Cui Bono? David Leask, Ben Nimmo and the Attack on Ordinary Scottish Nationalists 1068


We know for certain that the Integrity Initiative targets Scottish Nationalists, because two of its luminaries, otherwise unconnected to each other, David Leask and Ben Nimmo, collaborated on a massive attack piece in the Herald identifying individual SNP supporters as “Russian Bots”.

Ben Nimmo works for the Atlantic Council, funded inter alia by NATO. He is also on a retainer of £2,500 per month from the Integrity Initiative, in addition to payments for individual pieces of work. For his attack on Scottish Nationalists Nimmo was therefore paid by the Atlantic Council (your taxes through NATO), by the Integrity Initiative (your taxes) and by the Herald (thankfully shortly going bankrupt). Leask claims to have received nothing but a cheese sandwich from the Integrity Initiative, but has briefed them in detail on Scottish nationalism, attended their seminars, and they have included Leask’s output in their “outcomes” reports to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (on which more in a few days’ time).

I took apart Leask and Nimmo’s horrendous attack at the time, revealing among other things that one of Nimmo’s criteria for spotting a Russian bot or troll was use of the phrase cui bono.

Nimmo’s role as witchfinder-general for Russian Bots appears very remunerative. His August 2016 invoice to The Institute for Statecraft, apparently the 71st invoice he had issued to various neo-con bodies that year, was for £5,000.

It is interesting that rather than sort code and account number, his invoice gives IBAN and BIC, used for payments coming from abroad.

There is a very important aspect of the detailed minute of David Leask’s briefing for the Integrity Initiative, which CommonSpace cut out of the extracts which they published. Leask says that the Integrity Initiative are “pushing at an open door” with the SNP leadership and the editors of The National, who he characterises as reliably anti-Russian and pro-NATO:

YATA – there would probably be a lot of studenty anti-NATO responses. But that might be more of a reason to do it. But SNP reversed NATO policy when it realised what Russia was up to (under influence of Nordic/Baltic allies)
 Mainstream politicians don‟t want to challenge the fringe normally but they’re starting to. Stewart McDonald (defence spokesman) pitching NATO – “friends in Norway, Balts etc are in it”. SNP foreign policy chiefs have very anti-Kremlin, anti-RT, pro-Ukraine rhetoric.
 Immigration not an issue in Scotland.
 Pushing at open door – allies in Scotland about disinformation. Putin may want to sow discord among Scottish nationalists. Pro-independence sister paper had headline complaining Russian trolls attacking Sturgeon. http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16094929.SNP_top_brass_warn__Sturgeon_is_being_targeted_by_Kremlin_trolls/
Yes campaign had attacks on servers and cyberactivity, thought it was the Brits but then concluded it was probably Russians. http://www.heraldscotland.com/politics/referendumnews/15771388.Yes_leaders__Don_t_be__naive__about_Russian_online_meddling_in_independence/
 SNP going to Ukraine – to reassure allies they are not pro-Russian.

I am afraid Leask is not wrong. The continual willingness of the SNP leadership to endorse Britnat anti-Russian rhetoric without question is a nagging worry for many nationalists. Precisely the same department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which funds the Integrity Initiative, funds the Westminster Foundation for Democracy which paid for this joint Britnat/SNP leadership group event at the last SNP Conference, featuring a Ukrainian politician also used by the Integrity Initiative.

Read that carefully, and note that it is not just a discussion on the Ukraine – no harm in that – but one which is openly anti-Russian. The very title, on countering Russian disinformation, is literally straight out of the Integrity Initative’s handbook. Two SNP MP’s took part, including the foreign policy spokesman.

Remember that meeting was on the conference fringe at which I was not permitted to hold a meeting on preparing for Indyref II. An awful lot of Nicola loyalists tell me that, in appearing at present to be much more interested in keeping the entire UK in the EU, rather than striking for Scottish Independence, the leadership are playing a brilliant tactical game.

Other explanations are available.

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1,068 thoughts on “Cui Bono? David Leask, Ben Nimmo and the Attack on Ordinary Scottish Nationalists

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  • Trowbridge H. Ford

    Why do people keep dreaming about people who are dreaming about America, Israel, Europe, you-name-it. The world remains essentially a crap hole, just gets bigger and bigger?

    Dr. King was the greatest dreamer, and he soon got blown to oblivion.

  • michael norton

    Paris burns (again): Fires burn in French capital as Yellow Jacket activists are blasted with tear gas during clashes with police in seventh consecutive weekend of protests to pile pressure on Emmanuel Marcon to sling his hook.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6537891/French-police-fire-tear-gas-yellow-vest-demonstrators-Paris-demonstrations-continue.html

    It has been said that France is the fifth largest economy in the World and the U.K. the sixth.
    I expect after seven weeks of burning and disruption, France will soon be tipping into recession.

        • michael norton

          Well I agree with laguerre, that it is much smaller over Christmas, the Yellow Jackets think New Years Eve and Day are going to be BIG..
          Can the FRENCH Economy keep taking these hits, without firms going bust or workers getting sent home, I doubt it.
          Many shopping centers will go broke.
          Shopping centers are already on their knees.
          Macron keeps putting taxes up, not because he gives on jot for Global Warming, if the twat did, he would not keep flying all over the World, he needs the money to pay for all the people who work for the state.
          France has the highest proportion of state employees in Europe, probably the World, it is just not sustainable.
          The leader of Renault is languishing in a Japanese jail.
          France is looking like a busted flush.

          • Xavi

            He doesn’t keep putting up taxes. His first order of business was to remove the wealth tax from the ultra rich as a matter of priority, replacing it with a tax on the hardest pressed workers. (Even though like all the elites he’s well aware that 90% of global warming is being caused by about 70 TNCs). Macron’s plan is to shrink the state – emulating Schroeder and Merkel’s neoliberal reforms, which have made Germany the most unequal society in Europe.

          • laguerre

            Nick

            “This isn’t going to go away, however *they* paint it.”

            It’s already going away (unless you only read British media, who have an agenda to fulfill). Mainly because there’s nothing to be done. You can’t turn the economy around in a couple of days, we’re talking about generational change.

          • michael norton

            Sir John Redwood writing in his blog on Friday, said the United Kingdom would “CASH IN” if it left without an agreement as it would not have to hand over £39bn to the E.U. and would be able to spend the money instead on public services.
            https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46700430
            We should also tell Macron to stick Hinkley Point C where the Sun don’t shine.

          • laguerre

            Norton

            If Britain doesn’t want the French EDF in Hinkley Point, they can cancel the contract. I’m more worried about Chinese involvement. Having a major enemy in charge of a nuclear installation in Britain is insane.

          • Deb O'Nair

            “Having a major enemy…”

            Ridiculous nonsense. China is not an enemy, it is not even a competitor. Britain is a largely irrelevant pip-squeak to the Chinese.

          • laguerre

            debonair

            “Having a major enemy…”

            Go and complain to the British government, it’s their point of view.

    • laguerre

      Ah the Mail! Always honest and accurate, isn’t it? Never has an agenda, does it (even after Dacre left)?

      The photo in Le Parisien (local paper) has about a hundred demonstrators in front of France Television, and nobody on the Champs Elysées. The French plods say a total of 800 in Paris. That’s going to bring down the state, is it?

      • michael norton

        France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire has described the situation as ”a crisis for the economy, the society and democracy.”

