Am giving a talk in Karachi on Sunday, and very much looking forward to it. Entry is free. This blog has a number of regular readers and two donating subscribers in Karachi, and it would be a great pleasure if they can introduce themselves. I am speaking primarily on Sikunder Burnes, (after whom Karachi’s famous Burnes Road is named), but shall happily wander off into the vicious folly of modern western military interference in Afghanistan, the illegality of drone strikes, the two century long history of western exploitation and exacerbation of the Sunni/Shia divide, and the great work of Julian Assange.
As always, I shall also be talking about why Scottish Independence, just like Irish, should be seen in the context of decolonisation, despite the eventual co-option of Scots to the Imperial project. As I have explained till I am blue in the face, the domestic law of the metropolitan country is utterly irrelevant to the legality of secession; the only determining factor is international recognition.
Sorry frorgive, O/T
The farce conti8nues Many well fed well inebriated representatives decided that No deal , was not5 a politically apt vote for them top get re elected next time, shguiddder, whenever soon that night be, aaand that its best to send the PM back for a dinner of Brussel sprouts to get over the fact that 27 Governments are united, SCHOCKS,something we don’t know how to achieve in this geriatric democracy that serves the same, and all the time for the last two hundred years.
So no deal and no more negotiations….hmmmm, what do we tell Laura K. to say?
This country will disr3egard its long term commitments in a EU community, not perfect at all, but united, rather than reforming or attempting to, god forbid, its mean hard work, they are more consumed with their own narrow majorities, swelf interests govern this project to deny our children to be free in Europe, to travel to be educated, to make their lives and homes, where ever they want to.
Who are we to take free mobility in Europe away from our children? who are these selfrcentr3ed gits who demand that we dance to their whistles and cower our children into their narrow and antediluvian concept?
This cou8ntry lives in medieval times, governed by division and rancour,
Hard Brexit is Guaranteed, don’t be fooled by this circus, and I hope Ireland is waking up to it, there will be no re negotiations of the backstop, we have sacrificed Ireland’s future security on the altar of self importance and self serving . politricians are more concerned to get re elected, looking good, than doing a proper job.
Now what that be?
How about modernising the base of voters with openness, empower them, that what Politicians should endeavour to do for their voters, with fair proportional representation, not fool them for two years and disregard their future, and that of their children.
And no Charles, no discourse with dinosaurs like you.
Good night all, what a wasted day this was…….sadly…..
my apologies for the many typos… please work it out, ta.
Well Said Nevermimd.. Yeh the Typos thing Lol..
You made good use of a wasted Day.. Cheers
One sign of the times was the ceremony by the EMA staff folding the flags of the European nations in preparation for their departure to Amsterdam: https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/ema-staff-lower-flags-at-london-office-as-amsterdam-move-nears
The iceberg heading Ireland’s way is not Brexit but the inevitable removal of their tax haven status. It’s only a matter of time before the EU shut them down. The issue of multnationals being parked up in these countries to the detriment of the wider public finances has been high on the agenda of movements in France, Germany and elsewhere. The clock is ticking.
When the Soviet Union broke up, the former Soviet republics didn’t have any problems with backstops or doorstops or whatever. Why should we?
You don’t think the decimation of Grozny was a backstop problem of sorts? I suppose that’s one way to guarantee frictionless trade.
@Hatuey 00:14
I think the UK equivalent would be England invading Scotland but I don’t think that’s very likely. The Scots have got the nuclear-armed submarines (although I think they don’t actually want them).
I don’t know why England might invade what is essentially its own colony but I guess you are speaking theoretically about some counter factual world that exists in your imagination.
Your original point, that the Soviet Union didn’t have any backstop type problems when it collapsed, though, couldn’t be more wrong. Problems associated with the collapse of the Soviet Union continue to this day in places like Ukraine.
I think the British Government made a big mistake by not moving its nuclear submarines to Portsmouth. I can imagine this conversation after Scottish independence:
Theresa: Look here, young lady, we’d like our nuclear missiles back.
Nicola: Och aye, that’s just fine. We’ll light the blue touch paper an send them tae ye. An lang may yer Palace o Westminster reek.
But would Scotland leave NATO if it was independent?
@Rowan, I am sure it would stay, unless the EU presented some sort of alternative, say it’s own EU army, which was intended to replace NATO
Since you draw the analogy with the USSR, you might look at what happened to the nuclear warheads in Kazakhstan.
What happened to them? Were any used? There’s a big problem with nukes – they don’t, in fact can’t work. So just relax and have a giggle whenever Trump and Kim talk about them.
The term ‘No Deal’ and ‘Crashing out’ are all trigger words used to frighten an uninformed populace on Brexit.
The truth is we LEAVE on WTO terms which is no Big Bad Wolf, but a proven system of International trade for many years.
For those who care to research the EU, it has long deviated from its ideals , or were those a mask to deceive us.
The EU has become a dangerous bureaucratic ,dysfunctional nightmare and its weapon of choice to subjugate Nation States has been the Euro currency and machinations of its ECB, creating Financial bubbles and Crashes, manipulating interest rates, manipulating Sovereign bond interest rates and more.
Open borders have created chaos in European States, all part of the plan to destabilise and profit from the confusion.
The planned integrated European Military is just a resurrection of the Warsaw Pact system and will be used against recalcitrant Nations attempting to escape this totalitarian project.
If the WTO is so great, why do so many countries make trade deals? I guess they aren’t as intelligent as you.
The EU hasn’t deviated fro a thing. In the preamble to the Treaty of Rome they make clear that the goal is “ever closer union…”
You talk about financial crashes being engineered. Well, the biggest since 1919 was engineered by banks and financial institutions in the US, not the EU.
Open borders are a problem if you’re a racist. For the rest of us they have been a huge boon to trade and travel. Incidentally, Thatcher was extremely keen on open borders and free trade and argued vigorously for all that.
