One of these two is a dreadful spiv and crook. The other is Arthur Daley.
That’s Luis Barcenas, former Treasurer of the ruling Francoist successor Popular Party in Spain and long time confidante of Prime Minister Rajoy, happily now in prison for his part in a corruption scandal in which, over twenty years, hundreds of millions of euros in kickbacks from taxpayer-funded projects were channelled into the Popular Party coffers, and then doled out in secret payments to party leaders. Rajoy himself had to give evidence in court and the judgement made plain he was not believed.
This is the obvious cause of the no confidence motion that may lead to the Popular Party being removed from power tomorrow. The power of the brown envelope may yet save Rajoy, and the constitutional role of a monarchy which is itself financially corrupt will also come into play.
It says everything about the state of Spanish politics, that in responding in Parliament to the charge of corruption in the no-confidence debate today, Rajoy should turn to the leader of the opposition and declaim “And who do you think you are, Mother Theresa? Your hands are not so clean”. It says even more about Spain that this has not caused shock and “you are corrupt too” is not seen as a wildly inappropriate defence. It is true that the Socialist Party has no shortage of its own skeletons.
What may bring down Rajoy is the fact that the Basque parties, whose support Rajoy had bought with subsidies even more obvious than those lavished by May on the DUP, cannot be seen to prop up Rajoy after his enthusiastic policy of clubbing Catalan grandmothers over the head and imprisoning Catalan leaders. Only the neo-con fake opposition Ciudadanos, originally sponsored and financed by the German BND security service to head off Podemos’ perceived threat to the Euro, is doing its utmost to maintain Merkel’s close ally in power.
If Rajoy finally pays a political price for his appalling persecution of the Catalans it will be a moment of joy, even though the Socialists who would replace him have themselves been shamefully playing to Spanish Nationalist opinion throughout the crisis. But the downfall of one of the nastiest and most vicious and corrupt politicians in power that Europe has seen in decades is nevertheless devoutly to be wished.
Craifg your AUOB speech might be on here, you’ll need to search for it. It’s 222 minutes long.
Livestream by Independence Live.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_3zK1rZsOE
Snap!
June 3, 2018 at 07:50 on P 3
AUOB – All Under One Banner – Dumfries 2.6.18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_3zK1rZsOE
Craig @ 2.07.45 Top Left
I’ve got him here giving his speech at 1.hr 27 minutes. Ditto Sharp Ears. ?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=S_3zK1rZsOE
Oops apologies it should be 127 minutes duh. ? which matches you Sharp Ears.
It’s now out in the open that the British government is preparing for food, medicines and fuel to run out. Revealed: plans for Doomsday Brexit.
That article is behind a paywall, so I hope it’s OK to quote here at length. Note that the elements who are supposed to have leaked the information are not politicians but civil servants.
Famine isn’t funny, but if there were anything amusing here it would have to be the attempt to blame “the French”. It’s typical of right-wing chauvinistic British nationalists to blame the French whom they view as always putting France first. You would have thought from their own rabid viewpoint that that would make the French (or rather, those they imagine to be the French) an admirable model to follow. But nope.
****************************
Revealed: plans for Doomsday Brexit
Britain would be hit with shortages of medicine, fuel and food within a fortnight if the UK tries to leave the European Union without a deal, according to a Doomsday Brexit scenario drawn up by senior civil servants for David Davis.
Whitehall has begun contingency planning for the port of Dover to collapse “on day one” if Britain crashes out of the EU, leading to critical shortages of supplies.
Last month officials in Davis’s Brexit department and the departments of health and transport drew up scenarios for a no-deal Brexit — a mild one, a severe one and one dubbed “Armageddon”.
A source said: “In the second scenario, not even the worst, the port of Dover will collapse on day one. The supermarkets in Cornwall and Scotland will run out of food within a couple of days, and hospitals will run out of medicines within two weeks.”
Officials would have to charter aircraft, or use the RAF to ferry supplies to the furthest corners of the UK. “You would have to medevac medicine into Britain, and at the end of week two we would be running out of petrol as well,” the source said.
Concern about chaos at Dover was behind a decision by Highways England to announce plans last month to build “one or more lorry holding areas” in Kent “to reduce the congestion caused by cross-Channel disruption”.
It is understood that the papers were prepared for the so-called Inter-Ministerial Group on Preparedness, which meets weekly when parliament is sitting. One official said the scenarios are so explosive they have only been shared with a handful of ministers and are “locked in a safe”.
(…)
The government has said it would in effect throw open Britain’s borders in the event of a no-deal Brexit. But officials fear the EU, particularly the French, would not do the same.
(…)
Layla Moran, a Liberal Democrat who speaks for the pro-remain group Best for Britain, called on the government to publish the documents. “We can now see that the government are driving us all towards disaster. What is worse is that they know it too,” she said.
(…)
UK officials said the June summit was heading for a “car crash” because “no progress has been made since March” to devise plans for a long-term deal
****************************
Doom mongering by the people who want to remain in the EU and are elite snobs or misinformed and who are against populism which is a political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against a privileged elite.
Just looking at what Trump has done with his steel tariffs should give you an idea how much chaos that will cause within the WTO, our new rule booklet for the future, Dave Lawton.
I’m also missing some lyrical waxing of economic prowess from you, countering what N_ wrote. Have you got any positive messages to the gloom that has hit the high street? How are Sheffield Steel Masters going to spread the 25% extra on exports? And why are you so prepared to have your knackers cut off by this wretched right wing cabal in power?
Or are you privileged enough to not feel the pain the Welsh, Scottish and Cornish people going to feel, when there is nothing of substance coming from Brexit?
What do you think future trading partners, especially the Commonwealth countries already having EU agreements, will think about making genuine agreements and deals with us, when they can see the lack of process and resolve with the Wreckxit apathy?
Well I’ve seen my fair of scare mongering during my life but this just about takes the biscuit.
Are we really expected to believe that enough of the food etc in supermarkets in Scotland and Cornwall come through Dover for them to run out in a couple of days?
Are we also expected to believe that European countries are going to sit by and watch their agriculture exports to the UK die on the roads just like they did in 2015 when Russia imposed their counter sanctions on EU agriculture causing billions of Euros of losses?
Note that the quote above carefully omits the next paragraph in the Sunday Times article, which says
“A spokesman for the Brexit department confirmed the discussions had taken place, but said that it was “totally false” that the doomsday scenario would unfold: “A significant amount of work and decision-making has gone into our no-deal plans, especially where it relates to ports, and we know that none of this would come to pass.” They went on to say that this would be a case of “reciprocal jeopardy”.
This looks like Project Fear Mk to me.
Well I live in Cornwall @JohninMK June 3, 2018 at 17:06 and believe me we had 2 days of snow earlier this year, courtesy of beast from the east mk1 and the shelves in the local supermarkets put you in mind of Russia in the 70’s!. Factor in all deliveries from next March being subject to customs shenanigans and yes you would do well to believe that after 2 days our shops will be suffering….. not even Brexsh*t yet. Just saying.
I assume MK stands for Milton Keynes. That probably explains a lot and we should thank you for including it in your title.
Amber makes a very valid point that you should try and jam between those two brain cells that double as ears. Two days of snow and a black market for bread appears in Rule Britannia…
What’s really disturbing in all this is the extent to which idiots and their views on Brexit are supposed to be treated equally vis a vis the views of those who actually know a thing or two. And that’s the problem with democracy when it isn’t managed properly.
Democracy fails when the ape-like fools outnumber the people who are educated.
“A significant amount of work and decision-making has gone into our no-deal plans, especially where it relates to ports, and we know that none of this would come to pass.”
.
I should co-co. The EU has not agreed anything of significance, so far.
Nevermind, Duke of Doggerland
I`m not privileged in anyway far from it.But I would rather be free than be governed by an elite bunch of crypto Nazi Bilderbergers which was co-founded by an ex SS Nazi.Just remember we can change our crooks but not the EU ones.You should research who created the EU and why. You can research intelligence files which are now freely available.
Dave most of Eu laws were draftred by Uk lawyers and nobody heard any of the whinig and self serving politicians complain or make a fuss
All Maggi did was tp demand rebates and swing her handbag.. if it all was so wrong for 40 years why did these backstabbing imbaciles play the gam? Still not hearing any solutions bar those for the establishment from you.
What has the Uk prepared for this scenario? And for whom?
Hands over ears, Dave, that’ll sort it. Trust in Theresa, Boris and Jacob to lead the people into a kind and prosperous New Jerusalem.
Anthony
Don`t be silly I don`t believe in them also.It seems you are trapped in the Matrix.Did you do the Common Purpose brainwashing Matrix weekend ? At a cost of £4000 funded by the taxpayer.
I’ve been saying for months now that in a no-deal, the frontier situation would collapse within a week. It seems that the civil servants are even more pessimistic than me. If you know the situation, it’s not fear-mongering. It is hard to see how it could be anything else. Of course, the result will be panic, last-minute deals, which will go far to undermine the “pure” Brexit Lawton wants.
laguerre
What year did you do the Matrix weekend? You seem to be well conditioned.
