Just a quick note to say that Craig has been in contact and he is fine but currently in Jacobabad, Pakistan with no reliable internet access.
He knows some people have been wondering if all is okay, so this post is just to confirm all’s well and he’ll be back online when he can.
Site Admin.
A fanatical Tory MP Brexiteer, who wrote to just about every university in Britain demanding the names of lecturers who were running courses on Brexit, claimed it was info for his book he was writing.
It now turns out that Chris Heaton-Harris, isn’t writing a book at all. Heaton-Harris laughed off the idea he was writing a book when asked on the Sophy Ridge show.
The consensus by the majority of university lecturers that received Heaton-Harris’s letter, is that it appeared innocent enough but in reality, it was a danger to free speech, a sinister letter, and the first step to thought policing universities in what they teach.
Meanwhile a huge Russian flag was draped over scaffolding at Salisbury Cathedral almost one year after the “Novichok attack.”
Of course the first thought is who draped the flag? Your second thought should not be the Russians.
Could be the same people who vandalised Marx’s tomb. MI5 undergraduates?
Corbyn’s inability and ineffectualness see’s Labour split.
“A group of Labour MPs have officially resigned and will sit in parliament as a new group of independent MPs under the name of The Independent Group.”
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17439986.labour-split-live-seven-mps-resign-from-party-to-form-independent-group/
Could be a plpy to weaken Corbyn’s hand of a snap GE occurs.
RoS the ‘Turds-way party’ has been moving towards this for two years like a very slow motion very bad ninja fight sequence – which at regular speed would look like the comical prat fall that it will end in.
You must agree the traitors to the Labour party and manifesto which they stood on must now resign and stand as their own honourable new party self and gain the endorsement of their constituencies?
Meanwhile the British government is to embed immigration officials into public services such as the NHS to hunt down immigrants.
Private firms will also be offered a immgration officer, to hunt down immigrants as well.
Ver are your papers SCHNELL!!!!!
https://www.thenational.scot/news/17439438.snp-hit-out-at-tories-over-reports-of-migrant-hunting/
Having “embedded” in civilian structures and created a “hostile” environment, the “hunters” of the “undocumented” get to work. I shudder to think what the “hunter” “apps” look like on their official smartphones. (Not joking.) K’pow! Another “undocumented” bites the dust.
Is the word “hunt” used in official (or contract) documentation for this work? Probably it is.
Looks like MrsA will make a quick return to the hospitals and offices will become disease traps – the staff will avoid their firms toilets.
The delivery drivers won’t be bringing the consumables and sandwich shops will disappear …
RoS- you are a pro EU remainer are you not ?
How many countries in this bloc have ID cards and/or a population register ? I’ll tell you- almost all of them except Ireland- which is of course why we are both not in Schengen.
Now, tell me why there are pestilential colonies of illegal immigrants/’asylum seekers’ crowded around the Channel ports of France & Belgium, from where these denizens wish to effect illegal entry into the UK ? Could there be a connection between the hitherto lax internal controls applied in the UK when compared to our continental neighbours ? Could there be a connection to the fact that les flics in France are well tooled up and intimidating, whereas our pathetically underfunded and pussified constabularies are a joke,unarmed and pathetically kitted out, and shit scared of the next harassment/discrimination complaint ?
Could there also be a connection to the fact that subsidised (and generally superior) heath care is available in core Europe only to citizens and registered foreigners who have to be enrolled in recognised insurance schemes, whereas here it is ‘free at the point of use’ with hardly any checks done on the joke ‘eligibilty’ questionnaires that are handed out at A&E and GP waiting rooms ?
I look forward to any answers my questions might elicit with interest.
“pestilential”?
What if it were you and your family? Insects to be exterminated?
Oh come on Clark- I mean these camps are completely insanitary.
Now try to engage my substantive points without polishing your halo, as you’ve just done there.
“Halo”? No one twisted your arm to call other humans a pestilence.
If you want to know why people want to enter the UK, go and ask them or find someone who has done surveys among them. In addition to the things you sneeringly named, maybe they already speak English rather than French. Maybe they already have friends, family or people from their home town in the UK.
On the one hand you claim to care for these people’s sanitary welfare, yet on the other you would seem to want to withhold healthcare.
Just how far should I go to avoid the embarrassment of this halo? Should I be kicking some teeth in?
It’s the single-minded attitude that I find distasteful: “they just want what I’ve got, and I’m entitled to maintain my privilege”, applied en masse. It’s all “us and them”.
Solutions must be found and obviously many camp residents will not get what they want, but surely we should at least begin from a perspective of compassion, and acceptance of our equality before God.
Clark-
I think the one thing we can agree over is that these camps are insanitary, dangerous places and their residents need to be resettled- either back home because, as seems likely, their asylum claims don’t stand up, or in the ‘safe’ countries, France & Belgium, where they are presently situated, if their claims are genuine.
My suggestion -equalising the conditions they face over here with those they encounter already on the continent, in at least 2 of my suggested areas (I’m not exactly keen on the UK having an armed tooled up police force countrywide!) would IMO move the situation in that direction.
Your suggestions for getting rid of these camps amount to what, exactly ?Do the words of the Macca song ‘Let um in!’ apply ?
Doing something about the camps is the problem of the country the camps are in.
‘It’s the single-minded attitude that I find distasteful: “they just want what I’ve got, and I’m entitled to maintain my privilege”, applied en masse. It’s all “us and them”.’
