Writing about your personal demons for the public is seldom a good idea, and it is a particularly bad idea when you are starting at 3.40am as they are haunting you. We are spending Hogmanay in the beautiful city of Gdansk. It is my first time here for over twenty years, but the city has remarkable memories for me.
In November 1994 I was newly arrived as First Secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw when a fatal fire occurred at the famous shipyard, in a hall being used for a rock concert tied in to a MTV transmission. The fire doors were all padlocked shut, and the heat had reached such intensity that a flash fire had occurred right across the hall. Miraculously only five people had died immediately, but hundreds had been horrifically burnt or suffered fume inhalation and the hospitals were completely overwhelmed.
Within hours of the fire I was dispatched to Gdansk by our dynamic Ambassador and found myself on a train heading North with only a Motorola mobile phone the size of a large brick (1994) and a phone number for DFID, in those days a part of the FCO and known as ODA. I roused from his London bed the official in charge of emergency assistance, Mukesh Kapila, and he instructed me to get a list from the medical authorities of all the supplies required. He explained that major burns required large volumes of consumables by way of ointments and special gauzes and bandages.
Arriving in Gdansk I very soon discovered that the victims were dispersed round several hospitals and there was no central authority able to produce a list of requirements. Poland was still in the early stages of a shock transition from communism and elements of administration were shaky at the best of times, let alone in a large scale emergency. The only way to make any progress was for me physically to go to every hospital and every concerned ward, buttonhole the doctors there and ask them what they needed.
To say they were swamped would be ridiculous understatement. Victims were everywhere, very many critical, and in some places bleary-eyed doctors literally had nothing – creams, bandages, painkillers, saline drips all exhausted. Meeting many doctors, when I told them I could get anything sent out instantly, the reaction ranged from angrily incredulous to massive bear hugs.
It was of course difficult. In 1994 Polish medical practice differed quite sharply from British. There were language barriers; my as yet basic Polish lacked medical vocabulary. And I had to keep interrupting incredibly busy people. But after the first couple of hospitals I was able to extrapolate and phone through to Mukesh the most obviously urgent items, and by the end of the day I was clutching 16 handwritten lists and could sit down to consolidate them.
But I have not described to you what it was like to go round those wards. I really cannot – it was indescribable. Horribly disfigured people screaming and writhing in pain, begging and pleading for any relief, even asking to die. And the worst thing is, they were all teenagers – the average age seemed about 16. One image I shall never forget was of a girl sitting bolt upright in bed, looking calm, and I recall thinking that at least this one is OK. But I had seen her right profile and as I passed her, the left side of her face was literally skeletal, with a yellow blob for an eye, no skin and just the odd sinew attached to the bone. Her calm was catatonic.
But in a way still worse were two girls who looked perfectly healthy, lying on top of their beds apparently in an untroubled sleep. The doctor told me that they were already brain dead, having inhaled cyanide gas from the combustion of plastic seating. The mother of one of them was there and she pleaded with me to tell the doctor not to turn off the ventilator; the poor woman was crazed with grief and pulling at her hair, which was dyed red. I can still recall every detail of the faces of both mother and her still daughter.
I called in every day for a week or so and sat with the mother a few minutes, in silence. Then one day they were gone; the doctors had switched off the ventilator.
Andrze Kanthak, our Honorary Consul, was a fantastic support and worked extremely hard throughout this period – but as we walked together into the first ward, Andrze simply fainted straight out at the sight of it all. That evening we had hardly finished consolidating my 16 lists and sending them off to Mukesh when news arrived that the first shipment of most urgent supplies was arriving at Gdansk airport, and we dashed off there with a lorry from the City Council.
It was a bitter disappointment. Customs refused to release the medicines until duty had been paid and, still worse, everything would need to be checked and certified by the food and drug administration, which could take weeks. All my fury at the self-satisfied officials was of no avail, and we returned temporarily baffled.
A phone call now came that DFID had chartered a flight to arrive the next day with 20 tons of medical supplies, so the situation was now critical. Walesa was now President and I suggested we contact his office, but Andrze advised we should rather recruit Father Jankowski.
Jankowski was the parish priest in Gdansk who had been integral to the Solidarnosc movement, and at that time he wielded enormous political influence. His home was extraordinary for a parish priest – literally palatial – and when I met him there the next day he readily agreed to help. He came to the airport with us as the chartered cargo flight arrived, and supervised the loading into the council lorries which I dispatched to the various hospitals. A tall imposing figure in a flowing black cassock, the customs officials who had blocked us obeyed him without question.