And you People need to wake up PDW
The EU is About to Destroy The Internet #DeleteArt13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvXOfq3AB8s&t=4s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwR34cT1grw
Update on EU’s Copyright Reform Proposal #DeleteArt13
And you give as evidence animated propaganda YouTubes.
Better to have pragmatic doom mongering than some blind obedience to magical thinking the Britain will somehow be better out of the EU.
Name just one concrete real life advantage of leaving the EU
I was wrong about the state setting off Article 50 but right that the state had no intention of abiding by the decision of the people.
Give Ruthie her own wee tank to drive about in, in Scotland oh you are naughty Craig. ?
Give it too month and she’ll be too big to fit in one, RoS, thats the thing about becoming a mum, the wee thing growth, you gain weight and rapidly.
Bless.
But, would she dare/ consider using the baby aaaahhhh factor to stand for the party’s leadership?
Maybe with a few rebel rousing speeches, feeding Gavin Williamsons desires for arms and vowing to put some money into the NHS, maybe even in tandem, a la Green party, with J. Hunt as her deputy/chancellor of the exchequer, doomsday is guaranteed, whilst putting up taxes, etc. the usual austerity stuff.
Given her ambitious strong desire to perform and win, being a strong willed woman, her child might turn out to have these same attributes. Give it 15 years, a rebellious age, she might wonder and question such past move by mum, a glancing possibility.
Also very likely she’ll be supporting a different party than mum, the normal thing for a young and rebellious youngster to do, reject what the parents behold.
I jest.
As Arlene Fosyer gets ready to beat the drums of sectarianism, her party adds.
“DUP leader Arlene Foster has warned British Prime Minister Theresa May that she will withdraw her support in the House of Commons if Northern Ireland is given special EU and UK status after Brexit.”
Looks like a hard Brexit is on the cards.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0603/967911-brexit-dup/
Or a snap Autumn election.
Still puzzled by the apparent lack of concern being expressed by those EU countries that have their noses in the trough. With no Agreement, so no big continuing UK contribution, there will be a loss in order of 1 billion Euro a month in their cashflow.
The EU, or some of it, will certainly suffer along with us in the UK if there is no deal. This is not just a cliff for us.
“The EU, or some of it, will certainly suffer along with us in the UK if there is no deal. This is not just a cliff for us.”
Agreed the EU, will miss the ease of exporting goods to Britain. However the largest trading bloc in the world will not be as heavy hit in my opinion as Britain.
I’d imagine the EU will add another few nations to replace British trade.
Of course Scotland can still escape the madness by voting for indy.
– “the largest trading bloc in the world will not be as heavy hit in my opinion as Britain”
Too right; not by a long way. I have honestly never seen such incompetence from a government in my lifetime. An incredibly arrogant decision with precisely zero planning. Unbelievable.
“Just do it!”
The “oh, sorry…” is yet to come.
Except the Tories won’t say sorry. They’ll just blame the voters, as if everyone didn’t know that most of the English hardly ever vote according to the issue at hand, because the Winner Takes All voting system has conditioned them into protest voting all their lives.
At least you have politics in Scotland; in England all we have is a sort of twisted caricature of it. Get clear if you possibly can.
“Still puzzled by the apparent lack of concern being expressed by those EU countries that have their noses in the trough.”
I presume because they are not that bothered.
Presuming things is one way forward. Analyzing things is another.
The second option would require rather more effort than the first and would also lead to different conclusions.
What would be that second option, which would explain why the EU isn’t bothered about losing the millions they are likely to lose through Brexit, if it’s not that the figure isn’t sufficiently important to worry them?
In fact the EU is starting to get very cross about the big new hole in the Common agricultural policy, whose budget has just been severely reduced to anticipate Brexit. So “isn’t bothered” suggests too much continental phlegm rather than the growing animosity against the UK.
And what shows that “the EU is starting to get very cross about the big new hole in the Common agricultural policy,” and does it have anything to do with Brexit? Our surplus contribution to the EU is hardly enough to have much effect on the CAP.
Hi laguerre, amongst other reports, I read this in “Libération” by Jean Quatremer two days ago:
“Ironiquement, la Commission présidée par Jean-Claude Juncker profite donc du Brexit et du trou budgétaire laissé par son départ pour commencer à réaliser le rêve britannique d’un démantèlement de la PAC. Ce n’est pas un hasard si elle a tenté de brouiller les pistes sur l’ampleur exacte des coupes : en jouant sur les euros constants (hors inflation) et courants (inflation comprise), elle a annoncé le 2 mai une diminution du budget de la PAC d’environ 5%. Le Parlement européen, dans une résolution adoptée mercredi, juge, lui, que le chiffre réel est de 15%. De fait, la Commission, qui a renoncé à proposer une augmentation du budget européen pour combler le trou de plus de 10 milliards d’euros annuel laissé par le Brexit, a choisi de faire principalement porter l’effort sur la PAC, mais aussi sur les aides régionales (-10%) afin de pouvoir financer – un peu – de nouvelles politiques (contrôle des frontières, défense, etc.). ”
Fifteen per cent is a very hefty reduction indeed, with a heavy impact on the ex-Warsaw Pact neighbours and their big ex-collective farms over 250 hectares.
So, according to your quote, nobody’s being “cross”. There’s simply a plan to reduce the CAP, which has not passed yet, and might be as much as 15%, but might not, and might bear a relationship to Brexit, but was going to be done anyway. Probably, in any case, it’s more to do with the Eastern European problem (created by British Tony Blair), which countries render CAP very difficult. Libé, of course, will be in favour of the CAP subsidies.
Well, Laguerre, even “Le Figaro” is indignantly spreading the 15 per cent CAP cut figure, with (no doubt made-up) reports of the French government, farmers’ unions, MEPs and even old Uncle Joseph Bové all hopping up and down like so many cross frogs. So you’re quite right, it can’t possibly be true. (Unlike “British” Tony Blair having created the problematic collective farms of Eastren Europe, as you bafflingly assert.) Brexit is bad news, not only for the UK.
Well, Laguerre, even “Le Figaro” is indignantly spreading the 15 per cent CAP cut figure, with (no doubt made-up) reports of the French government, farmers’ unions, MEPs and even old Uncle Joseph Bové all hopping up and down like so many cross frogs. So you’re quite right, it can’t possibly be true. (Unlike “British” Tony Blair having created the problematic collective farms of Eastren Europe, as you bafflingly assert.) Brexit is bad news, not only for the UK.
Two facts.
1) “About 8% of the EU’s goods and services exports to EU and non-EU countries went to the UK in 2015.”
2) “About 43% of UK exports in goods and services went to other countries in the EU in 2016—£240 billion out of £550 billion total exports.”
The EU country that would be hit hardest is Germany but to Germany, because of its strength, is hardly likely to panic about this.
Importantly, the EU economy as a whole is growing at a rate of around 2.5% and that’s forecast to continue for the foreseeable future.
Britain is fucked. Britain deserves to be fucked. The world and certainly most Europeans are gong to enjoy watching stupid British voters starve and suffer. I am too.
https://fullfact.org/europe/uk-eu-trade/
https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/economic-performance-and-forecasts/economic-forecasts/spring-2018-economic-forecast-expansion-continue-amid-new-risks_en
There is no doubt that the British economy is screwed, and it is screwed because of the EU. That is the aim of the EU and has been successful, British voters have voted to end the economic rape of their country.
Their main problem is that those who call themselves the governing class are in fact the EU administrative class – and they have no intention of actually leaving the EU. If somehow they are actually forced to leave the EU then they fully intend to burn what remains of the British economy to the ground on their way out of the door.
Your comment is typical of bought and paid for EU dissembling. So what of the EU in aggregate is growing at 2.5%/yr. The Italian economy is smaller today than it was in 2000. Do you think Italians are too stupid to have noticed this?
Poland,, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia are on a collision course with their German masters regarding immigration. If you think the Poles are about to surrender then maybe you should read some history.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania don’t care about anything other than irritating Russians both within their own borders and in Russia itself. How wonderful is the EU that tolerates and promotes ethnic discrimination in the Baltic states and opposes it everywhere else.
Spain is a hollowed out economic carcass beset by corruption and separatist problems, neither of which is going away anytime soon,
In 2008 Greece had a GDP of $354 billion and today it has GDP of less than $200 billion.
All of these problems are attributable to Germany, but Germany has its own problems. Firstly it has Deutsche Bank and secondly President Trump is after them. Germany looks like the big kid on the block in Europe but it doesn’t look so big compared to the US. Trump likes trade wars because they are easy to win. When it comes to a trade war with Germany it will be like shooting fish in a barrel.
It’s remarkable really — every single one of the problems you mention existed before the European project even started.
In the case of Greece it’s particularly interesting to see the crocodile tears when the country was basically occupied and brutally bludgeoned after the Second World War by Britain, not Germany or the EU.
The British economy has never, ever had a solid foundation outside of robbing other countries, selling weapons, and fiddling in one way or another.
We have plenty of data on the state of Britain before and after EEC membership. It wasn’t called “the English patient” for nothing.
German strength is down to the priority status they have traditionally given to industry, technology, and investment, which stands in stark contrast to attitudes in Britain where your blundering ruling class has always treated the workforce and what they produce with nothing but contempt.
