tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-345721532024-02-07T20:22:42.961+00:00the real story......keeping a metroAtlantic eye on politics and politicians - and getting to the real story behind the spin and polishGeoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comBlogger134125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-14641624478711912842017-10-01T09:36:00.001+00:002017-10-14T04:40:07.160+00:00Henry Bolton and UKIP: Crusaders against Arms Corruption and Secular Supranationalism?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDcKxcc6kosJn6Dvjkq8c5mlljhdzyTPvviePI0vSOREZhKKhVLxNZj2Uoy9FbfWUyHUJwnSY93uszlWX5cVdxhNdHgjV-194BEjC965hHykPG3p81_m3hJ_TUKVKpXxlhDwEg/s1600/22140790_10159351521435721_3286856044027164136_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHWDcKxcc6kosJn6Dvjkq8c5mlljhdzyTPvviePI0vSOREZhKKhVLxNZj2Uoy9FbfWUyHUJwnSY93uszlWX5cVdxhNdHgjV-194BEjC965hHykPG3p81_m3hJ_TUKVKpXxlhDwEg/s400/22140790_10159351521435721_3286856044027164136_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>When you are one guy, researching a corruption which, after 29 years of active investigation, you believe distorts the entirety of the body politic of a leading nation (the UK), but you can find next to no-one of any consequence to support your contentions, to say that there is a constant battle between what is real and what swims around in one’s head is … um … an understatement.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I say that because there is no point in being other than brutally honest. And my investigation. Its path. Not to mention <a href="http://www.maggieshammer.com/" target="_blank">the book</a> that chronicles the journey of disputed discovery. The adventure – for it was no imagination being shot at, meeting covert intelligence officers around the world, being warned off by the CIA. All of this may have just taken an important leap in a new direction.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Or not. That’s the point about reality. People have told me things. But have offered no evidence. People all around the world. With stories to tell. Which I do my best to test with intelligence, research, knowledge, informed speculation. But stories I cannot prove. Cf. one person. So, it could be that a whole string of seemingly unattached people, around the world, have taken the time, over 29 years, to concoct a montage of falsehood, just to keep this one person occupied. Possible. But unlikely. Yet, I can’t prove it one way or the other. All I can do is report what I am being told. What I see. And allow you to determine for yourself how it all adds up.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And so.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I think most of you regulars know something of the background. It’s 1988. I’m 32. My closest friend and mentor, Hugh John Simmonds CBE, and I are following paths we hope will take us into the UK Parliament. In the meantime, I work for him in the office of his sole-partner law practice. In a sleepy, upper-middle class, dormitory town just to the west of London.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Hugh turns up dead in some woods near our hometown in November of 1988. The death makes national and international headlines. He wasn’t exactly a nobody. Margaret Thatcher’s favorite speechwriter. Former Conservative Parliamentary candidate. Some time successful businessman. Appointed CBE in 1985. A man either just on the cusp. Or about to fall. The story becomes murky.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Whatever may be the reality, there is a deal of confusion. No-one really believes the line that he committed suicide. Yet that is what is presented. For a variety of reasons, selfish and altruistic, I decide to start asking questions. Apparently the right ones, in the wrong places. And my dangerous rollercoaster begins. I’m not going to spoil that story. Buy the book.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Bottom line. Over the next 29 years, I find myself living out of my own pocket. Traveling hither and thither. Meeting all sorts of strange people. With weird backgrounds. Who tell the tale of a man who was way more than he appeared. A troubleshooter of deep cover. A master of dirty tricks. Utilized to protect all manner of dark deeds in the US and the UK.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There is talk of senior politicians in the UK receiving millions in illicit bribes associated with the burgeoning UK arms trade. Pipelines of money into the Bank of England, the City of London, major political parties. Pipelines that needed setting up and protecting. By someone specialized in the art of money-laundering. A lawyer. Like Hugh. With knowledge of money-laundering. Someone with intimate connections to senior politicians. Someone. Like Hugh.