ConDems Show Vicious Neoliberal Principles In Attack On Welfare

Given they both agree cuts which will entail more unemployment they are then further victimising the people they make unemployed, a searingly middle and upper class attitude that is based in the ‘scrounger’ idea that is demonstrably dishonest, they know full well their ideology depends on and creates a pool of unemployed to maintain ‘flexibility’ of labour and to lower labour costs. Nevertheless they convey through corporate media allies to condition people to think those needing welfare are ripping off taxpayers and are unwilling to work, ensuring the astronomically higher corporate and tax fraud figures of their supporters and compadres are kept out of the discourse. One can reasonably define a characteristic of neoliberalism is the scapegoating, the othering, of victims of the ideology in order to misdirect opposition from the -already rich- benefactors of neoliberalism. I have not seen anyone else focus on this part of the deal which perhaps also demonstrates the effectiveness of the ideology in informing opinions on this subject. For some people to be rich under this system it requires many others to remain poor, apparently a taboo issue for the self absorbed upwardly mobile acquisitive consumer puppets of marketing whose souls are owned by Visa.

From Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition deal
The parties agree to end all existing welfare-to-work programmes and to create a single welfare-to-work programme to help all unemployed people get back into work.

We agree that jobseeker’s allowance claimants facing the most significant barriers to work should be referred to the aforementioned newly created welfare-to-work programme immediately, not after 12 months as is currently the case. We agree that jobseeker’s allowance claimants aged under 25 should be referred to the programme after a maximum of six months.

The parties agree to realign contracts with welfare-to-work service providers to reflect more closely the results they achieve in getting people back into work.

We agree that the funding mechanism used by government to finance welfare-to-work programmes should be reformed to reflect the fact that initial investment delivers later savings in lower benefit expenditure.

We agree that receipt of benefits for those able to work should be conditional on the willingness to work.

Green Candidate Wins Colombian Debate, Clegg Is An Alien

Via Otto @ IKN–

Green party candidate Antanas Mockus was also interrogated by the other parties’ representatives.

Asked by Cambio Radical’s Vargas Lleras how he would tackle guerrilla activity, especially drug-trafficking, on the border with Venezuela, Mockus replied that a “pedagogical process” was needed and that action should “always be respectful.”

A question posed to all candidates was whether they would permit a repeat of the Colombian army’s attack of FARC guerrillas on Ecuadorian soil two years ago, which resulted in the death of the group’s second-in-command Raul Reyes. Sanin and Santos replied that they would consider similar action.

The remaining candidates said that they would not authorize such a bombardment, which killed 25 people and sparked a diplomatic row with Ecuador.

According to Mockus, who is a self-proclaimed pacifist, the action was “unacceptable” and “the results [of the attack] did not justify the means.”

“At the time I said that the actions had damaged international rights,” said Petro on the raid, while Vargas Lleras admitted that he had supported the operation at the time but would not authorize any such attack on Venezuelan territory.

Closing the debate, Mockus – who was voted the debate’s winner by readers of El Espectador – spoke of his education policies as a means to national prosperit

Meanwhile in the UK, the main two parties are so panicked by Clegg’s popularity a birther movement has been started. No really it is that dumb, unlikely as it is I would not mind Clegg as PM of a Lib/Lab coalition not because I think he will be that much better (he is a Little Orange booker), but because once in power he will behave as all others have, supporters will get disappointed and then the mass of people who realise that what is wrong is not down to which party is in power will grow. The consensus triangulated centre right/right neoliberal corporatocracy can keep up this pantomime indefinitely as long as the supply of chumps = the tiny percentage needed for a party to win an election. Having experienced some more mass media today I see little chance of that small number being threatened as they appear to have replaced journalism with W.C. Fields 3 laws of the grift–

“You can’t cheat an honest man; never give a sucker an even break, or smarten up a chump”

Gangster- Cameron & Murdoch’s Rat Fucker Coulson

The reason that this story is not a big as it deserves to be is because of gangsterism, that is Coulson is a bully, he and/or Cameron and/or Murdoch will have a great deal of dirt on very powerful people, Coulson works for a man who might become PM, he did work for Rupert Murdoch. This dirt is capital in power games, people who might report on this will be made aware of the dirt these rich scumbags have on them and will stay silent rather than have Coulson, Cameron, Murdoch’s media ruin them or leak it to police (who have also cooperated in protecting the principals of this spying and blackmail operation probably both because it hides their failings and also the operation will have got dirt on them). It is pure nationalist ego to think only other countries have gangster problems in their governance. Scumbags like power, they will do anything to get more of it, they live everywhere. We already torture, kill and invade other countries, this to be honest is a very minor aspect of our corruption, nevertheless it is a dirty signpost towards a very unpleasant future if the Tories win power.

