Max Weber defined a key attribute of a state as holding the monopoly on the legitimate exercise of violence within a given territory. For anybody other than the state to use substantive physical force against you or to imprison you is regarded as an extremely serious crime. The state itself may however constrain you, beat you, imprison you and even kill you. That link is on deaths in police custody. I might also quote the state murder of 12 year old British child Jojo Jones, deliberately executed by drone strike by the USA with prior approval from the British government.
That is but one example of the British state’s decreasing reticence over the use of extreme violence. The shameless promotion of Cressida Dick to head the Metropolitan Police as reward for orchestrating the cold-blooded murder of an innocent and unresisting Jean Charles de Menezes is another example. So is Savid Javid’s positive encouragement of the US to employ the death penalty against British men stripped of citizenship.
There are a class of states where the central government does not have sufficient control over its territories to preserve its monopoly of violence. That may include violence in opposition to the state. But one further aspect of that is state sanctioned violence in pursuit of state aims by non state actors, done with a nod and a wink from the government – death squads and private militias, often CIA supplied, in South America have often acted this way, and so occasionally does the British state, for example in the murder of Pat Finucane. In some instances, a state might properly be described as a gangster state, where violent groups acting for personal gain act in concert with state authorities, with motives of personal financial profit involved on both sides.
It appears to me in this sense it is fair to call Britain a gangster state. It has contracted out the exercise of state violence, including in some instances to the point of death, against prisoners and immigration detainees to companies including G4S, who exercise that violence purely for the making of profit from it. It is a great moral abomination that violence should be exercised against humans for profit – and it should be clear that in even in most “humane” conditions the deprivation of physical liberty of any person is an extreme and chronic exercise of violence against them. I do not deny the necessity of such action on occasion to protect others, but that the state shares out its monopoly of violence, so that business interests with which the political class are closely associated can turn a profit, is a matter of extreme moral repugnance.
Rory Stewart appeared on Sky News this morning and the very first point he saw fit to make was a piece of impassioned shilling on behalf of G4S. That this was the first reaction of the Prisons Minister to a question on the collapse of order at Birmingham Prison due to G4S’ abject performance, shows both the Tories’ ideological commitment to privatisation in all circumstances, especially where it has demonstrably failed, and shows also the extent to which they are in the pockets of financial interests – and not in the least concerned about the public interest.
I should add to this that Tories here includes Blairites. Blair and Brown were gung-ho for prison privatisation, and even keen to extend the contracting out of state violence for profit to the military sector by the deployment of mercenary soldiers, which New Labour itself consciously rebranded as “private military companies”. Iraq was a major exercise in this with British government contracted mercenaries often outnumbering actual British troops.
The reason for the state to have the monopoly of violence in any society is supposed to be in order to ensure that violence is only ever exercised with caution, with regret and in proportion, solely in unavoidable circumstances. It is the most profound duty of a state to ensure that this is so. The contracting out of state violence for private profit ought to be unthinkable to any decent person.
“The reason for the state to have the monopoly of violence in any society is supposed to be in order to ensure that violence is only ever exercised with caution, with regret and in proportion, solely in unavoidable circumstances”
Uneducated ^^^ . A quaint civil servant view.
That’s not the reason. That’s the jusificaton people like you learn to tell people like us. The reason is the ‘corporate’ state (and theres no other sort of state) needs violence to maintain the market & it’s accordant private property rights..
And btw, In a market constantly requiring new wants for it’s existence, this includes the Army. This is their prime function. Always has been.
…Sigh, I’m really not meat to be posting, but these contortions of reality, I can’t let go uncoverd when I see them.
I think the key word is ‘supposed’. We all know the difference between the ideal and the reality surely.
That’s not what it’s “supposed” to be. & from someone who considers themselves a historian?
It’s supposed to be what it is. And has been since way back to it’s origins in kings queens & city states. It’s a fantasy notion that eases the mind of bureaucrats.
Ishmael:
I don’t think Craig is saying that the state’s real motivation is the need to “have the monopoly of violence to ensure that violence is only ever exercised with caution, with regret and in proportion, solely in unavoidable circumstances”.
I’m sure he can speak for himself more eloquently than I can but I think what he is saying is that the state WANTS us to think that it is acting in our best interests with its “monopoly of violence” i.e. that is what we are “supposed” to think even though it is of course, a deceit.
I doubt if Craig would disagree with you about the “corporate state” being in pretty much in control of everything, though I may be wrong.
A state requires the acceptance of the people otherwise it will be unstable and prone to collapse. The people are told that the state does things for benevolent reasons which are by and large accepted. Hence, the people have a view of what the state is ‘supposed’ to be. Pointing out where the state doesn’t live up to what it is ‘supposed’ to be takes people somewhere down the path of where you would like them to go (i would have thought).
In times of absolute monarchy it was very important that any usurper established legitimacy otherwise the throne would have been very difficult to hold. So the usurper may only have been interested in land, property and profit but it was ‘supposed’ to be about the ‘legitimate right to the throne’.
These days the powers that rule may also only be interested in land, property and profit but to achieve this they have to obtain the support of the people. And to do this they are ‘supposed’ to rule on behalf and at the behest of the people. Even dictatorships have to rule on that basis.
It might be that you would like to see the disappearance of all states but this would, at present, just create a nightmare world where corporations (to which you appear to be fundamentally opposed) have free rein and survival of the fittest replaces welfare. But this is academic because the state entity is not going to disappear for a long time.
