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.
Hi Craig,
Just to suggest, if you haven’t read it already..
Lyall Watson’s “Dark Nature” A natural history of evil. 1995.
It is quite disturbing, and mentions his visits to the Public Gallery during the James Bulger case and similar cases in the USA. He also discusses the Bosnian-Serbian War and gives examples of neighbours killing neighbour after decades of living together but from different countries.
Stay well and may your God go with you.
Best, Neil
“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.”
Over-self-credentialisation grates. It really does. We’ve all seen it. But only a few of us can reflect on it and are minded to talk about it.
Craig,
Thank you for writing this.
This might shock you and surprise. What is involved in exploration for fracking for gas in England’s green and pleasant land. Note that the planning laws have been set aside. The frackers and the drillers only need the permission of the landowner to change agricultural land into what amounts to industrial land.
It’s called Permitted Development
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuOmu5GVNVQ&feature=youtu.be
Especially the tanks and the massive consumption of water.
Methods of evil banality evolve, the base desire to enrich oneself or family doesn’t.
Note the technology being evolved to monitor people and know all about their lives to push very specific buttons rather than one size fits all.
Facial recognition from the sky, drones, AI projects, mega proceessing computer facilities in far flung corners with limitless renewable power sources etc.
The BBC using its ill gotten poll tax on every household in the country along with the rest of the owned mass media happily delivers the narrative and kills all dissenting voices below the line with ‘moderation’!
But they are not winning so expect an escalation to actual violence, well publicised, to stop people listening to the counter voices. Like Mr Murray’s here.
Resist. Demand an election. Call a general strike. Anything peaceful – THEY hate that.
For an insight to how this Corbyn smear campaign is being orchestrated read this https://www.academia.edu/37055678/MURALGAGA
This one might be a little easier to understand for non-tech nerds;
https://twitter.com/asawinstanley/status/1020640114119249920?s=21
That series of Twitter posts by “Asa Winstanley” is ridiculous when he blames “pro-Israel groups” for being anti-Corbyn…
J Corbyn for decades has been pro-Israel and a committed two-state zionist, which is the same as the official position of the USA, UK, Israel governments. This has been recognized by the Board of Deputies as reported in “The Jewish Chronicle”:
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/153303/jeremy-corbyn-must-do-more-address-concerns-says-board-deputies-after-meeting
«Mr Corbyn and two advisers held talks with Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush and chief executive Gillian Merron this afternoon. Following the meeting Mr Arkush said: “We had a positive and constructive meeting and were pleased that Mr Corbyn gave a very solid commitment to the right of Israel to live within secure and recognised boundaries as part of a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. “Mr Corbyn affirmed his support for shechitah, brit milah and Jewish faith schools. He also resolved in strong terms to fight antisemitism from wherever it comes.»
He just opposes, like many, many israelis (those who sympathize with HaAretz’s positions), the extreme far-right politics and actions of Likud and the supporters of Likud, as “Asa Winstanley” only recognizes later when he writes “This is a *political disagreement* above all about the nature of the new, socialist Labour Party.” (but the new direction of Labour is mildly centre-left socialdemocratic, not socialist).
I sometimes wonder if in their desperation to stop Jeremy winning and introducing socialism into Britain there will be some kind of right-wing coup, doubtless done in the name of national security and not too dissimilar from the 1970s military plot against Harold Wilson.
«to stop Jeremy winning and introducing socialism into Britain»
What J Corbyn politics amount to is introducing Heathism or Wilsonism into Great Britain, that is mild centrism or centre-leftism, pretty much the same as midway between the german Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, as he keeps saying they are his models.
Sure it is a change from the right-wing politics of New Labour the LibDems of the far-right politics of the Conservatives, but nothing like socialism.
I am truly saddened by your experience but not surprised as I made a comment earlier today that the elites must truly be panicking about the possibility of a Labour government when they openly accused Corbyn on the BBC news of anti-semitism. If the government and those who work for them, along with the media propaganda supporters, can do this to you then we truly are in frightening times much like the day of Stalin really.
Who really cares about “elite” concerns?
I guess they want to continue to live their lives free of molestation and to enjoy the fruits of their riches. Maybe they think that Corbyn will completely destroy the ability of the masses to live any kind of life, and that the obviously dis possessed may be tempted to wreak vengeance on the “elites”
Who really benefits from such an outcome? Maybe you should think of Orwell and ask if people are motivated by concern for the poor, or whether the poor are just cannon fodder in a war solely motivated by a hatred of the rich.
You occasionally – and rather surprisingly, if I’m to be honest – make some reasonably thoughtful posts. The earlier one today about Iraq, and the casualties incurred through our war of choice, was one.