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Trails that required covering. Which seemed to be a euphemism for people turning up dead, in mysterious circumstances. Trails that required covering by someone with knowledge of covering trails. Someone. Like Hugh. Who, it turned out, was a senior officer in British Intelligence. Trained to kill. A conflict of agendas. A final solution that had the troubleshooter appearing dead in circumstances not dissimilar to those he had allegedly become a master at designing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And through all of this. Over nearly 30 years of double-checking. Triple-checking. Freedom of Information requests in the US. Letter-writing campaigns in the UK. A vision emerging of the UK body politic so completely corrupted by arms bribes that the entirety of the fabric of Westminster and Whitehall, the politicians and the civil servants, the economic, social and political decision-making at the very highest levels, has become totally distorted.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Leaders of the major political parties are held hostage by those who control the illicit purse strings of the arms largesse that buys all in its path. Foreign and military policy of all British Prime Ministers, whatever may have been their personal beliefs, rendered submissive to the needs of an arms industry that dominates employment in the UK, requires British embassies to become no more than sales offices for military hardware, and transforms the government’s International Aid budget into a sweetener for warships and fighter jets.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And then.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I begin to get rumblings that there are some who are no longer happy at the turn of events. That what may have been seen as exigent in the Eighties is perceived as a toxin in the 21st teens. A perception which carries this caveat: I ain’t sure I’m seeing what I’m seeing, hearing what I’m hearing; or if I’m just getting old.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. First. Let’s back up a bit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Let’s go back to 1950’s Britain. The Empire is fading. And Imperialists are not happy. The Colonial Service was a cottage industry for Britain’s gentry. A tiny country, on the edge of Europe, had spent a couple of hundred years running half the world. That required men of steel. Born to command. Trained to subvert. We had a network of special boarding schools. Where character was drilled into boys on the playing fields by day. And buggered into them in the recesses of the night.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This Praetorian Guard had <a href="http://geoffgilson.blogspot.com/2015/03/how-thatchers-government-covered-up.html" target="_blank">its networks</a>. Its rituals. Its secret societies. But most important of all. It had purpose. And that purpose was being flushed down the drain by a bunch of wimps, who truly believed that folks should be allowed to determine their own direction.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What was worse was that these same imperialists had fought off one set of enemies in two World Wars. Only to find themselves facing a new enemy in the East. Communism. Accompanied by what the PG perceived as its allies on the British domestic scene: trade unionists and socialists.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The solution being touted only caused the blood to boil to new heights. The answer being presented was to join forces with the lily-livers we’d had to rescue in the two World Wars. The countries of mainland Europe. Who had proven twice to be less than equal to the expansive ambitions of Germany. The imperialists felt they were being told to get with a program that included giving up national power to a pan-European vision. The very people the imperialists had either defeated or rescued.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
All was not well in the Gentlemen’s Clubs of London.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Sixties became a time of deep unrest. Everywhere. Those on the left plotted reform and revolution. Those on the right responded with political maneuvering, and parapolitical and paramilitary scheming.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Gentlemen associated variously with the City, high finance, the intelligence services and both legitimate and somewhat more suspect organizations on the right-wing of UK politics began coalescing and sharing their campaigns, both overt and not so much. Indeed, a casual observer from Mars might perceive little difference between London in the Sixties and Washington in this time of Trump, Bannon and Mercer.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The lethal combination on the British right eventually forced out a Labour Prime Minister and a left-wing Tory one, too. And set in their place Margaret Thatcher, the reasonably acceptable front for the subterranean right-wing machinations of the Sixties and Seventies.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Various developments followed. Drastic fiscal action was taken in the name of restoring the country’s financial probity. This required remedy for the ensuing evisceration of what remained of British manufacturing industry. A deliberate policy was set in motion of replacing ploughshares with swords.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Tens of billions of taxpayer pounds were ‘invested’ each year, by way of government-guaranteed overseas loans, to entice foreign entities, legitimate and otherwise, nations and sub-national groups, to buy newly-minted weapons from Britain’s refurbished and revitalized arms industry.