There is no connection or meaningful comparison to be made between the Warsaw Pact and the proposed EU army. Saying stuff like that, and the other things I’ve deliberately ignored, simply underlines your stupidity.
Back to Salford with you and take my advice — avoid big words.
I do not see why we in the U.K. need any trade deals, with any country.
We spent hundreds of years, trading around the world, without too much problem.
How hard can it be, either they have something we want or they do not, we print our own money, backed by things like oil/gas/wool/aircraft carriers.
I agree, you don’t see.
The hundreds of years of trading you refer to, including the trading in human beings, was done largely at gunpoint.
Britain’s fee trade era, from about 1870 onwards, not only didn’t last very long but was never anything like entirely free — all sorts of limits and tariffs were imposed on French produce, for example, such as wine.
Maybe someone can explain how it’s possible to keep a straight face and talk about free trade when you hold so many countries in the grip of colonialism.
“we print our own money, backed by things like oil/gas/wool/aircraft carriers.”
Crikey, are you serious? Is that really what you think? Thinking that sterling is backed by anything other than a pyramid of financial scams, corruption and criminality is one thing, but to believe it is backed by sheep fleeces, ship fleets or anything else in the real world is completely daft. ‘Money’ in this country is not printed, earned or even made, it is simply created out of thin air inside a network of financial institutions computers’.
He didn’t say WTO was great. Just that it exists and works. I assume we’d then have to make new trade deals for ourselves to get better than baseline.
Didn’t Angela Merkel say recently that Britain has never really thought of the EU as anything other than a trade arrangement, while other countries wanted closer political union?
Depending on how open borders are organised, free movement of workers can be a problem for driving down wages. Not everyone worrying about that is a racist. We do need better arguments than calling people racists.
SC
“We do need better arguments than calling people racists.”
In Guardianland, it is often the only argument.
None of what you say about the EU supports your contention that leaving without a withdrawal agreement is not something that people living in Britain should be scared about.
“Leaving on WTO terms” is just as loaded an expression as “crashout”. The WTO doesn’t determine every last trading arrangement that will need to be made between rEU and a member state that leaves the Union. By “need”, I mean in the “starvation avoidance” sense of that term.
Out of interest, am I right that you yourself have not stockpiled any food, and that you consider those of us who believe that food and medicine shortages are likely to be a bit soft in the head, doubtless duped by
George Soros’spro-EU “fake news”?Getting chemical drenched tomatoes from Spain in the middle of winter doesn’t feature very highly for me as a starvation avoidance priority. Most of what what we import we don’t actually need (hundreds of millions of apples rot under the trees or are thrown away while we import satsumas, for example). Food imports won’t stop in any case. They will become more expensive.
I certainly believe you are soft in the head. If there is any serious food or medicine shortage in the UK I will eat my hat. It’s a project fear tactic for the gullible.
Oi oi Napoleon!
What – You have no like banana?
Tea?
Coffee?
Orange?
Lemon?
…
Never were you able.
Oi Oi Josephine!
Coffee and tea are not produced in the EU so those priducts in UK supermarkets already come from outside the EU. As do many of the oranges and lemons, for that matter. TRhere are many lemons from countries like Argentina and oranges are easily sourced from Israel, etc.
Oi Oi Josephine!
Sorry, I forgot bananas! They are of course produced in the French Overseas Departments, notably Guadeloupe and Martinique and also in some former UK territories in the Caribbean (eg Dominica).
Bananas were at the centre of periodic heated discussions in the bosom of the WTO (GATT at the time) between the EU and the US. Funnily enough, bananas were also one of the (albeit temporary) sticking points between France (a producer, via the DOM) and the Federal Republic of Germany (a big importer of Central American bananas) back in the days when the commercial clauses of the EEC Treaty were being negotiated and indeed subsequently when the Customs Union was being introduced in stages.
Perhaps it was their versatility as a fruit.
“hundreds of millions of apples rot under the trees or are thrown away while we import satsumas, for example”
Since EU sanctions against Russia there has been a huge surplus of apple production, particularly in Poland, and yet during all this time you can’t buy an apple in the supermarket for less than £2 a kilo. Apples are second only to bananas as the UKs most popular fruit and yet bananas, which have to be shipped across the Atlantic from non EU countries (all be it via an EU negotiated trade deal), are far cheaper than European grown apples. How can free trade and supply/demand economics explain that? They can’t of course, but supply chain monopolies run by the big supermarkets can. Supermarket lobbyists are probably promoting food shortages in order to deliver massive price hikes (more profits) after Brexit.
@ Charles Bostock January 30, 2019 at 12:26
‘..oranges are easily sourced from Is^ael…’
And even easier boycotted….BDS!
Well we are making opposed predictions and within a year we will find out what happens and who was closer to being right.
What do you see as the aim of those who are behind what you view as stoking groundless fear? I am interested in whether you think the aim is Remain or something else.
No great deal you say, WTO will be a blessing.
Well Salford Lad consider the recent contract awards by Chris Grayling to ferry operators to move goods in and out of secondary south of England ports.
As a measure to try and reduce the import chaos and delays that are forecast to arise, the award of some £107 million of contracts has other effects in that at a stroke it disrupts existing contractual arrangements.
Thus for example what do you think Eurotunnel will say and do when £107m of business gets unilaterally awarded to a ferry competitor.
Is Grayling’s award in breach of existing tendering law. Is it in breach of the Chunnel Concession Agreement signed with the governments of the UK and France.
Grayling and his department may have given £107 million of contracts to his currently ferry less ferry pals on the basis of a brown envelope but Eurotunnel will take the UK government to court.
