It is sickening that Spanish courts continue to jail, and remove from political life, Catalan politicians who are the victors in democratic elections. That the European political class and media is almost entirely complicit and supportive in this truly vicious repression of the Catalan people, has shocked many of us to our core, and made us realise how thin is the veneer of democracy and how fragile are the rights we believed we held.
If the UK were any kind of a democracy, opposition parties would have held firm against the rush to conflict with Russia, until serious and thorough investigation of the Skripal case had yielded real results. At the very least, you would expect to see a select committee of the House of Commons call the head of Porton Down to give evidence and quiz him about the level of certainty they have of the identity and the Russian manufacture of the substance which poisoned the Skripals.
Instead, we have seen all the establishment parties fall over themselves to appear as belligerent and faux-Churchillian as May and her pipsqueaks, in order to placate the tabloids. This is ludicrous. You cannot out-jingo the Tories, and the rush to increase international tension benefits nobody except the armaments and security industries.
I am obliged to say I was disgusted by Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP leadership and their premature condemnations of Russia. By coincidence I spent much of last week at pro-Indy events and I have to say I found this disgust almost universal.
The odd voice was prepared to offer the usual Nicola excuse of “She is trying not to alienate the Unionists”. But what is the point of not alienating the Unionists by, to all intents and purposes, becoming a Britnat yourself? The continued failure – for years now – of the SNP to argue to the public the case for Independence, the attempt to dodge Indyref2, all of it leaves me to feel that the SNP leadership have got their feet under the table within the UK, as a form of controlled opposition.
The SNP leadership are far happier talking about which powers devolve to Holyrood from Brussels, and which stay at Westminster, than they are talking about Independence. I don’t give a damn about the precise contours of the devolution settlement; I want my country to be free of Westminster entirely, and soon.
We are not yet subject to the extreme state repression afflicting our counterparts in Catalonia, but you can be certain the Tories have noted the template, and that other Western political leaders will support them if they start putting people like me in the pokey for thirty years for sedition. Sadly it has become abundantly clear that there is no danger of the highly paid SNP elected representatives, their SPADs, and party bureaucrats, ever putting themselves in that position.
They would be with those handing down the sentences, as their attitude to Carla Ponsati shows.
Just as MEPs lined up one after another in the European Parliament to defend Francoist thugs batoning grandmothers trying to vote as the “rule of law”, and use the same excuse for lengthy sentences for political prisoners, so there was an echo of this distancing in Nicola Sturgeon’s response to the extradition of Catalan campaigner Carla Ponsati through the Scottish courts, potentially to spend the rest of her life in a Spanish jail just for peacefully campaigning for freedom for her country.
Nicola referred to “the fact our justice system is legally obliged to follow due process in the determination of extradition requests”. She too is hiding behind “the rule of law” and thus turning a blind eye to the Francoist attack on fundamental rights.
Very few voters of the SNP put Nicola Sturgeon into parliament in order to warm her toes at the Robert Adam fireplaces at Bute House, while Catalan leaders are dragged from Scotland to a terrible repression. The SNP leadership have become far too adept at speaking with British Establishment voices and thinking with British Establishment minds.
At some stage they have to accept that achieving Scottish Independence is in itself a revolutionary act, and that it will never be achieved without real constitutional conflict with the UK, the sort of political conflict which has attended the birth of every independent state. If you are afraid to do something “unconstitutional” under the present repressive system, you have no right to pretend to be a part of the Independence movement.
For Sturgeon to hide behind the Edinburgh High Tory Scottish legal establishment and wash her hands, Pontius Pilate like, over the extradition of Carla Ponsati is simply unacceptable.
Saving this brave woman is as noble a cause to launch a constitutional crisis as one might wish for. The Holyrood parliament must pass a Bill forbidding the extradition of Ponsati and the Scottish government must order Police Scotland to enforce it. We need finally to show we are serious about challenging the UK. If Sturgeon declines, then the Scottish people must physically defend Ponsati. And the Independence movement must fundamentally reconsider its leadership and strategy.
Never had much time for Nicola Sturgeon personally. A so-so mediocre politician without any great charm. Can’t say I’m surprised at the ‘rule of law’ mantra either, coming from her, or any of them. It’s probably bollocks anyway, and the EAW can be fought, when you get to the details. But either way, she could say far more, and chooses not to. This is just cowardice, no matter which party she belongs to.
I swear Corbyn is the Last Man in Europe, as it were. All the rest seem utterly insane.
Sturgeon has publicly said a lot in support of Catalan democracy in the last six months. As indeed have many individual politicians across Europe, but sadly not governments. The Scottish Government being a rare exception.
Corbyn, by contrast, has said zilch in defence of democracy in Catalonia. That includes silence in recent days after the issuing of the EAWs. It’s strange indeed that Jeremy keeps invoking the memory of his mother bravely defying Moseley’s Blackshirts in the Battle of Cable Street in the 1930s. Yet he himself can’t raise even a statement of protest against fascists at work in the here and now.
Remember, you don’t have to support the cause of Catalan independence to speak out for Catalan democracy. Many people have stated that they don’t support independence but nevertheless fully deplore the policies of the Rajoy government.
Almost the whole of Labour, with the honourable exception of Catherine Stihler, have given the Francoists a free pass. There are a lot more people in Castilian Spain than in Catalonia, so I suppose Labour are simply following their mantra of For The Many Not The Fewer.
Well said reel guid, I read somewhere that the EU and the UN were up in arms over Poland’s attempts to smother democracy something to do with the juduciary and government.
