Given the centuries of economic exploitation, political domination and depopulation, I perfectly understand why many Scots support any team at the World Cup which is playing England. But, with an English mother and two English grandparents who largely brought me up, I do not feel that way and I raised a glass at Harry Kane’s late winner. Let me tell you why.
My grandfather Henry was a lifelong socialist who had no illusions about the British Empire and its role in the World. Yet he was also a patriotic Englishman whose life, like so many of his generation, was largely defined by the struggle against Nazism, in which his only son had been killed. That focus on the Second World War partly explained his fondness for the Soviet Union, in discussing the abuses of which he would always remark “But you have to consider what came before. Given where they started, they are making progress”. He would recite “A man’s a man for a’that” to me as a small child and explain its meaning. Yet Henry would fly his St George’s flag proudly when occasion warranted it. I do not therefore automatically associate that flag with UKIP or with Essex man.
Because there is another England, that from which Henry sprang, the England documented lovingly by E P Thomson and vividly recorded by Robert Tressell, the England of William Hazlitt, Mary Wollstonecraft, the Putney debates and Thomas Paine. Michael Foot embodied the inherited wisdom of that tradition and it has re-emerged with unexpected vigour in the shape of Jeremy Corbyn, a man whose attraction lies in the very fact he encapsulates notions of basic decency that the English political elite had attempted to cast off.
I regard Scottish Independence as part of the continuing process of decolonisation. Ireland’s population will in the next decade overtake Scotland’s for the first time in centuries, and as of today Ireland’s GDP per capita stands 25% higher. Scotland can never achieve its potential without first achieving its Independence. But we can do that without wishing ill to our neighbours; some of them are quite nice.
Dominic Grieve has voted against his own Brexit amendment based on a promise from Treeza on a compromise. Anyone got his e-mail address, I have a deposed West African dictator with £10 M frozen in a Swiss bank that wants to speak to him.
As Attorney General, Grieve also refused an inquest for Dr David Kelly, whose unnatural death in 2003, a few months after the start of BLiar’s war on Iraq, was not subjected to an inquest. An application for a judicial review of his decision was refused by Judge Nicol in the High Court in 2011. **
An Inconvenient Death: How the Establishment Covered Up the David Kelly Affair
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inconvenient-Death-Establishment-Covered-Affair/dp/1788543092
Aaronovitch savaged the book needless to say. Unlike him, Miles Goslett, the author, will not be creating false reviews and ratings for his book. There are now 40 reviews on the Amazon site.
** Hear what Craig had to say about the judiciary in his speech at the vigil for Julian Assange outside the Ecuadorean Embassy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLCJU8tUwP8&feature=youtu.be 1hr 23mins in.
Ireland’s GDP has been achieved by undercutting Germany and the U.K. on corporation tax rates and offering next to zero effective rates to attract the likes of Apple. Is that the future you want for Scotland?
I doubt that’s the future Craig really wants. But it’s certainly the one that Hillary fangirl Sturgeon wants, together with aggressive Neo-Conning overseas.
The British Government does not even tax most of the international conglomerates who trade in Britain.
On the retail roundabout. Wide boys. Will this deal go through? We shall see.
MPs attack Asda chief over benefits of £12bn merger with Sainsbury
June 20 2018,
The Asda chief executive Roger Burnley was told by MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs committee about suppliers would suffer from its £12 billion tie-up with J Sainsbury
The chief executive of Asda has been accused of lying to MPs, “talking baloney”, providing “Mickey Mouse” figures and pursuing a merger with J Sainsbury that could “cut the throats” of suppliers.
Roger Burnley struggled to convince politicians of the merits of combining Britain’s second and third largest grocers in a bruising session in front of the environment, food and rural affairs select committee this morning.
Neil Parish, MP, chairman of the committee, was the most vociferous in his criticism of the proposed merger, telling Mr Burnley that there was no logic to the deal, it was “bizarre” and was “financial fix” for both grocers which “may not save either of you”.
Sainsbury’s and Asda, which is owned by America’s Walmart, surprised the market last… paywall
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/mps-attack-asda-chief-over-benefits-of-12bn-merger-with-sainsbury-nj6f3gpn3?
Sainsbury’s. 25% owned by the Qataris, has already made thousands of their staff redundant. Their CEO was paid £2.8m in 2016.
‘Mike Coupe received an annual salary of £916,000 and enjoyed a 86% rise in his annual pay package to £2.8m last year despite a fall in underlying profits.’
Burnley, a one time supply chain director for Sainsbury’s in 2006, joined Asda in 2016 and was made President and CEO in January this year. He had worked for Asda before in the 90s.
Jobs are cut. Wages are cut. Not for these mobile CEOs though.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-5247005/Asda-swings-axe-property-team-Burnley-takes-hot-seat.html
The Tesco CEO was paid £4.6m in 2016.