        Mr Le Maire said: “We must expect a new slowdown of economic growth at year-end due to the yellow vest protests. It is a catastrophe for trade, it is a catastrophe for our economy.

        “Our country is deeply divided, between those who see that globalisation has benefited them and others who can’t make ends meet, who say globalisation is not an opportunity but a threat.
        https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1065107/Emmanuel-Macron-news-Macron-ousted-2019-yellow-vest-protests-france

        I wonder if Emmanuel will address the people on New Years Eve.
        He could beg for forgiveness, for tollerence, for time to get his story straight.

    • MaryPau!

      I wish I could find the comment where I predicted this on Social Europe shortly after he was elected. (rolls eyes)

    • N_

      I expect after seven weeks of burning and disruption, France will soon be tipping into recession.

      Probably soon, yes. And the protestors haven’t even tried much to hit the economy yet. Finance capital is NOT going to like the increase in the (official) minimum wage.

  • michael norton

    The Americans are leaving for Iraq.
    https://www.rt.com/news/447678-us-withdrawal-syria-begins/
    Turkish media says the US Army troops have abandoned a base in north-eastern Syria, in the first reported case of the Donald Trump-announced general pullout going ahead.
    Some 50 US soldiers left in Hummer armored vehicles and military trucks, leaving behind an empty 400-square-meter warehouse in the Al-Hasakah Governorate, the Anadolu news agency said Saturday. The troops went to the neighboring Iraq, the report said, adding that previously the warehouse was used for supplying weapons and equipment to Kurdish YPG militias.

    I expect there is some communication between Trump and Putin over the retreat of America.
    Some will want The Donald’s nuts roasted, over this.

    • Dungroanin

      There certainly is communication between the partners of Astana – the ones that matter.

      ‘The Kremlin said in a statement on Friday that Putin and Merkel reviewed in details issues related to the crisis in Syria, with emphasis on applying the decisions of the quadripartite summit between Russia, Turkey, Germany, and France, which had affirmed commitment to Syria’s unity, sovereignty, and independence, and that there is no alternative to the political solution for the crisis.’
      https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=154536

      Note how the Micron was a irrelevant party in that negotiation and has careered off-piste and over the cliff on his desires for Syria since.

    • laguerre

      Asad is the big winner out of this, a comment I made a few days ago, and was ridiculed for, but it is true. The Kurds have had to switch allegiance (they always knew this was a likelihood, but expected it later). An indicator is that they always protected the surviving Syrian base in Qamishli. When the Yanks wanted them to destroy it, they attacked for a day, and then stopped. They’ve continued to dicker with Asad, even when US pressure was strong.

      US withdrawal and the switch of allegiance reconsolidate Syria. Rojava will be autonomous, and largely unarmed (in order to satisfy Erdogan). Erdogan will have to stop. Asad and Erdogan are capable of making a deal (under Russian arrangement, no doubt). The Sunni Arab tribes of the Jazira (the Arab name for north of the Euphrates) will join in exterminating the remains of Da’ish, who will be losing much of their local support. The Syrians will have to be delicate in their treatment of former rebels, which they are capable of doing (unlike their neighbours in the Iraqi government) – up to 20% of Syrian army units are said to be former rebels, according to one statement from a Syrian officer.

      • michael norton

        Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army

        I wonder if the Turkoman
        will be welcomed back into the fold of a resurgent Syria,
        my guess is they will have to move to Turkey
        or it might all kick-off again, when Erdogan presses the button.

        • laguerre

          Erdogan the megalomaniac is mainly obsessed by preventing the rise of an independent Kurdish state on his borders, which might support an independence movement among the Kurds within Turkey. In my view, he should have maintained the policy of integration of Turkish Kurds which existed before his rise to power. He chose otherwise, a conflictual policy, and what we see today is the consequence. I suspect it was his electoral base in Turkish Anatolia that drove him.

          I wouldn’t think that the Syrians are all that bothered about expelling Turcomans (= ethnic Turks). Asad is more interested in reuniting the country, and that involves a deal with Erdogan (organised by Putin).

      • MaryPau!

        I thought Erdogan was implacably opposed to both Kurds AND Assad in no particular order. Deal unlikely with either.

    • bj

      Being smeared as an anti-semite equals being on the just side of things, nowadays.

      I think I’m going to immerse myself in some jazz, the coming week.

    • laguerre

      Par for the course from the Zionist camp. It’s difficult for us poor partisans for Palestine to defend against such a well-organised and well-funded organisation. Change will not come until the present process of hollowing out of Israel, with the young not wanting to fight, and leaving for more peaceful prospects elsewhere, has reached a more advanced stage. The Israeli terrestrial army is already useless for purpose (failed against Gaza in 2014), only the airforce still functions.

    • laguerre

      By the way, Sharp Ears, I much resent the accusation made against you earlier, that you offend against the rules by only citing links. One can make a valid comment by citing information, as you do.

      • Sharp Ears

        Thanks for that laguerre. I ignored it. I am not one to fill up the board with a load of hot air and ‘opinion’. Some on here like the sound of their own voices. There are also agendas too.

        • BrianFujisan

          I Second Laguerre

          What the Fuck is it..when we can’t Highlight those that Know more than us. Like the White Helmet Expose..Vanessa..and Eva.

        • Ian

          But you do flood the board with opinion and the sound of your own voice. You just think it is ‘objective ‘, which saves you the bother of defending any of those opinions. Rather lazy and smug.

    • Deb O'Nair

      As someone who lives in Islington I can say from personal experience that the council is staffed by some truly diabolical types. It seems the higher up you go in Islington council the worse kind of person you are; corrupt, lying and deviant. As a left leaning individual I find it farcical that anyone thinks that Islington Labour party councillors, or Emily Thornberry (wife of some elitest knighted high court judge) for that matter, are anything other than establishment supporting right-wing neoliberals who just stick on the red rosette to attain the votes they need to get the power they covet. IMO Thornberry is the leading contender to do a hatchet job on Corbyn should he get elected as PM, a kind of political sleeper to be activated in an emergency. Dimbleby even postulated (i.e. planting the idea in the public imagination) the possibility of her leading Labour when he introduced her once on QT.

  • Dungroanin

    The trolls are on hols on Hardings Groaniad piece? It seems normal.

    Having driven by, it seems that there aren’t so many of the chindits on duty tonight. Is that the same across all boards?

    If so, then i suspect it is the quiet before the dawn. The big attack is going to be launched both brexit and post brexit must be saved from the Corbynites open and expectant hands. All DS hands to the pump!

    National unity government sans an election anyone?

    Unanimous, says MR SPEAKER – passed!
    Roll up, roll up for a british coup.

    Happy new year all.

    • laguerre

      I didn’t read Harding’s piece, as I knew what it was going to say.

      In the big attack, the question must be how to convince Moggites to vote for May. If the aim is No-Deal, no effort is needed.

      I imagine that Tory whips have spent every moment of Xmas in trying to convince Tory MPs to vote for her. I have no idea whether they will succeed. If it were me, I would not accept a solution which puts Britain permanently in a bad situation, just to have a solution. Better to go to the brink to get a new referendum, which will decide whether Britain really wants no-deal exit, or remain.

      • MaryPau!

        surely the EU reps could fix all this with a deal on the back stop to provide an option out for the UK should it be required? The argument is that that would encourage the Moggites to seek more concessions, so cannot be offered. Is that really why?

        • Laguerre

          A backstop is a backstop, not something to throw out the window if a politician happens to have indigestion one day. Nobody’s forcing Britain to shoot itself in the foot by leaving the EU (or perhaps: in the head).

