The arch-criminal and Murdoch creature, Coulson, is in the spotlight again. The police are thinking about reopening the investigation* if new evidence comes their way. The police were up to their necks in the felonious activity, illegally feeding Murdoch hacks with information from their database. Then the police investigated the alleged wrongdoing and found no case to answer.
Let me make a prediction; if the police do find that there's a case to answer, the Crown Prosecution Service will decide not to pursue it.
Strange that TV reporters keep saying that Coulson denies ordering and approving the hacking, as if that's conclusive. An ex-Whore's Gazette journalist says not so, I've heard him at it. Why does Coulson's word count for more than Sean Hoare's?
A reporter on ITN put it this way. The Conservatives don't want to upset Murdoch, The police don't want to upset Murdoch, other newspapers don't want to upset Murdoch, so further prosecutions are not going to happen.
Broken Britain, courtesy of Rupert Murdoch.

*STS gloss, cover-up.

Wayne Rooney, benefactor of fallen women, is to go to Basel with the other seedy millionaires. I try to care a little but fail miserably.
What interests me about this story is the spelling of the place name. For the first 60 years of my life I believed the name was Basle, and would have spelt it so should the need have arisen. Basel was the German spelling; Basle I assumed was a borrowing from the French before they decided to drop the unpronounced D and spell it Bâle.
I looked in my old atlas, 1964 vintage, and there it was - "Basel (Basle)". So even back then the German spelling took precedence.I delved further back,1934, and it was simply Basle then. Probably remained so during my schooldays, 1943-55. We were doubtless still using pre-war publications in those austere times. So when, and why did Basel replace Basle? And who dictated the change?
There are many such changes, usually unannounced. When did Leghorn become Livorno? And why was the discarding of allonyms only partial; we don't call Rome Roma, Naples Napoli, Genoa Genova.
I remember the change in spelling of Chinese proper names. Nothing announced that I recall, and no comment from the press who printed the new versions without question. I believe the Chinese government officially adopted the Pinyin version of romanised spelling, while previously British hacks had made do with Wade-Giles. I assume these people just continued publishing press releases from the Chinese government news agency without bothering about spelling. "Mao tse-tung/Mao Zedong, Peking/Beijing, who cares, I'm off down the pub." Do I misrepresent British journalism? Probably not.

Afterthought: place name or place-name? I'm never sure. Perhaps both are acceptable.

Update on Hoffman v.Greenstein (21st August, below)-
Jonathan Hoffman has apologised for lying, or not checking his facts, one of the two.
All empty threats then.

THE WORLD ACCORDING TO FLEMING

The world is divided into two main zones. The United States and the rest. The United States is also called capitalism, because the two are indistinguishable. Anyone who criticises the USA criticises capitalism, and vice versa.
The USA is the social, economic, and political entity that closest approaches perfection. No comparable society exists, has existed, or ever will exist. It is the most beautiful, powerful and successful nation in the whole of history, a state of affairs destined to continue as long as Planet Earth turns.
The other zone, the rest, can be subdivided as follows:
i. Europe, in the grip of socialist idealogues who are in league with fanatical Islamist immigrants.
ii. Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. Populated by dark-skinned people who are incapable of development (losers). Expendable people sitting on recources that the USA wants and will possess.
iii. East Asia, hard-working productive people for the most part. Perhaps a little too ambitious, it may be necessary to nuke them in the future.
iv. Central and Southern America, the backyard, populated by losers. Can be swatted at any sign of trouble.
v. Australasia, ???? fleming's American, if they haven't invaded it he's never heard of it.
Finally ISRAEL, located strategically between Asia and Africa. Populated by Jews and other alien types, but, as the USA's black-ops section in the Middle East it has to be tolerated, even at great expense to the American people.

Fleming is opposed to big government (code for paying taxes). However he is in favour of big armies, big police forces and big prisons. Now a big army is an expensive item, so how to finance it? That's a problem fleming and his kind have yet to figure out. In the meantime they claim that all their taxes (the ones who actually pay them) go to maintain a large mass of unemployed or sick people, who fleming likes to label "losers". When fleming and his kind finally take complete control the "losers" will be left to fend for themselves, and will soon die off. Then there will still be the problem of financing the army, but let's not think that far ahead (in fact let's not think). A similar problem is Israel, costing the US economy £3 billion plus. But these geniuses will figure out a way of supporting Israel without imposing taxes on hard-working Americans (those that are left).

The world according to fleming - he's been cluttering my comments section with rehashed versions of this political philosophy for some time now. No need any more, it's all here in one place. fleming has left the building.

STS Bulletin no.28
"Speaking from Turkey today, the 69-year-old said he believed the legal 'environment' was right for him to return."

means

"Oh good, the Conservatives are back in government. Time to collect on the IOUs."

I watched "Ideal" last night - I know; cheesy, full of freaks, but watchable nonetheless. Apparently it's targeted at a 'youth' audience, doomed youth then.
But, my question - what the hell is Janeane Garofalo doing in it? Has she offended the invisible masters of showbiz and been condemned to a season in Purgatory? "Larry Sanders" to "Ideal", Uma Thurman to Johnny Vegas, Hollywood to Salford (or Manchester?). No one deserves to fall so far.
Let us pray that the lady's sentence will soon be served.

From Tony Greenstein's Blog

According to his comment unless I take the story down about the joint demonstration between EDL and the Zionist Federation, of which he is the co-chair, Jonathan Hoffman's lawyers will be talking to me from 8 am on Monday!
Bit early I thought for a chat, but I suspect it isn’t about an invitation to breakfast. It would appear that JH doesn’t like the truth. The photograph clearly shows him and Roberta Moore demonstrating together and no attempt was made by the ZF to dissociate themselves from the EDL.
But what Hoffman is trying to obscure is the fact that the EDL support Zionist counter-demonstrations in support of the murders on the Mavi Marmara and selling stolen goods in Ahava shop? What is this pole of attraction between the BNP, EDL and most of Europe’s far right and Zionism? Could it be joint hatred of Muslims?
Well the fascists are in no doubt about the matter. Only Israel deals with Muslims as they ought to be dealt with, which is why the BNP supported the 2006 attack on Lebanon and the 2008/9 attack on Gaza.
As Lee Barnes, their legal advisor stated on 28th July 2006,

As a Nationalist I can say that I support Israel 100 % in their dispute with Hezbollah. In fact, I hope they wipe Hezbollah off the Lebanese map and bomb them until they leave large greasy craters in the cities where their Islamic extremist cantons of terror once stood. [accessed 20.8.10.]

Even the staid old Jewish Chronicle recently had a post entitled 'BNP praises Israel minister on foreigners' on November 5, 2009 reporting that 'the British National Party has leapt on comments by Israel’s Interior Minister, Eli Yishai, to suggest that the extreme-right party shares a common immigration policy with Israel.'

And what were these comments? According to Israel's 'Justice' Minister, Eli Yishai:

"If hundreds of thousands of migrant workers come here now, they will bring with them a profusion of diseases: hepatitis, measles, tuberculosis, AIDS and drug [addiction]"

Strange that. It was what anti-Semites and of course the Nazis used to say about the Jews. The target has changed but the ideas remain the same and once again the Zionists are happy for them to oblige.
And why shouldn't they love Israel? It was only a couple of weeks ago that Benjamin Netanyahu explained, in response to those poor sentimental souls in Israel who didn't want the children of migrant labourers to be deported, that the decision was

'"influenced by two primary considerations - the humanitarian consideration and the Zionist consideration. We're looking for a way to absorb and adopt to our hearts children who were brought up and raised here as Israelis. On the other hand, we don't want to create an incentive that will lead to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant workers flooding the country," Ha'aretz 1.8.10.

Translation of this means that the Zionist and the humanitarian considerations were opposed. Zionist considerations mean a Jewish State i.e. as few as possible non-Jewish children and certainly no more. No wonder the BNP just love Zionism and Israel!
As Ruth Smeed for the Board of Deputies of British Jews explained, in the Guardian of 10th April 2009:

"The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web - it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel and at the same time demonises Islam and the Muslim world."

