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Tempting Fate 270
This is the third time I have posted that there is a temporary hiatus in blogging but nothing to worry about, and subsequently ended up in hospital. Just discharged from Edinburgh Royal Infirmary after losing an unexpected argument with a piece of agricultural machinery. Between Eden Festival and that, I have missed the most fascinating fortnight in politics this year. Next time I have a break I shall put up a post asking you to worry a lot, then hopefully nothing will happen.
270 thoughts on "Tempting Fate"
N_ June 17, 2018 at 02:30
@Paul Barbara
"The EDL and Z**nists have often had joint demos."
But was the timing of Tommy Robinson's arrest to do with the Chabloz case? While the Z__nists in the guise of the CAA were openly involved in the latter, the answer may be "no".
Paul Barbara June 17, 2018 at 10:13
@ N_ June 17, 2018 at 02:30
I really don'r have a clue on that one.
Brianfujisan June 17, 2018 at 06:33
Which Comments
Baron June 17, 2018 at 08:12
Get well, young sir, the country cannot do without you.
Sharp Ears June 17, 2018 at 08:56
Are you going to be 'Marred' today?. I'm not.
The producer's tweet – On #marr tomorrow: the Prime Minister @theresa_may, the Shadow Foreign Secretary @EmilyThornberry. The news review comes from @NickFerrariLBC and @pollytoynbee. Rupert Everett talks about Oscar Wilde and we have #marrmusic from @flo_tweet. Tune in 9am. BBC1.
Oh dear! Scraping the barrel.
Marr went to Chequers to speak to Our Dear Leader. Did she invite him to stay for lunch?
Andyoldlabour June 17, 2018 at 10:26
I cannot watch the Marr show any more, I just end up shouting at the screen.
D_Majestic June 17, 2018 at 10:37
Take heart-you are not alone!
Rhys Jaggar June 17, 2018 at 11:31
Just realise he is an MI6 plant. Then you would not expect him to be anything but dishonorable.
quasi_verbatim June 17, 2018 at 09:08
With Macintosh gone, is there anything left in Scotland worth preserving, or burning?
Yes, there is Quisling. Quisling is a Privy Councellor and as such is constrained, dedicated, to the preservation of the status quo — and no status quo is more desirable and worthy of preservation than Quisling's status quo. That lady's not for burning.
Dr. Ip June 17, 2018 at 10:18
Hey Nonny!
for our Nonny Anon1
who loves to spout and shout his rage on the page –
will this rattle his cage?
or will the drip drip drip
of his own venom rip apart his soul(?)
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more.
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea, and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no more
Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so
Since summer first was leafy.
Into hey, nonny, nonny.
"To one thing constant never"
Obviously in Shakespeare's day there were no football teams.
Oh yes, football was there:
Football. An allusion to this once highly popular game occurs in "Comedy of Errors" (ii. i). Dromio of Ephesus asks:
"Am I so round with you as you with me,
That like a football you do spurn me thus?
If I last in this service, you must case me in leather."
In "King Lear" (i. 4), Kent calls Oswald "a base football player."
According to Strutt, it does not appear among the popular exercises before the reign of Edward III; and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a piablic edict because it impeded the progress of archery. The danger, however, attending this pastime occasioned James I to say: "From this Court I debarre all rough and violent exercises, as the football, meeter for laming than making able the users thereof."
Occasionally the rustic boys made use of a blown bladder, without the covering of leather, by way of a football, putting beans and horse-beans inside, which made a rattling noise as it was kicked about. Barclay, in his "Ship of Fools" (1508) thus graphically describes it:
"Howe in the winter, when men kill the fat swine,
They get the bladder and blow it great and thin,
With many beans or peason put within:
It ratleth, soundeth, and shineth clere and fayre,
While it is thrown and caste up in the ayre,
Eche one contendeth and hath a great delite
With foote and with hande the bladder for to smite;
If it fall to grounde, they lifte it up agayne.
This wise to labour they count it for no payne."
