The Guardian has today published a whole series of attack piece articles on Julian Assange which plainly exult in the fact he has now been silenced by the cutting of his communication with the outside world. They also include outright lies such as this one by Dan Collyns:
In fact Julian Assange was questioned for two days solid in the Embassy by Swedish procurators and police in November 2016. The statement he gave to them at that time I published in full. Following that questioning it was plain that there was no hope of a successful prosecution, particularly as the only physical evidence Swedish Police had was a condom Anna Ardin claimed he had worn but which had no trace of his DNA – a physical impossibility.
Dan Collyns is a freelance based in Peru, but the Guardian’s editors certainly know it is blatantly untrue that the investigation into Assange was dropped because he could not be questioned. They have knowingly published a lie. “Facts are sacred” there, apparently.
The Guardian article gives another complete lie, this time in the Harding penned section, where it says that “sources” reveal that Assange had hacked into the Embassy’s communications. That is completely untrue as are the “facts” given about Julian’s relationship with the Embassy staff, whom I know well. It is plain that these “sources” are separate from the Ecuadorean security dossier published in Focus Ecuador by the CIA. I would bet any money that these anonymous “sources” are as always Harding’s mates in the UK security services. That the Guardian should allow itself to be used in a security service disinformation campaign designed to provoke distrust between Assange and Embassy staff, is appalling.
I had a front row seat in 2010 when the Guardian suddenly switched from championing Assange to attacking him, in a deeply unedifying row about the rights and money from a projected autobiography. But they have sunk to a new low today in a collaboration between long term MI6 mouthpiece Luke Harding and the CIA financed neo-con propagandists of Focus Ecuador.
The Guardian pieces are full of truly startling revelations. Would you ever have guessed, for example, that Julian Assange was visited by his Wikileaks colleague Sarah Harrison, his friends Vaughn Smith and, err, me, and his lawyer Gareth Peirce?! This great scandal, Harding states in an assertion as evidence-free as his entire “Russia hacked the elections” book, “will interest Mueller”. Despite the fact none of these visits was secret and mine was broadcast live to the world by Wikileaks on Brexit referendum night.
The aim of the “Guardian” piece is of course to help urge Ecuador to expel Julian from the Embassy. There is no doubt that the actions of Lenin Moreno, under extreme pressure from the USA, have been severely disappointing, though I am more inclined to praise Ecuador for its courageous defiance of the US than blame it for eventually caving in to the vast resources the CIA is spending on undermining it. It is also worth noting that, post the Francoist human rights abuses in Catalonia, it was Spain and the EU joining in US pressure which tipped the balance.
Julian’s principled refusal to abandon the Catalan cause, against direct Ecuadorean threats to do precisely what they have now done, has not received the credit it deserves.
The same Blairites who supported the latest Israeli massacre will this morning be revelling in the Guardian’s celebration of the silencing of a key dissident voice. I have no wish to try and understand these people.
Bolton
Tis difficult to explain away sometimes, the bolt in his neck. He must have carried on bolting on extra clauses onto the agreement until Kim Jong In realised there was going to nothing of North Korea left. not unlike our totally right wing cabinet, which inhabits an island off Europe called cloud cuckoo land.
Ecuador’s Ex-President Rafael Correa Denounces Treatment of Julian Assange as “Torture”
Good piece from Glenn Greenwald, another independent thinker no longer in the Guardian’s good books.
https://theintercept.com/2018/05/16/ecuadors-ex-president-rafael-correa-denounces-treatment-of-julian-assange-as-torture/
The orange man child Trump demeaning immigrants by saying they’re animals and not people.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/05/16/trump-calls-undocumented-immigrants-animals-echoing/617762002/
That was circulating on social media last night. Does not appear to have been picked up by any credible site. Hate to say it but looks like FAKE NEWS.
Really?
https://mobile.twitter.com/WingsScotland/status/997022048336711680/photo/1?tfw_site=WingsScotland&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fnations-overboard%2Fcomment-page-1%2F%23comments
‘Fraid so. The sites that would lead with it:Salon, Alternet, The Intercept, won’t touch it. Like wise Axios, Politico and The Guardian.
