionals cycled for over 4 hrs in the ‘Classic’. So boring. All carried by the state broadcaster including the use of a helicopter. What a waste of time and money.
Seventh was a Mr Zakkari Dempster, an Australian, a cyclist from the Israeli Cycling Academy! No show without Israel.
My growing hostility towards the Tories is their historiography, especially stealing what reformers and rebels contributed to UK political and institutiona1 history. I particularly have in mind William Hay’s The Whig Revival 1808-1830 which is an expanded version of part of my two-volume biography of Henry Brougham which Palgrave/Macmillan published in 2005 without a mention of what I had written in1995 and 2001 for Barry Rose without even a citation, just a single footnote of what I had written a generation before in an article about what barrister Brougham had done for editor Thomas Barnes and The Times.
The British history eli\te in a closed club.
Im now finding this blog very reactionary. Not any new ideas/solutions.
Interesting, studying the october revolution. Its a shame to see the CPGB are so wedded to the essentially hollow or superfluous traditions of communism. Not just the labels of comrade etc. But things that are inherently problematic i.e. “workers” (I don’t know anyone who doesn’t do some work, employed or not, And “productive” is highly subjective and rarely considers the use of valuable recourses by such endeavours..
But this is not a necessary limitation of the kinda sub-core principals of communism. Just a reflection of the values of a society coming out of that age. New forms need to adapt to the same forces today. But they should imo be open about what they are about. Id rather challenge the sorta people who know that this system is finished than those still blowing about in the wind. And any sensible one will surly have a communistic emphasis.
We need it for individuality. So anyone can follow there own want’s without having to conform to others domination, who are by virtue of what can only be regarded theft under their notions of property, but in final analyses as a misconceived idea of ownership of “Things”… (that can only be abstractly quantified/separated, given a “value” number)
But (obviously) It’s the outspoken minority who advocate and propel the continuation of what THAY need. This abstract sense of “otherness” one gets from innumerable systems set to exploit. Given the creatures I think we are I don’t think those people are being very honest with themselves. At lest the prisoner doesn’t have to dam himself, the jailer does.
“And any sensible one will surly have a communistic emphasis.”
And by that i don’t mean 99% of those who call themselves “left” but lead lives that are “materially” opposite. Though I don’t care if some want to collects bits of paper or plastic or computer coins, just care that we all have to obey the dictates of this control cloaked in fantasy. “free market principles” they never do and couldn’t obey anyway. It’s anything but a free system.
My feeling is labour are going to really disappoint. But mainly because people have been asleep so long they will only back something that only superficially improved things in the first place. But are essentially of a very different era and won’t work well. And let’s face it, looking now you’d have to say the “achievements” enabled the reforming of class domination and imperialism with ease.
What people will do to “go down in history” ….Is life not good enough. It seems to me so many are prepared to compromise any amount really, normally in the name of others as they propel themselves “above” them using peoples efforts, using peoples suffering.
This state of affairs will end. But not with some compromise and feel good factor of a few on the same old levers.
As an afterthought on the Charlie Gard case:
I will concur with anyone who might be thinking that “our” National Health Service would have been mightily embarrassed if the experimental therapy in the US had succeeded in saving the baby. And even if it had not, his treatment might have lead to additional insight into the merits or otherwise of the experimental therapy in question. After all, most advances in the medical field begin with research and experimentation.
I wonder what right state officials (in this case, the doctors in question) have to refuse to let the parents of a child do everything in their power to try to save their child (given, inter alia, that there would have been zero cost to the Service)? This is the road to collectivist tyranny.
The Melanie Phillips article linked to above (http://www.melaniephillips.com/cruel-ignorant-campaign/) has this to say:
“In other words, there never was any hope for Charlie – and the claim that fresh research evidence provided some new hope was wholly without foundation and came from someone who had never even examined the child.
But here’s the really wicked thing about all this. The parents were reinforced in their refusal to accept this tragic situation, and the whole court process pointlessly prolonged, because of the pressure largely emanating from activists and media on the American political right (along with right-to-life campaigners) screaming that a baby was about to be killed by a socialised health care “death panel” enforced by the British government. This campaign led the parents to believe that such pressure could change the court’s mind. And so the parents were reinforced in their refusal to face reality.”
