I am amused when I hear the resignation of Kim Darroch mooted as an attack on an apolitical civil service. Darroch’s rise to the top of the FCO was in fact a startling example of the politicisation of the civil service – there is no doubt that his enthusiastic support for the Iraq War, and for every neo-con war of aggression since, is what endeared him so strongly to the people who make the decisions on the top posts (and do not believe the fiction that ministers have no influence on them).
Kim Darroch and Tony Blair
I have annoyed quite a few people – including regular readers – for refusing to endorse any of the more baroque conspiracy theories involving Trump and Johnson conspiring to get rid of Darroch. These have the attraction of simplicity, with the evil Johnson and Trump on one side and the angelic Darroch on the other.
But many things do not easily make sense. The notion it is a plot to make Farage Ambassador to Washington is bizarre. If Johnson wishes to appoint Farage as Ambassador to Washington, after the summer break he could do it on Darroch’s retirement – which could have been if desired quietly brought forward two months with no fuss.
More to the point, the Brexit Party like UKIP is nothing without Farage. The idea that, at this crucial point, he would voluntarily lose his political leverage by going off to be a diplomat in Washington is a nonsense. And – crucially for Farage – there is just as much cash in being an MEP.
We do not know who leaked the telegrams and why. One overlooked possibility is the intention was to damage Trump himself, by releasing Darroch’s criticisms of him. As I pointed out, Darroch is an abrasive character with many disaffected people who have worked for him around, and I still think that is a likely source for the leak.
We just don’t know. But what I do know is that the idea that Darroch is an apolitical civil servant is a nonsense. I would remind you also that my objections to torture and extraordinary rendition were entirely in internal highly classified communications at the time the FCO first decided to try to move to sack me. I only leaked afterwards. So the idea that the FCO encourages honest and candid reporting is still more of the hypocritical nonsense being talked around Darroch’s resignation.
Pissing myself this morning, listening to Tom Tugenhat and others of the ‘great and good’ on Radio 4 trying to condemn Scotland Yard’s pronouncement that journalists shouldn’t publish leaks, without mentioning Julian Assange!
And who said irony is dead?
I see that Basu of Skripal/Salisbury infamy is on the Darroch case. Almost hilarious.
As the Defend Media Freedom conference opened 10/11 July, this Twitter account was taken down.
https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/top-assange-defense-account-deleted-by-twitter-ba5e4c3b3213
From the MULTIPAGE spreadsheet detailing the agenda for the conference. No irony!
‘What is media freedom: why is it important?
Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary
Chrystia Freeland, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Canada
Amal Clooney; Foreign Office’s Special Envoy on Media Freedom
Audrey Azoulay, Director General, UNESCO
Lord Tony Hall, Director General, BBC
HE Mr Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Communications and Multimedia, Malaysia
Intervention: Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, Journalist, war correspondent and author
Intervention: Christophe Deloire, Secretary-General, Reporters Without Borders, France;’
The State Broadcaster was heavily involved throughout. There was even a BBC HUB. The use of that buzzword grates. I still think of a hub on a wheel to which the spokes are connected.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/global-conference-for-media-freedom-london-2019-agenda
The expenditure on the conference must have been massive. Poor old licence fee payers.
Maybe we have all missed a trick here.
What if the Darroch affair was just a smokescreen diversion, in order to pave the way for much tighter regulations on the media and unofficial leaks? Trump hinted that the UK needs to stop their leakage, in a throwaway remark a couple of days ago.
Basu Of The Yard has already come out with “I would advise all
owners, editors and publishers of social and mainstream media not to
publish leaked government documents that may already be in their
possession, or which may be offered to them, and to turn them over to
the police or give them back to their rightful owner, Her Majesty’s
Government.”
This might be a prelude to a Soviet-style crackdown on media freedom to publish anything other than the official news releases. Wouldn’t that be useful if the USA was going to encourage the UK to join their full scale attack on Iran?
Fuel for thought?
@John – I read Basu’s statement differently. Why doesn’t he, or someone much higher up such as the attorney general or prime minister, simply make it clear that this country has an Official Secrets Act and that it will be enforced? What is remarkable is that the Daily Mail published material from these documents in the first place, and that the editor Geordie Greig has not had his collar felt. Basu is probably paving the way (on instructions) for further “leaks”. I doubt he enjoys appearing so wimpy, describing national security issues in terms that suggest they are unnecessary health and safety nonsense that nobody pays much attention to. The Darroch leak was probably okayed by both the Foreign Office and the D Notice (DSMA) committee. (If you don’t buy that, consider how it looked from Heil editor Geordie Greig’s point of view.) The big question is what is the MI6 assessment of whether or not Trump is a conscious Russian asset.
Even Basu didn’t seem certain that the publication of the leaks was a breach of the OSA – he said only that it _could_ be a crime. Are there any qualified lawyers here who can tell us?
Since Darroch has stepped down, it’s difficult to see how further revelations cause harm. These are only one man’s opinions they are not official policy., after all.
Though whether the Mail on Sunday will to choose to ignore Basu’s warning? They’ve a history of breaking big stories only to get scared off at the first sign of trouble.
further revelations cause harm the hints were that the further leaks might refer to some deep spookery that was being carried out by the UK in USA, (‘resistance’ activities?, who knows), but it was mentioned in the context that the further leaks might be *extremely* damaging to the UK state – I think this discussion was on LBC fairly early this a.m. , they seemed to know what they were talking about….
I think you are on the money with this comment.
This country had a long history of whistle-blowing some of the most prestigious whom even frequent this parish. But the state today wants total control – the result of which is totalitarianism.
After all the braying donkeys stood up in the HOC commons along with their proxies in the MSM to condemn Assange have only themselves to blame. It is only to be expected that sooner or later the PTB will come for them.
They already condemned themselves so can have no complaint that now the state is planning the next step.
The comments in the Heil today if bearing any resemblance to where we are as a country at the moment are a dark portent indeed.
See Boris Johnson has come out heavily in defence of the media right to report the dip cables after the Met’s Neil Basu’s diktat and threat to the media.
Much to criticise with Boris Johnson, but he’s better than Hunt on media freedom and I reckon a lot of ‘moderate’ Labour MPs.for that matter too.
He[Boris] also defended the guardian and Rusbridger over the Snowden leaks, saying they were a matter of deep public interest
He’s a man of strong principle.
Steady on, I wouldn’t go that far.
But Mr *unt couldn’t lie straight in bed.
“He’s a man of strong principle.” And what principle would that be?
The Peter Principle?