Yet not a peep out of either over Spanish actions in Catalonia or the political prisoners.
Cracking down on fascism in Spain doesn’t apply it seems.
Meanwhile a FOI showed that of the 13 Tories appointed from Scotland to Westminster, none have asked any serious questions of the Department for Exiting the EU, none are in the loop either including Ruth Davidson.
They’re just yes men and woman.
Ros
Yes. This bunch of Scots Tory MPs. Ciphers every last one of them.
Pontius Pilate, if I remember correctly, was aware of the ingrained malice of the Rabbis or religious priesthood against their prophet Jesus/ Isa pbuh who was telling them some incredibly uncomfortable truths. We have today in the mosque near my house in Birmingham a young imam who recited verses of the Qur’an at last Friday prayers condemning those who disagree with Islam. But their version of Islam which includes fighting and killing the Syrian Muslims, the Iraqi Muslims, the Pakistani and Afghani Muslims, the Kurdish Muslims, the Libyan Muslims etc on behalf of USUKIS superpowers is not Islam. It is, like the rabbis of Jesus/Isa’s time pbuh, a call to unfettered violence, like the violence of the Islamist jihadist wars. Their prophet was a true prophet who was calling them to correct their own behaviour, stop using interest, stop persecuting widows etc.
It is intellectually bonkers for a person who has deviated from Islam by a large degree to use the verses of the Qur’an against a true messenger. They didn’t want to stop clubbing, stop buying multiple houses on interest, stop drinking and using drugs, oppressing women or to curb their racism against the indigenous people and to set a good example of good behaviour. And because that was too hard for them, they attacked the person who stood as witness against their violence, using the verses of the Qur’a taken out of context.
Do the Birmngham young scholars of Islam, like the Rabbis of Jesus/ Isa’s time take lessons from the rukers of the superpowers, like Mrs May over the Salisbury false flag, or from the oppressors from among the Romans, in how to distort the truth? Pontius Pilate knew that the Rabbis could not kill Jesus/Isa pbuh under their own law, and they demanded that Pontius Pilate kill him under Roan law. The total hypocrisy of the imams of today and the rabbis of that earlier time will be recorded for history. Today the imams are supporting the neo-colonial proxy war against the Syran people and the Kurdish people and the Libyan people all of whom are Muslim. They want the USUKIS war. They know it’s illegal under Islamic Law but they want USUKIS etc to do it for them.
Huh! Hypocrisy happens everywhere.
Sturgeon loves the EU therefore she has to love the EU arrest warrant . Game over for the Catalan lady . The rule of Law has to apply.
Sharia May had an opt out on this but chose to opt back in to the EAW . Only UKIP wanted us to stay out of it .
Pat UKIP on the back Craig ? LOL .
When people get to elect people (by voting in regular terms), who then make or remove all the laws of the land as they see fit, then the system is little different than when people select people (by revolting sometimes), who then make or remove all the laws of the land as they see fit.
If you want democracy, you need balance of power – the electorate must be able to directly strike laws (or make, though I think striking is better), so that politicians are checked and balanced in their legislative actions. Until we get to semi-direct democracy, we are in the same evolutionary autocracy we have been for millenia, just with a nice veneer over it.
I want representative democracy which we do not have under FPTP voting . We need a PR system and PDQ . Who wants another faux FPTP voting rules . Time for REAL change . PR voting is what the Lab/Tory dinosaurs will not allow us . No surprise there !
Expelling only 1 diplomat (several countries) may be seen as a protest against the idiocy. The unity is overrated, if you ask me. Germany’s response is also very measured.
I bet Putin’s pragmatism, patience and even temper will save the situation yet another time. Russia have good, specialist. knowing the West very well and can easily figure out what is behind this. That is: An attempt from the US intelligence community to make it difficult for Trump to keep his pre-election promise to cooperate with Russia. In a way they were just looking out for cases that could be used. (The intimacy between the spy-communities by close NATO partners is near total, one must remember).. In a way the Skripal case is not about the Skripals…
USUKIS want to destroy the Middle East and have persuaded the donkeys of political Islam not just to do it for them but also to pay for it. The Skirpal case is a false flag attack on innocent people, who happen to have a connection with a particular country that USUKIS want to denigrate and all their allies want to denigrate, so that between them they can present Russia as an enemy when they are in fact co-participants in the anti-Islam blood fest that has continued now for 30 years.
The only solution to the problem is for the Islamist slaves of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Gulf to read the Qur’an which forbids them to become the confederates in war of the enemies of Islam. Nobody should look at the good work the Saudis and the Ikhwans do for Islam and turn a blind eye to the utter ignorance of their understanding of Islam. the Qur’an explicitly forbids the type of con-federacy the the political Islamists have been engaging in, and calls on Muslims to kill the deliberate disobeyers of Islam and confederates of the enemies of Islam first.
If salt lose its flavour , with what will ye salt it? The enemies of Islam are quite entitled to lie to the world if the witness to the truth of Islam stay silent. The reproach is on the Muslims for abandoning their duties..
‘Council leader faces calls to quit after working in her £300-a-day role as a peer despite claiming she was ‘too ill’ to visit Salisbury residents after poison plot
Cllr Jane Scott only visited Salisbury 19 days after nerve agent attack on the city
Her deputy Cllr John Thompson said the Tory peer had been ‘extremely ill’
But it has now emerged she was working in the House of Lords for £300-a-day
Baroness Scott confirmed to Mail on Sunday she would claim her money ‘
ex D Mail
This Tory type was probably too scared to visit. She believed all the lies. She is the leader of Wiltshire County Council.