    • SA

      Dungroaning
      Do you realise what you have just said?
      “National unity government sans an election anyone?”
      The anti Corbynist Blairites would embrace that with great zest as it would be an open invitation to officially blast the leader.

      • Dungroanin

        SA. Exactly so (i meant to imply a poison chalice anyone?)

        Such a travesty would is the ‘backstop’ to avoid calling a GE in which Labour steamrolled in enough new candidates and a majority, to override any NulabInc survivors from ennacting the radical Labour policies.

        The backstop to that backstop is for the PM to resign and for HMQ to invite JC to form a minority government – one that would be ineffective and unable to enact the radical policies – but he could then eventually call a election – that is why there is the poison chalice talk.

        The DS is doing everything to keep this government afloat! It wore through its fingernails months ago.

        The bs ‘coalition’ plan is a plan for a coup, without calling it one.

        It’s purpose is hard brexit – an escape from tax and regulation harmonisation under CJEU – which leads to an end tax avoidance and secret offshore entities and closing of the tax gap.

        We are going to have to revolt to preserve our democracy, if that happens. A whole new STOP THE CITY.
        I am updating my yellow vest wardrobe.

    • Sopo

      Re Harding, email to their readers editor

      Dear Sir/Madam

      The Guardian has today run another story by Luke Harding. I find this puzzling, given that Harding’s piece prior to this, which included the claim Paul Manafort had secret meetings with Julian Assange inside the Ecuadorean embassy, has been strongly criticised, undermined by subsequent disclosures, and, still, one month on, The Guardian has failed either to produce evidence to corroborate Harding’s explosive claim or to retract the story. I note also that The Guardian editor, Kath Viner, refuses to address any of the issues connected to Harding’s story.

      And yet, for all that, Harding today once again has another, not so explosive, but clearly important, viz UK public understanding/sentiment regarding Russia, story running in your pages. Is this one factually-based this time? A side question, that. My single question being: At what point in time will the Guardian’s editor acknowledge that Harding’s Manafort piece was simply ‘fake news’ or, alternatively, provide the world with evidence that supports Harding’s claim?

      Sincerely,

      Jason Kennedy

  • BrianFujisan

    Some were worried about About the Yellow Vests at oor Independence marches.. Listen Up .. it wont Happen..Understood Mi6.

    • bj

      There WILL be a moment and a momentum that the police, the army, the intel-services will NOT be able to stop.

      It will be the moment most of the police, many from the army, and only the smartest from the intel community will
      know that their cause, and loyalty, lie with the population.

  • Blunderbuss

    Sussex Police still being evasive about drones:

    https://www.itv.com/news/2018-12-29/some-gatwick-drone-sightings-may-have-been-police-device-officer-admits/

    1) “Police have not yet found the drone used to disrupt around 1,000 flights last week and do not know its model, but two drones found by police near the airport have been ruled out of involvement”.

    If they do not know the model, how can they rule out the two drones found?

    2) “Police received 115 reports of sightings in the area, including 92 which have been confirmed as coming from “credible people”.”

    How many of the 115 reports were of sightings of police drones?

    • michael norton

      what about the cyclist who was “spotted” packing away a four foot drone into his pannier?

      • MaryPau!

        The person reporting the drone sighting seemed genuine enough and it is possible, as with some of the Skripal accounts, was a genuine member of the public who spotted something of interest and took the story direct to the press not the police. (Must admit my original reaction was that it was a motorized bike). Ditto the video footage – has that been sourced BTW? Sussex police claim not to have access to it.!

        I cannot decide if this was a simulated drone attack by the authorities to cover up a cyber attack, or a real drone attack by “enemies” or just some local idiots messing around. Whatever, Sussex police have come across as idiots.

        • michael norton

          My best guess would be this
          The British Aurthorities were at some time expecting a cyber attack, as drones are sometimes flown near airports, their bak-up story would be to shut the airport down, whilst claiming malicious drones over the airport.

          So a cyber event happened, cover story is drone incidents.
          Next up find some patsy people who would after a day or two pan out as wholly inocent, mean while things have gone cold, old as the hills, slight of hand movements.

          • Deb O'Nair

            And what about the timing with regard to the sale of Gatwick to a French outfit a week or so later? My guess is that the media-driven hoax gives the government an excuse to enact more power over drone users and throw £100’s millions of tax-payer money at some foreign defence contractors, to gain the usual financial and political kickbacks.

          • Deb O'Nair

            If it were a cyber attack wouldn’t they just blame the Russians and start squealing for more sanctions?

    • SA

      BB
      In this post truth fact free world where some people can still deny scientific evidence for for example man-made-climate-change, where the Guardian can publish sightings-of-Manafort and where Caroline can publish freely in the Observer about-non-existent-Russian -manipulation-of-Brexit-vote, where unfeasible door handle-novichok-most-poisonous-substance-on earth-that-kills-super-fast-takes-several-hours-not-to-kill-two-targeted-individuals (I could go on) I think it is understandable that Sussex police can at the same time confirm and deny drone sightings.
      Gone are the days when anyone can read the news as a presentation of facts, News now is the transmission of the version of events as the PTB want to present them for the purpose of propaganda. Therefore one believes in whichever propaganda suits their own beliefs or purposes. Some people do it passively without thinking, others positively convince themselves that their echo chamber is the correct one.

      • Tom Welsh

        “Gone are the days when anyone can read the news as a presentation of facts…”

        …which is a big step forward for the authorities who wish to repress democracy, prevent free discussion and impose their version of all events.

  • MaryPau!

    Regarding the Gatwick airport drone attack, which has more or less disappeared from the MSM, (apart from an extraordinary assertion by Sussex’s Chief Constable that the arrest of the innocent couple was justified in order to clear their names, despite evidence they were elsewhere at the time), Mr. Pau!, who is about as far from a conspiracy theorist as it is possible to be, is convinced the Russians were responsible, in retaliation for the Skripal affair.

    • N_

      Russia responsible for what? If anything, more likely to have been cyber than drones. (And why would they want to retaliate for the Skripal case?) More likely still, though, the event was connected with the sale contract and not with Russia.

      • N_

        We know the British authorities are lying, but we don’t know about what. If it was a cyberattack, they could have made out it was drones. Sure, that doesn’t look good, but nobody doubts that they CAN shoot drones down. It’s just that nearby residents would be at risk. If it was a military attack by a foreign power, though, they could in principle put a large area under martial law. A cyberattack is a different kettle of fish. With a cyberattack they might not have much of a clue what they’re up against, just as in Estonia in 2007. Thus it could make them look much worse than a drone attack would, not to the bulk of the home population, but to certain smaller markets.

        • Blunderbuss

          Have I got this right? There was a cyber attack that shut down air traffic control. To avoid admitting that the ATC system is vulnerable to cyber attack, the authorities made up the story about drones.

          • Blunderbuss

            But I still think the most likely explanation for the Gatwick airport shutdown was to prepare us for a no-deal Brexit.

          • Blunderbuss

            Can one mop up drones with a magnet? Probably not. I expect they are all plastic and light alloy.

          • Spencer Eagle

            It was a distraction event aimed at Brexit and a legislative push at drones all in one. Of all the tech out there, besides strong encryption, the drone is what the government fears and intends to get the muppets in parliament to rubber stamp a ban/licensing onto the books. Imagine the poll tax riots or the miners strike with civilian drones able to film and report back on police positions and numbers? It isn’t about public safety, it’s about establishment safety.