Media freedom my bum! Boris Johnson is a Bannon asset.
(But whose asset is Bannon?)
@Marxist: whose asset is Bannon?
– a right-wing faction in the Vatican?
BBC: “Ambassador row: Met Police criticised for warning off press”
Are people getting just how remarkable this is? This is Britain. There is no “first amendment”. There is a D Notice committee and an Official Secrets Act. Posh boys look after each other, and officials and middle rankers who aren’t posh know their place.
What’s changing? What contracts are being jostled for? What foreign powers are involved?
In certain important markets (Berlin, Moscow, the US billionaire class), this makes the British regime look extremely weak, almost as if it’s about to fall apart. Not only can they not control their own state secrets, but their own state broadcaster is going all Frank Spencer about it. “Ooh, Betty!”
To be fair. The Guardian, under Rusbridger’s editorial stint did campaign against prior restraint and for something akin to the US’s First Amendment for the UK, after the threats made to them over the Snowden leaks and Dremel tool PC components grinding session in the basement . Doubt Kath Viner will be all that bothered. Under Viner they seem to have swapped casting a critical eye on domestic matters for juicy leaks about China and Russia that no one in the UK are interested in.
I get your point though : the hypocrisy involved…how state censorship of the press only becomes an issue when it involves newspapers on the right.
‘There is no first amendment’.
And that is the problem. The ‘markets’ you relate are hardly bastions of free speech so not sure why they be something to aspire too.
America was and maybe still is? the final protector of freedom and free speech and an advocate for our God given ‘inalienable’ rights. Easy to see why that would be a problem for the PTB.
I think that there are too many people around here who are actively against free speech with the result that can only advance the march to totalitarianism.
Yes Nevermind the hypocrisy of the PTB, including Hunt, is gross.
____
A question. Have Sir Kim Darroch or Craig Murray ever received invitations to the Royal Box at Wimbledon? 🙂 I bet not.
‘Also encouraged to attend are ambassadors, diplomats and members of foreign royal families and senior figures from the media world.’ -Soaraway Sun. – ROYAL INVITE Who’s in the Wimbledon 2019 Royal Box today? Kate Middleton, Meghan Markle and Theresa May
Theresa is there today, with Philip, amongst the duchesses, the actresses and the ac-tors plus other hangers on. She is making the best of the last opportunities coming her way. She has said she has never felt comfortable in Downing Street. We all agree with that!
Heartening to read so many comments on a free press. For all you here who believe that, what is your attitude towards free speech?
And, how does a free “legacy media” relate to online media? Both in its current incarnation of monopolistic platforms from Silicon Valley, and challengers from the fringes?
Your distinction between legacy and online media is a bit fuzzy when to a large extent people who consume news and info online are feeding right from the hands of traditional platforms like the BBC.
The only meaningful and significant development, then, derives from the choice and variety of sources available to consumers. We now have blogs and unorthodox agencies framing narratives and challenging the MSM and that along with our ability to share info online using social media is a huge boon for free speech.
But traditional media and official channels, establishment institutions, politicians, etc., still have a monopoly of access when it comes to information that only exists on certain frequencies. This is particularly true of what is commonly called “Breaking News” stories and international issues.
Wings Over Scotland, for example, doesn’t have access to information relating ongoing events in the Gulf of Arabia where others do. There’s a sort of structural lag there for those of us who don’t trust the MSM and we are more or less forced to consume their definitions and narratives when it comes to Breaking News and more exotic subjects generally. As facts leak out and we learn more, we eventually catch up, but I don’t know how online media can bridge that gap.
The big problem though, isn’t a lack of information; it’s a lack of action. 90% of people know what’s wrong with politics, they know it’s corrupt, they know the wars and evils of the world are driven by big business and profits, and they know the whole system from top to toe is rancid. They just don’t know what to do about it.
So, the King has no clothes, now what? As I’ve said before, establishmentarians must be overjoyed to see so many people online chatting harmlessly and doing so little in terms of activism, boycotts, and protest. Very little that happens online affects and upsets the real world. It’s just all talk.
«it’s a lack of action. 90% of people know what’s wrong with politics, they know it’s corrupt, they know the wars and evils of the world are driven by big business and profits, and they know the whole system from top to toe is rancid. They just don’t know what to do about it.»
A very large minority, those who own property in southern England, get £20,000 to £40,000 a year in tax-free, work-free property gain, entirely redistributed from renters and later buyers, and have gotten them for 40 years. This is the most important political and economic fact in the UK, everything else is distraction:
“I inherited two properties in 1995 [ … ] and the value has gone from £95,000 to £1,100,000”
For the millions of families in southern England (and some in central Edinburgh) that have benefited from that the world is wonderful, their living standards have been booming, they spend freely in J Lewis and Waitrose, they go on fancy holidays in the tropics, etc. etc.; the only action they need to take is to vote for the economic geniuses, Thatcher, Blair, Osborne, Hammond, who have gifted them such massive redistribution in their favour.
The most unjust aspects of the system are the mechanisms that keep wealth in the same families over generations. And the reverse is true too so that we can very accurately predict who will be rich and and who will be poor hundreds of years into the future.
Again, 90% of us knew that from about the age of 4. And 100% of us have done nothing about it. Most problems are like that, there’s no lack of understanding.
True about the un-earned dividend of £10s of £1,000s. But the rise come from LAND values, not the value of the house itself. For over 100 years the Lords and the financiers have prevented the introduction of Land Value Taxation, and it’s easy to see why!
When followers of Corbyn suggested investigating a very mild version of LVT the right-wing press went berserk over the so-called ‘Garden Tax’ and the terrible suffering of the hard-working middle classes. All complete falsehoods, but then that never bothers the defenders of the rich rentiers.
The entire point was that the distinction was fuzzy, hence “legacy media”. Never mind. I disagree it’s just all talk, as if ideas and freedom of communication never changed anything.
If that was your point you could have expressed it with more clarity.
Hatuey – for ‘breaking news’ take a look at RT online. RT is quick with new stories from across the globe. You can then go elsewhere if you’re interested and would like to verify.
Of course, I’m aware of RT. It has all the characteristics of a state broadcaster but I’m not criticising that. I often look at State media and other “partial” sources.
“The big problem though, isn’t a lack of information; it’s a lack of action. 90% of people know what’s wrong with politics, they know it’s corrupt, they know the wars and evils of the world are driven by big business and profits, and they know the whole system from top to toe is rancid. They just don’t know what to do about it.”
