Islamophobia has become so insidious, so all-pervasive, and so powerful in media culture that there is virtually no concern expressed at the probable killing in a US drone strike of a 12 year old British child, Jojo Jones, whose short life was so spectacularly horrid through absolutely no fault of his own. Child soldiers in conflict are a dreadful problem. I tried in The Catholic Orangemen of Togo to convey the extremely powerful emotions I experienced when faced very directly with those who had seen atrocities and themselves been forced to kill at primary school age.
But nobody in their right mind thinks that the answer to child soldiers is to kill them. If it is correct young Jojo is killed, I mourn him, the childhood he hardly knew and the potential for realising the dreams of normality such children always have.
But Jojo is one of many thousands of children killed by the US in its “war on terror”, including the invasions and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is only the dehumanising of Muslims that causes the near total lack of visible western empathy for the nine young kids under 13 killed this year in one US raid in Yemen alone.
All the indications are that it is US doctrine that in targeting terrorists their immediate family are “fair game”. When US citizen, 16 year old Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed by a drone in Yemen in 2011, the Obama administration claimed it was an accident. It as a peculiar “coincidence” that in another “accident” his eight year old sister Nawar was also killed by the Americans as one of the nine infants killed in the raid just referenced. To kill one young sibling may be a misfortune. To kill two begins to look like carelessness. It amazes me that anybody believes these actions in any way combat terrorism. Rather they inspire it.
The UK does not have the death penalty. We have now also become habituated to execution of citizens by drone with no judicial process. Sally Jones appears to have been a disturbed and deeply misguided individual, but that does not justify her planned and deliberate killing by the US government. There is no evidence she was when killed involved in an any act likely to cause the imminent death of others. But society has become so callous, there is almost no reaction to her death on human rights grounds.
Terrorism is not an existential threat to the UK. It remains the case that it is one of the least likely ways that you might die; far less probable than drowning in your own bath. Our perception of the threat is magnified by the horror of the act and the way the media portray it. Most certainly it is not a threat that justifies abandoning our respect for human rights and the process of law. The standards of society have slipped in terms of respect for the sanctity of life; or at least the sanctity of Muslim life.
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I continue urgently to need contributions to my defence in the libel action against me by Jake Wallis Simons, Associate Editor of Daily Mail online. You can see the court documents outlining the case here. I am threatened with bankruptcy and the end of this blog (not to mention a terrible effect on my young family). Support is greatly appreciated. An astonishing 4,000 people have now contributed a total of over £75,000. But that is still only halfway towards the £140,000 target. I realise it is astonishing that so much money can be needed, but that is the pernicious effect of England’s draconian libel laws, as explained here.
On a practical point, a number of people have said they are not members of Paypal so could not donate. After clicking on “Donate”, just below and left of the “Log In” button is a small “continue” link which enables you to donate by card without logging in.
For those who prefer not to pay online, you can send a cheque made out to me to Craig Murray, 89/14 Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8BA. As regular readers know, it is a matter of pride to me that I never hide my address.
I was hoping Craig would explain the legal issues here. This does appear to be extra judicial execution. I am not sure if it happened in a war zone, if so, is it a war crime to target enemy combatants in full retreat?
You can’t target enemy combatants who have surrendered (or are in the process of surrendering) or who are otherwise (permanently) hors de combat. AFAIK, there is no rule against shooting at the enemy army as it is retreating. But then, that doesn’t seem to be what happened here.
The legal answer that the MOD would give you is that this woman was an enemy combatant on the battlefield. As I mentioned in earlier comments, each of these claims is open to dispute, but it’s not clear how either “enemy combatant” or ” battlefield” might come before an impartial court any time soon.
The closest we probably have to jurisprudence on either of those concepts is the US Supreme Court’s Guantanamo Bay case law. But I’m not sure if that counts as “an impartial court”. Anyway, I think these cases all dealt with the question of whether the detainees had a right to petition the courts for habeas corpus, not the question of the lawfulness of their detention as such.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/11/obama-drone-wars-normalisation-extrajudicial-killing
It’s people like Craig Murray who have a real effect on what is incredibly important in any (our) chance of changing things,
such that the world (the planet earth and all its inhabitants) improve our home and the quality of life not just for us (our tribe) – but their tribe too.
Their are elegant solutions which do not result in us destroying each other, and the planet – our home
Craig reveals a lot of stuff in his books…that I have not read on his blog.
I have a better understanding.
Thank You for being so honest, and at times extremely funny.
I would take being criticised by b as an accolade.
I read him too.
He’s brilliant.