Given that you were sincere there, I find it incredible that you have such an absolute belief that Corbyn – and all socialists – want nothing but misery and death to be perpetrated across all humanity.
This appears to be a rather heavy misapprehension on your part. I would have dismissed your rather lurid fantasies about the dystopia into which you appear to think all socialists are hell-bent, as the work of an over-imaginative shill for the investor class. However, since you have demonstrated good will towards humanity in your recognition of human rights, perhaps you cannot be catagorised so easily.
From what you’ve written recently, we might have a chance of making a decent democratic socialist out of you yet.
Glenn
Interesting observations about Loony. I have often thought the same way. He/she writes a carefully thought out argument but then reaches the wrong conclusion.
I think it’s telling that even Loony doesn’t seem to argue that there actually is an anti-Semitism problem within Labour. But it’s openly stated as fact every day in the news without us ever having seen a shred of credible evidence. We’re really through the looking glass here.
It seems reasonable to suppose that Jeremy Corbyn and his ilk are motivated by high idealism and that there is a genuine concern to improve the lot of the masses. This is the opposite of their wanting to perpetrate misery and death across all humanity.
The problem comes that 100% of societies that have implemented policies akin to those proposed by Corbyn have witnessed misery and death. You can look at any place you want ranging from the USSR to China to Cambodia to Zimbabwe. Anywhere at all and the outcome is always the same.
Today, right now, you have the example of Venezuela – a country currently devoid of toilet paper and experiencing an inflation rate of 13,000%. Poor people do not benefit from a 13,000% inflation rate – rich people do not benefit either but their position is less precarious since they will long ago have moved what they can out of Venezuela. Moving assets abroad will exacerbate the plight of the poor – but what do you expect people to do?
Next up the government will invite the poor to blame the rich for their accelerating poverty and will cite asset relocation as the evidence. This process is already underway with Venezuela having the second highest murder rate in the world.
Some people blame US interference for the outcome of socialism. How is this possible ?- the USSR was larger in size than the US, contained more natural resources than the US, was as technologically advanced as the US and, for much of its existence, had a powerful and battle hardened military to protect it. The most obvious answer is that the US was more efficiently organized than the USSR and it was US efficiency alone that allowed it to compete.
Even today in microcosm you can see the effects of socialism in places like San Francisco. Are we really to believe that the US is now interfering with and threatening itself?
Loony: Thank you for your reply.
It does appear that you generalise exceedingly heavily from an extremely limited set of examples, though, and even then look at only a single ingredient that could cause an outcome.
In the case of Venezuela – on which I am no expert – surely you cannot attribute all their ills to socialism? After all, the current problems only really began when their primary source of income – oil revenue – dropped substantially, along with the spot market on oil.
But Venezuela aside, do you not appreciate that there are degrees instead of absolutes throughout society? Most of the northern European countries – and all the best developed and most agreeable to live in – are heavily socialised societies. This has not caused mass deprivation and death, not even pockets of it!
Holland, where I currently live, is one such country with a large socialist component. Socialists have considerable success in local elections, and even the national parties are not afraid to work with, if not actually be socialists, themselves.
Socialism is not a dirty word outside the more scaremongering circles in the US, where they like to associate it with the most grim elements of Soviet occupation.
Take capitalism, for instance. More than a million died in Ireland during their great famine of the mid 19th century – a quarter of the population died or fled, in about equal measure. This was operating under a decidedly capitalist system at the time. Why do you not throw up your hands in horror at the mere mention of capitalism, when this catastrophe can happen under its wondrous doctrine?
LOL – left wing or socialism automatically equals Venezuela
«openly accused Corbyn on the BBC news of anti-semitism. If the government and those who work for them, along with the media propaganda supporters, can do this to you then we truly are in frightening times much like the day of Stalin really.»
Taking that as a sign of things to come is rather optimistic. Consider instead that G Williamson, when minister of defense, for transparent electoral reasons, boasted in the press that he was secretly sentencing to death hundreds of UK citizens on suspicion of potentially committing future crimes, signing off kill-lists that then are passed to junta-style MoD/MI6 death-squads for assassination of the “enemies of the people”:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5153613/Gavin-Williamson-Brits-fighting-be.html
«Gavin Williamson signalled he was prepared to hunt down and use air strikes against the remaining 270 UK passport holders who have travelled to Syria and Iraq. In an interview with the Daily Mail, he said: ‘Quite simply, my view is a dead terrorist can’t cause any harm to Britain.’»
«Earlier this year, the Mail revealed that RAF pilots had been secretly assassinating British jihadists in Syria and Iraq, using drones and fighter jets to work through a ‘kill list’ of targets»
Very similar boasts, also for transparent electoral reasons, have been made by GW Bush, BH Obama, D Trump.