As someone who usually protests against the left, Melanie’s final comment is worth stating:
“I write a great deal about the ideological bullying of the left, the lies published by left-wing media and the inhumanity and irrationality of so much allegedly progressive thinking. But I have never witnessed such concentrated ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and unthinking cruelty as has been displayed by the American political right over the tragic case of Charlie Gard. “
George . Very good point. Aided and abetted by the arrogance, stupidity and unthinking cruelty of the Papal dogma of Original Sin.
That’s the first time I have ever agreed with Mad Mel. Additionally, a thought experiment: how much would it have cost the parents to keep the child alive thus far under the Trump model of healthcare? And, when the cash/inadequate health insurance ran out, would the profit-driven ‘providers’ have so much as considered a new experimental treatment?
But I have never witnessed such concentrated ignorance, arrogance, stupidity and unthinking cruelty as has been displayed by the American political right….
Hang about, lady. There’s plenty more to come.
I repeat that the baby had no brain activity following seizures before Christmas. Please accept this fact before adding any more criticism of OUR NHS and a world renowned hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, its doctors and nurses. It was founded by Dr Charles West in 1851.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_West_(physician)
The parents are being represented by a PR person.
http://www.featureworld.co.uk/alisonsmithsquire/
‘Speaking about Charlie’s funeral, family spokeswoman Alison Smith-Squire told the Sun: “They haven’t finalised any plans yet but they have decided Charlie will be buried with his beloved toy monkeys.”‘
http://news.sky.com/story/charlie-gard-will-be-buried-with-his-toy-monkeys-10968515
No words.
Retiring to my bunker over the avoidable nuclear war that posters seem resigned to,
Breaking news from the Indy:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-sanctions-russia-usa-crimea-diplomats-expelled-moscow-a7868096.html
Reports that Putin is to expel 755 Diplomats from Moscow. I must say, that seems rather a lot, I’m amazed that the US actually has that many. Certainly going to take quite a few Jumbo jets to dispatch that lot, plus families back home. Will the last one out be switching the lights off ?
Prewacket.
Watch my lips. USUKIS has rounded up the most belligerent and disgruntled of human kind into a confined space in Syria so that Russia could exterminate them hiding in their bunkers with bunker-busting bombs. Those who have survived are now located either in NATO countries like Turkey or UK or here:
http://www.voltairenet.org/article197237.html The battle for the Jurd of Ersal has begun.
It is really rather important, as the Saudis and Qataris watch their evil and highly expensive projects grind to an end, to maintain at least a pretence of hostility between the two sides of the US Russia partnership.They will still be joined by the proverbial umbilical internet wherever they set up their desks in the world.
I preferred “gas” as no one knows where it comes from.
At 58 tender years, the population of the earth has more than doubled since I entered.
We need a proper cull and Trump is up for it. Not for population management stuff but he doesn’t want anyone talking about him when he’s dead. The man is mad!
I am British (English Irish Extraction). I don’t care if Britain exists after the War if what we have to look forward to is what we had since the last War (in political terms)
But what I want more than anything is that the USA is rendered incapable to the end of time from imposing its evil that it has leveled on the Earth.
So I probably would be happy is Russia and China blast me and the US to oblivion. Only then will the lunatic in charge of the US be happy,. And so will I!
giyane, Wrong target and chill
“the most belligerent and disgruntled of human kind” are occupying offices in Washington DC, London & Tel Aviv. There is no power in Saudi Arabia – The Princes don’t have a clue and are operating American computer sytems that are pre 1995. They haven’t even got Windows ME yet, and have never heard of UNIX.
Sure everyone – Americans, British, French etc sells them loads of weapons, but they haven’t a clue how to use them.
You are right in that they are conducting outright genocide..but this has not been planned from any Islamic, African or Asian Country. It was planned in Washington DC, London, Tel Aviv, and Paris.
Haven’t you Travelled or seen Lawrence of Arabia yet?
Don’t read about Mosul. It will make you sick.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mosul-massacre-battle-isis-iraq-city-civilian-casualties-killed-deaths-fighting-forces-islamic-state-a7848781.html
Tony
The Princes don’t have a clue and are operating American computer sytems that are pre 1995. They haven’t even got Windows ME yet, and have never heard of UNIX.