My ‘privilege’ derives from being a citizen of this country- not a citizen of somewhere else. You may find such a distinction quaint and out of date- I don’t.
‘maybe they already speak English rather than French. Maybe they already have friends, family or people from their home town in the UK.’
This is simply a slight refinement of the open door policy I accused you of supporting earlier. You seem to think unlimited chain migration (having family or friends already here) or the ability to speak English to some extent (courtesy of the septics now the world’s lingua franca) is feasible basis for a UK immigration policy- again, I have to disagree with that.
my Romanian mate Nick said the lack of any need forannidentity card to show to the police and the minimal paperwork needed to be self employed, were precisely the reasons why he decided to settle in the UK having first tried Rome then Paris as there was a good deal more bureaucracy and hassle from the authorities in those countries than in the uk.
Well, the MIs are well embedded already so it will not be much worse. They are not publicly advertised as such, but once they start putting you under surveillance and making sly allusions, you know who they are. They include senior medical professors, self righteous feminists, working class fascists, senior journalists, investment bankers and football managers.
Ambitious people are supposed to accept this rubbish, being treated as slaves and criminals. If they expect to be treated properly, their careers are over.
Rhys
In my only viewing of corporate life the main inflicted of corporate malice £85k + company car got shafted by the CEO £230k as soon as the CEO’s performance came under the spotlight. Mr BS prided himself on his personal eccentricity while Mr CEO prided himself on his personal piety, leading the prayers for us mushrooms while getting Mr BS to drop the S on our heads.
It was hilarious like a well-performed farce. I’ve been self- employed most of my life to avoid the S, which is strange because the boss class only brought in zero hours to suit their own malice.
Carry On Lying sorry Carillion being a prime example of government assisted corporate mismanagement. ONLY TORIES COULD DEVIZE SUCH A COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME AND SPACE
Looks like Maduro is right not give passage to so called”aid” next we’ll have well known NGO’s do the same, and condemn Maduro for not letting them into Venezuela.
“Two executives at the company that chartered the U.S. plane that was caught smuggling weapons into Venezuela last week have been tied to an air cargo company that aided the CIA in the rendition of alleged terrorists to “black site” centers for interrogation. The troubling revelation comes as Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has rejected a U.S. “humanitarian aid” convoy over concerns that it could contain weapons meant to arm the country’s U.S.-backed opposition.”
https://geopolitics.co/2019/02/15/cia-linked-freight-company-smuggled-weapons-into-venezuela/
Sounds a little like the “aid” going into Gaza, no wonder the Israeli authorities are careful!
Perhaps we could have chapter and verse on the so called aid going into Gaza. Dates. Quantities. Details. Descriptions etc.
_____
Some things that did go into Gaza yesterday were bullets, shells and missiles from the Israeli airforce and the IDF.
At least 19 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been injured during clashes in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli and Palestinian sources say.
The Palestinians, including one in a serious condition, were injured by Israeli gunfire, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al Qedra told reporters.
Earlier on Sunday the Israeli army fired several shells at a military lookout post close to the border with Israel that belonged to the Hamas movement’s armed wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, Gaza security officials said.
https://www.news.com.au/world/breaking-news/palestinians-injured-in-fresh-gaza-clashes/news-story/4859f9bfab7665da0840315223ee2b2c
Are you trying to be funny? Aid goes onto Gaza everyday, including suitcases full of banknotes from one of the small Gulf states to pay the salaries of the Gaza civil servants whom the Palestinian Authority refuses to pay. And non-aid goods get imported into Gaza every day when the border crossings are open (which they are most of the time).
No Bossie of the lying red lips – the Gaza authorities are NOT stopping aid arriving – it’s some pirates at sea who are.
Seven MPs leave Labour Party in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47278902
Cowardly turn-coat traitorous Red Tory dogs – they’ll skulk as “Independents” in the commons. They were not voted in as independents, and certainly not because they were loved so much as individuals who just happened to be Labour.
Had they any courage or decency, they would stand down immediately, triggering a by-election in which they could discover the constituents’ true feelings for them.
Agreed – and if journalists had some backbone the first question they’d ask the White Phosphorus seven is why aren’t they doing it.
Agreed. Seven traitors. Some of them like Gapes and Berger are members of Labour Friends of Israel. Berger is the driver. Remember her need for police protection stunt at the conference?
Good riddance and sympathy to Corbyn but he is rid of vipers in his bosom.
Berger dripping with false victimhood and ill-contrived criticism of Corbyn’ s brexit.
These Berbers take years to build up and have to be chiselled out and thrown in the skip.
Try posting on The Guardian and – even civilly – mentioning Berger’s name. Mods are deleting any criticism of her.
When’s fatty Watson fuckin off.
Anyway, looks like they’re gonna stagger it, for maximum media advantage. No doubt planned in advance with the BBC.
Have to laugh at the British Obama and how they bigged him up for a year, before the poor dear wilted and folded to nothing.
These are nothing but media creations without existence in the real world.
Speaking at a “People’s vote” event in Edinburgh, Lib Dem MP, Christine Jardine refused to rule out merging with the septic septuple. Jardine is of course a member of Lib Dems FoI. Why don’t they register as Likud (Westminster branch) and be done with it?
Don’t think these lot are Likudniks. More the Soros end of things.