When the voters applaud and re-elect those who simply secretly get rid of whoever they regard as “enemies of the people” then any political and civil rights become mere temporary concessions (until one “disappears”).
The political problem, which is not new, is that things like “Britain’s complicity in the most terrible tortures” and assassination of “enemies of the people” potential future criminals are quite popular with the the “hang-and-flog” voters, and there is an increasing number of them as the number of older voters increase as they tend to be frightened and afraid of losing anything, and want “better safe than sorry” thanks to “absolute safety at any cost to someone else”.
From the Freedom Flotilla
@For Immediate Release, Monday July 30, 2018 15:00 CEST.
2 Released but most Participants still in Prison: Grave concern for safety and cargo
July 30, 2018 1996
Freedom Flotilla Coalition News Statement
For Immediate Release, Monday July 30, 2018 15:00 CEST.
Two people from Al Awda (The Return) have been released, but most of the crew and participants are still in unlawful detention at Givon prison in Israel. We are still gravely concerned for their safety and well-being as we had no contact with most of them as of 14:00 CEST today. We continue to demand that our boat and the medical supplies on board reach their rightful recipients, Palestinian civil society in Gaza.
Although the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) claim that the capture of our vessel happened ‘without exceptional incident’, eye-witness Zohar Chamberlain Regev reports that at the time of boarding: “People on board were tasered and hit by masked IOF soldiers. We did not get our passports or belongings before we got off the boat. Do not believe reports of peaceful interception.” We urgently need to know the details of who was injured and how seriously, and what treatment they are receiving, if any. A military attack on a civilian vessel is a violent act and a violation of international law. Taking 22 people from international waters to a country which is not their destination constitutes an act of kidnapping, which is also unlawful under the international Convention of the Law of Sea.
the time we lost contact around 13:15 local time on Sunday, we know that the IOF blocked all communication signals, including satellite phones. We are very concerned about this violation of journalists’ right to report freely and we remain gravely concerned about their ability to keep their professional equipment and their storage media. As Australian journalist Chris Graham recently observed “Bad things happen when good people stay silent, as history well records. But horrendous things happen when media are prevented from scrutinizing the actions of a state.”
/..
https://jfp.freedomflotilla.org/news/2-released-but-most-participants-in-still-in-prison-grave-concern-for-safety-and-cargo
Shame on the Israeli government and the IDF.
Excellent article. I would join you on the barricades, I am not anti-semitic at all and I have fought all kinds of racism and prejudice all my life, a member of the anti-Nazi league in the 1980s, even on one occasion putting myself and two of my children in danger to stand up for the rights of minorities, but I hold fast to my right to compare governments to the Nazi rule of Germany in the 1930s. We see this in Hungary, in Ukraine, in the USA under Trump and most certainly in Israel. I have carefully read the IHRA definitions and examples and cannot agree with a couple of them, as they most certainly do prevent legitimate criticism of the Israeli government and have led to campus events being shut down. There is no threat to the Jewish population of the UK from a Corbyn government, to claim this is outrageous, it is a wicked lie. I do not think the people making these claims believe it themselves, they are simply determined to prevent Labour winning an election. Hannah Arendt was vilified by her own people for daring to suggest that the leaders of the Jews of Europe could have done more to save themselves, but was the only person to develop a clear theoretical approach to understanding how evil grows incrementally, and becomes the norm, based on the trial of Eichmann, I am sure she would be angered by what is taking place at the moment. What is more, while all this smoke and mirrors is going on the case of serious Islamophobia within the Tory party is unchallenged and Brexit rolls the UK towards utter disaster.
@ Carolyn Downs July 30, 2018 at 22:18
You may have missed Yonatan’s earlier post, a very important one, in which he gave this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LZNXNVL1G8
You can’t get better than that, as to what is behind the Anti-thingumijig (trying to avoid ‘Moderation’).
Ah yes, excellent words
“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”
I think we have to refer to the great Save the Children award winner Tony Bliar when he fixed the blame on “Education, education, education.”
Specifically the Prussian education system: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_education_system
“the system of education established in Prussia as a result of educational reforms in the late 18th and early 19th century, which has had widespread influence since. It is predominantly used as an American political slogan in educational reform debates, since it was adopted by all American K–12 public schools and major universities as early as the late 18th century… teaching children and young adults blind obedience to authority, and reinforcing class and race prejudice… the basic concept remains fruitful and has led to various debates and controversies. Twenty-first century primary and secondary education in Germany and beyond still embodies the legacy of the Prussian education system.”