Things calmed down over the next few days, Mukesh Kapila himself came out, and the hospitals once supplied performed brilliantly. Astonishingly, from hundreds of cases of severe and extensive burns, with scores in intensive care, we lost nobody except the two girls who were already brain dead, bringing the final death toll to seven. The incredible survival rate was viewed as a miracle, and perhaps it was, but it was a miracle assisted by some fantastic doctors, by Mukesh Kapila and his staff, by Father Jankowski, by Andrze Kanthak and by the Secretary of Gdansk Council whose name (Janowski?) has slipped my mind, embarrassingly as the experience made us firm friends for a long while.
But I am afraid to say the personal impact on me was quite severe. It is no secret that I struggle against bipolar disorder, and the sheer horror of those days in the wards undoubtedly triggered me for quite a while. I also suffered recurrent nightmares for more than a decade, about the horrific burns but also about the brain dead child and the mother tearing her hair. Worse than the nightmares were the waking flashbacks, not so much visual as emotional, experiencing the feeling of it happening again.
When I got back to the Embassy nobody was very interested in what I had been doing. I was ticked off for returning a day late and also for not obtaining much media publicity for the UK’s role. I have written before that one of my frequent duties in Poland was to conduct high profile visitors around the concentration camps, a visit all British politicians wish to make. Those places filled me with horror, which resonated on the same emotional frequency as the Gdansk trauma. Those frequent visits made my time in Poland difficult to me, which is a shame as it is a delightful country and people.
Back here now as a tourist, with my family and at a festive time, no troubling memories are assailing me. I find I can now be proud of what we did, rather than ashamed at my emotional reaction afterwards. And I can’t quite tell you why, but I felt it should be recorded.
Finally, it is worth noting that this Gdansk experience was one of a number which led me immediately to understand that the famous BBC report on “Saving Syria’s Children” was faked. The alleged footage of burns victims in hospital following a napalm attack bears no resemblance whatsoever to how victims, doctors and relatives actually behave in these circumstances.
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Happy New Year pal. Have a wee whisky for me…
Craig, you have ‘Solidnosc’, but shouldn’t it be ‘Solidarnosc’?
thanks amended
Hi Craig, Be careful at the petrol pumps in Poland, one can easily put the wrong fuel in. Give us a shout when you’re next in Berlin.
P.S. Thanks for the Sliwowitz.
“Poland was still in the early stages of a shock transition from communism…”
FFS.
1. There has never yet existed an advanced Communist “State” (the phrase ‘Communist State’ is, as anyone who has read their Marx/Engels knows, a non sequitur).
2. ‘Socialism’ (as anyone who has read their Lenin knows) is the term for the transitional phase between Capitalism and Communism. As such, it is a period of continual class struggle and turmoil within any particular country itself, leaving aside the external threats encountered (the rest of the Capitalist world wishing it ill, a Hitler bent on touring Europe, etc.). At best, therefore, one can describe the USSR, Eastern Europe 1945-1989, Cuba, etc. as ‘States in transition’ or ‘Socialist’.
3. While Hitler, Suharto and their ilk are easily accepted as war criminals and/or mass murderers, they are never held to discredit Capitalism tout court. The opposite “logic”, however, is applied to Stalin, Pol Pot and any other putative, self-described “Communists”: they most certainly do discredit “Communism” tout court. Such elision is a daily occurrence in the MSM (one aspect of what is now referred to as “fake news”) and one eagerly promulgated in the “intellectual” sphere by such as Jordan Peterson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXgZAdaMtS8).
Ho fucking hum.
Esp. regarding 3.: hear hear!
Adrian,
In common parlance the system of the Soviet Union and its bloc is called “communist” and has been for a century. Those who wish words to have a specific meaning they prescribe, rather than their actual meaning in English, get little shrift here.
Very well said Craig. Marx of course had nothing to do with Stalin’s cruelty or with the imposition of “popular democracies” in Eastern Europe after WWII. As a social democrat and someone who sympathizes with the socialist ideal, I regret the fact that the Soviet system did such an efficient job at turning the word “socialist” into an equivalent for oppression,but as you say you cannot fight reality with Byzantine arguments about the purity of academic definitions. Thank you very much for your very moving memories of such a terrible event in Gdansk.
Stalin was “cruel” but Lenin was lovely ? You are way off-base. Lenin was evil through and through as was Trotsky
Sorry, but I don’t accept what might colloquially be called “terminological relativism”.