        • Isa

          If there were any drones at all these were operated by idiots . The amount of times this has happened in so many airports across Europe is countless but with far less coverage or hassle made of it in the média . Only we don’t make such a fuss about it to pass it as s Russian drone disruption . The latest on the issue is pointing that the actual drone sightings were of police drones , this coming from Sussex police . On the other hand , drones , danger to planes , such a nice story to exploit and use the Russia did it innuendo . I put nothing past these people , especially now that the Integrity Initiative has been exposed , the New Knowledge crowd responsible for a report on Russia meddling being exposed as the creators of an army of fake accounts pretending to be Russian compromising the NYT, guardian and narrative . What a nice distraction it proved . I put nothing past them , they’re capable of anything .

        • MaryPau!

          Mr.Pau! thinks the Russians were just demonstrating how easily they could cause us major disruption if they wanted to. I am still cross about the accused couple and seriously underimpressed by Det Chief Shot Jason Tingley. Is he really the best we can do?

          • Isa

            Unless you put regulations in place that force registration of data of the buyers of technically more advanced drones ( ie that can fly higher and are meant for adults ), this will be a recurrent . We had to do this in Portugal as Lisbon airport kept being disrupted by pranksters or careless people doing it .
            What the police and media did to that couple was totally outrageous and it now seems that the drone sightings by the public were of police drones .

            the media exacerbated it and so did social media users to an extent where it could be exploited . I can’t blame Mr Paul , we’ve been relentlessly hit with Russia did it craziness .

            Isn’t that how the integrity initiative works ? Take some real cases and exacerbate these on social media and blame Russia ?

            It’s s curious incident judging by the police statements yesterday and I fear that it was quite inflated .

          • Blunderbuss

            It seems that drone incursions at airports are a regular occurrence so why did the Gatwick one result in such a huge over-reaction?

        • Tom Welsh

          N_, thank you for making that canonical statement about the times we live in.

          “We know the British authorities are lying, but we don’t know about what”.

    • Blunderbuss

      What astonishes me is that the British government has NOT claimed that Russia is responsible.

      • Dungroanin

        Well if it was a shutdown to have a clean hand-over to the new owners… that is a whole new can of worms!

        The full cordon, police, MoD event suggests a lot more than an errant drone hobbist.

      • Dungroanin

        Well a lot of people were terrorised by the event – many lives and xmas’s were disrupted, for some malign purpose, political or economic.

        • remember kronstadt

          Well a lot of people were terrorised by the event

          Because they were safer on the ground?

          • Dungroanin

            Some couldn’t get to Lapland to see Santas grotto.
            Others couldn’t get to their families for xmas.
            Because someone wanted them to suffer and scare the public.

            That is terrorism isn’t it?

  • Spaceman

    ‘an awful lot of Nicola loyalists tell me that, in appearing at present to be much more interested in keeping the entire UK in the EU, rather than striking for Scottish Independence, the leadership are playing a brilliant tactical game’

    Details on said brilliant tactical game?

      • SA

        UDI
        Day 1: Euphoria in the streets of major Scottish towns with St Andrew’s flag waving.
        Day 2. Faslane and several ‘sovereign’ British bases declare state of emergency because of endangered vital national security.
        Day 3. The army surrounds Hollyrood.
        Day 4. Bank of England restricts fluidity to Scottish banks.
        Day 5. NATO alerted about threat, amassed NATO troops in Scottish water.
        Day 6. Scottish government surrenders without conditions.
        Day 7. Announcement of end of UDI. ‘Traitors’ apprehended and will stand trial.

  • N_

    British defence secretary Gavin Williamson wants lot more British military bases around the world, including East of Suez/

    ‘For so long – literally for decades – so much of our national view point has actually been coloured by a discussion about the European Union. This is our moment to be that true global player once more – and I think the armed forces play a really important role as part of that.’

    Williamson said he was looking at opportunities to establish a UK presence ‘not just in the Far East but also in the Caribbean as well’.

    He declined to identify possible locations, but the Telegraph quoted a source close to the Defence Secretary as saying that new bases, housing service and maintenance staff, supply ships and equipment, could be sited in Singapore or Brunei in the South China Sea, or Montserrat or Guyana in the Caribbean ‘within the next couple of years’.”

    He’s worth his backhanders from weapons companies, but this is totally batshit!

      • N_

        Possibly yes.

        Meanwhile the Tory gutter press (Sun and Daily Mail) are calling for the British navy to seize “smugglers’ boats” in Calais.

        So far the cabinet minister being referenced is Sajid Javid rather than Jeremy Hunt or Gavin Williamson or Theresa May herself but that is likely to change.

        Things are moving towards a psychologically high-impact event of the kind that made me refer to Gustave Le Bon. It could be a couple of shots being fired. It’s strongly looking like a “No Deal” Brexit now. There is no such event that could raise mass support for Deal Brexit.

        Batten the hatches.

        • Blunderbuss

          Why is there no interest (in either Britain or France) in arresting the people smugglers. Is people-smuggling legal?

          • MaryPau!

            There was an interview in the media yesterday with a French guy (going from memory here I think he was French) who claims he sold his dinghy recently in what he thought was a genuine sale, to an English buyer with all relevant paperwork etc, and next thing was he saw it in the media, transporting Iranians, we are told they are Iranians, across the Channel. So clearly speculative “,businessmen” moving in.

            Two things, firstly the latest arrivals are claimed to have come via Belgrade who were operating visa free trips for Iranians last year, to increase trade with Iran. Some sources say 12, 000 of the estimated 40, 000 Iranians who made the trip, did not return home.

            Secondly there are reports that the rescued Iranians, who are not refugees, are processed on arrival in the UK and then turned loose and told to report in regularly to immigration authorities. If past evidence is a guide, this is the standard approach and no checking up is subsequently done. This aspect is played down in the press.

          • Laguerre

            MaryPau!

            It seems that the Iranians are pretty much all Iranian Kurds. You will remember that they are one of the minority peoples in Iran, that Israel and its proxy agents, US and Britain, are targetting in order to destabilise the Iranian regime (since they gave up last year on their heavily threatened menace to bomb Iran back to the Stone Age). It’s not surprising therefore that once rounded up, these migrants are being given visas and set free. They’re probably being paid to make the crossing, in order to move No-Deal Brexit forward by setting up a threat to Britain’s “sovereignty”.

          • N_

            There’s not much interest in arresting gangsters of any kind. Gangsters are in it with the authorities, whether that’s the customs, the police, local councils, or central government. And with solicitors and banks. It works the same in every country.

            In Britain, fear of “the other” is being raised to fever pitch as the shelves are about to run bare. Brexit is blood. Foreigners will be blamed. The City of London will not be blamed.

            BBC Radio 4 is saying this morning that Sajid Javid is ready to send in the army, navy and air force (dig the rhetoric of amplification) to deal with the supposed boatpeople “crisis” in the Channel. Except they didn’t say “boatpeople” of course. The term “unmarked mass grave” was used.

            British government propagandists are having a field day. They know exactly what they are doing and they are doing a highly competent job.

            This is NOT public relations for “Deal”. This is public relations for “No Deal”. Those who cause the starvation and the deaths will cheerlead the killing of the “other”, openly to some markets, subliminally to other markets. The Tory party too will have a field day. “Thought you’d have it easy forever, members of the dirty unwashed public?” The Sun and Daily Mail will never have had it so good. Right wing participatory media such as Facebook will also do fairly well, at least as long as its cretinous participants are able to charge the batteries on their microwave trackers. Then there ate the armed forces, especially the army. They are going to come back into home-country public life, big time.