In particular the person who influenced this system was J G Fichte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottlieb_Fichte. Who said in his Address to the German nation (1808) – a discussion about eduction: “The aim of the State is positive law, internal peace, and a condition of affairs in which everyone may by diligence earn his daily bread and satisfy the needs of his material existence, so long as God permits him to live. All this is only a means, a condition, and a framework for what love of fatherland really wants, viz., that the eternal and the divine may blossom in the world and never cease to become more and more pure, perfect, and excellent. That is why this love of fatherland must itself govern the State and be the supreme, final, and absolute authority. Its first exercise of this authority will be to limit the State’s choice of means to secure its immediate object—internal peace. To attain this object, the natural freedom of the individual must, of course, be limited in many ways. If the only consideration and intention in regard to individuals were to secure internal peace, it would be well to limit that liberty as much as possible, to bring all their activities under a uniform rule, and to keep them under unceasing supervision. Even supposing such strictness were unnecessary, it could at any rate do no harm…” (page 138-139)
Of course learning by rote and blind unquestioning obedience to the state is much less likely in the modern world, as long as we learn from what went before, and not accept so called facts without questioning them. The danger is not 1984 but Brave New World.
Seen on the BBC – this most insulting headline on their main page for the Middle East.
‘Palestinian viral slap video teenager freed’
Bless the brave girl, Ahed, and her family.
There is not a word on the BBC website about the seizing of that flotilla and the cargo and the imprisonment of the crew. Whereas on the Russia Today website, there is a list of 19 entries, including yesterdays’ report, going back to 2009 which illustrate Israel’s hands at work in defeating any attempt to help the people trapped in Gaza.
https://www.rt.com/search?q=boat+to+gaza+seized
@ Sharp Ears July 30, 2018 at 22:25
Achtung! Das ist verboten! Ve haff vays of dealing with people who expose the truth….(clue: you must be anti-Semitic, already!).
Paul
For how the whole political establishment, the BBC and Guardian have been co-opted to the cause please see Peter Oborne’s Despatched documentary from 2009 . I posted a link to it at the end of the last page. I think this would not have been allowed now.
I disagree. Any reasonable person would find it difficult to find any anti-Semitism on this website.
Got any peer reviewed facts?
Numbers? Comparitive statistics?
Anything?
Do you have any explanation as to why, no matter what the topic, certain people post incessantly about crimes committed against Palestinians?
By way of context, so far in 2018 some 176 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli actions. By contrast something in excess of 18,000 South Africans are murdered each year. Very rarely do people post details of South African murders.
South Africa is a relevant comparator because of the history of a minority population ruling over a majority in the interests of the ruling minority. In South Africa the minority ceded power – one consequence has been an exponential increase in the murder rate.
So, do people that genuflect before each Palestinian death do so because of a concern for Palestinians or because of a hatred of the ruling minority.
As Charles Manson lacked the wit to say “tell me, tell me, c’mon tell me the answer”
Reading the contributions it seems to me that complicity in State wrongdoing is coupled to personal financial vulnerability, and for some, financial gain.Now if a Citizens’ Income was introduced then personal financial vulnerability would be potentially resolved and so people would be much more enabled to express their views without risk of penury.
Ah, say the “middle class”, you then just encourage the indolent, the flip side to that view is that the elite can be challenged.
Sitting in front of a computer screen, manipulating exchange rates, challenging share prices, creating nothing,seems to me to be indolence,
That is now exactly what the British economy is now the based on, indolent speculation. We have got rid of our industrial base so rejoice as MT famously said.
An interesting documentary re: Britain’s treatment of refugees during the 2nd World War.
HIS MAJESTY’S LOYAL ENEMY ALIENS DOCUMENTARY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXljdoaLEHM
The ultra critics of Corbyn I note are the same newspapers who supported and fund raised for the Nazis
in the 2nd World War.
A certain ex President’s Grandad was deeply involved at the time.
The Daily Heil is an apt metaphor.
I do find that there is an obsession in the media to talk and analyse everything that is said.
The propaganda of what is known but isn’t said ( particularly to the public ) is much more dangerous.
@ KEN KENN July 30, 2018 at 22:48
I haven’t watched the video, but I do know that Prescott Bush was a Director of a Nazi front bank in the US, before and into WWII.
Re the Bush family, I recommend
Baker, Russ (2009) Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America’s Invisible Government, and the Hidden History of the Last Fifty Years (Bloomsbury Press).
«help the BBC avert the prospect of a radical government in the UK threatening the massive wealth share of the global elite.»
Not even that — J Corbyn and J McDonnell are very mild socialdemocrats nowadays, and their political and economic policy positioning are pretty much to the right of Ted Heath or H Wilson, who were not exactly rabid anticapitalists.
I reckon that the problem the “centrists” have with J Corbyn is mostly about his foreign policy inclinations: that he is not a supporter of the extreme far-right policies of Likud and of the neocon wing of the USA foreign policy establishment (which wing is pretty much intellectually the american branch of Likud).