While in the natural sciences or mathematics anyone who supported such a position would be laughed out of the academy, the situation in the social “sciences” is different for reasons that are quite complicated (Louis Althusser spent his career tangentially dealing with the topic). In short, maintaining that “someone can call “X” whatever they want” is both anti-intellectual and highly dangerous.
I was once told a long-winded joke. The punch line was “Fuck off, Big Ears.”
“Odorous and sonorous, like the farting of a goose.”
Adrian , you should simply ask someone who was born inside the Soviet system and lived through the whole thing.
I did ask, quote “our system was never Communist. We were always striving towards Communism“
I think the corrupt, self-serving political class were mostly happy with the striving. Craig’s also right that the Soviet bloc was labelled by us as “Communist”, hence we think that they were communists. They weren’t, but we do all think they were! Mostly.
My husband is Russian and it was indeed known as communism although there was a noting as you rightly say that it was a journey. Some distinctive features are the command economy and a very good welfare state. People only identify Stalin who was a mad criminal. There were many general secretaries who strove successfully to improve childhood mortality, education and literacy, housing among other things.
.
The common parlance of the neoliberal establishment?
Come on, Craig. Please be clear.
Many thanks.
.
Ok, I checked Google and the first definition that it came up with was:
“a theory or system of social organization in which all property is owned by the community and each person contributes and receives according to their ability and needs.”
The point is that the (mis-)use of the word “communism” both by the West and the USSR has political purpose and is not the normal/true meaning of the word; to the effect that today the use by the western politicians/political institutions commonly use the word “communism” as a slur.
The USSR application of the word was to apply a “job done” meaning and, actually, freeze/postpone or even reverse the development of “Communism” .
The political use of words is not really about “common parlance” it is about “mind control”. You can see this effect when you observe the reaction of many Americans to the very word “Communism” and, also, “socialism”.
On another matter, which, is important, but I mention with some trepidation given the incredibly hostile, ignorant response it generates; the deaths attributed to Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin are grossly exaggerated. Stalin’s actual responsibility for deaths may actually be less that the deaths caused of the West in the middle east since 2001, and at most are probably no more than 4.5 million (but this includes definitions of “responsibility for deaths” that are very contestable [e.g. deaths during famine]. Common figures that get thrown about claim, as fact, that Stalin is responsible for more deaths than Hitler, responsible for 20 million deaths, and, increasing common, responsible for over 100 million deaths; these claims are ridiculous and incredibly obvious propaganda.
I believe, that the most important factor in the development of the west (and it’s dominance) was it’s belief in the investigation of objective truth (the enlightenment), so if you wish to lambast me for the above, do so, but remember that you are no longer destroying the “Communist” system (the USSR is gone); really, you are destroying the “Western” system.
The Necrometrics site (http://necrometrics.com/) is a good first stop when searching for death figures. Although I wouldn’t rely on it 100%, it does cite, in each case, quite a good range of sources, i.e. they don’t seem to have an “agenda”.
In the case of the USSR, it gives figures of 9M for the civil war (http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#RCW) and 20M for Stalin (http://necrometrics.com/20c5m.htm#Stalin). By contrast, Indian deaths under British rule come in at c.35M, but this includes famine, etc.
The Necrometrics link just give a list of what a number of different people claim are the deaths that Stalin is responsible for, so is not proper research. Also, you qualify the Indian deaths under British rule “but this includes famine, etc.”, when, of course this is exactly what you could say about Stalin (but don’t). The deaths in the gulag are also grossly over stated.
A number of years ago I went beyond just accepting these “claims” of death, and found out that academics (and other individuals) had done detailed and convincing research on the matter, and the deaths that can really be laid at the door of Stalin turn out to be are much lower. I remember the reaction of other people when I raised this, so I no longer bothered and the details have faded. I can’t point you at research as I just don’t want to go back there, but if you look with an open mind you will mind it.
One thing I do remember about the research was that the Soviets documented very comprehensively what it did in terms of trials, executions, gulags, sentences, etc. which means that true figures can be determined so all wild claims and exaggerations (which are all politically motivated) can be ignored.
The Russian Civil War was essentially funded, supported and armed by Western nations who also “intervened” (i.e. “invaded” in common parlance”). The UK, USA, Japan, France, Czechoslovakia and a number of others (that, I can’t recall) “invaded” Russia and the UK actually attacked Russian Towns/Villages with chemical bombs. So it is fundamentally dishonest to imply that the USSR (alone) are responsible for the deaths during the Russian Civil War.
1. The Necrometrics site is what it is: a good “first stop” scanning secondary sources. No one said it had a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for original research.