I would very much like it to be true, but then again I would very much like to see Trump anally violated with a ragman’s bugle.
What about these sites?
https://news.sky.com/story/donald-trump-under-fire-for-calling-certain-illegal-immigrants-animals-11376109
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-migrants-animals-california-ms-13-sanctuary-cities-oakland-a8355536.html
He was referring to members of the gang MS-13. Look them up. I think “animals” might be being generous..
I happily stand corrected. He sort of did / sort of didn’t say it. Odd given that he is normally the very epitome of clarity and precision when he speaks.
He said it about a gang that chops up its victims and feeds them to dogs. He uses the same word to describe terrorists who blow themselves up at pop concerts full of children.
Oh but Donald he so waycist!!
Also this is rather interesting.
“German media reporting that nerve agent used to poison the Skripals was not only known to US, UK, Germany, France and Netherlands in 1990s, they also manufactured small quantities of it. Blows hole in UK claim only Russia could have used it agains.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/GrahameLucas?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fnations-overboard%2Fcomment-page-1%2F%23comments
Ok so it was the Dutch. makes sense.
Martinned won’t like that. ?
Neither will I. 😉
The Chzech Republic also – they have admitted producing it in 2016
Hell by the sounds of it could’ve been anybody, the brewing up of the poison sounds as common as hooch stills. ?
@Clark May 17, 2018 at 01:22 – I have got scripts enabled but can still only post replies at top level rather than as replies to comments. Up until a few days ago all was fine. This is with Firefox 54.0.1. I haven’t got cloudfare.com blocked.
Firefox general release is now up to version 60.0.1 Maybe you really need to update it to the latest version — I’m using that version and everything is fine re. this website.
@Clark – It’s the same with IE 11.0. Seems I’d have to reconfigure my firewall. Hmm…
How does the rest of the world treat those annoying whistle-blowers?
Article copied here from a seemingly accurate news source, (free)reg required to read some articles ( I signed up as they do some excellent articles )
It’s from one of those countries that have not yet been invaded (to my knowledge) by England, USA or Russia.
Whistle-blower escapes sentence for downloading training documents
LuxLeaks whistle-blower Antoine Deltour has won a final court victory, bringing to an end his long-running legal battle.
The Court of Appeal on Tuesday suspended the judgment against the former PwC auditor over the theft of internal training documents.
The ruling means Deltour was found guilty but will not receive a sentence. He must, however, pay a symbolic euro to PwC as the civil party.
[The court] ruled that the former PwC employee had acted as a whistle-blower – both when he seized documents that revealed huge tax breaks for multinational firms from his employer and when he handed them to French journalist Edouard Perrin
“It is a wise decision, which comes after the recognition of the status of whistle-blower by the Court of Cassation.”
Deltour himself said: “This ruling marks the end point of a long judicial fight, which ends with a victory. No sentence is pronounced against me, except that of paying a symbolic euro to the civil party.
“This is a great victory, and we will celebrate it. In any case, this only confirms our arguments from the outset. There is, therefore, not really any surprise in this judgment.”
‘The law was on my side’
Just compare & contrast with how England, USA or Russia deals with this type of modern citizen journalist!
Slightly more at https://luxtimes.lu/luxembourg/33830-luxleaks-deltour-s-court-battle-ends-in-victory
Whistleblowing, despite what the politicians say, will not be tolerated under any circumstance. Particularly when the government and its institutions have something inconvenient to hide. Five years ago Jeremy Hunt apologised to the House following the Francis Inquiry into Mid Staffs and promised to protect whistleblowers who raise concerns about public safeguarding. A week later, his department and regulators commenced a criminal prosecution to conceal a rather embarrassing and fatal flaw that governs health & nursing regulation – which allowed one of the UK’s most prolific paedophiles to practice as a health professional for 14 years until his arrest in 2016 – with the full knowledge of the authorities.
http://mark-russell.net/Blog/index.php/2018/05/15/to-whom-it-may-concern/
Mark I have been a whistleblower in Wales – many years ago now – The corruption that ensued was an eye opener – as one of the involved parties was a large children’s charity operating in this country. I had no legal protection as there was no Whistleblower’s Act then and Welsh local government was then and remains now, a highly corrupt, all boys together rugger bugger club. The national charity then proceeded to destroy documents pertaining to their considerable misuse and lack of control of public money. I will say one thing with absolute clarity though, Whistleblower’s are not protected an d never will be.