Dear Craig,
thanks for your thoughtful article – your piece was right and accurate, and I’ve marked certain phrases that I agree with, using an * at the start.
* The SNP leadership have become far too adept at speaking with British Establishment voices and thinking with British Establishment minds.
* At some stage, they have to accept that achieving Scottish Independence is in itself a revolutionary act and that it will never be achieved without real constitutional conflict with the UK, the sort of political conflict which has attended the birth of every independent state. If you are afraid to do something “unconstitutional” under the present repressive system, you have no right to pretend to be a part of the Independence movement.
I’m an SNP member, but fully agree with your thoughts! Your article is better than most members might write… the truth is too important to ignore, and while I normally salute Nicola Sturgeon, your statement: “For Sturgeon to hide behind the Edinburgh High Tory Scottish legal establishment and wash her hands, Pontius Pilate-like, over the extradition of Carla Ponsati is simply unacceptable”.
* “Saving this brave woman is as noble a cause to launch a constitutional crisis as one might wish for. The Holyrood parliament must pass a Bill forbidding the extradition of Ponsati and the Scottish government must order Police Scotland to enforce it. We need finally to show we are serious about challenging the UK. If Sturgeon declines, then the Scottish people must physically defend Ponsati. And the Independence movement must fundamentally reconsider its leadership and strategy”.
I’m afraid that I’ve just copied and pasted your words – I’m sure that I couldn’t write better myself! I’ve no doubt that the SNP is a crucial political phase/part of our journey towards independence – yet, just as crucial is the broad church of our Yes supporters, including an almost incredible range of qualifications and skills!
Thanks for being part of our journey towards regaining self-determination!
Ewen Morrison
“Thanks for being part of our journey towards regaining self-determination!”
You should think about words more before using them. “Self-determination” doesn’t mean “independence”. Scotland voted less than 4 years ago to remain part of the British union. Only people in Scotland had a vote. That referendum was an act of self-determination. You want another one because you didn’t like the result of the first one, and presumably you don’t much like the crap electoral performances that the SNP has achieved since 2014 either.
As for “Yes” supporters being a broad church, what’s the weather like on your planet? Yesnikland is a mass nationalist party with the Odal rune as its symbol, with some largely irrelevant hangers-on among snot-green eco bullshitters and parts of the batshit far left.
“You want another one because you didn’t like the results of the first”…no, I want another because I’m a believer in a Scotland free of the perversion of democratic governance called Westminster and, as of now, that is the democratic route to that goal.
It’s called democracy which is an ongoing process, not an event.
Clown
That’s the trouble with wishing that the Snats were more than republican Tories who want to get English snouts out the trough and theirs in, like the Irish boss class did in 1922. You’re bound to be disappointed.
Your comment about being disgusted with Nicola Sturgeon over her stance on the Skripal case is understandable and I agree with you. The problem we all face is not that our politicians are a unique group of lousy people doing grubby things but rather that they are far too “regular Joe”. If you were to remove every current politician from political office however and replace them with “the average person” you would see precisely the same behaviour, if not worse, unfold very quickly indeed. In other words we do not have a rotten minority problem in the UK but a rotten majority problem. The number of people who genuinely strive each day to override their base instincts and commit themselves to good, even when this makes their own lives less pleasant, is very small indeed. These are the people however that must be leading societies if we are to have any hope of breaking new ground in terms of human evolution. It is extremely difficult to see how this could ever occur given that the first act the majority would commit themselves to, should such people ever rise to leadership, would be to unseat them because of their refusal to offer preferential treatment to those who care little about truth or lie or right and wrong. Our problem is, and has always been, the majority, and until we are candid about that every effort we make to repair the UK, or an independent Scotland, will fail. This is why I make the case for a staffing both the house of Lords and the senior levels of the Civil Service on a continual churn basis, on https://prybar.co.uk/ ,as well as forensic vetting of prospective candidates. Whilst this does not transform the majority into people of great integrity it does limit the damage they can cause. In my view the only way to bring any of this to fruition however is to play the tories off against the Labour Party, using their hunger for power as their achilles heel, at the next General Election. I have described this mechanism in detail on https://prybar.co.uk/strategy/ and perhaps I can invite you Craig to offer up a voter pledge?
Jeremy Corbyn was probably the least self-centred/ career-oriented/ corrupt MP in Britain. His leading the country would probably be the swiftest means of effecting change back towards more communitarian attitudes among the population at large.
I also feel that Jeremy Corbyn is an exception to the rule that all MPs are odious. The same could be said for Caroline Lucas. The problem is however that even they seem to be rather uncommitted to substantial, structural political and electoral reform of the transformative type I refer to on https://prybar.co.uk/ Given that this type of change would be extremely popular with the public it is a curiosity that they have largely ignored it. For that reason I have to consider the possibility that being in the Westminster club can erode even the hardiest of souls such that they inadvertently become somewhat assimilated. The end result of this may well be that we realise a slightly better government in the short term but that they fail to build a truly future-proof structure. Once they are removed from office the incoming “born to rule” brigade will undo even the modest changes they have made and drive us ever further into a divided and broken society. Although Corbyn and Labour are an improvement we actually need more than they can offer.
Perhaps if a better understanding of the issues krg mentions were a part of our larger culture we might get a different result without there having to be a change in peoples morals.