Shrovetide was the great season for football matches; and at a comparatively recent period it was played in Derby, Nottingham, Kingston-upon-Thames, etc.
And there were plenty of other interesting games, many with gambling involved.
Backgammon. The old name for this game was "Tables," as in "Love's Labour's Lost" (v. 2):
"This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice."
Barley-break. This game, called also the "Last Couple in Hell," which is alluded to in the "Two Noble Kinsmen," (iv. 3).
Billiards… the billiard-table was square, having only three pockets for the balls to run in, situated on one of the sides — that is, at each corner, and the third between them.
Bowls. The small ball, now called the jack, at which the players aim, was sometimes termed the "mistress." In "Troilus and Cressida " (iii. 2), Pandarus says: "So, so; rub on, and kiss the mistress."
And many many more…
I got all this wonderful information from: http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/sportshakespeare.html
Nevermind, Duke of Doggerland June 17, 2018 at 13:54
Football is very old and not a European sport.
"Since Europe has dominated the football kingdom for so long a time, most people tend to assume that Europe is football's origination place, while the ancient relics and records in China challenge this saying and provide solid prove: China is the real hometown of football.
Though without written record of its origination date, football was first mentioned in Bielu, the first classified catalog book in ancient China. The author Liu Xiang stated in this book: "According to legend, Cuju(football) was first created by Emperor Huangdi who lived over 5000 years ago to train his armies". To verify this saying, scientists carried out research in Shang Xi Province, Shanxi Province and Yellow River areas haunted by Emperor Huangdi, and they found many round stone balls there, thus prove the truth of this saying. Another Book of Liu Xiang composed during Western Han Dynasty (202BC-9AD)– Intrigues of the Warring States (《战国策》) can prove that football has been popularized as early as 2300 year ago in The State of Qi , today's Linzi City, Shandong Province"
For more on the subject of training ancient soldiers by playing football, feel free to peruse this link.
http://www.absolutechinatours.com/china-travel/chinese-ancient-football-cuju.html
That's very nice, I like it. But I'd prefer knowing that cuju was actually like today's footie, feet only. Most ancient versions of football include the hand, and are more like rugby.
"football was there"
I said football teams. The objects of men's unwavering devotion.
Jo June 18, 2018 at 01:15
Don't be sexist! Some ladies out here are just as devoted.
@ MJ June 17, 2018 at 13:58
Some men; others have more sense!
The Football Association was set up in 1986, at a meeting set up by Masons with already existing football clubs, to hammer out rules: 'THE HISTORY OF THE FA': http://www.thefa.com/about-football-association/what-we-do/history
The Football Association, English football's governing body, was formed in 1863. 'Organised football' or 'football as we know it' dates from that time.
Ebenezer Morley, a London solicitor who formed Barnes FC in 1862, could be called the 'father' of The Association. He wasn't a public school man but old boys from several public schools joined his club and there were 'feverish' disputes about the way the game should be played.
Morley wrote to Bell's Life, a popular newspaper, suggesting that football should have a set of rules in the same way that the MCC had them for cricket. His letter led to the first historic meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern in Great Queen Street, near to where Holborn tube station is now.
The FA was formed there on 26 October 1863, a Monday evening. The captains, secretaries and other representatives of a dozen London and suburban clubs playing their own versions of football met "for the purpose of forming an Association with the object of establishing a definite code of rules for the regulation of the game".
The clubs represented were: Barnes, War Office*, Crusaders, Forest (Leytonstone), No Names (Kilburn), Crystal Palace**, Blackheath, Kensington School, Perceval House (Blackheath), Surbiton, Blackheath Proprietory School and Charterhouse……'
Just three years later, another 'Spectator Sport', public hangings, ceased.
Was their perhaps foreknowledge (Masons claim to have 'Second Sight'); they also have a nice Intel Agenncy in the form of their members being in all important government departments and business associations, so could have been privy to secret plans.