Tony
The silence is due to a fear of being accused of a hate crime.
Has anyone wondered why of a sudden a ‘nobody’ in the great scheme of things in the regime change war in Syria such as the unfortunate Sally Jones, suddenly receives massive publicity on her death.
The old Roman Judiciary question springs to mind ‘Cui Bono’ .’who benefits’.
The West and its Gulf Allies threw the kitchen sink at Bashar Assad and his Army in a failed attempt to overrun the country,using ISIS as their proxy army.
Assad with the help of Russia ,Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah has inflicted a humiliating defeat on these forces and has changed the balance of power in the Middle East.
The Saudi King was in Moscow recently with an entourage of a 1000 to pay homage to the new Boss on the Block.They know the days of the mighty USA are over. and need a new protector.
Qatar, has been ejected from the Gulf Council and now co-operates with the sworn Shi’te enemy Iran to develop their shared gas resource in the Gulf.
Turkey is distrusted but an ally of Russia.
Netanyahoo of Israel is wetting his drawers as his Oded Yinon Plan for a Greater Israel is dust.
To snatch victory from the jaws of defeat the West pretends to attack their original creation ISIS, by killing a nonentity such as Sally,which receives massive publicity.
This gives the impression to the gullible,ill-informed Western people the impression that the Western coalition has been fighting ISIS all along , when the nasty truth is that they created them as a proxy army in their fight against Assad.
This is a Hollywood production folks, for the terminally stupid.
“This gives the impression to the gullible,ill-informed Western people the impression that the Western coalition has been fighting ISIS all along ”
And as dead people don’t tell tales, stops the murdered dupes revealing what the West doesn’t want to be revealed.
Salford Lad,
The Saudis have always courted and dealt with the Russians, the reason why the Saudi’s are allowed to run there despotism is precisely because they play one side off of the other. People ask, why doesn’t the west ever do anything about Saudi Arabia? Well that’s why, no oil – no Empire. It’s also why in the opinion of the American state Venezuela must be crushed. It site’s on an oil field 5 times the size of the Saudis.
Salford Lad, as you are one of the best writer’s on here (and if I catch bevin, and reply to him quickly on another blog like Offguardian – such that he actually reads it) (like numerous posters on here – have pleaded for his return) and the moderator has actually posted that bevin could write here again on Craig Murray’s blog…
What do you think would be his response?
I reckon an enormous smile.
He’s even better than you.
but would he write here again?
I hope he does cos he is really good.
Tony
Salford Lad
Excellent and they tried to overthrow Syria back in 1950`s.Blast from the Past.
Syria has suffered non stop Western backed Coup attempts over the years.
http://internationaltimes.it/a-blast-from-the-past/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/sep/27/uk.syria1
I see Carne Ross is doing a Q&A at this years anarchist bookfair.
http://www.anarchistbookfair.org.uk/
“I see Carne Ross is doing a Q&A at this years anarchist bookfair.”
Well he has not made it to the Underground International Times yet.
Only a cynic would suggest that the reason ISIS has set up a training base close to the Is***li border is that it will there be immune from attack by Hizb’ullah and Syria. Courtesy of Is***l, which could destroy the base as thoroughly as it routinely destroys Hizb’ullah units in Syria, but isn’t going to.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tv-report-islamic-state-chiefs-gather-near-israel-border-set-up-training-camp/
Why do you think Russia’s Su’s are not being sent to see that these Is***l protected and western trained IS terrorist had their last pay from Wash****on?
I have been wondering, for some time, why Islamic State, would have an enclave/base, adjacent to Israel,
yet I can not perceive the reason.
Could someone spell it out?
Certainly. Is***l has an established track record in destroying both the Syrian army’s, and their allies, Hizb’ullah’s assets within Syrian territory. Isr***l has always promoted the removal of Assad, and is paranoid about Hizb’ullah, which is best described in the terms of the old warning on the lions’ enclosure: ‘ Danger! If this animal is attacked it will defend itself’ (see Lebanon, 2006)…and is also a client of Iran, of which Is***l is terrified, constantly urging the US to destroy it. OTOH, Isr***l and the Saudi – Bahraini Sunni axis have an informal arrangement (despite what the Arab public are encouraged to believe) not to tread on each others’ toes.