But stick to your delusions by all means. When you’re tripping over corpses in the streets, who knows, the penny might finally drop even if it’s all too late.
Let me help you out here.
The euro was adopted in 2000. The Italian economy is smaller today than in was in 2000. interesting that you can interpret this as meaning that the 2000-2018 decline in the size of the Italian economy occurred prior to the EU.
The size of the Greek economy has declined from $354 billion in 2008 to less than $200 billion today and yet somehow you interpret this as having occurred prior to the EU.
Trump is in the process of reeling in Germany, and he was only elected President in November 2016 – yet another issue, that according to you predates the EU.
It has always been understood that the EU and its supporters despise the truth and rationality – but you take it to a new level.
Your death threats demonstrate the hysteria of your position. Just in case you are actually serious I urge to read some history. Not all peoples surrender. If you let the Baltic states carry on with their racially discriminatory policies then sooner or later the Russians will respond. You wont be tripping over corpses then, you will be climbing mountains of them.
1) “the British economy is screwed, and it is screwed because of the EU.”
But I can prove since 1945 that it has always been a boom-bust screwed economy. By all means invite me to do that. It only ever flourished when the British were fleecing/enslaving Indians and others.
2) “The size of the Greek economy has declined from $354 billion in 2008 to less than $200 billion today and yet somehow you interpret this as having occurred prior to the EU.”
Yes, at the high point of the credit boom when Greeks borrowed and spent on average 8 times more than they earned per annum, Greek GDP was high. Then came the credit crunch and everybody blamed the lenders — note that it was the IMF who managed and dictated Greek recovery, not the ECB. There’s a reason for that.
Greece has always been a poor country, going back to the days of Aristotle. They are basically rich in one thing, olives. The tourism bubble burst because many tourists, like the Greeks, were left skint as a result of the financial collapse. None of that at all is the EU’s fault — the credit crunch was about 95% caused and down to US and British banks.
3) “Trump is in the process of reeling in Germany, and he was only elected President in November 2016”
We are now into the dark realms of a pathetic mind. Accordingly, Trump is some sort of saviour who is going to set Germany straight.
Germany is the most civilised country in the world and Trump is a pussy-grabbing Neanderthal. He hasn’t and won’t set anything straight. The truth is that, outside of Twitter and the ‘golden shower’ movie genre, he has done nothing that’s worth mentioning. On foreign policy he’s done what they all do — bombed Muslims, supported Israel, and sabre-rattled with Russia and North Korea. The US has been doing all that for at least 50 years.
4) lmao @ “death threats”
Go back to YouTube and the comfort of your flat earth, little boy. Minnows like you should know better than to go toe to toe with intellectual street fighters like me. And yes, that’s right, fish have toes…
You are clearly beyond reason. However for anyone that may be interested in reason.
I pointed out that Trump was elected in 2016, and that 2016 was sometime after the initiation of the “European Project” I did this to rebut you contention that all problems existed prior to the initiation of the “European Project” – You respond to this statement of fact with hysteria.
The issues relating to Greek debt restructuring were NOT driven by the IMF. They were driven by the Troika which was a combination of the IMF the ECB and the EU. As the largest creditor nation in Europe Germany essentially controlled the negotiating positions of the ECB and the EU. This is all in the record and is uncontested by anyone other than you.
Greek debt is of such a magnitude that it cannot possibly be repaid. Hence it will not be repaid. This too is understood by all of the major parties to this fiasco and by every other numerate person in the world.
Germany produces an annual trade surplus in excess of $200 billion. Ask yourself is this sustainable, and if it is what will be the consequences for everyone else. Here is an example in microcosm:
At the height of the Greek debt crisis Germany insisted that Greece fulfill its contractual obligations to purchase from Germany a number of submarines. Part of this deal was that Germany would transfer submarine manufacturing technology to Greece. The price to be be paid by Greece reflected both the cost of the submarines and consideration for the technology transfer. Naturally no-one cared exactly how these submarines would benefit the average Greek citizen.
A German company subsequently purchased a Greek shipyard in Piraeus and closed it down. The Germans then claimed to have fulfilled their obligation to transfer technology as they had transferred it to the shipyard that it purchased and closed. Most people can see how this kind of thing works out over time.
In 2007 Spain constructed more housing units than were constructed in the entire of Italy, France and Germany combined. Did the Spanish do this because of congenital stupidity – or was there some other factor at work? Either the Spanish are a nation of idiots, in which case why do you want to be in an economic union with them, or they have been set up by the money men of Europe in which case why do the Spanish want to be in an economic union with people that treat them in such a way.
You are the person that brought up the death threats. They may work OK on populations that have been hollowed out – but I doubt anyone east of the Oder will pay any attention at all.
“The issues relating to Greek debt restructuring were NOT driven by the IMF”
I didn’t say “driven” — “driven” is a word that you just introduced in a desperate attempt to avoid reality. I said “managed”.
Now you are talking about German submarines. If you are concerned about those, maybe you should look closer to home.
Total crackpot.
Do you enjoy watching the greeks starve too?
No, and I think the US bankers who caused that should be ashamed and jailed rather than rewarded with zillions of taxpayers money.
I am puzzled – I thought that in the most recently available figures the UK was running a trade deficit with the EU of around £80m is we export around £80m more in total to the EU than we import. Have I missed something?
Yes. A lot.
Is the OPCW a part of ISIS’s strategic command? Trumps and Israhells lackey?
Indeed. As I wrote on the previous page “The OPCW is dragging its feet in not reporting back what it found, or did not find, at the hospital there. Thank God for people like Eva Bartlett.”
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/428514-douma-civilians-chemical-hoax/
I thought they had found evidence of the use of chlorine?
The mention earlier on of George Galloway and Philip Cross reminds me :
can anyone here update readers on what’s happening with Galloway’s “legal proceedings” against Philip Cross and the “influential person” who’s supposed to be behind Philip Cross? Has he started them, yet? And any word on whether he’s coughed up the £1000 “reward” he was allegedly offering to anyone who could provide details of Philip Cross?
And while on George Galloway, I wonder if one of this blog’s private detectives could do the sort of digging into Galloway’s finances to which we readers have become accustomed when it’s a question of Tory movers and shakers?
As he was an MP for about 25 years I imagine he gets one of those generous MPs’ pensions which lead some on this blog to refer to MPs as”troughers” And then, one assumes he’s not doing his current radio talk show(s) for free – is there a record (as there is for BBC performers) of how much he pulls in there?
And perhaps he also gets paid for any other TV appearances/work? – whatever those might be?The only information I’ve been able to glean relates to the past and runs as follows :
” In the register of members’ financial interests published at the end of January 2015, Galloway disclosed that he had earned £293,450 from his television broadcasting in the previous year and had received almost £70,000 in travelling expenses and hotel stays.[331] For the period November 2013 to February 2015, Galloway was paid £100,000 for his appearances on RT, the highest payment to any British politician working for the channel.[332]”
It is of course possible that those quite large sums are the invention of Philip Cross but on the other hand perhaps they aren’t.
The average salary in the UK is apparently around £25000.
I regret that I am not in a position to offer a £1000 rewaed for any information published on here.
– “It is of course possible that those quite large sums are the invention of Philip Cross…”
Just check the citations; that’s why one has to add them when editing Wikipedia.
Media work is generally quite lucrative.
…and rise with the size of audience.
You know I was because I’m very open about it. I think the law should protect children from the sort of indoctrination that was inflicted upon me.
So, criticism of me aside, how does Galloway’s wealth rank compared with the current members of the Cabinet?
I’m only mealy-mouthed, weasely and hand-wringing towards you because you’re such a jerk.
Intriguing questions.
I think if you would call in to the man’s radio show (TMOATS), you could ask him in person.
I’ll be listening.
https://youtu.be/szggndyCGso
The Mother of All Talk Shows
George Galloway
31.5.18
Craig Murray @ 19 mins in
bj
I could; but the man’s track record leads me to believe I wouldn’t get an answer, never mind an honest answer.
The figures for some of his past earnings must be kosher though because they’re what he declared himself; it seems.
Thanks for trying to help, so far just an embarrassed silence from the others.
Probably embarrassed for you. You are the only one suggesting that George Galloway has dubious undeclared finances.
Why would anybody on here be helping you prove a “fact” you’ve made up?
Not suggesting anything of the sort, old bean, so try again. Just trying to get a picture of George’s finances. I’m sure he declares every last penny to the Inland Revenue. I wonder if he got paid directly or did he set up a company like so many of the people engaged by the BBC.
There was, btw, an Independent article saying that George was paid £1600 an hour for his shows on Press TV and RT.
Nice work if you can get it! I wonder how much a qualified nurse in OUR NHS gets per hour.
The Panama Papers are searchable online.
Let me assure you that I’m not embarrassed. And I think it’s a very legitimate question. I see that your question is being maliciously reframed though.
There’s a difference between wanting to know what someone earns, which is fair enough and what you are concerned with it seems, and suggesting that someone’s earnings are in some way ill-gotten (which some people here seem to be accusing you of).
It’s clear that Galloway is very wealthy and doing rather well from his ‘working class hero’ act. He is the supreme example of an insincere, self-serving, fake socialist who puts his own personal interests above all else, even when there’s very little at stake.
