My world view changed forever when, after 20 years in the Foreign Office, I saw colleagues I knew and liked go along with Britain’s complicity in the most terrible tortures, as detailed stunningly in the recent Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee Report. They also went along with keeping the policy secret, deliberately disregarding all normal record taking procedures, to the extent that the Committee noted:
131. We note that we have not seen the minutes of these meetings either: this causes us great concern. Policy discussions on such an important issue should have been minuted. We support Mr Murray’s own conclusion that were it not for his actions these matters may never have come to light.
The people doing these things were not ordinarily bad people; they were just trying to keep their jobs, comforting themselves with the thought that they were only civil servants obeying orders. Many were also actuated by the nasty “patriotism” that grips in time of war, as we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Almost nobody in the FCO stood up against the torture or against the illegal war – Elizabeth Wilmshurst, Carne Ross and I were the only ones to leave over it.
I then had the still more mortifying experience of the Foreign Office seeking to punish my dissent by bringing a series of accusations of gross misconduct – some of them criminal – against me. The people bringing the accusations knew full well they were false. The people investigating them knew they were false from about day 2. But I was put through a hellish six months of trial by media before being acquitted on all the original counts (found guilty of revealing the charges, whose existence was an official secret!). The people who did this to me were people I knew.
I had served as First Secretary in the British Embassy in Poland, and bumped up startlingly against the history of the Holocaust in that time, including through involvement with organising the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. What had struck me most forcibly was the sheer scale of the Holocaust operation, the tens of thousands of people who had been complicit in administering it. I could never understand how that could happen – until I saw ordinary, decent people in the FCO facilitate extraordinary rendition and torture. Then I understood, for the first time, the banality of evil or, perhaps more precisely, the ubiquity of evil. Of course, I am not comparing the scale of what happened to the Holocaust – but evil can operate on different scales.
I believe I see it again today. I do not believe that the majority of journalists in the BBC, who pump out a continual stream of “Corbyn is an anti-semite” propaganda, believe in their hearts that Corbyn is a racist at all. They are just doing their job, which is to help the BBC avert the prospect of a radical government in the UK threatening the massive wealth share of the global elite. They would argue that they are just reporting what others say; but it is of course the selection of what they report and how they report it which reflect their agenda.
The truth, of which I am certain, is this. If there genuinely was the claimed existential threat to Jews in Britain, of the type which engulfed Europe’s Jews in the 1930’s, Jeremy Corbyn, Billy Bragg, Roger Waters and I may humbly add myself would be among the few who would die alongside them on the barricades, resisting. Yet these are today loudly called “anti-semites” for supporting the right to oppose the oppression of the Palestinians. The journalists currently promoting those accusations, if it came to the crunch, would be polishing state propaganda and the civil servants writing railway dockets. That is how it works. I have seen it. Close up.
“I believe I see it again today. I do not believe that the majority of journalists in the BBC, who pump out a continual stream of “Corbyn is an anti-semite” propaganda, believe in their hearts that Corbyn is a racist at all.”
Same message today. He was never seen as an anti-semite in all his years in parliament until he became leader of the Labour Party and as such a threat to the status quo. The big danger comes from those who “own” the media for spreading this catalogue of lies and fake news. There are other stories which because of this fake news (which the Labour Party refuses to criticise as it should) are under-reported. Here is one about the Big Ride for Palestine, an event which grows every year because thinking people are not stupid.
https://www.facebook.com/john.gossip/posts/10157554156852646
It is not too late to make a donation Thanks to those who have.
Well done, John. I’ve been out of touch for a few days. Please post a link to the donation site.
Hi Node. The link is here.
https://www.globalgiving.org/fundraisers/27495/
For some reason we could not use Justgiving this year so it has been replaced with Globalgiving . It was a great ride, quite easy but the heat made it uncomfortable at times together with too little training beforehand.
Hi John, I made a donation through PayPal but I must say I’m not happy with the GlobalGiving procedure. Their interface with PayPal was like nothing I’ve ever had to go through before and required me to “confirm that I want to use [my bank account details] for my current and future purchases with GlobalGiving UK.” This shouldn’t be necessary as I always maintain a healthy PayPal balance. Their bank transfer method also required me to pass over too much info to GlobalGiving. Furthermore their default settings would have had me make an additional donation to GlobalGiving themselves if I hadn’t changed it.
I nearly gave up, but Anon1 and others on this blog inspired me to continue! In the end, I used Paypal, but I think GlobalGiving would put a lot of people off, and I’m not sure I’d be happy to use them again myself so you might want to bear this in mind for future fund-raising. Probably your options are limited. Perhaps Justgiving had pressure applied to stop it channeling money to Palestinians – the genocide is perpetuated through the media and banks as well as militarily.
Anyway, well done you.
Hi Node, thanks for the donation. I too found it a bit clumsy. Praise to you for persevering. There is no doubt that a media battle is on to make apartheid Israel seem like the good guy. Sadly the populous of the world no longer opposes apartheid like it did in the days of South African white supremacy. Morals do not enter into it. It is all about money and the buying of favours.
I’m glad Anon1 spurred you into action. It’s about the only useful thing he has achieved.
Craig’s portrayal of government servants only wanting to keep their jobs conceals not only his hatred of the British class system, but also his love for the UK. The fact is that anyone in the world can break through the glass ceiling of the British class system providing they serve the criminal interests of the criminal elites. My family came to the UK from the France at the beginning of the last century and became extremely wealthy, but they never forgot their Christian principles, so forget that for a dumb idea.
The word anti-Semitic in this context means not ethnicity, but a question of whether a person is happy crawling up the backside of the criminal state in pursuit of wealth and breaking through the glass ceiling of the British class system. Tom Watson appears to be saying that if teenage divers can be rescued in Thailand, the Labour party can be rescued in the UK. The Labour Party must go up the rectum of British criminality or die.
So Craig, I doubt if it was their jobs your colleagues were worried about. Thirty years of continuous war, against the Muslim countries round the Mediterranean, on the borders of China, and Russia and in Africa, requires a certain degree of suspension of moral compass. If you haven’t got the oxygen mask for that count yourself out from the upper class.