Cheer up, even if the Magnificent Seven don’t resign their seats now, that should mean seven more moderate (i.e. Corbyn-supporting on everything except Brexit) Labour MPs after the next general election.
Finally – turds away!
To form their turdway party – or will they just cross the floor to their natural home.and partake in an anti-democratic coup!
Chickencoup3 – the one where they throw off their socialist disguises and fly away cackling like the vultures they always were.
I expect they are vacating their Labour offices NOT! as they speak and the local CLP’s are selecting new candidates for what should be multiple by-elections within weeks!
They are undoubtedly stealing the membership lists and the historic socialist flags while they trash the computers and offices.
They will resist and claim they can keep their seats – like their spiritual elderly leader Frank Field, has. NO THEY CAN NOT.
Was supposed to happen thursday, then friday, then saturday…how could they possibly call it off and return to their back benches today?
The big ones to come are Cooper and Benn – they have committee positions which they would have to resign immediately.
Expect another 40- 70 max. Drip drip dripping along. Which is the plan so they can get parliamentry money. The co-op group members and ultra-zionists will be co-ordinated by the LFI and their media whores.
They will claim to form a centrist coalition that means no election has to take place – or as i have been banging on for months a COUP against the British voters right to chose their MP.
I expect everyone sensible agrees that a Election is the only legitimate way goreatd and the Turdsaway Party stands on their own manifesto – having rejected the manifesto they last stood on?
Cue Hasbara and CCO goons – its goung to be fun.
Nice little earners. Additional to their £74,000 basic MPs salaries and excluding their expenses.
’29 March 2018
Members’ pay and expenses and ministerial salaries 2017/18
IPSA confirmed that salaries for select committee chairs would be frozen at 2015 levels and that, from 1 June 2016, a single rate of additional salary would be implemented for members of the Panel of Chairs, at the same level as select committee chairs. In future, additional salaries would (like MPs’ salaries), be adjusted by the rate of annual change in public sector average earnings.
The Additional Salary for Chairs of Select Committees will remain at its current level of £15,025 a year. For Members of the Panel of Chairs, the Additional Salary will also be set at £15,025 from June 2016. And, in future years, salaries will be adjusted by the rate of annual change in average earnings in the public sector, as with MPs’ basic pay. The first adjustment by the rate of annual change in public sector average earnings will take place on 1 April 2017.’
http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8276/CBP-8276.pdf
Will the ‘Magnificent’ Seven be shuffling in today to take their places and if so, where will they be sitting?
Main Chamber
2.30 pm
Oral questions
Defence (including Topical Questions)
Motion
Statutory Instrument relating to the Draft Armed Forces Act (Continuation) Order 2019 – Mr Tobias Ellwood
Motion
Statutory Instrument relating to the Draft Public Order, Disclosure of Information and Co-operation (Financial Services) (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 – John Glen
Motion
Statutory Instrument relating to the Draft Money Market Funds (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 – John Glen
Motion
Statutory Instrument relating to the Draft Cross-Border Mediation (EU Directive) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 – Mr David Gauke
General debate
Serious Violence
Adjournment
Stirling and Clackmannanshire City region deal – Stephen Kerr
“These people date back to Tony Blair”: Red Ken Livingstone glad to see Labour rebels sling their hooks
https://www.rt.com/uk/451731-labour-party-split-ken-livingstone/
Livingstone explained that the split goes right back to New Labour, saying “these are the people who date back to the time of Tony Blair when he took over the party and he blocked genuine Labour and socialist people from being parliamentary candidates.”
He said the Blair-led shift saw the parliamentary structure no longer reflecting Labour and its socialist values, instead favoring neoliberal ones.
This must be making Mrs.Theresa May’s day, her majority has effectively been increased,
till her own scum float off.
Berger was one of the more notable parachutees, taking the role from real Labour candidates in the constituency.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/crash-landing-for-labour-candidate-parachuted-into-liverpool-1951962.html
Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport West, an opponent of nuclear power, the monarchy, and the appointment of the Zionazi Matthew Gould as Britain’s ambassador to the Zionazi regime, died yesterday. He had a majority of less than 6000. There will be a by-election. Do the White Phosphorus Party think they’re hard enough to put up a candidate?
Good question
A damp squib being spun by the Guardian and the BBC as a major blow to the Labour Party. Broad brush, what’s really just happened? After weeks (months?) of plotting, 7 careerist, demoted / self-demoted individuals can’t agree on a broad enough spectrum of subjects to form anything other than a grouping.
Remove unanimity on foreign policy and the anti-semitic canard and you have 7 careerist rats fighting blindly in a sack. Will Field want to join? Will alleged sex pest Woodcock be allowed to join?
Berger and Umunna are networkers. They know their numbers are up in the Labour Party and enviously eye David Miliband’s £680,000 per year in the Third sector. If they can damage the Labour Party enough perhaps they can land a similarly lucrative gig?
One in prison, one dead and seven traitors, so essentially Corbyn is effectively nine M.P.’s short of a loaf.
I doubt very much that there will be any more defectors, to join these utterly insignificant nonentities. A damp squib, they will be forgotten in a week or two. Meanwhile Labour will trundle on, ineffectually and moribund.
Don’t forgett Gould helped convert Operation Crevice into the 7/7 attacks.
One can only speculate about his dirty work while in Iran.
The White Phosphorus Seven, also known as “The Independent Group”, have a website here.