Or maybe the new Football Association didn't want a competitor for the peoples' attention – there's money to be made from football! (though obviously nothing like the amounts now, but perhaps the Masons realised the potential.
If the commoners could be enthralled by this new 'Opium of the masses', it would suit their secret shenanigans to a 'T'.
Judith Mckenzie June 17, 2018 at 11:09
Aww poor you. Hoping you make a speedy recovery, been missing your blogs.
Good morning, friends.
My copy of Michael Gove's book Celsius 7/7 has now arrived. I opened it at a random page, and this is what I read: "I__ael's tragedy is that it stands so often alone. Our tragedy is that we will not stand with it, embracing the values that will most effectively safeguard the West's future."
So Gove wants to put "standing with" a nuclear-armed national socialist regime and "embracing" its values at the centre of British and western policy.
Embracing its what? Its values? So…extreme racist hatred, mass murder, theft, ethnic cleansing, humiliation of the majority considered "inferior", locking them up in concentration camps and killing them when they resist, calling them names that suggest they're subhuman, helping and cultivating political "friends" who assist their foul cause, and slandering opponents in a psychotic projective fashion.
Is this man in Broadmoor? Nope. He's in the cabinet.
"The inspiration for the book came from George Weidenfeld", he writes. Weidenfeld published it. That's the first time I've heard a moneybags Z__nist publisher called an "inspiration". SLUUURRRPPP! Gove deserves not the order of the brown tongue, but the order of the brown tongue, chin, and neck.
Gove may well have promotion ahead of him.
Has he praised the eugenicist Francis Galton at all? His one-time adviser (and alleged gay lover) Dominic Cummings certainly has.
If Gove makes it to prime minister, or deputy PM with a big department, or foreign secretary, or chancellor of the exchequer, I won't be at all surprised if he brings Cummings back. These guys will make David Cameron (who called Cummings a "psychopath") look like Corbynites.
One of Gove's 'ministers (? what do they do for £107k pa?) has replied to a friend who had asked him to support a ban on the UK supplying weapons to Israel. In his reply (obviously a gov.uk pro forma) he referred to these exports as 'goods'. DEFRA is obviously a nest of pro Israel vipers.
Quote from the reply.
'The Government does not issue export licences where there is a clear risk that the goods might be used for internal repression, in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law, or where the export would provoke or prolong conflict.'
They are loathsome.
This is what they screw from the taxpayers.
APPENDIX 4 http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-8276/CBP-8276.pdf
BRIEFING PAPER
Number 08276, 29 March 2018
Members' pay and expenses and ministerial salaries 2017/18
[ MOD: Kindly stick to a simple handle ]
Gove the new Irving?
Sajid Javid says his phone was "stolen by moped thieves". Did he leave it with a rent boy?
Have MI5 managed to get his ministerial red box back?
No moped thief would successfully mug David Davis or Paddy Ashdown!
Well there you have it the US, will do just about anything to protect the Little Satan, that is Israel.
"Other diplomatic sources told Reuters that the withdrawal was "not a question of if but of when."
I wonder if Nikki Haley had a smile on her face when she said this.
"When the council passes more than 70 resolutions against Israel, a country with a strong human rights record."
http://thehill.com/policy/international/392418-us-expected-to-withdraw-from-un-human-rights-council-report
They pulled out of the Paris climate change agreement, pulled out of the Iran nuclear agreement. If they do pull out of the UN human rights council, then they should be expelled from the UN.
Oh yes, I nearly forgot another thing which does not apply to the US – the ICC at the Hague. George W Bush signed something which says that the US do not recognise the ICC.
The US is a rogue state and it supports other rogue states such as Saudi Arabia and Israel.
So there's no Brexit Dividend, as spun by the PM Theresa May. The PM hinted the Brexit Dividend would be ploughed back into the NHS, however in reality the money will come from either substantial tax rises or increased borrowing, probably from both in my opinion.
