Keir Starmer is a coward. During Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday Starmer had six questions for Rishi Sunak, not one of which related to the topic which dominates the news headlines and which it’s no exaggeration to say threatens the outbreak of actual world war three. But it still wasn’t important enough for Starmer to raise the matter at PMQs, because what is truly, really important and the sole priority for Labour’s dissembling and spineless leader is that at all costs he avoids the right wing media saying unkind things about him in case that prejudices his chances of winning the next Westminster general election.
There’s a very consistent pattern with Starmer. He is ruthless in one respect, absolutely any policy or position that opens him up to criticism from the right is dropped more quickly than you can say Keir Starmer is a shameless charlatan. I’ve lost count now of all the policies that Starmer has done a U-turn on. He’s dropped the commitment to abolish the hideously cruel two child benefit cap. He’s backtracked on Labour’s environmental promises. He’s scrapped his promise to nationalise the rail and water companies in England, those in Scotland are already publicly owned. Gone is the commitment to nationalise the profiteering energy companies. You can forget about the abolition of the House of Lords, and the federalism which way back in 2014 Gordon Brown vowed was on the cards. There will be no taxes rises on the wealthy and Labour says it will allow any development of new oil and gas fields authorised by the Tories to go ahead. Yet Labour could stop those right now simply by saying that it would block them once it gets into power. This would make the energy companies think twice about investing millions in projects that would be prevented from ever turning a profit.
On Wednesday there was news of yet another betrayal. Starmer has U-turned on his previous commitment to introduce a Scottish style right to roam in England following criticism of the plan from landowners’ groups and the right wing Countryside Alliance, the group which believes that the only people with the right to use the countryside are middle class Ruperts with shotguns looking to blow buggery out of the local wildlife. It’s official, Keir Starmer and his increasingly misnamed Labour party have aligned themselves with the upper middle class Get Orf My Land brigade who are determined to keep the English countryside free from working class types who can’t afford an Aga and a Land rover.
Starmer’s terror of being labelled even vaguely left wing is fully on display in his mendacious and spineless response to the current crisis in the Middle East. He merely joins in the chorus of those who say that Israel has a right to defend itself whenever anyone points out the worsening humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza where over 6,500 Palestinians have now been killed in the Israeli bombardment of the blockaded territory which is rapidly running out of fuel, food and water and where innocent civilians caught up in the violence have nowhere to hide or to run to.
Of course Israel has the right to defend itself, no one is saying it doesn’t. The point however is that no state has the right to defend itself from those who commit crimes against humanity by committing war crimes of its own. This remains true even when the state’s citizens have suffered a cruel and horrific terrorist attack. The attack by Hamas on Israeli citizens was indeed dreadfully cruel and horrific and cannot be justified no matter how egregious the provocation. But that still does not give Israel the right to break international law in response.
No less a person than the UN secretary-general, António Guterres has described Israel’s bombardment and blockade of the Gaza Strip as “collective punishment of the Palestinian people” and as such are “clear violations of international humanitarian law”. Israel has the right to defend itself, but it does not have the right to inflict collective punishment on Palestinian civilians or to violate international law. To do so merely continues the hideous cycle of hate and retribution and drives even more Palestinians into the arms of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, virtually guaranteeing new generations filled with hatred who seek vengeance.
Starmer’s failure to address this escalating cycle of hate is a dismal failure of moral and political leadership. He was previously recorded saying during an interview with LBC that Israel had the right to withhold power and water from Gaza and has spent the days since denying that he meant what we all heard him say. He was then accused by furious leaders of a Cardiff mosque of “gravely misrepresenting” a meeting with them at the weekend and using photos of the visit to distract from the remarks he made to LBC.
He has also issued a diktat to local Labour constituency parties forbidding them from even discussing the current crisis. Starmer is more afraid of right wing criticism than he is of World War III. He will not even call on all parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate ceasefire. He will only do so when the Americans do so first.
All Starmer can bring himself to say is: “It’s clear that the amount of aid and essential utilities getting into Gaza is completely insufficient to meet the humanitarian emergency on the ground.” No shit, Sherlock.
Starmer is now facing a growing rebellion within his own party. some 25 Labour councillors hasve resigned from the party in the past fortnight. In addition 15 Labour party officials in Scotland have resigned in protest and now over 150 Muslim Labour councillors have come together to demand that the party’s leadership calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Shebab Khan, a political correspondent for ITV news has claimed on Twitter that multiple Labour MPs are telling him that a couple of shadow cabinet members are considering resigning over Keir Starmer’s handling of the Gaza situation.
There is likely to be 18 months of a Starmer government between the next Westminster general election and the following Scottish Parliament election. He has already been revealed as a liar and a coward who panders to the basest right wing prejudices while wrapping himself in a British flag. Tony Blair managed to hide his moral bankruptcy before he was elected. Starmer can’t even do that much, and he will have nowhere to hide once in power. He is a godsend to the Scottish independence movement. Any Labour revival in Scotland will be very short lived indeed.
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One of your many bests Paul. You’ve summed up the situation perfectly. Thank you.
Frankie Boyle said recently during one of his shows that nothing now can stop Labour winning the next election and that nothing is……..Keir Starmer
Is it too late for Labour to choose a new leader? Not that I want to help them out but , how can honest Labour members tolerate this?
Do they actually have anyone capable of replacing him?
Mr Bean ?
Or his cousin Has Bean
😂
He only became an MP in 2015 then zoomed up the ladder to party leader in 2020. That’s quite some political trajectory – perpendicular. So maybe the new Rutherglen MP could take over. After all he won a “landslide”.
Which proves perhaps that Starmer has backing from hidden sources, or perhaps secret ones.
You also don’t become the Head Honcho of the Crown Prosecution Service without knowing whose back to scratch …
The reality TV contestant formerly known as Sir Keir Starmer has made different statements in every interview, then retracted those statements, then clarified those statements, then had other minions restate his statements, now he claims he didn’t make the statements that needed clarification because every statement he makes has been clear and unequivocal in it’s indeterminate nature
I guess the way Starmer looks at it is why should he be any different to current Tory leader Rishi Sunak when he gets away with talking the same rubbish and changing it moments later
The voters in England are what counts and they don’t mind a liar, their only caveat is is he a good enough liar to win the final of the all winners show
The reason Sir Kid Starver does not call for a ceasefire in Gaza/Israel is because it would have no effect – claims that notable Labour sh*tehawk , John McTernan . Typical of this Labour dinosaur to ignore common humanity when attempting to divert criticism from his fellow Labour chancer .
The fact that Sir Kid Starver endorsed on LBC the completely illegal ”collective punishment ” of the Gaza population on for the heinous atrocities of Hamas is not mentioned by the spin doctor’s spin doctor . Shameful man !
Just looked and certain to vote in England is as low as 50%. It’s way worse than Scotland, which is hitting 60% lows..
But of course that doesn’t mean Scots are more enthusiastic about Westminster than English voters; quite the opposite, as if you remove SNP/Green CTVs from the Scottish numbers as these want out of the union, the CTV numbers would collapse to at best 30% of the electorate keen to partake in British politics.
As Prof. C. keeps saying, Starmer isn’t popular. It’s just he’s just a bit more of a solid, less smelly s**te, while Sunak is a wetter, slippery and honking one as I’ve said before. The public has little to no enthusiasm for either on both sides of the border.
SNP need to all push that a vote for them is a vote for us taking indyrefs into our own hands, and if it’s not heeded, then 2026 is a defacto iref + UDI if needed. Forget seats in Westminster to ‘send a message’ = being ignored at the back. Scots don’t want these any more. The devo maxers and indy supporters have had enough. Only people left chasing deckchairs on the titanic are the minority British community in Scotland.
Perhaps people not voting is the first sign of the electorate taking control of this union going out with not a bang but a barely audible whimper
That would be a novelty, the union just dies silently due to a population so disillusioned they can’t even be bothered leaving their houses
I know I’m in my own on these thoughts, and I abhor violence as much as anybody on here
I have some really good friends who live in Israel. They have young families. They were all completely shocked and horrified at what happened on 7 October. They have opened up their homes to families displaced from the south of Israel. They all are scared when the sirens go off and the missiles come over from Gaza and they have to take their young children into bunkers. Their lives are on hold.
They have Palestinian friends, always have, even when we all lived in Africa, we had friends of different nationalities and of different religions. All they want is to live in peace
But they are up against Terrorists whose sole purpose is to rid the world of Israel and those of the Jewish faith.
There may well be a ceasefire, lull, pause or whatever, but that will NOT stop Hamas. It never has and it never will. They spend any aid money of weapons and tunnels, they are supported by Iran. Their leaders are cowards who hide out in other arab countries.
I do not understand how so many people can believe anything that is coming out of Hamas. Especially Scots who know so much about lies and propaganda. I do not have a solution but I do know that the whole world is against Israel and its citizens. The vile that people write in btl comments on media is disgusting.
Again I don’t think violence is the answer, but what shoukd Israel do? They are up against fundamental terrorists, no amount of reasoning will work
Why don’t they implement the UN resolutions which guarantee a two state solution?
Stop occupying Palestinian land and turning the Palestinians into refugees. Stop bulldozing Palestinian homes, farms and orchards and building settlements for Israelis on their land.
Stop bombing them. Stop imprisoning them in Gaza.
The whole world knows all this and would help implement it.
Again I don’t think violence is the answer, but what should Israel do? They are up against fundamental terrorists, no amount of reasoning will work
Yes, you can’t appeal to Israeli terrorists / extremists (to quote the POTUS) any more than you can appeal to Hamas terrorists. However, e.g. 98% of people in Gaza are not Hamas by Isreal’s own numbers. The kids in body bags are not terrorists.
Israel has the money and the power to show the way. It is the rich, nuclear armed power here with a massive army bristling with the most advanced weaponry. It can stand tall and champion peace. It has killed 5x as many innocent Palestinians in retribution (by yesterday), so can stop its eye for an eye retribution and just focus completely on defence. It can immediately restart plans for a 2 state solution and remove illegal (under international law) settlements from the West Bank. It can fund immediate humanitarian aid to innocents in Gaza and set aside money to rebuild the homes of innocent people that it has destroyed even though they did not support Hamas. It can propose that those on its side who have committed war crimes be tried in the international courts. In return, it can ask Palestinians for the same. Meet in the middle. that is how this can be ended.