Indeed – it’s a long, lonely road, Jo. There is a corrosive ideology that pervades authority these days – the “hostile environment” approach so favoured by the Home Office is just one manifestation. It has become common place in all our institutions unfortunately. I cannot see any way in which trust can be restored whilst such conduct is not only tolerated, but actively encouraged.
Best wishes.
http://mark-russell.net/Blog/index.php/2018/03/31/q-e-d/
O/T but yet another YCNMIU
‘Grenfell Tower: Review does not urge cladding ban
Image caption – The Grenfell Tower fire claimed the lives of 71 people in June 2017
17 May 2018
A review of building regulations set up after the Grenfell tragedy has called for a “radical rethink” of the safety system, +++but has stopped short of proposing a ban on flammable cladding+++.
Report author Dame Judith Hackitt said indifference and ignorance had led to cost being prioritised over safety. She said some building firms used ambiguity around the rules to “game the system”, and called for a regulator.’
/..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44148694
Who is this Hackitt person? What a stupid waste of time and money.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-building-regulations-and-fire-safety-terms-of-reference August 2017
Meanwhile, Breaking News – UK government to consult on banning flammable cladding, after Grenfell review stopped short of recommending ban !!!!
“The Guardian” was once a good newspaper, I was told.
.
When was this?
@ kdm May 17, 2018 at 12:44
Up to the mid 1980’s.
There just isn’t the readership for hard-left drivel.
It’s strange then that Marx and Engels still hold sway today with some folk. I recall street lights showing his silhouette and statutes draped in flowers to Marx recently, celebrating his birthday.
Yes very strange.
Up to the 80s we were living in a much more human-friendly economy, for Western residents. In a way, elite and peep interests coincided.
That all changed with the switch to financialisation, when elite and peep interest radically departed company.
It’s then that Western media begins to change, most obviously at the BBC.
Yes, and as craig pointed out some years ago we have a media owner who sits on the board of Genie oil, who want to drill in Sierra egging on the Nations to invade. I don’t think I’ve ever known it so blatant
Didn’t Terry Jones of Monty Python fame have a column in the Guardian highly critical of the Iraq warmongers in the run up to that war?
The guardian changed when MI5 smashed thier hard drives. Also BBC was better until Blair cowed it.
After the death of Dr Kelly, the BBC was decimated.
Sharp ears.
Birmingham city centre is fill of high-rise new-build student accommodation. The sky is lit by red lights on the cranes at night. all of the buildings have a plasterboard stud wall, and outside that is a thick layer of possibly inflammable, possibly not inflammable cladding, plus air, followed by some kind of weatherproof external cladding. Not some, all.
These type of buildings are massively inefficient because they heat the water cylinders too hot in order to avoid Legionnaires, and the sunlight convects into the building. Can anybody tell me why a student would want to live in a greenhouse in a city centre rather than in a low, wide building insulated from urban life and urban sun?
Answer: It’s been highly profitable to have foreign students in the bombed-out city centre. They say that after Brexit the City of London will move to Holland. So why aren’t they building HS2 to Holland instead of Birmingham?
German SPIEGEL reports:
BND beschaffte Probe von Nervengift Nowitschok
Recherchen nach dem Nervengiftattentat auf den Doppelagenten Skripal enthüllen eine brisante Geheimoperation: Schon vor mehr als 20 Jahren beschaffte sich der deutsche Auslandsgeheimdienst eine Nowitschok-Probe.
.