Blissex
I like Corbyn – I think he’s a principled man.
Definitely not a racist of any kind and in truth all of his accusers know it.
The common objection of this cabal of anti Corbynists in truth is that they don’t like Corbyn
and his policies – even the aethiest wing of the the anti – Corbyn lot have joined in so the
criticism is not based on religion. That is a mask.
Perhaps someone should nip over to Israel and demand that the government takes on board and
recognises the UN definition of Apartheid?
Send an aethiest by all means – no bias then based on religion.
For me Labour’s economic policies are Keynesianism on Attivan.
My naive view is that the rich ( particularly the Financial class ) were bailed out by all of us and they
should be thankful to all of us for their continued existence.It’s time to pay us all back.
All Corbyn and MacDonnell are saying is that they are going to redress that a little and even that has the BBC
and Murdoch reaching for their media poison.
Despite all the rhetoric about religion – fake news etc etc these people work for the 1% and their salaries and
emoluments rely on their patronage. So when an interviewer has a crack at Corbyn he/she is protecting their interests and Craig knows this maybe as much as Corbyn knows it.
The media types lost their principles years ago and will go along with anything as long as they can keep their income.
I reckon they must be well above Double Glazing Salesmen in the league of contempt by now.
Just below the politicians.
How was “junkie” Charlie Rowley given a home worth £300,000?
By whom?
A website investigating the “poisonings” much more seriously than this one believes that Rowley never lived there. The picking up by the ambulances was all staged.
Craig should stop his waffling and regular attempts to attract sympathy.
He should seek assylum in Russia like Snowden.
Kindly provide me with the url to said website.
So true. There are a lot of folk who wonder how so many Germans went along with the Nazis or got involved. Same with any genocide such as Rwanda. In Rwanda there was maybe an additional element of hysteria where all normality went out the window.
In Germany it just seems to have been that way that people go. First they have long-standing prejudice, maybe some extra difficulties. The bias is fed until it becomes hatred, until gradually anything is somehow justified. Add to that the “patriotism” you mention which silences some, the group-think which silences others, the personal risk. First it’s the risk of unpopularity, of not being socially acceptable. Then the economic risk, what people will do to keep their jobs. Then the outright terror that they’ll be next. By that stage everyone is turning a blind eye and pocketing the stolen goods.
Afterwards there can be the horror at what they’ve done. But often they just justify it ’til their dying day. You see it on a small scale with bullies in a school or community setting. It’s not for nothing that Jesus pointed out that whoever has thought a hateful thought has already committed murder. That’s where it leads. And the Psalms refer to the traitor as being the one the writer shared his food with. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own family. Judas dipped his bread in the sauce with the rest.
It’s one of the concerning things that Brexit has brought out. I hear people I know going from “problems” to “immigrants” to “EU” to “Germans” and coming out with extreme racism against all Germans on that basis. I even hear them declare that: “there’s no such thing as racism against Germans, it isn’t possible”. They genuinely can’t see that that blanket hatred of an entire nation they’ve never met is racism. And the guilty parties do not have the excuse of living through WWII. No, their racism comes purely from believing themselves somehow above it all.
When I encounter, on a much smaller scale, that behaviour I’m struck by two equally unpleasant realities: the shattered trust in humanity; and the horrible shame and fear that “there but for the grace of God go I”. I can see how people lose their minds.
Keep on in there. Whatever is good, whatever is lovely…think on those things. And I have to laugh at the thought that if the Passover had been repeated who would have been spared? The critics with their “correct” definition of anti-semitism? No, those eating the Passover with the Jews. Such as Jeremy Corbyn for example. Doesn’t make him any “better” than the others, but then it never was about “being better” but about “being found” – in the right place.
I am not religious, but I’m gently kindled with your words in this cold season.
The basis of all of this is creating an ignorant populace from cradle to grave. Ignorance of what goverments do, what corporations do, when working people demand to know how they have been screwed, is the fertile soil in which other establishment entities such as the Daily Mail & The Sun et al plant the seeds of division and distraction as they have always done. Hurrah.The right hand has increasingly been wearing the left hand as a glove. Which is why they hate Corbyn and give so much time to Blair.
I lived many years in Ukraine, and in the winter of 2013-spring of 2014 I saw many people that I once knew, people who had been more or less clear-sighted and rational people, I saw these people, people that I loved, go completely stark barking mad.
Not only was black now white, but these people were ready to burn (quite literally) anyone who didn’t join in, anyone who didn’t express enough hate, anyone who didn’t proclaim catastrophic defeats to be heroic successes.
CM – “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.”