This would be the Mike Coupe who – despite sacking thousands – was caught singing “We’re in the money”, I seem to recall:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/video/2018/apr/30/were-in-the-money-sainsburys-ceo-caught-singing-before-asda-merger-interview-video
Can’t say the miserable bastard isn’t honest.
Yes there is another England. George Orwell said the same. Interesting that you should not mention him. Could it be because most of his outlook and ideas were diametrically opposed to yours and those of the vast majority of the handful of commenters on here?
Well, all I can say to you Charlie boy, is that thanks to you and your neo-con/neo liberal pals, 1984 is already happening.
If that’s all you can say, Garth, then it wasn’t worth saying.
Actually, neither was your comment worth saying Charles. Your comments are really rather tedious and have nothing intelligent to say. Garth is right of course. I guess you can’t have much to do except spend time on this site attempting to wind people up – well, most of us have a better life to live than that.
It was a favourite ‘gambit’ of Habbs.
He would say:
“I see you used the word ‘x’. But the word ‘x’ also has this other [obscure, unlikely] meaning… Does that mean, contrary to what you said, you believe …?”
“You might have mentioned ‘x’, but didn’t. Was that deliberate – could it be because …?”
and then construct a paragraph of fantasy argument.
Of course all one had to do was point out the idiocy of the ‘x’ part for the rest to come tumbling down.
Funny that Chas has the same tic.
J**zus, that beats all the strawmen I’ve seen being erected on this blog.
You should be awarded.
Happy Summer Solstice, to anyone who actually makes it to Stonehenge, like my Girlfriend (now Wife used to do 1982-84) and which even our kids did a couple of times about 5 or 6 years ago.
Have a Great Time, but this year especially DO NOT take ANY Drugs
Just paint each other’s faces, pretty yourselves up, bang your drums, but do not take ANY Ministry of Defence/CIA Sourced Drugs
This year particularly, they are highly likely to be contaminated with at least a whiff of Novichock…
Just cos The Skripals survived it, does not mean that you will.
Don’t Do It.
By all means pay a visit to Salisbury…its a beautiful place..and so is Amesbury – beautiful little village – and swim naked in the river…
Well, that’s what we did. It’s probably all changed now.
It has probably all been corrupted by people, who do not look after each other, and form a community…
But what do I know? I have not been to Stonehenge Festival for 34 years.
If you don’t go, you won’t know.
So go, if you want to.
Just be careful.
Tony
Tony_0pmoc
June 20, 2018 at 17:21
Happy Summer Solstice
Tony here you go.Happy Summer Solstice to you also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6YxcosDp8Q
Dave Lawton,
Thank you so much. That is such a completely brilliant historical compilation, that my wife will appreciate even more than me. There is one photograph in that compilation at Stonehenge, that I Really Like, but our Daughter was not there, when she was 2 years old, though she was 18 years later.
When she was 2 years old we went to WOMAD by The River in Reading.
Stonehenge was a No Go area. It had been closed off by Barbed Wire by Margaret Thatcher.
Tony
“The US is withdrawing from the United Nations human rights council, the Trump administration announced on Tuesday, calling it a “cesspool of political bias” that targets Israel in particular while ignoring atrocities in other countries.”
I think Nikki Haley ought to take a closer look at what’s going on in America. Children separated from their parents locked up in cages like animals and given just a tinfoil sheet.
The Great Satan (consecutive US adminstrations) will do absolutely anything to protect the Little Satan Israel. A occupying oppressive, apartheid military regime, posing as a democracy.
It also comes as no surprise that the British Foreign secretary agree’s with the US, that the UN Human Rights Council needs to be reformed. Which of course is code for we’ll back any move that stops Israel from being held to account.
Trump’s attempts to block people from certain countries entering the US along with his derogatory remarks aimed at Mexican’s, and the disgraceful and cruel treatment of children, doesn’t paint the US in a very good light.
Perhaps President Trump is separating children from parents in homage to Mrs. Clinton who opined in 2014:
“We have to send out a clear message, just because your child gets across the border – doesn’t mean your child gets to stay”
Here are a series of photographs showing the detention of child migrants in 2014
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-06-19/why-werent-liberals-furious-about-child-migrant-detentions-under-obama
I am sure you will agree that the conditions depicted in these photographs look remarkably similar to conditions depicted in contemporary photographs.
I am sure there must be some reason why no-one cared about child migrants in 2014 but today they care very much indeed.
“I am sure there must be some reason why no-one cared about child migrants in 2014 but today they care very much indeed.”
Loony.
Children locked up cages like animals will always provoke a reaction, especially so in the so called Land of the Free.
I’d imagine Trump’s loud and unsavoury tweets and statements on immigrants and refugees attempting to enter the “Land of the Free” has only intensified scrutiny surrounding his handling of such matters, which might not have occured in 2014.
That’s not to say that back then those refugees immigrants received fair treatment as well.
“Children locked up cages (sic) like animals will always provoke a reaction”
Indeed, but could there be any reason why that reaction never seems to mention that the Trump Presidency is locking up far fewer children in cages than were locked up during the Obama Presidency.