Alternatively, you would like to create a new kind of state, one that is ‘supposed’ to be…… To achieve this people need a clear idea of what a state is ‘supposed’ to be. And this ‘conception’ of the state is one that is not ‘supposed’ to be indiscriminately killing people and starting wars. The task therefore is point this out to people not to shrug your shoulders and accept that is what the state does (which, I feel is your unintentional message).
Ismael your being a bit hard aren’t you. The UK adult population have only been allowed to vote to choose governments for 100yrs We in the UK are a young Democracy. The Company have been in power here since the 17thC They’ve had over 300yrs in power. we all can see how hard 40yrs in the EU is to untangle. Socialism Labour Party out of 94yrs since 1924 have been in power 32yrs almost 2/3rds of those years Tories have been in & New Labour was the Company dressed in Red. So give us a break the Company has the backing of the Norman Germanic Royal family as share holders they’ve been embedded here over a 1000yrs. Smart criticisms are welcome but I think your aim is miss directed unless you are the Corporate State in that case your criticism is intended to undermine not help
The British state ran death squads in the north of Ireland for decades killing hundreds of people.
Read Anne Cadwallader’s ‘Lethal Allies’ or ‘A Very British Jihad’ by Paul Larkin.
Max Weber: “the legitimate exercise of violence within a given territory”.
But of course one notable point about the American drone executions is that they happen outside of American territory. They are acts of war, not justice, and require much less oversight than killing people at home.
O/T Charlie Rowley is back in hospital. A drug overdose is hinted at in this piece.
Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley back in intensive care
Charlie Rowley’s brother says he was “released too early – suddenly let out of hospital and found it difficult to cope”.
Novichok poisoning victim Charlie Rowley is back in the hospital intensive care unit he was discharged from a month ago.
21t August 2018
He was taken there on Friday after falling ill at home where he was continuing his recovery from the effects of the nerve agent.
It is understood he is critically ill and being treated for something unrelated to the poisoning which almost killed him.
Before being poisoned, Mr Rowley had been dealing with personal problems, including a drug habit, according to friends.
His brother Matthew Rowley said: “He was released too early.
https://news.sky.com/story/novichok-poisoning-victim-charlie-rowley-back-in-intensive-care-11478168
The Heil this morning:
‘Chancellor forced to re-draft plans for a no-deal Brexit as ministers claimed they resembled ‘Project Fear’
Ministers are due to publish the first of 84 documents detailing contingency plans this week. Government sources said concerns were raised over the ‘tone’ of Treasury reports.’
Torygraph cartoon.
Keep Calm. Do Nothing.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/31/telegraph-cartoons-august-2018/
That didn’t copy. Paywall!.
It shows Theresa floating on her back in the sea with the cruise ship disappearing in the distance with the sharks circling around her.
I’m not sure finding a niche German philosopher to support your view adds a great deal. You could probably find one to support any view if you dig around enough.
I suspect that a bit more “state murder” of eg knife wielding gangs, drug dealers, child rapists etc would probably find strong public support even if subcontracted out.
Goodwin, what a load of clap trap. Living in a high knife violence area(and thought even one death is awful, it’s really not that bad and certainly not as common as the press would lead you to believe) the last thing anyone here would possibly want is a bunch of privatised poorly trained poorly paid goons marching about the place deciding who they thought were criminals or not. Publiv liablitly private sector is fundamentally incompetent. How can one expect organisations dedicated to their shareholders who refuse to invest in the quality of there employees to be good for anything. It’s a joke of a system.
Sounds like a return to the Black and Tans and a lot of good they did.
It would appear that Ethiopia might well be added to that list soon. The new PM there seems to have been selected by the US and he is inviting extremist Muslim elements from Eritrea and the governments of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to the country’s political power circles. The is real fear of a campaign of suppression against the Christians is in the works and the obvious target of ejecting China from it’s many projects in Ethiopia.
Good Morning all and happy returns Mr M.
State violence and violent states are designed to keep the established order secure.
We have done it for decades with child sex abuse by and for the puppet ‘leaders’. A superb link on the previous article comments, reveals a lot. The pakistani groomers are mere amateurs in comparision.
Our secret armies – where we recruit kids train and brutalise them and they leave at the ealiest opportunity from their ‘career’ in military to where exactly? Civvy street?
Many end up as ‘consultants’, paid off shore, tax free. Deployed on months long ‘tours’ with their US colleagues, banned from contacting friends snd family and social media – some on official government work others on non official govt contracts – private firms involved in resource stealing. These African refugees fleeing their homelands didn’t just wake up and pack one morning.
There are 10’s of thousands of such young people, ex-military, desensitised, detached from their locality and national culture – a pool of muscle being prepared to be called on to be the paramilitary of a police state. To break doors and carry away dissenters. To crack heads on the streets and run interment camps. To kill without question as long as they earn their tax free thousands and have their luxury Dubai pads.
An excellent topic to gets us out of the silly season. A fine retort to the hand wringing of a possible future acceptable face of a tory PM, Stewart. As well as the similiar contortions of La Toynbee in todays daily Groan.
Steve Bell’s ‘If’ returned too – with the has beans ready to jump!
Ah – another piece of toast and pot of tea – there is some unfinished business on the previous thread…
Apposite post. Erik Prince is back in Washington having another go at pushing for replacement of US forces in Afghanistan with mercs to be supplied by his own self.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/officials-worry-trump-may-back-erik-prince-plan-privatize-war-n901401
Prince is going to launch an aggressive media “air campaign” to bring Trump and his administration round to the idea. Expect plenty of air time on Fox “News”.