An example would be the Westminster Hour on Sunday 29th at 10.00 on BBC radio 4. It was guest edited by Anne McElvoy, an Oxbridge neoliberal who works for the Economist and is married to the editor of the Sunday Times. There was an MPs panel, with the Labour MP being Chris Leslie, an opponent of Corbyn, a member of LFI, who voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. There was a 15 minute discussion of anti semitism in the Labour party – Leslie agreed that the IHRA definition with all exampes should become Labour party policy. The rest of the panellists took turns to accuse the labour party of harbouring anti semitism.
This is an example of the BBC setting up a let’s bash Jeremy Corbyn fest. Of course they all know that Corbyn isn’t a racist or anti-semitic. Earlier in the 1.00 p.m. slot we were treated to another 15 minutes of anti semitism in the Labour party,courtesy of John Diamond. He used the vox pop technique by inviting one Jewish family to tell us all why they wouldn’t vote Labour.
The Westminster Hour programme followed up the piece on Jeremy Corbyn with a piece on fake news. I presume thay had to stifle their giggles.
There was also a piece on Brexit that lasted 3 minutes.
«Chris Leslie, an opponent of Corbyn, a member of LFI, who voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003. »
The BBC is does not have an enforceable mandate to be politically balanced outside election campaigns, only during them.
As to Chris Leslie, he is a big name is “Progress”, the New Labour right-wing pressure group.
Chris Leslie occasionally says minor socialdemocratic things, but overall he is aligned with the right-wing politics of New Labour and Progress.
In 2016, Leslie’s wife – Nicola Murphy founded “Labour Tomorrow” an organisation which funds activists and groups who oppose Jeremy Corbyn as party leader.
The Blairites are scum, absolute scum who wish to turn the Labour party into an identical twin of the Tory party.
True. And when you think a party like New Labour is no opposition to the Tories at all, only the appearance of an opposition, then what they’re really after is a one-party state. A neoliberal dictatorship which would be dreadful for all but the top 5%.
Yes.
Michael, I said half jokingly about fifteen years ago, that I thought Tony Bliar was deliberately trying to destroy the Labour Party.
He and his legacy – the Blairites – are definitely trying to do that now.
Ordinary folks no longer have anyone to represent them, because the people we elect are misrepresenting us.
he’s also the MP for Melanie Shaw – very happy not to help her, support her or fight for justice on her behalf – he supports the abusers of children in the uk
CM – “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 …..”
It’s probably worth recalling the history of Germany both pre 1933 and after the NSDAP’s seizure of power through the enabling act. Post ’33 Jews were made into second class citizens. Goebbels had it as ‘Die Juden sind unsere Unglueck’ – the Jews are our misfortune. Now what was it Farage said about immigrants during the Brexit debate?.
My point being that it was a series of steps that gradually dehumanise one section of society. Long Kesh, Abu Ghraib, Pinochet’s football stadium, Grenfell – they all require the ideological underpinning that the BBC seems only to happy to churn out. Recall John Humphrys’ programme on benefits designed to back up the Osborne type view of strivers vs skivers.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jul/30/bbc-welfare-reforms-impartiality-john-humphrys
«a series of steps that gradually dehumanise one section of society.»
I think that a large part of it is dehumanising civil servants and military, that is removing their sense of the rule of law and their sense of humanity, so that the “banality of evil” becomes normalised.
Only a few years ago the SAS (I mean, the SAS are not particularly known for being shrinking violets) strongly objected to being involved by the USA allies in death-squad style operations against iraqis:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/chilcot-inquiry-black-ops-in-iraq-caused-split-between-us-and-uk-7130996.html
“Some senior British officers were unhappy at what was going on and the involvement of the UK’s SAS and the SBS. “Why are we helping to run Latin American-style death squads?” One British commander, himself ex-SAS, demanded to know. The SAS were, on at least two occasions, barred from carrying out such missions in the British-run south of the country.
Questions were asked about how information was being obtained from suspects in Balad. There was an unofficial inquiry into the treatment of prisoners at the base, although no evidence was found to implicate Maj Gen McChrystal. …
But the reverberations from special forces operations in Iraq continued. Six years later Maj Gen McChrystal, by now a four star general and commander of international forces in Afghanistan, had received a complaint from the UK’s director of special forces (DSF) for speaking about operations carried out with the SAS and SBS in Iraq and Afghanistan. Meanwhile an SAS lieutenant colonel, who had served with distinction under Maj Gen McChrystal in Iraq, was told to stay away from the Regiment’s headquarters in Hereford.”
Currently instead according to the boast of the ministry of defense and of “The Daily Mail” a number of MoD/MI6 death squads are assassinating hundreds of UK citizens, as part of “business as usual”.
Frightening.