Thanks for the comment Johny and I agree. None of us are perfect and we are all capable of doing dreadful things under certain circumstances. As a boy, the scene from Orwell’s book 1984 were he asked his torturers to place Julia in the rat cage rather than himself stayed with me. For a long while my view of the human condition was that every person in life will betray you. This is of course theoretically true as we are essentially animals with only finite courage and resolve. After a while however I realised that Orwell had used the most extreme situation to validate his point and therefore this was only a valid critique of human behaviour under the most severe circumstances. Indeed when a person in placed in such circumstances their behaviour does not reflect who they really are in regular life and their choices are therefore entirely forgivable. What concerns me however is that more and more I see people making choices that cause great harm to others when they themselves are not in extreme circumstances. In fact many of the choices such people will make actually bring them very little in terms of personal reward yet they will still place their wants above the base survival needs of others. This disturbs me because it cannot be excused in the same way one would excuse the actions of Winston Smith. We are all flawed but I do believe that what separates the best of us from the worst of us comes down to those who are consciously trying to rise above our base programming rather than simply wallowing in base behaviour often to a degree that would surprise the rest of the animal kingdom. But you are correct in your observation that no one wishes to discuss this topic. This is largely because most people are too afraid to come face to face with who they truly are.
Pity he’s such a pusillanimous whelp.
I must confess to having to look up pusillanimous and I now see that it means “showing a lack of courage or determination; timid”. My first reaction was of course to be annoyed at being insulted out of the blue but then I realised that there may be something important here. Do you feel that my website is too timid? I am genuine in my desire to try to improve the UK’s political structure and must confess to having had little success so far so all criticism and suggestions for improvement are welcome.
What a croc o shit this writer has produced in this thinly veiled attack on Nicola, and the SNP.
It is true many, myself included boaked at Ian Blackfords statement in the commons. We let him know, about that too. However, our independence is reliant on “the rule of law” to validate our eventual statehood. The one thing that could derail the whole show is violence born out of frustration.
Until were free; it’s SNP
so, into the welcoming arms of the superstate EU eh Tom
Or not, depending on the wishes of the electorate in Scotland, rather than the wishes of the UK as a whole.
… this thinly veiled attack on Nicola, and the SNP …
I must have missed the thin veil.
So Labour has finally spoken out on Spain’s attempt to extradite Clara Ponsanti to Spain from Scotland.
Ian Murray Tweeted saying she’s broken the law and she should face the consequences. Good old Labour, quite happy to see political prisoners held in western Europe.
Meanwhile Ian Blackford will meet with Spanish delegates over the matter, and two candidates for the SNP deputy leadership, have given support to Clara Ponsanti saying we must fight to let her remain in Scotland. The head of St Andrews Uni has also given Clara her full backing.
Ian Murray’s faith in the rectitude of the Francoist courts doesn’t say much for his judgement. Or perhaps it’s just the sort of talk the douce voters of Morningside in his constituency like to hear.
“Francoist courts” indeed. Get a grip.
Imagine a politician saying a person has broken the law before the person has been tried. Doesn’t he understand stuff? I’ve never heard of Ian Murray, but what a prat he sounds.
He’s an anti-Corbyn Labour MP, who panders to the Tory voters in South Edinburgh. Prior to the last election, many people received phone calls to ascertain if they would vote for Murray as an independent, so desperate he was to ensure he saved his job!
Gosh, Craig, are you finally waking up to the fact that the whole ScotNat thing is a trough-feeders’ scam to bamboozle the plebs and that the Westminster Brexitmongers are retaining EAWs for a very, very good reason?
It’s astonishing that 21 countries have now aligned behind London by expelling Russian diplomats, without any solid evidence of Russian complicity.
14 of those countries are EU members, quick to act without irrefutable proof, but deaf dumb and blind on Spain holding political prisoners.
the UK holds political prisoner too – check out the child abuse whistleblower Melanie Shaw for example
I’ve got 27 on my list, or 28 including Britain [*].
The New Zealand attitude was amusing. They went “Sure, we’re right behind you. But we don’t know of any undeclared Russian intelligence officers here. So we’re sorry, but we haven’t got anybody suitable to expel.”
I think “united behind the US” would be more accurate.
I’ve said it before, but I suspect that Article 5 of the NATO treaty has been invoked. There’s nothing in the treaty that says it has to be invoked in public. (Can @Craig maybe comment?)
Did you see that NATO has now expelled Russian diplomats? Belgium was said to have vetoed the idea at first.
The Dirty 28
Britain, United States, Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania, Czechia, Denmark, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Latvia, Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Estonia, Canada, Norway, Macedonia, Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Albania, Belgium, Ireland, Iceland, Sweden, Australia
.
I’d draw people’s attention to the fact that three “neutral” countries have lined up with the Brittie poshboys, the US government and NATO, namely Finland, Sweden and Ireland. (Two other neutral countries, Austria and Switzerland, haven’t. Austria has expressed verbal support, though. Switzerland will stay out for obvious rea$on$.)
Here’s the question: WHY?
In the case of Ireland, a couple of mill in an offshore account to Leo Varadkar and he’s anybody’s. Ireland is as much of a mafia state as Russia. It hasn’t got much in the way of military strength, and gone are the days when Dublin was an important base for getting KGB guys into Britain. Nobody really gives a toss what Ireland says in this matter. They’ve never had anything like an independent foreign policy.
Finland and Sweden are in a different group. Look at their location. Finland was an Axis-aligned power that changed its position during WW2 and was never disarmed after it. As for Sweden, anyone who doesn’t realise that that arms-manufacturing country (owned by one family, the Wallenbergs) will be on the side of NATO in WW3, and that it will get stuck into some naval fighting early on, hasn’t been paying attention.
Happy Easter 🙂
Get used to this list of countries, which may yet grow. This is one of the sides in WW3.