On their website they declare that “The Independent Group of MPs is supported by Gemini A Ltd a company limited by guarantee. Registered address: 3rd Floor, 1 Ashley Road, Altrincham, Cheshire, WA14 2DT”. According to Companies House records, the company was incorporated on 16 January 2019. Its one listed officer is Gavin Shuker, whose Sun is in Libra, not Gemini. The number of companies registered at that address is 431.
Shuker was born in Luton and he is the MP for Luton South. Altrincham is nowhere near Luton. What’s the connection with Altrincham?
The MP for Altrincham and Sale West is Graham Brady, chairman of the Tory party’s 1922 Committee.
N-
The site has already crashed ! These incompetent so-full-of-themselves drama queens couldn’t organise the proverbial piss up in their own brewery !
N_
Ouch! And lols.
Lovely correlation but needs nailing to prove causation.
The Co-operative party needs looking at.
Altrincham was once the Porsche and millionaire centre of the country.
But a lovely image – they are mid floor and ready to take the Tory whip – for jolly patriotic reasons only and good of the bosses, er country, of course.
“On 6 September 2018, a meeting of the Luton South Constituency Labour Party passed a vote of no confidence in Shuker.[28] Luton South CLP passed their motion with 33 votes in favour of the motion with five abstentions and only three voting to support the MP.[29] After the vote, Shuker took to Twitter to declare “At a local Labour Party meeting last night a motion of no confidence in me was passed. It’s not part of any formal procedure, so it changes nothing about my role as Labour MP for Luton South”.[30]
On 18 February 2019 he was one of seven MPs who resigned from the Labour Party to form The Independent Group.[31]”
You’d have to have a heart of stone, not to laugh.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavin_Shuker
It seems they’re Independent enough to leave the Labour Party but not independent enough to leave their Labour seats. Those majorities they carry are Labour majorities, not their own.
Yes, and apparently, since it’s a company and not a real political Party it won’t have to abide by the usual rules regarding donations. Handy.
6 tweets from Craig today ref the Labour resignations and Ratcliffe/Ineos.
https://twitter.com/CraigMurrayOrg
He’s in like Flint! No namby pamby jet lag, welcome back Mr Ambassador, can we have more please.
Sharp Ears-
Craig makes a good point in comparing the bravery of Dick Taverne in Lincoln 45 years ago with this weasly lot, hanging on to their seats by the skin of their teeth. Taverne deservedly won his by-election (helped in part by ‘inappropriate ‘ remarks from his Tory challenger Jonathan Guinness, who suggested murderers inside be supplied with razor blazes- to enable them to top themselves if temporarily overcome by remorse).
Stop the War
Follow @STWuk
Every MP in The Independent Group (The Dinner Party) has consistently voted for war, foreign military intervention and the renewal of Trident.
A warmongering foreign policy is central to the so-called values they talk about.
‘#LabourSplit
2:52 am – 18 Feb 2019
I found it particularly jarring at the non-launch that Gapes specifically called out Corbyn’s position on Syria. Does the Labour Party have a radical position on Syria? Has Corbyn expressed support / admiration for President Assad? Nope, the sentiment and voting record of Corbyn and (most of) the Parliamentary Labour Party has been non-interventionist on Syria and this reflects the majority will of the House.
Ah, what Gapes means is that Corbyn is not advocating the carpet bombing of Damascus at the behest of Tel Aviv.
Speaking about non-intervention, funny how so many SAS troopers are on “training secondment” with American special forces. Still a bunch of Brit SAS boys “trained” with the Australian SAS in Vietnam.
Americans ‘train’ everyone. They think VC fund managers need training in spying….
Israelis train even more police forces.
They find that poor economic conditions do not drive participation in ISIS. Rather, the number of ISIS fighters from a given country is positively correlated with that country’s per capita gross domestic product and its place on the Human Development Index. Many foreign fighters originate from countries with high levels of economic development, low income inequality, and highly developed political institutions.
Other factors that explain the number of ISIS foreign fighters are the size of a country’s Muslim population and its homogeneity. A country’s political characteristics are not correlated with the number of ISIS fighters it produces. Foreign recruits into terror organizations come largely from prosperous, ethnically and linguistically homogeneous countries.
https://www.nber.org/digest/jun16/w22190.html
If you go on Wikipedia, they call the conflict in Syria “Syrian Civil War”
Yet the Turks are involved, the British, the French, The Jordanians, The Israelis, the Iranians, the Saudis, the Qataris,the Russians,
maybe as many as half of the fighters are from outside Syria, in what way does this make it just a civil war?
SAS were seconded to the Australian army. Then on to Vietnam to train the South Vietnamese troops.
SV soldiers average life expectancy was about 6 weeks, with luck. So it’s said.
Quick question – recently I have encountered several Albanian businessmen, running apparently legit businesses in the UK employing casual staff. The only known figure for numbers of Albanians in the UK is from 2011 and presumably hopelessly out of date , given their high profile in the drugs trade and sex traffiking. How Albanians get legitimate residence in the UK?
Mary Paul, as far as i know Albania is not in the European Union, it was never part of the British Empire,
so I can’t think of any reasons why Albanians would be allowed to settle in the United Kingdom.
Britain has tinkered in and around the edges of Albania, capturing the French corvette the Var, using a previous captured French ship, called HMS Belle Poule.