Since I shall not be retracting a word that I wrote I expect m’learned friends to be hauling me off in front of an Old Bailey jury. As I’m not an investment banker/ economist like Jonathan Hoffman, I shall undoubtedly be defending myself when this eventually comes to court.

A lot of World War II anniversaries coming upon us lately - VJ Day, Battle of Britain, et al.
It seems that the capitalist- and state-owned media are bent on reminding us of the necessity of war, of the heroism of the past; that it might somehow help to put a positive spin on current military failures? Or is it that in these times when there's nothing to celebrate, past glories may help to cover the wretchedness of our lot?
Today the actor Robert Hardy was hired to repeat Churchill's Battle of Britain speech, bringing a bit of obligatory showbiz into the celebration. Was Rory Bremner otherwise engaged? Naomi Campbell, post war crimes trial appearance, would have pulled a bigger crowd.
Whenever we are subjected to these Churchill turns, I'm reminded of a lad who did the same for us back in the forties. "Do Churchill", was the request and off he went.
Standing on any nearby spot that raised him above us he would declaim in a ponderous voice "We will fight the them on the beaches, we will fight them ... and the litany of battlegrounds would get longer and more outlandish. I think "... in the shithouses" was a regular feature.
As he rambled on the saliva would roll down his chin and the spittle would fly in authentic Churchillian fashion. More and more as he went on until, I suppose, it got too much, or his saliva glands were exhausted.
How we loved it.
No one would suspect today how much Churchill was hated by the ordinary people of Britain at the time. Whenever his grinning cigar-stuffed face appeared on cinema newsreels a collective booing would break out, with a small coterie of the deferential rising to their feet and applauding. Returning servicemen too gave him a khaki election arse-kicking, which the Tory propagandists couldn't believe. They had made the mistake of misjudging the mood of the people.
Now of course that's all forgotten. Nil de Winston nisi bonum

Second thoughts (21.8.10): Our Churchill street theatre probably dates back to the early fifties, rather than the forties. The Tories were back in power in 1951. An additional feature of our entertainer's shtick was the obligatory victory sign.

I note the passing of the photographer Herman Leonard, creator of one of my favourite photographic images (above). There are many others.

No doubt this will soon be removed by the blog police.

On Blair's alleged £5 million donation to the casualties of his vanity ventures:

Is there no-one in the United Kingdom who can manage to utter the words "What a kind, compassionate, philanthropic gesture"? Apparently not.

"... Blair's humility would be a little easier to swallow if he wasn't also selling a £150, limited-edition version of his book, mocked up to look like the Bible." (Hadley Freeman)

I suspect that in, perhaps five, perhaps a few more years some people will be saying "What happened to the five million? When's it coming?" A spokesperson for the British Legion will be wheeled out to say, "I'm sure that this is an administrative mix-up. With a little time and goodwill it can be sorted out."
Blair will be hard to find, and tight-lipped when cornered. Some money may arrive eventually - but £5 million?

Who can forget the heroic effort of Jeffrey Archer back in 1991 in raising £57 million for the beleaguered Iraqi Kurds (though some cynics claim it was a lot less). One day, I'm sure, the Kurdish people will receive that generous gift.

"I went to a restaurant called A Taste Of The Raj. The waiter beat me with sticks and made me construct a complicated railway system."
Omid Djalili

The former Trotskyist firebrand Alan Milburn appears have arrived at his final destination in his rightward journey, the bosom of the Conservative Party. That's assuming he resists the temptation to join the Neo-Nazis.

When you go home
Tell them of us and say
For your tomorrow
We gave our today.

The 14th Army, "the forgotten army", but some will remember them.

"Internet Killed Israeli PR"
Video by Minor Demographic Threat, anarcho-yiddishists (Hast geheert a za zach?)

"BBC management have taken a lot of stick in recent years, which is unfair. Some should at least be applauded for their unwavering commitment and consistency in taking credit for other people's ideas."
(Phil Jupitus)

"There just isn't any pleasing some people. The trick is to stop trying." (Robert Mitchum)

So Milk Snatcher mark ii has been forced into a rapid volte-face, good exercise for a hubristic reactionary. That was a Thatcherite step too far.
The way things are going with this Fred Karno inspired government a reshuffle cannot be far away. The only problem with that corrective is that the dismissals would have to start at the top. Tweedlecam seems incapable of addressing an audience without making a ricket of breathtaking proportions. His sidekick, Tweedleclegg has informed the world that his colleagues were cheerleaders of an illegal war ('Politician Tells Truth Shock'). That must have given old Hague a jolt as he sat beside the Lib-Dem peacenik. The Gove puppet claims that over a thousand schools are clamouring to become academies post-haste, so rush the legislation through. Then it's "Hang on, slight miscalculation", and it turns out that thirty-six schools have said "Maybe".
Then there was the early bath for somebody whose name I've already forgotten, who was on the fiddle.
It's not going well, is it?

A little snippet I heard on the radio the other day -
51% of the world's scientists are working on military projects. Keeps 'em out of mischief I suppose.

... the victims, according to "Sgt S" who shot six of them, "were without a doubt terrorists". And he produced evidence to back this up, which was: "I could see the murderous rage in their eyes".
This matches the classic definition of a terrorist according to international law, as someone "with murderous rage in their eyes", and shows the key witness in any terrorist trial isn't the forensics expert or explosives analyst but an optician. If they're trained well enough they can shine a light at the iris and tell whether you're short-sighted, long-sighted, Hamas or Basque separatist.

(Mark Steel)

"The thing about the England of recent years is that even when you think you have seen it all, they always find a way of disappointing you further. Only days ago, the sheer scale of the trust-building task was once again underscored by the tale of the gold-plated Frank Lampard iPods. Have you heard this one? Let me summarise: 5,000 gold-plated iPods bearing Frank Lampard's lasered signature are to be melted down after demand for the £599 product failed to materialise in the wake of the World Cup. Do take a moment to digest those details."
...
"If you had to distil the very essence of hubris into a single product, you would surely be left with a gold-plated Frank Lampard iPod. The fact that the brainwave was created in association with a firm backed on Dragon's Den merely crystallises the cloth-brained, soul-sapping nullity of the age in which we are doomed to live."

(Marina Hyde)

I believe you can get a Chelsea shirt emblazoned with Frank's name and the number 8 for about £55.

Women are expected to bear 75% of the burden. The poorest will be hit six times harder than the richest. Internal Treasury documents estimate 1.3 million job losses in public and private sectors.
...
This government of millionaires says "we're all in it together" and "there is no alternative". But, for the wealthy, corporation tax is being cut, the bank levy is a pittance, and top salaries and bonuses have already been restored to pre-crash levels.

(Tony Benn, et al.)

Let's hope that this is not a call to march to the top of the hill then march down again, the preferred option of leftist MPs and union leaders.

"... always willing to carp, never willing to strike." (Jim Callaghan on the Labour Left.)

CAMERON WANTS TO TAKE MY HOME.
Low-life millionaire Tory scum Cameron wants to make me and millions like me homeless. He wants to end our tenancies and make us beg for something worse at a higher price. He wants to empty council houses and sell them for washers to his parasitical property developer cronies.
Let's hope that this will be the point at which the British working class says "No more!" and begins to fight back; to take back the ground we have ceded to the asset strippers, chancers, privateers, and whoremongers who are siphoning off this country's assets. Let's hope we stop waiting for an honest politician to materialise ex machina because it isn't going to happen. Back to DIY politics. Remember the Poll Tax? Everybody hated it except the rich and their mad cow agent in Downing Street. But who got rid of it? The people in the street, not the shiny-arsed whifflers of Westminster.
Let's start watering the grassroots.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

http://wmiww.org/

The CCC* government is scrapping the compulsory retirement age, 65 years. However, just in case those prats who want to hog jobs people with families to keep could be filling think they've won something, there's a little catch in the offing. The CCCs are going to make it easier (EASIER?) for bosses to get rid of employees they don't want. So when the needy and the greedy reach 65 they'll get the heave-ho anyway; unless they'd like to carry on on half the regular wage (they will).
I really despise these old fools who want to carry on slaving till they drop dead. The capitalist media love them.