NATO Turkey meanwhile, seems to have expelled two Netherlands intelligence officers. Possibly unconnected of course !
Last night’s TV News: “Diplomatic coup” for Theresa May; Corbyn the Nazi.
The corporate media aren’t even disguising their propaganda now. Even the dogs in the street can see they are an arm of the British state. This is so obviously an engineered situation, from Skripal onwards. The wagons are being circled: Corbyn must be stopped, by any means necessary. Talk up May and her troupe of over-indulged clowns; shit on Corbyn from a great height. He’s a Czech agent. He’s a Russian stooge. He’s a Nazi.
The war criminal Blair was on Newsnight last night: “In your heart,” whispers Emily, “Do you think Brexit will go ahead?” In his heart! Here was the destroyer of worlds and his doe-eyed handmaiden, in cahoots. The soft soap is being applied to psychos and warmongers; a good man is being blackened and tarnished because he is a threat to the rotten, crazed neofeudal backwater the UK has become.
On a personal note, FWIW, I will not be voting SNP again, not after they parroted the British state’s line on Russia, and now their abject betrayal of Carla Ponsati.
From now on, I’m a Scottish Green!
Probably doesn’t live in Scotland either, another false fury.
Agreed.
BBC radio today were reporting the shopping mall fire in Kemerovo with the line that for the first time ever, people are coming out onto the street in that city to demand Putin’s resignation. They were interviewing people who were saying in Russian whatever the BBC wanted to hear.
I hope Putin takes a running jump and gives the BBC an almighty kick up its coccyx that sends its apparatus in Russia flying all the way back to Broadcasting House in London.
I suggest you pay attention to events rather than jump to conclusions.Via the SNP is the only route to in dependence.The Greens are a Unionist party.
Well said that man.
Ros
Stand by for much use of the “our precious, precious union” phrase.
I believe Mrs Sturgeon’s measured response is far more useful than Craig’s hysterical one, at least, until the true facts are known (if ever).
It is now apparent that a huge tack has occurred in the direction of propaganda travel, my view is this is down to the personal involvement of Mr Trump. He didn’t understand the complexities and nuances involved in the Middle Eastern situation, he knew the intended goal but thought it could be achieved in a far more straightforward manner.
The goal: to reinforce US influence and extend US control on financial / trade markets and for other countries to share the burden (but not all the benefits)
The problem: the US has the inordinately superior war machine over all the countries in the world (of the top ten biggest arms spenders in the world the US is no. 1 and spends more than the other 9 put together). The US (fake economy) is 100% dependent on the arms industry.
The US arms spending bubble has however burst (for many reasons including rising corruption and inequality) the greatest reason though is Justification. The people aren’t buying it any more with the rising absence of health care, drugs, drug & gun crime, poverty, homelessness and segregated societies etc etc.
The goal of several regional wars being fabricated which would involve Russia has failed. Putin has said he will participate in a World War if that’s the way the US want to go but the US don’t want that.
What the US wants because it’s what Trump thinks will bring it about is massive increase in world arms research / development / marketing and most importantly manufacturing and sales.
So everyone can enjoy the 50’s – 80’s US model of success. But the population of Europe and beyond don’t want that, they don’t want to spend more on arms (even if they understood it would make their country more prosperous) what the people was is better education, health care, old people care, housing, transport, infrastructure etc etc.
So the Trump solution is not more real wars but a new Cold War.
My believe is that Russia will be increasingly implicated in False Flag incidents, not necessarily in the ME. The most likely targets will be the biggest EU influencers and those with arms manufacturing traditions (memories of the good old days).
I think Trump is quite clever if he came up with this idea but I think Putin is more clever and the US and UK may not expect what he countermeasures with, we certainly won’t like it.
So the options are:
1) More regional wars
2) A new (bigger and better) Cold War
3) WWIII
.
Poss 4) Hopefully a new generation of better politicians.
Immediately blaming the Russian state and applauding the expulsion of its diplomats before any evidence is supplied or a clear motive discerned is a “measured” response now .. ?
Mmmkay
“The problem: the US has the inordinately superior war machine over all the countries in the world (of the top ten biggest arms spenders in the world the US is no. 1 and spends more than the other 9 put together).”
What you say in brackets doesn’t prove what you say before the brackets. The currency they spend is the US dollar. When international trade falls away as of course it will in a major war, the US dollar goes completely up the Swanee.
The US is way behind Russia in psychological warfare and I am told they are also behind in certain kinds of battlefield communications, and most importantly of all they are far far behind in morale, which Napoleon said was three times as important as physical factors. On the US home front, most gun-toters are lardarses and their kids are on heroin or some other strong opiate or opioid.
There can’t be another “cold war” between the West and Russia (like the one that ended in the 1960s) in the Facebook era.
“The goal of several regional wars being fabricated which would involve Russia has failed. Putin has said he will participate in a World War if that’s the way the US want to go but the US don’t want that.”
What division are you drawing between a collection of regional wars and a world war? It’s unlikely that Russia and the US can be fighting each other in the Baltic, Syria and the Ukraine with neither of their own territories getting any action.
The US will be fighting Russia in Europe by July at the latest.