The ONS, the IFS, and several other bodies have all said that Brexit will cost the country's economy billions on top of the Divorce bill.
http://archive.is/Kef2O
'French special forces on the ground in Yemen: Le Figaro':
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-france/french-special-forces-on-the-ground-in-yemen-le-figaro-idUSKBN1JC099
That completes the FUKUS group of War Criminals assisting the genocide going on in Yemen.
jazza June 17, 2018 at 13:10
not in my name – criminals the lot of them
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/06/15/un-rejects-plan-for-ceasefire-in-yemen-port/
who is the uk government supporting – obviously not the british?
Our government is fully complicit in carrying out war crimes.
I hope this news doesn't go down well in France, Macron is getting too big for his boots.
bj June 17, 2018 at 19:18
Didn't Macron recently kiss the great reformer of giant wealth MBS's back end?
I caught Farage on LBC earlier. He and some of his listeners/followers seem to think Theresa is working up to another election in October.
– her apology for Grenfell, the so called NHS funding boost, supporting the upskirting bill, etc
PS One of her MPs, Wollaston is not convinced.
Sarah Wollaston MP‏Verified account 3 hours ago
The Brexit dividend tosh was expected but treats the public as fools. Sad to see Govt slide to populist arguments rather than evidence on such an important issue. This will make it harder to have a rational debate about the 'who & how' of funding & sharing this fairly.
3.4% average increase is for NHS England only. I welcome the uplift but this will not deliver as planned without attention to and uplifts for public health (prevention), social care, workforce training & capital/transformation budgets
Sarah Wollaston MP‏15 hours ago
Credit too for repeatedly presenting the evidence on the need for NHS funding uplift to @TheKingsFund @HealthFdn @NuffieldTrust House of Lords & Commons select committees @TheBMA @rcgp @RCNconnects @AoMRC & many others. Now for a calm analysis of the figures
https://twitter.com/sarahwollaston
selling RBS shares to her fav. City banks and institutions two weeks ago, now this ruse under the disguise of the NHS's 70 year anniversary, as if she cares, of a raise just above inflation, it does not take some carpet bagger like Farrage, who is still quiet happily living on EU benefits/appanage's, to predict an extension to his windfall via a GE.
It might come earlier if she thinks we are all on holiday, but an autumn date is almost assured.
Michael McNulty June 17, 2018 at 17:32
I think the promise of more cash for the NHS will likely come through when much of its services are in private hands. Running it down as an excuse to sell it off is one thing but the vultures who are after it want a fresh corpse not a picked-clean skeleton. Any extra money promised now will satisfy investors who know it's there for dividends not treatments.
If the Tories starved the NHS now but then funded it once in private hands not even Andrew Marr dare try and spin that one as good news. They have to put funds into it soon I would have thought.
What's going on? June 17, 2018 at 23:28
I expect there will be a GE in Dec/Jan, but I doubt that May will be PM by then. I expect her to throw the DUP under a bus at the end of this month and she will have to soldier on with a minority government. The cruddy EU deal she brings before parliament in October is likely to be voted out by the opposition and JRM's ERG. In that scenario May would fall and be replaced (JRM? Gove?). Expect a bloodbath Tory leadership election. The new minority government announces it is going with a no deal Brexit. Pound plummets, markets spin wildly. GE, hung parliament, coalition of moderates, 2nd referendum, remain wins 75% of the vote. Job done.
One of Mr Musk's Tesla cars has burst into flames in LA. Nobody was injured.
'Tesla says its electric vehicles are less likely to catch fire than fuel-powered cars.'
Not in this case as it happens.
Tesla on fire: UK director Michael Morris' car bursts into flames.
Ultimately, Musk could earn up to $55.8 billion in stock and awards, if Tesla's market cap reaches $650 billion. It is currently around $52 billion. Musk will receive no other compensation for his work at Tesla outside this plan.
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/21/tesla-shareholders-approve-elon-musks-multibilion-dollar-compensation-plan.html
I wonder how the stats of similar incidents in other cars compare.