Is it not the case that if a reaction is not cognizant of all relevant facts then the reaction itself may be detrimental to the interests of the people being locked up?
Some cynical people may form the conclusion that no-one actually cares about the fate of children locked up in cages, but they do care very much to embarrass President Trump. Such a conclusion may simply harden the attitudes of Trump supporters. The only obvious way that this conclusion could be invalid is if those protesting the fate of children locked up in cages continue their protests and do not move on to some other anti Trump narrative as soon as the voices in their heads (the media) instructs them to do so.
“Indeed, but could there be any reason why that reaction never seems to mention that the Trump Presidency is locking up far fewer children in cages than were locked up during the Obama Presidency.”
Loony.
Give Trump time he’s only been POTUS for a year and a bit. Of course it doesn’t help matters that Trump isn’t much of a diplomat, he wasn’t long in office when he insulted the whole of Mexico, and he really knows how to rile the media.
He attempted to block citizens from several countries entering the US, which didn’t go down too well either.
From repealing Obamacare, to reneging on the Iranian JOPCA deal, to getting into a slagging match with Kim Jong Un.
Trump is the president of the USA, but in my opinion, he’s no diplomat, just a brash arrogant neocon, who spits the dummy out if he doesn’t get his way.
Obama, has the record for a POTUS at war the longest, however even Obama had a level of diplomatic nuance, that Trump doesn’t possess.
Thank you for clearing up any confusion.
I had been laboring under the misapprehension that you had some concern for Mexican children – now I understand that they are simply a human stick that can be used to beat President Trump with.
Hell no, Mexican / Latino children are something for Trump to beat adult Mexicans / Latinos with, don’t act stupid!
It appeals to their “base” of fascists too, don’t pretend you don’t like it.
Loony may have a point. Trump is just a less diplomatic in your face say it as is POTUS. Obama did the same thing but diplomatically and with a smile, but was nevertheless a big killer. I have long ago realised that POTUS is a career for a front line actor to give a semblance of choice in a supposed democracy that just fine tuned the candidates according to current mood. But real differences that a POTUS can make are really very few.
Loony, I don’t believe you have any actual evidence for what you claim in terms of figures do you? It was Trump who put an end to Obamacare which was introduced to ensure child migrants were treated well and properly. You might be the world’s most avid support of the Orange One but he is a dangerous sociopath who has seriously messianic delusions – the man is positively dangerous.
“There is no federal law mandating children and parents be separated at the border; a policy resulting in that outcome was enacted in May 2018.” https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/was-law-separate-families-passed-1997/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social
So, the original story is from Breitbart (a notably reliable (!) publication) with twitter photos showing a large number of people of different ages, including some children, none of them small, but mixed in with numbers of adults, all huddling together in rooms, not cages. I’m sure migrants/asylum seekers do get treated badly – as they always have been – but this story intended to put the blame on Obama, hardly proves the point Loony wants.
I agree RoS. However, the abuse of Human Rights in the USA does not just stop at locking children up. Apartheid is alive and well. How many unarmed, black civilians have been shot in the back by police (actually executed is a better word) and the police officers have not even been disciplined. They operate one of the most brutal criminal justice systems in the world where children are prosecuted as adults, where the death penalty kills more people than the rest of the world put together, where the police have the powers to arrest anyone and put them into a psychiatric hospital (the high flying business woman driving a state of the art BMW got into the wrong lane, was arrested, became distressed naturally and spent 13 days pumped full of drugs in a psychiatric hospital because the police put her there – she was black of course and they assumed the BMW was stolen), where they estimate a conservative figure that over 3m people are in prison who have been wrongly convicted and so on and so forth. Let’s even take Quantanamo – people being detained without trial, without evidence, without access to lawyers and independent scrutiny of their living conditions, the soliders in Abu Grad prison who tortured, humiiated and degraded human beings to lower than animals – the images so shocking the international tribunal felt unable to publish the photographs and so on and so forth. Human life is cheap to the USA whether its their own citizens or other peoples. Good riddance to them from the UN Human Rights Council – the I……..i Government is out of control and run effectively, by terrorists. Any country who does not consider the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israelis a gross abuse of humanity must be one of those countries who perpetrates the same abuses against humanity.
According to you in the US “the death penalty kills more people than the rest of the world put together”
According to Amnesty International the US is the worlds 7th largest executioner.
According to you a conservative estimate is that in the US “over 3m people are in prison who have been wrongly convicted”
According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics there are a total of 2.22 million people incarcerated in the US.
Presumably you will be writing to both Amnesty International and the US Bureau of Justice Statistics to inform them that their numbers are wrong – and wrong by a truly staggering margin.
Still think Britain should go after the Mossad for murdering Royal Cadet Stephen Hilder and Dr, Kelly for allowing its resident kidon to do them provided it used no firearms.