Excellent. I zoomed in on the last sentence in particular. Social media has created keyboard warriors, don’t you think? I wonder sometimes if that’s as effective as getting out there and being really visible. Has technology made us lazy?
Watching news coverage of events in HK recently I felt enormous admiration for people who went out there and made their feelings clear. What would it take for that to happen here? Heaven knows we’ve had enough reasons to do it in the last few years!
I hear, more often than not, things like, “You can’t change it. They’re all the same.” or, worse, “Oh I don’t do politics or news.” These folk aren’t my age, they’re young! 30s and 40s, some with weans whose futures are in peril. What is wrong with them? Why are they more concerned with Love Island?
Hatuey. Indeed the dilemma I wrestle with everyday. I do however find association here with the likes of you and Craig. I have not had a TV for years and only recently even stopped listening to the radio. Our lives have been so full of noise. Non stop replays of classical pieces on one station to pop music on the other. Non stop adverts and non stop state selected ‘News’. As I’ve said before, I am trying to have a revolution in my own way of living. In the food I eat, how and where I live, and plan to spend the remaining time I have on this ‘heaven’ on earth.
‘Thanks for taking the time to get in touch regarding ‘Panorama – Is Labour Anti-Semitic?’ broadcast 10 July on BBC One. We note you have concerns about the programme…
The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty. ‘
Censure this
https://skwawkbox.org/2019/07/13/video-1000s-of-scouts-blindside-bbc-singing-oh-jeremy-before-bbc-quickly-cuts-them-off/
The whole thing pulled to pieces.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1149426426665455622.html
wonderful dissection – sorry but: The BBC stands by its journalism and we completely reject any accusations of bias or dishonesty. ‘
And here is a piece that provides full details of the bias of the Panorama program. So-called “independent” academics and commentators.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/07/13/pano-j13.html
Of course the BBC will challenge the article’s host but they won’t argue the points, I bet.
Ref Isobel Oakeshott,
Brexit Party chief’s lover behind story that forced US ambassador Darroch to quit
EXCLUSIVE: Former Sunday Times political editor and unofficial David Cameron biographer Isabel Oakeshott revealed Sir Kim Darroch’s emails criticising Donald Trump
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/brexit-party-richard-tice-darroch-18206347
News or non-news?
Good to see here a resistance to preposterous conspiracy theories, Craig. Am I not right in thinking you promoted the idea that the British government were somehow responsible for the Salisbury poisonings? I don’t read your always-interesting stuff consistently. Would you mind my asking if you revised your opinion about the Salisbury incident?
He picked holes in the official story.
You’d have to admit, the idea two spies marched up a street at noon, in broad daylight to daub something on the cctv unprotected home door knob of a former spy, well, doesn’t exactly scream supreme masterclass in spycraft, does it?
And Yulia? She felt it necessary to phone her cousin, then goes silent for 15 months? Where the hell are the Skripals?
so the spies walked up and spread poison on a doorknob, a ultra lethal poison that nevertheless failed to kill the skripals and their pets, and somehow were invisible to any cameras in between them and the skipal residence they purportedly sabotaged? i’d say that’s a lot less likely than that the spies had a hand in it. the whole story has fallen apat, because it is a preposterous conspiracy theory, so we are left with what, exactly, as an alternative explanation? why are the liars lying about it?
Pretzelattack.
And how did said pair of GRU officers know the Skripals wouldn’t be home at the time catching the red handed? Or return home, while they were daubing the nasty stuff. Pretty stupid behaviour on their part to just walk up to his house at noon.
Mark Urban revealed on Newsnight, he’d been working on a book and had regular contact with Sergei and that Sergei was well aware the Russians were still interested in him in the months prior; this fact alone, makes the fact he was living there under his real name and had no cctv on his house even more bizarre.
Another thing. We’re told DS Nick Bailey went to the property, forced entry and fell ill. Yet in the days and weeks after the incident, the house had two policewoman stood outside, next to said door, with no protective clothing on ‘google it’ , no sign of forced entry either and the door – which btw is street facing – was later surround by a tarpaulin and removed by men in hazmat suits.
Basically we’re being asked to believe the pair didn’t give a sh*t about being caught.
I don’t know a lot about covert ops but I’d imagine that’s not the normal M.O..
I also never seen an explanation how the door handle could be lethally contaminated in an unobtrusive way that would be safe to the perpetrators. Even a callous spymaster could have second though about his people falling down then and there. It is not like they could quickly dress in Hazmat gear somewhere in public park or an restroom and then use the famous British tolerance for unusual dress to approach the door to be contaminated.
The counterargument would be to ask, if they didn’t do this, what on earth were they doing here?
I honestly don’t know.
The question then becomes: if they were here for some other reason why wouldn’t the Russians reveal that in order to rubbish the whole novichok story?
If the Russians were invited and duped by Sergei, then possibly not. And if these two were in the process of betraying their country, then that wouldn’t be admitted either, as Anatolly Chepiga was reported as being high-ranking – it’d damage morale.
One popular explanation for the presence of the Russians in Salisbury is that they were couriers delivering documents for signature by one of the many wealthy Russians who have taken up residence in the UK, and for whom Skripal acted as a middleman. In this context they could have been delivering then collecting documents, or alternatively collecting documents brought in by Yulia Skripal.
Hope this helps:
http://www.theblogmire.com/category/skripal-case/
High praise for Rob Slane of theblogmire – it is THE site for the ‘novichok poisonings’. Rob and some of his commenters have scrutinised everything written and said about these incidents. They’ve done the investigations that used to be the province of journalists.
The only absurd conspiracy story about the Skripols is that the Russian state was involved, anything this incompetent had to be the UK government. It is you that is preposterous.
The establishment media have been busy today throwing up one of their favourite smokescreens – that the leak of the Darroch email was because of the “free press” and that the police are trying to prevent journalists doing their jobs.
In fact, the opposite is most likely the case – that the Mail on Sunday and the government/MI6 colluded to take down Darroch, running roughshod over laws on privacy and confidentiality, potentially leaving any of us having our emails leaked.
Far from being an example of the “free press” this is actually an example of the media being the propaganda wing of the government and picking on whichever “enemy of the people” they choose.
Mark Lewis having moved to the safety of Israel, is now back to firing on all cylinders.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=C7Mi3_irkEo
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/13/whistleblowers-to-sue-labour-as-antisemitism-row-deepens
What a peculiar affair this Darroch business is. From the British state broadcaster: “Scotland Yard has said there may be more sensitive documents in circulation, as it warned media against publishing leaked diplomatic memos. Police have launched a criminal investigation into the leak of diplomatic emails from the UK ambassador in the US, Sir Kim Darroch. Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu said publishing the emails could be a criminal offence.”