Any rebel group in Syria, including nasty IS as well as the nice Kurds, has the implicit if not explicit backing of the Gulf Sunnis. Iran backs Syria, and Iran is Shi’a: the US and Is***l having taken a lot of trouble to maximise the mutual loathing of these two streams of Islam. In Is***li terms, IS is ‘the enemy of my enemy’ as long as it doesn’t push its luck. Hence it is perfectly logical that it parks its remnants as close to Is***li air cover as possible. It is then safe from the Syrian Army and Hizb’ullah ( which Is***l would have no compunction whatever about wasting) and Russian forces too (Is***l and Russia having been playing footsie for some time, there is no desire for a confrontation)
I hope that’s clearer.
Come to think of it, IS wouldn’t be completely immune should a rogue Russian submariner accidentally send some Kalibers its way. He would have to be careful not to hit any I***li military advisors in the vicinity, though.
Excuse me for a moment while I mourn the tragic loss of the ISIS recruit…
Ok, I’m over it.
Please show more respect for Is***l’s allies, Anon. At the very least, say kaddish
http://www.jewfaq.org/kaddishref.htm
Forgive me for being cynical but did this woman and her child ever exist? Don’t the various intelligence services spend an awful lot of money inventing this kind of thing as res herrings for the tabloid press to propagate?
What about the jihadi John business? Did that really happen? It was all very convenient. I’m not really one for outlandish conspiracy theories. But the Americans and British spend an awful lot of money on utilising creatives for propaganda and have at least since the Second World War.
They must pay these people to do something, the CIA and NSA spend billions a year on ‘training’ material. Given the huge budgets and lack of any serious journalism I think it’s more preposterous to suggest that they *don’t* do a huge amount of fakery and contrivances.
On the nose.
This is indeed a worry and not only for the desensitisation to Tragedy. There are so many aspects to the drone killing that are reprehensible if one takes the general principles of action of states in war. Some of these are :
1. Assassination is a crude tool of war and does not necessarily achieve what is wanted as movements do not always only depend on leaders. During the Iraq war the BBC and others constantly spoke of decapitating the Iraqi regime as a deliberate US policy even producing the famous deck of cards. In the process with much awe and shock, many civilians lost their lives as we witnessed a major attack on Baghdad.
2. The drone programme supposedly very precise has its limitations in both accuracy and effectiveness but depends on targeting ‘high value targets’. It effect has been pure propaganda as in the case of DAESH, the movement flourished despite drones and aerial bombardment. Some of the commentators have suggested that killing leading figures in a movement, despite the collateral damage, is better than the alternative which is indiscriminate bombing . But even indiscriminate bombing is known not to be effective without boots on the ground which means that this is merely propaganda and has no strategic effect.
3. Killing by drone means that someone decides that the targeted person should be killed based usually on evidence produced by secret intelligence. None of this is liable to scrutiny by any judicial means. This extra judicial execution is against the very basis of habeas corpus. If it applies to any one labelled as a terrorist, in time with desensitisation it could mean that this could be extended to any of us who could be labelled as enemies of the state. No evidence is needed.
4. There are several books written as to how living in an area where drones have been operational, is a living death for civilians and how the ever present sound of drones almost creates a state of psychosis.
5. The US is well known for defining thier own means of dealing with any opposition. After 911 it has become accepted to label anyone as an enemy combatant and lock them up or torture them at will. Not only has the US government tortured inmates at Guantanamo and elsewhere but our own UK government has been complicit in this rendition and torture.
6. Those who look at this as one Jihadi less, why should I shed any tears, should look at the extended aspect of the legality and normalisation of this process. Eventually anyone who acquires this technology can practice what we ourselves preach.
Your realise you’re asking that people such as Anon1 use his brain. Don’t count on it.
It would seem, that they are in a tight position, up against The Golan which is occupied by Israel, they also “border” rebels.
Why do not the Russians take them out with missiles, hardly matter if the missiles, also struck Israelis in occupied Golan?
Great minds… https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/10/desensitised-to-tragedy/comment-page-2/#comment-701750 …think alike…
But as Russia would need to co-ordinate with Is***l even to use cruise-missiles on IS close to the very sensitive border, and under what Is***l probably regards as its own airspace, and because what co-operation the two countries have is only to permit Russia to prevent supplies reaching Hizb’ullah – see –
https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-occasionally-breaches-israeli-air-space-says-top-defense-official/
…I wouldn’t put much money on Russia intervening.
“It would seem, that they are in a tight position, up against The Golan”
Sounds like a painful medical condition Freddy, I’d get that looked, at if I were you. ?
I just don’t know why people bother with this any longer.
The world is being run by sick criminal psychopaths. And the psychiatrists remain silent. The same psychiatrist who will happily lock up anyone the establishment does not like; but will not apply their ever-expanding definitions of psychiatric disorders to the people in power.