*Cameron-Clegg Conservatives. Clegg is now revealed as a Tory entrist who seized control of the Liberal Party, just as that other Tory entrist took control of the pale pink party. Now we have a choice of three conservative parties.

An agreement negotiated between the IUF, the Atlanta, USA-based The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC) and Coca-Cola Icecek (CCI, Coca-Cola's Turkey-based bottler for the Middle East, Pakistan and Central Asia), has successfully resolved a long and bitter conflict over employment and trade union rights at Coca-Cola Beverages Pakistan (CCBPL). CCBPL is jointly owned by TCCC and CCI.

Under the agreement, all unfairly dismissed workers will be reinstated with full compensation. The company recognizes the People's Employees' Union (PEU) as the representative of IUF members at the Multan bottling plant and guarantees that there will be no harassment or victimization of union members and officers.

To rectify precarious employment practices which undermined the right to trade union membership in CCBPL's bottling operations, the agreement creates 187 permanent, directly employed positions.

The agreement will be overseen internationally by the IUF and CCI/TCCC and implemented through a local process and implementation group established between the IUF and its affiliates and CCBPL in Pakistan.

... and life goes on, the world still turns.

Eric Cantona advertising the Dirty Digger's sports channels. Cantona you whore, how much did Murdoch pay you pour t'enculer? You have no shame.

"Être français, c’est rester combatif et révolutionnaire." No kidding? Oh yes, kidding.

“It’s quite unbelievable that Ministers preach pay and pensions restraint while quietly pocketing jaw-dropping pension rises. The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming. GMB members on £6 an hour in the public sector are told they face job losses, pay freezes and pension cuts by government ministers who are taking massive hikes to their own pensions. It’s a real sickener and the Tory and Lib Dem Ministers should hang their heads in shame. Obviously ‘we’re all in it together’ doesn’t apply to these fattest of fat cats.”

Unbelievable? I have no problem believing it.

Bravo, Alberto Contador, three times winner of the Tour de France.
Bravo, Mark Cavendish, winner of five stages. What did Chris Boardman say - the best sprinter ever? What did I say? That he wouldn't make it to Paris. A portion of humble pie, s'il vous plait.
Andy Schleck says he has a date with the yellow jersey in 2011. Could be.
And good luck to Laurent Fignon, who I always preferred to Hinault (minority opinion).

The Deputy Prime Minister, speaking at the dispatch box in the House of Commons (ex cathedra, so to speak), declared the Iraq adventure an "illegal war". Now he must use his powers to bring the lawbreakers to justice. Any other course would surely be a dereliction of duty, and could leave him open to a charge of some or other offence - withholding evidence? Obstructing the police? Being an accessory after the fact?

No charges over Ian Tomlinson death
(Headline in today's Guardian)

Well, well!
Am I psychic? Or am I just a bloke with a long memory? Jimmy Kelly, Liddel Towers, Blair Peach, et al., et al., et al?

Ian Tomlinson death: verdict tomorrow on whether police will be charged
Headline in today's Guardian. Can't wait, the suspense (like the Met) is killing.

Cameron has been summoned to the headmaster's office for a bollocking.
Having abased himself before Netanyahu, kissed and made up with the Pakistanis, and given Karzai more time to loot his non-nation's coffers, Obama needs a dog to kick. Step forward the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

No such thing as society - the Tory party line 1987.
The Big Society - the Tory party line 2010.
All boils down to the same thing in the end; we can't have peppercorn taxes for the super rich, AND finance a welfare system. You're on your own.

STS Bulletin no. 27
"The BBC will have to make tough decisions like everyone else. There are huge numbers of things that need to be changed at the BBC. They need to demonstrate the very constrained financial situation we are now in." (Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary)

means

"Soon, Mr. Murdoch, soon."

Dead Man Walking
The Conservatives are back from the dead, and so is that old soak, Professor Norman Stone. Apparently he is among us to sing the praises of his patron, Lady Gaga.
I remember a time when an edition of newsnight without him, glassy-eyed and drooling, was a blessed relief.
"Socialists eat babies." He would declare.
"Are you sure, Professor?" the cowed interviewer would ask nervously.
"Do you dare to question my reputation as a leading historian? As a man of honesty and integrity? As a drinking crony of the old witch who could have your job in a trice."
"Oh no, Professor Stone, do carry on."

Then he slipped off to Turkey and academic obscurity, or so we thought. But cometh the hour cometh the incoherent man. Perhaps little Slithy Gove will hire him to help Professor Niall Ferguson to rewrite British history.

Vuvuzela from John Greyson on Vimeo.

Reading through a report of a conference celebrating the centenary of the Swedish union, SAC, I found this paragraph of particular interest -

The SUF is behind the ingenious and well-organised Planka initiative, part of an international campaign for free
public transport (which the Scottish Socialist Party is also affiliated to). Users of the underground train system can
pay a monthly subscription and then faredodge. If they are caught Planka will pay their fine out of the pool of
money. The substantial remainder of the money in the pool works as a general slush fund for the radical movement.
Planka has several thousand members and is going from strength to strength.

SUF is for Syndikalistika Ungdomsförbundet, (Syndicalist Youth Association, I think). More on the Planka Initiative here.

Coca-Cola Pakistan Turns its Back on Multi-million Dollar World Bank Loan - What Have They Got to Hide?

Quatorze Juillet -

"... upon the immortal 14th 0f July, 1789, a day which gave new life to man, the pillars of superstition were shaken by the capture of the Bastille, and the thunderbolt of reason hurled despotism from its throne." Citizen Robert Watson
(Quoted by Graham Bain in his biography of the good doctor)

"And regrettably, sadly, they played very dirty. So much so that they should have been down to nine immediately, then they made two [such] ugly and hard tackles that even I felt the damage.

"It hurts me that I was wrong in my disagreement that instead Holland chose an ugly path to aim for the title.

"This ugly, vulgar, hard, hermetic, hardly eye-catching, hardly football style, yes it served the Dutch to unsettle Spain. If with this they got satisfaction, fine, but they ended up losing. They were playing anti-football."

(Johan Cruyff)

Today is the 12th of July when we remember the chestnut mare (some of us anyway).

It's also a rest day on the Tour, and the first day of life without the World Cup.
Let me add my voice to the tumult, "Klootzakken!"
And echo the widely held opinion; Spain deserved to win. Forlán (Uruguay) was the best player on view on my telly, though some go for Iniesta.
The Dutch coach reckons that, with a different referee, his team could have won. Is that an honest opinion or an attempt to blame someone else for a disgraceful display? With another referee they could have been down to nine men in ordinary time.

How does that Millwall song go, "Nobody likes us, we don't care"?

Baron Prescott of Kingston upon Hull - what a liberty!
The bloke's Welsh, he only came to Hull because Liverpool was too hot for him after he scabbed during the 1960 seamen's strike. I found a title for him, Lord Prescott of Corned Beef Island, but it seems he wants all Hull as his domain. Still it's only a life peerage, so it won't be handed on to his offspring. The Prescott-Hull connection will soon fade away.

Dustin Hoffman and Meg Ryan have cancelled appearances at the Jerusalem Film Festival. Prince Albert of Monaco,who was to attend a tribute to his mother, Grace Kelly, has also cancelled.
Meanwhile one John Lydon is going to do his bit for the Palestinian cause by exposing his nauseating persona to a desperate Israeli public. They deserve him.

Sir Elton John, the pop Falstaff, was a sellout success at Ramat Gan. His appearance was as outlandish as ever, taking the form of the Michelin Man.

(I love this picture)

Argentina 0, Germany 4
¡Ay, ay, ay! I'm sorry to see Argentina go, they were my favourites to win the trophy. Sorry for Maradona too. There was a period when it wasn't possible to like the little fellow, but all is forgiven. I hope he keeps the job if he still wants it.

Netherlands 2, Brazil 1.
I'm glad. Brazil didn't deserve to progress further. Anyway, it upsets the pundits when things don't go smoothly, i.e., according to their predictions.