The Israeli woman who took the hand of her captor and said ‘shalom’ understood all this. What a brave and wonderful person. She towers above Netanyahu.
https://news.sky.com/story/israel-gaza-war-freed-hostage-says-hamas-were-prepared-for-kidnappings-and-idf-did-not-take-warnings-seriously-12991386
Violence works, it always has or nobody would ever use it
In itself you’re right not everybody wants it, but it always leads to the part when everybody eventually wants it to stop because it’s horrible, and that’s when the winners get to decide on the temporary compromise that nobody really wants but lives with until the next time the violence begins again
The human condition is one of violence that everybody pretends to aspire not to perpetrate because we’re smarter than that
But if somebody wants something and has a bigger stick than you they’ll hit you with it
If you’re the little guy with a little stick you’ll sneak up on the guy with the big stick and hit him from behind
Mankind is really not good at fairness and co-operation because as a species we don’t really want to be, even though we know how
I’d disagree. By far most people are decent and want to live in peace. But decent people don’t want power over others generally, so make somewhat reluctant leaders, unless they feel that they really must take a stand.
By contrast, evil wanks desire power and money every waking minute, so devote their lives to obtaining it. Ergo, they all too often end up as rulers, generally by ruthless means.
Most of the world is pretty peaceful, even with all it’s problems. And that comes down to human decency.
A couple of points.
Aid to Gaza: Look at the hospitals the Gaza had the equipment etc. These were modern well-equipped hospitals. That is where the aid from such as the EU went and into housing and schools etc. not into arming Hamas. That money came ‘under the table’ from those countries waging a proxy war.
Rockets from Gaza into Israel: yes sirens go off and people take cover then the rockets are destroyed by Israel’s state of the art missile defence system courtesy of the Americans I believe. Gaza has none of these things just constant bombing with no where to hide and if they do get out of their building they are at risk of being buried under the rubble from the collapsing buildings. If you want to see what the Israeli bombardment has done look at the before and after pictures of an area of Gaza city shown on Ch4 tonight 5 mins into the report.
https://www.channel4.com/news/israel-says-senior-hamas-leader-killed-250-targets-attacked-in-gaza-raid
The rocket attacks must be very frightening if one lands close by, but statistically more people are killed in car accidents in each year (2022 = 351) than have been killed as a result of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2008.
Detailed stats and graphics here:
https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties
01/01/2008 to 19/09/2023
Total Numbers:
Palestinians
6,407 fatalities
152,560 Injuries
Israelis
308 fatalities
6,307 Injuries
It is even more stark per 100,000 population, and that’s with the very sizeable Israeli west bank settler population included as ‘Palestinian’:
Palestinians
130 fatalities
3,099 Injuries
Israelis
3 fatalities
67 Injuries
That’s more than 43 eyes for an eye. While equal sympathies must got the families of all innocent victims on both sides, there is no doubt which society suffering the most from the conflict, and it’s the poor one living in giant prisons / refugee camps.
Latest deaths are not included.
Terrorism does not always carry a weapon or show an obvious hatred or malicious intent.
Perhaps the Israeli population who are predominately of the Jewish faith (a simple fact) should consider that the ‘eye for an eye’ approach is no longer acceptable to civilised (as in civilian controlled) societies.
And maintaining Concentration Camps is likewise frowned upon. This also paints a picture of misplaced vengeance. i.e. those who wronged us are no longer here so let’s prove our new strength and righteousness by picking on the nearest weakest we can find, and defy an to frown upon our actions.
Sometimes terrorism comes with a plough and builds houses and schools on lands that were taken by force. While the rest of the world refuses to say this is wrong, or you must give back what does not belong to you. Because their collective conscience’s are still raw from what they and their previous generations allowed to happen.
Sometimes terrorism sits in committee’s and other groups that influence government policy and continually push ‘we will have a home land’ until it becomes policy.
The solutions are not simple nor do I claim to have any but perhaps a good start would be
the rest of the world stopping the ‘awe pair wee souls look whit happent tae them afore’ attitude stop allowing Israel to play the victim and treat them as the grown ups they are.
and
Israel accepting responsibility for their f*ck ups as well as their good deeds. they reduced Gaza to a third of it’s size and occupied the west bank. Your f*ck up get your big boy pants on and own it. Then come up with an acceptable resolution to the problem.
Because the current Final Solution is to everyone except you.
By the way I concur with Norman Finkelstein incase you had not noticed.
Caller at Starmer’s house:
“Knock knock”
“Who’s there?”
“Nobody”
“That’s me, where do I sign?”
It’s as though the spirit of “Spud” Murphy was reincarnated in the body of a wooden puppet and with all the dynamism of Ian “Pieman” Murray.
Keech Starmerer.
The new flip-flop champion of Westminster. Where the competition is intense!
Why on earth does the news report that football authorities give a monkeys about Irish football club Glasgow Celtic waving Palestinian flags around when they’ve been waving Irish flags for years
Equally the same applies to Irish football club Glasgow Rangers who wave around a politically made up flag by England’s royal and political ancestry and nobody utters a stutter about what that represents
Flags never killed anybody, it’s the people that politicise them that are dangerous, the actual real bad guys wave something entirely different that goes bang and kills folk
Have you now or ever had dangerous coloured curtains? they’re watching us
Whit next?
Might this be why the Tories and the media today started attacking the Scottish Government over WhatsApp messages that they claim have not been handed over to the Covid inquiry?
That is undoubtedly the reason…. Good spot..
That’s my thinking too, while the news in England will be all about what disgusting messages the likes of Johnson and Cummings were sending out on WhatsApp during the Covid pandemic. Here in Scotland it will be all about the Scottish government refusing to hand over messages that most likely never existed in the first place.
So blatant that it’s become farcical.
It’s uncanny. Whenever there’s a scandal in Westminster the unionists rush to tar the Scottish government with the same brush. Jackie Baillie was at her po faced best in FMQs today as was Anas Sarwar on the Covid Inquiry. Now we know why.
Aye, and you can see the collusion to distract and smear ramp up this morning with BBC Scotland publishing “Jason Leitch deleted Covid WhatsApp messages – newspaper report”, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-67230071 based on a report by the Times.
Since Johnson et al were found to have been discussing Covid related matters over WhatsApp rather than via official channels, the gambit is that everybody else must have been doing the same.
All professionals keep business and private matters separate, it’s normal – Johnson was no professional, and it’s that which is in the spotlight.
The “Analysis” by David Wallet-Locked-Hard doesn’t even entertain the possibility Leitch used the application for entirely separate matters.
Yet it is in his final paragraphs where he pushes the boat out – The Court judgement was against Johnson’s refusal to comply with the UK Covid Inquiry requirements – There is no evidence whatever any in SG have done so –
“There may have been discussions over the app, but they say that would then have to be formalised through official government channels.
But if some of these messages no longer exist, then that’s not something any Covid inquiry will be able to judge for itself”
The “may” and the “if” are doing all the heavy lifting in this propaganda gambit, building on wilful misinterpretation of what Mr Dawson actually said of whom at the UK Covid Inquiry…
I have zero expectation of James Cook publishing the instruction to commence this smokescreen, let alone his discussions on ‘angles’ with Mr Enunciation and others…
The Scottish government doesn’t use Whatsapp for decision making. Maybe England’s government does, but not the Scottish. No self-respecting organisation would run itself via Whatsapp. It’s for personal messaging, jokes and whatnot, and nobody should be forced to handover any personal messages; these are private to the individual. Only the police can seek these via a warrant. All Scottish government decision making is done via the normal recorded means such as email, teams, meetings etc.
This is all or course coordinated by the English/British state regime. It could not be more obvious. It is moving to get Labour elected if it can.
The irony is that the BBC is desperately trying to get Labour elected as it thinks this will save the UK. However, the opposite is the case. A New Tory Labour government that Scots didn’t vote for will be the final nail in the coffin. It was the last Labour government that delivered SNP wins in 2007, then 2011 which led to 2014. It wasn’t the Tories FHS! Scots have hated the Tories since Thatcher but never handed the SNP electoral victories. No, Blairism was what delivered that finally.
This is the problem for London. It’s ‘Scottish’ advisors are British rather than Scottish in the nationality sense; people like e.g. Douglas Ross and Ian ‘union jack suit’ Murray. So they are useless for giving an insight into the mind of ‘Scottish’ Scots. This means what advice London is given on the heathen north is what will appeal to British Scots. Hence the continuously disastrous approach to handling Scotland.
O/T, but last night on QT from Bradford, a woman audience member said words to the effect that she wouldn’t vote Tory or Labour, as they were both bad, then added that the SNP were the same, in Scotland, because all the papers in England were saying so!!
Not sure whether to be pleased or not about that – but clearly demonstrated the concerted efforts being made by the unionist press.
It’s a sign of the success of England in controlling voters to the extent that they become so depressed and confused they don’t vote at all, leading to the current dictatorship imposed on the entire UK of a man who was not only not elected by anyone in any country, but actually rejected as PM previously by his own party members in favour of a woman that was engineered into the position by getting rid of the opposition to her
Control the narrative and you control everything, hence broadcasting, under the control of England’s government
The art of war “confusion to the enemy” and in this case the enemy is always the voter, you don’t want them actually thinking until you’re ready to tell them what and when to think
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23882680.joanna-cherry-uk-finding-difficult-grasp-rules-war/
This has my total support and agreement.
I agree. Joanna Cherry is spot on on this article. She is a Human Rights lawyer, but then, so is Keir Starmer but he suffers from lapses of memory when the Israel/Gaza war is the topic. Pity, as it is urgent and catastrophic.
Archive link to article:
https://web.archive.org/web/20231027105241/https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23882680.joanna-cherry-uk-finding-difficult-grasp-rules-war/
Great analysis Paul, when an attempt to gain insight from the MSM would sicken a saint.
YouGov UK 10/10 Certain to vote just ahead of the 2019 GE = 65-68%
2019 Turnout = 67%
YouGov UK 10/10 Certain to vote right now = 52-54%
Labour’s lead is most likely English mist as their ‘revival’ in these parts is Scotch mist. The evidence, particularly in Scotland, points to it being primarily a product of low response rates from supporters of incumbent government parties under heavy media pressure.
Anas Sarwar has now called for a ceasefire in Gaza/Israel so I’m sure he’s had Starmer’s permission to do so. WE can expect another U-turn from Starmer shortly also calling for a ceasefire, I wonder if Biden has given him permission.