Thank you for speaking out.
A very enlightening insight into events and areas of concern that most people will never encounter , this seems to be endemic when people or organisations operate out of view and in virtual secrecy , care homes and mental facilities come to mind ,it is usually only years after that something or someone uncovers practices that slowly have grown from the mildly distasteful to the downright cruel , this slow escalation eludes most who fall in and behave with a kind of herd mentality where the strongest will takes the herd in a particular direction just like sheep follow the leader because thats what happens ,so dont step out of line , dont identify yourself as different or suffer the consequences .
The film ” one flew over the cuckoo’s nest ” comes to mind as an example of how this engulfs people without them realising it’s not normal .Slightly o/t ,
The ongoing Questioning and distrust of the BBC in Scotland’s news output is becoming farcical now ,their selective manipulation and censorship of events that have a direct effect on people’s lives , the slant they put on every public service and its performance has become more than just a particular view of how things are running , the recent winter flu epidemic where if you believed the BBC all Accident and Emergency units at every Hospital were overflowing and unable to cope , this in turn led to many old people who really needed treatment not even attempting to attend ,The recent ” prescription costs 26% rise in 10 years” a banner headline on the BBC in Scotland’s website , this left readers with the intended impression of a free prescription service that is out of control , the omission had taken no account of inflation to give a proper idea of the costs , and no reference made to the fact of a downward trend in actual costs and we are getting good value for money , compare that to England where costs have risen by almost 34% in six years not the 10 years quoted in Scotland , this is just two examples of the way they present news designed to at all times undermine the Scottish government .
Craig, I support everything you wrote above.
The one flaw I see that you get worked up much more about Palestinians than about Kurds, Alawites, Copts, Libyans, Pakistani minorities etc. This doesn’t make sense to me, unless you are a Palestine-Israel expert or have close friends there.
Israelis are not the only ones having friends in high places in the UK/US: Pakistani deep state can also get away with practically anything for example -the last “election” just a last case.
Antonyl
You keep harping at this. In case you did not notice Israel is a settler state and the original declarations were that Palestinians should have equal rights. This has not happened instead Israel is now clearly an apartheid state. Have you not heard of the separation wall and the separate roads for Palestinians? Have you not heard Israeli politicians talk about the periodic killing of Palestinians as ‘mowing the lawn’. Or this one about putting residents of Gaza on a diet? This is so clear to all but not apparently to you.
Various attempts at an equitable siolution have failed because of Israeli sabotage. Israel has developed atomic weapons and the rest of the world looked the other way while the prime minister of Israel makes comic allegations about ducks. Many Israelis and Jews can see the injustice of this festering wound on humanity that is unlike all the other wars and injustices because it denies a whole people their basic human rights. Now do you understand why Craig and others here see that this is a very important issue?
«the original declarations were that Palestinians should have equal rights.»
Indeed and here are the relevant quotes from the Balfour Declaration for other readers:
– “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”
– “being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice”
— “the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine,”
— “or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country”
J Corbyn and many other (two-state) zionists like him support *all* the points of the
Balfour Declaration.
Unlike May who declared that she was proud to be the priminister of the nation that produced the Balfour declaration without having the self insight to know the onesidedness of her stance.
The Balfour declaration was very carefully drafted – it only refers to the civil and religious rights of the non-Jewish communities. It says nothing about their political rights. It is therefore even more one-sided than it appears. It is a promise by the British about a territory that was not theirs, which they did not control, to hand it to a group that were a small minority of the existing population.
Why only look at Israel as a settler state? Just take one nearby example: Turkey invading Cyprus in 1974, settled there and is now invading Syria. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_military_operation_in_Afrin
Turkey is a NATO member and was on the way of joining the EU.
Or take the insurgency in Baluchistan ever since 1948 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Balochistan Settled by Punjabi army dominated Pakistan ever since.
Why silence on those?
Or a real genocide nearby: of the Yazidi https://yazda.org/yazidi-case
The Yazidi genocide is not currently ongoing as far as I know. Why then not mention the Rwandan genocide and the Armenian holocaust? Why do not just go on about slavery and the Turkish invasion of Europe, to distract us from an ongoing daily crimes against humanity?
The Turkish invasion of Syria is part of a NATO operation where other NATO members are also involved. It is still an evolving situation and Turkey has not yet settled Turkish people in Syria. Many on this site have deplored Turkish actions directly but also the West’s involvement in Syria. Luckily the Syrian war is going the right way now thanks to Russia. Also while we are at it let us also mention Israel’s gratuitous bombing of Syrian army within thier own country and in support of terrorists. Israel has also openly helped these terrorists.The actions of Turkey in Cyprus are deplorable but there is no active problem, no daily killing of Greek Cypriots and no bombing of Nicosia. Turkey instituted a divided state as happened in much of the former Yugoslavia under the aegis of NATO but the displaced people had a place to go to they were not just ethnically cleansed to make room for people of European origins to take over.