“Could be”? What on earth is this?
Perhaps Labour might ask some questions of the Attorney General?
I should spell this out.
1) A leading Tory newspaper has broken the Official Secrets Act.
2) Its editor Geordie Greig has not been arrested. Why not? That is a question for the Attorney General, who is responsible for deciding whether or not a prosecution is in the public interest. Where this breach of the OSA is concerned there is no public interest defence, but that does not mean that a prosecution is in the public interest. Over to you, Geoffrey Cox.
Perhaps Greig got the okay from somebody? Perhaps he got it from the Foreign Office or the DSMA Committee. Perhaps he got it from the Attorney General himself.
The idea that Greig did not take government “advice” on whether or not to publish this material is ludicrous. Did Cox have prior knowledge? Come on, Jeremy Corbyn – get off your a*se! Put that question to Cox. “What did the Attorney General know, and when did he know it?” The Daily Mail is not some small leftwing rag. It is a Tory institution.
Thought experiment: imagine that you have got hold of some British diplomatic telegrams, whether they “fell off the back of” the Foreign Office or you got them from a foreign intelligence service. Don’t go as far as imagining that you print them in a newspaper or put them online. Just imagine that you make some copies and put them through 100 neighbours’ doors. What do you think would happen?
It’s a relatively trivial matter. If, to take seriously your experiment, I found myself in possession of those telegrams, I’d simply put them in the bin and go back to more important concerns.
The open breach of the Official Secrets Act, in this case by a Tory newspaper, is not a trivial matter.
No security system is stronger than the procedure that is followed when security appears to have been breached. It is obvious that the Daily Mail received the okay, but as far as I am aware no prominent Labour figure is making this point.
The okay may have come from the DSMA (“D Notice”) committee on which the Heil’s assistant editor Charles Garside has a seat. Or it may have come from the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox who has the authority to grant immunity from prosecution. To spell it out: the Tory party is subverting the state.
Rather than opposition coming from Labour, so-called “opposition” is manifesting from John Major who is promising to apply for a judicial review of a future prime minister’s advice to the monarch to exercise her prerogative to shut down Parliament. Is there a precedent for a judicial review of the “giving of advice” before the prerogative power has actually been exercised? Or will the monarch’s man be intercepted by court police on his way to the House of Lords to read out the prorogation proclamation? I also really have to wonder who on earth would trust John Bercow to “do the right thing”, this man who has on his record the giving of a recommendation on how to use a drug to commit date rape.
Today I learnt: Joe Fay, group editor of “The Register”, the oh so irreverent “tech news” website, sits on the D Notice Committee.
Is he from the United States?
You lack credibility when on the one hand you defend and applaud Assange for breaking secrecy laws then, on the other, insist they be upheld and respected when it comes to diplomats.
I don’t need to live with contradictions like that in my head since I’m loyal to reason, rather than ideology, and I attach almost zero importance to any of this.
If you really want to understand people and politics, my advice is to study power — in most cases, national and international, it is powerthat dictates outcomes, not laws or airy-fairy notions of right and wrong.
Can I see if I have understood this correctly, you want the Daily Mail prosecuted for publishing official secrets, does that also mean you are happy about the prosecution of Julian Assange?
@Hatuey
“You lack credibility when on the one hand you defend and applaud Assange for breaking secrecy laws then, on the other, insist they be upheld and respected when it comes to diplomats.”
I was talking about the Daily Mail. It’s a Tory institution and if anyone actually looked properly at this affair without being bamboozled by how politicians and media figures are framing the issues they would SEE how it is being considered to be above the law.
That’s a Tory weakness and lit matches should be stuck into it.
I am partisan, matey. I don’t believe in any of the garbage about “free press” (that’s some Hollywood crap, isn’t it?) or the “neutral civil service” (as if) or the good honest liberal state where all the higher-ups do nothing else than serve the lower-downs (yeah right). If it helps to refer to that rubbish to weaken the enemy, let’s do it. Have you read Saul Alinsky?
Of course it’s about power.
Newspaper editors and journalists are not subject to the OSA.
«you want the Daily Mail prosecuted for publishing official secrets, does that also mean you are happy about the prosecution of Julian Assange?»
First there is a massive difference:
* J Assange is an australian citizen who published in Sweden some leaks he received from a USA government whistleblower, for the benefit of USA citizens.
* I Oakeshott is an english tory journalist publishing some english tory government leaks in an english tory newspaper, for the benefit of some english faction (including a vengeful ex-subordinate).
Only one of them has been hounded by the english police for a decade.
So when exactly was it that the Daily Mail signed the Official Secrets Act? And since when do non Civil Servants have to sign it anyway?
Iain, don’t disrupt the ebb and flow of debate with expectations that evidence might be provided. Nasty habit that…
I had to sign it twice, at both ends of my very short career as a civil servant, and what a creepy document it was. I’m probably in breach of it by divulging this very fact.
«I had to sign it twice»
You have to sign it as “read” not as “agreed”, because it applies whether or not you agree to it (or you have read it even), as long as you are a crown servant.
Labour?
Crippled by the evidence-free antisemitism nonsense that’s engulfing them.
Maybe that’s the whole idea?
I agree. With the exception of ‘maybe’.
There is no hope for the Labour party if they won’t push back against this organised smear.
Roughly 0.06% of the membership are involved, and real antisemitism is harder to find than hen’s teeth. Yet it’s difficult to avoid seeing some Labour figure on TV nodding away when a biased interviewer is claiming the party is riddled with anti-Semites.
Corbyn opponents are now turning to the law. An attempt to remove the democratically elected through the courts – begging the question who is funding this highly dubious legal action?
In Brazil, leftist fmr. President Dilma Rousseff coined the term ‘lawfare’, she many otheers believe Lula is the innocent victim of politically motivated ‘lawfare’,top human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson QC agrees; the courts are being used to achieve essentially political aims. I notice John McDonnell retweeted the comment, wonder what he was hinting at.
“There is no hope for the Labour party if they won’t push back against this organised smear.”
Except the smear is on a par with ‘when did you stop beating your wife?’
‘Lawfare’ may be a neologism but the practice is centuries old (e.g., Charles I versus John Pym). A further thought – to whom, generally speaking, might it have occurred to use the canard of anti-Semitism as a device, not just to unseat Corbyn but to damage the LP as a whole?