Good Heavens! It turns out that Yousaf is Asian, who knew?
The BBC are currently engaged in the dirty practice of “How often do you beat your wife?” smearing of the Scottish government
This is the ploy used to create denial in the subject matter asked by the journalist, because obviously no one would answer such ridiculous questions in the affirmative
So the question “where are the Whatsapp messages?” is answered by the BBC or others as ………..
“The Scottish government *denies*”
And there you have the suggested loaded implication that hits the airwaves as an accusation for the viewer or listener to gobble up as though the BBC or any *news* broadcaster had secret evidence to the contrary, but now it’s been disposed of by the guilty, which is whoever the news broadcaster is framing that particular week
In Scotland’s case it’s every damn week in collusion with Tory Labour Lib Dem and all other interested pretendy political parties with a desire to discredit and bring down the Scottish government
England and its broadcasting is bad for Scotland’s health both mental and physical
Scotland has been poisoned by England, if we are to recover from this 300 year pandemic we need to vaccinate ourselves and isolate them from us like the 65 other colonies that have already done so
BBC Scotland and STV are not Scottish, they’re English owned English government controlled broadcasters imposed upon Scotland because as a colony we are not *allowed* to have our own, just because a thing has *Scottish or Scotland* in the name doesn’t mean a thing
The article from the Times is what the Blatantly Biased Corporation is using as the basis for it’s attacks on Jason Leitch and by extension the Scottish Government over what the Times calls “Electronic messages have been destroyed” rather than WhatsApp messages were deleted.
It actually begins with the byline “Labour have accused Scotland’s clinical director of dangerous carelessness”.
This is what the entire story consists of, something Labour have said and now there are multiple stories on this farcical affair all over the media.
WTF is “dangerous carelessness” anyway, but that is all it takes to start a pile on. The opposition accuse someone or other who they can then show a link to the Scottish Government for them to become fair game and be hounded by the media. It’s an utter disgrace and that is what we are up against now.
I haven’t managed to archive the article so if someone else can that would be good.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/jason-leitch-deleted-whatsapp-messages-every-day-during-covid-pandemic-ffwb3thdg
I dangerously and carelessly destroy my Whatsapp communications with my grandchildren every day, the information on where and what kind of burger or chicken nugget they ate is so important to preserve for the future in the case of future questions being asked
I have also never been to Pizza Express Woking at any time, but I do sweat on occasion
Archived 15 hours ago https://archive.ph/TgmJs
What appals me most about the Times article by Kieran Andrews is inference – Boris Johnson’s government personnel used WhatsApp to discuss government business – Fact. Thereby everyone else must have done so – Not Fact.
I was intrigued by a follow-up on the HMS James Cook etc smear/distract campaign by John Robertson, worth a read if you haven’t already done so https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2023/10/27/uk-government-told-ministers-to-set-all-whatsapp-messaging-to-instant-delete/ .
I wasn’t aware of the UK civil service instruction to instantly delete such unofficial messages on government business since Oct 2021, but you can bet your last penny the Times and Lieran (sorry about the typo) Andrews did, as did Jason Leitch, a civil servant
That the media and SG’s opposition were so quickly singing in chorus to misrepresent what Mr Dawson actually said at the Covid Inquiry and orchestrate everything since, does rather suggest a WhatsApp group or similar is highly active, but SG personnel are not invited.
The death of the UK media.
Should come with a health warning – one more reason not to watch GB news.
The Times article is behind a firewall so I can’t read it and the Wayback machine can’t get past the firewall either so if anyone out there has a Times subscription! do archive for the rest of us.
I’m not going to take Murdoch’s shilling – not even for you, Capella.
But I’ll reference you nation.cymru which doesn’t cost anything and is not MSM:
https://nation.cymru/news/former-prime-minister-boris-johnson-has-announced-he-is-joining-gb-news/
(Apologies, I see that the Times is already archived. But I have a habit of scrolling UP posts on here …)
As you were … that’s a *different* story.
(I’m half awake as I’m translating web pages for a big nursing and midwifery body … And I do NOT mean Matron Hattie Jacques …)
Keep up Matron! 🤓
Dear oh dear
Oh dear. This division is only getting started. Starmer can’t form a new one nation Tory party and keep his traditional voters happy.
https://archive.ph/SRQkR
Politics latest: Pressure mounts on Keir Starmer as trio of top Labour figures call for Gaza ceasefire
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, London mayor Sadiq Khan and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar have joined the calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, going further than Sir Keir Starmer.
There will be Tory campaign posters of Starmer with ‘North British Jock’ Anas Sarwar in his pocket telling him what do do as we enter the GE campaign.
“top Labour figures” ? Anas Sarwar ?
🤣
What an array of prominent brilliant minds right there
The world will definitely have to pay attention to this won’t they when they reply “who now?” “from where?” “Is that the place where that woman sells that jam made from wheat fields comes from?” “what’s a Starmer and Sarwar?” “do they have a two Manchester’s, one that’s Greater and one that’s not so good?”
Well, so that has happened.
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/23884457.pressure-starmer-sarwar-calls-ceasefire-gaza/
Sarwar: “We are all so desperate for peace and are desperate to see the end of violence.
And that is why we need to see the immediate release of hostages, immediate access to humanitarian supplies, food, medicine, electricity, water, into Gaza, the immediate cessation of violence, with an end of rocket fire into and out of Gaza.
And let me be clear, that means a ceasefire right now.
That’s the only way we can see a safe, secure and free Palestine and a safe, secure and free Israel.”
Indeed.
Looks like Israel have began the ground attack in Gaza as the UN look close to agreeing a resolution for a “truce”.
Western leadership have given them the green light – their “right to self defence” – who is going to restrain them?
Only public opinion can restrain them.
Ground Invasion seems to be happening yes. Ch4 news has just said USA will not back the resolution due to wording of it. It also said IDF will target hospitals as they claim Hamas bases are below them. The Israeli government will never be forgiven for what is going on in Gaza. Nor will America. The sheer hypocrisy of the US, Uk and several other European leaders is blatantly obvious when you compare their attitude to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine .
Spot on – we’re watching an absolute catastrophe and there is nothing we can do to stop it. The UK/US/EU leadership is morally bankrupt.
Humza Yousaf has called for a ceasefire but he and Nadia will be so distraught.
People are paying attention, 5500 retweets in 20 minutes.
Musk brands Yousaf a racist, eh!
Musk is a moron but him calling Yousaf a racist finally pushed me to deactivate my X aka Twitter account this morning
I would never buy a bland car off such a prize pillock, and that’s before Musk’s latest racist anti-Scots idiocy.
He’s ruined twitter – revenue and users collapsing. But then he’s not very astute business-wise.
he’s not very astute business-wise.
He’s the richest man on the planet. Businesswise, I’d call that astute.
He might have had some business sense in the past, but it seems mainly to have been luck. He hasn’t made any money; it’s all other people’s ideas and hard work that have made him rich. Tory sense yes, but business sense? Much less so IMO.
Tesla has lost half it’s value in the past two years thanks to him and looks like the cybertruck will make things even worse as a giant white elephant.
Why buy a Tesla these days when so many other manufacturers offer better value electric cars which are far less bland and actually look different to each other? In the past, if you wanted an electric car, your choice was limited, with Tesla out in front – that much was true. Way behind now, and the self-driving aspect is outright dangerous. What 700 crashes and 19 dead now?
Everyone could see that Musk taking over twitter would ruin it apart from Musk himself, as he’s not that astute. When he listens to others he has more success, when he listens to himself, it’s a flop. Such is the story the average arrogant Tory ‘successful businessman’; as a rule, the success comes from all those underneath them while they cream the profits for themselves.
Trump was rich until recently he was caught out lying on property values.
He was also known as an astute businessman. ( lies)
Now his empire will likely be destroyed in a firesale.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/27/trump-new-york-real-estate-reaction-fraud
I also note that being rich isn’t a measure of success. It would only be so if everyone wanted to be rich. Most people have no interest in being rich, so being so in terms of ‘success’ is like winning a race because most people didn’t take part. And if you come from a wealthy, privileged background like Musk, being more rich is the easiest thing in the world to do if that’s what you want. Rags to riches is notably harder.
I didn’t say he was a nice person – I’ve no idea about that. But as a businessman he is exceptionally astute and has become the richest man on the planet. Profit is the sole motive of a business. What other measure of success could you possibly have?
I think he’s wrong about Humza btw and has been taken in by a highly edited tweet. He should know better and Humza could point that out to him.
“Community notes”
Plus the fact he has people commenting, retweeting /sharing his post. All of which generates revenue.
Of course there is no alternatives to Twitter / X. Bluesky and Masodon are two contrived to get mainstream traction and Threads (which had the best chance of success due to the user base Meta has) screwed things up by rushing and releasing a product that was barely a beta build.
So Yousaf will have to continue to use Twitter /X because there is no other platform that will give him social media reach and come the general election the SNP (along with the other parties) will spend thousands on ads on Twitter / X.
His probably one of only a handful of people who can abuse someone and then get them to spend money with his company a few month latter.
All that if even before you see how he can influence world events depending on his views of the situation.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk-ordered-starlink-turned-off-ukraine-offensive-biography
As a person he’s probably not a very nice person, but as a businessman he knows exactly what he is doing.
I don’t know if he is a nice person but he has said a number of things I agree with.
His community notes feature gives people an opportunity to correct misleading posts and Humza’s team need to get on to that pronto.
However, Humza’s actual response was quite funny.
He is reprehensible nasty person up his own arse.
Orvhave you forgotten him calling a diver in thai cave rescue “paedo guy”
And I look forward to his wealth shrinking in 2027.
And his wealth is based on Teslas share price.
Once solid state batteries are out he is fucked as is tesla.
I don’t see him as successful / astute. But these are subjective terms, so my claims are correct as they are based on what they mean to me personally, i.e. what I see as a successful / astute approach. I expect his measures of these are different, and he believes himself successful/astute when most people don’t think of him that way as he’s not really contributed anything of value to society. Success for me is e.g. doing something good for the world, from the smallest charitable gesture to finding a cure for cancer and sharing it with the world (and I note not doing it just for the adulation). These things make a successful life to me.
As for business sense, if I had been born with ’emeralds in my pockets’ I imagine I could have gambled on investments as ‘successfully’ as he has. Some would have been huge flops, with other’s I’d have got lucky too. Would be interesting to know how much (of other people’s money) he has lost vs how much he has made them. He has lost people billions and paid himself handsomely for that; this we do know.