Trump has apparently seen Prince’s infomercial puffing the benefits of using mercs and liked it. Dear God, you could sell just about anything to grandpa if you flatter him and use a blond (from a bottle) to front the message.
Nice to see you’re back Craig, and trust you are well rested and recovered. Your latest piece makes for interesting reading and provides plenty of food for thought. Whilst I see that there have been plenty of early comments on what can only be described as the speculative hearsay article from last October’s Independent reporting that the British female Jihadist may have been killed in a Drone strike, in a far away land, by our erstwhile allies, there has been nothing said so far about your other link. That over 1600 UK residents have been unlawfully or accidentally killed by the Police since 1990 I find to be a shocking figure, bearing in mind that none of these victims were convicted of any crime, in fact, a large number, met their sad fate by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ve just totted up the figures from the link below which show that between 1900 & 1964; 827 Convicted men and women received the Death Penalty by hanging across the whole of the UK.
http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/hanging1.html
@Pyewacket You are seriously inaccurate- the number you quote is the number who died in police custody or “Following police contact” according to the Inquest charity. This includes natural causes and suicide, they were not all “killed by the police.”
My general impression is that very few readers of this blog have ever needed to physically restrain a very violent person. I’ve had to do so on many occasions (And I’m not a copper, by the way).
OK Pete, I stand corrected for using that phrase. They’re still disturbing numbers though even if some were due to suicide or natural causes whilst in custody as those certainly raise questions regarding Duty of Care. I also think it fair to add that to my knowledge no Police Officer has ever been charged with Unlawfull Killing, Manslaughter or Murder in relation to any of the 1600+ deaths, let alone tried in the Courts.
Oh I wouldn’t argue with you there. The case of Malcolm Kennedy is especially disturbing. You might also look up the murder of Daniel Morgan in Lewisham.
Is Rory Stewart still being groomed for leadership? He was a guest at Bilderberg some years ago, so I’ve always followed his career with interest.
Somehow I doubt it. I caught a glimpse of him on tv and he looks far too weird and weedy for a leadership role!
.
Having said that, he does appear to be a man of some talent.
Watch this space!
I thought that until this week. Now I dsagree. If Stewart he has been in post as prisons minister since January 2018, what has he been doing about the situation at Birmingham nick since then ? Having unproductive talks with G4S apparently while the situation there continued to deteriorate. He strikes me as out of his depth on this.
Spooky too. MI…?
Pure Deep State. Destined to dictate direction from a discreet perch.
Witness the outrageous move by the BBC to grant him his very own propaganda series in 2014. His thesis was that there was no cultural or political variance between the North of England and Scotland. Challenge the BBC to rerun that one given the Brexit outcome.
Scotland: 62% Remain. The two English regions bordering Scotland: 56% Leave.
Not that appearances should be important, but always reminded me of a drowned rat.
It now appear Vivian, that NHS health providers and NHS trusts, have come out and strenuously pointed out that a no deal, or hard Brexit, will see a serious depletion of available medications on day one of Brexit.
The trusts also added that there’s a real possibility of diseases spreading due to the lack of medicines available.
Millions of packets of medicines enter the UK every day from the EU.
Rory Stewart – Eton, spent his gap year doing 5 months as an officer in the Black Watch, Balliol College, was a private tutor to Prince William and Prince Harry when he was a student, foreeign office – Indonesia 1997, Montenegro 1999, Iraq 2003. From 2000 to 2002, he walked 6000 miles through Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Nepal and India.
He was initially in favour of the Iraq war, but after seeing the mess which followed he then changed his mind thinking that it was a mistake – millions of British people thought it was a mistake before it started and marched against the war, so Rory Stewart isn’t really that intelligent.
As Pete said, he was invited to Bildeburg in 2011.
Rory seems just about smart enough to be dumb as a bag of bolts. The deference accorded to people of the “right background” never ceases to depress.
Yes. Supposed clean skin.
Rory is one of the class of 2010. I would say firmly positioned in the bottom half of the group. Let’s see.
Amber Rudd: 1st SofS position May 2015, made it to Home Secretary 2016 – 2018, currently residing on the back benches, needs a seat with a safer majority.
Sajid Javid: 1st SofS position May 2015, Home Secretary as of April 2018.
Rory Stewart: Minister of State as of January 2018.
Andrea Loathsome: 1st SofS position July 2016, currently Leader of the House, shot her bolt in the leadership contest with Treeza.
Penny Mordaunt: 1st SofS position November 2017.
J. Reese-Mogg: Done nowt.
Esther McVey: 1st SofS position January 2018, lost her seat from 2015 to 2017, not a safe pair of hands.
On review, Javid looks like the next big thing if he keeps a clean house. Amber Rudd could return from the gulag, after all she fell on a sword that by rights belonged to Treeza. Really hard to see what anyone sees in JRM?
Whilst deaths in custody are reprehensible and the police and the judiciary have been lamentably slack in punishing those responsible there’s no evidence of the state sanctioning these killings. Likewise the description of Cressida Dick “orchestrating” the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes suggests it was pre-planned whereas Cressida couldn’t orchestrate a piss-up in a brewery. The truth is she lost control of the situation, her officers on the ground lost control of themselves and she then participated in the charade of smears and lies afterwards. Yes she should’ve resigned or been sacked; for gross incompetence.
As far as G4S and Birmingham Prison are concerned, and I guess this is what triggered this item, they, or at least their staff, seem to have become the victims of the violence; again as a result of their own failings.