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In the course of a decade, Thatcher transformed Great Britain into one of the largest arms exporters in the world. A nation where even trade unions supported the deadly trade, since one in every five people employed in the UK was and is associated in some fashion with the manufacture of military hardware or its technology.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The sons and daughters of the imperialists found new fields to plough. Where once they ruled global territory directly. Now they became kingmakers. With weapons. Or finance. Or mercenary armies.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The British civil service directed. Its servants licensed. The City financed. British Intelligence scouted. And facilitated. On the ground. With information. Money. Death squads. And weapons.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
You need a new market? That requires a new leader? An investment bank in London will negotiate a mercenary army. Find you the weapons. The government will provide the end-user certificates. A tame billionaire will provide a ship or two out of Belize. Intelligence will arrange the overthrow. And voila. A few hundred million more in arms sales. And bribes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Politicians. Of all hue. Turned the other way. Provided they had access to the Keepers of the Purse. A Purse residing within the dark depths of an account in the Bank of England. Into which at least $450 million still flows annually. From those grateful for the UK arms trade. To those willing to give it a free hand.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And then. Skip from the Eighties to the 21st teens. There are stirrings, at all levels, about the cost to Great Britain of its involvement in the European Union. And bits and pieces begin to happen.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I flit back to the early days of my adventure. And rumblings that never seemed to add up.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I got told a bunch of things. By different intelligence personnel. Around the world. Not all of which seemed to gel. But then, we’re talking about folks who lie for a living. It had driven me nearly nuts just trying to form any kind of picture that made sense, and fit in with what I could see as ‘real’ in the world. Of course, there would be loose ends.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But one loose end in particular just needled. Eastern Europe. And if you’ve stayed with me this long. Take a break. Come back. And stick with me some more. It gets interesting now. And up-to-date. Eventually.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
My British Intelligence source, in the late Eighties, originally told me that Hugh had died because he’d become mixed up with something in the Middle East. Something about getting an agent out of a foreign country. There was talk of Lebanon. Hezbollah. Hostages. Terry Waite. Someone double-crossing Hugh. Ending up dead, in a woodland glade, outside of our hometown in England.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then. In late 1989. The Velvet Revolution in Eastern Europe. My British Intelligence source is taking money over a fast-disappearing Berlin Wall. Not just to get spies out of jail. For the CIA. To subvert Communist apparatchiks. To ease the way for revolution. But apparently. Also to release friends within a strange organization called the Knights of Lazarus. To give them the opportunity to win a war “we’ve been fighting for a thousand years.”</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Suddenly, the story changes. Hugh wasn’t engaged in the Middle East. It was Eastern Europe. Money into Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Many, many different forces at work. Intelligence agencies. Fraternal orders, straight of <i>The Da Vinci Code</i>. The Vatican. All vying for a piece of post-Eastern Europe. The only feature not to have changed was that someone double-crossed Hugh.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This is where I came face-to-face, tit-to-elbow, facepalm-to-fishgape, whatever. With the notion of my being used for other peoples’ benefit. Could I trust what I was being told? Or was I being used as a channel? My source said yes and no. To both questions. Plus, get my ass out of Europe. It wasn’t safe for me.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Some years later, my Israeli Intelligence source played a variation of the same game with me. Changing stories. Tease. Wink. Advance. Nod. Retreat. And he was the one who said it all came down to making money. Not geopolitics.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yeah, yeah. He said. There were ‘good purposes’ in the Eighties and beyond. Velvet Revolutions. End of communism. Democracy. Freedom. Peace. Wars on Terror. Arab Springs. Whatever. But more than this. All of the people, entities and agencies involved. Their primary objective was to make a profit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I already knew this to be true of Great Britain and its intelligence agencies. Thatcher set out to turn Great Britain into a leading arms exporter. In order, allegedly, to save British jobs. But she had been brought to power by British intelligence. And their payoff was carte blanche. To do what they liked.