What is the point in bothering?
margaret thatcher was allowed to die in her bed; no doubt so will tory bliar and david cameron and now teresa may, will enjoy the same restful end. Much much more than any of them deserve; and much much more that they gave so many others.
In Birmingham a few months ago and woman was locked up for anti-social behaviour… She rather likes the attentions of her fella and the whole neighbourhood knows it 😉 Meanwhile the cops do nothing about the barbaric scum we have for “leaders” whose crimes are so much more serious. In this obscure legal system you get locked up for daring to enjoy a good shag; you go free if you are a mass-murderer.
Bert.
It’s very interesting to note that the EU is close to triggering Article 7 in Poland, the ruling party could be about to breach fundamental rights.
Should a breach of fundamental rights be found, a motion to suspend Poland’s voting rights would then need to win the support of member states under the EU’s system of qualified majority voting. Two-thirds of the European parliament would also need to give its consent.
Of course there’s absolutely no chance of the EU stripping Spain of its voting rights, regardless of its horrendous action on polling day in the Catalan region, nor the menacing attitude of Madrid aimed at the Catalan government to this day.
It’s very interesting to note that the EU is close to triggering Article 7 in Poland, the ruling party could be about to breach fundamental rights.
Which part of art. 7? Art. 7(1) or art. 7(2)? You seem to be talking about the latter, but I don’t see the Commission making such a proposal until they’ve worked out how they are going to get the votes, i.e. how they are going to get Hungary to vote for it or abstain.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:12012M007
Frans Timmermans, a former Dutch minister and former VP of European commission, fears that if the EU can getting the necessary backing from member state Article 7, never triggered before, may be the way.
Timmermans claims Poland’s right wing ruling party (PiS) are in constant conflict with the EU. They’ve accused Warsaw of seeking to put judges under full political control.
Though as you rightly point out could the EU garner enough support to implement Article 7.
Timmermans wasn’t noticeably concerned about the Spanish governments recent breach of fundamental rights. In fact he backed it fully. Where’s the consistency?
Here we go
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-41607822
Syria war: Turkish forces set up positions in Idlib
anyone know if the Turks got the OK from Syria?
Freddy
In some reports I read it appears that this may have been agreed in Astana. The idea is to control HTS and give the upper hand to the ‘moderate’ opposition and create a deconflicting zone in Idlib province. Whether the Turks are playing a double game is difficult to ascertain.
It is interesting to note what happened with Daesh. The decline of Daesh corresponded with initial bombing of their oil export to Turkey business by the RuAF. After a period of tension between Russia and Turkey in which Turkey invaded northern Syria in what is known as Euphrates shield, the SAA stepped in and cut access in southern Aleppo to Daesh who seemed to have until then had an open border with turkey, receiving regularly from the west and other countries. The decline of Daesh followed in a semi rapid fashion when they lost borders to the outside world.
Meanwhile POTUS Donald Trump, fatally wounded the Iranian agreement, in my opinion, known as (JCAOP). By declaring a need to “stiffen” the terms.
The US, just can’t seem to allow the Iranian economy to flourish, possibly, at the request of Israel. What now for the plethora of EU countries, businesses, that have heavily invested in Iran’s burgeoning economy.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, also advised the POTUS to declare Iran’s Islamic Revoultionary Guard Corps, as a terrorist organisation, however that proposal has been put on the back-burner for now.
Is it any wonder then that Hassan Rouhani, and the people of Iran have a deep distrust of the the US, expect the Iranian nuclear programme to fire up again sometime in the near future.
There was a lot of sabre rattling from that source and complaints about iran’s presence in Syria. This was then seamlessly followed by this direct verbal attack on Iran, which , would you believe, is now officially arming the houties in Yemen and sponsoring terrorism and is not only a regional danger but a danger to US and Europe, according to several generals and experts wheeled out on a daily basis by the BBC.
O/T. Mary Queen of Scots, a new film, is being made. The crew were at Albury in Surrey today in the churchyard.
David Tennant is in the cast.
Saoirse Ronan is Queen Mary. The actress’s name is new to me.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Queen_of_Scots_(2018_film)
The church. https://www.alburychurches.org/tour.html
Funny how no one ever makes a film about something like the 1820 Uprising in Scotland. No. Let’s make a film about royalty. Even English left wing filmmakers don’t want to know about the 1820. That’s funny too.
Here’s an up-coming film that should be worth watching;
http://neoskosmos.com/news/en/Costa-Gavras-to-turn-Varoufakis-book-into-a-film
It certainly should be a good one.