No irony. No hypocrisy. Is BAE 'avin a larf?
From Mark Curtis
BAE Systems wishes Muslims Eid al-Fitr. Which is thoughtful given that its equipment is helping to massacre them in several countries.
https://twitter.com/markcurtis30/status/1007990959018315776
Tesla will probably go bust soon. Those who are now saying that driverless cars are the future will soon say "don't we all laugh at what we used to think?" Then they will move on to channelling whatever the next load of bullsh*t is.
People are mentioning October as the month of the next general election. October is also a useful month for an enormous financial crash.
There could be an election in any month. There is no problem holding one in July or December. The way the pundits all say that a summer election hasn't happened before, or it hasn't happened since Gladstone or whatever, and then they MAKE UP REASONS to "explain" why that means it won't happen, is the sheerest follow-the-crowd nonsense. Frankly I wouldn't wipe my arse on such commentary. They'd be well-advised not place bets on horses. Imagine if a horse with "T" in its name hadn't won the Derby since 1963, eh?
The Tory NHS crap does seem to suggest that an election can't be far off. The Tories fought to stop the NHS coming into existence. They hate the NHS. They hate the idea that chavs, single mothers, scumsucking unemployed council tenants, people who blow their noses onto their mushy peas, etc., can go to a HOSPITAL and get treated for FREE if they get bronchitis or whatever. They hate it – and I mean HATE it. So will people buy the new Tory line about how NHSy the party of the posh is? YES, I imagine so. It will have been focus grouped, won't it?
Believe me, they will NOT want a prolongation of the embarrassment they've been suffering since the election they called last year. They are NOT going to wing this one. Of course there is the possibility that they actually want to hand over to Labour for a while, but I doubt it. I strongly doubt it. That's not the way it's looking, not with this NHS line they've adopted.
Therefore before an election there could be a move against the Labour party. There could be a much bigger blow than there has been so far. In actual fact the Labour party has no anti-J__ish factions whatsoever and I doubt that anyone is going to stop voting for them because they believe otherwise. Here I exclude some of those few Z__nists who were associated with Labour until the tribal call went out and the tribal line was promulgated that the party isn't subservient enough. But none of that is the point. The point is that if you get 70 or 100 or more Labour MPs joining a new party, then the next Tory PM could get as big a majority as Thatcher got in 1983 or bigger. They can SAY they are leaving because of anti-Semitism. They can say it's because they think Penny Mordaunt has got a lovely pair of knockers. They can say it's because the mayor of London has been too tardy in introducing special toilets for transvestites at railway stations. They can say any old sh*t. What matters is stabbing Labour in the back and whether they'll get twice as much money in their brown paper envelopes if the Labour voteshare drops below 27%.
PS Not particularly related to the above, but Michael Gove is a member of the European Research Group. Just thought I would mention that. I've recently encountered a couple of people who were surprised.
I forgot to mention upskirting in my rant. So Theresa May is now climbing onto the bandwagon, as if she's a suffragette or something, and the "Independent" are running a headline saying she has "vowed" to do something about this obnoxious behaviour by smartphone users.
It could already be prosecuted under the law against abusive behaviour. The Home Office, CPS, and Justice Department could sort that out within about five minutes.
All the vows, and the statements by Tory politicians on the telly as they "stand up for decency", are simply government grandstanding. They are turning to their advantage an unexpected story about some silly old bastard of a Tory MP who probably doesn't even READ the private members' bills he objects to and who PROBABLY OBJECTS TO THEM ALL ON THE SECRET BEHALF OF THE GOVERNMENT so as not to waste "serious people's" time.
Sounds to me as though he had the "object to private members' bills" job, that's all. Sure, it probably gives some purpose to the man's life, but I don't believe for one moment that he invented the job for himself.
If Theresa May cares about upskirting attacks on women, it's bloody funny that the government she leads didn't TAKE THE BILL OVER and introduce it to the Commons as one of its own, isn't it?