Britain defended and attacked at one point the Albanina port of Durres, in 1915, aiding the evacuation of Serbian troops. Again a similar event took place during WWII to aid Greek troops.
But they are. Settling here . And employing people. All on false passports?
Some may be from Kosovo in Serbia; others may buy Serbian passports; others may be in gang rackets that operate legitimate fronts which sponsor their visas swearing blind that nobody with the required skillset could be found in Britain or anywhere else in the EU. Some criminals don’t have legitimate residence. For even a relatively small-time figure in the drug or property trades who is handling millions of pounds each year, a false passport doesn’t cost much. Most gangs of whatever ethnicity also have a solicitor as a helper who can act as broker. If there’s one type that most solicitors respect most of all, it’s gangsters.
Exactly – while the bs is about the poor bastards stuckat Calais – almost all illegal immigration comes via airports with or without false passports, they visit. They stay, they work for cash. It is only when they leave that their expired visa shows them to be have been here illegally. They can only be put on a register of not allowed re-entry and fined…
But how did they subsist while here? Well that is down to our bosses – who don’t require valid NI no’s or pay cash, it is our citizens and employers who are at fault, for not paying proper wages and collecting income tax.
I have nothing against the hard working illegal immigrants – but the organised criminal gangs are something else.
On my high street about a mile long tbere must be a dozen fully refitted cafes which always have a handfull of Eastern Europeans sipping coffee in all weathers! Tell me they are not money laundering fronts.
Why are the tax inspectors not all over them?
We are provided with so many moral pygmies in the HoC. Here is one more, ever the opportunist –
‘Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable, who himself left Labour for the SDP in 1982, has tweeted about the split.
Vince Cable
Verified account
3hrs
The Liberal Democrats are open to working with like-minded groups and individuals in order to give the people the final say on Brexit, with the option to remain in the EU. We will be engaging in talks to progress both that campaign and a wider political agenda. #LabourSplit
Vince Cable
Verified account
It is not unexpected, or unwelcome, that a group of Labour MPs have decided to break away from Corbyn’s Labour; in part motivated by his refusal to follow the party’s policy on Brexit. #LabourSplit
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/feb/18/several-labour-mps-set-to-quit-the-party-politics-live?
BREAKING NEWS!! @georgegalloway has just this minute announced that he has written to @JennieGenSec asking to be reinstated to @UKLabour !!! Please retweet your support to #BringBackGalloway expelled by #Bliar in 2003 for telling the truth.
__
Galloway himself – 15 February 2019
George Galloway
@georgegalloway
16 years ago today I was one of the leaders of the mightiest demonstration in British history against the imminent invasion and occupation of Iraq. Everything we said turned out to be right and everything our leaders and their media said turned out to be false. #Iraq #Feb15
Has the Spanish navy confirmed that it sent those signals to the vessels anchored near Gibraltar? I’m wondering whether they might be fake, since I haven’t read an official Spanish statement. Then again, there is a general election on…………………..in Spain.
Meanwhile, readers of Tory tabloids in Britain absolutely love this kind of story.
Angela Smith, one of the White Phosphorus Seven, explaining why she left the Labour party over “racism”, has described non-whites as having a “funny tint“.
She did it in a tone and context suggesting she was being really accommodating, yes, even to people who have had a touch of the tarbrush, who may have caught too much of the sun, who may be of a “western oriental” persuasion,etc. What a racist b1tch she is – in the true sense of the term “racist”, which doesn’t mean a person who opposes baby burning and genocide.
When Ron Atkinson’s racist language was broadcast, he got the sack – rightly. Angela Smith is unlikely to get disowned or shunned by anybody for hers. Despite all the talk in this country about racism, talk which is often fork-tongued and mostly bullsh*t, there is hardly any recognition of real racism, which is widespread. Anyone who tries to sweep Smith’s racism under the carpet on the grounds that her words were less vitriolic than Atkinson’s doesn’t even begin to get the point about racism and how it always involves viewing other people from a moronic viewpoint which assumes that their ethnicity or skin colour is the most important thing about them.
Smith is such an “I’m not lying to you” kind of person.
It’s a mistake to assume that racism is connected to stupidity, the structures, functions and purposes of racism are obvious.
In her defence and although I didn’t see any of the programme myself, I have seen a tweet saying that her fellow interviewee, Ash Sarkar, had earlier described her father as being a “funny tint of pink” in the eyes of British people when he came to this country. It would appear that Angela Smith may have been quoting Sarkar to make her point but taken out of context, and when not qualified (or when watched by people with the memory of goldfishes), that connection has been completely lost. I don’t regard myself as having any political affiliation but I do like to defend any people who are being misguidedly targeted for criticism.
Thanks for this. I only watched the clip and will try to watch the whole thing later. In the clip, though, as soon as Angela Smith says it one of the others there – perhaps Ash Sarkar – baulks and says “a funny what?”
OK, the woman who responded asking “a funny what” was Ash Sarkar. And Angela Smith has now posted a pro forma apology “for any offence caused”, saying she is “committed to fighting racism wherever I find it in our society”. She posted her apology on the space that the US advertising company Twitter allows her to use at their website. The fact that Sarkar did baulk and the fact that Smith did not reference any earlier use of an identical or similar phrase to the phrase that she used make me highly sceptical of the idea that Sarkar had used similar words, which if true would provide at least a little mitigation. (I have not had time to watch the whole interview but if someone can post a link to it I will.) In addition Smith replaced “funny tint” with the ridiculous phrase “from the BAME community”, which suggests that basically like a lot of pillocks in Britain she thinks she is supposed to use some phrase or other so as “not to cause offence” and – whoopsadaisy, used the wrong phrase there, punters! – she does it with a feeling of passive aggression welling up inside her.