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And what they liked was the notion of going into business for themselves. Taking a cut of the arms trade. Hiring out the British military and its intelligence services to the highest bidder (usually the United States), to do their dirty work. Turning the City of London into the world’s leading bazaar for terror support activities: money-laundering, drug-smuggling, human-trafficking, mercenary-hiring, arms-dealing. Great Britain Ltd. became the living personification of SPECTRE.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
My Israeli source told me that this only worked because the rest of the world went the same way.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But, in among all of this, he dropped a nugget. Which he never explained. But which nudged at the schizophrenia of my British source. My Israeli source told me that Hugh had been working with Robert Maxwell. Who was a covert asset for the Israeli’s.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What appeared to be the case. From the little my Israeli source told me. And extensive research. Although. Remember. Cf. one person. What appeared to be the case was that Maxwell was a former officer in British Military Intelligence. Who had been recruited by Mossad (Maxwell was originally a Czechoslovak Jew). Who built up a publishing empire. Much of it in Eastern Europe. Became a notorious billionaire. And owned the <i>Daily Mirror</i> in London, and the <i>Daily News</i> in New York.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
While my Israeli source, and apparently every major intelligence agency under the sun, were making hundreds of millions in profits and kickbacks from selling arms to both sides of the Iran-Iraq War in the Eighties. The Israeli’s and the CIA needed somewhere ‘safe’ to launder their ill-gotten arms gains. The answer was Maxwell and his Communist dictator pals in Eastern Europe. And someone who knew about money-laundering. And 'safety.' Again, two of Hugh’s apparent specialties.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. Something of a potential confluence between my two primary sources, Eastern Europe and money. But no definitive explanation. And there it rested for several years. As I got on with my life. Until I decided to dust if off this past year.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Wrote about it some. Mentioned it to my Israeli source. Who ironically I then introduced to my publisher. Who proceeded to reprint said source’s book from the Nineties. Ain’t the world a weird place? I introduce to my publisher the guy who most likely arranged for the death of my mentor. Trust me. This is the least weird example of weirdness I have encountered in 29 years of examining this weird subterranean expression of the human psyche.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Anyways. I’m revisiting. I’m caught up with the whole drama of Brexit. Driven as it is by right-wing British populists. And I’m reminded that it was a similar right-wing populism in the Sixties and Seventies that drove the British body politic into its omnipotent arms corruption. And I recall, from my own experience, chatting to those who knew Hugh from those days, and my own research, that one of the primary themes of those right-wing populists had been early Euroscepticism. Along with a desire to a return to Empire. Anti-communism. Anti-trade unionism. And taking up arms against the domestic socialists. Literally.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I trace in my mind how that Euroscepticism knew its ups and downs. Up with Thatcher. Although she took us into the ERM. Down with Major. With the Maastricht Treaty. Even further down with the creation of the European Union. Offshoot, from the Tory stronghold to the seeming backwaters of a new ‘fringe’ political party – UKIP. And then the rise of UKIP. Its success in various British European Parliamentary elections. And its ultimate victory with Brexit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I remember Thatcher’s overwhelming support for expanding the EU into the former Eastern Europe. Now, once again, Central Europe. Her rationale being that a supranational body of 27 or more nations would eventually collapse under its own weight and natural internal differences.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I observe the spread in the 21st teens of the concept of the supremacy of the sovereignty of the nation-state. A concept Hugh and his right-wing mates had written about as an alternative to a federal Europe, back in 1975. A concept advanced by Trump in his speech to the UN in September 2017. The expression ‘full circle’ is vivid in my mind.