As to Brexit, I voted leave because Germany and France are operating their own criminal policy by destroying Syria. Your criminal operations are interfering with our criminal operations was the cause of two world wars. Why would Jeremy Corbyn want to keep off his oxygen mask for British criminal rectoscopy only to have to put it on for EU rectoscopy? We are much better off out of the EU but with free movement of people and goods. You dafties don’t seem to understand that the majority of the British are not racist, but the EU referendum allowed the minority of racists to be pooled with all the other people who do not want to be run by the EU. It was garbage-mouth May who invented that lie, by defining Brexit as an issue about immigration, which she had absolutely no right to do.
“We are much better off out of the EU but with free movement of people and goods.”
so basically thats stay in the EU to do that
“As to Brexit, I voted leave because Germany and France are operating their own criminal policy by destroying Syria.”
so how will us leaving the EU stop France and Germany doing that?
skyblaze
I don’t see any problem with free movement for us and them or free trade for us and them.
I do see a problem with Germany and France running British foreign policy and Churchill, sorry Boris, saying yes in my name.
Obviously we can’t stop Germany trashing Syria from inside the EU, but after we have left I am sure Jeremy Corbyn will not be shy to denounce Germany for an expansionist poodle of the US and France for oppressing all Muslims both inside and outside their country. Trump is an exceptionalist, racist, sexist balloon, which of course makes Jeremy Corbyn unique in world politics for being a genuine, ordinary guy.
Just listened to the government propaganda machine give airtime to British headchoppers, a sure sign they will soon be released from jail. If we ever get to guillotine our war criminals, it’ll be like a bowling alley with the heads of Blair, Brown, Cameron, Hague, May and Johnson all spinning out of control into the crowd. Stick on pikes on Westminster Bridge should do the trick, plus using their collective bowels to catapault a nuclear warhead at the US. Their trident missile system having been jinxed by Israel.
Virgin awarded almost £2bn of NHS contracts in the past five years
Exclusive: Richard Branson’s company now one of UK’s leading healthcare providers, analysis reveals
6 Aug 2018
In one year alone, the company’s health arm, Virgin Care, won deals potentially worth £1bn to provide services around England, making it the biggest winner among private companies bidding for NHS work over the period.
The company and its subsidiaries now hold at least 400 contracts across the public sector – ranging from healthcare in prisons to school immunisation programmes and dementia care for the elderly.
/..
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/05/virgin-awarded-almost-2bn-of-nhs-contracts-in-the-past-five-years
Graphic within showing the extent of the reach of Branson’s tentacles.
The NHS is supposed to rid us of parasites not feed us to them. It can only be a matter of time before Virgin Care starts denying treatment on the grounds of costs. They’ll deny treatment to somebody’s granny because she won’t live long enough to make it viable, and they’ll deny it to somebody’s child because they’ll live too long to make it viable.
Clark Reminded of a Thing.. When at Doune he drove by My area..Texted me so say how Amazed at the the Clyde Veiws..
I am always doon there..
I Tried an Experiiment I was Stood there Looking out.. And thought Close My Eyes.. Pretend you are Julian, the open eyes.. I did not like that..I won’t do it again – Cos this is what he SHOULD HAVE SEEN –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5wCOcqNHCc&feature=youtu.be
An absolutely glorious day, on my way back from a wild goose chase at Kelburn.
Awful living conditions for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh,
Flame fades for Rohingya families amid mud and monsoons in Bangladesh
A million people who fled Myanmar for Kutupalong are struggling to eat after floodwater soaked the firewood they use for cooking
6th August 2018
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/aug/06/flame-fades-for-rohingya-families-amid-mud-and-monsoons-in-bangladesh
‘ “This report documents and reveals a sinister subplot: Myanmar authorities made extensive and systematic preparations for the commission of mass atrocity crimes against indigenous Rohingya civilians during the weeks and months before Rohingya-militant attacks on August 25, 2017…the international community failed to act after the Tatmadaw killed, raped, tortured and forcibly displaced Rohingya civilians in northern Rakhine in October and November 2016. That inaction effectively paved the way for genocide, providing the Myanmar authorities with an enabling environment to make deeper preparations for more mass atrocity crimes,” ‘
https://frontiermyanmar.net/en/systematic-preparations-preceded-violence-in-rakhine-fortify-rights
‘They gave them long swords’ –
http://www.fortifyrights.org/downloads/Fortify_Rights_Long_Swords_July_2018.pdf
Persecution of minorities is indeed a terrible thing. But I do wonder why the persecution of some minorities is of such great interest and the persecution of other minorities is seemingly of no interest.
Take Coptic Christians as an example of a minority being persecuted and about which no-one seems to care.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/10/christians-egypt-unprecedented-persecution-report
What could possibly explain this?
Or how about a government that sends out an official tweet declaring a named minority to comprise solely of murderers. Welcome to South Africa and another minority about which no-one cares.
Perhaps the reason is that the Copts are not being persecuted, and certainly not by the government. You’re talking about complaints, which Middle Eastern Christians have always done through their sense of entitlement, and for the chance of getting a visa for the west (which Muslims can’t do). There certainly is hostility from extremist Sunni sects, but that’s not government. The best comparison is with the nutter settler sects in Israel who slaughter Palestinians right and left with no hesitation, and the government does nothing. Only in the case of Egypt, the government does do something, but not very energetically (unless it’s to get rid of Morsi who was only a moderate).
Perhaps you are correct and that Copts are not being persecuted. That of course would make the article in the Guardian the most blatant example of fake news ever uncovered. It would also make the Open Doors Charity a completely bogus operation peddling pure fantasies.
If you have evidence of your claim then perhaps you would be better advised to formally contact the Charities Commission as opposed to writing on blogs.
You seem to have a large task before you – because there is no shortage of articles and organizations that detail the persecution of Coptic Christians. Wikipedia for example has a whole page devoted to such persecution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Copts
I suppose that there is an outside possibility that all of the literature on this matter is in fact correct and that you are wrong. Unlikely I know as if that were to be the case then it would lead to some very unpleasant conclusions regarding your motivations for actively seeking to minimize and belittle the sufferings of a minority group of people in a far away land. Assuming Alastair Northedge to be your real name then it seems likely that you are not Egyptian and some may claim that your off hand denial of the documented sufferings of others is explicable by simple racism.