Today begins the Big Loop, featuring sportsmen who earn their wages. There is a "British" team in competition, Team Murdoch. Needless to say it won't get my support. And I don't like Bradley Wiggins since he couldn't be bothered to turn up to sign in when a leg of the Tour of Britain started in Hull a couple of years ago. Too big for Hull, not big enough for the podium on the 25th - just my opinion.

Binyamin Netanyahu, tonight confirmed he was prepared to release 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, but drew the line at paying "any price" for the soldier's freedom.

They have one thousand Palestinian prisoners*, and all we hear about is one Israeli?
Talk about victim culture!
Shalit's grandfather says that the Netanyahu statement is a death sentence on Gilad. Maybe that is the intention. There are those who say Shalit the dead martyr is more useful to the Israelis than Shalit the Hamas bargaining chip.
An agreement between Hamas and Israeli negotiators for Shalit's release needed only the nod from Netanyahu, but he turned it down. He didn't want a propaganda coup for Hamas (or perhaps it was a case of "Bring me the corpse of Gilad Shalit").

*In fact they have many more.

Right, Afghanistan, let me settle that problem for the politicians. The war in Afghanistan will end when the politicans have the honesty and the guts to say, "We can't win this war, so we're skinning out."
When they do the Taliban will fire off their feux de joie, bugger a few little boys, and slaughter anyone they don't like. They will declare that they have defeated the evil crusaders. In the sense that they are still in Afghanistan and the invaders have left they can kid themselves that they have won. In fact everybody knows that it's a conflict that no-one can win.
But there will be losers: the dead of all nations and their grieving kin; the taxpayers of the alliance of the damned; and the United States military, whose credibility as a fighting force will be Vietnam-low. Finally the poor bombed and buffeted people of Afghanistan who will be left as prey to the régime of murderous fanatics.
And Karzai will settle down in Florida, USA, among all the other failed puppets of the American Empire.
Live long enough and history just becomes a series of repeats.

The Cameron-Clegg Connards are going to -
Cut the number of armed services personnel
Cut the number of police
Cut the number of offenders sent to prison

Imagine the ruckus if the Labour Party had even hinted at doing any of this.

A message from Bob Crow of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) -

“This ConDem administration has thrown down the biggest challenge to the Trade Union Movement since Margaret Thatcher took on the National Union of Mineworkers. I have no hesitation in saying that it will take general and co-ordinated strike action across the public and private sectors to stop their savage assault on jobs, living standards and public services.
“The Trade Unions must form alliances with community groups, campaigns and pensioners organisations in the biggest show of united resistance since the success of the anti-poll tax movement. Waving banners and placards will not be enough – it will take direct action to stop the Cameron and Clegg cuts machine.
“We have a right wing Tory Government propped up by a Liberal Party that has binned every commitment that it gave to voters in the run up to the election in order to grab power. That’s why we say this administration has no mandate for its cuts and that’s why we argue that bulldozing through their austerity measures amounts to fiscal fascism. It was zombie capitalism that dragged us into this mess and our people should not be made to pay to clear it up.
“The Trade Unions can only fight these attacks from the front foot. We have a Government of millionaire public school boys who are determined to rule by fear – fear of losing your job, fear of losing your home and fear of losing your benefits and the public services that you rely on.
“RMT says don’t fear them, fight them. Our Trade Union has a slogan, “never on our knees”, and from Aberdeen we want those words to ring out on the Millionaires Row of Clegg and Cameron. They started this fight with the working class and we are up for it.”

It would be really something if the "leadership" of other unions were to join Bob Crow and offer more than token opposition to the wreckers.

(The sound of bitter laughter is heard.)

All this fuss about the book "to Kill a Mocking Bird", a novel I've never read, a film I've never seen, and probably never will.
An allegation I once read somewhere which doesn't seem to have made much impact - Ms. Harper Lee didn't write the book, it was the work of her friend Truman Capote, who gave it to her to publish under her name. If true, it would explain why Ms. Lee has never written another book.
The main weakness with this claim is the idea of Capote keeping his mouth shut about it all those years. Who could believe that?

If you read an interview with one of those "world-famous nonentities" who dominate our media, and they claim that their favourite book is "To Kill a Mocking Bird", you know that they haven't read a book since leaving school. I believe it was a set work at one time. The same is true of "Lord of the Flies" for slightly older nonentities.

Alleged Russian spy to FBI interrogators: "OK, I put my hands up. Now let me go, as you do with all the Israeli spies you catch."

In case any book reading Tynesiders happen to be passing through -

At 7pm on Tuesday 6th July at The Irish Centre, Newcastle (opposite St James Metro) Dave Douglass introduces GHOST DANCERS, the final volume his mining trilogy, launched to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the end of the miners’ strike. Dave Douglass is a long-standing and well-known member of the National Union of Mineworkers in the Durham and Doncaster coalfields and was a coalminer for 40-plus years Hence this is a first-person, insider's view, of, probably, the last generation of miners and their union. It explores the great coal strike of 1984/85 and the background to it and explodes the prevailing myths around that epic period, and corrects the inaccuracies in dozens of previous books on the subject. It also uniquely deals with the post strike period.In relating these events Dave has not sought to exclude those smaller, more personal aspects that intersect this trajectory and link the personal to the political, the major to the minor.

Some unspoken quotes on the Germany-England game -
"Nice to be booed by your own fans, much nicer than walking off to a stunned silence."
(Mr. Potatohead)

"You stupid Inglesi pay me £2 million per anno. Me ne frega niente."
(Il Duce)

"We wuz robbed. We should have been beaten 4-2."
(Whining English journalist)

Come to think of it, that last comment may yet be spoken, or written.

Spoken before, during, and after any match involving Argentina -
"Hand of God - Hand of God - Hand of God" ad nauseam.
(Any English commentator)

While we're waiting for the wealth to trickle down here's a little peek into the future under our "tough but fair" Tories. fleming is advised to avoid it at all costs.

Alan Plater died this morning, struck down by the Bengal Lancer at age 75.
Playwright, raconteur, jazz fan, Hull City supporter (through thick and mostly thin) and champion of northern working class values. One of the old school, as we of the old school are wont to say.
Born in Jarrow, but raised in Hull, he was proud of his roots and loyal to them. Several of his works were set in Hull, or about Hull people. Others were set in the North-East. But he wasn't parochial in his outlook. I remember one play about Lester Young's hard time in the US army in World War 2.
My favourite from his output for television was his adaptation of Chris Mullin's novel "A Very British Coup", about a Labour Prime Minister far removed from any of the genuine article.
Many people remember his Beiderbecke Trilogy with affection, as do I. Somebody referred to it today as "the gold standard" of television writing.

Here's a bit of Alan, not too serious. I think it's a lyric to a song. It's about the people who play his kind of music, starting with the less celebrated and ending with the ones recognisable by a single name or nickname (there's a lot more I've left out).

Trading fours on Giant steps
Ulysses Livingson, George Van Epps
Vincent Herring and Bobby Few
Do the same on Tea for Two
Playing changes on Midnight Sun
Hannibal Peterson and Teddy Bunn
Putney Dandridge Dardanelle Hadley,
want you to know they love you madly
Round about midnight the legends show
Lester, Billie, Earl and Joe
Ella, Louis, Bix and Bill
Ben and Dizzy, Miles and Gil
Ornette, Django, Slim and Slam
Big Syd, Ray, and Roy and Sam
Bubber, Jelly Roll and Duke
Bean and Bud and Sweets and Klook
Big Tea, Sweet Pea, Teddy and Bunk
Big Joe, Big Mo, Eddy and Monk.

Addio Azzuri
Addio Calciopoli
Al cazzo Berlusconi
Forza Slovacchia!

"Tough but fair" was the slogan of the Tories Cameron and Clegg. What they meant was tough on the wage-slaves and the casualties of capitalism, but fair to the point of albinism to their own kind, the millionaires.
It didn't take long for featherbedded fatcats to decide to have some fun at our expense. "I think I'll award myself a well-earned £641,000 bonus out of your money" said one Iain Coucher, "after all without it I would only be (ahem!) earning £614,000 per annum. Of course one excludes expenses and the pension pot from these calculations."
Peter Henderson, who manages the company's assets, to great personal advantage, is lifting a £453,000 bonus to supplement his meagre £440,000 salary.