Is this a fair summary?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_War
Hanging and beheading in Scotland as recently as early C19. Makes one think.
And transportation.
Hmm, so Mary was Irish, Elizabeth I Australian, Bess of Hardwick Chinese and the best known Scot in the cast is playing an Englishman!
I think someone’s having a laugh.
ISIS now controls less than 8% of Syrian territory – Russian General Staff
Yet Israel still occupies The Golan, America has at least one base in Syria and Turkey is currently invading Idlib
https://www.rt.com/news/406618-isis-controls-less-territory/
“Yet Israel still occupies The Golan, ”
Illegally I might add.
United Nations Security Council resolution 497, adopted unanimously on 17 December 1981, declared that the Israeli Golan Heights Law, which effectively annexed the Golan Heights, is “null and void and without international legal effect” and further calls on Israel to rescind its action.
Imagine the actions of the western bellicose nations, if say Iran, we’re illegally occupying the Golan Heights.
In February 2013, Israeli authorities awarded Afek Oil and Gas an exclusive 36-month petroleum exploration license to a 153-square-mile (400 km2) plot in the Golan Heights, which the UN recognises to be Syrian territory.
In 2015, Afek discovered a substantial amount of oil and natural gas reserves.
Afaik Oil is contracted to the lease holder Genie Energy, Directors include ,Dick Cheney ,Rupert Murdoch. Larry Summers,Jacob Rothschild and ex Cia Directer James Woolsey. Same old looting suspects
Yes Salford Lad, you’re correct, the same old, same old.
Re my 17.29pm comment.
Trumps, virtual ungracious U-turn regarding the UNSC’s Resolution 223, is an affront to not just the Iranian’s, and the outside business community who’ve invested heavily in Iran, but also it’s unsettling for fellow members of the UNSC.
Saudi Arabia’s national oil company, Aramco, to put around 5% of the business up for sale, it will be one of biggest IPO’s in recent years.
Watch as banks around the world jostle to get a piece of the action, as the Saudi king attempts to begin the diversification from the oil business, to meet his 2030 Vision programme.
The 2030 vision is American consultants. It doesn’t work, at all. They called for economies in state employments. They didn’t understand that the only thing that holds Saudi Arabia together, is the money paid to Hijazis and other non-Saudis, to keep them quiet. Stop the money, and you have revolution. The move lasted about two weeks, before it disappeared.
US consultants. Those were the guys who helped Maggie close down the pits. I am a US consultant. Am I going to advise my client’s wet behind the ears son to conserve his resources or am I going to advise him to squander them on jihad while my country has the resources from fracking to bomb his jihadists flat again in Syria using Russia and Iran?
The US’s ramped-up rhetoric against Russia and Iran is a sure sign that Russia and Iran are their allies against their clients in Sunni Islam. Trump, like Harvey Weinstein, is undoubtedly physically impotent. But they can still get their heads off on lies and influence. Is the world really so shallow an object that a woman and a Sunni prince can be bought and made to do degrading sex or violence acts for fame and vanity? Is it really so shallow that a woman or a prince have to do whatever a criminal empire desires?
Willie Rennie got a drubbing in the St. Andrew’s University Rectorship election. His opponent Popovic got about 70% to Willie’s 30%. And to think Willie was standing for an election in his home turf of Fife. It’s so funny!
reel guid.
I’m surprised Rennie even got 30% of the vote, he and his branch office in Scotland, are truly insignificant. ?
Who are we talking about again?
Erm…….I’ve forgotten already ?
So Philip Hammond has referred to the EU negotiators as the enemy. Maybe he thinks he’s playing the Sir John Mills part in an old, oh so British war film.
Here are some Brexit British war movies.
Cockleshell Zeros
The May That Never Was
All Of Our Statecraft Is Missing
Ill Met By Moonshine
I Was Mundy’s Stubble
Sink the Pound?
Went the May Well?
Sturgeon Frigid
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-41581430
Heseltine told us that letting the French and Germans run the EU was like letting the Germans win the war. Hammond is a younger version of Heseltine. Fox is Lord Haw haw. Do we believe that the Tory party gives a fig for the UK? After they have finished playing tail on the donkey and all fall down the mummies and daddies, viz Corbyn and MacDonnell will have to take them home clutching their little illusions of having been in power.
I will tell you a little story on here about the subject “Desensitised to Tradgedy”
Which level would you like?….it takes a very long time…
Meanwhile……what do we do?????
Just let it get worse???????????????????????????????????
For my Grandchildren too?????
Or do we try and do something positive against these fcking complete lunatic psychopaths currently running the world????