You really don’t know what you are talking about. Blaming the victims, that’s convenient.
Loony
Thank you for bringing this to attention. It is indeed unexplained. The problems with Christians in Egypt has been very long standing and there has always been a low level institutionalised discrimination as described in this article but the more serious violence is obviously from a minority. The Moslem Brothers Government that was ousted by Sisi was slowly going to islamise Egypt to the detriment of the minorities and secularism and its removal was welcomed by these minorities.
I am not sure how external pressure will help solve this particular issue but it does need a higher profile at least.
Apparently there exist no persecuted minority Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, seculars etc. if you believe some here. Same if you read the Guardian. Strange birds of a feather….
Jonathan Luff. There is a two year gap in his Linked In entry. https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jonathanluff
Commissioner, LSE IDEAS Commission on Diplomacy
The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
May 2014 – November 2015 (1 year 7 months)London, United Kingdom
Advisor to the Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
October 2010 – October 2012 (2 years 1 month) Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Advisor on Innovation and International Affairs; Director, GREAT Campaign
Middle East Department
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2009 – 2010 (1 year) London, United Kingdom
British Embassy, France
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
2005 – 2009 (4 years) Paris
First Secretary, International Issues
…
He left Agent Cameron to join Wonga in 2012.
‘Cameron Aide Quits For Wonga
A senior Downing Street aide is to reignite the row over the payday lending sector by taking a job at Wonga, Sky News
https://news.sky.com/story/exclusive-cameron-aide-quits-for-wonga-10465651
That didn’t last long. These moves followed:
Co-Founder
Epsilon Advisory Partners
July 2013 – Present (5 years 2 months)
Partner and Co-Founder
Co-Founder
CyLon
January 2015 – Present (3 years 8 months)London, United Kingdom
Co-Founder of Europe’s first accelerator and incubator programme established specifically for early-stage cyber and information security companies and entrepreneurs.
Co-Founder
HutZero
June 2016 – Present (2 years 3 months)London, United Kingdom
The UK’s only early-stage accelerator programme dedicated to cyber entrepreneurs at the very start of their journey. HutZero is sponsored by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), and is run by CyLon and Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT). Programme three takes place in London in mid-August 2018.
Advisory Board Member
Founders4Schools
November 2014 – Present (3 years 10 months)London, United Kingdom
Co-Founder
Luff & Company
November 2012 – Present (5 years 10 months)
If you want another laugh –
£10m cash call rescues payday lender Wonga from insolvency
The lender’s chief executive warned directors that the company risked insolvency without the new funds, Sky News learns.
https://news.sky.com/story/10m-cash-call-rescues-payday-lender-wonga-from-insolvency-11460332
Wonga ‘operates’ in the UK, South Africa, Spain and Poland.
PS. Wonder what he got up in the ME department of the FCO? Also, what was Cameron’s GREAT programme? What a load of shysters.
‘Protest Against Attacks on Labour (Public · Hosted by Angry about media bias?)’:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1019381611569015/
Tuesday 7th August Broadcasting House, Portland Place
13:00 – 16:00
Nearest Tube: Oxford Circus Tube Station
I should have added:
‘ANGRY ABOUT MEDIA BIAS?
Join a protest about the BBC’s failure to report fairly and impartially about the attacks on Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party.
A protest called by a coalition of individuals from progressive organisations including Je^ish Voice for Labour [www.jvl.org.uk]
[email protected]
Would love to attend but am abroad, unfortunately. But there should be a protest. Appalling Today program this morning, Blair’s harpy, Yvette Cooper on to talk about Brexit. Then as a parting shot, she’s asked about Corbyn’s video and apology and then spits forth her intellectually feeble, pro-Zionist, Tom Watson supporting bile which then gets reported as a headline by BBC news. Not her simpleton analysis of Brexit; just her anti-Corbyn poison.
This is the woman, roundly beaten by Mr Corbyn in the Labour leadership election, who warmly kissed him on the cheek in congratulation in front of the television cameras and immediately set upon a course to undermine him. Despicable woman ! When Watson crashes out, I hope she’s not far behind. I can’t believe I bought his book in the lead-up to the Leverson Inquiry.
Could not agree more. She has been a major player in this long coup attempt.
Another who is a never ending contributor to the anti-S nonsense is the insufferable Luciana Berger who was whining again yesterday that Corbyn’s latest statement is “unacceptable”. I checked her out and, lo, she’s named as Luciana Goldsmith, “known as Berger”!
On BBC news last night she was also described as “the chair of the Labour Parliamentary J***sh Group”. The what?? Do we have Labour Groups for ALL the major religions plus extra ones for atheists, agnostics and so on? What an absolute farce this all is.
11 o’clock so time for Jeremy’s daily apology to the J.wish community. You can set your clock by it.
I must admit I am thoroughly enjoying this. For the past 20 or so years the left have sought to close down debate and silence opponents with accusations of racism. Indeed it is the opinion of this very blog that all concern about immigration is racist.
Now you must reap as you sow.
I would say *most* concern about immigration *is* racist
GET JC – another day another crucifixion and not a roman in sight
Of course it is not actually the case that “it is the opinion of this very blog that all concern about immigration is racist.” Craig has specifically said the opposite. But you can’t expect Anon1 to tell the truth.
Oh but you can.
“Concern about immigration is racism.”
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/03/immigration-concern-racist/
Perhaps if you had read the post from the start instead of the end you would have noticed that Craig was talking specifically about the UK, he went on to say “The ultra-rich succeed in diverting the anger of society at inequality of resources, away from themselves and onto that poor foreigner over there.” That statement is, of course, an assertion that would be difficult to prove conclusively, but there is a lot of evidence you could draw from examples in the mass media that do present the immigrant as a menace rather than an asset, and it would seem to follow that the alleged rise of right wing groups concerned about immigration chimes well with their racist opinions. In other words these elements – propaganda in the media and the rise of attacks on immigrants – are not unconnected. So I think you may have misunderstood the post.