Here is an admission that they (Mossad/Kidon) killed five Iranian scientists. The lethality of their mindset is revealed.
Ex-Mossad Chief: Best Part of My Job Was Having ‘a License to Crime’
By Richard Silverstein
Global Research, June 19, 2018
Tikun Olam 17 June 2018
https://www.globalresearch.ca/ex-mossad-chief-best-part-of-my-job-was-having-a-license-to-crime/5644630
It seems not everyone was allowed to vote today.
“I’ve just seen a Labour MP in a wheelchair with a paper sick bucket looking in lots of pain after voting (because Tories refused MPs who r ill to vote from the car park). It was quite a sad sight.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/SamCoatesTimes/status/1009449102181093379
Westminster becomes more farcical by the day.
The Tory government wins the vote 319 to 303 that means parliament can’t prevent the UK leaving the EU without a deal. The Tories/DUP got the votes they needed from 4 Labour MPs voting with them and 6 abstaining.
So Scotland was told that voting No would ensure our membership of the EU. That voting No would lead to legislation to safeguard the powers of the Scottish Parliament. Now Scotland faces enforced departure from the EU and that very departure is being used as the excuse and attempted cover to steal meaningful powers from Holyrood.
And while they’re at it the Tories want it established that any UK govt can override Holyrood simply by asking for power over a devolved matter. If the Scottish Parliament says no and points out that it contravenes the 1998 Scotland Act then the UK govt takes the power anyway. Courtesy of the EU Withdrawal Bill and the Labour and Lib Dem assistance the Tories have had in de-democratising Scotland and Wales.
Scotland can now be made to not just leave the EU but leave the EU without a deal. The grabbed powers once gone would never come back, despite the pathetic verbal promise that they’ll return after seven years.
Scotland’s agriculture, fishing and environment will be controlled by what are England and Wales only departments. In other words far less power for Scotland than in the pre-devo era when these matters were the preserve of the Scottish Office. When, even if the ministers came from a party not popular in Scotland, those minsters and civil servant in the SO were versed in Scotland’s distinct farming, fishing and environmental needs. Now these matters are to be dealt with by politicians and civil servants who are either ignorant or arrogant about and towards Scotland.
Scotland’s majority opposed this. Didn’t ask to have our democratic rights taken away. You can’t say we voted for all this in 2014. Because no one voted for what has transpired since 2014. Only the swinish would sneer and say that we got what we voted for.
Scotland is being taken over by authoritarians from a neighbouring country we never voted for. With help from Scottish collaborators true. But essentially this is imposition by a prevailing political culture of one country on another that is not by a long way in tune with that prevailing culture.
Pollyanna assurances that England is on the verge of shaking off that authoritarian trend will not do. The English dominated Labour and Lib Dem parties did not vote against Clause 11/15 in the Withdrawal Bill that allows any government in London to ignore the Sewel Convention at will.
In the context of this, discussions about what football team Scots support at the World Cup just look impertinent and silly.
reel guid.
Leaving the EU without a deal, seems a real possibility now. I’m shocked but not surprised that in the event of a no deal Parliament won’t get a meaningful say on the matter, and that the Tory government will be in complete control of the manner of the exit.
This just add to a whole host of other reasons, why Scotland must dissolve this union.
RoS – A No Deal Brexit is a certainty – even Barnier and Tusk have said as much. One more step towards Totalitarianism is this vote in Parliament. I am just waiting now, when the effects of a No Deal Brexit start to take effect on sterling and the British economy, for the propaganda machine for the Tory Party – the MSM – to start blaming Brussels for sabotaging the so called negotiations and the start of an anti-Brussels concerted campaign to detract attention from the woeful economic forecast, the interests rate rises that are now inevitably due and the fact the pound fell dramatically yesterday and will probably continue to do so.
Interest rate rises – LOL!
reel guid,
Good News.
The Best Deal, The UK could ever get to escape Hotel California, is just to LEAVE with NO DEAL.
That way it costs NOWT…
If you Do not Understand How Evil The EU is…
Read The Book That I Bought in HARDBACK
I Love The Greek People. My Kids grew Up in The Greek Islands in The Summer.
The EU has totally IMPOVERISHED Greece.
“And the Weak Suffer What They Must? ” by Yanis Varoufakis
He drops his guts – a bit like Craig Murray, but heavier.
Tony
It was the number of people and businesses not paying their taxes and corruption in the government that impoverished Greece in the first place.
There must be a very committed army of Greek haters – always ready to leap on anyone who dares to show any sympathy for the fate of the Greek people.
What on earth have Greeks ever done to deserve so much opprobrium from the British. Obviously there is no corruption or tax evasion going on in your septic isle.
Greeks are denied access to medicines but in the pure and noble UK there are so many drugs that you have enough to kill a few hundred people foolish enough to go anywhere near Gosport hospital.