Has any journalist made that point? Has any member of the press lobby asked her? Or is there the usual conspiracy of silence about just what a bunch of cynical creeps politicians and their pals called journalists are?
What's with all the puritanism in England?
Can't be just a detractor.
Tories spend £20bn more on NHS indeed. More government money to Big Pharma. More backhanders for medics, for top managers at hospitals and health boards!
"If you're ill – as most of the population are – the Tories will make you better again! The Tories love you. Vote Tory. Corbyn just wants to blow you up and then stroke his beard at the mosque. The Tories want to give your mum the operation she needs. The Tories care."
Will it work? Probably!
It never fails to annoy me, just how naive most people are in respect of the "health system" and the moneygrabbing scumbag medics who lie through their teeth all the time, a hundred or more times a day, as soon as look at you, to maximise their profits during the short periods they spend in hospitals etc. swanning about pretending they've got doctorates, in between holidays in resort hotels in Dubai etc., where they mix with their own type and talk of bracelets and yachts and any old shit that's expensive.
Really kinda time for people in this country to regain their dignity.
Return to Moscow. Lose again.
Here's Eva Bartlett on Toronto's Al Quds Day, straightening out the 'Rebel':
'Addressing The Rebel's Distorted and Lying Report on The Toronto (2018) Al Quds Day Protest':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK6aYnlGvS4&feature=youtu.be
And here is a good picture showing how big the London Al Quds march was (you'd never know it from the biased, minimalist 'coverage' on the MSM): http://inminds.co.uk/article.php?id=10806
The plan to destroy Trump, British weaponry destroys Yemen & SNP walks out at PMQs (E623)
We talk to Trump's reported pick for ambassador to the EU, Ted Malloch, who believes the establishment is still trying to destroy Trump. We go to Yemen's capital to speak to journalist Hussain Albukhaiti about what the UN has called the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Former Home Office Minister Norman Baker joins us to review this week's news. Plus, we review this week's PMQs!
https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/429952-destroy-trump-yemen-crisis/
Malloch seems to have problems with the actualities or is all of this a set up?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/trumps-likely-eu-ambassador-ted-malloch-made-false-statements-bank-loans-bankruptcy-a7610346.html
FBI questions Ted Malloch, Trump campaign figure and Farage ally
American once touted as possible ambassador to EU tells of being detained at Boston airport and subpoenaed by Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia inquiry
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/30/fbi-questions-ted-malloch-trump-campaign-figure-and-farage-ally
From that Guardian piece – 'In a statement sent to the Guardian, Malloch, who described himself as a policy wonk and defender of Trump, said the FBI also asked him about his relationship with Roger Stone, the Republican strategist, and whether he had ever visited the Ecuadorian embassy in London, where the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has resided for nearly six years.'
Stone was on the BBC today on the Parliament Channel in the C Span programme. 1hr 15 in
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b735d0/washington-journal-17062018#
This is an expanding collection of declassified government documents on UK foreign policy. It includes: original government documents and transcripts, mainly from the National Archives in London; articles by Mark that analyse these declassified files; and online articles that cover such files.
What do these files and articles reveal?
These files highlight a range of British foreign policies since 1945, notably the UK involvement in coups, wars, covert operations, human rights abuses, arms exports, propaganda operations, and support for repressive regimes. They highlight much of the true nature of the UK's role in the world, and especially reveal the actual interests and priorities of UK policy-makers – Prime Ministers, Ministers, ambassadors and civil servants. Click on the countries and themes below to view the files and articles.
http://markcurtis.info/uk-declassified-documents/
followed by a list of countries. Israel/Palestine is there. http://markcurtis.info/2018/01/22/israel-palestine-declassified/
Uzbekistan – soon to be added
An excellent cache and a good source of reference.
Dennis Revell June 18, 2018 at 06:59
Interesting. The modus operandi never change. Just always hidden from the at least in the past more moral, more innocent British public – as the PTB try to hide them now – we need a Julian Assange immortalised in Cyborg form. Pity we didn't have such throughout the genesis of the British and other European empires.