Nobody is perfect, including our host. After xx number of terrorist attacks and sex rings, it is not strange that any European wonders about the quality of newbie import or cultural enrichment.
Cheap labour (or Chinese products) replacing you: pretty simple to understand.
A NuLabour MP manqué joins in the attack on Jeremy. She tried twice to get elected.
Emily Benn. – daughter of Hilary’s brother, Stephen, the 3rd Viscountl Stansgate!
Emily Benn- who resigned as a Labour councillor for Croydon Council in 2016 to move to New York for a job with bank UBS- tweeted on Friday saying Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to address the concerns of the J.wish community in an article in The Guardian was ‘utter rubbish’.
She added he had taken ‘no responsibility’ and there will be ‘no change while he is leader.’
Following the tweet, Ms Benn , 28- who is currently a graduate research assistant at The John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, in the United States- received a number of shocking tweets.’
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6028307/Tony-Benns-granddaughter-branded-disgusting-little-Tory-mouthpiece-vile-online-abuse.html
Another one like Ed Balls I see who is attending the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University’. It must be an incubator for these NuLabour types.
I see that her mother worked for Blair as an advisor.
https://theoligarchkings.wordpress.com/2014/11/13/labours-latest-viscount-stephen-benno
Another one for the Momentum hate squad.
Your comments are fact free
Nothing fact free about it, SA. Once a “Blairite” is discovered, or “outed”, s/he becomes the victim of targeted online harassment by Momentum thugs. The latest is Tom Watson, even though it was he who finally drove the knife into Blair!
He may have driven the knife into Blair on behalf of Brown. All part of Neo Labour. Blair by then was becoming too toxic and Brown wanted his share of fame.
But what is fact free is your insinuation about momentum. Have you got proof?
Tom Watson’s voting record:
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11309/tom_watson/west_bromwich_east/votes
Weakly socialist, but a very enthusiastic warmonger. So he helped depose a more senior warmonger who had become a liability; big deal. No surprise to see him trying to bring down Corbyn, and for that, Momentum will quite rightly criticise and oppose him.
You’re being ridiculous.
It’s not about any sort of squad. These people have engaged in bringing their Party to destruction for almost three years! All because they rejected a leadership result…twice…and have played a wrecking game ever since. In view of all that is happening right now their conduct has been indefensible. People of many different viewpoints can see that.
Entitled ‘call me a helicopter’
Is Emily “anti-Semitic”?
https://twitter.com/AaronBastani/status/1026189072858079234
Man, such a joke, all kinds of people support Corbyn. Why these analogy’s with long past “things” persists among so many people now. I personly don’t think anyone does themselves any favours calling themselves “a marxist” but not because some make up stuff about “them” simplify & twist etc, but because he was just some guy analysing the system we live in, has lot’s of unique & useful info thats still relivent. Nobody should be that dogmatic IMO. But it’s no big issue some who call themselves “marxists” in the party, it’s quite quaint in a way.
& maybe not without some use, knowing art history/ art movements, having a manifesto etc can still serve a function. Though perhaps form should alter. Not many people want to be part of cults nowadays, kind of sad, I miss them…Groupings that help give space to individuals is good thing though.
…& All this panic about “secret” control. …I am an “artist”/crafts person, I care about freedom (many artist have been socialist/communists) it REALLY matters to me. But that’s not just freedom to shop, pay bills, and have a “job” (until the next crash in the system) …
Is TOM etc, so out of touch? Do people like him think people don’t feel these issues?
This is the point with “the left” to me, they are open, you can see & challenge any of their thoughts. They are not like the far right OR? the corporate state, who are either scapegoating, Or just taking about nothing all the time with a totally separate agenda. Actual issues people face matter, & You can take part. It’s not about leaders. …& yes I am serious, for my part. Because we are living in danger, now, a lot in a lot of ways. People like TOM act like because people only have to sell themselves for 8 hours a day nowadys & (as that very thing is crashing abound their ears) that’s fine? Game over?
& they don’t just work 8 hours a day (not enforced). & even if so it’s just a part of the work to live & reproduce their conditions of life..This view is not part of some conspiracy, it’s science.
Undervalued does to begin to encompass the kind of exploitation most people face. Those who normalise this are a REAL problem. And labour? They are responding to Labour …Haven forbid. …………No it’s some bogy man come to get you!? How utterly absurd.
Labour couldn’t be more mild IMO. Almost boring. This whole shebang is a farce.
Yes of course calling oneself a Marxist is “quite quaint” This would be the same Marxism that is responsible for at least 100 million deaths.
Bur still what’s 100 million between friends – maybe not enough. Try to recall that shortly before his death Eric Hobsbawm opined that he would be quite happy to sacrifice the lives of another 20 million people if that is what it took to establish the “perfect” Marxist society.
Oh look there is some inequality in society – let’s make it all better by killing 100 million people.
Described himself as an “unrepentant Communist”. So unrepentant, in fact, that he left a personal fortune of over £1.8 million
As i said. Full of such nonsense.
I would Pick apart your generalisations from a lifetime ago. But why bother?
To apply this direct causality to such a complex history should tell everyone what they need to know.
Lets talk about reality today yea? Because i really don’t see a threat to anything but entrenched corporate interests (that are putting the future of our existence in real jeopardy) in expanding public services, Taxing people who are sick rich (off the people who work), Investing in green energy. Making more public utilities not for profit. etc
Yet you equate these things with “100 million” deaths? What planet are you on loony? Yea, don’t give the richest nation on earth a health system comparable to most every other western nation, because look what happened with “marxism” before ?
You are in space man. It comes down to….Don’t do anything for the people, it may kill them. ..Or is it that some gain from their helpless position? …mmmm ….And you want to talk about dominating systems of old? (marx did not advocate a system btw, kind of the point, it’s about peoples freedom)
Really your so repetitive. Don’t you bore yourself/? Replaying these same old lines. Iv truly had enough eating my time on this nonsense.