Nothing to do with a far-right government, who borrowed enormous amounts (as advised by and enabled by Goldman Sachs), in order to appear to have enough liquidity in the economy to meet the requirements to join the Euro, then?
Heck no, facts and history is hard stuff! Let’s go with negative stereotyping instead.
yes Bill. That’s an important factor but the problem started with the global financial crisis in the US and by Ireland, Spain and UK bailing out the banks. The fall in revenues due to the banking crisis meant a greater deficit. The euro was designed by bankers and followed the concept of Robert Mundell, a Canadian supply side economist, as I recall. The idea was to limit deficits to 3% and after that the governments would have to go to the bond markets. (remember how often we heard the question in 2011-‘how will the bond market react to the latest action by the EU?) The result was that the sector which was mainly responsible for the crisis was now making money from lending to cash strapped governments.
The European Central Bank was set up to be ‘independent’ (of those wretched politicians) as the Bank of England had been.
The result was austerity. A new govt. in Britain decided that they had to cut six billion immediately from state spending or we’d end up like Greece (even though most of the debt didn’t mature for years) and one thing that was cut in Nick Clegg’s constituency and I recall him blaming Labour for their overspending.
The narrative was that state over spending caused the problem and the solution was, as always with bankers and the economists who support them, was to cut spending. We’d been here before in the 1930s and the eventual salvation was Keynesian economics.
We were told c.2011 that austerity programme in Greece would cause the GDP to fall 4% but by 2015 it would have recovered. in fact GDP fell 25%. The third member of the Troika was the IMF influenced by American banks.
The Us and UK resorted to quantitive easing which re-capitalised the banks and we began the slowest recovery from recession in history. Eventually the ECB made money available.
By 2016 even some of the IMF could see austerity had been a mistake. Krugman thought the British govt. were among the last defenders of the idea.
We seemed to have forgotten the lessons of the 1930s.
We have many who point to this as the fault of the EU and the euro but even if we had had separate currencies, a devaluation of all them would have left us in the same place. What was lacking was a Keynesian style approach. Investment would create wealth which would pay off the debts. The ‘Chicago school’ economics (neo-liberalism to some ) not only caused the crisis by under regulation of the creation of credit but compounded it by the balance the books fallacy.
What happened to Greece was awful but it is not an argument for getting rid of the EU. It is a case for reforming it. It has a number of achievements and a potential for more. In an era of Putin and Tump Europe needs a co-ordinated voice.
IMHO we need to wean ourselves off the American economic theory and use the central banks to support employment and investment (not just control of inflation ). This is what we did 1945-1970 and we had full employment, rising living standards, no banking rises, albeit with higher taxation on people and corporations.
Great analysis Ian. Corbyn is advocating a Keynsian economics approach to stimulating the economy – the only one who seems to have a grip on what is needed.
Mr Drumm was wasted at the Anglo Irish Bank. He should have been given a job in the Tory treasury.
Former Anglo boss sentenced to six years in jail
1 hour ago
David Drumm moved to the US in 2009 but was extradited in 2016
Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm has been sentenced to six years in jail.
He was sentenced on Wednesday at the Dublin Criminal Court.
The ex-banker was found guilty earlier in June of authorising a €7.2bn (£5.4bn) conspiracy to defraud and of false accounting.
Drumm had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to dishonestly make Anglo’s balance sheet look better between March and September 2008.
He also denied knowingly giving false figures to the market that December.
/..
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44547000
‘Trump Says He Will Sign Executive Order to End Separation of Immigrant Families’:
https://sputniknews.com/us/201806201065596152-trump-order-separation-families/?
Poor old ‘Orangecritter of DC’ got a bit frit of the avalanche of ‘ordure’ poured upon his decision re caging kids.
‘Trump to end his family separation policy after massive backlash – live updates’:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2018/jun/20/tender-age-trump-children-separations-detention-shelters-latest-news-updates-live
Aw, gee, the geezer is ‘uman (after a fashion).
Weren’t you gushing about Trump not so long ago, just because he _said_ he would have rushed into a school shooting underway, in order to save the little darlings? I’m always amazed at your level of credulity.
Of course, Trump wouldn’t actually do anything in practice, such as curtailing the insane gun proliferation in the US. That would actually require courage. But go with the Trump BS instead, and praise him for his empty words!
@ glenn_nl June 20, 2018 at 21:04
I most assuredly wasn’t ‘gushing’ about Trump’s bravado, on the contrary. I simply did not believe him, and was amazed at his words.
I wasn’t impressed by his decision to stop the process of slitting up families and caging the children, either; I knew he had been frightened by the backlash, with elections coming up (not a Presidential election).
Though I have zero toleration of Trump (or the Clintons or Bushes or Obomba) he has followed up on that ‘promise’:
‘Trump signs executive order to end family separation’: https://www.rt.com/usa/430350-trump-signs-immigration-order/?