Anyone got any ideas????
..like infiltrating and replacing them – cos that is what they did to us.
Look at the mess they have made.
This simply can’t go on.
Tony
“Hate has no home in Scotland” aims to increase public understanding of what hate crime is, and how to report it.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-41609101
anyone get the idea that Independence has been pushed under the carpet, while they talk about global warming or hate crime?
You wish. But it’s all about timing. And in the meantime it’s on with the day job which the MSM constantly tries to spread lies about the SNP not doing.
Wron, I do not wish for Nicola to ignore Independence, I want her to hold another referendum.
Freddy’s beginning to sound an awful lot like our old pal Michael Norton.
Is that you Michael?
Number of primary school children with class sizes over 30 risen by 40%, waiting times for cancer patients growing, hospital wards closing, multi-billion pound fiscal deficit and her own constituency is a rat infested open sewer yet Nicola Sturgeon is in Iceland shouting about how she’s going to save the world from global warming.
It’s the McCrone report all over again only this time, it’s not how wealthy Scotland will be, but how much damage to its economy will be done after Brexit.
The Tory government has done a impact assessment on Scotland and the north of England after Brexit, and is too afraid to release the document, because the damage it shows is considerable.
Independence for Scotland…you bet.
http://www.thenational.scot/news/15596318.Tories_urged_to_publish_UK_s_secret_report_on_extent_of_Brexit_damage_to_Scotland/
Ros
So they think Scotland ought to accept being trashed by something we didn’t vote for because we got our one off democratic say in 2014. And at the time Scots were told to vote No to independence by Labour because otherwise we’d be out the EU and Scotland would be trashed.
So Scotland can continue to allow ourselves to be, by turns lied to, railroaded, threatened, falsely flattered and callously manipulated. Or else we can choose the sanity and dignity of resuming independence.
“Scots were told to vote No to independence by Labour because otherwise we’d be out the EU”
As indeed you would have been. The UK, including Scotland, is still in the EU. If Scotland had left the UK it would have been out of the EU pronto. Unlike the 2014 referendum, the 2016 EU referendum was UK-wide. The regional breakdown is irrelevant, it is for informational purposes only. Nevertheless, the millions of Scottish Leave voters contributed enormously to the final result.
Scotland is a nation. And pretty much the oldest one in Europe. We’re not a region for informational purposes only. Nor is Scotland’s purpose to be fuel for Labour Party ambition. Or anyone else’s.
Scotland is a nation.
Was a nation.
And pretty much the oldest one in Europe
Very far from it, if you include all the other ‘was a nations’. The Kingdom of Strathclyde, f’r instance. Definitely has priority over the artificial entity, created in 843 (traditionally) by conquest and theft by the imperialist Vikings and, later, Normans. Or Scotland, as you know it. Free the Lowlands now!
You should be proud to belong to a nation that voted for its independence.
The vote to leave the EU wasn’t legally binding in the first place.
“Following the referendum result, a Government promise made six years prior resurfaced that any referendum “cannot be legally binding”, but rather is advisory.”
Said Lady Hale, a Supreme court justice.
Of course the Tories, got round that particular problem, by triggering Article 50, and a vote in the HoC.
The Brexit bill passed with the help of good old Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour MP’s. We all know that Corbyn isn’t a lover of the EU.
Still the actions of his MP’s helping the bill pass, has allowed the Tory government ministers to amend the legislation in future, without the usual parliamentary scrutiny.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-repeal-bill-how-did-your-mp-vote-eu-withdrawal-debate-constituency-labour-tory-lib-dem-a7941856.html
Now the Brexit farce is due to cause untold economic damage (read my link @11.10am) not just to Scotland, but to northern England as well.
Scotland needs to be a independent nation, if only not to be dragged along a path it doesn’t want to go due to UK voting intentions.
Ros
Corbyn just isn’t a politician. He was so used to doing his own thing for 30 years as a redoubtable left wing activist who just happened to also be an MP. But there is no strategic sense and little political skill there. He spurns allies. He antagonises. And walks into just about every Tory trap that’s set for him.
He hasn’t got a clue what to do about the Brexit mess same as May, other than – same as her – he hopes it might be not too bad.
His idea of Scotland is basically that we’ve to get back to being a useful fiefdom for his Labour Party and send down lots of Labour MPs again.
The Labour left are so dizzy from seeing a left winger win two leadership elections comfortably and draw crowds in an election campaign. So they are in denial that Brexit will be a victory for the forces of neoliberalism and not an opportunity against them.