I am certainly glad I’ve not lost the company I work for half it’s value in 2 years! Astute? Hmm.
I note X has 354 million users. Instagram has 1.44 billion; 4,000 times that. The former is almost an irrelevance and went from growth to decline when Musk took over, but because it exists, political parties etc do feel they need presence on it.
The abject failure of the idea to rename it is, amusingly, reflected in just about every outlet saying ‘X (formerly know as twitter)’ what nearly 3 months on? Now that is a rebranding failure, i.e. continuously having to call it by it’s old name as people don’t recognise the new.
4 times that, not 4000 obviously. How the f**k did that happen.
Facebook is 8 x the userbase at 2.9 billion.
I quit as soon as he bought it saw it would be crap.
Immediately set up an account on mastadon.scot
Interesting read on the shitness he created 1 year on.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/oct/27/elon-musk-twitter-x-one-year-anniversary
Aye, disturbing to see the media all convey the comms blackout as a side effect of the bombing, rather than at the flick of a switch.
News of events on the ground in Gaza are now exclusively under the control of the Israeli military and the propagandists.
Meanwhile the US is carrying out airstrikes in Syria.
Another appeal from the world, but sadly it looks like fascism will prevail for now.
The detail of the vote on the UN resolution. US, Israel Austria and others against, France, Ireland and Spain voted for as did Russia and China of course, UK, Germany, Netherlands and others abstained. Voting not along NATO lines, and a few weird votes.
https://twitter.com/UN_News_Centre/status/1717992371906839005/photo/2
Click on the link and then on the photo to be able to read the full list.
Australia against, I’d maybe put that down to an increasing defence relationship with the Yanks and UK; Japan, Ukraine, Canada, Sweden, Romania abstained, down to UK / US support and also the importance of Israel intelligence to the West, historic and in the now. India abstained, not a surprise, Pakistan voted for.
I guess it’s a snapshot of international relations and that voting will be studied for weeks, months.
Hungary voted against which surprised me. None of the the others surprised me. Sad state of affairs when so many countries are cowed into doing what the US tells them.
How the governments of countries voted on this UN resolution is important and it is telling in all sorts of ways, so let’s get it right. Australia abstained and Austria voted against, according to the list found at the given link.
On the defence and intelligence relationships, there were differences in voting even amongst the ‘Five Eyes’ alliance: Australia, the UK and Canada all abstained, the USA (of course) voted against and New Zealand voted in favour of the resolution. EU members and NATO members also divided.
Interesting to observe George Osborne’s prediction of public shock to yesterday’s publication of Johnson et al WhatsApp messages didn’t arise, with nothing having been published – Was it all just another political ruse ?
– The orchestrated distraction toward the SG in advance of it continues unabated however, with the BBC in Scotland’s David Wallet-Locked-Hard’s latest “We don’t understand rules for using WhatsApp – says ex-minister” roping in Alex Neil’s confusion as excuse to recycle the prior “Have you stopped beating your wife?” material.
Does anybody remember the days when good old fashioned journalism was the norm for the BBC in Scotland, before political propaganda consumed it ?
Such decent journalism still survives at BBC Wales – eg “Housing: Up to 120,000 Welsh homes empty, figures suggest” an interesting read https://archive.ph/YQCdc and a subject as relevant to the lives of Scots as it is Welsh.
Yet such articles are nowhere on James Cook’s radar as runs the risk of showing SG in a favourable light and upsetting his sponsors.
The Osborne/Balls podcast was done on Thursday and he says messages will be coming out as part of the Covid enquiry “next week” so I think we have yet to hear what they are.
Fair enough, so another week of this claptrap then…
Of course the English/British regime’s state broadcaster’s story about deleted Covid whatsapps was just a copy and paste job of an anti-Scottish attack piece from the right-wing Tory backing Times English newspaper presented in frontpage headlines as a ‘report’ like it was the BBC itself.
https://archive.ph/5MwMm
The Times says national clinical director Jason Leitch’s deleted his messages every day during the pandemic.
Stuart Campbell subscribes to the Times (or did back in the day) FFS. It’s like an upmarket version of the English Sun.
Of course there aren’t deleted covid decision messages; the Scottish government doesn’t use whatsapp for decision making FHS. That seems to be an English government practice, but not a Scottish government one. And Jason Leitch isn’t SNP.
https://archive.ph/sRyPf
We told earlier how The Times reported that Scotland’s clinical director’s electronic messages could not be handed over to the UK Covid inquiry because they had been erased.
But now, ministers have rejected the suggestion and insisted that all record management guidance was followed, adding that thousands of documents have been sent to the probe.
But aye, the regime’s state broadcaster co-ordination with the English government story was there for all to see. All pretence at balanced, impartial journalism is gone now. The BBC will do everything it can to get Labour into No. 10 believing that is the only way to save the union, when, as previously discussed, in fact it’s how you end it. Blair catapulted the SNP to power; Starmer will pick up the mantle and actually ‘deliver’ indy, but the Brenglish state is too stupid to understand that. It won’t even listen to pro-union + devo Scots on the matter, just the union jack North Brits.
It was actually BBC Scotland who began the WhatsApp conspiracy story, Kieran Andrews merely garnished it with “deleted his messages every day during the pandemic” to convey a Leitch’s conscious deliberate action because he had a premonition Johnson would be hauled up in Court over it some years later… 🙄
Wallet-Locked-Hard merely copy/pasted the nonsense recently as instructed to reinforce the propaganda…
However, this from TuS with connection to a Guardian article in October 2021 better sets the backdrop, and which Kieran Andrews would have known full well – “Ministers and civil servants are required by policy to set instant messaging chats to delete automatically, it has been revealed, as a judicial review over the government’s use of self-destructing messages was given the go-ahead” https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/12/cabinet-policy-ministers-delete-whatsapp-messages
‘Eau de Latrine’, made in London, also available from outlets in Glasgow and Edinburgh…
True. It was just the total copy and paste job here that was truly something to behold. The BBC isn’t even doing it’s own journalism these days. We are not even being forced to pay for it to write anti-Scottish stories; our money is being used to fund English programming while we just get copy and paste attacks.
MSM monitor says:
https://x.com/msm_monitor/status/1718184829198434468
I think you missed the significance of the Guardian article SS…
Leitch as a civil servant would have been required to comply with any such instruction, although given the differing cultures in SG and HMG at the time, it’s highly likely such WhatsUp exchanges were with HMG in isolation.
This latest propaganda campaign attempts to paint Leitch as involved in a parallel culture within SG as prevailed under the Prime Charlatan using WhatsApp, without a shred of evidence it was so.
I re-read what Mr Dawson is alleged to have said at the Covid Inquiry ignoring the framing (I can’t be arsed scrolling through hours of the videos from the Inquiry to confirm the instance), and realised Dawson was not criticising SG at all, rather than contrasting the lax arrangements within HMG with the tight ship at SG.
There is a further twist to this ‘instruction’ – Johnson et al are being hung out to dry because they DIDN’T comply with instructions.
Jason Leitch is being pursued because he DID comply with instructions.
Both Kieran Andrews and David Wallace-Lockhart know damned well they are attempting to stitch up a good man to save face for a man who should never have been let near any form of power other than in an electric chair.
other than in an electric chair
Ouch! 😂
The tweet text (don’t know why some appear and other dont):
‘
“The reason WhatsApp became an issue was because the UK Govt used it to circumvent formal comms channels to avoid being caught doling out PPE contracts. WhatsApp was never used to circumvent formal comms channels by the Scottish Govt. That’s the key fact missing from the smear.
Hit’s the nail on the head.
Yes, it’s amazing how often the BBC fails to get the point. But they unfailingly get some other point SNP Baaaaaddddd.
Ash Reagan has joined Alba according to the National’s Breaking News. Mr Salmond announced it at party conference
There’s a surprise.
Not
Poor timing. Right in the middle of a Middle East crisis. It’s going to seem very parochial and irrelevant, not that that will inhibit the BBC and their colleagues in the press.
i knew she was a complete chancer her ego likely couldn’t cope with Snp membership wholeheartedly rejecting her. I have nothing but contempt for politicians who switch parties.
At last Regan finally gives up the pretence that she was not a Salmond plant:
But will she as an *honourable* and *truthful* person, that she claims to be, resign her seat to the constituents for their decision on who they want to represent them?
Of course she won’t, because like the whole lot of that Salmond revenge gang there’s not an honest principle between them
I take it this means her house didn’t sell yet
You’ve gotta laugh at the Alba gang’s delight over Regan when their favourite blogger is standing for election on a platform of “radically democratising the party”
So what James Kelly is saying is Alba are not a democratic party? well knock me down with a Land Rover and reverse back over me for good measure to make sure I’m not still alive
How can Alba not be the most democratistically bestest party in the whole wide omniverse when they’re governed by the bestest most honestest democratisticist leader on this here planet, Alex god of the Salmonds, who’s not a dictatorist like they keep telling us that that there evil Nicola Sturgeon was
What a bunch of tiny minded twonks
We feel your pain Dr Jim
No pain, just total contempt for all politicians who do this kind of thing without standing down and handing the constituents their stolen votes back to cast them as they choose
Even if the politician is genuine and believes in what they’re doing (which Regan isn’t and doesn’t) there must be some law made to enforce defecting politicians to stand again for the party to which they defected
If this sort of thing happened in many other workplaces you are not allowed to steal your customers or clients to take with you to your new place of work or you’d be in court, if you were poached by another football club they’d have to pay compensation to the club you left, and yet the most important participants in any democracy (the voters) get no choice
What James Kelly is saying is, that Alba should change to one member one vote, rather than using the antiquated delegate system where only those who can afford to go to a faraway conference, stay in expensive hotels and eat overpriced meals get to vote.
What other parties use the archaic and undemocratic delegate system these days!
Update on Elon MusK (from RT):
“SpaceX CEO Elon Musk will make his Starlink internet service available to “internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza,” he announced in a post on X (formerly Twitter). Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday, leaving aid groups unable to communicate with their staff in the besieged territory.”
If I were aid agencies, I wouldn’t rely on it. He likes to play god here, as the poor Ukrainian’s learned the hard way when he took the Russian side and turned Starlink off to save the later’s Navy.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/07/elon-musk-ordered-starlink-turned-off-ukraine-offensive-biography
He doesn’t do stuff for the good of others; this is Elon Musk. There must be something in it for him, either financially or for his ego.