            Note that in the event of “No Deal”, there is no “transition period” and freedom of movement stops at 11pm on 29 March.

        • nevermind

          This looks to me like the Government is using these 270 odd desperate refugees to make out that immigration is still the main reason d’etre off us all, that the public is behind them.

          They are not, as this years largest poll has shown.
          1. In line of public importance is an end to austerity.
          2. Breathing life back into public services before it demises.
          3. Job security and employment issues, equal pay etc.
          4. Immigration and the services that uphold the wishlist of thre Tories, which they themselves can change at will when oit suits them.

          Fed up with those on £1000/hrs. telling those on £10/hrs that those working on a minimum wage and or zero hour contracts are threatening their jobs and our economy.

          Time for drastic measures. Anybody who is registered to pay taxes abroad should be shown the door. If they want to sell here or provide services here, they should pay 27% tax or leave. There will always be somebody else wanting to play fair and pay tax here, there too many offshore artists getting it all their way.

          Those who demand security from the police for their operations to pollute the environment, water supplies and the air, should pay full taxes here, not in Switzerland or Luxemburg. Failing that they should loose the taxpayers protection.
          If thats ok with you pseudo patriot, Mr. Radcliffe.

          • nevermind

            No evidence that you are Mary Paul either, its irrelevant, what matters is our staffing at ports and airports, a fair immigration policy that keeps the NHS running, not spluttering, an immigration policy that ensures the continued labour force needed to pick the vegetables which are becoming very popular, enough brains to offset the dumbed down coming fresh out of education.

          • MaryPau!

            In deciding who to grant asylum we need to distinguish between refugees according to the UN definition ( outdated but all we have at present,) and economic migrants. Kurds in Iran are not refugees. They have chosen to flee Iran. The fact of trying to cross a dangerous stretch of water in a flimsy craft to reach the UK does not of itself make someone a refugee. On the basis someone is a member of a substantial regional minority in a larger country, can we expect Supporters of Scottish independence to flee to Norway and claim asylum as refugees.

            The Seasonal Workers scheme used to issue seasonal visas for fruit and vegetable pickers from Europe.

      • Stonky

        Well according to Wiliamson and Laguerre, China is a “major enemy”:

        Having a major enemy in charge of a nuclear installation in Britain is insane…

        Having checked my history, I can’t find any trace of China ever having repeatedly invaded, looted, raped and murdered its way round Britain. (Or France. Or the USA. Or Germany, Austria, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium or Spain for that matter.) In fact, with the possible exception of India, I can’t think of another country that has never done any harm at all to any Western country in its entire history, and suffered so much in return.

        Nor does China take it upon itself to decide which parts of the UK belong to the UK and which don’t. Nor does the Chinese government habitually lecture the UK on how it should run its internal affairs. Nor does the Chinese media spend its time constantly demonising the UK as one of the most evil forces on the planet. Nor does China sail its warships around the coastal waters of the UK shouting threats and abuse.

        But hey. I guess China deserves all this for being a “major enemy”. As far as I know Gavin Williamson doesn’t post on this site. But laguerre does. So maybe (s)he could explain all this to me so I understand things a bit better.

        • giyane

          Stonky

          The chattering classes on Radio 4 are saying that China has criminalised Islam. Far from it, USUKIS neo-cons have criminalised Islam using bribery and corruption to get the Muslims first in Yugoslavia and subsequently in too many places to mention to cause insurrection against USUKIS colonial targets, where prospecting was interrupted by WW1 and WW2 and abandoned for a short time. It is USUKIS that has criminalised Islam. And where bribery and corruption failed, they used torture=rendition-psychotic drug brainwashing to turn peaceful Muslims into nasty ones whom they can direct against their global nuclear rivals.

          Islam will recover from USUKIS criminalisation, but the criminals will not. Already Russia and China have taken technical and logistical superiority over USUKIS. Nobody believes the chattering classes, the internet spooks, or the politicians like Chancellor Meerkat who tell us democracy is wrong because it has voted against the neo-cons disgusting new Zionist world order.

          As for Laguerre, don’t bother with him. He’s a neo-colonialist privateer so he thinks he knows everything. He frequently contradicts me on basic facts about which I am certain such as the fact that the recent Kurdish elections were rigged to allow Erdogan’s partner in Daesh crime Barzani back in. I have noticed that he will only permit facts which are government approved and therefore compatible with colonial trade. real uncontrovertible facts get ridiculed every time by him.

          IMHO it was perfectly legitimate for the Soviet Union to trash Chechnya after the CIA criminalised its Muslim population. Islam expressly forbids working with the enemies of Islam so they deserved to pay the price for their disobedience to one of the basic tenets of Islam.

          Now it’s the turn of the jihadist trash in Iraq and Syria who have sided with USUKISNATOErdogan thinking the super-duper-power would win. They are dim enough to believe that the super-duper-power is on the side of the Saudis and they have tethered their last hopes to that falsehood.The only side the enemies of Islam are on is their own. Basic fact stated in the Qur’an. It temporarily suits USUKISNATO Erdogewad for Muslim Brotherhood for war to be raging between Shi’a and Salafi ideologies, and between jihadist and mainstream Islam.
          Believe me the wonks who spy on me amongst the jihadists are connected by umbilical cords to the deep state of the UK. Therefore I ignore them because of their ignorance of islam.

          • Stonky

            The chattering classes on Radio 4 are saying that China has criminalised Islam…

            My wife comes from an industrial city in the northeast of China called Jilin. It has a huge Moslem population, certainly tens, possibly hundreds of thousands. Two of the mosques are bigger than anything I have ever seen in the Middle East.

            For some reason these Moslems seem to be going about their Moslem business uncriminalised by the authorities. They are not being locked in concentration camps, beaten and tortured and having their organs harvested. They are not being forced to garnish their babies with rashers of bacon and fry them alive in giant woks and eat them. They are not being forced to host millions of unwanted non-Moslems in their homes. They are not being forced to shave off their beards and give each other Christmas presents.

            The only thing I can think of that might account for this is that the Jilin Moslems haven’t signed up to the stone-age cult known as Wahhabism. And they haven’t sent several thousand of their fellow Jilin Moslems off to Syria to rape, torture and murder the locals, while being trained by the CIA in the latest techniques for slaughtering teenage girls, unarmed migrant workers, and helpless old folks in Chinese railway stations.

          • Dungroanin

            Stonky – thankyou for that personal testament of the bs being talked about chinese muslims.

            Xi is a man of science and he is overseeing the greatest rising of the poorest, ever in history.

        • zoot

          china threatens the permanent hegemony of the dc psychos and us corporates. some think that makes china their enemy.

        • Laguerre

          Oh, I don’t think myself that China is a “major enemy”. I was presenting there the view of the British government.