2. If you actually read the Stalin section, it separates famine figures!
3. There is no doubt that since 1991 it has been possible to access Soviet archives to a far greater extent. While the picture on, say, the military events on the Eastern Front 1941-1945 have changed dramatically (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Clz27nghIg), the figures for Stalin’s term have remained largely unchanged.
4. I am well aware of the causes/progress of the post-1917 civil war: they were included to emphasise the double tragedy that the Russian people went through in their attempt to leave Capitalism behind.
What the Necrometrics does, regarding Stalin, is just recite claims which are just opinions and amount to western propaganda, in the main.
For Instance, the deaths claimed by Solszenitzyn claims have long since been discredited so why would any resource claiming to be objective include them.
Can you not see who impossible it is made to response to such a long list of differing claims, the effect is to rig the lowest possible figure at 20 million. It’s all just nonsense figures.
The point about the famine figures is that the site lays responsibility at the feet of Stalin, whereas you appear to excuse the deaths that Britain would be responsible for (if not why even mention it), if you applied the same standard.
You can have the last word on this (if you wish) as discussion around Stalin tends to be fruitless, but at least give some thought (not now, but in the future) about how ridiculous the claims made, promoted by the West with regard to Stalin, actually are.
Peterson’s prominence is a sad indictment of the times.
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/03/the-intellectual-we-deserve
“While Hitler, Suharto and their ilk are easily accepted as war criminals and/or mass murderers, they are never held to discredit Capitalism tout court. ”
Perhaps you ought to refresh your memory with the name of the party that propelled Hitler into power, the National German Socialist Workers’ Party, or National Socialist for short. Pol Pot was also trying to create a system that was a lot closer to Communism than capitalism. I think you need some better examples. What Stalin and his like prove is that Socialism and Communism as systems are no better at preventing the exploitation of man by man than any other system, including Capitalism. That is not what discredits Communism. In any case, beliefs are not responsible for their adherents.
“Perhaps you ought to refresh your memory with the name of the party that propelled Hitler into power, the National German Socialist Workers’ Party, or National Socialist for short.”
You must be an American! Such is the risible state of education in that country that it is possible to read the correlation NAZI Party = Socialism/Communism in a thousand threads daily. No doubt Hitler annihilated domestic Socialists/Communists because they were “splitters” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0BpfwazhUA) and invaded the USSR because Stalin was promoting the “wrong kind” of Socialism/Communism.
Muppet.
Touché Adrian Parsons. Some really shit arguments being put out by Bayard and others.
No I am not American, nor did I say that the Nazis were socialist in order to denigrate socialism. I simply pointed out that they called themselves socialist. I suppose the red mist prevented you from reading the last sentence of my post.
Bigot.
Tory MEP Syed Kamall recently said the same thing in Brussels, he was openly called an idiot and laughed at. He was following the lead set by Lord Tebbit in the House of Lords a month or so earlier. When Tebbit said it there was just an accepting silence. Equating Hitler and the Nazis with ‘socialists’ seems to be something that is being openly promoted by the right-wing in the UK, I can’t imagine why.
US citizen Paul Whelan (or however else one might back-transliterate Пол Уилан) has been arrested in Moscow for espionage and criminal proceedings against him have commenced.
There is speculation that he may be swapped for Maria Butina, the alleged Russian state operative who worked with the US Republican Party and its funders in the National Rifle Association.
Thanks for this horrific account from your past, it must have been as haunting as the reoccurring visits to the concentration camps.
What is somewhat surprising revelation of your superiors in those days, knowing full well that you are troubled by a bipolar mind from time to time, they still assigned you to visit these deeply disturbing sites.
I know how you must have felt walking through those camps, I was marched through Neuengamme concentration camp when still in primary school, it was called ‘denazification’.
wishing you all a great Hogmanay in Poland, shall get in touch about DTRH when you are back.
Same to all who comment here, have a happy new year.
And a big smelly fish to those living under a wee bridge, we have to look after our pets.
“And a big smelly fish to those living under a wee bridge, we have to look after our pets.”
I don’t understand. Is this a sexual innuendo?
I think Nevermind means trolls, they in folklore dwell mostly under bridges.
I like your mind, RK. Gutters, bridges and fishy smells…
A recommendation on the Lifeboat News –
CraigM with a powerful reminiscence – which ends with an assertion the Robert Stuart needs to see
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/12/gdansk/
“Led me immediately to understand that the famous BBC report on “Saving Syria’s Children” was faked. ”
What do you expect from the British government’s mouthpiece? The truth? Never in a month of Sunday’s.