But you are indulging in whataboutery as usual. None of these are active problems involving an apartheid set up are they?
saying other countries have done what Israel is doing does NOT excuse Israel doing bad stuff
Here is something for you to watch if you can get over the awful gingers and song at the beginning. Peled is the son of a general who was one of the original architects of the state of Israel.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QXMG1tyJ-Uk
There is a certain poetic justice in “anti-racists” being denounced as “racists” after years of calling other people “racist” over even mild or illusory comments deemed a heresy against immigration, but the systematic way it was done by legal and public protest/confrontational means identifies the authors as the same who now use the same tactic, but replacing “racist” with “anti-Semitic”. I.e. Initially a Who lobby viewed their enemy as the “Right” who they denounced as “racist”, but now deem the enemy as the “Left” to be denounced as “anti-Semitic”!
That said I’ve noticed how the whole game is played and would advise anyone accused of such things to accuse their accuser of “racism and anti-Semitism” and then support free speech legislation to stop sensible debate and British tolerance being drowned out in a sea of abuse.
* if anybody calls me out on being a racist I’m going to call them a racist.
That’s the idea. “racism and anti-Semitism” are mostly wielded as swear words to intimidate people to “shut-up”, but are deemed legitimate swear words, backed by legislation, with one side, particularly civil servants and white people generally, trained to shudder and cow at the charge, when wielded by a Whomever lobby with a megaphone. So just swear back and watch the real haters foam at the mouth, which is a bit unnerving in itself to behold.
I mean clearly reason has gone out the window when a rich and privileged Who (in coordination with Ian Austin) aggressively swears in parliament/public (to provide a continuing story in the recess) at her party leader for being “racist and anti-Semitic” and then complains it’s further evidence of “racism and anti-Semitism” when this is deemed inappropriate behaviour. Its the ancestral madness gone wild!
If the PM,FS,DS and the head of MI5 have all put their heads on the line plugging the patently fake Novicheck x 2 episodes, with absolutely ridiculous assertations, just what exactly were they trying to HIDE? A real patriot should now spill the beans and give us a Corbyn government. But BoJo is really a turk behind the blonde facade, too many fake patriots and rats who would leave a sinking ship even after tenures as Chairmen of Intelligence Committees abound. England is over, we may yet see Lady Porter do another runner.
Jeremy should divest himself of the ‘Deputy Leader’.
Tom Watson accuses NEC member of being a ‘loud-mouthed bully’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-45014771
Watson himself of course is neither loud-mouthed nor a bully!
Watson is there with the massive support, including financial support, of the trades unions.
Watson is a member of Trades Union Friends of Israel. He has visited the little ‘democracy’ under the auspices of Labour Friends of Israel.
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11309
See on TWFY the entries for donations to him from the multi millionaire Sir Trevor Chinn.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trevor_Chinn#Public_roles
‘Chinn has donated to the office or campaigns of a number of Labour Party politicians, including Tony Blair, Ruth Smeeth, Liz Kendall, Tom Watson and Dan Jarvis. Chinn is associated with the Labour Friends of Israel.’
08:26 John Cleese just ‘killed’ R4 toady show with at least a seven second rant about the hidden corruption in UK, he named Murdoch, Dacre and Theresa May for some reason. He’s fed-up!, [cited relentless propaganda from the newspapers as supported by the European Broadcasting Union poll of EU media which discovered :- Britain has the most repressive media , came 33rd out of 33-nations’ surveyed, again]. Well done that Python!
Scotsnat cows are feisty.
https://www.rt.com/uk/434669-cow-chase-police-scotland-road/
Both a problem and solution which would improve the situation is to crack hack administrative systems, which all are susceptible and vulnerable to smarter new intelligence supply, Craig, and one has to expect and realise the Future and ITs Methodologies will not be traditional and conventional, for such a default of the status quo is what is a failed state tool.
Fortunately is there Prime Cyber Movement in the Field which is increasingly becoming ever more impossible to deny is a real presence with IntelAIgently Designed hurdles to overcome in order to remotely command and virtually control/subvert and divert ……. Super Universal Code Injection to XSSXXXX is a MegaMetaDataBase Application Hit …… but one needs to be not arrogant and ignorant of any opposition and competition for IT does not suffer such Fools and their Tools.
This is frightening. We push it to the back of our minds and get on with our daily routine – which is exactly what this evil needs. Or currently we satirise Trump’s tweets instead I’d switching attention to his cold-blooded racism, sexism and cruelty.