And so on; but before accusations of profligacy start to fly let us consider the savings these gentlemen have made. They have frozen the salaries and cancelled bonuses of those who don't put their feet up in the boardroom. Such painful sacrifices are necessary for a company that has seen its pre-tax profits fall by by more than half.
The government, we learn, is "very disappointed" in Messrs Coucher, Henderson, et al.
Unfortunately it can't do anything about it because, though the money is ours, the company isn't. Say good-bye to your money, taxpayers, and await a blistering attack from the Taxpayers Alliance.
Wait a minute - does the Taxpayers Alliance do blistering attacks on a Tory government?

Killer Cola strikes again
The corporation that finances death squads in Colombia is at it again in Pakistan.

Since forming a union at Coca-Cola's bottling plant in the southern Pakistan city of Multan in June 2009, members have met with death threats, abduction,firings, extortion, forgery and fraud. Management's vicious response to the workers' fight for a union is a story drenched with violence, corruption, sleaze and escalating criminality.
The Multan workers need your support. Despite all these illegal acts theunion officers and their supporters remain steadfast in their determinationto win union recognition and become the IUF’s newest members in theCoca-Cola system.

Send a message to Coca-Cola
http://tinyurl.com/37o53vb

Learn more
http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/415

I had to recycle this comment, made by one Zehmkeria, in today's Guardian -

The England soccer team visited an orphanage in Soweto on Saturday.
“It’s heartbreaking to see their sad little faces with no hope”, said Sipho, aged 6.

We'll see. I'm not looking forward to it, but there's some things a man's gotta do.

Update: they're through to the playoffs, and in 93 minutes they went from a bunch of no-hopers to the greatest team in the world. Oh fickle fandom!

Well, the first of my World Cup predictions has gone for a burton. The host nation has gone out in the first round. Even the obliging French couldn't help them, though they tried their best - Quelle politesse.

"How fitting that even England's mutiny should lack movement in the attack."
(Marina Hyde)

Ouch!

“I have always believed that music inhabits a world set apart from politics, religious differences or prejudice of any kind,” (Elton John)
Money too, eh?
Wake up, mountebank, and smell the putrefying corpses.

Sunny on "pickled Politics" reports that HMV are removing 'ANYONE BUT ENGLAND' merchandise from their Scottish stores, fearing accusations of racism (?).
I suggest that just adding '... OR FRANCE' would make it a statement of fact rather than an impious hope.

I Read in the paper that that strange individual, Sebastian Horsley, has died.
His autobiography, "Dandy in the Underworld", was quite funny in places, but spiced with a large dose of fabrication in my opinion.
I did, however, make a note of his comment on the sculpture in Hull's Queen's Gardens, commissioned by his grandfather and knocked together by his alleged boyfriend, the ex-gangster Jimmy Boyle. Young Horsley wrote, "You wouldn't have had it in your garden - even if you loved gnomes." Probably correct, though you never know with gnome-fanciers. According to Horsley he and Boyle, rotten drunk, went down to the gardens the night before the unveiling of the work with a couple of hammers to try to demolish it. It survived the attack.
Boyle is another imaginative autobiographer, presenting himself as a working-class hero. He was no such thing. He was a moneylender who battened on the poorest, and battered them too if they couldn't keep up with his demands for repayment with criminal rates of interest. He also ran shebeens in order to wring more out of the most vulnerable. He exploited the poor as much as any gombeen man or sweat-shop owner.

Addendum - "The producers of the stage adaptation of Dandy in the Underworld, which opened two days ago, said: 'We are of course reeling from the shock and deeply saddened by the news of Sebastian Horsley's death. We're working out the most appropriate and respectful course of action.'"
Why, exploit the publicity and make more money of course. Did they even consider an alternative?

The British consulate did not come and see me. I did not see a lawyer.
...
The only reason I believe I was released was because the Turkish prisoners refused to leave until and unless the other nationalities (those whose consulates had not come and released them) were set free.
...
The British government did not lift a finger to help me, till this day I have not seen or heard from a British official.
The Israeli government stole my passport.
The Israeli government stole my lap top, two cameras, 3 phones, $1500 and all my possessions.
My government, the British government has not even acknowledged my existence.
I was kidnapped by Israel. I was forsaken by my country
(Jamal Elshayyal)

The reason is, Jamal, that our government secretly endorses all that the Israelis have done, and hopes that you and others will leave it to get on with the ethnic cleansing.

WHO IS LANCE-CORPORAL F?
Clearly a sadistic psychopath - I wonder if he committed further murders after his return to civvy street. He may be dead, the British establishment usually waits till the guilty are dead or otherwise out of reach before pointing the finger at its own.
The following exchange took place in 2003.