There are socialists and leftists that I respect because they are genuine, even if I disagree with their views. Galloway doesn’t come close to that. The one thing I used to credit him with was his knowledge of the Middle East but, knowing what I know now of him, I can only assume there’s probably some sort of earner in that for him too.
This is a man who sold his own country down the river in support of Great Britain and the union when he has more or less devoted his whole adult life to attacking Great Britain. It seems hypocritical until you factor in the impact that Scottish independence would have on his career prospects. Now we are all clear.
As to the term “troughers”, I think it refers to the Revolving Door between government and the private sector.
No, Clark, I think you’ll find it’s been used with rather wider meaning on here.
This post libels George Galloway.
If George Galloway really does make in a month what most of his compatriots earn in a year, how is it “libel” to point it out? Good for him, I suppose, and at least he pays tax on it.
Re. Babchenko
I see that some other usual suspects were quick to take to twiiter and bemoan the journalist’s death:
One Boris Johnson and one Luke Harding:
https://off-guardian.org/2018/05/31/what-if-babchenko-had-decided-to-stay-dead/
In his speech yesterday in Dumfries, Craig referred to land that had been stolen from the Scottish people. I believe he referred to the Duke of Buccleugh.
I have looked His Grace up. This the extent of his holdings. Quite shocking.
Key Facts:
Agriculture: 203,500 acres
In-Hand: 29,000 acres
Forestry: 24,400 acres
Amenity: 3,000 acres
Property: 884
Livestock: 11,000 ewes, 339 tups, 700 cattle and 32,000 hens
https://www.buccleuch.com/the-estates/
There has been much tugging of forelocks on Countryfile recently to coincide with the anniversary of Her Maj’s 65 year reign!
Last time the programme featured Windsor Castle’s parkland. All of 15,500 acres! How she is a dutiful landowner, employer and innovator of modern farming practices. Even rubber water beds for the Jersey cows to sleep on. Nice.
This week, they are featuring Balmoral. The tone is sycophantic and sickening especially from one of the presenters, Matt Baker, the One Show presenter and ex-gymnast…. how the Queen and P Philip have nurtured the wildlife, preserved the Scots pine forests, etc etc. The farmer Adam Henson, another presenter, also joins in.
Members of the staff are interviewed. They give glowing reports of their employer (of course) and anecdotes are related.
‘The Balmoral Estate has been added to by successive members of the royal family, and now covers an area of approximately 50,000 acres (20,000 ha). It is a working estate, including grouse moors, forestry, and farmland, as well as managed herds of deer, Highland cattle, and ponies.
Balmoral Castle – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmoral_Castle
There are 150 buildings on the estate.
I feel sick. cf Grenfell.
But who are the Dutch businessmen he referred to. Fair and honest question.
Paul Fentener van Vlissingen?
Sharp Ears –
Sorry for posting then silencing My Video… Fedup Aplloz to you too.
Here is my Video of Craig –
https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_referrer=watch&video_id=9GKgRIgyxPk
Cheers Brian. Have you bumped into young Harry yet, the Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton and Baron Kilkeel? LOL
He and Meghan have taken out a lease on desres in Great Tew, Gloucestershire whilst the £megabucks renovations are carried out on their 21 roomed Kensington Palace residence.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/a20979122/great-tew-estate-meghan-markle-prince-harry-country-home/
cf the very many Grenfell residents still without a home one year on.
Sharp Ears.
Top EU German Bilderberger Klaus Kleinfeld knowingly sold the panels that caught fire on the Grenfell tower.He was CEO of Arconic at the time.He is being sued by the shareholders because of the Grenfell Tower fire.
“No videos were found.”
Sharp Ears
Good work! You wouldn’t feel like doing some digging into the sources of George Galloway’s income, would you? You do it so well and I’m sure others would be interested in what you find.
Could you look into Uk War crimes Sharp Ears
The List of War Crimes is Vast –
Who will be the Next Jokers to Attempt a Huge conert for Yemen.. Pretend Boyos..Bono..Geldof..??
I don’t get the point you are trying to make, Chas/Habbs. Are you saying George Galloway shouldn’t receive the market rate for his work? Are you some kind of closet pinko?
No point at all, Dave – although you mentioning “points” does make me wonder whether you don’t see a point there (if you do see one, please share your thoughts).
But no, just think it would be interesting to know what the great enemy of the establishment pulls in every year 🙂
“I believe he referred to the Duke of Buccleugh.”
Subtle joke for our English readers there, substituting -ugh for -uch! He is of course the biggest landowner not only in Scotland but in the British Isles, poor man, and was long believed by schoolchildren to be able to walk from one end to the other without leaving his estate (but we were never told how long he took).
“Key Facts:
Agriculture: 203,500 acres
In-Hand: 29,000 acres
Forestry: 24,400 acres
Amenity: 3,000 acres
Property: 884”
Yes, but what is it all worth? How many square feet of central London land does it all equate to?
“How many square feet of central London land does it all equate to?”
Yes but how many hens does the Duke of Westminster have?
Is the hen a Scottish unit of measurement?
Yes, you are indeed correct: just like horsepower it measures your intelligence.
Good post. I watched Spring Watch – or whatever the fuck it’s called — the other night and they were excitedly talking about birds in the most northerly point in “northern Britain”. In the next article they moved on to moths in “southern England”.
Even in wildlife shows, the BBC is plying us with propaganda.
Britain means the colonies. That officially applies to moths and birds too.
with this I shall say good bye as I sail to assail my customary borders around Doggerland for the next ten days. Muchas gracias for all the great links and beware of the winder uppers, hallo Charles habbakuk Bostick.
Stay kool Young Man
It’s Back .. No Imagination,,, No Art..No Intelegence
“No Intelegence”
And no sense of irony.
Schöne Ferien Nevermind.
Yes. I thought he had been permanently banned.
Some of us wait in pious hope.
The Slums of 1980s Glasgow Thatchers Britain.
http://internationaltimes.it/the-slums-of-1980s-glasgow/
I actually don’t think the place looked that slummy in those photographs. In my memories life back then was much more bleak.
But isn’t it curious to see you attribute the state of Glasgow back then to Thatcher when the truth is she only inherited the chronic decaying carcass left behind by Labour. The 1970s were the poorest, hungriest days of my life.
I’m not a fan of Thatcherism. But if you look honestly at the so-called heydays of state ownership and mixed-economy socialism in the 1970s, you’ll see that poverty levels and living conditions were probably worse than ever, before or since.
Socialists when they talk about these days get this queer look in their eyes and talk about full employment, as if it was the be all and end all. They forget that the full employment depended upon strapping women to sinks and treating them like domestic servants. The unions bolstered all this and basically told working men they were heroes, bread winners, and entitled to get drunk and slap their wives around.
So, yes, the 1980s were bad. But the 1970s were worse.
Maybe the 1970s were worse in Glasgow. In England I remember full employment and reasonably priced train travel.
Reasonably priced but unreasonably unreliable, if you had access at all to the UK’s ever shrinking network.
Yes, I’m sure things were worse in Glasgow than England. When Thatcher arrived she made Glasgow worse too in a lot of ways — she basically closed down Scottish industry and in doing so bolstered the standing and prospects of industry in England. Since nobody in Glasgow really voted Tory, it was a shot to nothing for her. Get back to me if you need very specific examples.
Glasgow’s and Scotland’s relationship with Labour has sounded different on a rhetorical level but really had the same net effect — industrial and social decay.
It’s noteworthy that the poorest areas in Scotland (for a time in the whole of Europe) are areas in and around Glasgow that were once considered Labour strongholds. The people of Scotland realised long ago that Labour’s sympathy was a hollow rhetorical ploy and that’s why Labour in Scotland are dead now.
Yep, deindustrialization, deunionization, wage stagnation were just the boosts needed. Thank goodness neoliberalism came to the rescue.
Btw, the late 1970s were statistically the most equal period in the entirety of British history (a subject about which you plainly know little.)
Statistically the Vatican has two Popes per square kilometre as any fule kno.
“the late 1970s were statistically the most equal period in the entirety of British history”
Equal doesn’t mean a thing in terms of living standards and prospects. It’s one of those words that loonies on the left hang their duffle coats on because they want to avoid objective realities.
But let’s deconstruct the word, for all it’s worth.
Was the 1970s a period of equality for women? Have you looked at the data at all on the % of women in the workplace, the jobs they did, the earnings gap, the number of women in decision-making positions? I guess not. Before you dismiss this or try and explain it away, that’s half the population right there.
How about coloured people and ethnic minorities? (I remember the National Front canvassing openly in those days) Was it an equal society for them?
To be clear, it was undoubtedly a period of equality for the angry and lazy Alf Garnetts of the world who filled the pubs after “work” before going home to abuse their families in one way or another.
The 1970s, which for some reason revisionist crackpots on the left eulogise today, was a decade of male chauvinist, racist, rot and economic decline. The era stands as a lasting monument to the utter failure of the left and offers nothing to those who want to argue today for state ownership and the Labour values. On the contrary, there’s a lot to be ashamed of there.
Britain’s apparent recovery in the 1980s, when you really boil it down, was primarily down to privatisation which (through selling the family silver) injected huge amounts of money into the economy, council house sales, and Scottish oil. Understandably, the British left can’t admit or stomach any of that.