Basu, unfortunately for him, comes across as an idiot most of the time. He is the man who “led” the Skripal investigation. The impression is he just parrots what he is told to by his bosses.
Two days ago the state broadcaster’s home page bore the headline ‘Lifting the lid on the Tommy Robinson enigma’.
Tells you all you need to know about the state broadcaster: they vilify anti-racists and soft-soap actual racists.
Enigma!
Robinson certainly gets a lot of publicity. What future lies ahead of him? So far his greatest moment has been to act as a sort of repelling magnetic pole that Nigel Farage used as a reason for leaving the failing UKIP to set up the Brexit Party.
Robinson is probably MI5-owned. Interesting story about he managed to evade officials at JFK airport in New York and enter the US illegally despite using a false identity document. Who printed the fake passport for him? But fake or not fake, it didn’t stand in his way. Did he make himself invisible? Use a Jedi mind trick? Or was there a side door with a red carpet?
Then look at his time with Quilliam Foundation.
and news just-in from Brazil, the errorist Tuttle was arrested by GCHQ and the National Crime Agency, who later apologised ?
Berhe was arrested after the NCA, an agency colloquially referred to as Britain’s FBI, and the national cyber-security centre GCHQ, tipped off Sudanese national police that “Mered” [Tuttle]was holed up at an address in Khartoum.
It is understood the NCA provided Italian prosecutors with the phone number of Berhe rather than Mered [Buttle], which led to his arrest.
In June 2016, the NCA, which includes countering modern slavery and human trafficking within its remit, boasted that “one of the world’s most wanted people smugglers” had been arrested as a result of its intelligence.
Nice. no apology, carry on blindly for years because our TLA’s live in a .mil culture of not being able to back-down?
https://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN1U7228-OCATP (essential)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/12/uk-agencies-played-key-role-in-italian-mistaken-identity-case
Berhe [Buttle/Tuttle] , a person from Somalia , who was NOT the evil people trafficker, was ordered released by Italian courts on Friday – I personally was aware of this miscarriage of justice in 2016, (there was a lot of comment from Somalia at the time) how long has GCHQ/NCA known? They appear to have not yet noticed the parallels with the Terry Gilliam film….
New Yorker does a great review of the NCA/GCHQ/Italian-Court/EU justice fuск-up
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/an-absurd-case-of-mistaken-identity-draws-to-a-close
latest leaks
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7244539/Trump-axed-Iran-deal-spite-Obama-British-ambassador-says-Trumps-actions-diplomatic-vandalism.html
which reveal the surprising news from GCHQ and the NCA that counter-terrorism supremo Neil Basu is the leaker{?} -this must be satire- {tho’ his dad is of foreign or indian origin} – we might find out in three years….
The [first Darroch] leak infuriated the Foreign Office and No 10. Their determination to catch he culprit is indicated by the fact that – according to a Government source – the cyber-experts at GCHQ(*) are about to be brought in to target a shortlist of suspects drawn up by civil service investigators. The spooks have far-reaching powers to intercept communications.
(*)”Oh man! Look at those cavemen go It’s the freakiest show, Take a look at the Lawman Beating up the wrong guy, Oh man! Wonder if he’ll ever know, He’s in the best selling show…”
One can’t help admire the forthright insightfulness of the former ambassador. But of course everybody knows this that the emperor is a big egotist but this cannot be documented in writing.
If one looks at the totality of what happens in Britain one is forgiven for becoming a conspiracy theorist. Who benefits from this shambles? Certainly not the British people. The last time any politics other than Brexit has been effectively discussed is in the last general elections. Poverty, pay gap, housing crisis, industrial collapse and so on have become marginalised. HM official opposition has been neutered by a fifth column that would rather wreck the party than discuss these issues and get labour easily in power if United. The deputy leader is leading a mutiny and should be sacked for bringing the party into disrepute.
So who benefits. Certain world power and its auxiliary, and for once it is not Putin who is behind it all despite his very well known history of meddling.
Maybe could still vaguely be Putin, p’raps Trumpton himself, but it will be fascinating to follow….
More in the Mail-on-Sunday and the Sunday-Torygraph that leaks how Ser Darroch vouched for the ‘ex’-MI6 spook Christopher Steele, and his dodgy dossier against Trump
quote “absolutely legit”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7245063/Sir-Kim-Darroch-said-Christopher-Steele-absolutely-legit-leaked-emails.html
The Government probably leaked the planned comments to get the Ambassador sacked whilst blaming the petulance of Trump, as the diplomatic way of sacking him, to avoid admitting he needed to go because Trump is now taking action against those involved in the British collusion (Steel dossier) with the Democrats to stop him getting elected.
So if this was not U.K. US would have already closed the embassy and imposed heavy sanctions.
Today’s Heil stuff is authored by one Harry Howard. Who he? A trainee reporter!
Harry Howard
@howardharry
Trainee reporter at MailOnline. MA grad from @cfjkent
[email protected]
Joined December 2010
Ted Verity is the Editor of the Mail on Sunday.
Geordie Greig, an ex Buckingham Palace flunkey, is the Editor of the Daily Mail. He replaced Paul Dacre.
https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/mail-on-sunday-appoints-new-political-editor-as-simon-walters-moves-to-daily-mail-as-assistant-editor/
What was Greig’s role as a royal flunkey?
9 years in and still a trainee? Sounds a bit unlikely….
SA
Why would you need to be ‘forgiven’ for becoming a conspiracy theorist?
What evidence is there for ‘Putin’s meddling’?
Agree, Johny Conspiranoid – exactly what is the evidence for Putin/Russian ‘meddling’?
It was sarcasm
The Observer see this as part of a general attack on the civil service. Ex Ambassadors are quoted including Jay and Sheinwald.
Kim Darroch saga ‘is part of assault on civil service’
Unions and senior civil servants say officials have been subjected to sustained attacks from across political spectrum
Michael Savage
13 Jul 2019
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/13/senior-civil-servants-warn-of-campaign-to-undermine-officials
And, as we all know, the CS is against Brexit — they know it will do harm to the economy.
What we are really witnessing in the U.K. right now is split at the highest levels over Europe. The outcome has huge implications for the future, not least for those involved in the global offshore banking markets.
We haven’t seen a split like that at the top in any of our lifetimes. You’d probably need to go back to debate over decolonisation in the 30s, 40s, and 50s to find anything like it. Until now, the rich and business leaders in the U.K. have all been singing from the same hymn sheet — cut corporation tax, destroy the unions, shaft the poor, etc.