Incidentally I’ve been attending my local hospital as an outpatient recently and all the porters are east-europeans in G4S uniforms.
“The truth is she lost control of the situation, her officers on the ground lost control of themselves and she then participated in the charade of smears and lies afterwards”
There was no “situation”. The victim was not acting suspiciously or strangely in any way. The only thing that set him apart from the thousands of other travellers that day was that he worked as an electrician for London Transport. Perhaps that is why he was targeted.
Yes the 3 bombs on the tube exploded at exactly the same time following a mysterious power surge that an LT electrician may have commented on and rather than arrest him for questioning I understand they waited till he was on the train before putting about 10 bullets in his head.
Song: Chris Wood – Hollow Point
https://m.youtube.com/watch?ebc=ANyPxKp92zd_ESkcT8v0OSBse2l5sMY3pfgmsENVM-kFT9478wLlCCipBMVBLxZDZ7n-dD_fyHIa&v=NVHCr-rP5MU
The first bomb was initially reported as a power surge.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/77-bombings-anniversary-the-independents-coverage-of-the-london-bombings-the-day-after-the-terror-10371320.html
The intriguing thing about Cressida Dick for me is the story about the police officer changing his written account of what happened in the control room that day, deleting a very telling line. Originally (if I remember rightly) the information came through that JCdeM was ‘not carrying anything’ so Cressida Dick gave the order to let him pass unhindered onto the tube, but she was overruled by an unidentified male person. Thus JCdeM carried on and was killed. So who was the unidentified male who had the power to overrule Cressida Dick?
#MrDeepState
Cressida Dick gave a “stop” order as JCdM was going into the tube, which translated to a kill order. Remember that the killer / assassin had been waiting outside in a parked car for his entry (giving him extra time to be in place since Dick has closed the previous subway for “security reasons” ) — and the subway car had been stopped for 5-6 minutes before the killing, waiting for it to happen….
” he worked as an electrician for London Transport ”
No he didn’t, he was on his way to Kilburn to repair a burglar alarm.
Dick was “Gold Commander” on the day so top of the command chain. I’ve not heard of her being overruled before.
Slight error: ‘Persuaded by’ rather than ‘over ruled’
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2008/10/mene-o17.html
Yes many hollow bullets to the head would indicate the intention was to remove all facial recognition, but why?
At the time of the 7/7 bombings I should have said.
I heard he was a CCTV repairman on his way to fix the cameras at Stockwell and then the Number 30 bus.
totally agree on Cressida Dick.
Absolutely scandalous she escaped all responsibility for the JC de M scandalous debacle. And then end up head of the Met!
It was a “scandalous debacle” in the sense that a contract killing is one.
Just announced in the Independent that charges dropped against ex-cop Norman Bettison relating to the deaths at Hillsbrough, again involving actions by the Police.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hillsborough-disaster-sir-norman-bettison-charges-drop-fans-blame-deaths-96-a8500716.html
Trust that there are no freemasonry connections at play!
1975 South Yorkshire Police as a Constable >through the ranks to Superintendent
1989 Hillsborough
1993 Assistant Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, where his portfolios included Management & Information Support, Personnel, and Operations Support
1998 Chief Constable of Merseyside Police – many affected by Hillsborough live in Merseyside. Laughing in their faces?
2005-7 Chief Executive of Centrex Ltd – training for police forces etc. Nice little earner.
2007 Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police – ‘ attempted to secure a package to receive both a retirement pension from Merseyside and a salary from the new post; threatened legal action but the claim was settled out of court.’ Of course it was.
2010 Bettison wrote an article in The Times saying “I’m not worth £213,000”; his annual cost to the tax payer when pensions and benefits are considered.
‘At the start of October 2012 he announced that he was to retire in March 2013, ending 38 years of service to the police. On 23 October 2012, Bettison resigned with immediate effect as Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police, after Maria Eagle MP on the floor of the House and thus protected by Parliamentary privilege, accused him of boasting about the Hillsborough cover-up operation involving concocting a story that all the Liverpool fans were drunk and that police were afraid that they were going to break down the gates and so decided to open them. Bettison denied the claim, and more general allegations about his conduct, saying “there is nothing I’m ashamed of”. Merseyside Police Authority confirmed that he would receive an £83,000 pension, unless convicted of a criminal offence in relation to Hillsborough. Hillsborough families called for the payments to be frozen during the IPCC investigation.’
Extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Bettison
He’s alive and well and free to go. 96 British citizens are not so lucky.
Retired
Alison Saunders is still heading the CPS who have decided to drop the charges against Bettison. Not sufficient evidence, etc etc.
I see she was the Deputy Legal Advisor to Peter Goldsmith who was the Attorney General in 2003 -2005 before she re-joined the CPS.
https://www.cps.gov.uk/basic-page/director-public-prosecutions
Peter Goldsmith – now Lord Goldsmith – He is currently head of European litigation practice at US law firm Debevoise & Plimpton and Vice Chairperson of the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Goldsmith,_Baron_Goldsmith
‘In his final advice to the Government, written on 17 March 2003, Goldsmith stated that the use of force in Iraq was lawful. This advice stated Goldsmith’s preferred view in more unequivocal terms than his earlier memo, without reference to the doubts expressed therein. This has led to allegations that Goldsmith succumbed to political pressure to find legal justification for the use of force against Iraq. Shortly after the leak Goldsmith released a statement in response to such allegations, saying that the two documents were consistent, pointing to the difference in the nature of the two documents and to the firm assurances he claims to have had received between 7 and 17 March that Iraq was indeed in breach of its obligations under Security Council resolutions.