Nice straw manning. I’m talking about pay, which was at its most equal in the late 70s and was underpinned by a reliable framework of social security . Since that time history has gone into reverse, with top pay soaring and middle to bottom rates falling. Every year under your beloved neoliberal order the shift in national income from wages to profits accelerates, so our destiny is to become ever more unequal.
(Incidentally, “coloured people”? It’s 2018 ffs, just how far to the right are you??)
Xavi, you have a nerve talking about straw. I have said nothing that conveys support for any neoliberal order. By all means invite me to do so, though, I have much to say on the subject.
Getting back to the substance of your only point — “I’m talking about pay, which was at its most equal in the late 70s”
By that measure we should all aspire to live in The Sudan where pay is as equal as can be — nothing, basically.
And don’t try to steal the moral high ground on racism from me; it didn’t (and still doesn’t) feature in your depiction of the 1970s as some sort of leftist utopia.
In short, you have no argument. The 1970s were dark times which Labour and the left did nothing towards brightening up. Back then the Labour Party and Liberty were arguing on behalf of PIE ffs.
A marked improvement on the previous decade.
https://flashbak.com/powerful-photos-of-glasgow-slums-1969-72-54283/
Hail to Roger Waters!
Wish You Were Here’: Roger Waters displays pro-Assange message at Berlin gig (PHOTOS)
3 Jun 2018
Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd singer, has once again mixed the worlds of music and politics by displaying a banner in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange at a concert in Berlin.
READ MORE: Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters hits out at musicians for crossing Israel ‘picket line’
The neon red text, which read “Resist the attempted silencing of Julian Assange,” was projected onto a black backdrop before his concert on Saturday night. Waters, who is known for making radical political statements on stage, is an admirer of Assange and has previously featured images of the whistleblower in his shows.’
[..]
In April, Waters denounced the Syrian opposition group the ‘White Helmets’ while on stage in Barcelona. “The White Helmets is a fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for jihadists and terrorists. That’s my belief,” he said.
READ MORE: Ex-Pink Floyd singer denounces White Helmets as propaganda tool during Barcelona concert (VIDEO)
Waters has also stated his opposition to the state of Israel and the government of Benjamin Netanyahu. In an interview with RT in August last year, the rock legend called out Radiohead’s Thom Yorke for refusing to participate in a boycott movement in pursuit of equal rights for Palestinians. In the interview, Waters reiterated his belief that artists who perform in Israel are “making a public statement that they do endorse the policies of the government.”
/..
https://www.rt.com/news/428600-roger-waters-julian-assange-berlin/
Who on earth – except perhaps for a few empty headed teenagers – cares about the views of a former Pink Floyd member on Mr Assange, the White Helmets and Israel ?
As for his “belief” about artists performing in Israel, it may be simpler : perhaps the artists just want to earn the money. It may even be that some artists are consciously sticking two fingers up at the attempts at intimidation by the BDS.
Neither of these should necessarily be interpreted as endorsing the policies of the government.
Who cares about his views? Well this person for a start:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/tony-blair-calls-roger-waters-anti-israel-views-ludicrous/
Good old Tony Blair, eh? Always on the side of the rich, the powerful and the oppressor. Now _that’s_ a person to get the kids to sit up and pay attention.
Yes Tony Blair was bought by Israel they gave him a Million dollars.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2009/feb/16/tony-blair-prize
Ha! Israel cares. That’s why Hasbara/CAMERA is in overdrive. Mr Regev has a team in Palace Green working hard on the project.
It looks as though Nuttyahoo is taking a three day city break in Europe, in order to try to scupper the Iran nuclear deal – he really is a despicable person.
I thought they were going to lock him up for corruption charges.
What’s the matter with you? You haven’t got round to smearing 21-year-old Palestinian medic Razan Najjar, shot in the back by your IDF goon squad, those brave boys in imminent danger from an unarmed, female medic, clearly identified by her white coat. Instead you’d rather attack the messenger Roger Waters. Predictable hasbrat stuff. Please don’t bother replying.
Reviews of ‘A Very English Scandal’, the last episode of which was shown on BBC1 last night.
A Very English Scandal, episode 3, review: Hugh Grant completes transformation from romantic lead to hypocritical rotter in finale of the Jeremy Thorpe affair
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2018/06/03/english-scandal-episode-3-review-hugh-grant-completes-transformation/?
A Very English Scandal finale review – leaves you reeling, seething and laughing
Fabulous performances all round as Jeremy Thorpe finally comes to trial in a sea of hypocrisy, prejudice, ghastly snobbery, injustice and a chorus of tittering from the public gallery
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jun/03/a-very-english-scandal-finale-review-leaves-you-reeling-seething-and-laughing
‘Not that it helps to convict Thorpe. Mr “Justice” Cantley sees to that in his extraordinary summing up. Wow, just wow, and just as it really happened, it seems. To sum up the summing up: it’s your decision, of course, jury, but try to find Thorpe not guilty, because he’s a jolly decent chap. Also pretty much as it really happened was Peter Cook’s sketch about the trial, a snippet of which appears in the postscript. More court reporting than satire.
As well as the outrageous judge, there is so much going on in that courtroom. Oxbridge chums passing each other notes, doing each other favours. Hypocrisy, prejudice, ghastly snobbery, injustice and a chorus of tittering from the public gallery. The 70s, eh? Thank God nothing like it happens today – men of the establishment abusing their power for their own personal gratification and getting away with it.’
🙂
The late lamented Peter Cook. Where are you now? You died too young.
Peter Cook’s biased judge sketch (complete)
442,891 views
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Kyos-M48B8U#
Yes, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and the rest. All Oxbridge, I believe. Some public schoolboys as well. Those sketches have dated tremendously, it’s almost as bad as Hancock.
I still think Tony Hancock was great. The film he made about an aspiring artist – The Rebel – is a masterpiece.
Inverted snobbery detected
He’s trolling your taste in comedy now. Beyond the terms of his contractual obligation surely.
Still got the judge sketch on vinyl somewhere.
“Self confessed player of the pink oboe”. That line was apparently suggested by Billy Connely as a term in common usage in Glasgow in the 1970’s. Can’t say I ever heard it at the time.
Looks like the Caraloonies are on a roll with their IndyRef2 set for October 1st. How’s yours going? Has Quisling caught the drift and started smooching Clara Ponsati yet?
Scots might have one in 2054. Then bottle it (again).
I must as I am being channelled by Habbabkuk in the guise of Charles Bostock.
Saw my first Pine marten in the Central belt yesterday. Great stuff.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-22186846
Yes good news that. Even turning up in South Britain now thanks to reintroductions to some of their old haunts.
This has been bothering me for weeks now. Normally if an American prosecutor presses charges against a foreign entity in relation to a complex field of law like tax, political campaign contributions or the like, the prosecutor takes it upon themselves to prove “wilful” contravention. Mueller’s submission against the St Petersburg social media operation is devoid of the “wilful intent”, higher burden of proof element.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/04/mueller-russia-troll-case-620653
Politico is not necessarily an outlet I would expect to be running a piece questioning the credentials of Mueller as an honest broker.
Have just come in. William Jefferson Clinton, the well known philanderer/adulterer and ex President of the USA, was on the BBC News Channel. He is a flogging a book co-written with a James Patterson – The President is Missing.
‘How much fun was it being President?’ asked the gormless and grinning BBC presenter. Clinton grinned back.
‘Who do think should play the President, if a film is made of the book?’ she asked. ‘George Clooney’? Another grin from ‘Bill’. ‘Well. he certainly looked good at the wedding’ came the answer, as if Clooney’s good looks match his own.
https://eu.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2018/06/03/book-review-president-missing-bill-clinton-james-patterson-summer-thriller/652031002/
How much of that book do you think Clinton actually wrote? 0%?
LET’S ALL GO TO BANNOCKBURN !! Saturday 23rd June !!
See you at Flodden in September!
The Scotsman: No-deal Brexit ‘would clear Scottish supermarkets of food in two days’.
Half a day, more like. And not just Scottish ones. In another place, I read a contribution by an apparently well-educated guy who envisaged the possibility of supermarket shelves emptying gradually. Some people find it hard to imagine things they’ve become accustomed to coming to an end.
Hoard food. Dried beans, lentils and rice are all good. Even stock up on pasta if you like it. If you’re fat you won’t be staying fat for long anyway.
BTW are Visa card machines working this morning? Reports of people’s practical experiences would be welcome.
Not used mine in a shop but bought half a dozen items online on Saturday and each transaction went through without a hitch.
Predictions of empty supermarket shelves are a worse case scenario of a worse case scenario. Still, best to be prepared even though a good slice of the population could do with going on a crash diet.
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/
Don’t forget the shotguns.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-MBp4kL-rN8
“Leave the EU and we’ll starve you to death”. Italy told it can’t have the government it wants because it threatens the future ‘stability’ of the EU. Poland punished, Hungary and Czech up for punishment beatings for not accepting German orders. Greece, Spain…. it’s not a good look for the EU is It?