German secrect service also had it. The obtained exactly this “Russian” neurotoxic substance already in the nineties.
kdm,
Chech Republic had it also. Their president Milos Zeman ordered a report from special service and said he would not hide the truth – Chech Republic tested it.
2 days ago Military Defence has fired the director of the chemical facility (the first person who mentioned they produced Novichok in Chech Republic)
https://www.rt.com/news/426836-czech-novichok-lab-fired/
Tatyana, just to let you know I answered your comment on page 2 of this thread.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/05/the-guardian-rejoices-in-the-silencing-of-assange/comment-page-2/#comment-749437
Thank you, John. I’ve answered yours too.
By the way, is there any option to register/login to the blog and see notifications of answers? It is hard to follow certain topics.
> “By the way, is there any option to register/login to the blog and see notifications of answers? It is hard to follow certain topics.”
Agreed. There are a lot interesting topics here, I’ve learned a lot from reading not only Craig’s posts but people’s comments too. I just wish the comments were better organised; there are dozens of interesting, ongoing, but interleaved threads (eg Skripal, Syria, Assange, MSM, neoliberalism, Isreal, brexit, neocon) all spread randomly across dozens of pages with posts jumping from one topic to another and bacjk again! A forum would be better suited surely, so that topics could be followed more easily one by one. My brain hurts sometimes!
There used to be. Not any more. I think it was easier to follow when there were a hundred comments a page without nesting of comments inside others. If someone wanted to draw attention to a certain comment they copied the name, date and time stamp.
I think others prefer it like this.
IT Bod, the problem is vanity; everyone wants their comment at the front of the stream where it’ll get seen. If only people would try to post on a relevant open thread (when there is one for their comment)…
You could subscribe to the Comment Feed, or use the feed output; each page has its own (see WordPress documentation) or use the general one:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/comments/feed/
Or there are the forums linked on the right, but they don’t attract much interest.
Thanks for the link! That news had escaped me, and it seems significant.
bj
the most significant for me – Porton Down laboratory had it.
Google Maps say it is about 7 miles driving, so no problems with airport guards, no need to poison buckwheat, no need for men in HazMat costumes applying poison onto the doorknob (I imagine the sort of swearing they pronounced when 100 ml of Novichok just wouldn’t stick to it !).
All you need is a remote control toy quadrocopter, similar to one my son has.
A quadcopter — brilliant!
And I suppose that MI6 weren’t skilled enough to maneuver the thing, which might explain why the Novichok was all over the place in Salisbury. I wonder where it landed or –more likely– crashed.
bj
landed in a safe place, where it could be securely taken away (hazmat costume needed).
Or even easier – if I were an agent, I would land it on the top of my car, attach a strong magnet from inside the ceiling to ensure the quadrocopter will stay there while driving – and you even don’t need to touch anything hazardous – drive towards Porton Down where professionals would take proper care of everithyng.
German SPIEGEL reports:
BND beschaffte Probe von Nervengift Nowitschok
Recherchen nach dem Nervengiftattentat auf den Doppelagenten Skripal enthüllen eine brisante Geheimoperation: Schon vor mehr als 20 Jahren beschaffte sich der deutsche Auslandsgeheimdienst eine Nowitschok-Probe.
.
German secrect service also had it. They obtained exactly this “Russian” neurotoxic substance already in the nineties.
The RT report on this also claims that the UK studied this particularly carefully, explaining how they knew so quickly what was used in Salisbury. Its list of former Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Germany, UK and US was the distribution list. Sweden analysed compound for Germany to authenticate it….
This blows Boris Johnson out of the water, not to mention Andrew Parker. If true, Johnson, Parker and May have being lying.
The questions are:
1) Did Parker, as head of MI5, demand historical documentation of UK access to Novichok from underlings? If so, either he knew A230 came to UK in 1990s, as well as to US, Germany, Sweden and Czechoslovakia, or he was lied to, or his underlings were incompetent, or Uk destroys all old intelligence documents.
2) Did Parker specifically request DSTL to document their historical access to- and work with, A230? If so, he must have known A230 was widely availably 20+ years ago to many intelligence services. If not, he was guilty of gross professional misconduct for failing to brief himself properly on matters of National Security.
