Nick Clegg

Lib-Dems abandon Liberalism and confirm that they are Tory scum

The night the Lib Dems gave up their last remaining principles

Image of Tories David Cameron and Nick Clegg

[L]ast night the party sold out whatever remaining principles it had after four years in office. There can be no excuse for what it did yesterday evening.

It was a debate on judicial review. Judicial review sounds boring but it is one of the most democratic legal mechanisms available to the British citizen. It allows us to challenge illegal government decisions, to fight government irrationality and to challenge the decisions made by authorities. In the words of one peer, it is “the British defence of freedom” and the means by which we avoid “elected dictatorship”.

Chris Grayling has lost several judicial review cases this year, for the simple reason that he keeps acting illegally and irrationally. So he has decided to try and eradicate it. That’s not what it’s called, of course. It’s called ‘reform’. But his reform will make it impossible for anyone but the very rich to use it.

The Lords fought back and voted down several of the bill’s measures. Last night the criminal justice and courts bill returned to the Commons.

…

The press do not cover judicial review for the same reason the public are not interested in it – because no-one really knows what it is. Why waste a principled stand on a matter of principle alone, when tomorrow there might be a more popular principled stand to take?

But judicial review goes to the heart of what it is to be a liberal. It is the individual against the state. It is like liberalism triple-distilled and poured into a bottle. One struggles to imagine a more perfect encapsulation of liberal philosophy.

No Lib Dem MP outside of Sarah Teather can call themselves a liberal this morning. They have betrayed the central tenet of the philosophy they claim to hold dear.

 

Continue ReadingLib-Dems abandon Liberalism and confirm that they are Tory scum

Message from the new head of GCHQ. Be afraid and embrace the new bullshitism

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-29891285

So the new head of GCHQ says tech

Oh this is all so much bolox

The new Head of GCHQ is in charge of ~ of how does this work? ~ we’re not criminals listening to absolutely all communications into and out of the UK. We can’t be criminals invading the privacy of all you criminal bastards – WE’VE GOT IT ALL. Oh and that criminal Angela Merkel.

Look you’re all criminals, we’re listening to all of it so we can scare you senseless to do as you’re told. Aren’t you afraid of terrrists. I’ll see what I can do.

[ed: These tech companies are bastards too. They’re not playing the game. Why aren’t they totally afraid of these imaginary terrrists too? They’re not playing the game. They’re not playing the be afraid of terrrists game. Bo Woo Woo Woo Hu!

These tech companies who have techies and intelligent people are not playing the game. Oh dear, I wonder why that is. Not.

Praps they realise that it’s all bullshit by Neo-Con scum. I would at least appreciate them that much. You know, they’re not stupid or not as stupid as you presume.

I’m not that clever but I’m not that stupid.

The new GCHQ boss. Is that the best you could do?

I’d better address that bullshit that the new GCHQ boss is spouting. It’s just that there was much crap that he’s overwhelmed me. So much total nonsense coming from the new twat in charge of GCHQ. So much shit.

There’s so much shit you’ll have to give me a day or two. I’ve got to swim through it and reach for air.

ed: It seems quite easy really. GCHQ boss says you have no right to privacy cos he’s got to chase terrrists. Terrrists are imaginary to make you afraid and accept repression. GCHQ boss watches you skudding.

How long till they insist on watching? No, it’s OK they probably got it bugged anyway in this ‘free’ society. They are only protecting your ‘freedom’ after all.

Do be terribly afraid of terrrists. Don’t be afraid of dying when you cross the road which is far more likely.

The main point about about this new GCHQ boss is that he’s pushing the discredited bullshit terrrism agenda. Oh FO. The USians may have swallowed that. The rest of the world didn’t or at least they don’t now.

FO GCHQ boss YFOS(hit).

Some tech company is gonna employ me as head of tech-terrrism relations soon. I can do that. Gizza, gizza, I can do that.

The dominant belief system is depending on imaginary terrrists. Fear. It’s nonsense and it has been demonstrated repeatedly that these b’stards engage in false flag operations to manufacture that fake fear.

It is very likely that tech companies are fully aware of your BS. Tech companies are not required or expected to follow your false prospectus.

Your false prospectus of imaginary terrrists scring the hebbegebbe out of us. That’s Bolux and I would expect that  that is accepted in not only tech companies. I would expect that  that is accepted in all big companies – that  that is total BS.

People believing in that ridiculous BS is diminishing quickly …

later: Why should tech companies comply with the BS nonsense of terrrism?

Why should tech companies allow political BS method of control  – in this paticular instance, the imaginary threat of terrrism  – exploit and disempower people? Should they? Why should they?

Politicians and GCHQ do the fear. Tech companies do the tech.

Looka like this new GCHQ boss gonna scare you senseless. There’s a Woolaf!

Be afraid. Be afraid. GCHQ boss says BE AFRAID!