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I recall my British source directing my reading to books which 'explained' the seeming mythology underpinning <i>The Da Vinci Code</i>. Decades before that alleged fiction was written. Serious books. The non-fiction behind the fiction. Books like <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2x5IXGo" target="_blank">Holy Blood, Holy Grail</a></i> and <i><a href="http://amzn.to/2wqvODp" target="_blank">The Messianic Legacy</a></i>. Describing a Europe, if not a world, in the grips of a covert power struggle between nation-state intelligence agencies, the Vatican and ancient fraternal orders, with wonderful names like the Knights of Malta and the Knights of Lazarus.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Fraternal orders I would have dismissed as fanciful nonsense, if I had not been involved in a car chase with them through the streets of Glasgow, in 1989.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I had been attempting to regain contact with my British source for many years. To try to make some sense of Eastern Europe, Maxwell, fraternal orders, arms corruption, money-laundering and the like. Because it just seemed to hover at the edge of my consciousness. As a ‘thing’ of importance.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I had tracked him down to a Breitbart chat room. Where I discovered that his views were. Heck hem. Radically right-wing. I had never asked him about his political opinions. But, in light of all of the above. I was not surprised. And we made initial contact. First time in over twenty years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I say ‘initial.’ I have had little success in developing that contact. Yet. But. This was always his way. Besides. There is no pressure on me now. I can go with the flow.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I post about this contact on Facebook. I may have completely the wrong end of the stick. I admit that upfront. Since the fellow I’m about to talk about (without mentioning his name). Will likely read this. So. Caveats a-plenty.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But said fellow writes to me. I had completely forgotten that, when he first befriended me on FB a year and a half previously, it had specifically been because he knew my British Intelligence source from his college days.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We chit and chat. To be honest. And I tell him this. I have no idea who he is. He seems real enough. Nice enough. But so have many of the people with whom I’ve chitted and chatted about these subjects over the years.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Anyways. My Facebook Friends are an eclectic and widespread bunch. In political terms. I like to network. Get different points of view. And I think matey is or has been a supporter of UKIP. Which is that new-ish British political party I mentioned. Which seems to have taken over the political stances of those formerly on the right-wing of the British Conservative Party. Especially as those stances relate to Europe, immigrants and the supremacy of the nation-state. Stances with which I had become familiar when studying Hugh’s mates from the Sixties and Seventies. The ones who brought arms corruption to Great Britain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yet. Matey tells me something interesting. Now. He could just be speaking for himself. But, he tells me that there are those in UKIP who are a teeny-weeny bit aggrieved at their characterization as the British franchise of the AltRight.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
He tells me that one of the matters which truly exercises some within UKIP is what they regard as the distortion of the British body politic by the axis between the two major British political parties (Labour and Conservative), an axis the wheels of which are toxically greased with an abundance of arms bribes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Well. You could have knocked me over with a feather. In fact, I did. I tried it. Knocking myself over with a feather, that is. I’m still trying to produce a YouTube of it. So it can go viral. So I can retire in semi-splendid glory.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
UKIP as crusaders against arms corruption in Great Britain?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Again. I may have got the wrong end of the stick. I’ve had folks talk to me in riddles and parables for decades now. It seems to be something they specialize in at the various global spy schools. Today, we will study the Bible and then Monty Python: how not to be a transparent journalistic source.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But. It gets me thinking. I have not yet connected all the dots. Maybe you can. But I’ll share some of the thinking. You might want a toilet break.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Right-wingers in Britain in the Sixties. In the City, in British Intelligence, in politics. Scared about communism, socialism, loss of Empire. Nervous about the new supranationalism of the European movement. Organize. Plot. Bring Thatcher to power. Right-wing agenda. Euroscepticism. Hand British manufacturing over to the arms industry. Right-wingers in intelligence agencies rewarded. Make money. Arms corruption.