David Cameron’s communications director, Andy Coulson, will come under fresh pressure to defend his editorship of the News of the World and his knowledge about the illegal activities of his journalists amid new allegations about the paper’s involvement with private detectives who broke the law.

The Guardian has learned that while Coulson was still editor of the tabloid, the newspaper employed a freelance private investigator even though he had been accused of corrupting police officers and had just been released from a seven-year prison sentence for blackmail.

The private eye was well known to the News of the World, having worked for the paper for several years before he was jailed, when Coulson was deputy editor. He was rehired when he was freed.

Evidence seen by the Guardian shows that Mr A, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was blagging bank accounts, bribing police officers, procuring confidential data from the DVLA and phone companies, and trading sensitive material from live police inquiries.

Coulson has always insisted he knew nothing about the illegal activity which took place in the News of the World newsroom, telling MPs last year: “I have never had any involvement in it at all.”

Mr A cannot be named now because he is facing trial for a violent crime, but his details will emerge once he has been dealt with by the courts. Coulson tonight refused to say whether he was aware of Mr A’s criminal background, or of his return to the paper following his prison term. He said: “I have nothing to add to the evidence I gave to the select committee.”

The latest disclosures bring to four the number of investigators known to have worked for the NoW while Coulson was either editor or deputy editor of the paper. All four have since received or had criminal convictions. All four are known to have used illegal methods to gather information.

T. Blair- PeaceMonger!

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is going to play a bigger role in efforts to get Israel and the Palestinians back to peace talks by intensifying his partnership with special U.S. Mideast envoy George Mitchell.

In a written statement, Clinton said she had spoken to Blair on Thursday about developments in the region. As a result of that call, she said Blair would broaden his current role as representative of the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers to “intensify his partnership” with Mitchell in support of the attempt to revive political negotiations.

Mooching around I found this old report at the Guardian which tells a strangely symbolic story –

Memories of Cherie Blair’s outspoken position on Palestine clearly still haunt. In 2002 she was forced to apologise for telling a charity event in London that young Palestinians had “no hope” but to blow themselves up.

Fast forward seven years, to a similar event in the House of Commons next Tuesday: the official launch of the newly created Labour Friends of Palestine (LFP). Their main speaker was due to be Blair … until yesterday, when she pulled out, around two hours after LFP’s inaugural line-up had been publicised.

So far there has been a difference between the government’s line on Gaza 2009 and Lebanon 2006. Back then, Tony Blair attracted criticism (from, among others, the current foreign secretary, David Miliband, who was then the minister at Defra) for not calling for an immediate end to firing and saying Israel must be allowed to defend itself. This month, no such line, and instead the call for an immediate ceasefire.

LFP are broadly pleased with government movement so far, but clearly things are too brittle for candour from Cherie. LFP will, however, do fine without her: speaking will be Jocelyn Hurndall, the mother of activist Tom Hurndall, who was shot dead in Gaza in 2003.

6pm update: We take it back: A friend of Cherie Blair’s has just called to say the reason she won’t be attending the launch is because she’s going to be in America with her husband when he collects the congressional gold medal from George Bush. Apparently, Cherie knew a while back but couldn’t tell LFP that she wouldn’t be around until now.