I’d be intrigued to know where you got that idea. What just might be true of Saudi Aramco* – my best guess – would be a dangerous basis for deducing what the Saudi state has.
*victim earlier this year of a successful attack by ‘a state actor’ using really quite basic techniques.
I notice that through all the tumultuous suff we are going through, Craig or anyone on this blog (and beyond) never mentions the crisis is overproduction. It really makes me wonder the seriosness with which some take our current issues..
This is really the underline symptom of many of the things we see. And historically it is something to fear, because the way out from those at the top has never been a civilised.
never been a civilised one*
Im reminded of “When all these methods prove inadequate-”
In Praise of Idleness By Bertrand Russell
If you read the truth about US Foreign Policy / Strategy you are not actually reading the truth;
you are reading “hostile intelligence”!
https://consortiumnews.com/2017/07/29/an-interview-with-wikileaks-assange/
Good news for the NHS, the proud people of Britain and the mentally ill. (though some of the mentally ill might have to wait 4 years).
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/30/government-promises-extra-21000-nhs-mental-health-staff/
“Government promises an extra 21,000 NHS mental health staff”
Over a 4 year period to treat 1 million more patients.
My first thought was where are they going to find 1 million new patients, but then the grim reality struck me, that these are existing sufferers not currently receiving treatment. Or it could be that a new influx of refugees is forecast, sent mad by US & UK bombings.
4,600 in Crisis Centers
2,000 for child & adolescent patients
3,000 for Talking treatments in adults eg CBT
9600 for patient facing roles, leaving ………………..
11,400…. To manage them?
If it wasn’t for his alleged appearance on Russia Today regarding diplomatic expulsions I might have thought Craig had taken a time-flight in the Tardis.
Russian expulsion of 455 US Embassy staff , makes a level playing field between US and Russia Diplomatic personnel numbers. . The US was heavily over-represented in that regard.
Russia also have prevented access to 2 US Embassy compounds, but have not seized them, as the US did in their blundering illegal way.
Should the US escalate the issue further , they will be shooting themselves in the foot, as the Russian response will be asymmetric. Another chess move by Putin.
Regarding the US Embassy expulsions in Moscow. There has been much poking of the Bear in recent years, now we have the plucking of the feathers of the Bald Eagle. Fun to see the reaction of the braindead US Congress and Senate with the recent stupid decision to impose further sanctions on Russia ,which directly impact on gas supply to Europe via the Nordstream 2 pipeline.
The first signs of resistance are being shown be the usually docile Europeans, to the surprise of Washington.
Since the defeat in Syria, the Hegemon is seen as a paper tiger by all but its most subjugated.
The High Court comes to Blair & Co’s rescue.
“The high court has blocked a bid by a former chief of staff of the Iraqi army to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq war.”
“General Abdul Wahed Shannan al-Rabbat accused Blair of committing a “crime of aggression”, while he was prime minister, by invading Iraq in 2003 to overthrow Saddam Hussein.”
“The former general wanted to prosecute Blair and two other key ministers at the time – the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, and attorney general, Lord Goldsmith.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/31/tony-blair-prosecution-over-iraq-war-blocked-by-judges
Oh and there’s no point going crying to the Hague, they only send down, African dictators (unless they’re Kenyan, in which case Britain awards them £30 million through the DFID, taxpayers money),and Eastern European madmen, but not Dutch commanders it seems.
We chimed. I had to retype mine as it ‘froze’ at first.
How does he escape justice, time after time?
Sharp Ears.
Ah great minds think alike as they say. ?
Blair is definitely protected from on high, and I don’t mean God.
Pretty sure we’re still paying him for his invaluable services, in addition to his pension, golden handshake and his protection detail. Might be FCO – Craig might know.
Maybe he’ll let us know on his new thread on Blair’s miraculous escape from a High Court judgement.
Had my fingers crossed, but today we must face reality. There are just too many nasty little secrets attached to Blair for anything like justice to be done. So we continue paying the bastard to buzz round the world like the shit-smeared dung fly that he is, trading on his former governmental access (without oversight as to any conflict of interest between himself and the UK), promoting his corporate-political agenda, trimming the fat off ‘aid’ budgets to staff his army of suits selling JP Morgan and Endeavour Mining (eg) in a variety of dodgy dictators’ governments, advocating more war and masturbating over a heavily-stained portrait of Benjamin Netanyahu. To say nothing of his willing facilitation of UAE and Chinese exploitation of African resources. Or the legion of SpAds his government spawned, all engaged in extracting £millions from old rope here and abroad.