On Thursday last week, Christopher Clarke QC, told Soldier F that the evidence was that he had opened fire on Michael Kelly, Patrick Doherty and Bernard McGuigan, and William McKinney entirely "without justification". In each case, the soldier admitted to the inquiry that, despite his many previous claims to the contrary, he was in fact responsible for all of the shootings.
This admission, however, only came after two days of intense questioning by both Clarke and the lawyers representing the families. For most of that time, the former Lance Corporal in the Anti-Tank Platoon had made every effort, possibly under instruction, to obstruct the inquiry by claiming to have what Seamus Treacy termed as "total amnesia" about the events of Bloody Sunday. But as the evidence against him mounted up, he was left with no place to hide.
"You killed up to four people, possibly even more," said Clarke in a dramatic series of questions, summing up the raft of charges against him. "Firstly Michael Kelly, and we know that you killed him because of the forensic evidence that a bullet from your gun was found in his body."
"That is correct," replied F.
"Secondly," Clarke continued, "you have accepted that you shot Barney McGuigan, whose photograph, in a pool of blood, you have seen; do you remember that?" Soldier F: "Yes." Clarke: "Do you also accept that you shot Patrick Doherty?" Soldier F: "Yes." Clarke: "There is evidence that you shot William McKinney in Glenfada Park; do you follow?" Soldier F: "Yes." Clarke: "What is alleged in relation to each of those four people is that you shot them without justification, that is to say, that you murdered them; do you follow?" Soldier F "I follow, it is not correct, but I follow, yes."
Soldier F was also accused of wounding at least three other people in Glenfada Park and at the Rossville Flats. Clarke then told F that, further, he was accused of lying when he made each of his numerous statements, and of perjuring himself, both a the Widgery Tribunal and at the current inquiry "both as to what you have said and as to what you have not revealed". The reason for this, said Clarke, is because "you have needed to conceal unlawful activities on your part and on the part of your colleagues".
Finally, the former Para, also identified as 'Dave', was accused of "appalling brutality", amounting to torture, of the detainees at Fort George, people who he had, quite deliberately, falsely accused of being rioters.
During Soldier F's evidence, the inquiry heard that he had been "great mates" with Soldier G and that the two had worked together on Bloody Sunday. Between them, they are accused of the killings of upwards of seven people and of attempting to kill several others. In this respect, the inquiry was reminded of the evidence of Soldier 027, also a member of the Anti-Tank Platoon. 027 recalled that the night before Bloody Sunday, the platoon was urged to "get some kills" by their lieutenant, known as 119.
"I cannot now remember whether these events were first voiced by the lieutenant, but I do remember the comment being repeated by the soldier sitting next to me to my left. I have a clear memory of him nodding his head in acknowledgment and repeating what was said, as if he had made his mind up. Because he was the first individual I noticed from our platoon who fired a shot on the day, the memory of his reaction during the discussion the previous evening stayed in my memory.
"That individual, from my personal point of view, was more than any other individual, responsible for instigating and perpetrating what occurred on Bloody Sunday."
That individual was, of course, Soldier F.
Soldier 027 also recalled the moment when F opened fire. "We ran towards a small wall surrounding a garden in front of Kells Walk - a crowd of people were facing us. As F reached the pavement by the end of the small wall, he went down into a kneeling position beside it, raised his rifle to his shoulder and, without pause or hesitation, commenced firing towards the centre of the crowd.
"Within seconds, other soldiers came on the scene, some kneeling and some standing, joining in the firing. I could see strikes on the barricade. Two people towards the centre of the barricade, who had been facing us, fell within a few seconds of each other in the opening burst of firing.
"I had the distinct impression that this was a case of some soldiers realising this was an opportunity to fire their weapon and they did not want to miss the chance.
"My impression has always been that the two of them, Lance Corporal F and Soldier G, had a preconceived idea of what they were going to do that day and set about doing it as a pair of oppos."
The inquiry was also reminded of the evidence of a priest, Father O'Keefe, who had been detained at Fort George. Soldier G was described by Father O'Keefe as "very blond, almost whitish hair. He had very scary eyes and had a frightening, almost psychotic look about him". Soldier F was described as smaller, "about 5'7" or 5'8" with a thin face and a regional accent, maybe Scottish".
In his evidence, Father O'Keefe vividly described the behaviour of the two men. "I distinctly remember these two soldiers roaming around and subjecting people in the room to more idle brutality," he said. "They would stamp on people's feet or knee people in the groin for no apparent reason. They appeared to be targeting younger lads, 15- to 17-year olds.
"I remember one soldier coming into the room and ordering that heaters should be brought in. Heaters duly arrived and the two soldiers I have described made two young fellows stand with their faces very close to the heaters for a long time.
"One of these two young fellows was clearly distressed by this treatment. I remember F saying to him 'Do you want a drink?' The young fellow said Yes' and was told to open his mouth. F spat in it."
At one point, Fr O'Keefe said, "F came up to me and said 'You were throwing stones, were you not?' I said, 'No, I am a Roman Catholic priest and a lecturer in philosophy and I do not throw stones'. F stepped back, paused for a moment and then kicked me very hard in the groin."
Over the course of his time in the witness box, the inquiry heard how Soldier F, along with his friend Soldier G, has been the subject of sustained and detailed allegations of brutality in Derry and in Belfast by both civilians and other soldiers. However, his actions, observed Treacy, both on Bloody Sunday and elsewhere, had never harmed his career. He had been promoted and had remained in the army until 1988. The implication was therefore, said Treacy, that not only did the army authorities not disapprove of his actions, they positively endorsed them.
His career progressed despite the fact that the British Army at one point had to settle out of court after F and G severely beat Francis Creagh and Roman Muldoon, before dumping them on the Shankill Road. Soldier F blithely denied being involved and claimed that, in his two years in the Six Counties, he had never, as Treacy put it, lifted his hand to anybody, nor had he seen any other British soldier do so. He also claimed to have "scrupulously" adhered to the Yellow Card rules on discharging his weapon at all times, an assertion dismissed as "rubbish" by Treacy after the inquiry heard how Soldier F admitted that he had cocked his weapon with a round in the breech before advancing into the Bogside - an action expressly forbidden in the Yellow Card.
"You have a casual disregard for life [and] you also have a casual disregard for the truth," Treacy told him.
At one point, as the soldier continued with his increasingly ludicrous and implausible inability to remember anything at all, even Lord Saville appeared to become increasingly frustrated. "I am beginning to wonder about the utility of this," he commented.
During questioning by Eilis McDermott QC, for the family of Patrick Doherty, Soldier F was accused of using a "hunting shot" to kill Doherty. "The sort of shot that you take if you can get no other kind of shot - a cheap shot.
"I want to suggest to you on behalf of the Doherty family," she said, "that you murdered Mr Doherty and that as you sit there, you have got away with murder and that you have no intention of alleviating the suffering that they have endured over all these years by even attempting explain to them your role and what went on."
Lord Anthony Gifford QC, representing the family of James Wray, suggested to Soldier F that "you personally relished the prospect of going into the no-go areas and getting to grips with the people of the Bogside. You were sent in like a school of piranha fish into a public swimming pool to create mayhem - and you drew blood wherever you went."

"The idea we lost the 2010 election because of Iraq simply does not add up to the conversations I have had around the country." (Miliband major). That sounds to me very close to "I'd do it again".
No, David, it wasn't because of the Iraq war, it was because you are the kind of people who take us to war after war, and tell us lie after lie.

John Crace reads the books you can't be bothered to read and pares them down for you. He also, as in this case, reads the books you wouldn't want to touch, leave aside read. This one is by Mad Mel Phillips who probably thinks Avigdor Lieberman is a Hamas stooge. Only the Daily Mail and the BBC regard her rants as worth dissemination. Oh, and Encounter Books, whoever they are.
No doubt we'll soon be hearing that Mr. Crace is an anti-semite, a holocaust denier and a cossack pogromchik. Meantime here's a paragraph from his digested read of Mad Mel's work.

"The anti-Semitic lies proliferate at a terrifying speed. The most pernicious is that Israel has no sense of humour. What's not to laugh about Mossad agents flying in to Dubai and taking out an Arab? All I can say is thank God there are still some fearless media outlets, such as Fox News and the Daily Mail, who are prepared to stand up for the truth. Hey? What's with the strait-jacket? Where are you taking me?"

"U2? Pat Boone (ask your granny) was more rock and roll." (Éamonn McCann)

"As British commentators have rushed to point out, we did not burn US executives in effigy after Occidental's Piper Alpha rig exploded, killing 167 men, in 1988. And Union Carbide's shamefully evasive performance before, during and since the Bhopal disaster in 1984 was highlighted in an Indian court again only last week. That killed 3,000 people directly, and many more since." (Michael White)

One 'BarlieChrooker' comments -
"Another big company that caused lots of collateral damage recently is Lehman Brothers, their greed-fueled implosion has cost Britain billions.
Therefore, BP should compensate the U.S. govt. once the U.S govt. has compensated the UK for Lehman's."

HISTORY LESSON
(NOT from Professor Ferguson's set texts)

They say that they are new, they christen themselves by acronyms: G8, IMF, WB, WTO, NAFTA, FTAA… They cannot fool us, they are the same as those who have come before them: the écorcheurs that plundered our villages, the oligarchs that reconquered Florence, the court of Emperor Sigismund that beguiled Ian Hus, the diet of Tuebingen that obeyed Ulrich and refused to admit Poor Konrad, the princes that sent the lansquenets to Frankenhausen, the impious that roasted Dozsa, the landlords that tormented the Diggers, the autocrats that defeated Pugachev, the government whom Byron cursed, the old world that stopped our assaults and destroyed all stairways to heaven.
Nowadays they have a new empire, they impose new servitudes on the whole globe, they still play the lords and masters of the land and the sea.
Once again, we the multitudes rise up against them.

(Wu Ming)

One consolation I expected from the election of a Conservative government was the likely disappearance from the current affairs discussion roster of the annoying little creep Michael Gove. Perhaps my relief was misplaced, for the man once known as 'Red Mike' is now our education secretary, and teachers and students won't be able to switch him off.

"Last week", writes Seumas Milne, "the new education secretary publicly appealed to pro-empire TV historian Niall Ferguson to help rewrite the history curriculum for English schools. Considering this is a man who has unashamedly championed British colonialism and declared that "empire is more necessary in the 21st century than ever before", letting him loose on some of the most sensitive parts of the school syllabus in multicultural Britain might have been expected to provoke uproar."

The professor favours a less than liberal interpretation of the duties of empire's servants. "Ferguson demanded that the US learn from the British empire and crush resistance in Falluja with 'severity'."

It seems that there is nostalgia for the white man's burden in certain government circles. Let's hope that Baroness Warsi doesn't end up as Minister for Babus, Punkah-wallahs and Chai-wallahs.

30% increase in trade unionists killed world-wide

"The annual survey of trade union rights was released today -- and I'm sorry to say that the news is not good.
According to the International Trade Union Confederation, 101 trade unionists were killed last year.
And that represents a 30% increase on the year before.
That even a single human being dies because they are members of a trade union is a tragedy.
That 101 are killed in a single year is a moral outrage."

(Eric Lee, Labourstart)

Some World Cup predictions (based on past events) -

The host nation team will qualify from its group. The host nation always makes it past the first round, no matter how bad the team. Imagine the riots if it went straight out.