Hmm. This would be the same country that cannot win a war against goat herders (17 years now and the country is less safe than when we went in)? The same country with weapons systems that don’t work (ever). Take the F-35 as an example. It is the most expensive fighter in the history of the world yet it’s fire control software won’t be ready now until 2022. The US now has 11 aircraft carriers and the new Russian missiles (as well as Chinese) can destroy them at any range or distance and there is nothing that the US can do about defending these ships except to keep them in safe waters. So, basically they are a complete waste of money. The new Russian drone submarine which can carry a 40 Megaton fusion weapon is so stealthy and small it is undetectable and being nuclear powered can remain underwater for years. They are discounted as weapons against ports but IMHO they are more for tracking US submarines as they exit their ports and track them silently wherever they patrol and to be on station to suicide them. Another example is the new ABM (Aegis) system currently deployed in Romania and Poland as well on Arleigh-Burke missile destroyers. These use the Aegis system which in actual tests have a roughly 50% accuracy and only when the time and location of the test launches are known. No test using active from standby without warning has been attempted. There are at any given time 12 ABM systems active meaning at best the US might shoot down 6 missiles. How many nuclear ICM (they are no longer ballistic so not ICBMs) can Russia launch at a time? Plus the Russians did all of this on $50 billion a year. The US spends somewhere north of $800 billion a year and has absolutely nothing except death and destruction to show for it. So, I think the US has a lot of stuff out there but most is incapable of working as promised. We could go into the training and competency of the respective commanders which as evidenced by 6 ship collisions speaks volumes about general incompetence. Do not also forget the 3 complete shutdowns of the Arleigh-Burke destroyers by a SU-25 which obviously had some form of jamming system which rendered the ships completely inoperable. It is assumed based on some verified evidence that the Russians also have a field deployable EMP device which will render all US ground forces inoperable if in range. The US is heavily dependent on digital communications and targeting systems all not hardened to defend against EMP radiation.
I am going to predict that at some point, maybe very soon, Russia will tire of trying to cooperate with the US and its puppets. Putin has given several speeches referring to dealing with bullies by getting in the first blow. He also gave clear warning that if Russian forces are engaged (anywhere) the attackers will be destroyed. One thing about Putin is he never threatens. He makes promises and governments should be cautioned to not test it. Russian resolve is legendary and in no way will Russia ever be attacked on home soil again. But, he reiterated the Russian policy to defend allies. That includes China, Iran and the DPRK.
So, if the western countries decide to go for broke on the assumption Russia will back down, they are not just stupid but criminally so. I can see some evidence to foment a crisis through yet another false flag event in Syria using sarin although the Russians have thwarted this 3 times in the past week. Another attempt could be made in the Ukraine perhaps by trying to destroy the new bridge to Crimea. Should something like that occur the response will be swift and usually asymmetric. I would expect at a minimum the ABM bases and all Arleigh-Burke destroyers to be destroyed simultaneously then followed by something dramatic like sinking an entire carrier battle group. Since the debacle in the Falklands everyone knows capital ships are antiquated floating targets. Force projection in the days of highly accurate missiles is a thing of the past and it comes back to infantry to possess land and now no one can expect air superiority. If they lose all their computers it becomes untenable. I also read yesterday Russia has built 1,800 robot tanks which are now on line and guarding missile bases for the past 2 years. They are armed with anti-tank rockets, 30mm cannon and machine guns. I wouldn’t want to be in the infantry (or armor either) trying to fight Russia in a land battle.
So, logically anyone with a brain can see this is a no win situation for the US (or its allies). However, that has never stopped them in the past. Recent events indicate they are beating the war drums for another go at it. Sadly, the only grownups in the room are Russians and their pleas are falling on deaf ears. It looks like 1914 all over again.
The magic number is………23. That is Twenty Three.
23 Russian diplomats were expelled here.
Treeza announces today that 23 other countries have fallen into line by also expelling Russian diplomats.
Theresa May tells Vladimir Putin his spy network is crippled after allies back Britain in wake of Salisbury
27th March 2018
‘Theresa May has claimed that Russia’s western spy network has been “dismantled” after 23 nations, including the US, joined with Britain to expel more than 130 “diplomats”. ‘
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/26/donald-trump-expels-60-russian-diplomats-response-salisbury/
It is the silliest and most ludicrous psyop ever perpetrated on the British people.
and what will the Brits do – vote them in again?
Are you a fan of Robert Anton Wilson or what? 🙂
The countries on the Dirty Chuckers list number 28 so far, not counting NATO who have also stood up to be counted, under their deranged Norwegian secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg.
Meanwhile Turkish dictator Erdogan has stated that EU membership remain the “strategic goal” as he heads to the Black sea resort of Varna, and a Turkey-EU summit meeting.
I wonder if the EU will look at Turkey’s persecution of the Kurds, or Turkey’s illegal sorties into Syria to kill Kurds under the pretence of fighting terrorism.
As regards the brutal and the heartless who will be meeting in Varna, we can all sing along with John Lennon and his treatment at the hands of the malicious state media:
Christ! You know it ain’t easy
You know how hard it can be
The way things are going
They’re going to crucify me
Dystopian novelists were warning us about how bad it could be, but our “leaders” are using the novels as playbooks for how “good” it can be to have total control!
Indeed, woe is us, we’re in a lot of trouble.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HFvT_qEZJf8
Dr. Ip
Is that the Ballad of Dom* and Bojo?
*Raab
Erdogan is probably just at the summit for the hookers. There is practically no chance that Turkey will join the EU this side of WW3.
Craig – surely ‘the rule of the law’ cannot be resisted by any Government. What would be an Independent Scotland Prime Minister’s option in this situation ? Could she/ he over-ride the extradition treaty law ? Your viewpoint would be welcomed as I’m sure you know the law and how it is applied. But my viewpoint is, that if Nicola Sturgeon as Prime Minister of an Indy Scotland would have such power to intervene then that is how she should act now…even if it means creating the constitutional conflict you mention.