In that case, I must have misread this comment of yours, on the subject:
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/02/assange-judges-husband-runs-security-firm-ex-head-mi6/comment-page-9/#comment-719469
PB: “Sorry, Mr. Trump, I sure was wrong about you. You are one heck of a brave hombre!“
@ glenn_nl June 20, 2018 at 22:00
Not at all, you read it perfectly – you just missed my sarcasm.
Lol paul, he’s got Trump Derangement syndrome hasn’t he?
If I was a Scot I would want independence. But, in fact, I’m a Mancunian, and I would prefer Scotland to remain in the union because, apart from the fact that I like the Scots, I would hate to live in a country run just by the English with the permanent Tory government that would result!
That’s very nice of you Martin. I’m a Scot who is very fond of Manchester and England in general. Unfortunately, being a Scot, I DO live in a country which is about to be run just by the English in Westminster, and which rarely votes for a Tory government.
I suggest that HMG transfer future meetings of the Commons to Gosport Hospital, It will be much cheaper and more comfortable to run.
Trowbridge I second that suggestion.!!
Jane Barton, the medic who murdered more than 800 patients in the Gosport area – or “shortened their lives by wrongly prescribing fatal doses of opiates and opioids” in official speak – has some interesting connections.
• Her father was a medic in Jersey, a territory which may ring bells with some of the readers of this note.
• She is connected with a navy club.
• Her brother Christopher Bulstrode is a professor of medicine at Oxford who sat on the General Medical Council (where he appears to have failed to declare his financial interests) and who got a CBE for “work” in Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Palestine and Sierra Leone with “Doctors of the World”. (The first thing that comes to mind is the organ trade. Then there’s testing.)
• Bulstrode is a figure in Gosport “society” and pals with former Tory MP for that area, Peter Viggers, a solicitor who is a director of at least one pharmaceutical company and a council member at the Lloyd’s insurance market. Believe me, the connection between the medical and legal professions gets VERY dirty.
Questions include the following
• which other medics co-signed the death certificates that Barton signed?
• did any wills get made or changed?
• which business interests fund Bulstrode?
• were drugs being tested?
• was there an abnormal proportion of cremations?
I also can’t understand why, in the absence of Scotland’s participation, any Scot would not support England in the World Cup. The plain fact is that, since 1914, successive British governments have been just as bad for most of the English as they have been for the Scots.
The hallmark of the UK in the last century has not been English domination in the general sense but domination between two competing groups – both of whom have promoted the over-centralization on London of Britain’s activities and decision-making. Whether one voted Conservative or Labour, the result was always much the same – an increase in power for London’s incompetent centralised establishment. It doesn’t matter whether they are called Lords or Commissars, an over powerful centralized establishment is a curse for any country to bear
Britain’s strength used to be in its decentralization of power and decision making, and it will not recover until there is constitutional change that recognises this. The Scots and most of the English have a lot in common. Scotland has the advantage in that it can get rid of this Establishment through independence.
Roderick, with the absence of Scotland at the World Cup, I’m not interested in supporting any foreign team, regardless of the proximity to Scotland. However, for any particular match, I tend to go with the underdog, the team that isn’t cheating or the team playing exciting football. Sometimes, England will fall into one of these categories and I’ll then be supporting them for that particular game. You can’t just decide you support in advance. For example, I’m hoping Iran don’t lose to Spain right now, as Ramos is a cheat!
And here is Christopher Bulstrode in 2014, on his way to Gaza, during the massacre of that year. That was the massacre when the Znazis displaced half a million people and damaged one in four homes. (Bulstrode is the guy on the left, wearing glasses and a backpack and fiddling with his wallet.)
Good on him.
VAR is an imperialist tool to reinforce the hegemony of traditionally successful World Cup teams.
Discuss.
No.
Why are Trump fans and apologists (fascists, in other words) not praising this wonderful policy of child separation / incarceration?
There’s just _so_ much to like about it. If you’re a fascist, which every Trump apologist/supporter is – whether they are proud about it (like Loony/ Anon1) or not.
Incidentally, every Clinton Derangement Syndrome sufferer – such as those who regularly trot out right-wing “gotcha” clips to show how utterly awful she was (*) – have got to own this one too. It’s on you, purists.
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(* – La Clinton was awful, no doubt about it, but nowhere near as awful as a true fascist, supported by a party of enablers. This is exactly what the predictable result was, in being a Trump apologists/ CDS / purist , or indeed any other person who did not advocate for the Dems in the last election. )
I am a supporter of reason and truth.
These two qualities inform me that Trump is separating less children from parents than occurred under the Obama Presidency. These qualities also inform me that Hillary Clinton is on the public record as endorsing the very same policy that is being implemented.
How exactly do these children become separated from their families in the first place? Do the parents have no responsibility at all in looking after their children? Or do you despise Mexicans to such an extent that you believe Mexicans to be incapable of rearing children?
No-one particularly relishes being insulted – but it useful to the extent that it demonstrates that you have neither knowledge nor understanding of the issues you claim to be so concerned about. You and your ilk are the exact reason why President Trump will be reelected by a massive majority.