Don’t read about this in the papers, but it is just another example of the chaos in the background – and it’s only one example
Anyway, must be off now, they’ll be billions more hand outs to the pals for nonsense like this. Think of all that customs checking, people checking, immigrant detection, immigrant removal, immigrant registration as we build our walled fortress Britain.
The chaos is just starting, and meanwhile, over in Belfast they’re now having a wee fret about thousands of aerospace jobs at Bombardier.
Now there’s another thought, what is the contractual impact for companies encouraged to set up in the UK as part of the EU.
Will they now have rights for compensation as they locate production back into EU states……Nissan, Jaguar Land rover to name but a few
What a lot of strawmen or in your case matchstick men and dog whistles.
1. The EU aren’t stopping the deal It is the DUP. They want the Belfast international Treaty (GFA) to be reneggable unilaterally… why?
Do you know that ALL Northern Irish Citizens are officially world recognised unicorns. According to the GFA they can identify themselves as British, Irish or BOTH. FOREVER.
That means that Foster and her Duppies will still have full EU citizen rights while the rest of us in the UK will have to fill in entry and exit slips everytime we hop in the ferry to france or flight to the beaches and out booze cruises will be limited to the old couple of bottles and a few fags …
2. WTO
Which countries in the world trade on just WTO terms?
When did we debate and vote to join it?
Who signed us up to it?
3. We never had open borders with Europe – we had an opt out of Schengen!
EU security forces are long planned and not a secret enterprise – why pay Nato gangster mafia 2% of GDI for their ‘fire insurance’ when it can be done a lot cheaper without having the 5 eyes all over Europe?
Your whole BS fake news and fake outrage is utter cobblers.
The WTO is in freefall, it has huge problems currently, not just with Trumps tradewars, but also with countries such as China being refused the same rights as western countries, Salford Lad.
“the former Soviet republics didn’t have any problems with backstops or doorstops or whatever. ”
They had their own sort of EU, called the CIE, and the borders were never frictionless anyway. About time you learned something about borders.
“About time you learned something about borders”.
The only thing I’m learning here is that a lot of you don’t like free speech.
The CIE? Wasn’t that the CIS (Community of Independent States), actually? If it was (and I may be wrong) then it is perhaps you who needs to learn something about nomenclature.
Commonwealth of Independent States
CIE was Irish State Railways
Correct, Isabella.
Yes, CIS. My mistake. But the CIS borders weren’t and aren’t frictionless. Brexiters have never understood that frictionless borders were a very special creation of the Single Market, which exist nowhere else in the world. Out of the SM and they’re impossible. But unfortunately Britain today depends on them. It will be a very great revolution in the British economy, if non-frictionless borders are imposed on 30th March. Many will suffer. It’s no good saying we will do the paperwork away from the border (a lot of it). The problem is not legal, but illegal crossings. The EU will no longer have an obligation to stop illegal migrants and smuggling. Knowing British bureaucracy and its insistence on obedience to rules, my estimate is a week before the situation blows up, and Britain imposes a hard border. It’s still unicorn land that British politicians live in.
Just a little bit of fighting on the border with Ukraine, less than 25,000 killed. US/EU backing Ukraine, unlikely to end in a new World War though one civilian aircraft shot down. I see what you mean Blunderbuss !
John Bercow was disgustingly arrogant and in a sense xenophobic towards Angus MacNeil, SNP MP for the Western Isles, in the Commons chamber after the Brexit votes yesterday.
From Hansard:
Angus Brendan MacNeil:
On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I hope you can advise. The House seems to have found itself in a contradictory position. First, it wants no deal off the table; and secondly, it does not accept the deal that the European Union is putting forward. Is it not the case that the United Kingdom Parliament is now at the mercy of the European Union, because if we are in a situation where no deal is off the table and we are not accepting the deal the EU is offering, where do we go from here?
Mr Speaker
The hon. Gentleman may wish to offer the views that he has just expressed to the news outlets that operate in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, and I rather suspect that that is what he will want to do. Local newspapers and radio stations will doubtless be very interested in the views that he wishes to express, but they are not matters of which I can treat now. The House has decided what it has decided—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman is saying that these matters are in contradiction of each other or have to be weighed against each other, but of course it is not a matter for the Chair to offer an exegesis to the House on the way in which it has voted. Members will make their own assessment. We know what statute says and we know what expressions of opinion have been recorded by the House today. The hon. Gentleman, although his brow is furrowed, is a perspicacious fellow, and I am sure he will get his head around these matters in the hours, days and weeks to come. We look forward to that with eager anticipation. (my emphasis)
MacNeil’s point was not a proper point of order, but that was no excuse for Bercow to be so vilely rude to him from the chair, sneering at him in a way that basically meant “you stupid country bumpkin”.
If the SNP leadership enter a complaint, good luck to them.
That was after Bercow had told Boris Johnson to “know his place” and government chief whip Julian Smith that doing somebody else’s job, such as the Leader of the Opposition’s or the Speaker’s, was “way beyond you”. Those are both exact quotes.
What is the point in this kind of talk?
All in all, Bercow truly excelled himself in his unpleasantness!
But I noticed he was terribly fawning towards Jacob Rees-Mogg. When Rees-Mogg rose to offer a point of order, Bercow told him “The hon. Gentleman does know parliamentary procedure. Point of order, Mr Jacob Rees-Mogg.”
And…Rees-Mogg has supposedly been backing Boris Johnson’s push towards the leadership? Really? I doubt it. More than likely Johnson is Rees-Mogg’s “stalking horse”, to use a somewhat outdated term.
Here you go, SNP friends reading this. Why not publicise this affront that occurred in Westminster? I intensely like seeing anybody bullied because of where they come from.
The question was a stupid one to ask the speaker. He deserved to be ridiculed.
If SNP MPs had any integrity, they’d walk out of that rat-infested shit hole. The victim card doesn’t work when the victim can freely walk away.
The Scottish grievance industry is already running at maximum output.