Lastly, on “funny tint” or “funny tinge”, she breaks off after the third phoneme, and the two words start with the same three, but it sounds to me from the value of the second and third phonemes that the intended word was more likely to be “tint”, although it’s not certain.
Thanks, N_. What you say all makes good sense. I saw the tweet on Off Guardian’s twitter pages where they open a discussion on this topic. I was intending to watch the whole interview to judge for myself but the BBC website being what it is you have to register in order to access anything and I refuse to do that. I shall persevere in the hope of finding it somewhere more accessible.
Borncynical
This, for me, is a lesson in paying more attention in future. I watched the programme. Sarkar was talking about her mixed family and I’m sure she mentioned a white step-father. Then she said, something like, “Well not white, more pink…” I think she was making the point that white people aren’t actually white in colour, you know?
Thanks for your comments, Jo1. It all goes to show that even watching the same broadcast you can get multiple different recollections and interpretations of the same thing. The wonders of the human brain! Sometimes it can cause an awful lot of unnecessary trouble. I have had enough years’ experience to realise that one should never trust ‘hearsay’, but still occasionally making the mistake of doing just that!
BC
Here’s a column from the Guardian which clears up a few things, although, rightly, Ms Sarkar, does not excuse Smith’s disgraceful phraseology. (She does, however, confirm her own mention of her white step-father so I’m glad I correctly remembered that bit.)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/19/angela-smith-left-labour-funny-tinge-mp-racism
“She is one of 98 MPs who voted unsuccessfully to keep their expense details secret in 2007. She defended her vote on the grounds that it would help member-constituent confidentiality, and to help prevent the private addresses of MP’s being readily available to the public.[21]
In 2009, Smith was one of the MPs whose expenses were highlighted by The Daily Telegraph during the Parliamentary expenses scandal, as she had submitted expenses claims for four beds for a one bedroom flat in London.[22]
Smith employs her husband as her Senior Parliamentary Assistant on a salary up to £40,000.[23] The practice of MPs employing family members has been criticised by some sections of the media on the lines that it promotes nepotism.[24][25] Although MPs who were first elected in 2017 have been banned from employing family members, the restriction is not retrospective – meaning that Smith’s employment of her husband is lawful.[26]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Smith_(Sheffield_MP)
I was watching Politics Live when she made these remarks. Talk about awkward! Especially after her rant only minutes earlier about the Labour Party’s racism problems and her even earlier rant at the launch.
She later apologised for having “misspoken”.
Hah, Luciana Berger, israel/zionist-supporter leave Corbyn, why? Because HIS labour policies are “racist”.
Jewish MP Luciana Berger said she was “embarrassed and ashamed” at what the Labour Party had become and criticized her former party for becoming “sickeningly institutionally racist.”
“I am leaving behind a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation. I look forward to a future serving with colleagues who respect each other,” she added.
https://www.rt.com/uk/451734-labour-party-split-twitter-reaction/
she only wants to deal with respectable zionist friends of Israel and is now wearing her split loyalties as a broach. RESIGN and see who wants you back as their elected zionist trumpet.
Is her name even Berger?
Honda to close Swindon plant, 3500 jobs to go. Slowly but surely they’re all exiting the sinking ship.
https://www.businessinsider.com/honda-to-close-uk-plant-with-3500-jobs-at-stake-in-another-brexit-blow-2019-2?r=US&IR=T
There are very few MPs in the HoC currently. Our Gavin is answering Defence questions with Tobias Ellwood standing by. There are three present on the Labour front bench. Desultory. They might just as well have had their holiday officially.
Ch 232
There have been tributes to the late Paul Flynn.
Mrs.Theresa May must have a sizeable working majority over Old Labour now.
The sitting Independants ( I know they will not all vote the same way) will become the fourth largest grouping in Parliament.
Fifteen, four more than the Liberals have.
This is an older article on Chuka Ummuna.
“Don’t compare me to Obama’: Is Chuka Umunna Britain’s first black PM?”
“He’s a hero in his Streatham constituency and (to his horror) has already been dubbed ‘Britain’s Obama’. Can Chuka Umunna really live up to the hype? He tells Tim Walker about growing up in Brixton and why he thinks Tony Blair was ’85 per cent right'”
http://archive.is/poa2
RoS was the 15% he got wrong Iraq?
Is anyone else growing a little concerned about Craig Murray?
Nope.
Goodness gracious. Poland and Israel crossing swords now.
‘A summit of central European leaders in Israel has been cancelled because of an Israel-Poland row over the Holocaust.
Poland withdrew after being angered by comments from Israeli leaders about Polish complicity in the Holocaust.
In particular, Israel’s acting Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz used the phrase “Poles imbibe anti-Semitism with their mother’s milk”.
Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews, mostly in Poland. Some Poles did collaborate with the Nazis.
Mr Katz’s remarks were “racist and unacceptable”, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
There was also Polish fury at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying “Poles co-operated with the Germans” during the Holocaust. About six million Polish citizens died in World War Two, of whom about three million were Jews.’