L: “I am a supporter of reason and truth.”
No you’re not, you’re a promoter of lies and deception. Claim all the knowledge you like (and you frequently do), it doesn’t make it any more true.
This did not happen under Obama – that is a lie. Whether of your making or just your repeating, I couldn’t say.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2018/06/19/the-facts-about-trumps-policy-of-separating-families-at-the-border/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.80a86beefa70
The children become separated because that’s what your hero Trump has ordered the boarder control to do. It terrorises potential asylum seekers, and appeals to fascists and racists like yourself.
Do you think you fool anyone, when you pretend that people that care about these families actually hate them? Any reason you’re doing this, other than to try and shift the heat off yourself and other Trump apologists?
Your ludicrous assertions may have slightly more traction if you demonstrated an ability to distinguish between the words “border” and “boarder” I know they sound the same, but they have quite different meanings.
…and just to think I had to learn your language, whereas with you I strongly suspect it to be the only language you even partially understand.
That’s all you’ve got? A typo? Weak stuff indeed.
I’d hoped you would substantiate your points, instead of making empty assertions. Of course that’s difficult for you because very little you say is actually true. It’s kind of tough to bring your /cough/ wisdom to the masses, when all readers of this blog can say by way of reference is “This poster called ‘Loony’ said it online.”
Sir Julian King, Britain’s pooh-bah Commissioner for Security at Brussels, has just called out “31 disinformation narratives regarding the chemical poisoning in Salisbury” which have been fortuitously unearthed by the EU’s monitoring apparatchiks.
“Thanks to this, we now have a better idea of the main tools, channels and messages of the Kremlin’s disinformation campaign”, he said.
Not a good day for grandads.
Yes Craig, undoubtedly “some of them are quite nice”, however it remains the case that the vast majority of English people resident in Scotland take it upon themselves to actively vote to block their host nation’s independence. Why do you think that is, and what can be done about it? Inflows of some one million people from rest-UK to Scotland over the last twenty years since devolution has also resurrected the Tory vote here. You may recall that us Scots had made Scotland a Tory free zone prior to devolution.
I am sure I read somewhere here that anyone that lives in Scotland can be considered Scottish. It is certainly true that people arriving in the UK from overseas are entitled to consider themselves British.
It seems that with all this love and tolerance it is necessary to make an exception for English people in Scotland. Maybe you would find it convenient to identify the English in Scotland if you required them to wear something distinctive – say a yellow star for example.
considered by who? Themselves?
Arguably people who vote against Scottish independence do so primarily because they do not consider themselves first and foremost to be Scottish; they may consider themselves British/English but not Scottish. An individual would only vote for independence if they desired Scottish citizenship and were willing to give allegiance to Scotland; to vote No is to reject the offer of being Scottish. Ergo, those who vote to block Scottish independence do not wish to be Scottish. To claim otherwise is deceitful.
Today, just out of sheer interest, I looked up where the world’s largest football stadium is.
Guess what.
It’s in PyongYang, North Korea!
Oh, btw. not being English, nor Scottish, nor a Scot, neither a Brit, nor Irish nor a Commonwealther — I hope England does well in the World Cup.
The upshot being that most Englanders (if I may) will learn to associate Russia with something good for a change — even if it’s as shallow as football.
Now if only the reverse good also be made true (hint: don’t start singing Nazi Lieder in Volgograd).
Aye seen that bj.. disgusting .. Horrid Disrespect
Am reading this now:
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/06/pity-the-russophobe-journos-no-one-believes.html#more
I see see the actual video is not on MoA
The bar in the video has been identified as ‘Galereya Pub’ in Volgograd. Russia
, and Brittish Police are looking for these Dicks – the video –
https://www.rt.com/sport/430370-english-fans-nazi-video-volgograd/
I am certain that the vast majority of us could not give a toss either way.
Except Craig — he’s the referee here… 😉
Well.. Now we Know that Spain Aint gona win the World Cup.
I Know who is Gonna win the Cup – Japan –
So, if England winds up playing Japan.. it’s Curtains for England. second will be Brazil ( always Scotlands second Team because of the Beautifull Game ) Third will be Argentina ( cos Messi plays for them – though Shocking penalty miss )
So, now you all Know .. Get to the Bookies those of you who like a wee flutter.
As you don’t need to excuse your raising a glass to Harry Kane, I don’t need to excuse not raising a glass.
I have for the most part been able to avoid seeing any football so far anyway – I don’t watch it, it’s grown up men playing a wee boys game and therefore boring. But were I interested I don’t have to feel bad about not supporting England, as I am not actually English.
I don’t have a problem with England or English people, I was raised in Somerset and my daughter has lived in Lancashire for 20 years.
What DOES seem odd to me is that Scots are EXPECTED to support England. Why is that?