You’re right – it is boring. It’s rubbish too.
Capitalism was operating fine in Ireland when the potato famine hit, and about a quarter of the population either starved or fled. How come capitalism, and the magic of Market Forces ™ didn’t come to the rescue?
Capitalism runs fine in India, along with staggering levels of utter, grinding poverty, with a couple of million people starving to death year upon year. So no problems there either!
This binary world the likes of Loony selectively inhabits, where s/he selectively picks results to meet his prejudice, is getting a little tiresome in its repetition.
Every human system you can imagine creates hardship and injustice. Perhaps it was different prior to the development of agriculture – I don’t know and neither does anyone else. However since that time suffering, injustice and hardship has the lot of the mass of the peoples.
Whilst Capitalism undoubtedly kills people – it has also lifted more people out of abject poverty than any other system known to man. Marxism on the other hand just kills people, impoverishes those that it does not kill and leads to societal collapse – always and everywhere, No exceptions.
It is nauseatingly stupid to refer to current poverty in India and then accuse others of selectively picking results. Many scholars estimate that up to 300 million Hindu’s were killed by Islamic invaders to India. The vast bulk of these deaths occurred long before the British had ever heard of India and long before anyone had ever heard of Capitalism.
And old.
Old and slow. And now its eating itself.
“modernisation wishing a generation” Not that i agree with want down in the USSR, but it’s quite something. & famines are an issue, why I’m defiantly not for just centrally planed stuff.
It’s like they imagine we don’t think about this stuff, while there logic is always the same, market decides. (bailouts & corporate welfare excluded) No thoughts for past lessons, it’s just capitalisms great. Built of the tears of little children. slavery & racism. & screwing over those who actually do the work.
And on the contrary, they actually encourage the monsters created in the past. & We see them here today. It just a matter of what atrocity will it create next for the market. All the recent invasions have been arguably rooted in it. All the instability we face now.
Loony: I see you’re shifting to Marxism, now that your laughable equating of socialism to Soviet totalitarianism is such a blatant fraud.
So you don’t like the idea of capitalism’s results in Ireland, during their terrible famine, or the squalor of India’s miserable destitutes being hailed as an inevitable consequence, and you’re squealing about that, even though you have banged on about Venezuela being the pinnacle of socialist achievement for months.
You call that “nauseatingly stupid”, while having the utter hypocrisy to do precisely the same yourself, and ignore the successful societies and humanitarian achievements of largely socialist countries in northern Europe. By “ignore”, I do mean ignore – you pretend that such mentions never even occurred.
You’re a busted flush, Loony. Ever considered joining that incredibly socialist organisation of the US army? They have socialist medicine! Socialist welfare! Socialist provision of food, clothes, living quarters… maybe you should try it, and find a bit of solidarity with your fellow comrades on this trip we call life.
Glen You must be one of the very few people that would deny that the USSR was founded on socialist/Marxist principles. Do you anything at all about the ideology of Trotsky and Lenin?
Venezuela is just the latest socialist/Marxist state and it is collapsing in front of your very eyes.
Why not take a look at the “humanitarian achievements of largely socialist countries in northern Europe” Could you by any chance be referring to Sweden – a country that emerged from World War 2 with an undamaged economy and massive wealth as a consequence of price gouging Nazi Germany for the supply of ball bearings. A country that hosts the headquarters of Ikea – a company founded by an actual Nazi.
Sweden a country devoted to human rights – unless that human happens to have the name Julian Assange. Sweden a country so devoted to women’s rights that it has engineered itself to have the second highest incidence of rape in the world. A country that is in the process of collapsing and where in September it is likely that the party gaining the single largest share of votes will be the Sweden Democrats – a party that you no doubt identify as being Fascist or Racist or some other unpleasant -ist. What is it about Sweden that has allowed it to produce so many Fascists in such a short period of time.
Or maybe you are talking about Norway a country of 3 million people with globally significant oil reserves. How surprising that Norway and Norwegians are rich – so rich that they can invest in play parks for toddlers and design slides to look like models of a giant penis. Obviously only a reactionary bigot could raise any objections to having 3 and 4 year old children exposed to a gigantic phallus.
Loony : It’s great that you’re conceding that socialism is successful in countries you highlight (like Norway and Sweden) when they share the resources of that country between the people.
Obviously, it would be better for a limited number of families to become incredibly rich, then form the government to make sure they pay little or no tax, fail to respect the environment, and could not care less if the majority of the population were impoverished, correct?
Let’s make sure we’re clear about this point – it is central to your rather peculiar way of thinking.
Marxism is not responsible for deaths
Didn’t Marx deny being a Marxist?
Marx was a supporter of capitalism but not the crony capitalism and unregulated capitalism we are seeing more and more of
I just wanted to write and thank 300 readers of Craig Murray (and especially Duplicitous Democracy) for going on to take a look at my MuralGaga which has now had 2000 views and about 200 people have read all 60 pages. To put that in perspective I usually write technical stuff on methodology that gets 80 views max.
However, I devoted 2/3 months thinking about the agenda of the pro-Israel Lobby (especially those close to the Henry Jackson Society with its pro-war agenda such as Stephen Pollard editor of the Jewish Chronicle). I basically vindicated those who from the first thought it was a smear campaign, and I argue that we are dealing with well-timed distractions to ward off BDS.
I have about 5 related pieces up on my academic site now, including how I came to write it.
https://www.academia.edu/37178821/Why_I_wrote_MuralGaga
And soon probably I will post something on the Willsman coverage in the JC, because they put a distortion of what Willsman said into someone else’s mouth, and when I contacted (the good Rabbi in question) I was told that this was complete mis-attribution.
Usually I would shun publicity, but feel free to retweet anything on @ChrisFriel7 – I have only started tweeting to put this story in the public domain. Essentially, I lack skills, contacts, and experience and so I think there’s scope for a “proper” journalist willing to take this further and follow up some of the leads I can’t. There’s something substantial here, not just a wacko conspiracy theory.
What’s BDS?
BDS is Boycott, Disinvestment and Sanctions – a public action initiative against Israeli apartheid based on the success of the similar campaign against South African apartheid.