In the case of Ukraine, he stopped one side of the conflict from using his equipment to kill personnel of the other side. The Russians would have destroyed his satellites otherwise.
In the case of Palestine he is providing satellite links to aid organisations for humanitarian reasons after Israel destroyed their connections. What is wrong with that?
Sorry, this makes zero sense. Ukraine has been using satlink for ages to fight Russia on all fronts. If Russia wanted to take out his sats for this, they could and would.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/10/europe/ukraine-starlink-not-active-crimea-intl-hnk/index.html
Any help to aid organisations is welcome, but from a man that makes racist attacks against Muslims and the families of people trapped in the bombing of Gaza? I wouldn’t rely on it.
As an aside, I have work colleagues that use Starlink as they have no choice, and in their words is poor quality, often keels over, and is ridiculously over-priced, much like his cars. They are all so looking forward to fiber finally reaching their homes.
If russia tried to destroy satelites it would have been game on for usas space defence agency to test their new toys on russias satelites.
So i doubt what you say is true, once knocking out satelites start a chain reaction can occur where all space objects are fucked.
China would also not be happy.
Musk was just playing dickwad god again!
Loki the trickster has more integretity than he has.
Since Musk was contracted to the Pentagon I suppose they just didn’t feel that lucky.
One minute he’s being grotesquely racist towards people of Muslim faith (our FM) attacking the families of Gaza victims (our FM), then the next he’s their knight in shining armor rushing to their rescue in Gaza? Aye right. Nope, he thinks he can make money out of this human tragedy somehow. It was the same with the boys trapped in the Thai cave. There he called people on the ground who really cared pedos so he could make the rescue with some Tesla tech then bask in the glory, promoting himself even more.
When was Musk “grotesquely racist towards people of Muslim faith… attacking the families of Gaza victims”?
Calling someone out for racism isn’t racist. The fact that he was misled by a deliberately edited tweet just makes him gullible. He should know better.
However he does suffer from Aspergers which may explain his poor social skills. We must be careful not to discriminate against people with disabilities.
Update on reality – Most every NGO in Gaza has had at least one Thuraya phone for the last 20 odd years…
What Musk is selling is “Phone and internet lines went down in the enclave after a heavy Israeli bombardment on Friday” rather than the Israeli apparatus flicked a switch.
Nevertheless the BBC reports that their comms are cut off:
https://tinyurl.com/2j93x535
Thuraya IS a satellite phone
So why are they cut off?
Exactly
They need GPS and Israel is one of the world’s best in electronic warfare, including GPS jamming.
So would Starlink work?
Starlink could be jammed but it might be a bad idea for Israel to hack off Musk, so to speak.
Why what will his muskness do?
Ban Israel from x, stop selling teslas there?
Put more inapropriate dickish comments on X.
Musk isnt the messiah, hes just a very naughty boy.
‘world’s worst in electronic warfare’
Warfare of course isn’t a good thing, being ‘the best at it’ means you are a real piece of shit.
Massive demo in support of Palestine in London today (from X):
The English media reports around 100.000 people marching in Protest over Palestine as massive, yet the same amount in Glasgow marching for Scottish independence was denigrated and barely worth a mention, proving conclusively that violence draws attention to a cause but peaceful demonstration on behalf of democracy is completely ignored by those in power
That looks like way over 100,000 to me. But hey, the police aren’t very good at estimating crowds.
“But hey, the police aren’t very good at estimating crowds” … When required…
I see the residents of Edinburgh east now how ‘have a government…’, sorry ‘an MSP they didn’t vote for’.
If Ash Regan steps down and triggers a by-election, then the SNP will have lost a principled fighter for the cause. If she doesn’t, but forces herself like on Scots like a Tory, then we can all be happy that the party’s MSPs are now more materially principled and dedicated to the cause than they were before as a result of having Regan removed from their ranks.
Commentary from the BBC:
” … [W]ith an MSP on the benches at Holyrood alongside two MPs at Westminster, Alex Salmond will feel his outfit can start to present itself as a real alternative.”
None of whom who have been elected for their new party. And hasn’t the Deputy Leader jumped ship TWICE from previous parties?
“[C]an start to present itself as a real alternative”, huh?
Oh, my aching sides.
Even funnier is Peter A Bell’s persistent belief that the ISP (57 votes in a East Lothian council election ) are going to lead Scotland to freedom
That’s just not true.
I think yes2 is right, and Peter A Bell believes he’s the one with the plan to lead Scotland to freedom, not ISP.
As far as I understand, all of Alba’s MSPs, Councillors and MPs are ‘governments that Scots didn’t vote for’. Alba (and the Tories) are weeding out any Tories using the SNP as a meal ticket right now, and that’s great news; last thing we need is these in key positions as we head into the final battle.
This polling low due to lack of response from SNP voters misleading these rats into thinking it’s time do jump ship is ‘draining the swampy areas’ that have unfortunately developed since 2015. There were some ‘secret Tories / unionists’, but it wasn’t Sturgeon etc; it was those attacking her, as you’d expect.
The good guys are staying put to fight the cause while the weather vanes are swinging in the perceived wind direction. But to quote Capercaillie, ‘little do they know’.
With her statement based on her undying desire for Independence, her integrity and truth in her convictions on refusing to stand down and fight an election based on the qualities she espouses, Ash Regan has basically called Angus Brendan McNeill something lesser than she for not doing as she did
Angus Brendan McNeill will at least face his constituents as an independent candidate, still not right in not doing so now, but ten steps higher on the integrity ladder than Regan, who with her fellow Alba gangsters could crawl no lower under a fat snake’s belly
https://archive.ph/HWJ39
On Friday, the United Nationals General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for an “immediate, durable and sustained humanitarian truce” between Israeli forces and Hamas militants.
The 193-member body passed the resolution with 120 votes for, 14 against and 45 abstentions.
The UK was among the nations who abstained while both Ireland and Spain supported calls for a ceasefire.
I am so glad both my countries back this and that I’m not British. I would be so ashamed of my country if I was.
How long before Starmer does another U-turn?
Mick Lynch has more leadership in his little finger than the entire Labour front bench.
Can’t imagine why anyone thinks the British Labour party will ever be anything other than warmongers after Iraq and Corbyn lame tenure but there you go
BBC still doing everything to avoid reporting of the anti-war marches in Glasgow. Reluctantly adds some lines to this story, which it cannot hide:
https://archive.ph/BaKXG
On the regime’s state broadcaster website pages for Scotland, you can see headlines about the protests in London, but not in Scotland. You can read about the latter in English newspapers such as the independent, just not what is supposed to be our ‘national broadcaster’.
They are terrified as the anti-war protests against Blair have begun again and Starmer hasn’t even made it to No. 10. This is not going to plan for the regime. We are supposed to be flocking back to Labour like it was 1997 all over again. This massive escalation is likely to be protracted, and Starmer is expected to take Israel’s side if he is UK PM. That is a serious problem when Labour’s traditional voter base is not warmongering; quite the opposite.
I also note 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settler terrorists in the West Bank since the Hamas attack – Hamas do not control the West Bank. A guy harvesting olives was shot and killed at point blank range the other day. For perspective, before the recent Hamas attack, a total of 308 Israelis have been killed in the conflict since 2008.
https://archive.ph/kTrKx
Later that day, residents of the [Palestinian] village of Deir Istiya returning from the olive harvest found leaflets tucked under their windshield wipers, threatening mass expulsion. The headline read, “You wanted war, wait for the great Nakba,” referencing the Palestinians’ displacement after the Israeli War of Independence.
Yet England/Britain just abstained on the call for peace at the UN.
I read that communications are back up in Gaza. While ostensibly good news, there are stories of this meaning people now finding out their entire family has been killed in air raids. I greatly hope Yousaf gets better news. Clearly Britain doesn’t care for it’s own citizens, never mind innocent Gazans, and would happily see both of these bombed for it’s own geopolitical ends.
Whew.
On 10 June 1944, four days after D-Day, the village of Oradour-sur-Glane in Haute-Vienne in Nazi-occupied France was destroyed when 643 civilians, including non-combatant men, women, and children, were massacred by a German Waffen-SS company as collective punishment for resistance activity in the area including the kidnapping and subsequent execution of Waffen SS Sturmbannfuhrer Helmut Kämpfe, who an informant claimed had been burned alive in front of an audience. Kämpfe was a highly decorated commander in 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich.
The Germans murdered all people they found in the village at the time, as well as people brought in from the surrounding area.[4] The death toll includes people who were merely passing by in the village at the time of the SS company’s arrival. Men were brought into barns and sheds where they were shot in the legs and doused with gasoline before the barns were set on fire. Women and children were herded into a church that was set on fire; those who tried to escape through the windows were machine-gunned. Extensive looting took place.[5][6]
All in all, 643 individuals are recorded to have been murdered. The death toll includes 17 Spanish citizens, 8 Italians, and 3 Poles.[7][8][6]
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the 1943 act of Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto in German-occupied Poland during World War II to oppose Nazi Germany’s final effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to the gas chambers of the Majdanek and Treblinka extermination camps.
After the Grossaktion Warsaw of summer 1942, in which more than a quarter of a million Jews were deported from the ghetto to Treblinka and murdered, the remaining Jews began to build bunkers and smuggle weapons and explosives into the ghetto. The left-wing Jewish Combat Organization (ŻOB) and right-wing Jewish Military Union (ŻZW) formed and began to train. A small resistance effort to another roundup in January 1943 was partially successful and spurred Polish resistance groups to support the Jews in earnest.
The uprising started on 19 April when the ghetto refused to surrender to the police commander SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop, who ordered the destruction of the ghetto, block by block, ending on 16 May. A total of 13,000 Jews were killed, about half of them burnt alive or suffocated.
In the spring of 1940, at least 21,787 Polish people (mostly the Polish intelligentsia and high-ranking Polish soldiers, officers, and officials) were murdered by the Soviets in the territory of the USSR. The Polish prisoners of war were killed with a gunshot to the back of the head. The truth about what happened was supposed to be silenced and remains unknown.
These killings are known collectively as the Katyn Massacre (although there were some other places besides the Katyn forest where Polish soldiers were killed, the bodies were first discovered in the Katyn Forest). The Katyn Forest Massacre was a pivotal moment in world history, for three reasons: First, it was the first genocide of WWII. Second, it was the first genocide of prisoners of war. And third, it was also the first crime in which two nations blamed each other for a long time.