Well to listen yet again today, to the British media’s frenzy over immigrants, you’d have thought that IS themselves had invaded coastal England. Surely the British media aren’t xenophobic?
What became of Lech Wałęsa.?
https://www.inyourpocket.com/gdansk/Solidarity_71303f
Lech’s here too
https://www.politico.eu/article/polish-court-intervenes-in-long-running-feud-between-lech-walesa-and-jaroslaw-kaczynski/
Thanks. Quite a shock to see that photo. He’s almost unrecognisable from his 1980s image.
https://servetolead.org/lech-walesa-day-that-changed-course-of-history/
The sooner we leave the hated E.U. and their rules, the better.
Fishing: New E.U. rules could have ‘grave’ impact on UK industry
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46718663
One of the main problems that the E.U. is causing, which will shoot itself through both feet, is the never ending increasing complexity of rules.
this problem of wasteful throw back, whether we’re in the EU or not, could be easily resolved by the use of video cams – possibly?
Most of the UK fishing fleets catch (66%) is sold to the EU. As well as that the UKG allowed the skippers of British fishing vessels to sell their EU quota to other EU countries, and many made a decent packet doing so, particularly to the Dutch.
O/T.
Questions have been raised over the Government’s preparations for a no-deal Brexit, after it emerged a £13.8 million contract to run extra ferries has been handed to a company with no ships which has not previously operated a service.
One has to wonder if any MP’s or Lords, or party donors have a connection to this. Sneaking out the announcementaround the holiday period seems a bit devious by the British government.
Companies House list the directors.
https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/10709921/officers
Hello RoS I would have thought you would be itching to stand up for E.U. rules, no?
I’ll take Brussels (EU) over London (Westminster ) any day of the week.
Why take either?
Ireland backed by the EU over Brexit, otherwise Westminster would now be running roughshod over the Good Friday agreement. Scotland in the union, shut up and eat your cereal and don’t expect a say on Brexit.
The death throes of an incompetent and corrupt administration. Hopefully also applies to Westminster as an institution. Leaving aside how dodgy this all looks, how about the proposal from a technical perspective?
The predicted chaos at ports of entry in the event of a No Deal Brexit is the product of Customs checks at port facilities where current berthing capacity reflects an open Border condition. The primary bottleneck (berthing capacity) is predicted to cause a secondary bottleneck forming in the roads and motorways of Kent. The new ferry route is Ostend to Ramsgate as in Ramsgate KENT! If the relatively small increase in berthing capacity in Ramsgate does not clearly solve the primary bottleneck of Customs capacity by a margin of comfort, then the secondary bottle neck (Kent being a giant lorry park) remains.
If the Government wants to sponsor additional ferry routes to create additional berthing / Customs capacity, then target them North of the Thames at say Felixstowe or Immingham.
VO’B, ISTM that we the “planning” for a no-deal Brexit is constrained by a policy that there isn’t really any other viable form of transport than road transport, therefore anything that involves rail or water should be got over as soon as possible. Otherwise we might be running ferries from Southampton or even Newcastle or Milford Haven to Continental Europe.
N_ reported that on the previous thread.
Re my above comment it would appear that the sole shareholder with company assets amounting to £66 quid is a friend of the Transport minister, well according to this he is.
https://mobile.twitter.com/fernando_london/status/1079444749243899904
I wou;d have thought you would have supplied us with an account of how a beautiful city had survived despite its troubled history rather than dream up a nightmare about a suspected case of arson during a rock concert which killed apparentlyonly two people.
Anyway, have a Better New Year.
I found it hard to read this article, let alone the comments. Yet this was an accident. Our British Government does this kind of thing on purpose. Dropping bombs on innocent people has exactly the same effect. I have known a lot of Polish people throughout my life. I grew up with them. I even remember some of their surnames, and can still spell them accurately
Happy New Year,
Tony
Why Iranian?
More than 100 migrants,
claiming to be “Iranian”,
have attempted the dangerous journey by small boat to the United Kingdom in the past three weeks. Why?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-46296249
Without fail, the migrants have told officials they are Iranian.
“They were here for a month, staying in hotels, and would find a smuggler to make other arrangements.”
One theory as to why Iranians are choosing to risk their lives on boats stems from their comparative wealth – simply put, they can afford to pay smuggling gangs to get them onboard a vessel.
Maya Konforti, of L’Auberge des Migrants, a refugee support group in Calais, described the attempted crossings as “the speciality of Iranians”. Regardless, the “surge” in attempts is being fuelled by “organised criminal and mafia networks” in France
So these people are more affluent, they are willing to pay people smugglers, this most likely points to them being economic migrants – not proper asylam persons.