H: “What’s BDS?”
Try using a search engine – they’re quite useful for that sort of thing.
Chris Friel, please would you post Why I wrote MuralGaga somewhere which does not require registration for reading / download, and post a link to the original piece which it is about?
I got as far as seeing the invitation to register with google/ facebook or email, and was about to go elsewhere, but the actual essay is there – page down a bit. You can read it, just not download it very easily without some registration.
Thanks glenn_nl. Requires Javascript to be enabled from academia.edu, academia-assets.com, scribd.com and scribdassets.com.
If you’ve nowhere to post it, you could put a Creative Commons licence on it and send to to appropriate blogs for republication.
Having now just read your paper on MuralGaga, (and the later one) I have to say I am impressed, it is clearly not a ‘conspiracy theory’, the basic fact are there, you have made some assumptions due to gaps in the evidence chain, but they are not unreasonable. I congratulate you.
Hello Chris
Alas…proper journalists seem to be thin on the ground just now.
Thank you, Craig Murray – sharing your awful experiences makes us all more knowing. Understanding what’s going on in the heads of those who act against the interests of the many is so important in our campaign to thwart such people.
So Trump committed a crime by seeking! dirt on Hillary from the Russians!
I know, it’s all sooo unfair. The authorities should have taken Trump’s weapons grade stupidity into account.
He wasn’t smart enough to know the “rules of the game” (but he employed people who were and chose to ignore their advice).
The entity responsible for initiating the Steele dossier (believed to be Jeb Bush) and those that went on to inherit / finance it (DNC but effectively H. Clinton) were smart enough to put cut outs between themselves and any Russians (never mind the Russian government).
Only Donald Jr. and Kushner would be dumb enough to meet directly with Russians in a setting openly controlled by the Secret Service.
The official narrative is that the permanent state was already alerted to covert attempts by the Russian state to influence the outcome of the election and was desperately concerned. The same permanent state was weirdly relaxed about the overt attempts of another state with a recent successful history of competing in Eurovision (that precludes the UK) to influence the outcome.
According to the news this is common practice in politics. Thoroughly depressing.
Im getting rather annoyed at the VERY few spreading toxic stuff on this blog.
….Guess i’ll be getting on with my own stuff more.
It’s not hard really, I figure it’s like that bigoted old uncle mumbling incoherent nonsense & you realise he’s just a sad old bastard. Like Michael white, theses people don’t know about politics today, arn’t particularly educated about the actual system beyond long lost gross generalisations. Like repeating that very same dogmatic mindset they pretend to rail against. As long as they have a “top job”.
You could not make it up.
So Craig is still waiting for that dinner invitation from Trump at the White House?
There IS a foreign entity invading the political system. Threatening to influence the actual process & the herat of government. A pernicious infection. It can be narrowed down quite accurately to two words.
Public Service.
I see Charles Moore of the Teletrash is once more putting the boot into Corbyn, poor Beard Mutterer that he is.
After all, he is paid excessively as Leader of Her Majesty’s Opposition and if he had remembered that it is the duty of the Opposition to Oppose he would have been Prime Minister last summer.
Now it’s shallows and miseries, and never bright confident morning again.
The boy’s a giant of thinking outside the box. Kushner is trying to get Jordan to reclassify 2,000,000 Palestinian refugees as Jordanian citizens. Remove the Palestinians et voila, remove the Palestinian problem.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180806-report-kushner-put-pressure-on-jordan-to-strip-2m-palestinians-of-refugee-status/
His “deal of the century” is predicated on reducing the numbers that fall under the definition of Palestinian refugee to 40,000, ie only those left alive that themselves directly fled the terror. In the mind bendingly improbable event that the Palestinian side accepted this reassignment of status, would Bibi offer meaningful concessions? Like fuck he would! Doesn’t take a genius to figure that all Bibi has to do is stall for time and build more illegal settlements (which has been his game plan all along). In a few years old age will reduce the number of Palestinian refugees to zero.
Here’s some ubiquitous evil. Nazi(ish) attack on London lefty book shop is somehow comical and scary. Lambeth UKIP crazy Elizabeth Jones goes full Nazi: https://talesfromthesouthbank.wordpress.com/2018/08/06/lambeth-ukip-crazy-elizabeth-jones-goes-full-nazi/
New thread up on Moon of Alabama about the triple alliance between the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Al Qaeda now being official. What does that tell us about what really happened on 9/11?
Exactly what I was telling you about it for months; the US was hit by its own proxy forces (ie. ‘blowback’), and the subsequent torture / extraction of false confessions policy was to disguise this by burying the US’s Wahhabist needle under a haystack of innocent Muslims.
…so that the Neocon alliance could continue using the same proxy forces against Libya, Syria etc. And they’re still damn well getting away with it.
In a wide-ranging essay on anti-semitism, Ron Unz observes, “…anti-Semitism once did loom very large in real life, but dissipated many decades ago, while the organizations and activists focused on detecting and combating that pernicious problem have remained in place, generating public attention based on smaller and smaller issues”. See http://www.unz.com/runz/american-pravda-anti-semitism-a-century-ago/.
George Bernard Shaw wrote that there was no anti-semitism in England, though there was a literary clique headed by Chesterton and Belloc who professed it as a sort of Catholic literary affectation. Otherwise, the best the English could muster was vulgar abuse. Mind you this was 1925. Even so, he was able to observe as early as then that England was politically and officially Zionist.
Ron Und has an interesting new thread up now about the extent of collaboration between the N!zis and Z!!!ists in the 1930s and 1940s. Interesting, in view of the attacks on Corbyn and Ken Livingstone.
I think that was how Autocorrect garbled U N Z’ s name.
I just looked at Ron Unz’s site. I’ve never seen such a vicious torrent of racist, antisemitic propaganda, the comments being even more frightening than Unz’s own disingenuous articles. Total Holocaust denial, the blood libel, Orthodox Jews being polytheistic Satanists, blacks killed by whites actually being violent criminals rather than victims (even Emmett Till)… I really don’t want to be remotely associated with this. If anyone wants thorough, intelligent, passionate analysis and discussion of antisemitism and Israel/Palestine, look at the Israeli newspaper Haaretz (www.haaretz.com) – UK media have shamefully refused to report almost everything that has been happening in Israel and Gaza for months.