England will qualify from group C. There will be some scares on the way because the overpaid, overindulged ponces never try too hard. You see teams like the USA and Algeria are just there to make up the numbers, and there are two chances of getting through.

At least one England team member will let the side down, either on or off the field of play.

The refereeing will be atrocious, especially the refereeing of games England lose.

In any refereeing decision that could go either way it will go the way of the bigger team. For example, if Portugal score against Ivory Coast and there's an appeal for offside that's a close call, the goal will stand. If Ivory coast score against Portugal and there's an appeal for offside that's a close call, the goal will be disallowed. Unless, of course Portugal are winning 4-0 in the 87th minute.

Some English fan will be arrested and held for an act of violence, possibly murder. We will then read in the British press that, according to those who know him, he's as gentle as a lamb and a loving son and father. He will also have no chance of a fair trial under this (i.e., any foreign) country's corrupt legal system. British consular officials will chase around like blue-arsed flies trying to get him released.

Whenever anyone said "It's time we gave the Liberals/Lib Dems a chance", I had a stock reply. "Yes, let them show us how 'realistic' they'll be in power. Let them stick their noses in the trough."

Before the election (six weeks ago?) the Liberal-Democrats were bent on scrapping Trident. Now they want to keep it.
Before the election the Liberal-Democrats were going to get rid of university tuition fees. Now not only are they going to keep them, they're going to raise them.
Before the election Vince Cable was going to introduce strict regulation of the market and stop bankers' superbonuses. After the election Vince addressed a cluster of fatcats and told them that, when it comes to the city, he's a deep-blue tory.
Before the election Nick Clegg was sick of Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people and intended to do something about it if he won office. What he's done since becoming deputy prime minister is declare his undying love for Israel. On British subservience to the USA, which he deplored before rising in the world, he has yet to pronounce. I predict a change of heart.

"What a difference a day makes." Dinah Washington

"A week is a long time in politics." Harold Wilson

"The road to Hell is a journey of five weeks." Jemmy Hope

"Consummatum est. This bill is ended
And Faustus has bequeathed his soul to Lucifer."
Christopher Marlowe

Is that supposed to be you?" asked my lady wife on seeing the photograph on the blog.
"Yeah, like me, isn't he?"
"Not at all."
"Apart from the facial hair."
"No."
"What? The high forehead, long nose, hostile stare?"
"Nothing like you."

Wad the Lord the giftie gie us
Tae see oorsels as ithers see us.
Something like that.

The first image I had to represent me was a character out of the Simpsons just known as "old man". That lasted a while until the people who police the blog removed it. Something to do with copyright.
So I looked around for an elderly male, not exactly ugly, but ... you know. I ended up with a photograph of an IWW organiser from long ago named Michael Sheehan. It came off the IWW website, no copyright there, eh fellow workers?
Then I managed to get a photograph of myself without grandkids; their presence seems to be the only thing that turns camera lenses in my direction. When TGIA wrote that the photograph looked like Jean-Pierre Cassel I knew it wasn't truly representative, so back to the drawing board.
Along came Gavin Maxwell, author and otter-fancier and no matinee idol. My double I thought, but it seems I got it wrong again.
In the words of Sam Cooke, "A change is gonna come."

The martyrs of the Mavi Marmara -

Cengiz Akyüz
Ali Heyder Bengi
Ibrahim Bilgen
Celdet Kiliçlar
Cengiz Songür
Çetin Topçuoglu
Fahri Yaldiz
Necdet Yildirim
(all Turkish nationals)

Furkan Doğan
(US national)

"Nine Turkish men on board the Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30 times and five were killed by gunshot wounds to the head, according to the vice-chairman of the Turkish council of forensic medicine, which carried out the autopsies for the Turkish ministry of justice today.
"The results revealed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back. A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has US citizenship, was shot five times from less that 45cm, in the face, in the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back. Two other men were shot four times, and five of the victims were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, said Yalcin Buyuk, vice-chairman of the council of forensic medicine.
"The findings emerged as more survivors gave their accounts of the raids. Ismail Patel, the chairman of Leicester-based pro-Palestinian group Friends of al-Aqsa, who returned to Britain today, told how he witnessed some of the fatal shootings and claimed that Israel had operated a 'shoot to kill policy'.
"He calculated that during the bloodiest part of the assault, Israeli commandos shot one person every minute. One man was fatally shot in the back of the head just two feet in front him and another was shot once between the eyes. He added that as well as the fatally wounded, 48 others were suffering from gunshot wounds and six activists remained missing, suggesting the death toll may increase."
(Guardian, 4th June, emphasis added)

Apparently six of the fatalities were the victims of one man, who is to be decorated for his heroism. Presumably he's one of those professional killers the Israelis send out to murder Palestinians worldwide. As these killing took place in international waters this individual didn't need to adopt a stolen British identity.

"The myth of the brave and utterly infallible Israeli soldier is shattered. Now we can add: they are common thieves. For I was not the only one to be robbed of my money, credit card, clothes, MP3 player, laptop; the same happened to many others on the same ship as me, which was attacked early one morning by masked Israeli soldiers, who were thus in fact nothing other than lying pirates."

Henning Mankell, author, witness, victim of piracy, abductee, victim of looters.

Further to my last post and the helpful comments it elicited -

I hope the the Rachel Corrie has not gone to Cyprus (Famagusta?) for the equipment. It's clear from what happened to the other ships that the Cypriot government is in cahoots with the rogue state. The sabotage of some of the flotilla, which the Israelis are hinting at, will almost certainly have taken place there. Could it have been done without Cypriot facilitation?
Then there's the removal and detention of the EU politicians. Why, if not at Israel's request?
The likelihood of any equipment installed in a Cypriot port having been doctored by Mossad strikes me as very high. The possibility of its failure just as it's most needed should be considered.
Nor can one rule out the possibility that the Cypriots would prevent the Rachel C. from leaving port, ostensibly for the safety of the crew and passengers.
Cyprus is no friend of Turkey, and with good reason, but cosying up to a state that is rapidly becoming a pariah makes no sense in the long term. It may feel comforting to be on good terms with the local bully, but it just means having more enemies than friends. Compare the United Kingdom, Little Satan to the US's Great Satan. How much international goodwill have we sacrificed in order to maintain that abusive, exploitative relationship?

Is there a news blackout of the M.V. Rachel Corrie? I can't find anything anywhere.

STS Bulletin no.26

"Israel's legitimate security concerns"
means Israel's carte blanche to kill anyone anywhere at any time.

"Activists"
means hmanitarian aid volunteers.

"Hamas terrorists"
means the democratically elected administration in the Gaza Gulag.

Why do we put up with this shit?

Give the apartheid state a taste of its own medicine, an immediate embargo. It's up to a right-minded public. The politicians refuse to act just as they did with apartheid South Africa. It was people power which effected change then.

“Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes.”

Sometimes we have to remind ourselves that not all Americans are foaming-at-the-mouth, gun-toting, flag-wagging nutters who think that bombing and occupying third world countries is the way to conduct business on the international stage.

From Craig Murray on yesterday's BBC damage limitation exercise on behalf of the Israeli rogue state -

I Just Can't Believe This Is Happening
In two and a half hours of coverage BBC News has interviewed the Israeli government spokesman and covered live an Israeli government press conference, while reporters have set out at length the Israeli government view of events nine times. There has been no attempt to interview anyone from the convoy organisers, from the Turkish government, or from the Palestinians, and no expression of scepticism or even reserve by any reporter about the Israeli version of events.
A BBC journalist has stated - quite wrongly - that the blockade of Gaza is legal, and there has been no mention of the fact that it is illegal to board a foreign ship in international waters.
UPDATE BBC producres refuse to put up any interviewee except from the Israeli propaganda regime. The Israeli command on the 10am news was the worst example yet. But my warm congratulations to the female anchor who, despite this backroom manipulation, cut across his mendacity. I fear her career may be damaged.

Well, I was gobsmacked by one little example of BBC 'balance' on yesterday's 24 hour news. A newsreader interviewing Nabil Shaath said that there might have been cement among the flotilla's cargo. If this was so, she said, then the Israeli assault would have been justified. She was talking about an act of piracy on the high seas culminating in a massacre.
Her career prospects at the BBC are probably enhanced.