Lying his way into two unnecessary and infinitely destructive wars wasn’t the half of it. High treason wouldn’t begin to cover his case.
But unfortunately, this is the new normal. And the rack* is no longer an approved method for discovering the murky recesses of a man’s business empire. All we can now do is hope that a jihadi with a bomb crosses Tony’s path somewhere. It would be justice. It would be poetic justice.
*Better yet, and specifically for suspects who refuse to say anything about their operations, like Blair:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peine_forte_et_dure
Well said Baal, I like to defer to you on matters concerning Blair, as you have a passion on the subject.
Agreed he’s a psychotic bastard who knows too many dirty secrets, to ever see the inside of a 6×4 cell.
More a deep festering loathing than a passion, which increases the more I know about him. But he objectifies what’s wrong with market-driven politics, and it’s easier to concentrate on just one of many, many similar beasts.
Unlike the millions of Iraqis he had killed and injured, Blair is bombproof.
Iraq War: Bid to prosecute Tony Blair rejected by High Court
13 minutes ago
‘The High Court has blocked an attempt to bring a private prosecution against Tony Blair over the Iraq War.
Former Iraqi general Abdul Wahed Shannan Al Rabbat alleged the former prime minister committed “the crime of aggression” by invading Iraq in 2003.
No such crime exists in England and Wales and the court ruled there was “no prospect” of the case succeeding.
The general had wanted to prosecute Mr Blair, ex-Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, and ex-Attorney General Lord Goldsmith.
Last year, Westminster Magistrates’ Court had turned down Mr Al Rabbat’s bid to bring private prosecution.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40775725
He then sought a judicial review in an attempt to get the Supreme Court – the UK’s highest court – to overturn a 2006 House of Lords ruling that there is no such crime as the crime of aggression under the law of England and Wales.
Never forgetting the large annual expenditure to provide plods to keep him safe.
£832,000 pa – £16,000 a week according to the Heil in 2015.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3120860/Globetrotter-Blair-s-16-000-weekly-bill-security-pay-Former-PM-said-travelling-five-countries-week-team-eight-police-officers.html
Traffic cop numbers in England slashed to dangerously low levels, anyone surprised?
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/savage-cuts-see-number-of-traffic-police-fall-by-30-per-cent-in-last-decade-1-8678009
They still don’t leave people dying in a crashed car for three days.
Was the SNP’s creation of a single police force across Scotland a mistake?
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/scotland/2017/07/was-snps-creation-single-police-force-across-scotland-mistake
Yes Fred we know, but imagine what a utter state they’d be in if they were forced to pay VAT, the carnage would be unthinkable.
The VAT incurred by Police Scotland as a result of Scottish government incompetence is paid by the Scottish government and does not affect their operational budget.
Is that so Fred, well you’d better tell that to the Scottish Governments Finance Minister Derek MacKay.
He says the £76.5 million quid given to the Treasury, is hurting Police Scotland.
However I’m sure you know better, my arse.
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/politics/derek-mackay-police-scotlands-vat-bill-must-scrapped/
Maybe you’d better tell that to the SPA who are under the impression the Scottish government is paying the VAT.
assume that the Scottish Government continue to pay the SPA and Police Scotland’s VAT costs.
http://www.parliament.scot/S5_Public_Audit/Section_22_report.pdf
Police Scotland has three budgets, Revenue which covers operational costs, Capital and Reform, in the Reform budget the Scottish government reimburses Police Scotland for VAT costs. The Revenue Budget is not affected by VAT
You might want to tell Derek MacKay that or maybe he knows but didn’t want to miss an opportunity for a bit of grievance mongering.
Letter from Ken Loach and others about the Shalom Festival at the forthcoming Edinburgh Festival.
http://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/15442373.Letters__Shalom_Festival_promotes_apartheid__not_peace/
Habbabkuk
July 30, 2017 at 18:14
As an afterthought on the Charlie Gard case:
“…National Health Service would have been mightily embarrassed if the experimental therapy in the US had succeeded in saving the baby. And even if it had not, his treatment might have lead to additional insight into the merits or otherwise of the experimental therapy in question. After all, most advances in the medical field begin with research and experimentation.”