Then for Pete’s sake turn Autocorrect off! You’re always complaining about it. It’ll be a setting. My browser is set to highlight whatever isn’t in its dictionary. It is then up to me whether to correct it, leave it, or choose a suggestion from a drop-down list.
George Bernard Shaw also thought that the Politburo could sack Stalin.
The man’s reputation is overrated.
unlike yours…
Why thank you.
your reputation as a troll, I mean
Loony
August 6, 2018 at 16:54
Loony, If you had any understanding, that statistic is only based on the fact of industrial capitalism massive increased the population, by forcing them into city & driving them off the land, to be slaves. Commodities, Replacing them with sheep.
We would not have had the issue without capitalism. & it’s certainly not answering any problem we face today, unless your a banker or have centuries worth of exploited wealth to get you in the club. .
& There no such THING as a marxist system. His study just exposed the social relations & mechanics of capital. …God its like arguing with a stuck record.
& it now literally threatens all human existence, on several fronts.. And still the same old song.
It’s a kind of pathological insanity. https://youtu.be/AnrBQEAM3rE?t=2h40m1s
If you seek the Banality of Evil try Luke Harding’s Skripalgate reportage in today’s Guardian.
The Ubiquity of Evil:
Tony Blair
Lord Falconer
Alastair Campbell
Lord Hutton
Margaret Thatcher
when are the trials of corrupt police due for the Hillsborough familiess – how much longer must we wait?
I think you flatter Campbell, Jazza. Don’t make him feel important. He’s conceited enough as it is!
Tucking my forelock to your poetic realism at teatime, ta. I imagine Jc as the eternal dribler in front of an open goal, surrounded by a bunch of useless, angry wasps, from a hive in his very own backgarden.
The fatest of them is a stinging bully par ecellence, but the others are not far behind.
then there are the nuisance wasps, all doing as they’re told, egging on the hive to follow the scent and keep on the man, not the ball.
So he continous to dribble that ball avoiding all. Those watching it from the stands are holding their breath…
when will he score?
“Tonight at 8PM on #TyskySour @michaeljswalker is joined by @BarnabyRaine to discuss the latest iteration of Labour’s “antisemitism row”. The show will feature a video link with Norman Finkelstein speaking from New York.”-
https://twitter.com/novaramedia/status/1026434194778607617
Wow, didn’t expect that.
Cool.
Id like to see Craig murray on also. I think it’s been mentioned B4.
Certainly got to better than the British Bastards Conglomerate.
Whilst this investigative analysis https://www.academia.edu/37055678/MURALGAGA maybe of interest to some people, I think its highly unlikely to improve my understanding of why these people are trying to destroy, both Jeremy Corbyn and The UK Labour Party.
I think the basic problem of the extreme Right Wing Tony Blair infiltrators is that they got far too confident. They thought they had sewn up both The Tory Party and The Labour Party, under their control.
They have now lost it, look desperate, and The Daily Telegraph et al is a complete disgrace, by continuing to run this propaganda, but what are you going to do, if you run a Newspaper, that has got an exponentionally declining readership, and someone with loads of money, says…I will pay an extremely large amount of money to you and the owners…if you publish this series of complete and utter total crap?
If in that situation, I might even agree to it. So far as I can tell no one is in the slightest bit interested in it. They expect newspapers to publish lies….
Absolutely everyone apart from the sick and twisted knows that Jeremy Corbyn is not a racist. They may not like his politics, but he ain’t bent. He has got more integrity, than the likes of Guido (though I kind of like him too) could ever recognise, except he has, cos he is not thick.
“Let’s get Jeremy and stick his head down the toilet” – is a bit etonish, and it simply is not going to work.
You lot are bullies and not that smart.
Tony
About as racist as George Orwell was a fascist.
It up to us to not only see that it doesn’t work, but that it backfires spectacularly. As any group should know dam well how dangerous this is for them. A threat to one is a threat to all.
Just look at this overt attack. What an utter shit Borris is, and ACTUALLY very dangerous to the UK.
https://twitter.com/AdamBienkov/status/1026402947410866176
It’s like open season for racist attacks.
War porn on the BBC1One Show tonight. Dan Snow was salivating at the arrival of five F35s from Lockheed Martin in the US after a 10 hour flight and being refuelled in flight.
Various RAF personnel participated in the piece. Snow was flown in a Tornado to go out to see the planes arrive at RAF Marham so no worries about that waste of fuel.
Jolly good. They are only £92million each and the UK has ordered over 100 of them.
BUT THERE IS NO MONEY they keep telling us.
I will put up a link later. It was sickening propaganda for the MoD.
.
We have to replace our aircraft, dear.
Anyway I remember you mocking and sneering at this country’s impotence for not having a carrier. Now that we have a carrier and another on the way you start whining about how much money is being wasted on the military. Really you just hate this country.
Yes. Snips @ £6 billion each and already redundant. Sitting targets too.
Remember Anon 1. THERE IS NO MONEY.
Why? And why with a piece of equipment not fit for purpose? And why when we can’t afford it. Why not stop warmongering and try to encourage dialogue. The Swiss have no aircraft carriers and not buying the F35 which is already obsolete.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bdfsp7/the-one-show-06082018
Second item in following the one about a new Disney film.
Snow married the daughter of the Duke of Westminster. He died recently. Owned half of the rich parts of London and was worth £billions. He was also the vice president of RUSI, the gathering place of the warmongers.
‘On hearing of the Duke’s passing, the Chairman of RUSI, Lord Hague of Richmond PC FRSL, said: ’At RUSI we pay tribute to the Duke of Westminster’s long and distinguished military career, and his lifelong interest in defence and security. Many of us have fond memories of meeting him, and we have all been sad to hear of his untimely death.’