So she missed the launch of a group that while an attempt at a balancing corrective is tiny compared to Labour Friends of Israel (one T. Blair a member when PM) because Tony was getting his medal for conspiring with Bush, the Neocons and Israel to invade Iraq. Yeah this peace process is fine, no problems at all, what could possibly go wrong…

5 Months of Theatre

As per the weather my connection is faltering so who knows if this gets posted… how thrilling we have 5 months of election pantomime as none of the three parties are significantly deviating from neoliberalism and them and the media have all agreed there must be cuts so orthodox economics that created the problems remains the only religion in town… this is at best an exercise in damage limitation. The Tories and their US borrowed deficit mantra will be vicious and evil, so will New Labour and the LibDems will if they sniff power, it is lesser evilism and please don’t expect me to get excited by it. Given the atrocious possibilities probably what might turn out best is a Labour hold but with no real majority so they have to rely on the LD’s, not because either offer real governence for the people but because left at the wheel on their own they are unconscionable shits. For those on good incomes none make much difference so that’s why the pundit/wonk class in all media (blogs included) can get excited about the small differences, they will not get the sharp end, for those on low incomes and those on welfare or subsidised by it they will be attacked brutally whoever wins, the difference is Tories do it with huge sincere hate filled smiles on their faces and New Labour hide those smiles slightly out of politeness to their abused base.

Harpy is right the priority should be ensure actual leftwing MP’s win-

The most important task for the Left in the upcoming GE is to make sure that the proven socialist MP’s such as John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn and Katy Clark remain a voice in Parliament.

Other than that, well for Wales if the Tories win it’s shit both ways, more devolution will make the Tories shit all over Wales in spite, less, and the Tories have power to shit all over Wales more directly, given the options if Cameron is PM I’d like Wales to be less connected to England (although Plaid is subtly split between conservatives and lefties, and the nationalists with conservative ideas worry me). I am on a low income and at times have to rely on welfare so I am simply engaged in survivalism as no party is interested in my continuing to breathe oxygen. I know an eliminationist vibe when I feel it and frankly all of them give the impression they would not mind a few million poor people ceasing to live. In that respect thirty years of neoliberalism have done its cultural job, poverty is because you are a morally bad person, so waste no thoughts on such failures, social darwinism and eugenics are implicit in how the institutions actually work (as opposed to the shiny stated functions) ask a migrant, ask a single parent, ask someone who is despised for surviving on £50 a week, and argue all you like how one party is not really like that but I don’t care what is said, I care about what actually happens and what has happened is thirty years of hate directed at the poorest by the wealthiest. So enjoy your wonky pundit shenanigans, forgive me for not getting excited by the colour of poison chalice I will be handed, I’m thinking about the poison.

PS. And not forgetting in the MP’s/prospective MP’s worth supporting, the great Salma Yaqoob.

Bad Biology & Its Adherents

Worth a read, how neoliberals’ ignorance of science allows them to wilfully misinterpret it to support their selfish pathologies, how social Darwinists are a fraud and chimps like to hug, (the author is rather too rosy in his views of some historic leaders but those are tangental items anyway to his main points). (ht2 James)

How bad biology killed the economy

An unnatural culture of greed and fear has brought the global economy to its knees. We need to start playing to our pro-social strengths, says Frans de Waal

The CEO of Enron – now in prison – happily applied ‘selfish gene’ logic to his human capital, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Assuming that the human species is driven purely by greed and fear, Jeffrey Skilling produced employees driven by the same motives. Enron imploded under the mean-spirited weight of his policies, offering a preview of what was in store for the world economy as a whole.

An avowed admirer of Richard Dawkins’ gene-centric view of evolution, Skilling mimicked natural selection by ranking his employees on a one-to-five scale representing the best (one) to the worst (five). Anyone with a ranking of five got axed, but not without first having been humiliated on a website featuring his or her portrait. Under this so-called ‘Rank & Yank’ policy, people proved perfectly willing to slit one another’s throats, resulting in a corporate atmosphere marked by appalling dishonesty within and ruthless exploitation outside the company.

The deeper problem, however, was Skilling’s view of human nature. The book of nature is like the Bible: everyone reads into it what they like, from tolerance to intolerance and from altruism to greed. But it’s good to realise that, if biologists never stop talking about competition, this doesn’t mean that they advocate it, and if they call genes selfish, this doesn’t mean that genes actually are. Genes can’t be any more ‘selfish’ than a river can be ‘angry’ or sun rays ‘loving’. Genes are little chunks of DNA. At most, they are self-promoting, because successful genes help their carriers spread more copies of themselves.

Like many before him, Skilling had fallen hook, line and sinker for the selfish-gene metaphor, thinking that if our genes are selfish, then we must be selfish, too. He can be forgiven, however, because even if this is not what Dawkins meant, it is hard to separate the world of genes from the world of human psychology if our terminology deliberately conflates them.