By law the UK is unable to “repatriate” Iranian refugees. It’s possible that some smugglers are trying to take advantage of this fact.
i do not see why they cannot repatriate Iranians as the country is not officially one that is dangerous for fellow Moslems. The only grounds for seeking asylum would presumably be sexual orientation which must apply to all gay men and women in hardline Moslem countries.
it seems I am wrong. According to the BBC, the UK will grant asylum to people afraid to live in their “own” country because of their sexusl orientation. This makes the UK very appealing as a destination to gay men and women around the world who live in societies where to be gay or transgender is frowned upon for religious and cultural reasons. This we are told includes ran.The question then is of course. how do you distinguish between genuine gay people in danger because of their sexusl orientation, and people using this as a pretence to gain entry to the UK?
And according to ITN, most of the Iranian migrants they spoke to, waiting to cross the Channel, were recent Christian converts from Islam, fleeing a tyrannical state religion. Are there really active evangelical Christians busy converting Moslems to Christianity in Iran or is the claim of religious persecution at home another convenient way to seekng asylum in the UK,?. Colour me cynical I am afraid.
Mary Pau!
Recent converts to Christianity. And they came to Tory Britain? Like last year hundreds of Arabs simultaneously decided to sexually assault German women celebrating New Year.
After a year in which a facebook boss admits manipulating elections, fake news and Skripal burlesque, all news is propaganda. I hope the MP for Bromsgrove got a thrill out of ordering his naval bombardment.
I expect that the recent downing with total loss of life of the Russian Il-20, a surveillance plane, possibly by the Syrians, under pressure from the Israelis, the consequent installation of S-300 missile system by the Russians in Syria
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/18/russia-military-aircraft-syria-jet-lost-contact
has kicked Donald Trump into speeding up his retreat from Syria.
On the news today was some footage of a 20 ton bulldozer towing a small inflatable boat across the beach while about a dozen assorted ‘workers’ (probably earning holiday rate overtime) looked on motionless. A sad indictment of this feckless and clueless country.
Double bubble for workers? Not in May’s society that works for everyone. Only for every one per cent.
On the subject of faked reports and widening it out to false flags more generally, remember the all out assault by Syrian forces backed up by Russia that was going to happen against the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib earlier this year. The US in the form of John Bolton, ramped up the tension through warnings of a planned chemical weapons attack, and that any use of chemical weapons would be met with huge response. Russia warned the world that rebels were planning to stage a false flag provocation weeks earlier. Basically, it was all set up with western media lackeys poised to do their thing. Their thing increasingly being to report what they are told rather than question. Russia and Syria clearly got spooked by all these flashing warning lights, and wisely decided containment was the better strategy, for now. The fact that Syria + allies and Russia showed restraint and decided on idlib containment suggests does it not, that the only people prepared to use chemical weapons were those seeking western intervention.
Goose, I agree with all of that.
Assad is not a bad player but Putin is a master player.
One of the outcomes for Syria, could be a downplaying of religious fervor.
Fervor of all inclinations should be put on one side, whilst embracing getting along with each other, for the common good.
In Iran, before the present Fervor took hold, women ( rich & middle class) were becoming more liberated, that got sent back to the Dark Ages with the Ayatollah lunatic brigade.
I don’t think Assad is a good guy, there are no ‘good guys’ in this brutal Syrian civil war. Just look at the flattened areas and horrific treatment of prisoners by both sides(Syrian army and rebels) However, it’s pretty obvious that Assad isn’t the crazed maniac western media presents. Clearly Assad/Putin understood the false flag trap they were walking into in Idlib and refused to play their role.
Goose, any reason we aren’t seeing a new FF chemical attack at the news the US is pulling out of Syria?
Trump’s decision to pull US forces out of Syria is far braver than the media suggest. It was a campaign pledge so he’s on relatively safe ground having being elected and having had that policy endorsed by the voters. But still, there is huge opposition everywhere at all levels. Clearly, some see Syria and specifically Assad’s removal, as Obama’s unfinished business.
As for why no provocation to keep US forces there? There really is no basis for an attack (pinned on Assad’s forces) with Idlib contained. Certain things have to pass a basic credibility test, even in the west. Look how even MSM journalists, like the Mail’s Peter Hitchens were seriously questioning events in Douma. Former head of the UK armed forces General Jonathan Shaw and Lord West former Chief of the Naval Staff both raised their doubts too asking, why on earth Assad would use chemical weapons to no strategic advantage in a war he’s already won?