          • Stonky

            Apologies then. I’ll have to wait for Gavin Williamson to start posting after all to find out why China is a “major enemy” (unless somebody like Charles Bostock or Kempe is willing to take up the cudgels…)

    • michael norton

      Have we got a Navy Base in The Falkland Islands yet, apparently it is sitting on a massive oil field

    • Tom Welsh

      @N_:

      “This is our moment to be that true global player once more…”

      The big lie in that sentence is the innocuous-looking word “player”. The insinuation is that geopolitics is a harmless game like chess or soccer. Whereas his statement should be translated: “This is our moment to start killing thousands, tens of thousands and – with luck – even millions of foreign people once more… Foreign people who don’t matter because they are African, Asian or South Americans. Racist? Me?? Don’t be ridiculous…”

  • Radar O’Reilly

    Looking back on some ‘minor’ events this year:

    June 30 2018, Iran allegedly tried to bomb an Iranian exile group in Paris, admittedly being used as a vehicle by USA for regime change. Belgian, German, Austrian, French police arrested four Iranians, in possession of a jam-jar of TATP(exothermic scary stuff). This [prevented] attack allegation refers to the [massive] annual conference of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) that took place on June 30 in Paris. The NCRI is led by Mujahedin-e Khalq, (MEK) a militant group that was designated as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States until 2012. Thirty senior US squirrels were present at that meeting, all were ‘saved’ by the Belgian SAS.

    Looking from the other side’s point of view, always recommended, is that Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, dismissed claims of an Iranian sleeper cell as “fake news” and described reports of a foiled bomb attack as “a sinister false flag plot”.

    Facts from 2018 that are beyond doubt, USA has been using MEK since around 2006 as a way to destabilise Iran, would a “sinister flag waving” sleeper-bomb-plot fit their agenda, or does ‘cui bono’ likely implicate some mad mullahs? No, I don’t mean the Saud’s, this is more subtle.

    I think one clear forensic piece here is that the Ahvaz attack (29 dead) on the military graduation parade [by presumably MEK/“isis”] was actually post this alleged bombplot, September 22, 2018.

    That’s so inverse, I postulate that one nation is going after a weaker nation “full spectrum” and seemingly getting away with it. If the dates were the other way around then I might buy your spookiness mad/bad/Iran , but on the whole, after five minutes research, I’m shocked, shocked to see an FF in 2018, in France, Germany and Brussel. Cui Bono apparently works!

    • Vivian O'Blivion

      Certainly plenty of US secret squirrels in attendance but don’t issue a free pass for our domestic contingent. Of the Z list politicos keen to prostitute themselves for a consideration, count four Torys (Amess, Blackman, Villiers & Oxford) one Labour (Perkins) and former SNP MP Michelle Thomson.

    • Tom Welsh

      “Belgian, German, Austrian, French police arrested four Iranians, in possession of a jam-jar of TATP…”

      Now that IS what I would call European cooperation. Police from four different nations arrest just four Iranians in Paris with just one jar of scary stuff.

      But were any of the police trans? I think we should be told.

    • Dungroanin

      Funny,the minor events, we shoud gather a few…
      I’ll nominate the attack on Maduro parade by DRONES.

  • Sharp Ears

    Tom Watson was presenting the phone in on LBC this morning. When speaking to David Davis, he was boasting of having lost 100lbs. Davis has also lost weight and they were congratulating each other.

    Later, the subject of the migrants crossing the English Channel came up.

    A caller said that the UK’s bombing and destruction of Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan was a contributory cause of migration from the ME. Watson sighed and said he is ‘haunted by his decision to support the Iraq war’. But he voted against bombing Libya. So that’s alright then Tom.

    Then when one of his pals. Yvette Cooper, came on the line I switched off.

      • Stonky

        Yvette Cooper’s been good on the refugee crisis…

        1. Vote for the Iraq war. Create millions of refugees…
        2. Support the destruction of Libya. Create millions more refugees and a whole failed state whose primary industry is people traffickers channeling more millions of skill-free sub-Saharan migrants to Europe…
        3. Support the destruction of Syria. Create millions more refugees…
        4. Waft fragrantly around the “refugee camps” of Calais with a Guardian hackette lodged up your bum, grandly lecturing hard-pressed UK taxpayers who didn’t vote for any of these wars that it is now their job to take care of the “refugees”…
        5. Support destruction of Yemen and rinse…
        6. Don’t put up any refugees at all in your extensive portfolio of taxpayer-funded properties…

        I suppose in some parallel universe that I don’t inhabit, this constitutes “being good on the refugee crisis…”

        • sc

          Good since. Not including voting for Iraq. And if we dismiss all politicians who did vote for Iraq there are few left.

          • SA

            sc
            Yes we would have to especially those who having seen the results of what happened in Iraq then voted for Libya and continue to want to bomb Syria. There is a sort of pattern there.

      • nevermind

        Yvette Cooper is best at troughing and representing herself. Claiming money back from the taxpayer, for daily transport costs for taxi’s moving her children to school and back is what she and her ex politician partner/husband Ed Ball are known for.

    • Tom Welsh

      “Watson sighed and said he is ‘haunted by his decision to support the Iraq war’”.

      Haunted, eh? That must be simply awful for him. Then again, most self-confessed mass murderers tends to get life in prison – or worse.

      • Dave

        Without checking, I’d be surprised if Watson voted against the destruction of Libya, as I recall the grand number of MPs doing so was about 11!

    • Dungroanin

      They still hold out hope for the Ms Bobbly head to become a labour members sweetheart, or another flaky woman like greasey Creasey.

      A word of warning for anyone tempted by such a decisiom – vote Cooper get Balls!

      • Sharp Ears

        He picked up a massive total sum in donations from the unions for his deputy leader campaign. Well over £100k if I remember correctly.

        He is also a member of Trades Union Friends of Israel. Shame on him and shame on Corbyn for having him sitting alongside on the front bench.

        He is still at it. £36k from a Derek Webb to fund a ‘policy advisor’ from December 1st 2018 – May 2019. What’s that about and who is Derek Webb. He also takes large sums from Sir Trevor Chinn and Sir David Garrard and you know what their connections are.

        https://www.theyworkforyou.com/regmem/?p=11309

  • Nick

    Dec 20: Farm Bill becomes law and… fully removes hemp and derivatives of it from the control of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and opens up massive possibilities for the hemp industry

    Interesting to see how this impacts some US sectors, especially Big Pharma and Oil.

    The story of hemp’s history is an interesting one – my first intro was via a Pete Loveday comic (brilliant artist roughly along the lines of English Freak Brothers) called Plain Wrapper – my original (which sadly got half-inched at some point) was printed on hemp paper.

    Anyway, some good news in all the gloom

  • Sharp Ears

    One of the mad men in the current Tory government speaks in support of Fox and Gove.

    ‘Jeremy Hunt becomes latest Cabinet minister to back a new privately-funded Royal Yacht Britannia
    29 December 2018
    Jeremy Hunt has become the latest Cabinet minister to back a campaign for a new privately funded Royal Yacht Britannia to help Britain win trade deals after Brexit.
    The Foreign Secretary has made it clear that, while he would not want to see public funds used to built a yacht, he supports a new royal vessel paid for by private subscription.
    Scores of MPs including Cabinet ministers such as Liam Fox and Michael Gove have already backed a Telegraph campaign for a new royal yacht which could act as a catalyst for inward investment deals after Britain leaves the European Union in March.
    The ship – which often hosted “trade days” when captains of industry were encouraged to invest in the UK – is estimated…’ paywall

    ex Sunday Torygraph.

    Off their trollies.

    • Republicofscotland

      I don’t see any reason why we can’t just tie down old Lizzie onto her gold piano, and paddle her around the globe. Whilst Fox and Gove tinkle on the ivories Knees Up Mother Brown.

  • N_

    If the armed forces are deployed to fight immigration across the Channel, morale in them will go sky high.