3) Did Johnson ring up his counterparts in Germany, France etc to ascertain what they knew about the history of A230? Based on these reports, he should have known from Germany that it was widely available in the West in the 1990s, rendering his immediate accusations against Russia highly premature, ill-advised and factually incorrect.
4) Was Johnson advised privately by the Germans that his story re A230 was demonstrably untrue? If so, why did he plough on with his lying?
5) What pressure was Mrs May put under to proceed down a ‘Russia is guilty’ party line? Did she take care to clarify the evidence base before succumbing to such pressure? If not, is that a mistake that is forgivable??
6) Did Mrs May take evidence from the Head of MI6 and the FCO Permanent Secretary before accusing Putin of the action? If so, will both those ignorant idiots be considering their positions??
\In the 60s and 70s. Alastair Hetherington then editor. A bit of an establishment stooge but better than Preston who has a chequered history. It went down the tube finally when Rusbridger arrived. I see he is now a governor of the Ditchley Foundation. Says it all.
Rusbridger’s parents lived locally,. His father had been in the ‘Colonial Service’ something to do with education. .
‘Tweets from two Foreign Office ministers tell you all you need to know about the government’s views on Israeli massacres’:
https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/05/16/tweets-from-two-foreign-office-ministers-tell-you-all-you-need-to-know-about-the-governments-views-on-israeli-massacres/?__s=seteeshtqok6ahengz28
‘Alistair Burt
✔@AlistairBurtUK
14 May
Extremely saddened by loss of life in Gaza today. Concerned peaceful protests are being exploited by extremist elements. Urge restraint in use of live fire. Violence is destructive to peace efforts. UK remains committed to a two-state solution with Jerusalem as a shared capital.’
He and others used weasel-worded putting the blame on ‘extremist forces’ and not mentioning I*rael’s murdering snipers.
Fervent CFoI member and an ex officer. A Christian. Also advocated the same death for Assad as Gaddafi experienced.
‘Burt insisted the British government “knew exactly what would happen if there was not a strike against Assad over chemical weapons. He goes on. And the only thing that would deflect this man and this regime is if they fear they are going to end up in a storm drain with a bayonet up their backside. If they don’t fear that, they will go on killing as many people as they need to stay in power.”‘
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/dec/30/alistair-burt-anger-syria-westminster
The Tories’ very own Mr Nasty.
As long as the US/Trump uses the power of veto to protect Israel, and as long as the Jewish/Israel lobby in the West weaponise the phrase “Anti Semitism” to include genuine criticism of the IDF and Israeli state, then nothing will change.
@ Sharp Ears May 17, 2018 at 14:15
I wonder if Burt thinks the same fate should have befallen Ted Heath re Bloody Sunday?
Concerned peaceful protests are being exploited by extremist elements in Israel.
FTFY, mister Burt.
“Violence is destructive to peace efforts”.
I remember that bland quote from an old school-agenda.
Report in the Graun about police officers in Salisbury receiving trauma support because of the Skripal incident.
Chief Constable Pritchard says ” I’ve watched the body cam footage that was recording what they did that day.”
If body can footage of the incident exists why has it not been released?
Too harrowing for the public to see. Same reason they refrained from showing the “gassed” children in Douma…
Anthony, I sincerely hope you are being sarcastic. Not for one minute do or can I believe that the police suffered any trauma as there was nothing to be traumatised about. What a pathetic attempt to skew the story on the part of Chief Constable Pritchard. Bill Marsh you are right, why don’t they release it.
Appallingly enough, the Salisbury mystery has become like a TV series that goes off the air without notice or explanation.
Ah, yes– “The Skripals”! Whatever became of that show? It was a bit confusing and preposterous in spots, but it was truly engrossing for a while. What was it all about, after all?
Where did it go? Was it cancelled, or is it simply on hiatus? Did they ever work out what really happened, who was in on it and who wasn’t, etc.? Or was it like one of those vapid “X-Files” spinoffs that they just made up as they went along?