I think Appeasement was the last time we saw the British ruling classes this split. The Appeasers were likewise a London-based clique, the provinces were much more anti-Appeasement. Just as now there was heavy censorship of the press and the BBC, with papers not allowed to report the persecutiuon of the jews in Germany. Similar things now with censorship on Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
Utter tripe. Papers were free to report on The plight of Jews in Germany in the 30s and many did. Instead of me having to prove that and provide links, go do some basic research.
Also, the majority in this country wanted to avoid another major war. That’s an historical fact which is easily verified, if you are willing to read a thing or two.
The whole anti-appeasement slant, including the term appeasement with all its connotations, was conjured up retrospectively and has been used to justify interventions all over the place since 1945. That’s the primary role the term serves today too and it would have made no sense to use it before mid 1938 because just about everybody wanted to avoid another war.
There’s no heavy censorship in the U.K. and outside of wartime measures there hasn’t ever been. You don’t need to censor the press when they are 99% on-side, as they always have been. You could call it self-censorship but that isn’t really censorship at all, it’s complicity.
Ah but Hatuey there’s a scene in “Darkest Hour” where Churchill goes for a wee trip on the underground and the doughty Londoners urge him to carry on to the end whatever the cost – it’s on an establishment approved film so it must be true!
Everyone’s (naturally) focussing on the ’embarrassing’ Kim Darroch leaks (Iran/Bojo etc) whilst ignoring the ‘explosive’ leak
evidence
of
external
attack
on
US
election candidate
from the Mail today
Sir Kim Darroch vouched for British ex-spy Christopher Steele who put together the Dirty Dossier on Trump and told US officials he ‘was “absolutely legit”‘
wow! Of course this gem must be diverted away from
combine that Ambassadorial mis-speaking with this detailed investigation : https://nypost.com/2019/07/09/did-a-dirty-intelligence-op-create-the-collusion-probe/
and many things become clearer
I will take anything the New York Post says with a pinch of something. It is owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Post
His Sunday Times leads today with:
Trump leak scandal engulfs Brexit Party
Police close in on ‘Eurosceptic Philby’ in Whitehall
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/trump-leak-scandal-engulfs-brexit-party-2w7dn3hrm
written by Tim Shipman and Andrew Gilligan.
We are in the mire.
Darrochgate or to coin a Russian name for it Darrochshchina, is promising to be the biggest scandal of the decade I think.
The biggest scandal of the decade. Amazing. We heard it here first.
So let us put it this way. The foreign nation that tried to interfere with the US election process in possible collusion with the Clinton campaign and agencies is not RF but U.K. moreover in order to divert and create more Russophobia the Skripal story was manoeuvred to do this. So there has not been any evidence that Russia interferes with US elections but that the U.K. has. Explosive indeed if followed through.
It’s all panning out like I stated a few days ago, Darroch has been in on this from the outset, even being complicit in how the narrative within cables attacking the Trump administration were framed over many weeks, ready for their deliberate ‘leak’ to the press. The motive is to sour our relations with Trump and the US administration post Brexit and to create a chilling effect on the press over any future genuine leaks from the government. No one will ever be found responsible for the leaks and Darroch, having done no wrong in the eyes of many, will be duly rewarded in some manner or means.
You mean you are clinging to your desperate, evidence-free narrative come what may.
…….just as believable as Darroch’s claim that Trump pulled out the Iran agreement to spite Obama, then
How to interpret the “Eurosceptic Philby” epithet?
The Sunday Times quote “a political source” as saying “The fear is that there has been a Kim Philby-like figure — for financial or ideological reasons — hoovering up leaks who is now ready to end the careers of officials not considered pro-Brexit.”
Kim Philby didn’t do anything like collecting leaks from pro-Hitler civil servants in order to leak them to the media and end their careers.
Agreed, but Philby was on Russia’s side. All the more reason to throw mud at any Russia associations and hope it sticks.
Philby was on englands side which isn’t that of the ruling class.
according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_John_Philby
(accurate when checked)
“Philby” was a spook who went native in Riyadh and brought the yanks in to run the petrodollar with a bit of help from the British.
I’m talking about Harry St John Bridger Philby, who did have a kid called Kim, true. The elder was probably a more significant Philby, Commander of the Indian Empire….
Well yes, but as the whole Philby story happened about 50-60 years ago, most people will only have a vague understanding of it. All they probably know was that there was a Soviet spy ring from Cambridge University and 3 of them defected while a 4th looked after the queen’s art collection and got a slapped wrist. Anything like motives and reasons are long washed in the wash and all that remains is pace Maddow ‘because Russia’.
I looked on the Home page in the hope of finding some insight into the Labour Party’s continuing self-destructive plunge into the abyss of the ‘antisemism crisis’, in which the only action contrary to the apparent policy of endless attempted appeasement of Corbyn’s implacable critics has been a petulant bluster against the ‘Panorama Whistleblowers’, completely failing to challenge their emotional but virtually content-free allegations. However, I welcome Craig Murray’s calm comments about the ‘Darroch Affair’, and particularly (trivial,as it may seem) the photograph which shows Darroch’s strong and unsettling resemblance to Jeremy Clarkson.
Corbyn’s response to May about Islam phobia in the conservative party is fair game but wrong response. He should respond by saying what is PM doing about “anti-Semitism” in the Conservative Party and challenge her to deny it exists.
Probably more astute to wait to use your ammunition when you can see the whites of their eyes; when a general election is in sight.
Useful view of the blatant stitch-up here:
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/2019-07-11/panorama-hatchet-job-labour-antisemitism-bbc/
See also:
https://benwhite.org.uk/2016/07/28/the-bicom-guide-to-defending-netanyahus-israel/
In which an eerie similarity with the Panorama prgramme may be seen.
Alan Johnson, mentioned there, is not only a senior research fellow at BICOM, but recently published a ‘paper’ for Fathom.org. (This magazine was founded by Johnson, under the aegis of BICOM, and he is its editor) The paper, after a long and wholly tendentious preamble, approaches Labour’s ‘antisemitism’ in such a way as to suggest that Panorama’s producers had very little work to do in turning it into their loaded, biassed, selective programme.
I would suggest that antisemitism should be regarded in exactly the same way as any other racism, and should not be allowed its own special terminology, including the word itself. There is no objective reason that being nasty to one religion is worse than being nasty to any other. And there is no objective reason to say that criticism of one nation should be regarded as fundamentally more racist
than criticism of any other.