    • JohninMK

      A couple of Apache gunships over the center of the Channel firing warning shots across the bows of inflatables as their enter British waters might have an effect. This action could not be undertaken by British warships as the occupants would just jump off necessitating rescue.The important factor would the the absence of British ships to rescue anyone so they would have to turn round.

      Incidentally those same Apaches seem to have had no problem firing at people who may have been relatives of those in these inflatables when they were back home. So I can’t see anyone complaining if a couple of warning shots went astray. After all they take similar actions many days over Syria etc in drone control HQ up in RAF Waddington. What, British press and politicians hypocrites? Never!

    • Republicofscotland

      Hospitals at breaking point, foodbanks a necessity, homelessness prolific, a decade of austerity and low wages including the proliferation of Zero Hour contracts.

      The British government in constant dissary, the appointment of a famine minister and stockpiling minister.

      But the main story of today in media is of six immigrants. They must really hate foreigners.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    What complete and utter shit..from The Daily Telegraph

    “Britain to become ‘true global player’ post-Brexit with military bases in South East Asia and Caribbean”

    Come on, we’ve only got about 3 ships left that occasionally go, and the aircraft carrier, that is not currently capable of anything except maybe waving a British Flag, is a sitting duck..

    Not only that, our propaganda, is completely rubbish too, and not even The Americans believe it….

    Where did they find Gavin?

    Selling fireplaces in Stoke-on-Trent???

    He makes even that idiot Hunt seem almost sane.

    What did we do wrong to deserve these morons in Government?

    Tony

    • Carl

      They assured the yanks they were the world’s primary counter-insurgency force .. before asking the yanks to bail them out in both Basra and Helmand. That was before the massive MoD cuts post-2010.

      • Dungroanin

        There are Tsunamis in that part of the world.

        And don’t we already have that cushy posting – Brunei?

  • BrianFujisan

    And Now for the Good News –

    This is before we grow Hemp –

    ” According to one of the world’s most respected economists, Scotland could “not only survive on it’s own, it could thrive on it’s own.” You will not however hear any of this on mainstream media in the UK, and I think it’s pretty obvious why.”

    https://www.nationalist.scot/2018/12/scotland-really-could-become-richest.html?fbclid=IwAR0vOSEfNHArcfFcL5ECfV99Fdox1ojh6mOmRlUoO5JFuOTXAXwqrGli5yk

    • Nick

      Hi BF. From the article:

      So what is the secret to being the wealthiest country on earth on a per capita basis? Well that’s simple – have a lot of wealth, and share it with a relatively small population.

      How will be this happen joining the EU? (I’ve no problem with actual independence, or the article). Without control of borders or immigration, the above statement can never be true,

        • BrianFujisan

          Hi Nick

          As I belive it.. the E.U has only ever had a Small percent to rule in Our Laws / afairs, At !0 /12 %. London has almost all the rest.. UDI NOW.

          We are just nothing but a Cash cow for Westminster..

          Well ” Nothing But ” may be False, Cos we are Also the deadly Nuke dump, with more on the way..out near MY islands …Bad enough that the things are on My River..UDI RIGHT NOW

          https://theferret.scot/nuclear-submarines-dump-scotland/

  • michael norton

    “We shall fight them on the beaches”

    Channel migrants: UK and France to step up patrols
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-46714553
    Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who is cutting short a family holiday, agreed a joint action plan with
    the French interior minister during a phone call.
    Macron can not be found.

    Six more Iranian men were found on a beach

    • michael norton

      When you see the naked brutality of the French State against its own citoyens, Water Cannons, Rubber Bullets, Pepper Sprays, Baton Charges, Tear Gassing, kickings, criminalization, arrests and detentions, It should be possible for them to employ their tactics against Iranian People Smugglers, surely?

      • JohninMK

        The British military seems to have no problem slaughtering these peoples (usually with their families) when they were back home’ I suggested using Apache attack helicopters but rethinking it a much better idea would be to use armed drones along with the Apaches.

        Setting up a forward operating base at what was RAF Manston behind Ramsgate would save the trip down from RAF Waddington (Drones) or RAF Wattisham (Apaches) and allow rapid response or longer on station. Especially with peace starting to break out in Syria and the probable elimination of ISIS by either the SDF or the SAA those drones won’t be needed in the Middle East.

        This is one of the very few times in history when our military are actually need to defend the homeland. Are they up for it?

          • Republicofscotland

            Dave.

            Alas the Home Office controls who does and doesn’t live in Scotland for now anyway.

          • Republicofscotland

            JohninMK.

            Oh I’m not upset, just disappointed, that six immigrants crossing the Channel has you planning for a ME exodus to England, of which there is no real evidence. Yet you have a military style plan with drone sorties and all already worked out.

            How are your 77th Brigade buddies at Denison barracks by the way?

          • JohninMK

            Hi RoS

            No idea where Denison Barracks are. Only times I have been on a military site in the last 25 years or so was to a few discos in our local TA. I am pretty sure that there were some subliminal messages in that music and back in 1995 there was a pretty good Club track by a Russian outfit PPK..

            As to the Channel, it is as much as anything a potential psyops job. That is to persuade anyone contemplating running small craft across that the risk would be too high. Scare a few with an Apache or two and the message would soon get through. Nip it in the bud with a show of force rather than face many more craft anytime the Channel was calm.
            The last thing we need is for the word on the Calais streets to be that getting to be rescued halfway across was all they need to do. We do not want the Pas de Calais to be like the Libyan coast. If it takes brute force so be it.

  • Sharp Ears

    Watson was correct in saying he didn’t vote for Cameron’s plan to bomb Libya. He is not in the lists below. Like many of the Labour lot, he slunk away and abstained. The only members of the Labour Party who voted against were:

    Here are a list of UK MPs who voted against intervention in 2011 (source = Hansard):

    Allen, Mr Graham
    Baron, Mr John
    Campbell, Mr Ronnie
    Corbyn, Jeremy
    Durkan, Mark
    Gardiner, Barry
    Godsiff, Mr Roger
    Lucas, Caroline
    McDonnell, John
    Riordan, Mrs Linda
    Ritchie, Ms Margaret
    Skinner, Mr Dennis
    Wood, Mike

    There were 557 in favour including Cooper, Creasy, et al including many Friends of Israel in both parties.
    https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/indepth/2016/9/14/libya-report-which-mps-voted-for-and-against-intervention

    Shame on them. Look at Libya now.

    • Sharp Ears

      Correction.

      John Baron, Conservative and Caroline Lucas, Green, are in that list. From memory, I think the rest are Labour.

      • Charles Bostock

        John Baron went to an independent school, attended Cambridge and Sandhurst, served as an Army officer (including in Northern Ireland) and worked as a merchant banker (including with Rothschild Asset Management) before becoming an MP. As Sharp Ears correctly points out, he sits in the Conservative interest.

    • Charles Bostock

      Dennis Skinner, as I learnt to my amazement the other day, is 86 years old. And has been an MP for 47 years.

      I wonder if he will stand again at the next General Election?

      Notes to the above facts :

      1) Average longevity for males in the UK is around 83 years and 83 year olds have on average been retired for 20 years
      2) MPs are often referred to as “troughers” in certain circles.

      • Republicofscotland

        The Beast of Bolsover shouldve retired long ago, and we wouldn’t now need to listen to his foul mouthed tirades on political opponents.

