Sunday, September 30, 2007
Brown's State - Watching You, Watching Everyone
Blair and New Labour turned the British into the most spied-on people in the western world.
What then, is life going to be like for the UK's citizens given a further five or ten years of 'Brown's Britain' when DNA samples are likely to be collected, by force if necessary, from everyone, and we are all obliged to carry ID cards - “Papers please” - linked to the National Information Register?
Already children as young as five are being fingerprinted and having biometric eyeball scans taken.
Make no mistake, this is the Britain Gordon Brown wants for us all, and those sheep, and there are frighteningly many of them, who bleat "if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear" are in for a terrible shock - when it is too late.
This is not the sort of country I want to live in, and I despair for my grandchildren and the future they face in Britain.
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What then, is life going to be like for the UK's citizens given a further five or ten years of 'Brown's Britain' when DNA samples are likely to be collected, by force if necessary, from everyone, and we are all obliged to carry ID cards - “Papers please” - linked to the National Information Register?
Already children as young as five are being fingerprinted and having biometric eyeball scans taken.
Make no mistake, this is the Britain Gordon Brown wants for us all, and those sheep, and there are frighteningly many of them, who bleat "if you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear" are in for a terrible shock - when it is too late.
This is not the sort of country I want to live in, and I despair for my grandchildren and the future they face in Britain.
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Labels: Brown, Freedom, Labour, Politics, Surveillance
Friday, September 28, 2007
Scottish Labour Election Jitters
According to a survey by the BBC, Scottish Labour MPs don't want a general election this autumn.
TEN said yes.
NINETEEN said no.
TWO wouldn't say..
Some were worried about voter fatigue, and others were concerned about the strength of the SNP.
The Labour MP for Livingston was worried about the weather.
He said there was likely to be a foot of snow in October stretching from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth!
Either he has a hotline to a higher being [and I don't mean Gordon in London] or he just doesn't live in this world - it's been many, many years since I've seen a foot of snow anywhere in Scotland in October, even in the Highlands.
Those who want a poll now think the SNP are more of a threat to the Liberal Democrats than Labour.
While I agree that the Lib Dems deserve, and are likely to get, a hammering at the polls, I suspect those Labour MPs who are dismissing any thought of a bad result themselves are being a bit too arrogant.
The sight of Gordon Brown wrapping himself in the Union flag, and proclaiming his 'Britishness' almost to the point of obsession, might impress 'Middle England', but may not go down too well in Scotland.
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TEN said yes.
NINETEEN said no.
TWO wouldn't say..
Some were worried about voter fatigue, and others were concerned about the strength of the SNP.
The Labour MP for Livingston was worried about the weather.
He said there was likely to be a foot of snow in October stretching from Aberdeen to Aberystwyth!
Either he has a hotline to a higher being [and I don't mean Gordon in London] or he just doesn't live in this world - it's been many, many years since I've seen a foot of snow anywhere in Scotland in October, even in the Highlands.
Those who want a poll now think the SNP are more of a threat to the Liberal Democrats than Labour.
While I agree that the Lib Dems deserve, and are likely to get, a hammering at the polls, I suspect those Labour MPs who are dismissing any thought of a bad result themselves are being a bit too arrogant.
The sight of Gordon Brown wrapping himself in the Union flag, and proclaiming his 'Britishness' almost to the point of obsession, might impress 'Middle England', but may not go down too well in Scotland.
HOME
Labels: Labour, Politics, Scotland, SNP
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Brown's Rejection Of Spin... Is More Spin
Today The Times looks at the strong similarities in words and structure between Prime Minister Gordon Brown's first speech to the Labour Party conference and speeches by Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
Gordon Brown and his ‘Rehash’ Speech
Bob Shrum, Brown’s close (and no doubt very highly paid) adviser and former speech consultant for US Democrat leaders, apparently has one script which, with minor modifications, fits all.