Holocaust: Israel summit scrapped in ‘racism’ row with Poland
57 minutes ago
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47277147
WW2 ended 74 years ago. When will there be peace from this endless war of words?
Israelis aren’t very grateful that their immigrant ancestors were allowed to settle in Poland 1000 years ago, are they? Once you’re no longer useful to them, they slag you off. Same happened with Muslims. Judaism survived because of cohabitation with Islam. Now look at the way Muslims get treated.
:
I would have put good money on me never supporting or appearing to support the ZioNAZI state of Israel, and most especially the ZioNAZI-in-Chief Netanyahu, but on Polish complicity in the Holocaust, they are right.
Hell, there’s the pretty well known event of the whole Polish Jewish population of an entire town being wiped out by the town’s Polish non-Jewish inhabitants. The Poles tried to blame this on the NAZIs at some later date, but apparently the NAZIs knew nothing about it. It was later admitted apologetically by Poland that it was the “work” of Polish citizens. Sorry those are all the details I recall – & can’t be arsed fishing out the details – others here probably have some recollection of the story.
This all makes sense in that Poland is pretty much a theocracy, fundamentalist Catholic – just as Adolf Hitler was. Indeed that “the Jews killed christ” was part of Hitler’s “rationale” for his murderous hatred of the Jews, as it was and probably still is for Polish hatred for the Jews.
Hell, it was only, well, can’t remember the exact year, but I think it was in the late 1950s, that the also Jew-hating Vatican removed whatever encyclical that contained the words: “perfidious Jew” from its “teachings”; whereas it was even much later, in the early 1990s, that Galileo’s “and yet it moves” work concerning a Sun centred Solar System was removed from the Vatican’s list of Banned Books.
http://www.quotemaster.org/images/15/15f79ff37c5e361eaa5da521822b9502.jpg
.
There’s a wikipedia page on post ww2 attacks on Jewish people in Poland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Jewish_violence_in_Poland,_1944%E2%80%931946
So the Blake (Blair 7) contemplated asking the less than popular Tory branch manager in Scotland Ruth Davidson to join them. Ian Murray MP, who’s very anti-Corbyn considered joining them, but decided not to according to this.
https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2019/02/there-no-clear-space-new-centrist-party-scotland?amp&__twitter_impression=true
Oh come on RoS, we know what a total eejit Ian Murray is.
Director of BBC Scotland, Donalda MacKinnon maintains the astonishing blank denial of wrongdoing at Menthorn Media.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/feb/18/bbc-scotland-director-donalda-mackinnon-question-time
MacKinnon has “full confidence” in Menthorn. She states “…. the production team does not invite people to participate.”
I guess Billy Mitchell was just really, really lucky then. I guess he just blundered his way into the Green room and had his photy taken.
MacKinnon explains that BBC Scotland Digital is a “linear channel” (as opposed to what? Circular? Spiral? Dodecahedron?). The relationship between an ability to spout shite and prosper in the BBC continues.
Interesting Vivian. She’s essentially calling Billy Boy a liar then since he’s claimed he was invited.
Listen to this.
hot mic BBC moment during ex-Labour MPs’ press conference
‘not going to lie, between this and Brexit we’re fucked’
‘it’s going to be so divided’
‘the Conservatives are going to win’
https://mobile.twitter.com/matthewchampion
😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉 😉
– There’s a rib-tickler; but I don’t want to use up everyone else’s ‘laugh’ emojis.
😉
.
Interesting little stat: Labour now have 10 fewer MPs than Gordon Brown won in 2010.
How many did Miliband “win”?
Well, the Magnificent Seven have caught everyone by surprise, haven’t they?
I mean, the Corbynites and others of the Loony Left have been wittering away about something like this for quite a while but it was more a case of crying wolf, they didn’t really expect anyone to have the cojones to resign the whip (that’s because they have no cojones of their own).
And now it’s happened for real.
History shows us that a divided, fractious Labour Party never finds favour with the electors. It is not trusted by the electors, who are in the main rather sensible, level-headed people. That is why today’s events are excellent news for the Conservative party and its electoral prospects.
Rejoice!
“History shows us that a divided, fractious Labour Party never finds favour with the electors. It is not trusted by the electors, who are in the main rather sensible, level-headed people.”
Charles.
This is exactly what happened to the London Labour branch office in Scotland. Now they’re more to be pitied than anything else in Scotland anyway.
I do have some sympathy for those in England who want to see Labour on the rise, however it needs a good clear out first.
Something tells me, RoS, that the ScotzNatz won’t do too well at the next general election either. For reasons you’ll be as aware of as I am.
You obviously haven’t done your homework Charles, a snap GE would see Labour and the Tories lose seats in Scotland. The YES campaign is even making good inroads into Edinburgh South now, a Tory unionist stronghold.
That should please Craig, I think that’s his neck of the woods.
It is for you as a ScotNat and not for me to expose those reasons, RoS. Your unwillingness to do so speaks volumes.
Haven’t you heard? The Tories are split and are just as f*cked.
Wait until March 29th before you put up the bunting.
If you can’t see that the timing fits in perfectly with a possible overall plan, then you are well behind with the plot. I do not intend to enumerate.
Replying to CB
On this thread you can see that the new company set up for the quitters was registered in Panama!! As for anyone who makes a donation as requested on their website, don’t bother. They will disappear into an unregistered ether, ie thin air.