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Thatcher goes. Right-wing unhappy. A federal Europe looms. Arms corruption continues. Under different political leaders. The City becomes corrupted. Not quite sure whether or not EU is good for arms. Or bad. Ditto with Brexit. But whatever. UKIP is formed. UKIP is successful. Brexit happens.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Meanwhile. Other pressures within Europe and within EU. Rise of ugly, right-wing nationalist leaders in Russia, Poland and Hungary. The latter two hotbeds of support for another fraternal order: the Teutonic Knights.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What is their agenda? It appears to be the agenda of those arraigned against them to have a federal Europe. So. Do the fraternal orders side with the notion of nation-state? Hence, the right-wing Euroscepticism? The anti-immigration stance? Is there, in fact, a correlation within the right-wing between anti-communism and anti-federalism? Is the correlation simply secular anti-supranationalism? Ok. Have no idea where that is going. It’s just there. In my head.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
How does this align with the seeming anti-arms corruption now being suggested within UKIP, the British expression of anti-supranationalism? Maybe there is no connection. Beyond the fact that UKIP, along with other British third parties, can’t get a look-in so long as the two major political parties can buy their power with arms money? Or maybe it is that those within UKIP are more aware of the insidious arms corruption, even guilty about it, since it was their right-wing forbears who laid the foundations when they brought Thatcher to power?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In any event, on the one hand, I have decided it is time to start examining what the heck might have been going on in Eastern Europe. What is going on now in Central Europe. In terms of Hugh. Maxwell. And modern power games. Do I find somewhere in here some final answer as to why Hugh died? Do I find something that makes sense of what is going on in Europe? What has been going on? Maybe for the past thousand years? I could go on. But you have to read my book to understand the loose ends. And why I think they are important.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Meanwhile, I am presented with this suggestion. After I start airing my thoughts publicly. That there might be an overlap in interests between me and UKIP: arms corruption in the UK. I know. I find it a little odd myself. Not to mention unsettling.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And then. I read today of the totally unexpected election of <a href="http://dailym.ai/2yKPoLW" target="_blank">Henry Bolton</a> as the new leader of UKIP.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
You don’t have to be a diehard conspiracy theorist to see that Henry has come out of nowhere, and that he has serious <a href="http://bit.ly/2x2Rt97" target="_blank">British Intelligence</a> written all over him. I mean, c’mon, the man briefed David Petraeus in Afghanistan.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. A serious fellow. With an OBE. A background in British Intelligence. The UN. Europe. Diplomacy. Has just taken over the reigns of UKIP. At a time I’m being told that UKIP is worried about arms corruption in Great Britain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The last time British Intelligence helped a British political leader to get elected, we had Euroscepticism, the arms industry reboot, and the British establishment (including its intelligence services) corrupted beyond all recognition by its active engagement in said arms industry and its largesse.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What if some of those associated with British Intelligence, knowledgeable of its corruption, which would mean being close enough to it to have the same politics (right-wing) of those engaged in it, what if they believe matters have gone too far? Mainstream political agendas have become too distorted? What if they desire to make a change? And what if all that is left to them by way of available political vehicle is a minor political party? One with the same political views as them? UKIP?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But, but, surely they would choose the Liberal Democrats? Oh. You mean the third party in terminal decline? The third party which chose to support the Tories between 2010 and 2015? When said Tories gave no evidence of giving up their attachment to the flow of <a href="http://bit.ly/2pEexY4" target="_blank">arms bribes</a>?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Um. Yes. That political party. Interesting thing. Henry Bolton was a Liberal Democratic Parliamentary candidate in 2005.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What if the above is not all that far-fetched? What if Henry Bolton’s ascension is not a fluke? What if UKIP actually are crusaders against arms corruption in the UK? What if they see it as a necessary precondition to rescuing the British body politic, from itself, and then from secular supranationalism in Europe?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What if Eastern Europe is central to those objectives? What if Eastern Europe has been central to a struggle for power in Europe going back "a thousand years"? What if that centrality and that struggle required and requires the removal of all secular supranational influence, whether communist or EU?