Surprised you believe this obvious nonsense doom-mongering from the same people who brought us 500,000 job losses, house price crash and WW3 from the moment we voted to leave. And in the same week the campaign for a second referendum is launched… Why don’t they ever tell us the best case scenario?
There’s a chance Italy could bring the whole rotten edifice tumbling down, but I wouldn’t count on the Italians not bottling it. I guess we’ll have to wait a bit longer.
Visa working fine here.
Visa had problems Europe-wide, not just in the UK.
Seems Germany is fond of punishing entire countries, even if only to send the right message to an altogether different country (notably to Greece in order to show the French what’s what), despite it not being in the best financial interests of anyone. The fact that we have Germany pretty much running the show, with no accountability to the countries it is effectively ruling, and certainly not in the interests of the people living there, is good enough reason not to be in the EU.
Of course, the shambolic manner of our leaving from it is beyond parody.
I didn’t know there was an initiative for a second referendum (being a little out of touch with UK news) – perhaps Blair can motivate the yoof vote, he’s jolly good at that sort of thing. For the right price, obviously.
Agreed. The problem is we have people in charge who wish we weren’t leaving. Career politicians simply can’t grasp the tremendous opportunities we have here. Its all delay and obfuscation. And now we have a worryingly large proportion of the population who are openly hoping this country goes to the dogs just so they can crow about how right they were all along, and if you don’t do what you’re told and give up all your national sovereignty then this is what happens. It’s quite disturbing really. So many people admired this country for having the balls to tell the EU to fuck off. And now look at the state of us, years on. Going out with a whimper as we’re taken up the arse yet again.
@Andyoldlabour
“It looks as though Nuttyahoo is taking a three day city break in Europe, in order to try to scupper the Iran nuclear deal – he really is a despicable person. I thought they were going to lock him up for corruption charges.”
He’ll be meeting Merkel, Macron, and May. Remembering Liverpool Street station, London, 7 July 2005, it may be advisable to avoid crowded areas in Berlin, Paris, and London.
Must be his theater show prolonged.
One wonders what props he’ll bring, aside from that stale laptop.
It will be interesting what Emmanuel ‘Ego’ Macron will send the corrupt Israeli home with.
Sorry this is off-topic (burn after reading if you will) but last night ITV3 broadcast/repeated the first of a six-part drama series (Unforgotten) made in 2015 and featuring a character identified as ‘Frankie Cross’, aka Frank Philip Cross, elevated to ‘Sir Philip Cross’.
How odd?
Meanwhile, our Philip Cross of WP notoriety seems to have taken a leave from WP-editing lately.
At least I don’t see recent edits by him.
Perhaps he’s busy preparing his legal defence against the “legal proceedings” we were told George and Craig were going to bring against him?
Missed it! Yes. A bit of a coincidence with the name. A replay from 2014.
ITV commissions new six-part thriller The Forgotten
Published: Thu 09 Oct 2014
https://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-commissions-new-six-part-thriller-forgotten
My favourite story of the last week.
So you’re the leader of Spanish communist party, Podemos. You praise Cuba and Venezuela, refuse to criticize the USSR, and call yourself a marxist revolutionary. You’re in favour of mass immigration, Refugees Welcome, abortion, radical feminism, anti-capitalism, etc. All the usual left-wing stuff. And you’re against family values, tradition, the unity of Spain, and the rights of Spaniards. Etc.
You then, with your wife, buy a retreat in the countryside for €600,000. And someone for a laugh puts up a massive sign outside your property that says “Refugees Welcome”, which then appears all over the media. And you then get outraged because it represents an invasion of your private property and a fascist attack on your family…
The absolute state of the Western left.
Sounds a bit like…..no, I musn’t mention his name, he might start “legal proceedings” against me!
It’s how he makes all his money.
You sound like a sore capitalist loser.
It’s just a statement of how he makes all his money. That and the trashy radio shows. I must admit though that I do kind of like him for some reason.
re George Galloway
Readers might be interested in : https://tendancecoatesy.wordpress.com/2017/08/19/call-to-court-to-declare-george-galloway-bankrupt/
One understands that George has, in the course of a never-dull career, both sued and been sued 🙂
Wow! €600K, enough for a two-bed flat in London. Real hypocritical socialist wealth!
It’s a lot for a rural property in Spain. It’s actually two houses (one for the guests), with swimming pool, olive groves, you know the score. Multicultural shitholes are for the little people.
You sound like a sore capitalist loser.
No it’s the hypocrisy I can’t bear.
Is that what you call London? Fair point! 🙂
“The absolute state of the Western left.”
My favourite hyperbole of this week.
I forgot to ask the other day : wasn’t Mr Murray also announcing legal proceedings against Philip Cross on this blog a couple of weeks ago? Any updates on that – has a suit been entered and what is the charge against P.C.?
I wish he would. Then we will discover that the Philip Cross operation is just one rather sad autistic person in a basement somewhere.
Wanna bet?
I would bet that he isn’t a front for some vast Zionist conspiracy. It could be that he cleans up well known people’s Wiki entries for a living, I’ll grant you that.
But look at how many non-contentious subjects he edits, such as old films. Why would GCHQ, Mossad, or whatever do that?
Are you in the business of building strawmen?
I don’t recall anyone seriously proposing Zionists or the Mossad.
I do recall GCHQ being proposed.
Certainly not by me however. And I doubt that was meant to be serious.
Your characterization of “sad autistic person in a basement somewhere” is itself rather stigmatizing, don’t you realize that?
I do believe he’s being exploited, and he’s certainly not on his own.
Why do think all those journalists follow him on twitter? Because of his tweets?
All of you – even including you, Anon1, are missing the point.
The point is not “is Philip Cross a sad, autistic loner or is he being used by someone”.
The point is : “what are George and Craig going to sue him for? What will be the object of the “legal proceedings?””
” It could be that he cleans up well known people’s Wiki entries for a living,”
Cleans up, an interesting way of putting it, but then I expect that kind of arbitrary comment from you.
Why do you disparage autistic people?
I think he was inspired by George’s characterisation of Philip Cross as a vulnerable person, as reported on here, and by a couple of comments which speculated that Philip Cross might be autistic. It’s George and those commenters you should be picking a bone with.
“Why do you disparage autistic people?”
It’s people with autism to you, pal.
And you can stop putting down people with Aspergers who work hard in scientific research while you are at it.
No, he wasn’t, despite your rather pathetic attempts to goad him on his blog. Write a blog of your own, instead of being a squatter.
Not goading at all, Ian.
Craig told us himself, on this blog, that he was going to start legal proceedings against Philip Cross
So how is it “goading” to ask, a few weeks later, what’s happening re those legal proceedings?
I’m puzzled by your assertion.
Have patience Hab. All will be forthcoming soon.
Jolly good, I await developments with bated breath.
Excellent new piece on Off-Guardian about “the problem with conspiracy theories”
https://off-guardian.org/2018/06/04/the-problem-with-conspiracy-theories/
Amusing but not for everyone on here.
Ex-spy Chief Said ‘Fun Part’ About Mossad Is That It’s a Crime Organization. Netanyahu Is Not Amused
Former Mossad chief Tamir Pardo said it’s ‘a crime organization with a license.’ Netanyahu responds: ‘Mossad is a glorious organization’. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-netanyahu-responds-to-ex-spy-chief-mossad-is-no-crime-organization-1.6138956
Bibi needs some education in his vocabulary.
Glorious – adj. 1. having, worthy of, or bringing fame or admiration. 2. having a striking beauty or splendour.
Bibi is right.
At least partly or historically.
During the sixties and seventies the Mossad certainly inspired admiration, as in ‘regarded with respect’.
I think the term is neutral enough to have been very true then.
You refer to the 1967 war I presume when the Palestinians lost more of their number and their land.
I don’t think the Mossad had an army in the colloquial sense of the word.
I was referring to Eichmann, and the raid on Entebbe and its Nachspiel.
If I can intrude here, I think the losses were of Israeli, Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian military and not of Palestinians per se. Unless of course there were Palestinians in the Jordanian, Syrian and Egyptian military, which, however, I rather doubt in the light of what someone wrote on here about Jordan, Syria and Egypt having always steadfastly refused to grant citizenship to Palestinian refugees.
Indeed. Israel acts exactly like a Mob organisation – running rackets, intimidating, coercing, harassing, assassinating. Imagine Yahoo turning up on your door, as he will do this week in Europe, demanding you attack his sworn enemy, while he takes a back seat, smiling wickedly, while another country is reduced to a failed state, chaos and terrorism everywhere.
Nice caricature. Why don’t you add some gleeful rubbing of hands and a big hook nose?
Your comment is a strawman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man
Everybody makes strawman’s arguments at times.
Yours here seems unfair as a comment to the poster.
I can’t read his or her mind, but don’t think they gave occasion to it.
Homemaker in a secret speech called the Holocaust “ein Ruhmesblatt in Der Geschichte” (a glorious page in history).
Autocorrect wouldn’t allow me to post H I m m l e r’ s name.
It also made me capitalize “der”, quite incorrectly.
One of the biggest suers (I almost said sewers) in British public life was the late Captain Bob, aka Robert Maxwell.
The crook made copious use of legal proceedings – or the threat of legal proceedings – in his attempts to stifle criticism of his ethics.