Also interesting is how things seem to sometimes go almost full circle – Vanessa Beeley's British diplomat dad "mentioned in dispatches" so to speak, when he was Ambassador to Egypt, in the Yemen and Aden 1962-5 archive. I wonder how she got on with him?!?
Is it any wonder that Iran and other countries hate us and the US so much, when you read snippets like this from that report.
"Quotes a 'British specialist in Iranian affairs' saying: 'They [Savak] are extremely
efficient and certainly as brutal as any secret police in the area'."
That was from 1974, when Iran and the shah were the major recipients of arms sales and military help from the UK. We were instrumental in the training of the Savak – Iranian secret police – who tortured thousands and executed hundreds.
I hate "us" too.
And for the same reasons as the Shah-Savak thing and the COUNTLESS other lesser and greater instances in MANY countries around the World that "we" have afflicted.
Churchill, old racist War-loving, War-monger that he was, was even more delightedly effusive about the bloodthirsty brutality of the al Saud family in Saudi Arabia, and in 1922 when he was Colonial Secretary, he increased the UK's yearly stipend to that odious family from 60,000 to 100,000 pounds a year – and that was in the days when a few hundred quid would buy you a very nice large house. He described Ibn Saud's Wahhabis as "intolerant, well-armed and bloodthirsty", continuing: "My admiration for him was deep, because of his unfailing loyalty to us".
Better known perhaps are his later utterances about the genocidal famines in India which he was the DIRECT and absolute cause of – he being warned by some of the braver of his own advisors of the consequences of HIS policies: "I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine is their fault for breeding like rabbits", making a side-note somewhere on his reply: "Why hasn't Ghandi died yet?"
https://www.facebook.com/KJVids/videos/1422382044482746/
@bj
"What's with all the puritanism in England? Can't be just a detractor."
What do you mean, "England"? Upkilting is frowned on too! If you know anyone who might take a photo up a Scotsman's kilt, you should advise them to think twice. I don't recommend it, even with a ruggedised camera.
Unless of course the Scotsman gives his prior permission. Or he's only obeying orders. (Click here.)
It's not puritanism. Women should be able to go about without getting harassed. So should Scotsmen. In fact, so should transvestites. Indeed so should transvestite Scotswomen.
I think what happened with this story is that it got mileage because the press love the topic of looking up women's skirts: all those photos of Hollywood actresses and other US stars getting out of limousines etc. Where would half the media be without shots of young women's upper thighs and their cleavage underneath their clothes? Advertising space rises in price whenever there are photos of Britney Spears getting out of a car. Sure, the "stars" get paid for providing such "services" (an occupation for which I believe there is a name), so it's not the same as a woman who gets harassed in this way without her permission. But editors don't care about that distinction. They don't care about the consequences of their actions. They know damn well that "monkey see, monkey do", but they're too coked up to use that as premise from which to derive any conclusions. Even (or especially?) if they went to Oxford or Cambridge.
"Dirty old bastard Tory MP doesn't mind it being legal to take photos up women's skirts" worked fine as a hook.
Then the government came in, pushing the same message they're selling with the latest NHS story: Tories care. The indications are that there will be an election by the end of the year in which a hard-Brexit Tory party will win a landslide. They don't give a toss if the troubles restart in Ireland. That would be a commercial opportunity: rake-offs from contracts to supply surveillance equipment.
"Women should be able to go about without getting harassed. "
No dispute there.
but I thought upskirting was a voluntary act. Saw images of Marilyn Monroe, so.
I may have missed something (no pun intended).
I haven't deemed the subject highly relevant among world affairs.
Tony_0pmoc June 17, 2018 at 22:21
I wöuld recommemd this Festival to a few friemds who dont do Facebook and maybe two or 3 who do…most of whom live up North…who just love live music, and want to see bands who write and play their own original music…with just the occasional cover..or a little guitar intro slightly borrowed. Most of our friends wouldn't get it, unless they heard Sweet Home Alabama again, or any of a selection of 200 songs, including All Right Now, which no band I have ever seen do it as well as the Original. Tony & Wife xx
Dimblebore Major to leave QT at the end of the year. Good riddance.