        I’m sure Gordon Brown, and Old gold piano Queen droopy chops Lizzie could’ve sent him into the freeloading best funded old folks home in the world the House of Lords by now. Along with the other poncing taxpayer draining unelected undemocratic geriatrics.

  • Charles Bostock

    Whenever someone mentions the rather significant difference between the unemployment rates in the UK and France (bith the overall rate and that for the under-25s), there is always some jobsworth who jumps up to say “oh, but the unemployment rate in the UK would be much higher if it wasn’t for those zero hour contracts!”.

    Of course, what that jobsworth will not mention that the French “equivalent” of zero hours contracts is the temporary contract, for 6 or 12 months, called a “CDD” (contrat a duree determinee).

    Most young people in France, if offered work, will be offered one of those contracts, which may – but equally, may not – be renewed once, twice or indeed several times.

    Rare is the young individual in France who is offered a permanent contract (known as a “CDI” – contrat a duree indeterminee).

    This is yet another example of things which are never mentioned by those who are at the same time unconditional admirers of France and unconditional detractors of Britain.

    • Ken Kenn

      True.

      But it does seem that the French ( young and old ) have a quick re-read of their contracts and possibly their electric/gas and water bills and decided the game’s up.

      Funnily enough the Trades Unions are the strongest in the State sector.

      There are not many CDD’s operating where strong Trades Unions are.

      There’s a lesson there for the ouvriers and perhaps they are on the path of figuring that out?

      No bigger closed shop than the politicians I reckon.

      Needs to be copied.

      • Laguerre

        Gilets Jaunes and Brexiters are much the same sort of people, i.e. people who don’t actually have a problem, but don’t like the way the world is going, because it is changing, and want to get off. The only consequence of their action of course is that they will indeed have a problem in the future.

    • Ian

      You mean those straw men you fantasise about, and then proceed to ‘argue’ against? Lol. Changed your name back?

    • Laguerre

      That’s a fake comparison, not surprisingly for you, CB. A CDD is a full-time employment contract, which is time-limited. Such contracts are extremely common everywhere, and perfectly acceptable in UK, so why not in France? That’s quite different from a zero-hours contract, where you don’t get paid, except etc etc. So, another round of Francophobia, from CB.

  • Sharp Ears

    Going Underground

    Azzam Tamimi on Jamal Khashoggi & MBS – Barrett Brown on mass surveillance & whistleblowers (E669)
    26 Dec, 2018

    Azzam Tamimi, Palestinian journalist and friend of the late Jamal Khashoggi, who saw him the day before he went missing in the Saudi consulate, discusses the circumstances around Jamal’s death, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the Israel-Palestine conflict. Also, Barrett Brown discusses mass surveillance, whistleblowers, mainstream media and his incarceration.

    http://fb.me/GoingUndergroundRT
    https://www.youtube.com/user/GoingUndergroundRT
    http://twitter.com/Underground_RT

  • MaryPau!

    As a matter of information, are there any countries in the world who will allow anyone else to migrate there ( always excluding some obvious restrictions like convicted criminals, undischarged bankrupts, people wanted by the police etc)?

      • MaryPau!

        No it is entirely serious. I am conscious that there is a generic interest group in the UK, composed of a number of sub-groups, which appears to take the view that anyone who gets here illegally and can make a claim to be fleeing religious, ethnic, sexual orientation prejudice, political persecution, severe poverty
        should be allowed to stay. I was genuinely wondering if this view actually dominated the debate in any other countries, Canada for example?

    • bj

      Those countries that did exist, have been overrun, their inhabitants slaughtered; they are now the settler states of the world, hugely expansionist and extremely hegemonic, maniacally isolationist and obsessed with a fear of migrants and thus a ludicrous reverence of borders, walls, barbed wire and snipers.

      • Nick

        You’re channelling Friedland, perhaps Cohen, or even both here 🙂

        You could always make your arguments without massive hyperbole (is wot I’m saying)

        • bj

          Alright then, on special request.

          @MaryPau!

          Don’t you see it?!
          YOU, you, you are the immigrant, on someone else’s land.
          Only, ‘someone else’ isn’t around anymore to throw you out.

        • MaryPau!

          this appears to be For the position to judge from his latest comments on the Iranians trying to reach the UK in dinghies crossing over the Channel

    • michael norton

      Extra Border Force cutter to support search and rescue
      Aside from the search and rescue role, cutters and their crew are ideally placed to spot signs of organised immigration crime

      • michael norton

        I don’t know why the U.K. Border Force does not just use drones, surely if they are good enough to shut down Gatwick, they must be able to spot Iranian People Smugglers?

  • Sharp Ears

    Failing Grayling cont’d

    He has given £14m to Seaborne Freight to provide ferry services ato and from Ramsgate where the dock/harbour is derelict and out of use.

    Seaborne Freight is a shell company with £66 of share capital and has never traded.

    Can this ‘government’ become even more farcical?

    PS Craig lived in Ramsgate at one time.

    • N_

      I know that area too – the roseringed parakeets, the atmospheric ex-hoverport at Pegwell Pay.

      Jeremy Corbyn should attack this filthy Seaborne Freight contract. He should consider demanding that the Commons be recalled so that the government can face charges of corruption. While the Tory press calls for British military action against France (that is no exaggeration: “seizing the boats in Calais”), Tories in government are signing untendered contracts with private business interests that have popped up like mushrooms and are clearly fronts for interests that are exceptionally well connected. While unprecedented shortages loom, Tory traitors view “No Deal” as a juicy bagful of business opportunities. Lock them up!

    • N_

      Seaborne Freight has its registered office in Whitechapel at 59 Mansell Street, London, E1 8AN. That’s John Snow House, the HQ of the Royal Society for Public Health, which describes itself as a “health education charity”. Forebears include the Society of Medical Men Qualified in Sanitary Science, the Sanitary Institute, and the Institute of Hygiene. Does it connect with eugenics? Certainly “hygiene” has often been used as a codeword.

      Seaborne Freight has eight registered officers. Of these, six use the HQ as their correspondence address. Something tells me they’re not all living there in a commune. One name that jumped out at me was Ralph Lucas, born September 1957, but this is not the Tory peer of the same name, who was born in June 1951 and at Companies House goes under the name of Ralph Matthew Palmer.

  • Sharp Ears

    Tom Watson’s greed for money exceeds his previous greed for the proverbial cream buns. I have found out who the donor is who has bunged him more £tens of thousands. See
    https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/cui-bono-david-leask-ben-nimmo-and-the-attack-on-ordinary-scottish-nationalists/comment-page-7/#comment-813488

    Labour deputy leader Tom Watson is accused of ‘staggering hypocrisy’ for taking £30,000 from a former gambling mogul despite vowing to crack down on betting
    27 Dec 2017
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5214767/Tom-Watson-took-money-gambling-mogul-Derek-Webb.html

  • bj

    A month ago downloaded this insightful discussion (27min) on RT with Peter Lavelle on Julian Assange ‘s plight, with Joe Laurie (Consortium news), Gareth Porter (Investigative Journalist) and Patrick Henningsen (Author, Journalist).
    I was just now first watching it.

    Wanted to place a url here, but the odd thing is that I cannot find it anymore on google, and neither or RT itself.
    I’m not a conspiracy theorist — just saying.

    Here’s the video anyhow:
    https://www.dropbox.com/s/9rgttwcghe9xhjx/Julian%20Assange%E2%80%99s%20trials-5c011900dda4c8df098b45cf.mp4?dl=0

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