……………………………………………………………………………
Yes Habbabkuk: let’s have terminally ill babies sent to America for experimental purposes.
Scorgie
Do you believe that cures for diseases just arrive unannounced out of the blue or do you believe that they tend to arise out of research and experimentation?
Meanwhile Sky news and the BBC, are doing their best to help the Great Satan, in the removal of president Maduro of Venezuela.
The Great Satan, is looking to remove Maduro and replace him with a Noriega-esque type character in my opinion. Pity South American leaders can’t get together and tell Washington to politely f*ck-off.
” While President Maduro says it (the proposed new constitution) is all about restoring “peace” he has also said that it will help him imprison the opposition leaders who are behind the current protests.
“I’ve got a cell ready waiting with your name on it, for when we get the new constitution in place”, he said referring to an opposition leader.”
What a nice man.
Well what do you expect Maduro to do with treacherous bastards? Those who take the US dollar to overthrow the president deserve prison.
The Great Satan has a long and infamous history of attempting coups not just in South America. You don’t honestly believe thst anyone in their right minds would think the Venezuelan situation is a domestic problem? It has been well and truly manufactured by the Great Satan.
Some of the more notorious ones that have been openly acknowledged by former U.S. presidents and high level officials include coup d’etats against Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran in 1953, Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954, Patrice Lumumba in the Congo in 1960, Joao Goulart of Brazil in 1964 and Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973.
More recently, in the twenty-first century, the U.S. government openly supported the coups against President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 2002, Jean Bertrand Aristide of Haiti in 2004 and Jose Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in 2009.
” Those who take the US dollar to overthrow the president deserve prison. ”
Any proof of that? Thought not.
Maduro would be better off tackling the shortages and rampant inflation caused by years of mismanagement rather than locking up the legal opposition and shooting his own people.
What a load of bollocks you comment, anybody with half a brain knows the score, and how long it’s been going on, it started with Chavez, because he wouldn’t bow down to US pressure.
“A “lockout” and economic sabotage of Venezuela’s oil industry was imposed from December 2002 to February 2003. After the defeat of the coup against Chavez, the U.S.”
“State Department issued a special fund via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) to help the opposition continue efforts to overthrow Chavez. USAID set up an Office for Transition Initiatives (OTI) in Caracas, subcontracting U.S. defense contractor Development Alternatives Inc. (DAI) to oversee Venezuela operations and distribute millions of dollars to anti-government groups.”
“The result was the “national strike” launched in December 2002 that brought the oil industry to the ground and devastated the economy. It lasted 64 days and caused more than $20 billion in damages. Nonetheless, the efforts failed to destabilize the Chavez government.”
“The “guarimbas” of 2004: On February 27, 2004, extremist anti-government groups initiated violent protests in Caracas aimed at overthrowing Chavez. They lasted 4 days and caused multiple deaths. The leaders of these protests had received training from the U.S. Albert Einstein Institute (AEI), which specializes in regime change tactics and strategies.”
People with half a brain ignore the real problems and go looking for a scapegoat.
Not surprised you didn’t provide a source for your cut-and-paste seeing as it was a Venezuelan government sponsored propaganda outlet. The Albert Einstein Institute is a German based organisation carrying out research into gravitational waves. The Albert Einstein INSTITUTION on the other hand researches non-violent resistance.
Neither are likely to be involved in training insurgents.
INVASION OF THE DALEKS ( actually totally off topic):-
I blogged this to Sweden this morning to a site that is run by a Swedish blogger. She was lamenting the loss of Swedish identity because of migrants/immigrants/refugees. I did not want to be either aggressive or insulting so I instead kept philosophical distance and dug historically into the real causes, from the Caribbean to Sweden and back again as examples and reference points. Seems to me that consequences are easier to identify than root causes. So, I said this”-
Helena,
I suggest that to understand what is going on you have to take a much wider and broader perspective.
I concede that no one likes to see their accustomed ways changed; no one likes having to adjust to new neighbours; no one likes to experience that which is extreme and extremely different impacting their home and nation of birth or of residence. As true for individual human psychology ( at least for most of us) as it is for responses to mass migrations.