“antisemitism should be regarded in exactly the same way as any other racism, and should not be allowed its own special terminology”
Good shout.
“There is no objective reason that being nasty to one religion is worse than being nasty to any other.”
True.
The other worrying development, a direct result of all this stuff, is that some MPs no longer identify as merely MPs but as J**ish MPs meaning that complaints they raise are difficult to challenge because any challenger will almost automatically be accused of being AS. That is a very unhealthy state of affairs.
How did Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson react when he received Kim Darroch’s assessment of the Trump presidency? In particular, how did he react to Darroch’s view that Trump might be a Russian asset? Because that’s a matter for the Foreign Secretary. He must have known of the Darroch opinion.
Oh dear, oh dear. Could it possibly be that someone is about to flick Johnson out of the ongoing Tory leadership race, in a more spectacular rerun of 2016?
On today’s revelations: hardly piercing insight from Our Man Darroch.
Trump wanted to tear up the Iran deal(JCPOA) because he viewed it as one of the few Obama administration achievements.
Wonder if the reply from London was : ‘No shit, Sherlock’ ?
Obama never really made good on the US’s side of the deal, Iran never really got to see the relief it wanted. Obama could have done a lot more to make it harder for Trump to exit a deal involving the P5+1 (the 1 being Germany. The fact the US is now applying secondary sanctions (restrictions designed to inhibit non- U.S. citizens and companies abroad from doing business with a target of primary U.S. sanctions) is the most outrageous aspect to all this. The weaponisation of sanctions has been a real wake up call to France and Germany and the entire EU, it shows the US will attack friend and foe alike.
The “Darroch said the reason Trump changed policy on Iran was to poke Obama in the eye” line might be something to fill the Sunday papers with in place of something else about Darroch’s reporting that’s not out yet. That said, the drift seems to be one of an increasing mention of the fact that Darroch sent in his reports when the secretary of state at the Foreign Office was none other than Boris Johnson.
Goose
‘Obama never really made good on the US’s side of the deal, Iran never really got to see the relief it wanted’
When Obama lifted sanctions on Iran , it was so that Iran could buy weapons, which it did.
Obama could not foresee that his successor in the White House would direct Iran to destroy Obama’s Islamic State which Obama had intended to squat over the Middle East for another 20 years or so.
Trump told Iran immediately after it had helped to finish off the Daesh in Syria and Iraq, to get back to Iran after handing Kirkuk back to Baghdad. The faction of Jalal Talebani former President of Iraq in Baghdad refused to fight Iranian troops in Kirkuk on the grounds that they were insufficient in numbers and arms to fight off the Iranian troops. That faction of the Kurdish government was allied to Iran, while Barzani is affiliated to Mossad.
Hence I conclude that Trump used Iran to destroy Islamic State against Obama’s intentions, and then immediately cracked down on Iran with sanctions and breaking the nuclear treaty to please Mossad.
Russia, Israel and the US are the current power brokers in the Middle East. Britain, France, Germany who all participated in the colonial mission of setting up the Islamic State have all got themselves on the wrong side of history.
Question is, does that mean that Jeremy Corbyn who has opposed the empire2 mentality of the Blue and Red Tories all his life, can now tale us to the right side of history, amidst the crashing ceilings of the EU as immigration triggers popular revolt?
Farty Pants, the bookies favourite for PM, is just the type of low calibre wind-bag Trump favours for the UK because he has seen the British use of violent jihad, terror and destruction get the British pulling far above its intellect and weight. trump needs a realyy really stupid blimp at No 10 in order to cash in on his good fortune that Russia and China have defeated the British jihadist menace.
is it Russian collusion with Trump as the Democrat neo-cons have it ? Or is it the world’s great good fortune that simultaneously we have a Potus and a Putin that hate the stupidity of wrecking sovereign countries against international law and common sense?
One thing we know. The appalling legacy of Tory David Cameron destroying Libya and Syria for the Democratic neo-cons, has no future while trump is in power. Trump’s job now after his predecessors have destroyed all of Israel’s neighbours is to construct a Pax Israeliana over the Middle East.
Which need not to have happened if the fake Jihadists and dumbo wonks like Erdogan had not fought against their fellow Muslims for the American flag. it is absolutely irrelevant what Europe does now, swing to right or swing to the left. Our stupid Intelligence services have written Europe out of world influence by their instinctive duplity, violence and perfidy. The entire Intelligence and diplomatic community should resign collectively and jump of the cliffs of Dover like demonic pigs.
With all due respect, I don’t think Trump’s thought processes and strategic calculations are anywhere near as complex and convoluted as that.
The State Dept machinery develops long term foreign policy strategy and to them I’d imagine Trump is probably like someone blundering around in a dark room with a blindfold knocking things over. Look at the way he announced total withdrawal from Syria, out of the blue, leaving allies scratching their heads. Now he’s asking countries to commit special forces to Syria – what for?
I don’t doubt Trump wishes to keep his promises on not involving the US in large-scale military interventions and bringing troops home. However, the scary thing for me, with Trump, is how easily he seems to be manipulated by the combination of the ever hawkish Bolton , Pompeo and close friend of Netanyahu and Trump son-in-law, Jared Kushner. These could talk him into war against Iran against his own electoral interests and better judgement.
Not as scary as Boris Johnson whose impulsive response to every situation is hiss, honk or bonk.
I think you have described the situation with Trump perfectly, Goose, but we are the real dupes because we have been scared and angered by 30 years of Zionist Islamist terror, and we now support Pax Israeliana out of sheer relief.
@giyane: Corbyn will do what NATO tells him to do.
I think you underestimate Germany’s (Merkel) role.
Once She was able to put a coalition together and regain control after the alt-rightist attempts by the Atlantists to remove her determined presence as the heart and mind of EU independence, her first priority was a settlement over Syria.
This was by a direct sit down with Putin and Erdogan, that led to a swift plan for peace in Syria. Macron was reduced to beimg a mere wallflower, rather than the belle of the ball as he was set up to be, to take over the EU after the defenestration of Mutti.
Angela also pushed ahead with Nordstream2 and has backed Iran, and has pushed on with the new financial settlement system and not rolling over to the Nato gangsters demands for ‘fire insurance’ of 2% of GNI.
I hope and expect she will last long enough to secure a treaty between the EU and SCO and finally extract Europe from the centuries old yoke of Anglo Imperialism, that laid waste to millions of lives in Europe and the rest of the world.
Like all Tory news-peaks, errors and catastrophes, over the previous three years each has a life of a week at best. The opposition, however faces a media litany of misdeeds, scandals and racism that run for months. If they were tv shows one would be Crossroads and the other The Walking Dead.