After his death, it became clear that Robert Maxwell had robbed his company’s pension funds of hundreds of millions.
I recall some very well to do businessman (he shall remain nameless) coming under fire over a huge BHS pension deficit, and of course Labour’s raid on the pension fund, didn’t show them in a particularly good light either.
Yes indeed, RepScot – many people might agree that from a moral/ethical standpoint there’s little to choose between Captain Bob and Philip Green. And let’s not get started on certain Scottish top dogs in the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS affairs!
Indeed, Hester, Goodwin and McEwan, haven’t done a very good job of steering the RBS ship.
Alas, I see the taxpayer taking quite a big hit on a return when the sale of the public owned bank hits the market.
No doubt the government of the day will be kind to their banking and investments donors, and give it away on the cheap, in a similar fashion to the Royal Mail sell off.
Mind you Barclays bank received a humungus $863 billion dollars in bailouts from the US Federal Reserve, the biggest bailout, but we won’t get into that.
RepScot – better indeed not to get into Barclays who, if I recall, were not bailed out by the British taxpayer. Unlike HBOS and RBS, led into the abyss by those Scotsmen you were kind enough to name.
The estimable John Hilley writes from Scotland on the killing of Razan.
Honour murdered Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar by boycotting Israel
Sometimes the sheer wickedness, the unfathomable cruelty, of Israel’s crimes leaves one grasping for words.
Razan Ashraf Abdul Qadir al-Najjar
The murder of 21 year-old Palestinian volunteer medic Razan al-Najjar by an Israeli army sniper isn’t the first unspeakable act committed by this heinous state. And we surely know it won’t be the last
https://johnhilley.blogspot.com/2018/06/honour-murdered-palestinian-medic-razan.html
Incidentally did you notice the comment of the UN representative to the region? He said that the ‘IDF should calibrate** their response’! Really? Carry on killing but fewer?
**Calibrate –
mark (a gauge or instrument) with a standard scale of readings.
•correlate the readings of (an instrument) with those of a standard in order to check the instrument’s accuracy.
a separate control experiment is then carried out to calibrate the calorimeter”
•adjust (experimental results) to take external factors into account or to allow comparison with other data.
He is Bulgarian, a Ban Ki Moon appointee, an opportunist and one time associate of Soros in the Open Society Foundation. Kings College war studies, World Bank, MEP and so on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickolay_Mladenov
‘Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force…Hamas, which controls Gaza, must not use the protests as cover to attempt to place bombs at the fence and create provocations.’
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, in remarks to Security Council, 15 May ’18
Here he is in Jerusalem in 2015 at the 5th Global Forum for Combating Anti-semitism.
http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/AboutTheMinistry/Conferences-Seminars/GFCA2013/Documents/GFCA2015Program.pdf
The UK representatives were:
Paul Giannasi, Head, Cross Government Hate Crime Programme, UK Ministry of Justice
Professor Raphael Cohen Almagor, University of Hull, United Kingdom
Simon Milner, Policy Director, UK, Middle East and Africa, Facebook, United Kingdom YCNMIU
What’s the problem with using the word “calibrate” when the man goes on to explain what he means, ie, as you quote a few lines further down :
“‘Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force”. Note the “..to not use lethal force..”
After more than a hundred killings and thousands of injured Palestinians, asking for Israel to “calibrate” instead of “immediately stopping disproportionate response” is the problem.
Talking of lethal force, are you prepared to defend the indefensible, such as the use of these hideous weapons:
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/palestinians-face-explosive-bullets-dangerous-gas-bombs-180501091514736.html
—–quote
Would you agree, just to give yourself a smattering of credibility when it comes to humanitarian concerns, that such weapons are inappropriate when targeting unarmed protesting civilians?
Or will you instead give some weasel words, comfort the comfortable, praise the powerful, and say the poor mighty victims had no choice.
Glenn, you pop up regular as clockwork whenever Israel’s mentioned. One wonders why.
Well I suppose the reason others comment on the actions of the oppressive apartheid military regime that is Israel, is it’s such an emotive subject.
I suppose if comentors, such as yourself and Anon, alway eager to defend the indefensible , commented on defending Saudi Arabia for instance another oppressive regime, who like Israel have a carte blanche to do as they please without western recriminations, we’d be commenting on them as well.
However I suppose your position is one of, well why not comment on say Myanmar, and the Rohingya crisis or say the oppresion of the people of Bahrain, by the ruling class, or the terrible treatment of the Tibetan people by the Chinese, which are all very good points.
Of course the above are all indefensible, but no one in here is attempting to defend the indefensible when it comes to the above, you however are with Israel.
Maybe that’s why commentors are eager to comment on Israeli actions, just a thought.
It’s probably the greatest humanitarian injustice in the world right now, and perpetrated with positive glee by what’s touted as the only real democracy in the ME, and one of our greatest allies to boot – to which we sell weapons in great supply.
I would have thought that is cause for concern. Wouldn’t you?
Anyway, you didn’t answer the question. I answered yours, even while you failed to do so.
RepScot – do you mean that people are eager to comment on Israeli actions only because of commenters such as myself and Anon1? Seems a little thin as motivation to me but perhaps I’ve misunderstood you?
Glenn_nl’s post was not simply ‘mentioning’ Israel but drawing attention to something I personally was unaware of, namely the use by their forces of a new and astonishingly inhumane tactic of shooting unarmed protestors with so-called ‘butterfly bullets’. I’m grateful to him for making me aware of it. A more appropriate response from you would be to condemn it. Do you?
Just a curious sidelight on the Bulgarian element in this story. A Bulgarian once sent me his article on anti-semitism in Bulgaria – I don’t remember why, probably for publicity for it. It was: Archimandrite Pavel Stefanov, “Bulgarians and Jews throughout history,” Religion in Eastern Europe, XXII, 6 (2002), December, pp. 1-11. I don’t think it’s on the internet.
He showed quite clearly that anti-semitism has a vivid history in Bulgaria, going back to the 6th century, and especially after independence in 1878-9. But funnily enough, under the Muslim Ottoman empire, it completely disappeared, to re-emerge with a vengeance after independence. Of course the Ottomans were very close with the Jewish community in Istanbul.
Today, naturally, there are other requirements for subservience to power, and our Bulgarian does it.
Slightly a wrong impression there: Muslims were always on good terms with the Jews, it wasn’t limited to the Ottomans. Until Palestine occurred, that is. Anti-semitism didn’t exist. After all, who provided refuge for the Spanish Jews, when Spain expelled them? Of course now there are a good number of Israeli books claiming that Muslims were always anti-semitic, cherry-picking the evidence. Everybody suffered sooner or later, in medieval times.
Thanks Sharp ears
I was just thinking I would Pay Zen John a wee vist..I shall go over there now
An earlier example. The ex nightclub bouncer, Liberman, praises the IDF. The snipers lie on sand banks created for the purpose.
‘When asked about the incident on Tuesday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said that every sniper deserved a medal.
The IDF “is the most moral army in the world,” he said.
But sometimes emotions run high in the heat of battle, he said.’
IDF to discipline soldiers who filmed sniper video
https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/IDF-to-discipline-soldiers-who-filmed-sniper-video-549387
The content of the video is chilling.
This is how it’s done. The snipers lying prone on specially created earth banks.
https://nationalpostcom.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/afp_13f8n8.jpg?w=640&quality=60&strip=all
@Charles Bostock
Pure innuendo at work.
Philip Cross has, effectively, edited favorably and unfavorably lots Wikipedia entries and much of this editing was done with a clear “pro-establishment” and “pro-Israel” tendencies. And that without talking about the impossibility of all those changes made by one person alone.
So, Why does it matter if George Galloway earns $1 or $1,000,000, if he is bankrupt or not or if a certified nurse doesn’t earn as much as him?. Do you disqualify people’s actions/opinions based on income?. Do you apply this rule to everybody who earns the same or more than George Galloway?
This is a clear case of ad hominem attack. A desperate Philip Cross & Co. trying to divert attention from them.
I hope Craig will publish further Philip Cross’ chapters periodically.
“I hope Craig will publish further Philip Cross’ chapters periodically.”
As do I – starting with information on the announced legal proceedings.
You forgot to answer this:
“So, Why does it matter if George Galloway earns $1 or $1,000,000, if he is bankrupt or not or if a certified nurse doesn’t earn as much as him?. Do you disqualify people’s actions/opinions based on income?. Do you apply this rule to everybody who earns the same or more than George Galloway?”
I seem to have read somewhere mr. Neil Clark was suing Philip Cross.
I was under the impression George Galloway would join that proceeding (if there is one); I might have misunderstood.
As far as I know, he’s suing Oliver Kamm, a blogger from The Times.
What’s he suing him for? Libel? Slander? Defamation? Oh, please don’t tell me it’s “harassment” !
Update
No need to answer that. A bit of googling has revealed it’s for libel and harassment. But what is curious is that there’s a lot of stuff about Clark suing Kamm written in….2006 !!
Is this the same action or, if so why has there been this gap of 12 years??
@Charles Bostock
“a lot of stuff about Clark suing Kamm written in….2006”
That looks to be only partly correct: http://neilclark66.blogspot.com/2016/10/a-sign-of-times-vicious-vendettas-of.html
You’re beginning to sound like a bit of a stalking horse Charles, on the Phil Cross matter.