Kweshtuning Times

Last month James Macintyre, a former producer on Question Time, revealed in the New Statesman that the programme’s makers wanted Griffin on the panel two years ago, long before the BNP’s limited breakthrough in the summer. To its credit the BBC resisted at first the naïve showbiz instincts of some who run the independent production company that is responsible for Question Time. According to Macintyre the company, Mentorn, persisted for two years and finally got the go ahead from the BBC. This suggests that Mentorn wanted what Peter Hain calls a “beanfest” for reasons well removed from the BBC’s charter obligations.

Excerpt from Macintyre’s piece-

Yet such was the controversy into which the BBC had plunged itself that the corporation’s bosses found themselves spinning lines on behalf of the BNP. After Hain wrote to the BBC’s director general, Mark Thompson, to point out that the BNP was an “unlawful” entity with a whites-only membership policy, Thompson seemed to leap to Griffin’s defence. Following legal advice sought by the BBC, he said, “the [BNP] is not prevented from continuing to operate on a day-to-day basis”. Ric Bailey, the BBC’s omnipresent chief political adviser, went further in claiming, without evidence, that the corporation could have been challenged in the courts had it not hosted Griffin on Question Time, since it had, in Thompson’s words, an “obligation to scrutinise and hold to account all elected representatives”. Bailey also resorted to the electoral argument: the BNP had to be represented on Question Time, he said, because it “won more than 6 per cent of the vote across Britain – approaching a million people”.

None of these positions bears scrutiny. First, as I revealed last month, Question Time wanted to host Griffin as early as 2007. At the time, I was working as a producer on the show, and this was long before the BNP’s electoral “breakthrough”. Much has been made of the BNP’s “million votes” in June’s European elections but, nationally, its vote share was a tiny 6.2 per cent – up 1.3 per cent on 2004. The BNP benefited from a collapse in the Labour vote. And, as Hain told me: “The BBC’s argument is threadbare. The logic of saying that a million votes gets you a place on Question Time is that if, say, [the Islamist cleric] Abu Hamza formed a party and attracted that support, he would go on.”

Second, there was never any “obligation”, legal or otherwise, to invite Griffin on to the BBC’s most popular current-affairs show, any more than there is an “obligation” for Griffin to appear on Ready Steady Cook. The BBC’s current-affairs output has to be impartial and balanced but, as I argued at internal meetings in 2007, the main problem is the format: it is difficult not to have a “good” Question Time. It was far better having the BNP on Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today programme. Labour’s Jon Cruddas, who confronts the BNP threat daily in his Dagenham constituency, has pointed out that the BBC could have given Griffin “45 minutes with John Humphrys or Andrew Neil”.

I think though Chicken Yoghurt makes an excellent point, please go and see it in full but basically all the things you can accuse the BNP of believing in Jack Straw puts into action. Yes it’s a retrograde step to have the BNP on but so is lying a country into war and torture and not holding the political class to account for 30 years of neoliberal attacks on British society that has created the opportunity for the BNP to rise. I think the protest outside the BBC is a stirring example of British people’s passion for an inclusive democracy.

However no platform was under threat once the bar to entry for media was lowered by the web, BNP idiots thrive on conspiracy theories and being barred from mainstream media feeds this. They should not be treated as any other party, a clever and considered lancing of the boil, a concerted exposure that would deflate the lies of the activists and the paranoid theories of supporters seems the least worst choice. But what chance of the corporate media doing this?

Question Time is not the best venue to expose Griffin’s fascism, they are not a political party like any other, they are a group that support right wing white male belligerent supremacy and will cheerfully lie to gain support from people who should -but apparently don’t- know better. I think the mainstream broadcasters should have taken the BNP to task, fact check them and expose the criminal activity and links to open Nazi groups worldwide, however corporate media rarely acts like that in respect of right wing parties. The BBC news on now has done some of this but it is not confronting Griffin with it. The Question Time format is too easy for Griffin to escape scrutiny, let Paxman or Humphrys do an in depth interview with a follow up fact check, because again the key aspect of fascists is they use ‘noble lies’ to further their objectives. I would also ask that white people particularly  white men (as I am) think about their entitlement and how that makes Griffins loathsome but perhaps, to some, not as viscerally abhorrent as it does to people of colour. It is telling all the senior people who would have made this decision in the BBC & Mentorn (incidentally from my time pottering around the industry in the 90’s they had a terrible reputation for how they treated their employees & free lancers at that time) are white males, affluent ones at that. It’s possible Question Time will surprise us and Griffin will be exposed for the scumbag he is and his party for the racist fascist rump of losers that they are, history warns us that might not be the case and media analysis also suggests how such media institutionally fail to treat the right wing with due objectivity and scepticism.