The controversy was heightened by the resignation of Elizabeth Wilmshurst, deputy legal adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, on 20 March 2003.’
PS There is no mention of the death of Dr David Kelly in July 2003 in either of those two links.
Yes Pyewacket, it would appear that Sir Norman Bettison, has conveniently wriggled off the hook, so to speak.
The only consolation I suppose is that five officials, including the match commander will stand trial in January.
We await with bated breath, the outcome of those trials. I’m sure the affected families who lost love ones, feel exasperated.
The police and fans blaming each other for Hillsborough was always encouraged by the Thatcher government as part of the cover-up. The fans died due to an early establishment “kick racism out of football” campaign, under the guise of combatting hooliganism, because at that time the white working class were viewed as “deplorable” racists opposed to immigration and so could be treated like cattle!
Thatcher as Prime Minister was ultimately responsible, but those culpable would include the local council, emergency services, Football Association, MPs, Government and specifically the Minister who signed off installing concentration camp style fences at football grounds.
Whatever the fans and police had or hadn’t done would not have resulted in the disaster without the fence as the fans would have just spilled onto the pitch. You can be charged for manslaughter for blocking a fire exit and the fence blocked their fire exit and following the disaster all fencing was removed from football grounds, but there was no enquiry into who was responsible for putting them up despite the fencing breaking elementary health and safety rules, because the whole of officialdom was to blame in fear of being called racist.
Garth Carthy
August 21, 2018 at 11:26
Sure, But I go on what he says & has said. & he’s expressed this same notion regarding MP’s. That it’s “supposed” to be people you like representing your interests.
I don’t know where he gets this “history” from. But it’s not the function they’ve ever served or where mean’t to serve. I suspect it’s the same reason most people think America is a democracy & somethings just gone wrong, and we need to go back. etc.
It’s a very pernicious meme, & I suspect he meant just what he said, as he has said it before…
America – where prisoners make military/security(sic) equipment in a virtuous circle
And btw, I imply no bad faith in Craig’s take on this. Iv no doubt his intentions are good in fact, as are many others in the state.
Now what is ‘could’ be, that’s another question. We can discus that all we like, good thing to do IMO.
If you think the UK is a gangster state, you should try living in a gangster state.
You are incapable of understanding that
a) not all gangster states are identical
and that
b) our lot have had centuries more practice than most ?
Call to John: anyone with first-hand experience of “real life” in these true “Gangster States” have no difficulty appreciating at least some of the nuances.
That we (that is: Britain, Germany, USA, France… those at the “top table”) are better at all this manipulation and misinformation due to greater experience is inevitable, or at least to be expected.
It doesn’t change the fact that states act in variously gangster-ish ways, and that perfidious Albion is more deft than any other State. I think MarkB perhaps implied he’d rather have a UK passport than, say, a South Sudan one. As would we all. That’s all
The only differences are that our gangster states in the westr do it in a subtle way and also whenever something becomes dodgy it gets legalised. It is the same with so called official corruption, you don’t just pass a fiver to a police officer to avoid arrest or get on, you spend millions buying peerages and supporting the ruling party. And yes we would feel better off enjoying all the benefits of imperialism with a UK passport rather than a South Sudanese passport.
Mark started with “If you think the UK is a gangster state …”, which seemed a clear indication (to me) that he doesn’t think it is.
After four years in Turkey, three in China, six months in Serbia and stints in post-Zhivkov Bulgaria I couldn’t agree more MarkB.
This post by Mr Murray was quite likely a result of his watching “Eye in the Sky” (Helen Mirren, Alan Rickman), which was on Freeview pretty late the other evening. The Max Weber angle (& c.) was, methinks, a touch over-egged; the embellishment was a seasoning intended to provoke the usual clever-dick comments below the line, perhaps: the meat and two veg.
Either way, Mr M clearly has such a gnawing beef with HMG that he forgets those feelings most of us had when posted overseas to true “Gangster States”… We were (mostly) aware how blessed by birth we were to be able to walk (fly) away from it all, and certainly enjoyed the “warm glow” of diplomatic immunity while at post.
By any yardstick, he seems to have forgotten this universal sentiment of officers in such challenging postings. Perhaps as Ambo he felt this – briefly- less keenly than we underlings.
Well said, I believe you’re on the right track, MarkB
Absolutely! Craig clearly lost the plot a while back. Whilst his posts remain eloquent, I only come on here these days to have a laugh at the (substance induced?) left-wing-pseudo-pinko-psychobabble-conspiracy-theories in the comments section from readers who clearly have either too much time on their hands (courtesy of our benefits system?) and/or clearly haven’t spent as much time as I have in either the Middle East or 1970’s Eastern Europe and don’t realise just how bloody lucky they are.
Well well Mr Goodwin, nice nice.. However I do not share your vicarious enjoyment of the bellendery on this blog. Find it all rather depressing, vacuous and silly. I think this should be my last post… and I’ll try to avoid such tripe in the future.
Lesson learnt
Sadly I probably agree with you.
Today the bootleg liquor is oil, the boys they send round are armies and their drive-by shootings are A-10 strafings with depleted uranium. And of course the forgery, I mean money printing.
If Al Capone was alive today he wouldn’t go into organized crime and bribe officials. He’d go into Wall Street and own them.
DEATH TO THE WEST! …lol
“Death to the West? Corbyn’s foreign policy”- Novara https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxVi_EFuqNE
Btw, decided i can post. But I’m getting work done today (woodwork atm). May just drop in now & again.