I make this comparison not to mock or trivialize the matter, but to remark upon the way significant matters disappear into the whirlwind of ongoing events– with the help of complicit mass-media consent manufactories. I daresay that most people have forgotten about them by now, or have dismissed their case as a passing curiosity.
Hi Ort
Yes a bit of a mystery but a bit of a curates egg mystery, mysterious in parts.
If it was the Skripals on the bench
If the people on the bench were poisoned
They were not poisoned (absolutely not, zero chance) with what was found by the OPCW on the door handle 2 weeks later.
What was found on the door handle and made its way around the town in dabs was not what did for the Skripals (or whoever they were) displayed symptoms of. It may well have been what done for Brave Bailey but that’s all in a days work work for country town bobbies.
Give them guns I say!
Like the lies that were used to trash Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya et al. The circus moves swiftly on without comment on prior frauds, as in Orwell’s 1984. Expect the Russian whipping boy to be brought to the rescue yet again this summer with some new furore whipped up during the World Cup.
Agree, one more bogus claim to try and breathe credibility back into the story.
Ah yes the obligatory “injured” police officer, no matter what the event is one is required, to quickly get the public onside.
Meanwhile –I keep repeating this– , on https://www.visitwiltshire.co.uk/salisbury, apparently THE go-to site for tourists to Salisbury, because it’s the first hit when googling for “salisbury tourism”, there is not any mention of places to avoid in Salisbury, of disruptions caused by areas being cordoned off, of the Royal Army roaming the streets, of tents over benches, NOTHING!
Salisbury, please, if you’re listening — can you tell me: IS IT SAFE!?
Ha ha, good one, I havent scoffed down a Marathon bar in years, oops they changed them to Snickers, didn’t they? Silly me. ?
Has anything changed on homelessness in Windsor since the Tory mayor wanted the streets swept of rough sleepers?
Homelessness in Windsor: Has anything changed?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44156440
No. The police were clearing all the homeless away yesterday, taking their sleeping bags and possessions. Said they would get them back later. Maybe. No idea whether they’ve found them anywhere to stay.
Maybe the homeless folk have been given one, or several of the Queen’s 770 odd rooms in Bucks palace.
Or more likely they’ve been jailed, or threatened to move on. We can’t have Harry and Megan’s gaze or for that matter the tv cameras, catching a glimpse of the riff-raff, while £32 million quid is spent on these royal leeches.
John Bolton is totally opposed to any diplomatic solution to North Korea’s nuclear program, having worked behind the scene in October 2006 to have the National Reconnaissance Office cause an earthquake there which was later claimed successfully to be a nuclear test so that the Six Power Talks in February 2007 got nowhere which fe claimed at the time as GW’s UN Ambassador.
Trowbridge.
Kim Jong Un has the nukes now, so it’s too late for the US and Trump to really do anything about it. Infact NK has tested so many nukes that the mountain they tested them underis now suffering from Tired Mountain Syndrome.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tired_mountain_syndrome
So Trump has had to change his approach to NK and Kim Jong Un, that’s why theyll meet sometime this year, to discuss goofy haircuts.
“to discuss goofy haircuts.
Brilliant, thanks. 🙂 =:-)
Typical America, working hard to make the possible impossible.
Laughing in our faces cont’d
Princes Wm and Harry receive the 5* treatment.
https://www.getsurrey.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/prince-harry-stay-coworth-park-14665944
Whilst many visit the food banks.
I’m afraid ’twas ever thus, Sharpie. Income differences, princes and paupers, the healthy and the afflicted, the well-fed and the hungry, war and peace, justice and injustice, truth and lies, dogs and cats – all have existed since time immemorial. Nothing new there. So what’s to get excited about all the time – why act as if all features of life are only a couple of decades old?