Simply from my observation of the media today it is hard not to see an element of this entitled bias in action, endless -mostly- male white journalist and presenters applying their usual tools to the issue as if fascism was an ideology as legitimate as any other and repeatedly mentioning how ‘1 million’ people voted BNP in the Euro election. How is it that media that are happy to ignore the beliefs of millions more when they are environmental groups, anti war or anti corporate or anti neoliberalism are suddenly are falling over themselves to care about what 1 million hateful chumps want? A gender and racial bias that remains unchallenged at a personal and institutional level is to me rather obvious here, there is also a class bias, the BNP target deprived areas, they are a scourge among people the political establishment already ignores and despite what the media keeps repeating it is not the white working class it is the working class! The BNP can exploit divide and rule because the entire working and lower middle class of all races do not get representation in the one ideology politics of consensus happy clappy neoliberal corporatocracy land UK plc. What the BNP spread is violent, community destroying lies among people already under attack from the establishment. So again I see a certain elite group of people who are really not that affected by the BNP whatever may happen making the decisions (there seems to some foregrounding of black presenters by the beeb tonight but they are not the decision makers).

I think no platform was -sadly- going to fail, the technology, the needs of churnalistic corporate media was seeing to that, but the BBC has failed to approach the challenge suitably and that was probably the best prospect there was for a responsible approach among broadcasters (props to CH4 News, but what is their reach?). So, yes this could be a moment we will look back on as the Mainstreaming of Fascism.

To be honest at the best of times I can barely stand to watch Question Time so I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch it, I will try and if so will be also online here -open thread!- & on Twitter along with many others expressing our feelings.

Applause For Progressive Co-operation

Statement from GL re Birmingham
The following statement was agreed unanimously last night by the Steering Group of Green Left. There will be a decision on whether to stand a candidate by Green Party members in Hall Green constituency within the next week.

“Green Left calls upon our fellow Green Party members in Birmingham not to stand a candidate in the constituency of Birmingham Hall Green in the coming general election in order to give a strong, progressive and environmentally aware candidate the chance of taking the seat. We believe that Salma Yaqoob of Respect is the candidate most likely to do this and her victory would be a victory for all those opposing the policies of privatisation, war, greed, racism and environmental destruction.

We believe that this is an opportunity for the progressive movement in Birmingham to unite behind one candidate and not to make the mistakes of the European election, where a divided Left opened the way to the election of racists and bigots. For the benefit of the people of Birmingham and of radical politics in this country we ask the Green Party in Birmingham to stand aside and not to oppose Salma Yaqoob. We are firmly of the belief that this will benefit both the Green and progressive movements in this country and send out a signal that we are serious in challenging the neo-liberal economic policies of the three main parties as well as Fascism and racism.”
Joseph Healy
Co-Convenor Green Left

Word!

Neocon Rory Stewart Was An MI6 Operative

Rory Stewart currently vying for selection as a Tory candidate, as Craig Murray reveals–

One person I would not vote for is the crusading neo-Conservative Rory Stewart. It is particularly annoying that he is constantly referred to as a former diplomat. Stewart was an MI6 officer and not a member of the FCO.

Three years ago I received a message from the FCO asking me not to mention this as, at that time, Stewart was still very active for MI6 in Afghanistan and his life could have been endangered. I agreed, and even removed a reference from my blog. However now that he is safely and lucratively ensconsed at Harvard, I see no reason to conceal the truth. I is necessary to reveal this so that people can correctly evaluate his political pronouncements on Iraq and Afghanistan, and his motives in making them.

Word.

Is The Obama Administration Victimising A Nobel Peace Prize Winner?