Ishmael
You are simply addicted to posting. But you write well. Good luck with your woodwork.
I guess all those eviction notices got stuck in the post…
https://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Palestinians-to-Sort-10.5-Tons-of-8-Y-O-Israeli-Rejected-Mail-20180820-0019.html?utm_source=planisys&utm_medium=NewsletterIngles&utm_campaign=NewsletterIngles&utm_content=17
Thank you Craig.
Excellent, as ever, other than:
It appears to me in this sense it is fair to call Britain a gangster state. It has contracted out the exercise of state violence, including in *same* instances to the point of death, against prisoners and immigration detainees to companies including G4S, who exercise that violence purely for the making of profit from it.
Should perhaps be:
It appears to me that in this sense it is fair to call Britain a gangster state. It has contracted out the exercise of state violence, including in *some* instances to the point of death against prisoners and immigration detainees, to companies including G4S, who exercise that violence purely for profit.
Sajid is lining up for the succession race.
Windrush generation: Sajid Javid apology for removals
Eighteen members of the UK’s Windrush generation who could have been wrongfully removed or detained are to get a formal apology.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid said a review of 11,800 cases had identified the 18 as those “most likely to have suffered detriment because their right to be in the UK was not recognised”.
He will also direct them to a compensation scheme being set up.
Any who have left the UK will also be helped to return, Mr Javid said.
/…
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45258866
He is such a nice man, a very very nice man,
He did once say he would like to live in Israel though.
‘Javid’s political affiliations run counter to those of many British Muslims. He sides wholeheartedly with Israel. At a Conservative Friends of Israel event in 2012 he said that if he had to move to the Middle East it would be to Israel, where his family would feel “the warm embrace of freedom and liberty”. He strongly opposes the BDS movement and last year as communities secretary threatened to ban the Palestine Expo event in London after accusations that it had links to Hamas. ‘
https://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/sajid-javid-how-far-have-we-come-1601217426
“Palestine Expo event in London after accusations that it had links to Hamas.”
Sharp Ears.
At a rather inconvenient time, when Labour and Corbyn, appear to be under pressure on a number of issues. The proscribed group Hamas, has came out and praised Jeremy Corbyn.
The media are again, weaponising it.
I thought Hamas was created by Israel
Apparently half of the 164 Windrush removals and detentions began under Labour between 2002 and 2010 – when David Blunkett, Charles Clarke, John Reid, Jacqui Smith, and Alan Johnson were Home Secretaries.
Can’t see how a nation can be a gang? Is the nation run by a gang – no, it is a ‘democratically’ elected government. Is it a gang among other national gangs – no but it does have alliances? The tory party isn’t a gang as, like labour, it has a range of views within it that have a wide spectrum. There are rackets undoubtedly and continued electoral success extends and deepens the rackets available that impoverish and constrain the citizenry. Fragmentation and division in society is progressing, inevitable and only a major crisis (war) can reset the clock. The answers to the prison problems, lockheed, poverty etc are very simply addressed and remedied through the ballot box. No-one is holding a gun to our heads.
Oh yes! Let’s have some more war? Are you all there?
Yes, I’m all here thanks for asking. As someone even more all here observed that war is the locomotive of history. Please not that democracy and most significant progress followed wars – after which society slowly atrophies. War is both horrible and stupid – however, it’s not as if people don’t know how it ends.
“The tory party isn’t a gang as, like labour, it has a range of views within it that have a wide spectrum.”
Krondstat.
I doubt the above statement holds true, both parties put their interests before the people’s interests. As do other parties.
Both parties have hardliners, and moderates and both parties are at war with themselves, exactly because of conflicting opinions.
kronstadt
I hope you get bombed out of your house and home first, then. At least I’ll have ample warning to flee to safer parts.
Thinking about that lady who set fire to herself in Barnet Council’s Housing Dept. What had happened in her life?
Families ‘living in fear of bailiffs’ as household debt level hits £19bn
A charity says missed bills can skyrocket through penalties and reveals it helps someone with a bailiff issue every three minutes.
‘It found the biggest household debt is tax credit overpayments at £7.47bn, which needs to be repaid.
This is followed by council tax (£2.84bn); benefit overpayments (£2.66bn); water bills £2.20bn); rent arrears (£1.42bn), electricity and gas (£1.09bn); telecoms (£630m) and fines, fixed penalties and compensation orders (£610m).
The charity said an elderly couple who owed £700 in council tax are now afraid to open their front door after having a visit from bailiffs who were aggressive and threatened to call the police.
In another case, a man receiving cancer treatment who had missed a £30 parking fine found bailiffs in his home removing his belongings.’
https://news.sky.com/story/families-living-in-fear-of-bailiffs-as-household-debt-level-hits-19bn-11478231
It’s survival of the fittest in this cruel country now.
don’t you mean survival of the least fit?
When the Krays and the Richardsons did similar things it was called a protection racket. Now it’s called a business model.
Oxfam. There are enough of them – directors and trustees.
https://www.oxfam.org.uk/what-we-do/about-us/our-trustees?
It is chaired by that dreadful woman, the ex COO of the BBC who presided over the cover up of Savile with Mark Thompson the DG. She banned the airing of the DEC appeal for Gaza in 2008 and also banned the radio play by Caryl Churchill, Seven Jewish Children then.