I like how Emily Thornberry describes the ongoing antisemitism nonsense as ” a soap opera”.
Does she mean it has directors, script writers, producers and actors ?
If so, then yes, I agree with Emily , it is exactly like a “soap opera”.
Goose
I think she means the antis… issue has become an …emetic
Yes, I was being facetious.
Thornberry is a member of Labour Friends of Israel, she’d never support the idea this all a staged production or a work of fiction.
On the subject of ‘Friends’, the referendum bill was heard in the HoC during 2015. According to Wikipedia, “In 2014, CFI stated that 80% of Conservative MPs were members.”
And?
Well, this from last year (https://cfoi.co.uk/may-2018-cfi-coordinates-high-level-trade-delegation-to-israel-with-conservative-parliamentarians/):
“Rt. Hon. Mark Harper MP said: “It is an honour to be leading a group of distinguished parliamentarians for Conservative Friends of Israel’s first-ever delegation themed around bilateral trade. Brexit presents an enormous opportunity to increase our trade throughout the world, and we’re excited to be looking at the opportunities within Israel.””
“Trade between the UK and Israel is at a record high, with total bilateral trade amounting to £6.9 billion in 2017, an increase of 25 percent from 2016. Over the past 10 years, the value of bilateral trade in both directions has increased by 60%. The UK is Israel’s second largest trading partner.”
I believe Arron Banks’ funding of ‘vote leave’ has been called into question (i.e., where did the money come from? Was it laundered Russian etc.?). Whilst from another quarter, and in a different (?) context, we have the not so shy Shai Masot claiming on record to have had access to £1m of Israeli government funding.
I may be way off the mark, but I am seriously wondering whether many of us have been looking in the wrong direction as regards the drive for Brexit and who, exactly, had their hands on the rudder. Many will have been swayed by the question of Sovereignty. Viewed from a purely financial perspective the enterprise might easily assume a different complexion.
Darroch and Blair. Both apparently cons… as in conservatives as in… neo-cons. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine/worldview which led to interventions in the Middle East actually started with the removal of Milosevic in Yugoslavia. The overthrowing of pro-Western regimes/governments continues to this day. Now the target is Trump, Putin, Orban and Salvini.
Darroch and Blair are not conservatives. They are progressives/neo-Marxists. In all seriousness, anyone who still remains unaware of the major political shift to the far-left across the Western world since the end of the Cold War needs to be certified.
you cannot identify any left wing economic trend of the past thirty years because there have been none. the kind of policies you believe to be ‘far left’ or ‘neo-marxist’ – things like gay marriage, mass immigration – have been sanctioned because they do not cost the super rich 1% a single dime.
that is the class of people who have been calling the shots in our western ‘democracies’ since 1989 and no sane person would categorize them – or their political and media surrogates – aa being far left.
Heightened competition in the labour market is not socialist; nor is the custom of saying that every person is whatever “gender” they choose to imagine they are; nor are the laws and propaganda that depict a “marriage” between two gay men as having a social worth equal to that of a normal marriage in which a man and woman live together and raise their children. Calling Darroch a “neo-Marxist” is in the same ballpark as thinking the BBC is far left, Barack Obama is a member of Daesh, and the Sandy Hook massacre was “fake”. It’s loony.
From 2:0; 29 mins .. George G Talks.. BBC going into the sewer.. Kim Darroch.. Sunday Mail Leak = Julian’s Plight.
.I have not watched Three hours
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CL2RA8y_kI
I see Craig is on At – 2: 23 :00 Hours
Oh please don’t worry Craig (if you read this) about annoying me, an avid regular reader. I disagree with you quite a lot (not over this I hasten to add) but this is still by far my favorite “blog”.
Sometimes for me your pieces just stimulate my brain to search for answers and solutions to problems. Sadly I seem to still be in want of many of those answers and solutions …
I picked this bit of “sage” advice on the internet a while ago. Some may find it useful, “when instead of reacting against a situation you merge with it, the solution arises out of the situation itself”. I still haven’t the faintest idea how that works, but maybe someone out there will find it of use.
I might be quite bright in some ways, but in relationships I have up to now been something of a disaster area. I recently “lost” someone who I think may have been a very good friend (online at least) by trying to be more than just a friend. Oh I was so full of it. She seems wary of me now. I doubt she’ll ever communicate with me again and I so liked her. I feel so sad about the whole thing. Was it worth it? (Off-topic again!) I can be such a muppet.
All noted.
OT: Are we cruel, denying Syria importing oil? After the immense destruction and suffering we caused there? (Couldn’t Hunt have turned a blind eye to that damn tanker, nobody would have noticed).
Se.. That is the problem
BrianFujisan
July 14, 2019 at 22:10
I see Craig is on At – 2: 23 :00 Hours
Somebody suggested the delivery could have been stopped at America’s insistence because the fuels derived from it may be in preparation for a Syrian military campaign to dislodge US-backed militants from Idlib, or wherever the Yankee terrorist state has moved them to.
Yes that is a very good point. It feels like a spiteful action. One we should be ashamed of.
The Iran deal was never about nuclear weapons as Iran had no intentions of building them, because it was against their faith, they already had a de facto nuclear weapon by blocking the Straits of Hormuz and because such weapons would undermine their security by alarming friend and foe alike.
It was the repeated lie/metaphor used to attack Iran for other issues perceived by Zionists as anti-Israel such as support for Hezbollah.
In turn Obama used it as the way to improve relations with Iran and sell it to the public by saying the ‘nuclear threat had been removed’, but Trump (hopefully not his own idea) is back to saying more sanctions are needed to force Iran to give up their non-existent nuclear weapons programme, when its really a give up support for Hezbollah policy on behalf of Israel.
Jeremy Hunt is trying to make himself seem more important, he is calling for billions to be spent on extra war ships whilst also talking softly to Iran.
He is looking more like a Prime minister that Boris.
Who do you suppose has been running the main Government policies since Gideon left?
Can you imagine a Bojo govt without Hunt or a Hunt govt without bojo?
The only reason to have the clown involved is to see if he gets more public support than Hunt in a general election.
The whole farce of the last month has been to try and raise Hunts profile in the populaces mind. As he has to come out from the shadows to lead the government to deliver the hard brexit they always wanted – May failed. Bojo would fail. Only Hunt is psycho enough to do it. As i noted when potus visited, who met him alone at the bottom of the steps of AF1? The next PM.