Via FreeGaza–

After Downing Street, by Ann Wright former US diplomat:- Less than a month ago, in late July, 2009, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire (http://www.peacepeople.com/) was travelling from Dublin, Ireland to Albuquerque, New Mexico to meet Peace Laureate Jody Williams to participate in peace events there. As she arrived at Dulles airport near Washington, DC, from Ireland on July 30, 2009, she passed through the regular immigration line, but then was detained in a special processing area over two hours causing her to miss her connecting flight to Albuquerque.

This is the second time Maguire has been detained by US Immigration in the past three months. On May 14, 2009, she was detained at the Houston, Texas, International Airport as she was returning from a 3 day conference in Guatemala, hosted by four of Nobel Peace Women Laureates. During the detention in Houston, Immigration officers questioned her about her visit in April, 2007, to the Palestinian village of Bil’in where she was injured by a rubber-coated bullet shot by Israeli military forces during a protest at the fence built by the Israelis in the village.

In Houston, Maguire asked the Immigration officials what she could do to prevent future detention and was told to get a 10 year visa to the United States.

She immediately applied and obtained a 10 year visa in early July from US Consul in Belfast, Ireland. She presented that visa to the Dulles Airport Immigration official. Maguire had had an indefinite visa to the U.S. in a previous passport and had never had any problems travelling to or through the United States.

Three months later, when she told the U.S. Immigration Officer at Dulles airport that she was a Nobel Peace Laureate and showed him the documents concerning the Peace Laureate meeting she was attending in New Mexico, the Immigration Officer sarcastically said that detention “is going to happen every time you enter the United States,” and “you should get used to it.”

Maguire has been publicly outspoken and critical about Israeli treatment of Palestinians and has a long history of non-violent acts of civil disobedience against war and against nuclear weapons.

Not only was Maguire hit in 2007 by an Israeli military rubber-coated bullet and tear-gassed while participating in a protest against the construction of the Israeli fence dividing the Palestinian village of Bil’in, on June 30, 2009, the boat that Maguire and nineteen others were on in international waters off Gaza was boarded by Israeli military and all the passengers and crew were put in an Israeli prison for 7 days. Maguire was deported from Israel on July 7, as was fellow passenger, former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Earlier, in 2004, as a part of her work against nuclear weapons, she travelled to Israel to meet Mordechai Vanunu as he left prison at the end of his 18 year sentence imposed for his revealing Israel’s nuclear program.

Because of her detention by U.S. Immigration on July 30, 2009, Maguire had to stay overnight in Washington, DC, at her own expense, as United Airlines said they were not responsible for her missing her flight. The next day, she ended up on a flight to New Mexico with 3 stops before getting to Albuquerque at 4pm, missing all the day’s events.

Maguire said that the harassment by U.S. Immigration began in 2009, after the change in U.S. Presidential administrations.

I wonder if the Secretary of State might wish to have discussions with the Secretary of Director of Immigration and Citizenship about how to treat Nobel Peace Laureates, unless, because of her outspoken criticism of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians, the treatment Maguire got on July 30, 2009 was exactly what the Obama administration wants her to have.

Some Things Worth Knowing

From Inca Kola News–

“I was watching the helicopter….I saw it…I was scared…the bullet hit me here…when it came there was nothing…that’s what it seemed like…there was nothing….it came like this….it hit me here…..there was a lot of blood….some of my blood was on a woman…a bit of my blood was on her….I’m scared that they fired…I don’t want them to shoot at me…because I don’t want to suffer….for my mother…”

-seven year old Leidi Luz, Bagua, Peru.

Richard Murphy skewers The Nudge for the drivel it is-

That though is ultimately the flaw in the logic of Thaler & Sunstein’s ‘Nudge’ thesis. They call it ‘libertarian paternalism’. I’ll agree with the latter. The former is pure pretence. It is about providing the illusion of choice when the reality is that either none is available, or it is incredibly constrained, or in fact (as fashion evidences day in, day out) the desire to make ‘choice’ is actually all about the need to conform under a veneer of difference.

What Israel’s use of the Mufti Hitler photo really reveals

A number of present-day political parties found inspiration of one sort or another in the Nazis, including India’s Hindu nationalist BJP party. The party that’s the present-day BJP sent missions to Germany thru the 1930s. Yet it’s the BJP that tightened relations with Israel in 2003, when Ariel Sharon visited Delhi.