N_
Bercow was magnificient again.
He will not be bullied by the government – his own party. I actually think the whips were hoping he would start naming the Tory MP’s and barr them from the vote!
Hatuey: “I detect that the loyalty you refer to is starting to run short. This will go one of two ways: people will realise that independence is to the SNP what socialism is to Scottish Labour — fake bull […].
You’re reading my mind and overhearing a conversation with a friend I had just a few days back.
This is alas the conclusion I’ve come to, over the last few months/years, certainly since the 2015 GE. Most of the Westminster SNP MPs are hardly distinguishable from the Blairite plague-carriers infesting the Corbyn-led Labour Party, which brand, Labour lives on only for its infamy. Alex Salmond’s distinctly independence-lite (EU, NATO, monarchy, currency, etc.) ‘don’t scare the horses’ approach even if simply acknowledging the starting position and necessity of tolerating interim compromises -simply wasn’t bold enough for some, including myself; though on balance a bolder vision might have had a net-negative effect, it would have inspired many more of the disillusioned, electively disenfranchised and grown-cynical, that a turning point was coming and different destination, a better future for all our people was hoving into view and our grasp. The presence of a massive WMD stockpile on the Clyde is never negotiable, these must be gone forthwith, not conditionally on independence; no No voter has acceded to making Scotland’s most populous and beloved city target number one, and should have seen that Westminster, Washington and Brussels had become law-less playgrounds for deranged warmongers.
Westminster, the EU, the US, and the gaggle of supra-national bodies impinging on Scottish sovereignty all have one thing in common -naked major-league criminality. The controlling malign banking-drugs-media-intelligence nexus must be neutralised for democracy to flower. I don’t know how the people haven’t flattened BBC facilities with their bare hands, for their daily assaults on our much-stretched patience and tolerance. Something has to give. I can’t say I’m impressed with Nicola Sturgeon, come in Nicola, your time is up, and you’re out of your depth.
I take it Tony friend that you are not just for scareing the horses, but for absolutely terrifying them.
Revolution I hear you cry, the bigger the better. And if the scared horses don’t agree, what next Tone ?
But yes, otherwise I do agree with what you say. We know what we think we want, but how we get there is the big question.
“I can’t say I’m impressed with Nicola Sturgeon, come in Nicola, your time is up, and you’re out of your depth.”
Brexit was a massive opportunity. We have come out of it with nothing, at best a referendum in about 5 years.
I’m not saying Sturgeon is some sort of secret agent, but when you really stand back and look at the SNP role honestly over the last 3 years, there are huge questions.
Here’s a thought experiment: imagine the U.K. was in Africa and we were looking at the relationship between Scotland and England through say Chomsky’s eyes. You’d quite straightforwardly understand that Scotland was a neocolony that was being run by a puppet-type government on behalf of the dominant neighbour, England.
The SNP provides no real resistance within that relationship. There’s a token resistance expressed within the confines of the necolonial strictures, most of which is just a sort of lip service, but everything is under a sort of tight control.
We had the SNP MPs not long ago demanding that independence supporters do not go to an independence protest but instead devote themselves to making sure those MPs retain their seats in a forthcoming general election. In that same election, the SNP didn’t argue or mention independence.
Think about that. And it cost the independence movement heavily. The SNP naturally lost seats because they didn’t mobilise the independence movement, allowing state propagandists to argue that the opposite was true — that the loss of MPs proved there was no demand for independence.
We are prisoners to the U.K. government and the SNP.
Scottish indipendence coming through an establishment approved route and carrying on many of the establishment accoutrements is not indipendence. I am afraid unless there is a breakup of the system any changes in this and other ‘progressive’ agendas are bound to fail.
Ooh er Missus!
Nicola Sturgeon spokesman: Vote for budget or face wrath of ‘ordinary Scots’
There was also a stark warning that frontline funding for schools and hospital could be “jeopardised” after all opposition parties at Holyrood warned they will not support Finance Secretary Derek Mackay’s 2019/20 budget in a crunch vote this week.
29th January 2019
https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nicola-sturgeon-spokesman-vote-for-budget-or-face-wrath-of-ordinary-scots-1-4864200
The SNP need to let councils raise council tax by 3% to be able to pay for P.F.I. (or whatever they call it now) rubbish.
A report of a murder in Accra that might be of interest on here.
‘But nothing was stolen from Hussein-Suale and no-one close to him believes he was a random target. He was an investigative journalist whose undercover reporting had exposed traffickers, murderers, corrupt officials and high-court judges. He worked with Tiger Eye, a highly secretive team led by one of the most famous undercover journalists in Africa, Anas Aremeyaw Anas. In Ghana and beyond, the team’s daring, anonymous reporting made them modern-day folk heroes. And it made them enemies.’
Murder in Accra: The life and death of Ahmed Hussein-Suale
By Joel Gunter
BBC Africa Eye
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47002878
Thanks for that bad news Sharp ears, this will not play well for Ghana and west Africa, it has lost one of its most important ‘civil policeman’.
The route to Scottish independence is through Brexit and reforming Britain, which their presence at Westminster makes a realistic objective. This doesn’t mean independence will happen, but it, like peace in Ireland, makes it more likely to happen. Whereas the present drive for devolution in EU rather than UK is confusing tactics with aims. I.e. restoring independence from EU should be the priority followed by possible independence from UK.
“The route to Scottish independence is through Brexit and reforming Britain..”
We don’t need to guess about how countries win independence. History books are brimming with hundreds of examples.
If Scotland had a normal or real independence movement, it would win independence then decide what sort of relationship it wants with Europe. But we don’t and now all I have to look forward to is the mayhem and misery that being part of Brexit Britain guarantees.