Yes reel guid, Corbyn, who is clearly anti-EU in membership, doesn’t want to upset the 50 odd percent that voted to leave. He trying to be all things to all men/women, it can’t be done.
Indeed Corbyn can’t even control Labour’s policies within UK borders let alone decide what’s right on the EU front. I say that knowing Labour in Wales have very conflicting views to those at Westminster, such as raising tuition fees.
“The vote to leave the EU wasn’t legally binding in the first place.”
“Following the referendum result, a Government promise made six years prior resurfaced that any referendum “cannot be legally binding”, but rather is advisory.”
If that is true then the vote to remain in the EU in 1975 is not legally binding.
Also Voters in the the UK were lied to and propagandised by the IRD a department of the foreign office headed by Norman Reddaway who was the worlds biggest liar and propagandist to vote to remain in the EU in 1975.The IRD was set up by the Labour party.The Leave voters had the generosity of spirit to accept the result and went on to support it not like today.
I also understood, that in the U.K. any referendum
is only advisory.
The government of the day is bound to take the result into consideration.
This is what happened in Scotland = Stay
this is what happened on Brexit = Leave
In Britain Parliament rules supreme. The only referendum which was legally binding was the Alternative Vote referendum which Parliament passed a law beforehand to make it legally binding.
Are Tony and Cherie hooking up with Shillary on her royal progress in the UK?
She has picked up an honorary doctorate from Swansea University.
The degree is in ‘warmongering’. 😉
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-41623767/hillary-clinton-s-welsh-roots-discovery-a-delight
Who fixed that for her?
It was part of her contract with Weinstein.
Chill.
Is she getting a welcome from Oxbridge.
No.
It’s Swansea University.
They’re Welsh.
You see.
Scotland awarded €21m in highest ever Erasmus+ EU funding allocation. Up €5m on last year.
Around €11 million goes to our universities.
Around €2.5 million goes to Scotland’s schools.
Around €4.75 million goes to working in vocational, education and training.
Roughly €1.6 million goes to Scottish organisations working in adult education.
Scotland will really miss this EU funding after Brexit. The Westminster government cannot be relied upon to fill the gap.
Shouldn’t this be more accurately titled “Desensitised to Cold-blooded State Murder”; “tragedy” makes it seem like this deliberate extra-judicial assassination of a mother & her young child, was just an accident.
Macky
A lot of UK men threaten people around them with a mantle of talk about violence, and I suppose there must be lots of women around who are attracted to that, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to boast about knocking people out and their wives turning on the central heating in the same sentence. This eccentric English deviance is accompanied by much TV soap self-pity for their own lot in life.
What confuses me is why this violent-man-addicted-female thought there might be a better outcome for her violent-man-addiction in a different country. Did she think she was going to get away with murder over there, and that the UK state sponsor of terror had not created the perfect scenario for disposing of her type of personality without any questions being asked , over there?
One wonders with all the bluffing, stalling and sheer lack of progress, between the EU and Britain, over the Divorce bill, and Brexit in general, if in the not too distant future, a no deal result will be on the cards.
I say that knowing the Chancellor has been cosying up, or at least attempting to, with major US banks and the IMF.
He will meet top bosses at JP Morgan and Citi as well as asset managers Blackstone and BlackRock. It will cap a week that will have seen Mr Hammond meet fellow finance ministers and central bankers in Washington.
That is on top of a Commonwealth Finance Ministers meeting, the first attended by a UK Chancellor in seven years.
EU Brexit chief Michel Barnier, said earlier this week that a position of “deadlock” had set in between the EU and Britain. Meanwhile the IMF has said that Britain is the only major economy not to see its growth forecast upgraded.
Just a point of fact to those who denigrate the Catalan economy as future-risible, due to capital flight and corporate withdrawal.
Quite a few firms in Britain are/have already set up in Frankfurt, including Standard Charter, Citi group, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.
Mizuho will join a raft of Japanese banks which have chosen the city as an EU hub, including Daiwa, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG) and Nomura.
If a no deal is announced, and it’s a very real possibility expect more firms to take flight to Europe, and along with them jobs.
RoS, City bankers and interest-devourers are welcome to leave the UK. Our non-economy consists of people who finance buying stuff from abroad and people who sell it. The size of our economy apart from blood-suckers and middle-men is actually zero. But these trash have still managed to inflate our property values to a point that a painted shed on a remote beach in the south of Dorset costs £25,000, or about what I paid for my house in the year 2000.