Who next? Groan. Same old. Same old. It's a tired format.
Strange timing for the announcement? 10pm on a Sunday..
Dimbleby to leave Question Time
'Potential successors
Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark recently revealed she would be interested in taking over the role and would "throw her hat in the ring" when Dimbleby stepped down.
Other suggested contenders include John Humphrys, Huw Edwards, Jeremy Vine and Nick Robinson.
It is not known how much Dimbleby is paid for his role because Question Time is made by an independent production company, meaning his salary did not appear in last year's list of top paid BBC stars.
Recent reports in the Telegraph speculated that he was paid £450,000 per annum by the corporation.'
Israeli ministers approve bill to ban filming of certain IDF actions: https://www.timesofisrael.com/ministers-approve-bill-criminalizing-filming-idf-soldiers-despite-ag-opposition/
Shouldn't the footage of the killing of a Palestinian medic be an exemplary illustration of a most moral act?
Something doesn't wash.
It's not an issue to discuss. Israel doesn't want their crimes filmed.
I came across this protest in France… very touching performance protest.. there is an faceB version in good focus so not sure why this one is blurry..but one can get the point –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izjJbUOla1Y
bj…a better video..it was in the comments ffs –
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uFbdC5ltvG7qiLV73XPvYJW_drfe_cYU/view
I think I have finally solved the Brexit-Trump-Pentalega psy-op. Could it be that they want something to blame on Russia so they can start military action in Ukraine?
Here's a wee dawn Chior Haiku Sharp Ears – By Me –
The Orchestral Birds
Melodiously Singing
A Welcome To Dawn
I loved reading your account of being on the Irish coast.. Weaving of the Tides..Prancing Birds.. what a soothing description..Sounds like it really energized Both your spirits.. It really took me there. Cheers indeed
I know what you mean about the Long Drive..Twice this year I've been a few hours on that road..the last time fror Dumfries March the Effin bus was down THIRTY MILES AN HOUR on the Motorway hills..
Keep up with the Digs
P.S. Hope the German's Performance improves
@bj – The upskirting that the bill was meant to ban (or still is, if it was rescued somehow – I haven't been following the story much) is the involuntary kind, not like Marilyn Monroe but when some idiot male drops some coins on a tube train, pretends to need the torch on his smartphone to find them, and uses its camera to take photos up a woman passenger's dress without asking. I haven't read the bill but I think it's anti-harassment not pro "decency".
Theresa May has a very low popularity rating and her government is perceived to be absolutely crap at Brexit. I think we have to go back to Eden and Macmillan to find rivals for that level of perceived incompetence. Thatcher was evil and her governments deliberately smashed the country up, but I never heard anyone call her (or for that matter Blair) incompetent. As well as "vowing" to ban upskirting, May also said shortly before last Christmas that she would introduce a bill to ban puppy farms. Dunno whether any white paper or bill has come out yet. The measure is welcome and I hope it becomes law as fast as possible even if the motivation is cynical. Nice when a government does something right, same as when Labour banned foxhunting.
'Breaking: US Coalition bombs Syrian Army troops in east Syria':
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-us-coalition-bombs-syrian-army-troops-in-east-syria/
There is no confirmation or details yet, but it looks like once again the Yanks are protecting their precious proxy mercenary headchoppers, whilst illegally occupying Syrian territory.
The Queen of Hearts has found a King in Trump.
Robyn June 18, 2018 at 04:03
For anyone missing discussion of the Skripals, Off Guardian has a good article (part one of a series, more to come) with interesting btl comments.
https://off-guardian.org/2018/06/16/joining-some-sots-on-the-skripal-case-part-1-an-official-story-that-doesnt-hold-water/
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