“The route to Scottish independence is through Brexit and reforming Britain, which their presence at Westminster makes a realistic objective. ”
You’ve more chance of reforming North Korea than Britain. The route to Scottish independence is informing folk of the truth, and a no deal Brexit will seal the deal.
You hit the nail on the head there RoS. Well done.
@Craig
I think about half the posters on your blog are now Integrity Initiative plants. I suppose the idea is to shut down your blog by making it an unwelcome place for independent thinkers.
True, but you sound like one of them half the time.
That’s because I’m an independent thinker.
Pity there is not more like you Blunderbuss.
The Integrity Initiative scandal is getting worse — and British media keeps ignoring it
29h January 2019
‘Things just keep getting worse for the poor, embattled disinformation-busting warriors at the Integrity Initiative. New leaks have revealed more embarrassing tidbits confirming yet again the shady nature of the busted operation.
This time, the spotlight is on the II’s targeting of anti-fracking activists, its ties to HSBC bank, its obsessive (near-fetishizing) focus on nuclear war with Russia and its plans to foster “a long-term appreciation” of NATO among Muslim youth.
In another blow to the image of itself as an unbiased exposer of fake news which the II had worked hard to cultivate, one of the documents details its support for and “close relationship” with Britain’s Specialist Group Military Intelligence (SGMI), which was masterminded by Chris Donnelly, a key player at the II’s parent organization, the London-based Institute for Statecraft (IfS).’
/..
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/450058-integrity-initiative-scandal-british-media/
Perhaps Craig is flattered – the greater the shillery, the more truth spoken to power. As independent thinkers we can recognise and dismiss, according to our own internal wisdom.
Nice cup of remainer tears for brekkie this morning lads. ?
The remainers have been put to the sword in every alleyway they have fought down.
After all this is over we need a complete clear out of Parliament. Never again can we allow Paliament to tie itself in knots like this after getting the “wrong” answer to its own question.
Oi oi Napoleon!
The forever EU citizens, the DUP, are unicorns that will remain while we hard brexit.
Your hysteria and cackling is loony tunes.
Ah, so this is anon1.
Texting while dogwalking around Porton Down and Salisbury in general.
News just in less than 5 minutes ago. Still trying to confirm the source since it’s not on any news sites yet, but………….
A reply to me: “You’ll be glad to know that the Scottish Gov are to go for a Referendum. Nicola Sturgeon will seek a section 30 Order after the Brexit Vote on the 13th of February.”
Can it be true?
Mist001,
It won’t make any difference if there is another Scottish referendum, unless it is organised in such a way that it cannot be bent, as it was last time (check out how Venezuela do it – registered, fingerprinted, monitored, and audited).
I’m convinced the EU referendum was bent too, though after the “death” of Jo Cox, they didn’t bend it quite enough, and were amazed at the result, which they have been trying to nullify ever since, with the backing of nearly everyone who posts here.
Good to see Salford Lad, as one of the few, who is actually making any sense, with regards to the EU Dictatorship, and the principles of Democracy.
As regards recent events in Venezuela, all Western Governments and the EU, and all the MSM media have vividly portrayed, how completely evil they all are, without even trying to hide or lie about any of it. All these people are in the same club – and you ain’t in it (George Carlin – New York).
You will never see a truth in the Daily Express. (John Cooper Clarke – Salford)
Tony
“I’m convinced the EU referendum was bent too, though after the “death” of Jo Cox”
Why the quotes? Are you suggesting that Jo Cox isn’t really dead? Another missing person like the Skripals?
Blunderbuss,
I was away at the time. I do not watch TV, but came back a few days later. I had missed all the mind programming, and was looking at the events objectively, and retrospectively, but with a strong interest, as Jo Cox was the kind of girl, I really like representing a place I really like in Yorkshire. I looked at her famiiy’s reaction less than 48 hrs after the “death”, and it simply did not look a natural reaction to grief. I also looked much deeper into the events, analysing all the publicly available information, and comparing it to other events, I had been aware of and analysed, where i was almost completely convinced the event was faked, for propaganda purposes. I don’t expect anyone to agree with me, and my analysis may well be wrong, and I have not even convinced myself. However, a very long term, very occasional poster on here, who I really respect, replyied to me deep in the comments, which from memory stated that he knew Jo Cox was working for The Intelligence Services.
Believe what you want. There is no way, I will change your mind about anything.
Tony
Thank you Tony. I have an open mind about this, as about many other things.
@Tony
I’ve just read the Wikipedia entry for Jo Cox and I think you are right to believe that we have not heard the whole story. I’m particularly interested in her support for the White Helmets. My suspicion is that she was murdered but her killer was not acting alone. Perhaps he was put up to it by the Deep State.
@Tony
Sexual assault allegations against Brendan Cox:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/husband-of-murdered-mp-jo-cox-quits-charity-roles-over-inappropriate-behaviour-1.3396457
I wonder if these were dug up by the Deep State. It looks as though somebody had a grudge against both Jo and Brendan Cox.
The Leave vote “up-North” that hadn’t previously voted for a long time caught the fixers by surprise. To promote War a Muslim assailant is required, but to promote Remain a Nazi rather than a Muslim is needed, as a Muslim assailant would have favoured Leave rather than Remain.
A neighbour described the assailant as a polite, quiet and inoffensive person who did a bit of gardening for his neighbours and had never discussed politics all the time she had known him and his mixed raced brother said the same. However he lived alone, which was his downfall.
Are you chaps claiming she didn’t get killed then and there?
Remember, people will read this in the future.
Just saying.
@Dungroanin 01:58
No, I’m not claiming that she didn’t get killed.
What I am suggesting is that there’s a lot more to the murder of Jo Cox than we have been told.