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What if that struggle involves not only the political entities we recognize as nation-states - which nation-states have rarely been in existence all that long, certainly in their current form? What if the struggle also involves the Vatican and ancient fraternal orders, many of which have been in existence longer than many European nation-states and their associated secular pan-European bodies? Which said Vatican and fraternal orders have, oftentimes throughout European history, reigned supreme over said nation-states?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What if there is a connection between UKIP’s seeming anti-corruption in Great Britain, Henry Bolton, and the forces for secular anti-supranationalism in Europe? Including (sigh, grab the tinfoil hat) its fraternal orders?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
And what if my … hmm … preoccupations somehow provide a platform for understanding all these connections?</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10159351528115721" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-49857790903283774782017-10-01T09:02:00.002+00:002017-10-01T09:03:46.448+00:00British Labour Party: No Place For Hate<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3YESambf6tr-Ad_3COnRIoSiLzJbUDENfc-UusRKyoMwPlNzwwlT_Y7pBXXKe7AobCQNp3GU2jcZ4e4krERSblODS2SUFAWTZgEdYTdG_VKT3pMFNoz2DvWR59LSNkoCMURFUdQ/s1600/22046930_10159347791260721_7644266210081332528_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3YESambf6tr-Ad_3COnRIoSiLzJbUDENfc-UusRKyoMwPlNzwwlT_Y7pBXXKe7AobCQNp3GU2jcZ4e4krERSblODS2SUFAWTZgEdYTdG_VKT3pMFNoz2DvWR59LSNkoCMURFUdQ/s400/22046930_10159347791260721_7644266210081332528_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;"><b><br /></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;"><b>The British Labour Party held their annual conference this past week. I have never voted for Labour. And can think of few circumstances in which I might. What I have to say next should be set in that context.</b></span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">I cut my political teeth in the UK in the late Seventies, early Eighties. One of the primary reasons I joined the British Conservative Party at t</span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">hat time was my belief from extensive research and discussion that the then Labour Party was close to holding views indistinguishable from the Communist Party.<br /><br />The Tories are no angels. On many occasions since originally joining them, I have found myself unable to adhere to some of their policies and their antics. And more often than not, I've said so.<br /><br />But, political parties, especially when you've sweat blood for them. Stayed up late, with fingers crossed so firmly the blood no longer flows. Political parties are like family. You stay loyal. So, I've never abandoned the Tories.<br /><br />I read this morning an article written by <a href="http://bit.ly/2hAnI8p" target="_blank">Richard Angell</a>, in <i>Progress</i>, the newspaper of the rightish element within the British Labour Party, saying much the same. He decries what is happening with Labour at the moment. But he is damned if he will leave.<br /><br />I know there are those who are terribly excited at the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn to the leadership of the Labour Party. Who feel the Party has been re-energized. However, I see a darker side. Richard describes it.<br /><br />During the Eighties, Labour was afflicted by the bullying tactics of far-left internal organizing groups like Militant Tendency. I see that again with Momentum, the internal Labour group supporting Corbyn. Richard describes their tactics at conference this past week.<br /><br />Interestingly, those tactics are also used by Trump in the US. And they come from the same playbook used by the anarchists I encountered in Occupy, and since: make noise, bully, intimidate, marginalize, shout down, force to leave the room, and then effect the business you want.<br /><br />I am truly happy for those in the British Labour movement who feel their Party has found new worth with Corbyn. However, there is no place in any organization for hate. In any society. For whatever reason. If you find yourself alongside someone demonstrating hate, find the courage to ask them to stop. Or disassociate yourself. As publicly as you can.<br /><br />I say the same to the Tories. To Trump supporters. To the AltRight. To the left in the US (and in the US - I am a dual British-American citizen - I find myself what I describe as a Democratic Populist (<a data-lynx-mode="async" href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2t9aFOO&h=ATNgGrvBD-9TZa0uFimYaeNWIVjqcJWV3UMGqEoMMiFU_-G5rFrlfzkT3NbLcMdE9Yvjz-e9s2GyM_QvtzOrHkonCWPrhDDb3dZuEDswe9wtqoXYr5ZepKapLG3OGhIE4FZj1kmjcsa_Y8qdYT7pwDpro8PqgNKNGTAwBdW0fJEakcJqTDdFr8a1kKgM8wchJGA1u-W5DmwlWgvFPPfrC8RXL94Evh8omhmg39W5xcGTZObhjEk1Keg8STr9W8GL-Q" rel="noopener nofollow" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/2t9aFOO</a>)). To AntiFa. There is never any place for <a href="https://hatenoone.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">hate</a>. Cut it out ...</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;"><br /></span>