I understand your point Charles, the thing is, the statistics show these differences/inequalities have dramatically increased under the Tory Government. I have read quite a lot about this in the FT and other financial reportage sites. There is now, for the first time since the war, a real and sharp decrease in people’s wages largely due to a lack of salary increases for the past 10 years and a rapid rise in the cost of living including transport, housing and food. So, for the first time since the war, people are far more worse off than they have previously been. i am on the minimum wage and i can tell you, it is almost impossible to live on – I live on my own so have all the outgoings of rent etc as everybody else does. The cost of living in the UK has and continues to rise exponentially which is hitting even middle earners hard. Add to this the mess the Bank of England are making of interest rates, which a Swiss economist said the consequences of failing to increase it this time round, are and will be irreversible. It will also lead to a rapid series of interest rate rises which will cripple many mortgage holders. A bit reminiscent of the Thatcher era really in these key areas. Conversely, the rich during this period have got far far richer. There has been no investment in creating new jobs on the part of the Captains of industry or corporations despite massive tax cuts and in the past year the UK has lost 300bn worth of investment which has been diverted elsewhere (the Brexit effect is being cited as the cause). Manufacturing output has significantly dropped and the economic forecast for the UK is dire for the next 5-10 years. There is an on-going steep decline in high street retail as well which will come with more job losses. So, there is a lot there to be concerned about.
You go first chum. Politeness and all that?
I am relieved that the lack of pay increases is being more widely noticed at least. Ive been telling folk about this for at least five years because in my case I have not had a worthwhile pay rise since 2003. (By worthwhile I mean more than 1.5%) During this period inflation has probably compounded to about 30%, so thats effectively the amount that my spending power has dropped.
It was always inevitable that globalisation would tend to pull down western standards of living. I wouldn’t mind so much if the poorer countries were benefiting, but of course they are not. Only the rich are benefiting, by virtue of cheaper labour for their global corporations. We need to bring back regulation in banking and business, because it stands to reason that left to their own devices business leaders will do what is best only for them.
My OH and I are earning significantly less than we did in 2007, despite being in the same industries. My OH is a research scientist with a masters degree and twenty years experience and I work in a specialised area of accountancy and auditing. We are both earning less than average wage. We both know scores of other people who are in the same situation.
Guardian has gone down the sewer ever since special services must have “worked” on them after the Snowdon revelations.
They stopped comments on any articles that matter and ruthlessly delete any decedent opinions on rare articles that do permit comments.
This practice is now applied across the board on all major MSM publications.
Free press, freedom of expression exist only as distant memories.
Well Prince Willie will go ahead with his visit to Israel, despite the massacre of the Palestinian people by the oppressive military apartheid regime of Israel.
No doubt on his visit next month to pay homage, he’ll be given a special tour of the massacre site.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/revealed-prince-william-go-ahead-israel-visit-despite-gaza-massacre-550308310
RoS
I can’t get no Reply satisfaction. I haven’t paid my Craig subscription.
I find it deeply satisfying in your links to the Independent that John McCain, the architect of Al Qaida and Daesh’s brutal invasion of the Middle East is having his hands held behind his back and getting punishment from God for his heap of war-crimes against Islam and Muslims. If training, funding drugging and brainwashing extremist violent terrorists and using them like pit-bulls against several innocent ethnic peoples is not “stooping low” in the history of USUKIS subversion of international law, I am happy for Trump to give him a taste of his own medicine.
I for one am never going to forget what the neo-cons have done and which Trump and Russia have reversed.
If Sanders is defending McCain, that seems to answer Craig’s conundrum about what a Democrat would have done in the White House.
I hear McCain has orderd a shitload of Puckle guns, due to the description of their use on enemies.
James Puckle said his gun came with two types of firing rounds, round bullets, to be used against Christian enemies, and more damage inflicting squae bullets to be used against Muslim enemies.
Should read Square bullet, apologies.
Aww man, this place is no fun at all!
I’ll stick to reading. Keep up the good work, Mr Murray and posters alike. Much appreciated.
Obama, Cameron and May – all deeply entrenched in the wrong side of history syndrome.
The line up for QT tonight.
A Tory (now a given).
Diane Abbot.
A former Met Police Commissioner, also known as an event stager.
David Cameron’s Policy Chief.