The Greek Genocide was the mass killings and deportations of Greeks in the Ottoman Empire by Turkish forces. It resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Greeks, including the extermination of Pontian and Anatolian Greeks, the destruction of Smyrna, and widespread ethnic cleansing in Greek areas of Asia Minor.
The Greek and Armenian Genocides are considered part of the more extensive period of mass killings and ethnic cleansing of Christian populations in the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Both genocides were carried out by the Ottoman government and Turkish nationalist forces and involved mass killings, forced deportations, and population transfers. The events have been recognized as a genocide by numerous countries but have not been officially recognized by the Turkish government.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
Makes you sick, doesn’t it?
Just to add another to this bleak roll-call:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidice_massacre
Or the ‘Manifest Destiny’ policy of the USA, and the ruthless genocide and mass slaughter of the Aboriginal North American Nations Tribes and peoples.
Or the carnage of the English, French, German Dutch Belgian Spanish and Portuguese Empires…
Gaia will survive Homo Sapiens when it is the victim of its own self destruction.
Shock and Awe?
And there was of course, right on our doorstep, the British ethnic cleansing of Scots from the Highlands.
As an aside, since the by election victories for Labour, polling shows a sudden wee swing to them UK-wide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#National_poll_results
This will not be real at all, but caused by response rates. Tory voters will be even less enthusiastic about responding to requests to be polled in light of the apparent romping home of Labour recently. This will yet further artificially inflates Labour’s share, while apparent CTV rates hit new lows.
A similar effect was seen in Scottish subsets of UK polls after R&HW, which is now dissipating.
It’s a problem enough with random sampling (e.g. IPSOS telephone) as that still requires people who pick up to agree to spend the time to give answers. With panel based approaches, it’s just another junk email. But if your party is riding high and you are excited by this, you are much more likely to respond and endorse them.
I had to suppress a wee smile this morning when, on the BBC Kuenssberg show, they showed 3 clips of 3 Labour ‘stalwarts’ each disagreeing with Kid Starver’s stance on Gaza. London Mayor, Labour Minister in Westminster, and good old Sarwar.
The amusing bit for me, however, was Anus was the only clip that had subtitles!!! Do England not understand his “powahh”…?
It’s funny. In contrast to the UK government, the Scottish government – and the FM’s – handling of the pandemic saw them hit record approval ratings the like of which are probably unheard of in political polling, certainly in the UK.
There is no way this can be undone. None whatsoever. The record stands. Forever. Even if they deleted every message from the time, it would still stand because their decisions were not hidden; people experienced these and the impact they had. If they felt they did a good job at the time, you will just not be able to convince them otherwise. The same applies for the UK government; they hit new lows in approval for their handling of it and that will never be undone either.
You can bet your bottom dollar too that the enquiry won’t find Sturgeon talking out ‘letting the bodies pile high’. Nope, that will all come from England/Britain’s government. It’s probably not wise therefore to draw the attention of Scots votes to these enquiries. But hey, the British regime is that stupid, and let’s not interrupt the enemy when it’s making a gigantic erse of things for itself.
Couple of examples:
https://www.whatscotlandthinks.org/questions/are-you-satisfied-or-dissatisfied-with-nicola-sturgeon-as-deputy-first-minister/
https://tinyurl.com/3rpxzbf9
As you can see in the latter, even Sturgeon’s resignation and financegate has made very little impact on how people view their performance in retrospect. She has taken a personal hit overall (which will be rapidly undone if PS don’t find her to have committed a crime) but not for Covid, but still just 2/10 disapprove of the Scottish government’s handling of covid, and many of these will be British nationalist Tories who are lying here just to bash them.
In 2014 had Scotland voted for our own independence instead of allowing England to speak for us while simultaneously silencing us, Scotland’s voice and opinion would have been heard, and we’d have registered a vote along with other countries of the world
The UK of Great Britain formerly known as England abstained from world opinion, which labeled Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland’s opinions non existent and non important, just like Palestinians
England renders Scotland’s opinions invalid
Are people still not getting this yet?
Elon Musk has called Humza Yousaf a racist, wait until he sees Sarwar’s speech.
That’s almost word for word the speech that annoyed Elon Musk though apparently he heard an edited version. But this tweet is June 10th 2020. So did Humza copy Anas or did Anas copy Humza?
Both speech’s from Sarwar and Yousaf were made during the same Anti-Racism debate in Holyrood on 10th June 2020. The debate came about because of the “Black Lives Matter” campaign.
Sarwar’s speech starts around 58:00 minutes in and Yousaf’s speech where the clip that led Musk to call him a blatant racist was taken 5 minutes into his speech at around 2:00.
Well they both made their point about under representation and there’s nothing racist about that.
Exactly, just mischief making from the usual sources.
According to the census 0.7% of the Scottish population are black. So there should be 2 or 3 in Holyrood. Asian ethnicity is at 2.7%.
https://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/census-results/at-a-glance/ethnicity/
BBC now presenting a Daily Record / Sunday Mail story as a ‘BBC news report’. How can it possibly be impartial if it just lifts and republishes stories from papers which hold openly party-political stances. The Record / Mail is unashamedly pro-English Labour.
https://archive.ph/nfXhL
What WhatsApps were deleted? The ones where doing things which the public thought were really good were planned? That is in the end what the public thought of the Scottish government’s decision making. If the public were fuming at their actions, you could imagine a reluctance to share such messaging. But the opposite was the case in Covid; the public were incredibly impressed by the Scottish government’s response. Even hardened unionists rated it.
It’s so funny watching the English/British regime clutching at straws here. It’s utterly desperate as they know that the outcome of the enquiry into the British government’s handling is not going to be good for the union at all.
Unfortunately the UK inquiry is not expected to be published until 2027 by which time most of the guilty will no doubt have moved on to other things and will never be held to account by the voting public.
One wonders if Aamer Anwar were asked to deny he was an ambulance chasing self promoter would he even know where to begin to deny it?
He’s even got his own *reality* TV lawyering show where everything’s *a challenge* with *deadlines* and other TV reality jargon type slogans for the addle brained viewers consumption
This is Scotland, not America, where most of the people can be fooled most of the time with this kind of nonsense
The media are really trying hard to paint this ridiculous picture of people like Nicola Sturgeon and now Humza Yousaf as saxophone playing jelly bean eaters issuing orders microphone in hand from some sort of oval office surrounded by an SNP secret service cover up squad
And that’s not true at all, there were only two of us secret agents for everybody, and we did the driving as well as all the threatening of people’s children (I’m open for interviews in a tell all expose to the Daily Ridiculous night or day, I’m used to keeping odd hours due to my stealthy secretive lifestyle)
The UK government controlled everything during covid. As usual, the Scottish Government could only fiddle as best they could with what limited tools they had. They couldn’t lock down as this was dependent on UK furlough. They couldn’t open or close borders as these are a UK matter… they could not pump new funds into the NHS as they don’t control their own budget…they couldn’t help industries as the economy is a reserved matter….
Yet what they managed to do in the circumstances had them on unbelievably popular ratings that can never be undone.
All covid deaths in Scotland are the responsibility of No. 10. This is what devo means; the buck stops at No 10 as unionists say.
If those under me in my job fuck up, it’s me that takes the responsibility – it’s my job to supervise them and make sure they do things correctly. If Anwar wants to chase ambulances, he needs to take the M1 all the way to London.
WHAT ???
There was another two ???
They’re getting increasingly desperate, again deliberately ignoring HMG policy on WhatsApp deletion as ruled lawful by the High Court in Oct 2021, and SG policy of recording exchanges in eRDM.
The opening line paraphrases the Sunday Mail “EXCLUSIVE” by John Ferguson as “WhatsApp messages sent by Nicola Sturgeon relating to the Covid pandemic were manually deleted from her phone, a newspaper has reported”.
Note the deliberate use of “sent” to imply origin, rather than “read” or “replied” which would not.
The mystery of how John Ferguson knew what deleted messages related to will doubtless never be revealed
Essentially they are contriving to portray SG as using WhatsApp in the same manner as Boris Johnson’s government, rather than responding to it’s use by HMG.
Yet there’s a sting in the tail to this contrived deletions gambit – They are criticising SG Ministers and civil servants for complying with HMG policy, to save embarrassment for Johnson, Cummings, et al who obviously did not comply with HMG policy, and are now in an embarrassing pickle as a result.
At my work, one of the clients in an overseas country kept trying to use WhatsApp for key decision making. Our team (specialist engineering consultants) absolutely refused to do this, and complained to higher management on the client’s side. Nobody in their right mind would try to use WhatsApp at work for anything other than personal chat, jokes etc. That’s what it’s for. Silly gifs and stuff.
“Nobody in their right mind would try to use WhatsApp at work..” – Then there’s Boris Johnson…
Ultimately that’s all this propaganda campaign is about, to tar everyone else with Johnson’s unprofessionalism in order to deflect public criticism as his dreadful conduct becomes ever more apparent…
Cabinet policy obliges ministers to delete instant messages
https://web.archive.org/web/20231030093608/https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/12/cabinet-policy-ministers-delete-whatsapp-messages
Worth keeping in mind that it’s not possible to ‘make a decision’ using WhatsApp. You can discuss an issue as you form opinions using any form of communication, including carrier pigeon or through a chat over lunch, but the decision can only made using formal channels or it won’t be implemented. When this is done, it is normal procedure to document, for the record, why it was reached in the way it was, and in summary, as it would be wholly impractical to impossible to detail everything. This has to happen at Scottish government level; i.e. the reasoning behind such key decisions.
But recording how a decision was made for posterity never involves recording every single discussion the subject. How would that even work? Cameras and microphones at every lunch table… in the toilets? Recording of every word someone says? Mind reading to record thoughts? Recording a conversation between an MSP and their spouse while they are bed as the former tried to form an opinion on a difficult matter ahead of key meeting the next day?
Whatsapp is no different to all the above is situations. That’s what it is basically supposed to be – a virtual personal chat. It’s not Teams.
If it’s made an formal communication channel, then yes, all messages should be kept. If it’s not, then no. But it absolutely shouldn’t be made an official channel for decision making as that’s not what it’s for. It would be a mess if people tried to use it for anything other than organising after word drinks. If you told everyone that WhatsApp was being recorded, they’d swap to messenger or telegram. That or only talk 1:1 in hushed tones. Only conversations that people knew were to be on the record can be asked for. It’s an invasion of privacy otherwise, and would need a police warrant.