Can’t disagree with most of that.
Clearly, some see Syria and specifically Assad’s removal, as Obama’s unfinished business..
Not sure Obama’s business was his own…
Obama a murderous POTUS, at war for every single day of his tenure, yet Nobel had the audacity to award the blood thirsty president the Nobel Peace prize in 2009.
Barry Soetoro, was just another war machine puppet.
https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2017/01/18/510447582/after-8-years-of-unbroken-war-obama-hands-over-conflicts-to-trump
I think the ultra rich Gulf monarchies have corrupted the west.
A couple of $/£/€ million to a western official or politician put in a private bank account is life changing. To these Gulf monarchies giving away a few million is like you or I giving away a few pence.
Orwell got it right, such a visionary. Quotes:
The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.
1984
And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’
1984
RoS – he’s a strange character with his 5 social security numbers and a wife he has occasionally called “Michael” (sorry could’t resist!)
Anyway, HNY to you and everyone here. 🙂
“Orwell got it right, such a visionary.”
Orwell understood how these things work through his time at the BBC during WW2 and having first hand experience of how propaganda was used. Orwell was also old enough and informed enough to remember WW1 and the fabricated nonsense that later became accepted as historical fact. Rather than being a visionary I regard him as a sociopolitical commentator who was using allegory and fiction in order to get his message out to a wider audience. 1984 was supposed to be the UK in the future when it was published but much of the one-party surveillance/security state it describes was put in place during WW2.
“I think the ultra rich Gulf monarchies have corrupted the west”
Yeah — the West in essence is good & human.
It’s just others, super rich Arab monarchies, that corrupt its moral nature.
What should be recorded, Mr Murray, is that Britain would immediately fill planeloads of medical supplies for a neighbouring nation in need, which had a significant if not decisive role in minimising the human casualties from a tragic disaster.
Rather more of that and rather less middle East bombing and British relations globally would take a decisive turn for the better….
I’m sure it was not pure altruism on the part of the Poms.
The Poms were investing in buying hearts and minds.
Nowadays the Poms are investing differently in the far greater catastrophe that is Yemen (a catastrophe that the Poms helped create and sustain, as is Syria, Libya, Eye-rack, Palestine, etc…).
Breaking: Russian Air Force launches first airstrikes over Idlib in weeks
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-russian-air-force-launches-first-airstrikes-over-idlib-in-weeks/
That is quite surprizing.
The source said that the Russian Air Force was targeting members of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham and the Turkestan Islamic Party,
very close to the Turkish border.
A message for Erdogan, perhaps?
Uyghurs
are apparently the main contingent of The Turkestan Islamic Party
How long will Mr Javid’s ‘cutters’ take to arrive to deal with his ‘migrant emergency’? Where are they? This report just says they are ‘abroad’.
http://news.sky.com/story/border-force-vessels-brought-back-to-patrol-channel-amid-migrant-crossings-11595795
He should have consulted his pal, Mr Failing Grayling, who could have put him in touch with Seaborne Freight. I am sure they could have located the necessary vessels.
How does some dodgy shell company(shell companies are very often abused for various illegal purposes), with no history, assets or proven record in ferrying freight, win a govt contract to the tune of £14m? The report stated it’s a ‘paper company’with just £68 quid in a bank account, WTF?
Guardian: “Seaborne had funding in place from City investors[?] including well-known financial institutions”…”However, the company’s website provides scant detail and a section marked “timetable” does not contain any information as yet, perhaps due to the lack of ships.
More stuff here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/aaxqwq/firm_given_14m_y_government_to_set_up_ferry/
@Sharp Ears – “How long will Mr Javid’s ‘cutters’ take to arrive to deal with his ‘migrant emergency’?”
I was just going to post an answer to that very question. Expect the key initiating event, involving internet-ready violence and probably blood and death, to coincide with parliamentary shenanigans. Probably with a prior build-up which could start around 9 January when the “debate” is scheduled to begin. The message will be “No Deal with foreign scum” .
This is choreography, about as clearly as could possibly be. The event is likely to involve the armed forces – specifically, the “Royal Navy” as the authorities call it. It was the SBS that stormed the Grande Tema in the Thames Estuary on 21 December.
Many a true word…..
Cross-channel migration attempts fell – so why is Establishment highlighting now?
30/12/2018 ·
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/12/30/cross-channel-migration-attempts-fell-so-why-is-establishment-highlighting-now/
I am sorry Craig for the emotional impact this had on you. I do understand it.