And, a Guardian reporter, columnist, or something to that effect.
Sound like tonight will be another far-right hate fest.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PhantomPower14/status/997139937601474561/photo/1?tfw_site=WingsScotland&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwingsoverscotland.com%2Fnations-overboard%2F
Actually, what this is doing is limiting representation to Conservative and Labour.
Might be a good idea, maybe next week we could have a few jugglers on or a couple of tap-dancers, doing a wee Brexit dance, under a Theresa May pole.
Aditya is one of the best journalists in the UK and was pivotal in stopping the Haringey Development Vehicle.
He is an excellent choice for the panel.
The hypocrisy of Phillip Davies MP Con Shipley.
Today in the HoC on the reduction in the maximum bet on fixed odd machines.
‘Philip Davies (Shipley) (Con)
It has come to something when Members of this House, particularly those on the Labour Benches, cheer when a decision is made that will put up to 20,000 decent working-class people out of their jobs when there is no evidence to do so. That was even admitted by Adrian Parkinson who ran the Campaign for Fairer Gambling and who, last week, wrote an article in The Daily Telegraph saying that there was actually no evidence behind the campaign that he was running, which has taken in all these Members across the House. By how much has the Minister’s Department estimated that the problem gambling rate in this country will reduce as a result of this decision, and what evidence does she have for making that estimate?’
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-05-17/debates/115ED55E-CCE6-4A46-858D-D2F09C4E1595/GamingMachines
If you consult his Register of Interests on TheyWorkForYou, [ https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11816/philip_davies/shipley#register ] you see a long list of donations and gifts from betting companies:
Gala Coral
William Hill plc (several)
Skybet
Arena Racing Corporation
Ladbrokes Coral (several)
Under the heading ‘Gifts, benefits and hospitality from UK sources’
That’s just on the opening page. There are more similar in the full history. https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11816
He should have declared his interests.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind who was MP in Kensington at the time of Grenfell cost cutting has not offered one word in the matter, but woke up to be a front runner for bombing assad after Douma “gassing”. We have been afflicted with the Flint syndrome too, bugger the domestic voters its more important to deal with Ben Gurions fears. Our politics hijacked by fake citizens.
Bait n switch, a classic media tactic.
Divert attention asap from domestic outrage.
Grenfell, like Windrush, has been weaponised by the left. If you knew anything of how actual ordinary people feel, you’d know they are completely sick of hearing about it.
Sir Malcolm expresses outrage at unproven events said to have happened halfway across the planet, demanding extreme and immediate action be taken. Yet when real horror unfolds in his own constituency .. silence
Deindustrialisation gentrification, I’m sure a new phrase will soon be coined, using Grenfellcation meaning ?
Why does it not surprise me Harding’s greasy paws are somehow implicated in all of this?
Surely “Putin’s No 1 enemy” (or is that Bill Browder?) has better things to do?
how does this compare ro the guardian’s testimony of tessa jowell?
http://www.drsallybaker.com/uncategorized/baroness-tessa-jowell-a-tribute/
@ RoS 17.22. Thanks. So that’s –
Dominic Raab, one of the 11 Tory MPs in Surrey. There are only 11 constituencies! He is J**ish and his father was a Czech refugee. He wrote this in 2010 about his experiences in Birzeit University, a Palestinian university in the so called ‘West Bank’, so if last week’s events in Gaza come up for discussion, he might have something of interest to say.
http://dominicraab.com/2010/06/06/gaza-beseiged-israel-isolated/
Camilla Cavendish – Posh Tory. Now Baroness Cavendish. Ex Times/S Times, McKinsey, etc. Married to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huw_van_Steenis ex Shroders banker.
and Baron Hogan-Howe. Nuff said.
Plus Diane Abbott and Aditya Chakrabortti
I usually fall asleep half way through.
“Dominic Raab……. is J**ish and his father was a Czech refugee.”
Thank you for drawing our attention to that fact. It’s also a fact that Mrs May is a Christian and Mr Javid is a Muslim but. personally, I don’t obsess about it. What is it about you, I wonder?