RepScot – not a stalking horse, more of a talking source.
Looks like the moderators already deleted @Charles Bostock’s post but, anyway.
@Charles Bostock
“Are you not of English mother tongue?”
Same ad hominem tactic. I, proudly, speak and write in Spanish and English. The idea is clear. After weeks of MASSACRE, Nickolay Mladenov suggests Israel to “calibrate” instead of condemn it for the killing and maiming of thousands. I’m not doubting your ability to find a word in a dictionary but, being a native speaker, doesn’t guarantee you will understand complex ideas.
Can you not read properly?
Sharp Ears wrote (her words)” Incidentally did you notice the comment of the UN representative to the region? He said that the ‘IDF should calibrate** their response’! Really? Carry on killing but fewer?”
and then went on (perhaps inadvertently) to give actual quotation from the Bulgarian, reading as follows :
‘Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force…Hamas, which controls Gaza, must not use the protests as cover to attempt to place bombs at the fence and create provocations.’
Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, in remarks to Security Council, 15 May ’18
Did you spot the words “…to not use lethal force” in that quotation?
Sounds rather clear to me.
@Charles Bostock
“Can you not read properly?”
Frankly, I’m asking you the same question.
I’m not analyzing what “calibrate” means or questioning if Nickolay Mladenov used or not the words “…to not use lethal force”. What I’m saying is that Nickolay Mladenov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, in remarks to Security Council, 15 May ’18, one day after the IDF in a period of a few hours, while USA’s Embassy was inaugurated, KILLED 60 Palestinians and INJURED THOUSANDS far behind a fence that never was in danger of being trespassed, DIDN’T CONDEMN that MASSACRE.
Those killings and maiming, by now, have been accompanied by videos of IDF soldiers laughing at their victims which includes women and children, journalists and first response personnel.
It’s understandable that you want to avoid that issue, as if it was lost in translation because, if not, then you’ll have to justify how that use of force was proportionate and how it is Ok for a UN representative not to CONDEMN the killing of unarmed civilians.
No, I don’t “have to justify” anything – am I the IDF?
Now it seems to me, from your latest comment, that your beef is that the Bulgarian didn’t “condemn” what you call a massacre; his statement to the UN that ‘Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force…’ is not evidently enough for you.
Well, you’re entitled to your opinion, provided you accept it’s nothing but an opinion and so we’ll have to agree to disagree on that, but it’s a long way from my original point, isn’t it (you’ll find my original point at 5:14 pm).
Now we are talking.
massacre
noun
1. an indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people.
verb
1. deliberately and violently kill (a large number of people).
“No, I don’t “have to justify” anything – am I the IDF?
Now it seems to me, from your latest comment, that your beef is that the Bulgarian didn’t “condemn” what you call a massacre; his statement to the UN that ‘Israel has a responsibility to calibrate its use of force, to not use lethal force…’ is not evidently enough for you.”
Even when you avoid taking a stance regarding the disproportionate use of force in the killing of more than a hundred and the maiming of thousands of Palestinians behind a fence and at a long distance, you suggest that there is some subjectivity from my side when calling the events in Gaza border fence a “massacre”. How would you call it? Collateral damage? Tragic events? Or, maybe, you are not going to call it anything because you were not there, you are no a Palestinian, you are not the IDF, etc.
I’m very much interested in knowing why you would think that calling those events a massacre, is just “my” opinion. Is the definition of massacre not clear enough? Do the casualties have to reach some “magic number”?
And, of course, it is my opinion that any “indiscriminate and brutal slaughter of people” should be condemned in the strongest possible terms as opposed to the UN bureaucrat’s euphemism, referred above. You have to call a spade a spade. Do you think different?. That’s the reason I’m not satisfied with the “Bulgarian”, as you called him.
Yes, I got “Philip Crossed” by the look of it! But I’m not complaining and I shan’t sue.
Some people have been writing a load of complete nonsense, about food running out in Cornwall et al as a result of a no deal BREXIT, and nothing passing through Dover, because The French, dislike like us so much, that they don’t want to sell us their fine produce for manky English pounds….Now I won’t go into this, because it is too silly, and my post will probably be deleted anyway, before it has even appeared..
However, I will mention one thing, that Craig Murray briefly mentioned years ago (possibly during some snowstorm)
This just deliver in time philosophy is very efficient delivering fresh food, and flowers from all over the world. It is very cost effective.
The problem with this philosophy, is that it offers absolutely no contingency, when things go unexpectedly wrong. Just because they haven’t yet, doesn’t mean they won’t.
We (The UK) came exceedingly close to running out of gas last winter.
At about the same time as The French Revolution (in fact the event almost certainly caused it – with “let them eat cake”), there was an enormous volcanic eruption in Iceland, that covered the entire Northern Hemisphere in thick cloud, cutting out the sunlight for 2 years, such that very little food would grow. The population then, of Europe was tiny compared to now, yet millions starved, because they couldn’t grow any food.
If the same thing happens tomorrow – volcanic or nuclear, we have no contingency. We have no stored food, no stored energy, and the politicians in control, are completely stupid.
Tony
I’m sure the French will be cooperative, Macron has said it. But you can’t turn a single-market no-check regime into an external border without slow-downs. And those slow-downs mean empty supermarket shelves. There is no contingency, as you say.
Excellent points, Tony. The JIT (Just In Time) management style started gaining traction in the late ’80s, as I recall, and seemed wonderful – you didn’t have to bother with much of an inventory, so saving a lot on warehousing, capital tied up, the danger of redundant stock and so on. It pushed the entire problem of delivery of products as they are needed on the shop floor onto your suppliers, which works just fine – right up until there’s a problem with delivery. Then it becomes apparent you have 10,000 points of failure to the delivery of your own product.
This has been pushed so we’re running on exceptionally thin margins these days. The same philosophy – I might argue – has gone to the individual and household level, where we’re positively encouraged to make money as fast as possible, and then spend it at least as quickly.
Why save? There’s no interest on savings. Money in, money out – very thin margins for interruption in the supply chain again, in this case from income. We used to have to save up for things before buying them, that’s a concept of the past – it went out of fashion as JIT was introduced.
It’s tough as a politician to argue for anything not yielding immediate results. That’s why we no longer invest in our future. JIT is a philosophy of cashing in, trying to make the most immediate return before the whole thing falls apart.
“This just deliver in time philosophy is very efficient delivering fresh food, and flowers from all over the world. It is very cost effective.”
Very cost effective, because the real cost is socialized.
These so-called externalities are coming back to haunt us with a vengeance.
Let us not forget, though, that the globalisation of food stuffs does provide welcome export opportunities and therefore income for producers in some very poor countries. So one might have to balance the negative externalities against that.
Export of cash crops like those taken from Ireland in the 1840s? The Generalgouvernment and Ukraine in the 1940s?
Are you seriously comparing the export of baby vegetables, flowers, etc from Kenya with the requisitioning/plunder of grain from Ukraine by the Germans?
There’s been a DNS attack against MediaLens website, it’s been down all day. Ongoing.
Yep, down here too.
There’s a bit of access by going to Slurp’s search-page at http://www.google.com/ncr and entering “cache:medialens.org” and just browsing the site in text-only mode. Specifically the “alert” area is the most down.
Perhaps outages are not surprising when 95% of Slurp’s employees are reasonably pro-NSA/UKUSA/etc
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/big-tech-firms-march-to-the-beat-of-pentagon-cia-despite-dissension-1.531048
Tho’ 5% is a massive insider threat, at Apple , at MSFT, you name where . . .
.Still ongoing. –
The website declined to show this webpage
HTTP 403
Why? Most probably = #Media Lens @medialens · 13h13 hours ago
New media alert discussing the work of @ClarkeMicah @Jonathan_K_Cook @MaxBlumenthal: ‘The Syrian Observatory – Funded By The Foreign Office’
http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/872-the-syrian-observatory-funded-by-the-foreign-office.html
What a country. What a world.
Dissident Voice have the article.
The Syrian Observatory: Funded By The Foreign Office
by Media Lens / June 4th, 2018
‘Writing in the Mail on Sunday, journalist Peter Hitchens commented last month on the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR):
Talking of war, and Syria, many of you may have noticed frequent references in the media to a body called the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”, often quoted as if it is an impartial source of information about that complicated conflict, in which the British government clearly takes sides. The “Observatory” says on its website that it is “not associated or linked to any political body”
To which I reply: Is Boris Johnson’s Foreign Office not a political body? Because the FO just confirmed to me that “the UK funded a project worth £194,769.60 to provide the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights with communications equipment and cameras.” That’s quite a lot, isn’t it? I love the precision of that 60p. Your taxes, impartially, at work.’
This figure was confirmed in communication with the Foreign Office by independent political journalist Ian Sinclair.
/..
https://dissidentvoice.org/2018/06/the-syrian-observatory-funded-by-the-foreign-office/
Yes, interesting. I’m getting a blank page apart from “Access denied.” for, apparently, every page at medialens.org
I assume it has somehow become configured that way at the server for medialens.org
The site was working normally a couple of days ago.