A statement on the flotilla massacre from the Irish Congress of Trade Unions -

"This was a callous attack on innocent civilians which showed an utter disregard for all precepts of international law and human rights.
"The people on those boats were civilians engaged in peaceful humanitarian work, bringing much needed aid to the Gaza Strip and were no threat to anyone.
"To launch a military assault on a humanitarian convoy is beyond the bounds of all that is acceptable and should be judged as such by the international community. The assault was akin to the actions of a rogue state.
"On behalf of the Irish Trade Union movement we would like to extend our sympathies to those killed and injured in this attack and we are thankful that the Irish contingent appears to be safe and well.
"We lend our support to calls for an immediate suspension of the EU's trade agreement with Israel and we also believe that the recent decision to accept Israel into full membership of the OECD should be reversed with immediate effect."

This is as near as any statement I've read so far to my own feelings. I would just amend "The assault was akin to the actions of a rogue state" to "The assault was the action of a rogue state".

How is it that when the rich and well connected are caught with their hands in the till they are only guilty of a regrettable "lapse of judgement"? Theft, fraud, peculation; such terms are reserved for the lower orders.

"But there is an equally compelling point that Laws is a millionaire. If he wanted to keep his relationship secret then why spend any taxpayer money at all? Why the need to claim it back? After all the other MPs who thought they were obeying the rules at the time weren’t spared were they?"

(Sunny Hurndal on pickled politics)

I had been wondering how long it would be before PM Cameron flew off to Murdoch's control centre to pay homage to the great man. No hurry as it turns out. The boss couldn't wait, and has already called in at Downing Street admin with his shopping list*. Let's hope the new boys were on their toes and made a good impression.

*As reported in Private Eye.

"Military authorities said that masked naval commandos would greet the eight ships deep out at sea, escort the vessels to port and give each of the activists a stark choice: leave the country or go to jail."
Which country would that be?

The progress of the flotilla can be followed here
and here.

The link to Imran Ahmed's posting on Clegg's treachery doesn't seem to be working (for me anyway) so I've borrowed this image from Graham Cluley's blog.
Clegg's weasel-out statement was made on Tuesday.

"Gary McKinnon, you've been clegged."

[Link removed]

The things you miss when you don't read the "mindwarping shitsheets" (© Charlie Brooker). Luckily others have stronger stomachs. The Hate Mail's latest piece of racist disinformation didn't stand up for long. I reckon Ms. Fardon is just the kind of person Mail readers admire. I wonder if she was paid for this story.

"Driver orders toddler off bus for wearing offensive England football shirt"

"England-Shirt-Issue-Statement"

David Miliband, the only one lucky enough to be an MP at the time, says he supported the war because of evidence of Saddam's famous "weapons", adding he would have opposed it "if we had known then what we know now". But the only reason people believed Saddam had those weapons was because Miliband's government was telling everyone he did. So, he's saying: "If I'd known I was lying it would have been different, but how could I possibly know I was making stuff up? You can't blame me for fooling myself, as I'm very persuasive."
David Miliband is also accused of being complicit in handing suspects over to be tortured, so maybe he'll try a similar defence, saying: "If I'd known at the time that torture could include pain I would never have approved of it. But someone told me electrodes were more tingly than unpleasant, like one of those strange chairs that massages your back. Still, you live and learn."

(Mark Steel)

Last week, the BBC reported Barack Obama’s request to Congress for $200 million in military aid to assist Israel’s construction of a short-range rocket defence system, Iron Dome. The funding will be in addition to the $3 billion in military aid the US annually sends to Israel.

“It grieves me to the core,” said Steele, “to have to admit that today the American government has abdicated her traditional solidarity with Israel”:
Today, Israel truly stands alone among governments. Facing existential threats more dangerous and more imminent than ever before. That’s not to say that Israel has been abandoned, however, by the American people. But there is no denying that the current administration and its Congressional collaborators have left Israel to fend for herself.

"Why is this bastard lying to me?" (Claude Cockburn on interviewing politicians)

Still more than a fortnight to go to the World (yawn!) Cup and I'm sick of it already. It seems that the hucksters can link any product to this competition, from haemorrhoid cream to rosary beads. Every other advert on the telly has a football reference. How these promoters of any old thing love the beautiful game. How they love throwing bucketfuls of money at spoilt millionaires in return for a stupid grin. I hate them all; players, officials, journalists, hucksters, all trying to persuade me that they care. Why am I not convinced?
The most important contribution that we the public can make to this celebration of talent, determination, patriotism, and actual bodily harm, is to purchase and consume gallons and gallons, litres and litres, of BEER (preferably of non-UK origin). We must drink and drink, stagger about shouting Engulund, Engulund, and causing alarm and despondency by urinating alfresco. Some of my neighbours are already getting some serious training in. I just hope they don't peak too early.

Read any gid biks lately?
I've already railed against this affectation of media types - or is it more widespread? - of pronouncing 'good' as gid, gyid, or gyed. Well this morning on Radio4 I heard some "expert" say "What we are licking at ..." LICKING, you prat?
How far will this degradation of the OO-sound be carried? Will we hear singers delivering "These Fillish Things" or "I'm Licking Over a Four-Leaf Clover"? Oh, and middle class tossers already pronounce their ubiquitous "cool!" as "cyul!" If we're going to have conformity in trendy distortions, let's make it "kill!"

Ah Dieu! que la guerre est jolie
avec ses chants et ses longs loisirs

and then the shrapnel penetrated his skull and shortened his life.
Those lines of verse have been on my mind a lot lately. Maybe because of people who claim that war is an integral part of the human experience.
Was Apollinaire genuinely keen on the military way of life? Surely his response to war would have been more complex. But I believe he was reported as having been seduced by the ceremonial and the flag-wagging. Maybe those lines are not ironic, though someone is killed in the poem,

... tandis qu'elle
riait au destin surprenant.


"You would feel that after so many centuries
God would give man to repent; yet he can kill
As Cain could, but with multitudinous will.
No farther advanced than his ancient furies."
(Richard Eberhart)

"Bella, horrida bella."
(Virgil)

"War is the health of the state."
(Randolph Bourne)

"The first panacea for a mismanaged nation is inflation; the second is war. Both bring temporary prosperity, both bring a permanent ruin. But both are the refuge of political and economic opportunists."
(Ernest Hemingway)

"We are not in Afghanistan for the sake of the education policy in a broken 13th-century country. We are there so the people of Britain and our global interests are not threatened." Liam Fox, our new defence secretary.
On the radio this morning some high ranking officer echoed the British security line. Without that fig-leaf we might think the whole thing was just the UK armed forces on hire to Globocop.

Let's see now -
Invasion of Afghanistan, October 2001
London bombings, July 2005.
Pre-invasion Islamic terrorist atrocities in the UK, 0 (that's a zero).

" ... broken 13th century country", a better description than the one I'm prone to use - (censored). I remember some Yankee bigmouth threatening to bomb Afghanistan back into the Stone Age. Still some way to go then.

I wonder exactly what Fox meant by "global interests".

Ed Balls, another leadership contender who was not an MP in 2003, has in the past said he would have voted for the war. But he tells tomorrow's Telegraph: "It was a mistake. On the information we had, we shouldn't have prosecuted the war ... It was an error for which we as a country paid a heavy price, and for which many people paid with their lives." Saddam Hussein was a horrible man, and I am pleased he is no longer running Iraq. But the war was wrong."

The more I see and hear of this loathsome creature the more I feel the need to witness him suffering great pain. Fortunately a lot of other people will be experiencing similar sentiments, and his chances of becoming a leader instead of a toady are remote.

Ed Miliband too did not approve of the war. He thought at the time that it was wrong, but never managed to put his thoughts into words for public consumption. Then he became an MP in the party guilty of prosecuting the illegal war, and later joined the cabinet of war supporters. He too wants to be leader of his disgraced party.

I wish Rupert Murdoch would hurry up and tell the Labour Party who he wants for leader. I'm getting confused by all these people putting their names forward.