At least if Prime Minster May and her cronies do a Thistle and Shamrock rail tour of Scotland, they will not have to follow Kim Jong-un’s lead of an undisclosed tour for fear that the Yanks might murder them with an undisclosed beam attack from the NRO which persuaded Kim;s father, Kim Jong-il, to stop from going to China by rail.
Tory Murdo Fraser tweets that those opposed to the actions of the Rajoy government are guilty of “Hispanophobia”.
Leaving aside the obvious, that Hard Brexiteer Tories are the Hispanophobes, Francophobes, Italophobes etc, there are a lot of worrying signs that unionist politicians in Scotland – some Labour as well as Tory – identify ideologically with the Francoists.
Yeah Murdo Fraser (never directly elected) also Tweeted that he’d booked his Spanish holiday, a bit of tasteless satire me thinks from him.
Meanwhile neither BBC Shortbread or STV news, mentioned the plight of Clara Ponsanti in their lunchtime propaganda bullentins.
Ros
Given his longtime reliance on the list system to stay at Holyrood, it’s likely that there’s quite a lot of Murdophobia among the electorate in Perthshire.
Never trust a a Supreme Court that meets in a convent
Opus Dei, not the Falange, runs Spain.
Zuckerberg says NO to the HoC .
LIVE: ‘Absolutely astonishing’ Zuckerberg won’t face MPs
The culture committee hears evidence from a Cambridge Analytica whistleblower as it investigates Facebook’s use of user data
https://news.sky.com/story/zuckerberg-refuses-to-answer-mps-questions-11305586
Zucherberg is afraid that he will be asked that Facebook hacking determined that Trump’s rants about locking up Hillary were working with the key voters to make him POTUS.
Zucherberg has form in apologizing for Facebook ‘inadequacies – it’s purely an error from which lessons will be learned – unless you believe facebook is a proxy for deep state amereka when the gross misuse of personal data is somehow not a problem – for them!
To believe that massive hacking by Facebook is simply a matter of personal security is overlooking that it was subverting the presidential election process. Trump, Zuckerberg et al. should be locked up asap.
Why should any foreign citizen give a damn if the house of commons is summoning them? I doubt he’s laying awake at night agonizing over the decision. The empire is gone. Just get on with your elitism, unelected religious lawmakers, queenie cult, massively up your own arse sense of entitlement and exceptionalism, and give the rest of the world some peace.
Debate on this critical issue has now been closed down on Wings by starting another topic.
That topic; what the Mail and Express say about the SNP…..really is this breaking news ?
You are saying the things that need to be said.
Wings is in danger of becoming the SNP house magazine.
The Magic Number is in the 60’s now.. Callous Trump oders 60 diplomats out of U.S…At a Time When Russial is Mourning the Loss of 64 people, Mostly children in the Kemerovo Shoping Mall Fire
Where are all the Condolence from the West ?
Meanwhile Putin warns tthat the west should Stop Provoking a War the NO ONE can Win
Rip all those Children
Maria Zakharova –
” Today we learned a lot about politicians from European and American countries. At this time, when all Russians are mourning the victims of the tragedy in Kemerovo, those politicians are putting more emphasis on announcing new hostile actions. We have always shared the grief of American and European people when misfortune came to their door. Today we heard words of condolences, but we witnessed absolutely unjustified aggression. It’s hard to believe and it will be hard to forget. “
Looks like Trump made it look like Putin was doing the hacking when Zuckerberg was which all Yanks, except me, have gone along with, making the Russian President the scapegoat for everything.
O/T but guess what BBC2 are showing at the moment. Gunga Din!
Action adventure film set in 19th-century India, at the height of the British Empire. Cutter, MacChesney and Ballantine are despatched to India to help deal with the Thuggees, a murderous band of religious fanatics. With them is Gunga Din, a water carrier. The trio and fellow soldiers are captured and ill-treated by the Thuggees. Only one man can save them.
Made in 1939. Gregory Peck,Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.,
..
Don’t forget Sam Jaffe, who played Gunga Din.
Spain is not jailing these people because of their political ideals. There are many independent political parties in Spain, some of them governing with a majority like in the Basque Country. We are jailing these people because instead of following the legal procedures to change the constitution to try to get an independent (at least more independent) region, they took the shortcut and did it illegally, ignoring the will of more than half of the population in their region that do not want to be independent and didn’t vote for them, and of course, ignoring the will of the rest of the Spanish population and in the process spending hundred of million of euros, inciting people to violence and letting aside the real problems of the people that gave them the power with their vote. This has a name: Fascism and has nothing to do with independence.
So Surgeon must send this person to Spain so she can respond for the laws she has broke and the money she has embezzled.
Also, I suggest that before writing an article about a foreign country you get all the facts right.
“Spain is not jailing these people because of their political ideals. ”
I disagree, they held a referendum under great duress from Spanish thugs. 92% of the 40 odd percent vote for independence from Spain.
******
“spending hundred of million of euros, inciting people to violence”
The only people who spent millions on violence are the Spanish government, which spent millions drafting in the vicious Guardia Civil.
10,000 of them housed in ships at the dock, who on the 1st of October beat, shot, tear gassed and meanced young and old voters. Whilst stealing ballot boxes breaking into polling stations and destroying ballot papers.
Have you any idea how that looks to the outside world?
********
“So Surgeon must send this person to Spain so she can respond for the laws she has broke and the money she has embezzled.”
I was under the impression the “embezzled” money was infact used to hold the referendum.