Continue ReadingMessage from the new head of GCHQ. Be afraid and embrace the new bullshitism

ISIS, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria

http://www.vox.com/cards/things-about-isis-you-need-to-know/sunni-shia-conflict-ISIS

Perhaps the single most important factor in ISIS’ recent resurgence is the conflict between Iraqi Shias and Iraqi Sunnis. ISIS fighters themselves are Sunnis, and the tension between the two groups is a powerful recruiting tool for ISIS.

The difference between the two largest Muslim groups originated with a controversy over who got to take power after the Prophet Muhammed’s death, which you can read all about here. But Iraq’s sectarian problems aren’t about relitigating 7th-century disputes; they’re about modern political power and grievances.

…

The civil war after the American invasion had a brutally sectarian cast to it, and the pseudo-democracy that emerged afterwards empowered the Shia majority (with some heavy-handed help from Washington). Today, the two groups don’t trust each other, and so far have competed in a zero-sum game for control over Iraqi political institutions. For instance, Shia used control over the police force to arbitrarily detain Sunni protestors demanding more representation in government last year.

So long as Shias control the government, and Sunnis don’t feel like they’re fairly represented, ISIS has an audience for its radical Sunni message. That’s why ISIS is strong in the heavily Sunni northwest.

http://www.vox.com/cards/things-about-isis-you-need-to-know/maliki-sunni-shia-tension

ISIS would be able to recruit Sunni fighters off of the Sunni-Shia tension even if Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hadn’t held office until mid-August, but his policies towards the Sunni minority have helped ISIS considerably. It remains to be seen whether the new PM, Haider al-Abadi, will be an improvement.

Maliki, a Shia Muslim, built a Shia sectarian state and refused to take steps to accommodate Sunnis. Police killed peaceful Sunni protestors and used anti-terrorism laws to mass-arrest Sunni civilians. Maliki made political alliances with violent Shia militias, infuriating Sunnis. ISIS cannily exploited that brutality to recruit new fighters.

When ISIS reestablished itself, it put Sunni sectarianism at the heart of its identity and propaganda. The government persecution, according to the Washington Institute for Near East Studies’ Michael Knights, “played right into their hands.” Maliki “made all the ISIS propaganda real, accurate.” That made it much, much easier for ISIS to replenish its fighting stock.

 

Continue ReadingISIS, Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria

Cameron, Clegg and Ed sneak in a snoopers’ charter by the back door

A snoopers’ charter by the backdoor: One day until Drip is forced through

by Ian Dunt

Privacy campaigners are frantically trying to brief MPs about the implications of the data retention and investigatory powers bill (Drip), before it is forced through all of its Commons stages tomorrow.

The more experts look at the bill, the more convinced they’ve become that it provides authorities with the spine of the snoopers’ charter, but without any of the public debate or parliamentary scrutiny which were supposed to accompany it.

The charter – known as the draft communications bill before it was killed off – would have forced internet service providers and mobile operators to keep details of their customers’ behaviour for 12 months.

Analysis of Drip, which was supposed to only extend the government’s current powers for another two years, suggests it forces through many of those requirements on internet firms without any of the political outrage which derailed the earlier effort.

Clause four of the bill appears to extend Ripa – the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (basically Britain’s Patriot Act) – so that the UK government can impose severe penalties on companies overseas that refuse to comply with interception warrants. It also lays out situations in which they may be required to maintain permanent interception capacity.

Clause five then provides a new definition of “telecommunications service”, which includes companies offering internet-based services. That seems to drag services like Gmail and Hotmail into the law, and very probably social media sites like Facebook too.

The government insists the extraterritoriality clause merely makes explicit what was previously implicit. It’s tosh. As the explanatory notes for the legislation – released very quietly on Friday night – make clear, overseas telecommunications companies did not believe they were necessarily under Ripa’s jurisdiction.

“Regarding the amendments to Ripa, in view of the suggestion by overseas telecommunications service providers that the extra-territorial effect of Ripa is unclear, it is considered necessary to amend the legislation to put the issue beyond doubt,” it reads.

“This includes clarifying the definition of a ‘telecommunications service’ to ensure the full range of telecommunications services available to customers in the United Kingdom are included in the definition.”

David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband insist Drip merely extends their current powers for two years. That’s nonsense. These two clauses, which have nothing to do with the purported aim of the bill, provide the spine of the snoopers’ charter.

They also appear to provide a legal basis for programmes like Tempora, the project revealed by Edward Snowden to allow GCHQ to tap into transatlantic fibre-optic cables and stored data.

Notably, Privacy International, Liberty and others are taking the government to a tribunal this week on whether Tempora is legal, even though the government won’t even admit its existence. Drip could make the tribunal ruling irrelevant.

…

read more

Continue ReadingCameron, Clegg and Ed sneak in a snoopers’ charter by the back door

Cameron says be afraid of evil terrrists in this dangerous world

Image of David Cameron“Sometimes in the dangerous world in which we live we need our security services to listen to someone’s phone and read their emails to identify and disrupt a terrorist plot.”