Two links that I find interesting:
https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/08/03/jo-cox-her-assassination-the-white-helmets-humanitarianism-and-regime-change/
https://kittysjones.wordpress.com/2018/12/13/emily-thornberrys-letter-about-the-integrity-initiatives-propaganda-initiative/
Another link that interests me:
http://www.frombehindenemylines.org.uk/2017/01/jo-cox-incident-periphery-part-one-the-fellowship-of-the-sting/
No deal = No drugs = No operations
No-deal Brexit could see ops cancelled, NHS trust says
1 hour ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-47051031
Operation Project Fear cont’d
Sharp Ears.
No operations might have a benefit for some.
Apparently the death rate goes down when there is no operations, or maybe not.
In my case beneficial. I owe my life to the surgeon, his team and OUR NHS.
And our tax-payers. That probably means Charles, too. Oh my!
NHS isn’t paid for by tax it’s paid from new money created by the Bank of England on order from the treasury. In fact NHS funding is a major way in which newly minted currency gets into the real economy. “Tax payers money” serves one purpose and that is to control inflation. In a word the NHS is not never has been and never will be hypothecated.
Well that’s another discussion. But, taking your point, SE should thank the bankers.
Same here.
It is often forgotten that Norway was one of the four countries that negotiated entry to the EEC back in the early 1970s. And indeed signed the Accession Treaty, only to have its government disavowed at a referendum held subsequently. One of the main reasons why the Norwegian public voted against EEC membership was that it perceived the EEC as being overly greedy when it came to the question of access to its fisheries resources (in those pre-oil days, it was one of Norway’s greatest economic resources).
Many years later, there was another referendum of membership – with the same result. Obviously, that time round, Norway was oil rich and so did not have the same incentive to join as the underdeveloped, cash strapped economies of Greece, Spain, Portugal and central/eastern Europe (structural, social and cohesion funds refer).
One might say that the UK joined out of a kind of economic desperation and that had the oil been flowing back in the early 1970s as it was doing a decade or two later the UK might not have bothered.
Charles.
I think you’ve inadvertently shown how Westminster cannot afford to let Scotland leave this dysfunctional union. That’s why Project Fear (unionists including British politicians) needed to lie intensively duringthe 2014 Scottish independence referendum. Very recently a huge gas field has been discovered off the coast of Aberdeen, the biggest in ten years.
Incidently it was China’s state owned CNOOC that annouced the discovery.
“It is often forgotten that Norway was one of the four countries that negotiated entry to the EEC back in the early 1970s. ”
Charles.
Yes people often forget, such as it’s often forgotten that Cyrus the Great is thought to have introduced the first form of human rights recorded on the Cyrus Cylinder. A copy of which was presented to the UN in 1971 by the shah’s sister Princess Ashraf. Iran was also one of the original members of the UN
Britain can remain outside the EU, as Norway did. The question is: are the conditions acceptable? I don’t see that with the Brexiters. They want all the advantages of membership, but not the limitations that Norway accepts.
Trump is ordering a new variant of this horror weapon for Trident submarines.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W76
US production of new nuke warhead increases risk of nuclear war – Russian FM
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has accused the US of bringing a nuclear conflict closer after the Trump administration ordered the production of a new nuclear warhead, the W76-2.
https://www.rt.com/news/450134-lavrov-nuclear-warhead-warning/
An order from Trump doesn’t mean it actually happens.
US diplomacy by other means. Not only ….:
… but also …
https://www.rt.com/news/450108-maduro-trump-ordered-mafia-kill/
Man,
The ‘No Deal’ is the deal the Peoples Vote in 2016 decided on!
Jesus F….g Christ, Remoaners. You’ve helped waste 2+ years. Bravo, feel proud? Played by the MSM and the Politicians.
We’re f….d if someone comes along and says ‘Global Warming is a Thing’.
Tick…tock…
YOU’VE HELP WASTE 2+YEARS OF BEING PLAYED BY A BUNCH OF FOOLS/LIARS/WAR MONGERS AND INCOMPETENTS.
It started with Cameron who, having promised to invoke Article 50 the day after the vote, resigned instead. That wasted over seven months.
What’s the connection between ‘No Deal’ and global warming?
Hot air?
Ah, that will be it.
UK imports and exports to the EU 2017
UK exports to the EU – £274 billion
UK imports from the EU – £341 billion
https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7851
A no deal brexit is a disaster for everyone concerned, and the EU is playing brinkmanship with that card, plus of course the backstop.
In 2014 Labour MEP’s voted against the appointment of Jean Claude Junckers as the next president, saying that he would make reform of the EU more difficult.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/09/labour-opposes-jean-claude-juncker-european-commission-president
Does anyone wonder why Luxembourg, a tiny country has so much influence in the EU, when it has proved to be corrupt (tax evasion), and yet has managed to provide 3 EU presidents – more than any other country?
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-sources-of-Luxembourgs-wealth
A no-veal Brexit would certainly not be a disaster for the UK. Not only would it free the UK from the shackles of the corporatist and protectionist EU it would also provide hope for the oppressed masses of Southern Europe that they too can break free from this racket.
It would however be an absolute disaster for the Republic of Ireland – and this is well understood by both the EU and the Irish government. That they are prepared to consign the Irish citizenry to the bonfire of their own vanities should act as conclusive proof as to just how much the EU and its Vichy local governments hate and despise all those that live within its toxic borders.
But we’ll still have veal. Quinoa and Soy may be off the table, sadly.
Ah yes, another repeat of the old “freeing from the shackles of Europe” argument. Funny that hedge funds, including JRM, and businesses, are fleeing the new freedom, to be enshackled by Europe again.
How strange to see a pro EU zealot resorting to simple lies.
Jacob Rees-Mogg has moved precisely ZERO assets out of the UK and into Europe. To suggest otherwise is a simple calumny.
Speaking of people who are shackled to Europe – take a look at Greece. Something called the European Stability Mechanism has been providing Greece with money at an interest rate of 0.9992%. Yesterday Greece re-entered the sovereign bond market where it raised money at 3.875%.