Two points of note:
(1) The Media have reported that priest Jankowski was a paedophile, as several victims came forward last month.
(2) There has never been communism in Poland. Never. Never private property, private land ownsership or private business were abolished, even in the darkest days of Stalinism in Poland (1948-1956). Never in Poland was there a “Communist” party in name or in form. The system – both in Poland and in much of the Eastern block – was termed “people’s socialism”, as it complied with the major tenets of Socialism; but not Communism.
k.
There was never communism (= socialism) in the US”S”R or China either.
A good definition of communism is that it is where “the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all”, as Marx and Engels put it in the Communist Manifesto in 1848.
Does that sound the slightest bit like the social conditions that prevailed under any of the shithouse regimes mentioned?
Ah yes, the “pure” socialism that hasn’t been implemented yet. It wasn’t real socialism that killed all those millions. That’s always around the corner, after the next atrocity.
Here’s a tip, pal – the pure socialism you yearn after will never happen because, what with we being imperfect creatures and all, freedom can’t exist with socialism. And therefore your inhuman ideology always ends in the death camp.
Hmmm, the last time I checked, millions were killed (1) in Kongo, by the absolutely capitalist Belgians, (2) during WW1, by pretty much everybody, however the Communist/socialist kill score was relatively minor, (3) during WW2, with the majority of kill coming, fair enough, from National Socialism, which however had nothing to do with the later governments in Eastern Europe. However, anyone is free to post propaganda shit here.
Might I ask you– since you could be my pal and sound like a sage.
Can freedom exist with Capitalism?
In what way was China under the People’s Commune system of the 1950s not communist?
Happy New Year to yourself and your family, Craig. And to all commenters here.
Just as well you are abroad Craig. Otherwise you might have had the misfortune to have chanced upon Aaronovitch on University Challenge. The alumni of Sheffield and Manchester Universities are competing currently on BBC2.
Sheffield University v Manchester University
University Challenge
Christmas 2018 Episode 6 of 10
It is the penultimate first-round match in the Christmas quiz for grown-ups, and both teams are doing battle for a place in the semis. They are Sheffield University, with politician Lord David Blunkett and former Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason, against Manchester University, with journalist David Aaronovitch and Watchdog presenter Matt Allwright.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bx6vh4
PANEM ET CIRCENSES.
Thank you Mr Murray for all the effort you put into this blog: and your fight for ‘decency’.
I dont know if the subject of the Kaiserin’s project for us all has reached the ears of any ‘remainers’ but it migh provide some food for thought..
<>
Zerohedge
“Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty ” according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to question of immegration, borders or even soverignty. “Nation states must today be prepared to give up their sovereignty”, according to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who told an audience in Berlin that sovereign nation states must not listen to the will of their citizens when it comes to questions of immigration, borders, or even sovereignty.”
The details and the rest can be found at Zerohedge
A horrible tale and yes I do believe a personal nightmare. An odd piece on New Years eve, but you got it off your shoulders.
Mr Murray, a happy New Year to you, to the readers here, and to an Independent Scotland.
A really interesting post Craig. I hope you have a nice New Year in Gdansk. I worked in shipyards a few years back and enjoyed it.
Those places filled me with horror, which resonated on the same emotional frequency as the Gdansk trauma.
It is I am surethat very emotional frequency that inspirits and empowers, intention, beyond hope and into purpose. It was I am sure, ‘intention’ on many that saved Syria and her children. It appears the horrors, the nightmares, the emotional cataclysm are meanings, spiritual messages that change our understanding.
The charred remains of children petrified from the ‘shock & awe’ of fire, fumes, fever and death are visions; the contorted shadows formed in a circle around a breakfast bowl are memories, a family greeting the day that early morning fire rained down on Baghdad. ‘Shock & Awe now perpetuum on the horizon. Will you answer for that?
No deceit, no lies, no exchange of gifts, no tough talk, no conspiracy, no Royal Charter would destroy Syria and her innocent.
Thank you Craig for sharing this memory.
More on Seaborne Freight, including the name of a ship, SEAFRANCE NORD PAS-DE-CALAIS. However, I suspect this web page was published in 2017, or earlier, so it may be out-of-date.
Sorry, forgot the link:
https://www.ferryshippingnews.com/ports-of-ostend-and-ramsgate-welcome-new-cross-channel-freight-ferry-operator/
I think this is the ship:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Nord_Pas-de-Calais
Happy New Year!
that’s crapitalists for you. first they burn you alive, then they get you supplies of ointments and gauze and bandages too, so your burned self wouldn’t upset them too much