Cameron said the public needed to be protected from “criminals and terrorists”

(source)

The UK Tory coalition government and the so-called Labour Party opposition have joined in a stitch-up to pass excessive spying on the public laws.

The nasty coalition government and its mate the Labour Party are responding to a judgement by the EU Court of Justice that the Data Retention Directive 2006/24/EC was invalid since it “disproportionately restricted individuals’ Charter Rights under Article 7 (respect for private and family life) and Article 8 (protection of personal data).”

Support of this attack on human rights appears to be against Ed Miliband and the Labour Party’s interests: While Miliband is seeking to protect a wafer-thin poll lead, electors vote for what they have already got when they are scared. This is what Ian Blair was doing – suggesting “Bubonic Plague” while campaigning for Tony Blair at the 2005 election. ed: actually that wasn’t what Ian Blair was doing discussing “Bubonic Plague”. That’s what he was pretending to do.     later ed: Let’s say he was doing two things at once.

 

Continue ReadingCameron says be afraid of evil terrrists in this dangerous world

Commentary and analysis

Commentary and analysis of recent UK political events …

Good to see that blind old cnut David ‘airy-fairy civil liberties’ Blunkett announces his resignation at the next general election. Not a moment to soon, eh?

The Liberal-Demonrats are out for Nick Clegg while the Labour Party are out for Ed Miliband.

Image of David Cameron and Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg is described as ‘toxic’ on the doorstep which seems about right. He is a very hated figure having abandoned election pledges and supported nasty Tories. The truth is that Nick Clegg has always been a Tory – he was a member of Cambridge Uniersity’s Conservative Association, worked in Leon Brittan’s private office in Brussels (after Leon was relocated by Thatcher under some very nasty – scandalous even – er, alleged circumstances) and is an out-and-out Tory according to the Orange book and his calls to privatise the NHS.

I’m disappointed that the Labour Party is pursuing a policy of continuing the Conservative-Liberal-Democrat (Conservative) coalition’s austerity measures instead of pursuing tax evasion and avoidance. I am disappointed, for example, that Rachel Reeves has stated that Labour intends to be harder on benefits claimants than the Tories and that she has recently announced benefits cuts on young people – exactly the opposite to previous claims.

Image of Tony Blair and Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband seems to be adopting a policy of doing nothing to differentiate himself and the Labour Party from the Tories or Liberal-Demonrats Tories in an attempt to preserve his narrow poll margin. He most certainly won’t have my support while he is trying to out-Tory the Tories.

Tens of thousands march in London against coalition’s austerity measures

Image of Russell Brand at anti-austerity march 21 June 2014

Tens of thousands of people marched through central London on Saturday afternoon in protest at austerity measures introduced by the coalition government. The demonstrators gathered before the Houses of Parliament, where they were addressed by speakers, including comedians Russell Brand and Mark Steel.

An estimated 50,000 people marched from the BBC’s New Broadcasting House in central London to Westminster.

“The people of this building [the House of Commons] generally speaking do not represent us, they represent their friends in big business. It’s time for us to take back our power,” said Brand.

…

 

* Plans for this blog include regular updates and ‘monetizing’ (making money from it). I have resisted this but I can’t really see any alternatives. I’m sorry to say that ads are on their way.

Continue ReadingCommentary and analysis

I’ve got an interview with the state at 11.45 tomorrow (Saturday)

Well there we go, an interview with the state

I’m surprised that it’s on a Saturday

I’ll be there in the Floral Road  ~ then ~

later: it’s a floral hill or a wount

flower’s hill?

anyway I’ll be there to do something or other

I’ll be okay

Shall we go to the pub?

Race you there

Go on, I haven’t been there for ages. It’s a little astroligal (about stars)

See you there about 1?

Never mind about that

OK see you there, introduce yourself

Might be 1.30 or 2 actually

Please try to insult the spooks better more than me

Fit I have a good time

Is that F It ?

Actually, wasn’t it Netanyahu that wrote these books that started this whole war on terrorism bullshit ? Who did that serve?

edit: spooks are for me quite an entertainment but also a pain

obvious spooks are really good fun and entrertainment

and then ….

spooks are fun and then as soon as they stop being fun … then they’re spooks

If you’re far more popular than usual … what’s that about?

spooks: two of them

 

I’ve had it me and my mate out. Sat at a table. Two gorgeous (unknown to us at that time spooks) can we sit here? Then another 2 male spooks sit down. F m or us. That’s how they do it. Let’s talk about revo;

 

Beautiful woman comes to the house: I want to monitor your water quality (and plant a bug). I know that’s how it works in Bristol area

Met Pol as well as others have some very nasty (killing) equipment. C’mon wake up. There is no easy way to say this – catch up.

 

Continue ReadingI’ve got an interview with the state at 11.45 tomorrow (Saturday)