Shruming Down - The personal journey of Gordon William Jefferson Albert Gore John Kerry Brown
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Gordon Brown and his ‘Rehash’ Speech
Bob Shrum, Brown’s close (and no doubt very highly paid) adviser and former speech consultant for US Democrat leaders, apparently has one script which, with minor modifications, fits all.
Shruming Down - The personal journey of Gordon William Jefferson Albert Gore John Kerry Brown
HOME
Labels: Brown, Labour, Politics
The Saltire Stooshie.
Independent, Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors in Angus have voted to spend £4,500 on a new flag to be flown on council buildings, replacing the saltire.
Apart from the fact that council tax payers will be footing the bill for what seems no more than a petty and vindictive ploy by these elected numpties, the flag, consisting of Angus Council's coat of arms, looks like something the Queen would award to the suppliers of her toilet rolls.
While recognizing the stress and anguish these inconsequential officials must suffer at the mere sight of the present flag as they enter and leave their place of work, they should be reminded that the Saltire is not the Nationalist flag, but the National flag of Scotland.
Fury Over Town Hall Plan To Replace Saltire
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Apart from the fact that council tax payers will be footing the bill for what seems no more than a petty and vindictive ploy by these elected numpties, the flag, consisting of Angus Council's coat of arms, looks like something the Queen would award to the suppliers of her toilet rolls.
While recognizing the stress and anguish these inconsequential officials must suffer at the mere sight of the present flag as they enter and leave their place of work, they should be reminded that the Saltire is not the Nationalist flag, but the National flag of Scotland.
Fury Over Town Hall Plan To Replace Saltire
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Labels: Labour, Politics, Scotland
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Which Children Do You Include, Mister Brown?
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in his speech to the Labour Party Conference this week, actually did mention Iraq - once - but despite his apparent concern, wrapped in biblical quotes, for all children, he failed to mention:
The estimate by Iraq's Ministry of Health that half of the country’s children suffer from some form of malnutrition.
The fact that less than a third of Iraq’s children now attend school, compared to 100 percent attendance before the March 2003 invasion.
The countless numbers of orphaned Iraqi children who survive by begging, stealing or scavenging garbage for food.
The 70 percent of young children who suffer symptoms of trauma-related stress.
The virtual collapse of the Iraqi health service, causing sick or injured children who could otherwise be treated by simple means, to die in their hundreds.
The children who have lost hands, feet and limbs who are left without prostheses.
Unimagineable suffering aplenty for children, in a war that Brown has supported from the very beginning, but these are not children he wants to talk about at his Bournemouth conference, or in front of UK voters.
SAVE THE CHILDREN – UNLESS THEY ARE IRAQIS
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Labels: Brown, Iraq, Labour, Politics, Poverty, War
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Maggie Broon's Children
Gordon Brown yesterday gave his first speech as Prime Minister to the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth.
For the first time anyone in the hall could remember, a Prime Minister quoted the Bible to a party conference. "Suffer the little children to come unto me," he said, adding: "No Bible I have ever read says, 'Bring just some of the children'."
Brown's Vision: A British One-Party State
Gordon Brown's Vision: UK as a Work Camp
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For the first time anyone in the hall could remember, a Prime Minister quoted the Bible to a party conference. "Suffer the little children to come unto me," he said, adding: "No Bible I have ever read says, 'Bring just some of the children'."
Brown's Vision: A British One-Party State
Gordon Brown's Vision: UK as a Work Camp
HOME
Labels: Brown, Freedom, Labour, Politics, Surveillance
Sunday, September 23, 2007
The Would-Be Censor From Uzbekhistan
A wee update to THIS EARLIER POST about Alisher Usmanov, and his disgraceful attempts at censorship in the UK.
And here's Alisher Usmanov's WIKIPEDIA ENTRY
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And here's Alisher Usmanov's WIKIPEDIA ENTRY
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Labels: Crime, Freedom, People
Craig Murray, Fasthosts, Alisher Usmanov And Schillings The Lawyers
Craig Murray, former British Ambassador in Uzbekistan, has had his website pulled by webhosts Fasthosts of Gloucester, over an article published by him entitled "Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist."