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/international_politics/bbc%20firm%20on%20gaza%20appeal%20boycott/2910107.html
When she left she extracted a massive payout from the BBC (ie the licence fee payers) –
‘In 2011 she was paid £385,000 by the organisation. The Commons Public Accounts Committee suggested that her £670,000 redundancy pay-off was effectively paid to “compensate” her for missing out on the job of director-general. ‘
PS The Commons Accounts Committee was chaired by Margaret Hodge at that time!
Thomson is married to Lord Liddle. Liddle was an advisor to BLair. I won’t say any more. Liddle is chair of Policy Network and Communications Ltd, a Nu Labour outfit – Adonis and co – which I should imagine is leading the Remainers.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/03918992/officers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Thomson (Much evidence of Philip Cross in the edits!)
So in the light of the ever burgeoning private debt in this country it’s important people know their rights:
If your doors are locked, a bailiff cannot legally enter your home unless you invite them in.
But if they gain entry to your property through an unlocked back door, garage or shed bailiffs can get in and start taking your belongings!
BAILIFFS CAN:
Stay in your home for as long as required once they have gained entry.
Seize control of your belongings! They list them, so you cannot then dispose of them yourself, and return at a later date to take them away with a valid Notice of Intention to Re-enter. The notice of intention must give you at least two days clear notice and be signed by the bailiff.
Enter your house through a connecting door with an unlocked garage or building.
Force entry into your home if they have a warrant to do so.
Enter the main entrance to your block of flats, but if the door to your flat is locked they must then have your permission to enter.
Enter your property if they’ve been invited by a house or flat mate over the age of 16.
BAILIFFS CANNOT:
Enter your house between 9pm and 6am.
Climb over any walls, fences or get in through any windows.
Enter premises where only a child (under 16) or a vulnerable person is present.
Force their way past you if you answer the door to them.
https://www.m1debtsolutions.co.uk/bailiff-rights?network=g&device=c&campaignid=626877110&adgroupid=42318034058&matchtype=e&devicemodel=&keyword=bailiffs%20rights&creative=185459679734&adposition=1t1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImOKxhZ3-3AIVSpztCh19-AdMEAAYASAAEgJv0PD_BwE
**
@Mochyn69
Five stars
It has been announced that Nicola Sturgeon is to officially visit Catalonia soon. The invitation was made when Catalan President Quim Torra visited Scotland recently. Proving that freedom seeking Catalans still have friends elsewhere in Europe. And with Sturgeon, at least one of those friends who is leader of a country.
Sputnik calls a ‘Hunt’ a ‘Hunt’!
‘Britain’s Very Stupid Hunt’: https://sputniknews.com/columnists/201808211067362772-uk-hunt-sanctions-russia/
‘…Hunt’s surname is an apt example of how humorous London Cockney rhyming-slang works. In his case, a vulgar word is invoked by his surname to express a person encumbered by low intelligence.
Does Jeremy Hunt feel comfortable about trying to start World War III by pushing the Americans to ratchet up already provocative sanctions on Russia?
The British foreign secretary — who took over from Boris Johnson, another “stupid Hunt” — is urging Washington to get even tougher on Russia based on all sorts of outlandish allegations of Moscow’s “malign activity”….’
And the US is up to it’s tricks, blocking other country’s assets (it’s breaking, but appears to be thousands of millions of dollars, i.e. $b’s.
Considering that the UK is leaving the EU in a rather shoddy fashion, while being openly antagonistic towards Europe, one has to wonder at the ridiculous posturing of the UK Foreign Secretary in calling on the EU to impose yet more punitive sanctions on Russia, at the behest of the USG and their expensive gas interests, which will only further harm EU economies. The FCO seem to be a sub-section of the USG State Dept. these days.
Since USA does not have enough terminals to load LNG I understand it has been trading Russian LNG in tankers to European customers
As a geologist I can tell you that mainland Europe has no realistic alternative to Russian gas,. replacing 170 odd BCM of gas per year would require the combined LNG output of Qatar, Australia and Malaysia. The US does not have this capacity and is unlikely to get there in the visible future. There are also longer term issues with US shale gas reserves which are somewhat exaggerated. The terminals would require billions in capital costs. Also there is competition for LNG from Asia which would push costs to significantly more than Russian gas. What I would be scared of if I were a mainland European would be Russia switching markets to China. The power of Siberia pipeline links the Siberian gas fields directly to China. Why would the Russians sell gas to Europe which takes Gazprom to court?
Hunt is a ‘berk’, as any fule kno.
(derived from Berkshire Hunt)
Gordon Brown:
I see that the man who used the Nazi BNP slogan ‘British Jobs for British Workers’ at the 2007 Labour Party conference has got the nerve to criticise Jeremy Corbyn:
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/aug/15/antisemitism-row-corbyn-has-to-change-says-gordon-brown
I really do not think that Corbyn needs any advice from him at all!
”The contracting out of state violence for private profit ought to be unthinkable to any decent person ”- the key word here is decent . How many ‘decent’ people ever reach the heady heights were they may have a say in the ”contracting out of state violence ” – very few if any .
Labour scoring another own goal. They have criticised the SNP government for giving £135,000 to arms manufacturer Raytheon which has a plant in Fife. It turns out though that the Scottish Government gave the money on the strict proviso that it be used by the company to diversify into non-military products.
Even worse for Labour it now transpires – thanks to the ever excellent and vigilant Wings Over Scotland – that the Labour government in Wales recently gave £407,000 to the same Raytheon. Far worse for the ever hypocritical ‘People’s Party’, the money was given with no strings attached at all about using it for non-military diversification.