Israeli embassies may also wish to slip in info about Pierre Gemayel, a personal guest of Hitler in 1936 who, inspired, then founded the Lebanese Phalange. But that might now be so good either…. Israel aligned itself with the Phalange during its invasion of Lebanon, and in 1982 inserted Pierre’s son, Bashir, as Israel’s hand-picked president!

I suppose the BJP and the Gemayels (not to mention Anwar Sadat who thought the Nazis were cool) are forgiven for their Nazi past because of alliances with Israel (and “anti-terror” rhetoric), while Palestinians as a population get demonized because they resist dispossession. So what’s Israel really concerned about–what happened in WWII, or maintaining domination over the land? We can see it’s the latter.

Craig Murray fought a valiant battle against the big three parties and the media that continue to present them as the only choice (Nudge nudge)-

…it is worth noting that the Conservatives are celebrating wildly losing 2,000 of the votes they had at the General Election. It was great to see the New Labour betrayers getting almost totally deserted by their followers, and instructive that the LiBDems also lost a third of their vote.

The real lesson is that the total vote for the three “Main parties” fell from 42,000 votes at the general election to 23,000 now, with each of them shedding votes. That is a profound statistic. The political landscape is indeed shifting sharply, even if my own efforts to affect it were rubbish. Tory braying is futile and shallow.

In this “great victory”, 18% of the electorate voted for them. I know form doostep experience that many of those who stayed at home were not merely apathetic, but actively hostile.

And Vestas, the fight continues, via SU!

Create Green Jobs – Don’t destroy them
Support the Vestas Occupation
Solidarity protest at Vestas UK HQ in Warrington
Saturday 25th July @ 12 noon
Vestas Celtic UK HQ
302 Bridgewater Place
WA3 6XG
Warrington

Construction Industry’s McCarthy Gets Off With Small Fine

Remember this- black lists of left wing activists are traded in order to victimise them– well…

Some of Britain’s leading construction firms subscribed to a secret blacklist of workers which prevented them from getting jobs, a court has heard. More than 40 firms used the database of 3,213 workers – which included details of trade union activity – to vet workers, Knutsford Crown Court heard. Ian Kerr, 66, of Avoncroft Road, Stoke Heath, Worcestershire, has been fined £5,000 for administering the list.

Keer has form as a latter day McCarthy-

Kerr has spent many years compiling databases on workers. He did not wish to comment on a report in the Guardian 15 years ago which said he had been working for the Economic League, a controversial vetting agency which accumulated files on thousands of people it considered subversive between 1919 and 1993.

I said at the time- Will the numerous companies listed… who used his expensive blacklist services be prosecuted?- I am trying to act surprised that not only have none of them have been prosecuted but the single man brought to trial gets a small fine.

Kerr ran the blacklist for up to 15 years. The court heard that accounts showed it was paid £478,000 between 2004 and March 2009.

Still investigations are ongoing, as they say (will the police be helping the ICO?)…

After the hearing, ICO investigator Dave Clancy said the inquiry would continue to see if the companies involved had broken the law. “We are looking to see if the requirements of the Data Protection Act have been complied with. We will take action in due course,” said Mr Clancy.

George Guy, regional secretary for the construction workers’ union Ucatt, said he was disappointed by the result of the hearing. He said: “The people who provided this information and received it have got off scot free. Some of our members were out of work for years because of this list. They were forced to live in poverty, unable to provide for their families and they had no idea why. We will continue this fight until the companies involved are brought before the courts.”

(ht2 Jim Jay)

Rotten Island

It’s official, our council is rubbish!

A watchdog wants the Welsh Assembly Government to step in urgently to bring in a major shake-up at a council. The Auditor General said Anglesey council has “serious persistent problems” which affect its working. “Personality politics” based on mistrust and suspicion were partly to blame, while problems existed with both officials and political arrangements. The council said it accepts the findings of the report and all seven recommendations for improvement.

“Serious, persistent problems at the Isle of Anglesey council urgently need addressing now if it is to restore its reputation, win back public trust and set a positive course for the future,” said Auditor General, Jeremy Colman. He said the council’s “history” meant he was convinced the changes that were needed would not happen unless there was outside input. “That is why I am calling on assembly government ministers to intervene and to provide the necessary external support and challenge that Anglesey council needs to help place it onto a firmer, more successful, footing,” he said.