As for handing over Clara Ponsanti, it will be for the judiciary to decide. Hopefully they will take into account section 13 of the EAW, Extraneous Considerations, which includes prejudice of political persons, which in my opinion Clara Ponsanti falls into.
The anti-fascists get branded the fascists.
Of course, of course.
The alleged “embezzlement” was the use of public funds for a referendum that, it is claimed, was illegal. Doesn’t sound much like what most people understand embezzlement to be. It was done for a political purpose, not for personal enrichment.
It may have been doubtful whether a majority of Catalans supported independence before the referendum, but Madrid’ s tyrannical measures have so shifted Catalan opinion that the matter is no longer in any doubt.
In the parliamentary election of 1918 that Sinn Fein so swept in Ireland, Sinn Fein’ s very successful slogan was, “Vote for the man in gaol.”
Totally agree
Scots have no balls
And I hate to say it
Nicola u disappoint me
Grow a pair
The Catalans protest on the streets
Get beaten up with police batons
On the motorways in the Canary Islands
It’s show on Canarian tv
And yet we’re inept at even a wimper of criticism, due process my ass
Wot do we do, nothing
The establishment will never crumble
Unless u fight it
I rather loose than be a coward of a weasel
Stand up Nicola stop being a lawyer and be a leader
Kenny
“Stand up Nicola stop being a lawyer and be a leader” – well said.
Nato expels Russian staff, it’s gone from overwhemingly likely to Russia did it, they just skipped the evidence part altogether.
“Nato has announced it is cutting the size of its Russian mission by a third, removing accreditation from seven Russian staff and rejecting three other pending applications.”
“The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said the permanent size of the Russian mission would be cut from 30 to 20 people, adding the announcement was “a clear and very strong message that that there was a cost to Russia’s reckless actions” in poisoning the Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in Salisbury earlier this month.”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/27/russia-to-respond-harshly-to-us-expulsion-of-diplomats
“The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg” is a complete and utter loony and would do very well in the family of Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Boris and his minions were kept busy today in the HoC
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Illegal Wildlife Trade
Russia
Iran: Ballistic Missile Programme
OECD
Diplomatic Service: Funding
Diplomatic Relations: Poland
Afghanistan
Turkish Military Operations: Syria
The Commonwealth
FIFA World Cup
Promoting Education in the World
Topical Questions
https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2018-03-27/debates/A977CABD-F01A-4BBB-AC37-19D3303791CA/IllegalWildlifeTrade
and following. The reports are in the process of going on the website,
The minions are:
Harriet Baldwin – Africa
Sir Alan Duncan – Europe and the Americas
Alastair Burt – Middle East
Mark Field – Asia and the Pacific
_____
In the HoL
Lord Ahmad – Commonwealth and the UN
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_and_Commonwealth_Office
During the proceedings, Johnson was admonished by Bercow.
‘Speaker John Bercow accused the Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson of being sexist for referring to shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry as Lady Nugee because of her husband’s title.
Ms Thornberry is married to Sir Christopher Nugee but chooses to use her maiden name.
The speaker’s intervention drew a Commons protocol-breaking round of applause from some MPs.
Mr Johnson subsequently apologised for his “inadvertent sexism”.’
4h ago
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-43556887/speaker-john-bercow-accuses-boris-johnson-of-sexism
Video
Should have been given a good thrashing to remind him of his days at Eton.
A very well written and hard hitting piece I agree with. Well done Craig Murry for pointing this out
Could you not mention that extradition is only possible if Scotland has a similar law in its statute book?
I suggest you try bringing 50 illegal immigrants into Aberdeen by ship, look offended when challenged, and then ask the border guard “But where in the Scottish statute book does it say I can’t?”
I have to say, I agree with Craig. The SNP seem to be just too cosy ‘managing things’, and occasionally complaining, about how awful Westminster is. Yet they refuse to take the action required – a referendum. It is procrastination upon procrastination, and it is getting tiresome. No wonder London has zero respect for them, they simply refuse to stand up and talk about independence -something which they say they believe in. If they do on a rare occasion talk about independence and the media attacks them, they back down, instead of arguing their case, and standing up for independence.
The FM and Ian Blackford statements on Russia were just a disgrace. Wrong on every level.
They seem to have lost their fire, their drive, and push to achieve independence. It is all about just running things to show how good they are at governance, but that in itself is pointless. They have been running things well for years, but most Scots are unaware, since the media does not cover such things. STILL they are feart to tackle the media. STILL they refuse to call out the media for their complete pathetic coverage of the party conferences.
The SNP need to wake up and realise that their are many who will not hang on forever, waiting in the vain hope of an indyref to prevent brexit. If we get take out of the EU and the SNP do not hold a referendum prior to it happening, then I will intentionally vote for their most likely opponent in the next election, because failure to call a referendum will be a betrayal of the electorate of Scotland. They got a VERY clear electoral mandate. After brexit happens, it will be too late. They will deserve to lose power. The opportunity will be missed.
Sitting waiting for the polls to change all by themselves, when the SNP can barely say the word independence, is just no good at all. They need to make the case. They need to raise the issue. That is what Salmond did, prior to the referendum, in every answer or every interview he always stated that is why Scotland needs or wants independence. Despite everything London is currently doing to Scotland, the FM and her Government are still just getting on with ‘managing things’. That is NOT why they were elected.
Time is running out. Nothing will happen until such time as the Scotgov call the referendum. Meanwhile, as the Scotgov/SNP do nothing, the unionists are continuing their anti independence campaign, and the nightmare of brexit being forced on Scotland gets closer.