There is also some info on the expenses claims of the extremely hypocritical Ms Angela Smith (one of the seven) and some other funnies.
The Magnificent Seven will be a seven day wonder IMHO.
http://members5.boardhost.com/xxxxx/thread/1550499236.html
“The Magnificent Seven will be a seven day wonder IMHO.”
Perhaps they will. But I have the feelng that the electors, come the day, will remember.
But anyway, why should you care about either the Blairites or the Corbynites, surely they’re all troughers, aren’t they?
We’ll see fireworks if May puts her crap deal in front of the ERG without amendments on the backstop.
I don’t think she will even present it – instead some idiot adviser is going to advise her to call a GE.
That’s a good way of kicking the can further down the Cul de Sac.
If the EU agree to an extension that is?
@ Charles Bostock February 18, 2019 at 16:39
‘…surely they’re all troughers, aren’t they?’
Well, actually, no.
‘How rich is Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn?’: https://londonlovesbusiness.com/how-rich-is-labour-leader-jeremy-corbyn/
‘…Corbyn is a serial low expenses claimant. During the 2009 MPs expenses scandal, while MPs from all sides were caught on the fiddle to the tune of tens of thousands, Corbyn’s expenses amounted to the perverse figure of £8.95, which he said was for a new printer cartridge. Since April 2015, Corbyn has racked up expenses of £692.70 according to the independent parliamentary standards authority. Hey big spender….’
“As for anyone who makes a donation as requested on their website, don’t bother. They will disappear into an unregistered ether, ie thin air.”
I agree SE, their depature will be forgotten in a month, like snowdrops landing in the river their futile headline grabbing gesture means nothing.
Corbyn has rid himself of backstabbers, whilst the Tories cannot claim to be in any better shape shedding ministers like falling confetti over the last few years.
“Corbyn has rid himself of backstabbers,”
I wouldn’t say that RoS. Berger was poison. Umunna isn’t anyone really. The biggest plotters are still there, including Watson, Cooper, Benn et al.
The following video is current being shown at the Guardian. Tom Watson, fu*king Red Tory trying to take control. Soon Labour get rid of him the better – maybe he could be persuaded to leave.
https://youtu.be/73F-S6eyJvs
Yes, Peter N, the quicker they dump Watson, Landsmann (and others) the sooner the Party can really prepare for a radical government. By that I mean a progressive radical government, not the radical reactionary shit we have now.
Watson collects £thousands in donations from several trades unions. He is also a member of the Trades Union Friends of Israel lobby group.
@Sharp Ears- and one mustn’t lose sight of how reactionary most of the trades unions are too. No wonder they finance a slob like Watson.
“He is also a member of the Trades Union Friends of Israel lobby group.”
I just posted a slight edit of that in the Guardian CIF in response to someone’s comment — it vanished immediately.
Then I posted a bit on Friends of Israel in response to someone else’s comment — vanished immediately too.
Not surprised, why I bother reading the rag is beyond me.
I had several posts deleted too on the Guardian today. They were all civil but contained the name Berger.
The same happened to me. No surprises from the jokingly named CIF.
The Graun cut me off years ago, they even stopped me changing my ip address. Oddly the Daily Heil still lets some of my posts through. Here’s one they didn’t.
http://www.dontmakemethink.co.uk/paul/pcshite.mp3
Watson laying credentials out, possibly for the leadership contest.
Watson said he was particularly worried by the departure of Luciana Berger, a Jewish MP who accused the party of being “sickeningly institutionally racist” as she announced the formation of a new independent grouping in parliament.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/18/chuka-umunna-and-other-mps-set-to-quit-labour-party
You think Tom Watson could be elected leader of the Labour party? Do you know anything about politics?
Last week Watson demanded that the Party suspend and investigate Berger’s CLP for daring to want explanations from Berger re her constant smearing of the Party and rumours of her involvement in setting up a new one.
He attacked McDonnell for simply asking Berger to confirm she wasn’t working against the Party.
Luciana did the victim bit, complained about bullying and good old Tom rode to her defence attacking all in sundry. And now we know it was all true. I guess Tom figures he has to keep shouting since poor bullied Luciana has left him looking like a complete idiot!
Let’s not forget the £500,000 he’s pocketed from multi millionaire racist son of Black Shirt fascist and Hitler lover Oswald Mosley.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/18/online-conspiracy-theorists-democracy
I guess they didn’t want to publish it yesterday. 18, masonic number – 3 6’s. Apologies to Clark
It’s getting to the stage, when you don’t know who to believe, some LARPer in their mum’s basement, or the suspiciously titled “Institute for Strategic Dialogue”. Sounds like it was pulled right out of Blair’s greasy posterior.
Can I substitute “oleaginous” for “greasy”?
The article’s fallacy is that some centralised gatekeepers could do anything useful against “nonsense news”. Attempts at censorship will just increase suspicion and strengthen resolve.
This needs to be tackled by all of us. We must each of us demand evidence from other commenters, and insist upon rigorous arguments.
Does the mask slip here?
“Angela Smith MP, who few had ever heard of before she split from Labour today, gestures at Asian woman live on air and tries to call her “funny tinged” ”
https://mobile.twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/1097515156303736833
The Independent party should suspend her, if they’re serious about what their statement says on their website.
Then Angela White will form her own Independent party, of the Independent party.