In his report Mr Colman said even though there are good features in performance of many services there are internal issues. These include weak self-regulation, inappropriate behaviour and conflict. The report said all these issues had been left largely unaddressed since the council was established in 1996 – despite a number of previous external reviews. Mr Colman goes on to say there is a history of “personality politics” based around mistrust, suspicion and personal animosity.

This is not news to anyone who lives here, but maybe… maybe the self interested cabal who use our money to pursue their and developer’s interest will finally be exposed. Central government is cutting spending so we need councillors fighting for us.

So Whose Job Is The Council Doing?

A business plan to save a town’s swimming pool from closure has been supported by councillors. Gwynedd Council had wanted to close Harlech pool to save money, but local people submitted a business plan to run it with a community trust. The Friends of Harlech swimming pool want to invest in a climbing wall and cafe to attract more paying customers. If their plans had been rejected the council would have closed the pool at the end of July. The move to try and get the pool under community ownership is being followed with interest in other parts of Wales, which have already lost their pools.

Essentially the council have abrogated their responsibility to provide and run a pool, the people are going to do it, so what exactly is the council’s function then? If they do not run things on behalf of the people?

1. what are they for?
2. who are they actually serving?

Gwynedd council leader Dyfed Edwards said there was a need to look at ways to cut £15m from the budget over the next three years. “Can we sustain these assets and the buildings that we have across a large rural county such as Gwynedd for the future with the finance that we’re provided? The answer is no. “It’s all very well having a policy and an agenda from a national government – how do we deliver it locally is the question,” he said.

For the Friends of Harlech swimming pool’s plan to work they needed to be given the freehold of the building. On Tuesday the board of Gwynedd council discussed the pros and cons of the plan.

Other parts of the UK have already set up community trusts to run swimming pools. Alan Joyce has successfully run a community owned pool in Sheffield for the past 16 years.

Why cut £15 million, there are many times that in bonuses being paid to a few hundred sociopathic parasites in the City of London. Whose need is greater? A shiny suited already wealthy person or an area with large coastlines where children need to be taught how to swim? The crisis of capitalism is not an abstract, it is a class war with casualties and none of the people meant to represent us (and paid by us) are actually fighting for us.

UPDATE: In comments Earwicga informs me that the swimming pool was in competition with North Wales Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Centre [RASA], ie. these basic service have to compete for funding while government refuses to tax the untaxed capital of the ultra rich. The LABOUR government. Oh yeah, I am back I am fucking pissed off.

Deckchairs, Titanic, etc

The current middle management of the UK for the neoliberal hegemony is having a bit of a snit fit. From those inside these are two interesting reactions so far, Livingstone, Meacher (!)Hmmm, What chance John McDonnell taking over No. 10? Not much. And anyway let someone else take the poison chalice, bide your time J McD, a Tory victory might be what’s needed for the party to purge the  NL conservatives (let’s face it half of them will probably join Cameron’s smarmy ship) then time for some actual social left politics to re-emerge. After all the ‘crisis’ of capitalism is only being sporadically postponed by current measures, the next ‘crisis’ could be smack bang in the middle of a Cameron reign. After all the financiers have not changed, currently hoarding oil (probably bought with the public’s bailout cash!) playing games with resources to enrich themselves at our cost. 

Meanwhile in pug nosed seventies throwback news:- Purnell is beginning his leadership bid by again demonstrating what a belligerent prick he is, he tells Brown to step down, did he get him confused with a peasant he wants to put in a workhouse? And note his great cause is tossed aside the instant his career is threatened, Thatcherite to the core- Hate on poor people but always priorities your own career welfare.

And for all the expenses shenanigans let’s not forget this is a government that committed massive war crimes. 

So fuck ’em. This is me, not crossing the street to piss on the fire engulfing New Labour. Bye Bye shitheads, not missing you already.

Britain’s Gini co-efficient is now 0.36, beyond the normal bounds of inequality seen in developed countries. In the United States the figure is 0.408, putting the largest economy in the world on a par with Mexico in terms of income inequality. But by European standards, the UK figure is exceptionally high. Sweden has a Gini coefficient of 0.23, Germany 0.283 and in France the figure is 0.327.

New Labour- FAIL