The Vice-Chairman of RUSI, Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE, said: ‘In recent years I came to know the Duke of Westminster through involvement in one of his major military charities. I was immediately impressed by his deep commitment to the welfare of our armed forces and our veterans. He worked exceptionally hard and with great generosity to support these causes whilst remaining modest and approachable. His sudden loss is very sad news.’
https://rusi.org/rusi-news/remembering-rusi-vice-president-major-general-gerald-grosvenor
Enough said.
UK “Poised” To Demand Extradition Of Russian Suspects In Salisbury Nerve Agent Attack
LOL. They think ebveryone is as thick and bent as they are!
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-06/uk-poised-demand-extradition-russian-suspects-salisbury-nerve-agent-attack
“It is absolutely ridiculous that people should choose to go around looking like letter boxes.”
He’s not wrong though, is he? And that’s the point. This is how it works:
Left predictably start melting down with outrage.
95% of people (ie, normal people) think “hold on a minute, he’s right though isn’t he? Is it “Islamophobic” now just to state the truth?
And another little barrier comes down.
Straight out of the Donald trump playbook (see MS-13 are animals).
You are naive, or simple, or just trying to bait. No doubt the latter. #fail
It’s a self-evident fact though.
http://www.picshag.com/postbox-fail.html
Pathetic. Grow up.
Wtf?
It is an open attack on the muslim community. & absolutely disgusting.
It’s a source of some visual joy (& not totally absent ‘National” joy) to go into Birmingham and see the thriving muslim community. And I say that as a real critic of organised religion.
His comment was a putrid degradation. What if JC had made a comment ridiculing head caps? …Nuff said.
The problem with leftist alleged “critics of organised religion” is that it turns out they have an absolute boner for Islam. They simply cannot bring themselves to make a single criticism of the world’s most oppressive and violent religion.
Nonsense. Utter nonsense.
The issue is people like me don’t see these groups as monolithic & homogenous. This is not acutely what they are in total. Nor have they ever been (though people try). It’s no shock bigots or racists see these things as they do. It’s not a nuanced refection of what is but a refection of THEIR ideology, as they try to railroad notions like “western civilisation”
My critique of organised religion extends just as much to the continuation of “christianity” in western society (Eg, I really see no distinction between my critique of the institution of marriage for instance) More so in fact because these traditions are like the water we swim in. People just ignore the issues, while focusing on similar issue in much of the organised muslim community? why?
But the complete body covering clthes represent a particularly conservative right wing patriarchal political and cultural tendency within the middle east. Why should making fun of conservative tendencies be frowned on?
Boris actually said that he opposed legal bans on such dress.
You seem not to know your Bible very well then.
Stop comparing someones religious practises with politics. You must have lied when you said you’re a teacher, cause you seem to have no idea of barbaric christian massacres.
Purile bile from a failed Bullington boy amplified by a p..s poor non dom.
“It’s a source of some visual joy (& not totally absent ‘National” joy) to go into Birmingham and see the thriving muslim community.”
Oh look the leftist delights in seeing women denied any public identity shuffling along behind their husband like a dog. How fucked up is that?
That’s not what I see. I’v seen quite a few muslim women holding hands together, with no men about actually. Not “shuffling”, but quite relaxed & at ease. Going about their business.
Your a bigot.
Do you have any idea as to why women in Birmingham and women in Iran are seemingly so different?
According to your testimony women in Birmingham “are quite relaxed and at ease” with a lack of public identity. Conversely women in Iran seem to take the opposite view
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/iran-women-hijab-protests-arrests-no-headscarf-take-off-girl-of-enghelab-street-vida-movahed-a8185611.html
Some may find it curious as to why this might be
Ishmael, you and Looney are like two sides of the same coin, you are both as bad as each other.
There is no freedom attached to being forced to wear the full hijab – burkha/niquab, it is a form of cultural repression.
Looney could pick a better example than Iran, because I was there in May, and in one large park in Tehran, there were quite a few women discarding the headscarf, and virtually none wearing a chador.
In the UK, there are certain communities – mainly Sunni Muslim who do not integrate, because they are fundamentalist, and if the women go against this cultural norm, they will be ostracised from their community or attacked by their male relations.
Life for women in the Gulf states, Pakistan and Afghanistan is very far from being perfect.
Ishmael, don’t you think it strange that in certain communities in the UK women can hold hands with each other, but all hell breaks loose if they hold hands with a man?
And you need to take your liberal left blinkers off. Dream on, dreamer.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/rochdale-grooming-prosecutor-nazir-afzal-13271237
Maybe we will welcome you back to reality some time in the future?
Of course, insulting and abusing realists is in no way any sort of ‘ism’, is it? The liberal left can say what they want, and any disagreement with them is an ‘ism’.
Anon: You just go ononanonanon….
Yes it is indeed straight out of the Donald Trump playbook. Why doesn’t he tell the Saudi ambassador the same thing?
Is he critical of J__ish women who wear the burqa too?
What about male circumcision?
A valid point could be made. But Johnson is just throwing insults to whip up the native British far right, not just against far rightists among Muslims (far rightists whose “protection of women” almost everyone knows is totally hypocritical) but against Muslims and immigrants and non-whites generally.
Johnson is merely continuing to serve the same destructive purpose for his American bosses as he has throughout his career, as a journalist and politician. Stirring up hatred against fellow Europeans and Muslims is all part of their playbook to embarrass and divide the UK. It is at least a good sign for the rest of us that this over-promoted halfwit seems to be becoming increasingly desperate.
Ninety years ago the far right whipped up hatred against the J.ws, gypsies and socialists, and now they whip it up against Muslims, the homeless and unemployed. Hate-sheets like The Sun and the Mail encourage it the most. About the only thing that has changed is they used to like mothers bearing the next generation while now they hate single mothers even if they are divorced or widowed. They’re all called feckless.
Criticising any religion is counter-productive, because religious powers indoctrinate the belief that any criticism is “the work of the Devil”, and thus to be expected by the ‘righteous’.
Learn from the stories of Jesus, the Buddha and others, who instead exposed, criticised and directly opposed corruption in the religious power structure.
of course you miss his quote that he compared them to bank robbers too…