If it turns out No 10 was giving orders by Whatsapp, then holy s**t. But I seriously doubt that was happening at Holyrood.
If it rained honesty Labour’s Jackie Baillie still wouldn’t get wet
Interviewed on BBC radio Scotland by her pals this AM Baillie claimed she keeps all her Whatsapp messages forever for anybody to see, although they’re all very boring conversations with her daughter about what’s for tea
And the award for the England union’s best liar goes to
Fiona and Marlene with their futuristic programme for November. Scary!
They’re determined to be positive and discuss SNP policy decision from the conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDQJlReV7Gw
The UK Covid inquiry is currently hearing evidence from Martin Reynolds or “Party Marty” former Johnson’s private secretary and the guy who organised the bring your own bottle parties at No 10. He is getting a right grilling.
This afternoon it’s Lee Cain the former director of communications at No 10 and tomorrow Dominic Cummings.
Live stream:
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/#messageLive
What Labour’s Anas Sarwar says isn’t important says Labour MP, he’s not part of the shadow cabinet
MSM Monitor points out that by appending the word “report” to their headlines BBC Scotland may be misleading folk into believing the headline is based on an actual report instead of a newspaper article.
Sturgeon Covid messages deleted from phone – report
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scotland
Aye, the regime’s state broadcaster is losing it.
The Sunday Mail (Record) and English Times are pro-union and pro-English Labour / Tory respectively. Openly so. Re-publishing stories from these as apparent balanced ‘BBC Reports’ is a joke. It’s not going to go unnoticed.
It is however a very good sign. If the enemy is panicking and desperately lashing out like this, it means things are not going to plan.
My guess is that internal polling data on the future of the union is grim. Like I keep pointing out – all is not what it seems here at face value.
If you have Yes party share and % Yes down in tandem, that points to support for indy waning. But if instead, you seem to have people who are saying they plan to vote more unionist but are also 50% for indy tomorrow like is the actual case… Well, that’s most likely because that’s what you truly have, namely a lot of Labour voters answering your polls who are moving to Yes. SNP have not lost share, their voters are just not responding due to them licking their perceived wounds a bit. Labour have gained share only because of this – by standing still – while their own voters are moving to indy at the same time.
It’s very difficult to explain the pattern any other means.
Interestingly, I just had a quick look at support for Yes amongst Labour 2019 voters, and this seems to have risen by 5% since the beginning of the year. This seems to back up my theories, in that traditional unionist party voters are moving to indy while SNP voters are being quiet.
Shall look into this in more detail, but if I was a British nationalist, I’d be very, very worried right now.
Please do.
Golfnut
There’s quite a festival of SNP Baaadddd in the media this morning. I can’t keep up.
Here’s Martin Geissler tripping over himself to read out headlines that he “can’t stand up” i.e. he has no idea if they are true.
https://x.com/msm_monitor/status/1718759265567985961?s=20
Plausible deniability for when the BBCs implications are proven false, which of course won’t matter by that time because the accusation leading to the BBCs report has been aired and the BBC can *under report* later corrections to their mince
On another note I’m absolutely sure Aamer Anwar is preparing to go into the Jungle with Ant and Dec, once he’s finished with Strictly Come Gogglebox Dancing on Ice and getting Married at First Sight
I don’t know much about Aamer Anwar except that he seems to do a lot of good work representing refugees and minorities. But he is certainly not shy.
It was almost comically theatric the way Guissler breathlessly presented John Ferguson’s bunkum of Sunday Mail “Exclusive” as of importance, instantly lifting it’s readership levels from it’s staggering low by a whopping three, he, an AJ flunkie at Elizabeth House, and James Cook.
I think this is important and part of the reason that the Scottish Government are being hounded by the media, in particular the BBC and of course Labour and the Tories.
One step forward with his international statesmanship over Israel and Gaza, one step back for Yousaf, as instead of thinking first he rushes to his twitter in a petulant and undignified fashion as Regan defects to Alba. All he had to say was: “Good luck and thanks for your work”.
https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23887183.humza-yousaf-got-wrong-reaction-ash-regan-defection/
Politicians are very poor for this, they should put a 2 minute delay on their phones to stop them reacting like kids.
Humza Yousaf is the First Minister of Scotland and leader of the SNP.
Kids? unlike yourself who takes the huff and flounces off every five minutes then appears on every other blog calling contributors on this particular blog derogatory names
People like you are the problem, and you’re so full of yourself you think people don’t notice or are too polite to name you for what you are
Oh dear.
I’m not important, nor are you unless you’re Yousaf in disguise, or I am.
As First Minister and Leader of the SNP, Yousaf IS important, and if he pays heed to criticism and becomes First Minister rather than “First Activist”, and acts as a Leader of the SNP rather than a spoilt brat throwing his toys out the pram, the SNP might survive and we might actually get Independence in my lifetime.
Try to concentrate on what helps Independence, including justified criticism of people who are actually important, rather than wasting your spit and bile in futile ad hominems.
Yes indeed but you do bad mouth and insult contributors on this website then turn up after flouncing off never to return until minutes later, because you are what you are, and all your pathetic deflection doesn’t change the fact that you cause trouble deliberately, and I’m not the first one to point that out
Not very good at reading, are you?
Does look like Alba are tying to outdo the English Tories in giving Scots ‘unelected politicians they didn’t vote for’.
I thought the idea of indy is that we Scots get governments we voted for. Alba clearly prefers the British way of forcing itself on an unwilling electorate rather than getting mandates at the ballot box.
The SNP will be far better off without such people in its ranks as we face the final battle. These are the types that that look at mid term polling and jump to the nearest passing ship. That’s not the sort of weather vane politician you need on your team.
You can see why she came last in the leadership contest; folks could smell a rat. I had a gut feeling she’d jump to Alba or even the Tories if it seemed the SNP were not doing so well.
I had pondered a vote for Alba previously. Absolutely no chance now; it seems they really are ‘all the same’. If I want politicians from parties Scots didn’t vote for making laws for Scotland, I can support us staying in the UK. Regan has as much mandate to vote on making our laws as an English bishop on the House of Lords.
Indeed, we could vote Jackie Baillie if we wanted lies and underhand behaviour
Jackie Baillie the Labour MSP put in her seat by Tory voters, one saving grace is at least she didn’t steal their votes unlike Regan on instructions from her boss Salmond, and then tried to steal the leadership of the party
Take a look at SNP history of previous leaders, that trick was done before and look where we are because of it, a let’s call it a “mishandled?” referendum then a runner
Nowhere in any rules of politics does it say any leader must resign following losing a vote even in a general election, but it happened in Scotland with an *Oops sorry, I’m off sort yourselves out*
We did sort ourselves out, now the same guy is back again with yet another gang of infiltrators
Humza Yousaf was not my first choice but he’s doing very well and grown in stature, and I’m 100% sure he’ll sort this lot out
I said it before and I’ll say it again.
The biggest problem the SNP have is those who blindly attack anyone who dares to criticise them. They are no friends of the SNP, they are its real enemies.
It’s unlikely the “hierarchy” read comments on those blogs that blindly attack the SNP so they fail to sort the wheat from the chaff. But it is possible they read comments on blogs such a this.
As a result of attacking any criticism or deflecting from it, rather than sensible thought and consideration on its merits, Yousaf is still compounding his idiocy:
“‘I don’t need you in SNP’: Humza Yousaf fires back after defections to Alba”
Someone needs to have a word in his shell-like. It’s not going down well with normal people who don’t like politicians at the best of times.
yesindyref2 says:
“I said it before and I’ll say it again.” !!
This always seems to be in-between your incessant ‘threats’ to leave this site and not return – until you do and start all over again.
When will you actually honour your promises?
So that’s your packrat ad hominem. Thanks!
But what do you think about my actual posting – should people be able to criticise the SNP to try to get them to improve their act, get more members and more support, win elections and win Scottish Independence?
Or should people be forced to bow down and worship their imperial masters and watch as independence goes out the window, along with the SNP?
Do you have any opinions about things that are actually important?
Is the name you post under on The National Jim Anderson. Your style of commenting and his are beginning to look quite similar
He’s a good poster who I agree with sometimes. There’s a few posters with different and even opposing but interesting points of view.
Also it’s good to see LC back again – someone I used to be able to disagree with frequently while still having mutual respect. Those were the days.
Moderation on both forums used to delete ad hominems; not any more.
No, I’ve not posted there since they started to charge to post. Same for the Herald which did that later on.
Regan has stolen a load of SNP voter’s votes. What she has done is no different to the English Tories denying iref2. They deny us our vote in iref2, she is denying the voters of her constituency the right to vote for an MSP they desire. This is a sensible, factual analysis of the situation, not some rant. It’s not somehow ok because she claims to support indy. It’s wrong no matter what. We are supposed to be fighting for democracy… for a government that truly represents us. Alba are creating the opposite of this. I am not angry at them changing party – they have every right to do that. It’s being undemocratic that I have problems with.
Just was we are having a Tory English government forced upon us, so Regan’s constituents have now have party they didn’t want representing them forced upon them. Just 1.6% voted Alba in the Lothians. That in no way justifies them having 6.25% of Lothian MSPs even under PR. Scotland is supposed to be a PR democracy. Alba were rejected. She should stand down and trigger a by-election. If she respected Scotland and democracy, she would.
Surely you agree if she had any principles an respected the people of her constituency she’d trigger a by election? she’s not there to do what she wants to do, she’s there to do what her constituents desire of her. She’s making it all about her and not her constituents nor the country.
The SNP are absolutely right to be glad she has gone. If she stepped down and triggered a by election, that would be different. They they would have lost an MSP with principles who was an asset to the cause.
I’m not sure the voting public take much notice of who politicians rate and do not rate in their own parties. Regan did not impress as a leadership candidate and I have no idea what the subsequent tensions were within the party between herself and others. She says she left because the SNP were not focused on independence enough yet she resigned her post over gender id which seems to be an Alba thing (it bores the bejaysus out of me). She has probably gone to the right party for her. Not a party that is likely to get my vote but given her priorities I can see why the SNP group aren’t overly vexed.
These things happen. In 2019 a bunch of English MPs left and formed some sort of centrist party. Does anyone even remember who they were?