You are so keen on the EU why not explain what this is all about. Here is a clue Greece is still being used as a conduit to funnel money into large European banks – the largest of which is Deutsche Bank.
You want to pay financial homage to Germany go right ahead – but the British don’t seem so keen. If it is all such a great deal then the British are simply leaving more opportunity for you. So get of the backs of the British and go to work cleaning up on the opportunity that the British have created for you/
@Loony,
I totally agree with your views of the EU because they are mine as well, but I was simply pointing out that if the EU heirarchy – Junckers, Tusk, Merkel, Macron etc, play hardball, it will impact negatively on the lives of ordinary people across Europe, not just the UK.
It is in everyone’s interests to have a deal of some kind where trade can flow smoothly.
Of course, the likes of the people mentioned earlier are not ordinary people, they are like a modern day version of Marie Antoinette and Louis XV1, they care only for themselves.
Those figures are slightly misleading. The UK’s exports via the container ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp are recorded as exports to Belgium, conversely the same applies. Not sure what difference it makes.
This will be an interesting situation in the event of Brexit, will the EU impose taxes on transhipments?
Meanwhile the Great Satan (US) continues to block Palestines full UN membership.
https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/ambassador-says-no-un-membership-for-palestinians-now-but-will-continue-fight-1.6883764
Rolls Royce, to ramp up further jobs cuts on top of the proposed 1000’s of job cuts announced earlier.
http://archive.is/yeNPO
Also as Old Blighty stumbles around in the dark looking for the EU exit, Spain has its eye on Gibraltar.
“Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has said Spain intends to revive its bid for shared sovereignty over Gibraltar, a British territory since 1713, after Brexit.”
http://archive.is/yLi65
As John Bull wanders around aimlessly on Brexit, it looks like Barclays is getting ready to shift quite a bit worth of assets, out of Old Blighty, to its Irish office.
“Barclays is preparing to pull the trigger on no-deal Brexit plans to shift assets worth £166bn (€190bn) to its Irish division as it “cannot wait any longer” amid continuing political uncertainty, a High Court judgment has revealed.”
http://archive.is/CudC6
Spain has said if the UK amends the deal we want to as well.
Kate and Wills have been to Dundee. They opened the new V&A and then went to the Michelin factory to meet the workers about to be made redundant. How jolly for the wage slaves. They have a new private secretary ex the civil service, a whiz kid according to the Heil. He was in the Exiting the EU department.
If you ever bump into Kate in Scotland, remember to address her, not as the Duchess of Cambridge but as the Duchess of Strathearn. What tommy rot.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-6643379/Kate-Middleton-Prince-William-open-new-V-Dundee.html
Craig referred to the Dundee V&A as a ‘ghetto’ when writing about Tristram Hunt’s appointment to become Director of the V&A.
‘I very much doubt we will see him much at the V&A’s new ghetto in Dundee.’
Craig was the Rector of Dundee University previously.
Sharp Ears,
TRH, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, are referred to as the Earl and Countess of Strathearn when they are in Scotland. Your post would have been more witty if you had said, ‘If you ever bump into Kate in Scotland, remember to address her, not as the Duchess of Cambridge but as the Countess of Strathearn…’
I fail to see the connection between Craig’s ceremonial role at the University of Dundee, from which he stood down nine years ago, and his comments on the V&A. Having visited the V&A twice, once for the soft opening back in September and once last week, Craig was talking nonsesne when he described it as a new ghetto. There has been a huge amount of investment along the waterfront and the result is stunning. All in all Dundee is a very different city than the one I arrived in 13 years ago. I wonder has Craig visited recently?
In fact, the University of Dundee is seeking nominations for Rector. Given that Craig stated he stood down in 2010 because he was unable to commit to the job as he was then based in London, perhaps he would consider putting himself forward now that he is resident in Edinburgh? Craig – something to think about, as further incentive, you can once again prop up the bar in Liar Bar and Mennies!
See: https://blog.dundee.ac.uk/one-dundee/how-to-nominate-a-rector/
I am sure you will not waste any opportunity to raise the appalling case of Asia Bibi, the Catholic woman who spent eight years on death row in Pakistan. Or is that not in the rt.com brief?
Be careful, your Integrity Initiative is showing.
Absolutely no-one is interested in Asia Bibi. How dare you raise this matter. Presumably you do so merely in order to attempt to show Pakistan in a bad light.
Alternatively perhaps you are seeking to draw attention to the policy of cowardice so favored by the UK government. A government that does not wish to grant asylum to Ms. Bibi for fear of civil unrest. it is truly pathetic that a government that professes the policies of tolerance, inclusion and multi-cultural societal development is so terrified of a bunch of tattooed, shaven headed, beer swilling unreformed, white supremacist bigots and racists.
Mystery Wikipedia editor Philip Cross targets journalist Rania Khalek
https://www.rt.com/news/450154-rania-khalek-smear-campaign-wikipedia/
Not being a big marketing guru myself, sure no advice needed, today was the day for a Brexit article…
She makes a very valid point saying that the editing to make her appear “anti-youknowwhat” and other derogatory terms it is the first thing a person sees, When Wikipedia has an article about a pro-establishment theory presented as fact, like the demolition of certain high-rise buildings in New York which passenger planes allegedly flew into the main MSM theory is presented first as fact. Somewhere lower down can be obscurely found an acknowledgement that there are conspiracy loons out there in the playground who lean towards a different, or several different, points of view as to what might have happened but this is never the first thing you see.
“Brussels orders Britain to pay £39bn Brexit bill even if there is no deal”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/01/30/brussels-orders-britain-pay-brexit-bill-even-no-deal-exit/
Hilarious. We will no longer be in your club sunshine.