Not much point me linking to craigmurray.co.uk - it's gone.
In pulling Craig's site, Fasthosts also managed to 'disappear' the blogs of Boris Johnston, the Tory hoping to be London's next mayor, and others, who had nothing to do with the matter that so got up the noses of Usmanov and his lawyers, Schillings of London.
There are more details at Iain Dale’s Diary, and quite a few interesting links at Indymedia. Many bloggers are commenting, a list at BBDO and Chicken Yoghurt
This, it would seem, is the article by Craig Murray which Alisher Usmanov and his lawyers want censored:
Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist
I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media because he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:
“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”
Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke “Gorbachev”, a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.
Usmanov’s pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the “Pardon” because of his alliance with Usmanov’s mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev’s side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.
Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World’s most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the “privatisation” process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.
Usmanov has two key alliances. He is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country’s natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand.
Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin’s long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov’s role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom’s bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.
Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.
All this, both on Gazprom and the journalist’s death, is set out in great detail here [Not now it's not]
Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. The sad thing is that this is not particularly remarkable. Rape by the powerful is an everyday hazard in Uzbekistan, again as outlined in Murder in Samarkand page 120. If anyone has more detail on the specific case involving Usmanov please add a comment.
I reported back in 2002 or 2003 in an Ambassadorial top secret telegram to the Foreign Office that Usmanov was the most likely favoured successor of President Karimov as totalitarian leader of Uzbekistan. I also outlined the Gazprom deal (before it happened) and the present by Usmanov to Putin (though in Jastrzebski’s name) of half of Mapobank, a Russian commercial bank owned by Usmanov. I will never forget the priceless reply from our Embassy in Moscow. They said that they had never even heard of Alisher Usmanov, and that Jastrzebski was a jolly nice friend of the Ambassador who would never do anything crooked.
Sadly, I expect the football authorities will be as purblind. Football now is about nothing but money, and even Arsenal supporters - as tight-knit and homespun a football community as any - can be heard saying they don’t care where the money comes from as long as they can compete with Chelsea.
I fear that is very wrong. Letting as diseased a figure as Alisher Usmanov into your club can only do harm in the long term.
Matt Buck’s Hack Cartoons - Alisher Usmanov
HOME
Not much point me linking to craigmurray.co.uk - it's gone.
In pulling Craig's site, Fasthosts also managed to 'disappear' the blogs of Boris Johnston, the Tory hoping to be London's next mayor, and others, who had nothing to do with the matter that so got up the noses of Usmanov and his lawyers, Schillings of London.
There are more details at Iain Dale’s Diary, and quite a few interesting links at Indymedia. Many bloggers are commenting, a list at BBDO and Chicken Yoghurt
This, it would seem, is the article by Craig Murray which Alisher Usmanov and his lawyers want censored:
Alisher Usmanov, potential Arsenal chairman, is a Vicious Thug, Criminal, Racketeer, Heroin Trafficker and Accused Rapist
I thought I should make my views on Alisher Usmanov quite plain to you. You are unlikely to see much plain talking on Usmanov elsewhere in the media because he has already used his billions and his lawyers in a pre-emptive strike. They have written to all major UK newspapers, including the latter:
“Mr Usmanov was imprisoned for various offences under the old Soviet regime. We wish to make it clear our client did not commit any of the offences with which he was charged. He was fully pardoned after President Mikhail Gorbachev took office. All references to these matters have now been expunged from police records . . . Mr Usmanov does not have any criminal record.”
Let me make it quite clear that Alisher Usmanov is a criminal. He was in no sense a political prisoner, but a gangster and racketeer who rightly did six years in jail. The lawyers cunningly evoke “Gorbachev”, a name respected in the West, to make us think that justice prevailed. That is completely untrue.