Plenty of people here and elsewhere criticise the Snp so has Paul from time to time. However on here others do not go on and on that their opinion is the right one or insult others who disagree with them
Yep. I’ve spent the last few weeks saying nothing but how the SNP do need to listen and offer a route to indy, not just more seats at the back being ignored again in the next UKGE. I believe I also said if they didn’t do that, I would start looking for someone who was prepared to. And I mean it.
But there’s not a chance in hell that will be Alba. They’d deny me my vote like an English Tory given half a chance it seems. If I want to have my right to chose my government taken off me, I can vote for the union. Alba are worse than the English Tories here as they are supposed to be Scottish.
“Astroturfing and Flooding the Information Environment: Disinformation campaigns will often post
overwhelming amounts of content with the same or similar messaging from several inauthentic accounts.
This practice, known as astroturfing, creates the impression of widespread grassroots support or
opposition to a message, while concealing its true origin. A similar tactic, flooding, involves spamming
social media posts and comment sections with the intention of shaping a narrative or drowning out
opposing viewpoints.”
A bit difficult for one single poster – me – to drown out opposing view points. But easy for a small pack to drown out one single opposing view point, to create the impression of widespread grassroots support.
It’s surely best to answer the criticisms with sensible and pertinent replies, rather than try to silence, alienate or even drive out the one persistent critic?
You called the contributors to this blog *sad* and the *usual suspects* when referring to those who refuse to support what you and Alba support
Deflect all you like, not a single soul on this particular blog is not aware of your tactics of disruption and attempts to undermine
You have a reputation for this behaviour
Cubby, I have nothing to do with Alba. Absolutely nothing.
While I don’t think you are astro turfing it is possible for one determined poster to disrupt a message board. Glasgow Working Class made James Kelly’s blog message a complete mess and impossible to follow a discussion. They frequently accounted for over 50% of the comments. I never understood why he allowed it to be honest.
Just a couple of hours ago, Tory MP for Peterborough Paul Bristow was sacked from his role in government as a parliamentary private secretary after calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Not to be outdone, Keir Starmer has this afternoon suspended Andy McDonald, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough for saying: “We won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty.”
Two cheeks of the same arse, Starmer and Sunak.
Suella Braverman today asserts that those peace marches in the UK at the weekend were actually hate marches.
Welcome to the gruesome world of Orwell “War is peace, freedom is slavery ignorance is strength.”
BTW Suella also regards the phrase “from the river to the sea” as hate speech and wants the police in London to arrest people who chant it. It has a history as a Palestinian cry for freedom but is also used by the Likud Party.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_river_to_the_sea#:~:text=In%20the%20Israeli%20political%20sphere,protest%20movements%20directed%20against%20Israel.
Been catching up on what BBC Scotland have been trying to obscure all week, evidence to the Covid Inquiry.
Needless to say, whilst BBC/UK lead with “Top official despaired at Johnson’s Covid leadership”, BBC/Scotland leads with “Yousaf denies deleting pandemic WhatsApp messages”, after Tsunami Baillie played chief distortionist on GMS.
Rarely have I seen civil servants quite so discomforted as at this Inquiry, the damning evidence, the pointed questions, and the million dollar question as to why auto-delete was turned on for WhatsApp messages… The latter is highly unlikely to be reported by HMS James Cook though 🙄
Big backlash from the Labour left (does such a thing exist?) over suspension of MP.
That this House endorses the principles of the Claim of Right for Scotland, agreed by the Scottish Constitutional Convention in 1989 and by the Scottish Parliament in 2012, and therefore acknowledges the sovereign right of the Scottish people to determine the form of government best suited to their needs.
Alba obviously do not endorse this. Determining your government means being allowed to vote for your local MSP / MP and the party / polices they are furthering. This is the whole idea behind indy, and Alba doing the British opposite will ensure they’ll never be more than the 1.6 %.
This is glorious. Labour presenting itself as having basic human decency and not just being warmongers like the Tory party* would ‘achieve nothing’ according to Polly Toynbee.
https://archive.ph/u24Uf
Labour calling for a ceasefire would achieve nothing. So why should it tear itself apart over this?
I am sure e.g. Anas Sarwar will be thrilled at this sage suggestion from Toynbee.
—
*Credit where credit is due.
https://archive.ph/mGVh3
Israel-Hamas war: Conservative MP Paul Bristow sacked from government post after calling for Gaza ceasefire
Phillipa Whitford recalls her work at the Gaza hospital which was bombed last week. Life wasn’t easy when she worked there either.
Philippa Whitford: My time at the Al-Ahli hospital whose bombing shocked the world
https://web.archive.org/web/20231031085305/https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23889915.philippa-whitford-time-al-ahli-hospital-whose-bombing-shocked-world/?ref=eb&nid=1302&u=a60e0e23c1cb42bde22067cc67201bf6&date=311023
Maybe if Hamas as the government spent the BILLIONS of $ received in aid on supplying hospitals with what they need, encouraging the Palestinians to not want to wipe out every Jew in the world, to build nice homes for the people who voted them into power, to get people into work. Instead of building miles and miles of tunnels and the Hamas hq UNDER hospitals, why didn’t they build hotels on their beautiful beaches, encourage tourists, make some money. Spend it on Palestinians. Spend it on proper infrastructure. If they fear Israel so much why didn’t they build an iron dome and bomb shelters like Israel has NEEDED to do.
The town where my friends live was bombed two days ago by missiles from Gaza. That’s not mentioned in any media!
Agree with you to a large extent but from I have read the shoreline of Gaza is not technically part of Gaza. At the moment that is why civilians cannot flee Gaza by boat
I believe the coastline does actually belong to Gaza, didn’t the terrorists use boats from Gaza to invade Israel on 7 October?
I presume the coastline is now patrolled to stop even more weapons getting into Gaza and to prevent the terrorists using the sea to invade Israel again.
This is a good article about the two “sides” in all of this.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/27/tragedy-israel-palestine-conflict-horror
Hamas carried out their raid by land. They breached the security fence. The attack was preceded by a rocket barrage. According to this report from Reuters only one boat was involved if that.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/how-hamas-attack-israel-unfolded-2023-10-07/
It looks likely that the coastline should have been controlled by the Gaza government (Hamas)but it has not been for years because of the land sea and air blockade by Israel that has been in place for many years see link below
https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2022/8/7/the-gaza-strip-explained-in-maps
This also worth a read
“Yet for some people, today the Jews are no longer victims. The fact that so many were victims is irrelevant. The fact that across the Jewish state people are mourning their loved ones is immaterial. The fact that Hamas murdered babies is irrelevant in this analysis, firmly grounded in the kind of discourse that talks only about “power”, because the Jews have a state and because Israel is more powerful than the Palestinians. By this dehumanising metric, therefore, the Israeli baby is more “powerful” than the Hamas terrorist who murdered them, and unworthy of our attention.”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/29/of-course-the-holocaust-is-relevant-to-israel-now
“Yet for some people, today the Jews are no longer victims
Maybe this is happening in England (guardian is an English newspaper), but I’ve not seen that in Scotland.
Certainly not on here. Victim stats for both sides have been compared and contrasted. Terrorists on both sides have been strongly condemned. I am very proud of our FM in his approach, showing sympathy for both sides, calling for an immediate ceasefire to stop deaths in Israel and Palestine, vising the Jewish and Islamic communities…
I understand the current tally is over 1400 dead in Israel and over 8,300 on the Palestinian side related to the Hamas attack and Israeli retaliation.
Prior to this it was ~300 dead since 2008 in Israel and 6,400 in Palestine.
https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties
I think the Israeli navy also patrol the coastline on a regular basis and now there are warships there firing into Gaza. Some US Navy ships are also in the area undertaking a watching brief.
Perhaps if your friends can identify which Israeli Ministers and civil servants, and officers of the IDF and Shin Bet who control “the BILLIONS of $ received in aid” and audit every red cent spent, are working for Hamas, the problem might be solved ?
You would need to have worked in Gaza to understand just how totally preposterous this propaganda line is.
International aid to Gaza has by and large been directed via UN Aid agencies and NGOs from the donor countries.
Looking at the TV footage over the last few weeks you can see that the money has been spent on housing and on equipping hospitals. The housing has mainly taken the form of blocks of flats which is what you would expect in such a high population density limited land space.
As for having a tourism industry. Difficult if not impossible when another country is exercising strict control on who can enter and leave. Also difficult in a place where everything, everything has to be imported resulting in a day and daily convoy of trucks bringing in supplies.
Tourism would be difficult for a strip of land with no port, no airport, no trains and an enormous wall and fence around it with checkpoints at every entrance. Travel insurance would be expensive too I would guess.
Forgot to say Israel got the Iron Dome system from the USA so I think it is very, very unlikely the USA would also give it to the people in Gaza. It also seems to be a system designed to hit rockets not bombs but I am prepared to stand corrected on that point.
I was puzzled initially by the reference to IDF vehicles since they withdrew in 2005, but comment on the ongoing Madrid peace talks enabled it to be nailed down to the tail end of 1991, 16 years before Hamas took power…
Her recollections of life for people of Gaza at that time reminded me of parts of the West Bank in 2014, a quite surreal experience for an outsider…
I can only imagine what it’s like to live under these conditions. So it’s valuable to hear from someone with first hand experience. Counters the torrents of propaganda emanating from the media.
From MSM Monitor:
For those not aware, today marks the sixth day in a row BBC Scotland has run the WhatsApp smear. The broadcaster has run exactly the same story every day since last Thursday. No developments, just tabloid newspaper innuendo. It’s smeared Professors Gregor Smith and Jason Leitch.
It seems that Sarwar is promising to make Scotland an ‘economic powerhouse’ with his green prosperity plan making Scotland a world leader in green technologies. He’s going to have an industrial strategy that gets Scotland back on its feet and ensure that we buy, make and sell more here in Scotland.
Wow, that’s ‘powerful’ stuff ……. which we’ve all heard before time and time again. Has he checked with HQ London first or did they write the wee speech for him just to make sure he didn’t get too carried away with that ‘economic powerhouse’ stuff which sounds awfully familiar?
Sarwar has come out today in support of a council tax freeze after spending all week attacking the SNP for announcing exactly that.
He’s confusing Scotland with the ‘ North ‘, maybe we guzumped them.
Golfnut
Dominic Cummings just starting his evidence to the Covid inquiry.
https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/#messageLive
Fascinating in a goulish way!
They’re off for lunch now. Back at 1:45.
I think things will heat up a lot this afternoon, Cummings might just blow a fuse lol