Some were branding Lorraine Kelly a ‘traitor’ for saying she was supporting Iceland. (NB I’m quoting Piers Morgan)
Piers, and his admirers, are looking to be offended by those of us who aren’t particularly interested in the England football team (I’m not really interested in any other team either) However, as the pundits on TV haven’t stopped going on about 19 bloody 66 yet I’m sure most reasonable people would understand if I hope it doesn’t happen again…
CM – “Scotland can never achieve its potential without first achieving its Independence.”
One example might be renewable energy. Scotland is well on its way to reaching a goal of producing all of its electricity requirements through renewable sources by 2020. It could move on to become a significant exporter of electricity, but I believe the conservative government is opposed to all of this “green crap”, and much prefers to guarantee high prices to our Chinese friends (don’t mention Tibet) for electricity generated from nuclear. Post brexit our Chinese friends might be given more goodies – nuclear is so much more reliable than all of those windmills, and energy policy is a UK matter.
What should the project fear strapline be? Vote SNP for higher electricity bills.
When Scotland gets its independence, it should aim to move from the GNI in the UK of $42,100 (2016) to that of Ireland at $56,870 (2016). Scotland will need to abandon the pound and adopt the euro though – it doesn’t seem to have done Ireland any harm. And it’ll send the Daily Mail into meltdown. Trebles (single malt) all round.
And treble Black Bushes if we can get the EU to fund the Ulster/Scotland bridge from NI’s regional support/ secession funds and an independent Scotland’s accession funds
” our Chinese friends (don’t mention Tibet) ”
I’m sure Nicola avoided doing so.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-43661529
You appear to have omitted to mention the only credible destination for Scottish “significant” exports of electricity.
Why should the English buy Scottish electricity when (even if they are too lazy to generate their own electricity) they can buy it from France. France is significantly closer to the main English demand centers than Scotland, and hence French electricity will not incur the same transmission losses. As French electricity is predominantly nuclear then the marginal cost is close to zero. Indeed given the issues with cycling nuclear plant then their real marginal cost may well be negative – hence France can compete quite effectively with any other zero marginal cost product that is further away.
Your latest idea for Scottish independence is predicated on receiving on going subsidies from the English through their purchases of electricity at a higher cost than the available alternatives.
Sure. There is another England. But it was never in the saddle and it never will be. If it were, we would not be having the Scottish independence struggle.
This is quite old – February 24th 2018, but is important. It basically confirms what many of us have believed from the outset. An ‘interesting’ aspect is the name of the British author of the Diplomatic Cable – ‘Benjamin Norman’….:
‘Arab Daily: British Diplomatic Cable Unveils US Plots to Disintegrate Syria’:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/arab-daily-british-diplomatic-cable-unveils-us-plots-to-disintegrate-syria/5630726
‘…a diplomat in charge of the Middle East at the British Embassy in Washington – reports in a confidential diplomatic telegram of the first meeting of the “Small American Group on Syria” (United States, Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia and Jordan), held in Washington on January 11, 2018…..’
‘…In this five-page TD, he reveals the details of the “Western strategy” in Syria: partition of the country, sabotage of Sochi, framing of Turkey and instructions to the UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura who leads the negotiations of Geneva. A Non Paper (8 pages) accompanies this TD in anticipation of the second meeting of the “Small Group”. It was held in Paris on January 23, mainly devoted to the use of chemical weapons and the “instructions” sent by the “Small American Group” to Staffan de Mistura….’
Another particularly interesting point is the ‘instructions’ given to UN Special Representative Staffan de Mistura.
What evil.
The very same Benjamin Norman tweeting away about the WH and his boss in King Charles Street, Boris.
https://twitter.com/benjarlath?lang=en
There’s nothing new in the news of that meeting about US aims in Syria. It’s been US policy for ever, since 2011 at any rate. The meeting was held, I think, because US policy in Syria is close to failing, indeed will fail not far away, and a reaffirmation was needed. Not that a reaffirmation makes much difference. Unless the US is willing to go to war openly against Russia (which is not the case), the US cannot advance these aims, and sooner or later they will have to leave. There are already recent stories about the Kurds making a deal with Asad. Hard to stay when your local allies are leaving you, isn’t it?
I note that the “awful toxic environment” between the BBC’s bloated Welsh contingent and the Welsh National Assembly is on display at the Guardian this morning.
Here are two scabs which are due to fall off the body politic. Three, if you include the Guardian.
I further note that the monstrous regiment of women (sick MPs platoon) has been whingeing about vomit buckets and other medical matters in the Commons as Dominic takes a dive. Parliamentary irrelevency angst is only to be expected, in May’s New Executive Hegemony.
An acronym ‘VAR’ came up on here earlier. Having no idea what it meant. I found this. None the wiser. Gobbledegook.
What is VAR, what are the rules, and how is it being used at the 2018 World Cup?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-cup/0/var-rules-used-fifa-2018-world-cup/
Thanks for that comment it was well worth the read! I do not live in Britain but one of its far flung colonies and I relate to its message!