Two examples I like to use are these:-
1. Genghis Khan: I have a Hungarian Jewish friend and have visited Hungary many times. In the faces of the majority of the people I see white European features and many mixed with Asiatic features. I have seen the same thing in Russia to which I have traveled. How did it become so? Well, as I understand the history, Genghis Khan made his way over into central Europe. The invaders/conquerors never left and settled there. So, I am seeing in the physiognomy, the facial features, the consequences of mass migration all these many years later.
2. The Caribbean: The Caribbean had indigenous populations ( as did the entire American continent(s) ) before European arrival/conquest. In human history one could not imagine a more brutal period of over 500 years of enslavement of Africans; destruction of all family life, cultures, social structures, languages and savagery imposed on the entire human fabric which makes us human beings – short of destroying all of African life itself. Put that aside for the moment. As with Genghis Khan and his conquests and his hordes invading – the human consequences live on – and in the Caribbean upon a majority African foundation of a population we see in the faces, African mixed with European, Asian, Middle Eastern and others. Those are the consequences and that is the reality of the modern Caribbean. It was not chosen by the modern citizens – but – it is the reality of historical causes.
So to Europe today. Many of the non-white persons in Europe ( especially in Western Europe) are the very descendants who were enslaved by Portugal, France, England and other European countries who have migrated for better economic opportunity and a better life in Europe. When I was a student in London, I visited many times a close friend of my father from Jamaica from his boyhood days. He had been a soldier in the British army during World War 1 and he earned himself a medal of honour: The Victoria Cross for bravery. He stayed in England and made a family and had children. His children gave him grandchildren and probably by now there are great-grandchildren who are all English. He is long since dead but his lineage and legacy lives on in England having migrated from Jamaica in defence of a noble cause against Hitler and the Nazis.
I am here expanding the debate because in my mind it is easy to explain but for ”us” or for ”them” it is also very painful to either accept or to understand in any comprehensive manner. This takes knowledge, it takes compassion, it takes an open mind and when all is said and done it requires human compassion and at times forgiveness if we are not perpetually to be warring with each ”other” ( the ”other”) as a species.
Face it: The United States of America is an imperialist nation. It wants to dominate world resources and especially oil. It acted with its imperialist power in Iraq, in Libya, supported terrorists in Syria and has plans to attack Iran. What else does one call this but raw aggression and imperialism? It co-opts its NATO partners and expect intelligent people to accept the inevitability of these wars. Not so. But, what are the consequences?
Answer: you, in Sweden, are facing this mass migration largely because of the wars and displacements caused by US imperialist conduct in its foreign policy.
Would I be pleased if there was mass migration into my little Caribbean space? To be truthful – I might not like it but am compelled by intelligence to understand it. I could write on about the history of Haiti and how it came to be the most impoverished nation in all the Caribbean and all the Western Hemisphere. Why do I mention this? I was born in Jamaica and studied in England and returned to the Caribbean and built my legal career in the Turks and Caicos Islands – TCI ( where long ago I became a citizen). The TCI, like the Caribbean and the Bahamas and to a lesser extent Jamaica and to a greater extent the US – experience mass or sustained migrations of Haitian refugees. Want me to explain the history and the wider similarity I see with Sweden?
Over to you Helena.
Overview on migration and its related causes: If we are rational beings – then just by considering:-
A. The irony of the United States of America complaining about interference in its internal affairs.
B. The history of US interference/interventions/invasions in other countries affairs:-
US invasions of other states
https://gunnarthorell.wordpress.com/author/gunnarthorell/
C. We can all now look back on history and have one great, grand and glorious guffaw followed by a wry and cynical chuckle.
How Jodie Whittaker ‘missed’ fan reactions to Doctor Who role
7 August
Jodie Whittaker says she didn’t see people’s reactions to her becoming the first female Doctor Who, because she’s not on social media.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music in her first broadcast interview since her casting was revealed, she said: “This will be a blessing and a curse.
“I’ve missed a lot of the fun stuff and probably the bad stuff.”
The Broadchurch star also praised fans of the sci-fi series as “the most amazing, creative people”.
And she said she had spoken to the actors who have previously played The Doctor – although she didn’t ask for advice.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-40848800