Tony
Tory remain “rebels” Grieve, Soubry, Jo Johnson, Nicky Morgan, etc, turn out to be about as rebellious as Barack Obama.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/30/labour-not-responsible-brexit-tories
Theresa May: “I was pleased to meet @JeremyCorbyn and discuss how we ensure Britain leaves the EU on 29 March”.
Jeremy Corbyn: “The whole process looks like it’s running down the clock by saying well it’s either the problems and the difficulties of no deal or support a deal that’s already been rejected by the House of Commons. I’m suspicious that there is a programme of running down the clock here.”
Funny you and Seumas didn’t walk out then, Jeremy.
For those who don’t already know: the prime minister and leader of the opposition meet each other regularly without issuing any public comment. (Yes, the “hear hear” and “Mister Speaker” and “Right Honourable Lady” stuff is mostly for the gallery.)
it looks strongly as though Britain will leave the EU on 29 March. Perhaps there will be an announcement saying “DEAL!” Or perhaps the whole Noel Edmonds game show question “deal or no deal?” will get sidelined as the difference between “agreement” and “no agreement” in Article 50 terms becomes blurred.
A short extension? I doubt it. Can we guess what Spain’s price might be? Or countries that have already exported large parts of their populations to Britain, such as Latvia and Romania? In any case, the line that the need to pass secondary legislation necessitates an extension is bullshit. I’ve yet to see anybody say it who makes clear they know what they’re talking about to the extent of having looked at how many statutory instruments are required, or how many have already been tabled or enacted.
Once Britain is out, the division in the Tory party starts to heal. Tories love their foul party. They’re unlikely to let it split.
@ Craig
Post author January 30, 2019 at 09:35 in response to IMcK January 29, 2019 at 22:13
Craig:
‘Frankly that is such a pile of sententious nonsense by somebody who has not the slightest notion of the law they are allegedly discussing, I am not going to bother to respond, other than to note you evidently did not read the article I linked to where the legal points are set out clearly.’
IMcK:
I have made a number of specific points in my original post. I would suggest neither personal insults nor reference to your article which includes a sub-reference to a 100 page plus UK dissertation from the FCO constitutes an adequate response. Perhaps an insight as to how you made it to Ambassador within the UK establishment.
However I will grace your response, such as it is, with a quote, one of many that could be taken from your referenced FCO document and which is consistent with the content of my post:
Page 101
8. Conclusion
5.61
To summarise, international law does not accord to entities within a State any right to
separate, whether by way of a declaration of independence or otherwise. But neither does it
guarantee the territorial integrity of the State against internal developments which may lead
to separation or even dissolution. In the absence of some pronounced international illegality
leading to collective non-recognition, international law neither authorises nor prohibits secession.
For the bourgeois media there’s always a “crisis”.
Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney seems unaware of the distinction between signing a treaty and ratifying it.
Michel Barnier, meanwhile, says he remains confident that a deal between EU27 and Britain will be secured within two months. That’s unlikely to be referenced in a headline by the Heil, the Express, or the BBC.
FUDGE TIME!
So the political side of Brexit is practically over. There has been an agreement. There will be just the right kind of fudge to keep the Orangemen’s pockets lined and stop them donning their balaclavas and deploying the UVF against the Anti-Christ Army of Eurocatholics, English traitors, Remain plotters, and the Irish Free State. If necessary, Theresa May or somebody from the Cabinet Office will shake hands with Seumas and Jeremy and look over their shoulder at the Bowler Hat Mob while telling them in fewer words than a tweet exactly where they can shove their Red Hands.
The big issues are 1) for most of the population, food and survival, and 2) for the elite, making a financial killing from the apparent chaos. The “Mister Speaker” and “The Ayes or Noes have it” stuff is chaff only now.
The revolting ‘Sir’ Alan Duncan crawling around the wizened warmonger Kissinger.
https://twitter.com/iBreezeblock/status/1090673897530425344
and then crowing about the speech he made in the HoC on Venezuela.
There was a similarly lickspittle tweet (with photo) on bird-brain Hunt’s feed recently.
Yet another years goes past and I once again say to Mrs Shatnersrug “Kissinger’s still alive them”
I was a young man when this started
Surely not.
“British soldiers returned to the streets of Northern Ireland. Good Friday Agreement now utterly defunct. Without peace, as the rules of war have it, these British soldiers are now legitimate targets.”
https://mobile.twitter.com/Jeggit/status/1089250108573708288
Did they ever leave?
SE,
The Birtish Army stopped patrolling the streets in support of the RUC around 1999. Operation Banner, the operational name for the deployment of the Army to aid the civil power, ended 31 July 2007. Numerous barracks were closed and the home service battalions of the Royal Irish Regiment were disbanded. So in that sense, yes ‘they did leave’ the streets of Northern Ireland.
However, as one would expect, there is still an army garrison in Northern Ireland, as with any part of the UK. Troops are based at the three barracks around Northern Ireland.
Haha RoS that is dire.
Doesn’t appear to be soldiers judging from their kit, very similarly dressed to the counter-terror police based in London.
Any source for that being in Northern Ireland, apart from the rabidly anti-British, pro-Republican twitter page?
“British soldiers returned to the streets of Northern Ireland. Good Friday Agreement now utterly defunct. Without peace, as the rules of war have it, these British soldiers are now legitimate targets.” That is a big quote from a little man (Jason Michael) hiding behind a computer in Dublin.
Nigel Farage: “You know, when Mr Blair said he met a member of the public, why not just say a peasant, an ignorant peasant? Because that’s what it sounded like to me (…) For all their Oxford degrees, the one thing I have learnt about our political class is that they are guilty of groupthink. They spend so much of their time and their lives together when they’re growing up, at school, at university, in Parliament, how they spend their weekends, they generally have the same conclusions on virtually everything.”
🙂
Guy Debord: “In a world which really is topsy-turvy, the true is a moment of the false.”