Indeed reel guid, lets not forget the roll the press have played in this fiasco. As you rightly point out Labour has given the money to promote arms sales, and not diversification.
Weapons sales in the UK, is a strictly retained matter for Westminster.
I have been looking through the online references to the deteriorating situation at Birmingham Prison this year and – nothing. Either there was a D notice or no one was talking on the grounds of ” commercial in confidence ” while the MoJ negotiated with G4S on what to do. But if the latter you would have expected some news of “trouble at prison” to have surfaced somewhere even if it was just in Private Eye.
I watched the news channels last night and clearly none of the MSM had anything on file about it: no one had any background information to add beyond a couple of hastily recorded on the spot interviews with just released prisoners outside the gaol. How come nothing leaked out?
Simply read Wikipedia on G4S to see how 7 years of disaster at B’ham has been the signature of G4S
Sorry that he and his sons were killed but to hear that Richard Cousins left £41 in his will demonstrates how lucrative the outsourcing game is.
Businessman Richard Cousins ‘leaves £41m’ to Oxfam
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45256241
He was the CEO of Compass Group to whom many of the NHS’s services are outsourced. In my hospital, cleaning, portering and telephony, catering and medical records were handed over to them and that was a few years back. Probably more now. In each of those departments, the in house members of staff either left or were taken on at reduced rates of pay and employment rights.
eg ref Medirest, which is one of their subsidiaries.
Medirest secures new contract with London North West Healthcare NHS Trust
February 14, 2017
London North West Healthcare NHS Trust has teamed up with Medirest, part of Compass Group UK & Ireland, to streamline and improve its outsourced Soft Facilities Management (FM) services, across its hospital and community sites.
Starting in March, the five year contract worth an estimated £19 million in turnover per year, will see a team of around 600 people deliver cleaning, patient catering, portering and security services.
https://www.compass-group.co.uk/media/news/medirest-secures-new-contract-with-london-north-west-healthcare-nhs-trust/
Multi tentacled as you can see. In Canada and the US and at the UN and with US and other armed forces in Kuwait and Iraq.. £22billion turnover. Revolting.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compass_Group
Another example in true NHS England nuspeak/jargon
‘Foodbuy Category Tower 10 – Food Foodbuy is a leading food procurement organisation based in the UK. With over £1bn of managed spend, they bring together the widest range of foodservice and hospitality clients in the world to buy food, and everything associated with it. Foodbuy works closely with their clients to deliver expert procurement services, saving both time and money and enabling them to focus on what really matters to their businesses. Part of Compass Group UK and Ireland, who are Foodbuy’s parent company and largest client, Foodbuy purchases directly from manufacturers and growers. Their suppliers range from the most recognised brands in the industry, to regional and local providers. With a team of 200 procurement professionals, Foodbuy’s combination of unrivalled scale and outstanding data analysis sets them apart in their markets.’
https://www.supplychain.nhs.uk/icc/~/media/Files/News/DH%20FOM%20-%20Phase%202%20Announcement_FINAL%20v3.ashx
I imagine clever accounting is employed. Medirest buy from Foodbuy and so on.
Let’s hope Oxfam spend the legacy wisely and do not fritter it away on executive salaries.
I wonder what the public’s reaction will be to these privateer parasites when their companies start refusing treatments and people die from curable conditions?. They’re capitalists, they’re rapacious, it’s going to happen.
China has already implemented the Social Credit System. Which in short means that if you’re a good, compliant, patriotic, eyes shut to government corruption and violence type of Chinese citizen.
Then you’ll be first to get hospital appointments and treatment, your kids will receive places in the best schools etc. There’s a long list of benefits in China that are accessible if your Social Credit rating is good. However if it’s bad then you’re in trouble.
China is trying out the same kind of system with foreign companies wanting to export and trade with China. The higher the company scores, the better its trading rights are with China.
It is really Norman England reborn.
Good to see that you are back, and still providing us with useful food for thought. Your previous piece was so good that there was a certain rightness in having it at the top of the site for a few weeks.
With regard to this piece, 3 comments:
1) You write: ” Tories here includes Blairites.” To be honest, I would describe Theresa May as a Blairite. There are very few respects in which she differs from Blair.
2) Contracting out state violence to profit making companies does not seem to me to be much worse than for the state to do the violence itself. Is it really worse to do it for profit than to do it to retain power?
3) It increasingly seems to me that in practice, all states are gangster states, to a greater or lesser degree. Yes, Britain is more of a gangster state than it used to be – or perhaps I am just older and wiser now – but has it not always, to some degree, been pretty much a gangster state? The aim is surely to be for the state to do as little violence as possible, and thus be as little of a gangster state as possible.
In the Latin world, Britain has always generally been regarded as a pirate state. The Soviet leadership saw it as even more irredeemable than the USA. I doubt the Skripal baloney will have much altered that impression in Russia.
The Soviet leadership is now in history’s dustbin, where it belongs, thanks in no small part to Britain and the USA
Except the US and UK never wanted or anticipated the collapse and Thatcher was hostile to its by product, a reunited Germany.
Mitterand too, and in many respects they were not wrong. Had Kohl been a true “European” he could have had East Germany inside the EU without pursuing a nationalist solution and up-ending the ERM and falsifying the Maastricht Criteria for the Euro
I concur. I also admire your blog and the content. What is the location in your banner photo if you don’t mind me asking?
Thanks for your kind words. The photo shows Sandwood Bay in NW Sutherland, taken from a hill called An Grianan.
Thanks. It is a very beautiful place. I read up about John Muir and his life’s work.