Let the profiteers go, scrambling after low trade tariffs, but if they go they forfeit their UK passports. Then let property prices deflate to their market value. Cows will no longer have to produce milk at a retail price of 87 pence for 2 litres from Poland. Workers will no longer have to travel daily up and down the country of 10 lane motorways in order to keep the office-workers in pensions and salaries. Weapon-making factories can be boarded up like verruccas and all forms of electronic circuitry will be banned.
We can live on spuds.
We can all live on spuds.
Spuds provide most of everything you need to live.
That’s why in The Martian film, that’s what he grew.
Anyway.
You can do nearly anything you want with spuds.
If people could only understand the power of spuds.
They could take over the whole wide world.
But they don’t.
So they won’t.
Meanwhile the English NHS, is in such a terrible financial state. That Health secretary Jeremy Hunt, maybe about to pilot a scheme in England where, no walk in patients are allowed to go to A&E.
The BMA and the Patients Association said Hunt’s idea revealed the depth of the financial crisis facing the NHS.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/13/jeremy-hunt-considers-barring-walk-in-patients-from-ae
Ah never mind, I’m sure those who are turned away this winter (if piloted), will take great comfort in knowing the meagre DUP votes at £1billion quid, are worth more to the government, than access life saving facilities at English hospitals.
The runway on St Helena that Craig wrote about last November is how open. I see the cost has risen by £35m.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/11/tale-two-airports/
A snip for the taxpayer.
‘Built with £285m ($380m) of funding from the UK Department for International Development (Dfid), the airport should have opened in 2016, but dangerous wind conditions delayed the launch.
After further trials this summer, the weekly service between Johannesburg and St Helena was passed as safe.’
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-41620003
As always follow the money; according to the tweet that linked this article, five trillion dollars is roughly $5,000 per minute for over 2000 years. Wars & it’s associated weapon selling are increasingly the West main money earner:
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/america-has-spent-usd5-trillion-on-wars-since-9-11.html?utm_source=fb&utm_medium=s3&utm_campaign=sharebutton-t
There are all sorts of conspiracy theories concerning The Jurie’s Verdict “Unlawful Killing”
All I can say, is that I was completely gutted and I travelled into London to be part ot the worldwide grief and the expanse of flowers
She went to the gym right opposite to where I worked in Fulham…
and she went to the English Natural Ballet on the Southbank of the Thames and took ker kids and sat in the same stalls as we who took our kids…but I never met her….but she was in the same room as my wife…
Princess Diana
For years, I was suspicious, but thought it was probably just an accident…then this firend of mine, told me how it was done (ex journalist)……
And then it all came out in court that Princess Diana’s Death was a result of Unlawful Killing…
The BBC never reported that – nor any of The Newspapers…
So who are The Lying Fc ‘kers in The BBC and the Newspapers working for…???
Cos it certainly ain’t us British.
Who are Thes CiNTiS?
Tony
When is Craig Murray’s Trial???
Even I have contributed to his Defence…
I actually sent him some money (even I couldn’t believe it – a week before my wife said – what are you doing??? I was embarrassed to say.
In November its only a few weeks away…
We have lots of Parties…
what date is Craig slated for – and if he wins can we have our money back with costs and expenses?
Why not just plead guilty…no one knows who the hell the person who is suing you is? so why give all the money we have donated to you in the defence of free speech to lawyers – cos no one could give a shit if you are found guilty or innocent…If you play your cards right Craig Murray – you should get off Scott Free…and then have the money to refund your supporters – otherwise it will go to these fat barristers…who also couldn’t give a sh1t except collecting their fee
Tony
Tony,
The libel case by Lord Aldington against Count Tolstoy(the last libel defence I contributed my mite to)springs to mind as such a Pyrrhic victory in that it brought the claims’of war criminality against Aldington and MacMillan in ‘The Minister and the Massacres'(sending Cossacks, Ukranians,White Russians and Croats Yugoslavs to death from British concentration camps in Carinthia) wider publicity while gaining him none of the damages awarded during his lifetime.
Though I fervently hope it will not come to this , Tolstoy’s strategy should be considered among Craig’s fallbackP plans(Plan D2?)
Kerchee
@ Kerchee
You forgot the Poles, surely?
I refer to the often repeated claim by our friend “Laguerre” that the British authorities forcibly sent Polish soldiers (from the Polish Army of the West) back to Communist Poland at the end of WW2.
As I have already said (or tried to say – my post was deleted), I have checked this with various sources (eg, the Sikorski Institute in London and the UK and Polish Defence Ministries) and they have all said this was rubbish. But I do realise that “Laguerre” got his info from an even better source – namely, his late father-in-law! 🙂