Usmanov’s pardon was nothing to do with Gorbachev. It was achieved through the growing autonomy of another thug, President Karimov, at first President of the Uzbek Soviet Socilist Republic and from 1991 President of Uzbekistan. Karimov ordered the “Pardon” because of his alliance with Usmanov’s mentor, Uzbek mafia boss and major international heroin overlord Gafur Rakimov. Far from being on Gorbachev’s side, Karimov was one of the Politburo hardliners who had Gorbachev arrested in the attempted coup that was thwarted by Yeltsin standing on the tanks outside the White House.
Usmanov is just a criminal whose gangster connections with one of the World’s most corrupt regimes got him out of jail. He then plunged into the “privatisation” process at a time when gangster muscle was used to secure physical control of assets, and the alliance between the Russian Mafia and Russian security services was being formed.
Usmanov has two key alliances. He is very close indeed to President Karimov, and especially to his daughter Gulnara. It was Usmanov who engineered the 2005 diplomatic reversal in which the United States was kicked out of its airbase in Uzbekistan and Gazprom took over the country’s natural gas assets. Usmanov, as chairman of Gazprom Investholdings paid a bribe of $88 million to Gulnara Karimova to secure this. This is set out on page 366 of Murder in Samarkand.
Alisher Usmanov had risen to chair of Gazprom Investholdings because of his close personal friendship with Putin, He had accessed Putin through Putin’s long time secretary and now chef de cabinet, Piotr Jastrzebski. Usmanov and Jastrzebski were roommates at college. Gazprominvestholdings is the group that handles Gazproms interests outside Russia, Usmanov’s role is, in effect, to handle Gazprom’s bribery and sleaze on the international arena, and the use of gas supply cuts as a threat to uncooperative satellite states.
Gazprom has also been the tool which Putin has used to attack internal democracy and close down the independent media in Russia. Gazprom has bought out - with the owners having no choice - the only independent national TV station and numerous rgional TV stations, several radio stations and two formerly independent national newspapers. These have been changed into slavish adulation of Putin. Usmanov helped accomplish this through Gazprom. The major financial newspaper, Kommersant, he bought personally. He immediately replaced the editor-in-chief with a pro-Putin hack, and three months later the long-serving campaigning defence correspondent, Ivan Safronov, mysteriously fell to his death from a window.
All this, both on Gazprom and the journalist’s death, is set out in great detail here [Not now it's not]
Usmanov is also dogged by the widespread belief in Uzbekistan that he was guilty of a particularly atrocious rape, which was covered up and the victim and others in the know disappeared. The sad thing is that this is not particularly remarkable. Rape by the powerful is an everyday hazard in Uzbekistan, again as outlined in Murder in Samarkand page 120. If anyone has more detail on the specific case involving Usmanov please add a comment.
I reported back in 2002 or 2003 in an Ambassadorial top secret telegram to the Foreign Office that Usmanov was the most likely favoured successor of President Karimov as totalitarian leader of Uzbekistan. I also outlined the Gazprom deal (before it happened) and the present by Usmanov to Putin (though in Jastrzebski’s name) of half of Mapobank, a Russian commercial bank owned by Usmanov. I will never forget the priceless reply from our Embassy in Moscow. They said that they had never even heard of Alisher Usmanov, and that Jastrzebski was a jolly nice friend of the Ambassador who would never do anything crooked.
Sadly, I expect the football authorities will be as purblind. Football now is about nothing but money, and even Arsenal supporters - as tight-knit and homespun a football community as any - can be heard saying they don’t care where the money comes from as long as they can compete with Chelsea.
I fear that is very wrong. Letting as diseased a figure as Alisher Usmanov into your club can only do harm in the long term.
Matt Buck’s Hack Cartoons - Alisher Usmanov
HOME
Labels: Crime, Freedom, People
Is Bush Just Incredibly Stupid, Insane, Or Both?
Friday, September 14, 2007
Brown Sups With The Devil
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Blair and Brown
Big Brother was watching George Orwell for 'communist views'
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Troops complete Basra withdrawal
Basra celebrates British withdrawal
Labels: Iraq, Politics, Surveillance
© Colcam 2005-2007