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;">Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159347791260721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "sf optimized" , , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px;"><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-54975149634750438312017-09-02T17:41:00.000+00:002017-09-02T17:41:08.917+00:00Arms Corruption in Great Britain Continues<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83p77_HF9KvSXM_ASlChqh5hQBrrUkmX4njmOne7RdgiWgwfDSB4ESXyTIUxhBtQM2OsJIwrD5avplaPNpFiEZ3WPB-ZE23uQzxqQLnaSk9tnjpfzxbBjjvhmxLpr5d4Nt0Gd8A/s1600/21192266_10159219252605721_6271597094674134138_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi83p77_HF9KvSXM_ASlChqh5hQBrrUkmX4njmOne7RdgiWgwfDSB4ESXyTIUxhBtQM2OsJIwrD5avplaPNpFiEZ3WPB-ZE23uQzxqQLnaSk9tnjpfzxbBjjvhmxLpr5d4Nt0Gd8A/s400/21192266_10159219252605721_6271597094674134138_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Today is the 20th Anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. I offer in a companion piece my recorded views about the connection between <a href="http://bit.ly/2wLsl5K" target="_blank">her death</a> and the then growing influence of arms corruption within British society and its body politic.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
(SPOILER ALERT: If you want to miss out my analysis of why arms corruption in Great Britain is so important, and you just want to skip to the part where you sign a petition objecting to the London Arms Fair, um, go straight to the <a href="https://www.caat.org.uk/" target="_blank">web-site</a> for the (British) Campaign Against the Arms Trade. Spoilsports ... )</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Where was I? Oh yes. Make no mistake. This is not just about one or two seedy politicians in the UK Parliament taking a couple of backhanders in exchange for turning a blind eye to the British government supplying some tanks to a dictator in southern Africa.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We're talking the wholesale and systemic corruption of Westminster, Whitehall. the British Civl and Foreign Services, the City of London and British Intelligence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In the Eighties, forgetting the politics for a moment, Margaret Thatcher presided over the collapse of British manufacturing industry. It had to be replaced. Fast. So, she set in motion a deliberate policy of turning ploughshares into swords. Massively expanding the British arms industry. Today, Great Britain is one of the largest exporters of arms in the world.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The problem is, at that level, you can’t choose whom to supply, and then with whom to maintain supply. You may contract with a democracy. Which then becomes a dictatorship. And think about it. Dictators are more likely to need weapons than democracies.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Countries aren't going to buy your weapons in the first place, if they can't depend on you to service and maintain with spare parts. If they can't depend on you, whatever the changes in their system of government. Whatever their fluctuating record on human rights. Whether or not they are rendered subject to UN sanctions, for whatever reason.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
You can’t guarantee arms jobs at home if you can’t guarantee regular exports of weaponry. Wherever the end destination may be. And today, one in five jobs in the UK is directly or indirectly associated with the British arms trade (which is why even the unions support it). So, you deal with whoever you have to.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If the client is ‘legitimate,' they get to use the ‘front-door,’ and have tea and crumpets with a nice government Minister, in a cozy, oak-paneled room in Whitehall. If the client is less than salubrious, banned by the UN, whatever, then they have to use the ‘back-door,’ and they likely meet with an 'unofficial' tailored suit, in an equally oak-paneled but decidedly deniable office in a City of London investment bank.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In my book, <i><a href="http://www.maggieshammer.com/" target="_blank">Maggie’s Hammer</a></i>, I detail the trail that led me to conclude that the death of my mate, Hugh Simmonds CBE, in 1988, was due to his having been one of the team hand-picked by Margaret Thatcher (consequent upon his interesting skill set), and tasked with setting up the original ‘back-door’ arms operation in the Eighties.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
One further unavoidable feature of the arms trade is that you can’t get business without grease. Bribes. For everyone. One of Hugh’s primary jobs was the creation of the money-laundering pipelines for the flow of bribes back to senior politicians within the UK.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why has none of this British political corruption come to light more substantially? Well. Except for my book, that is. Answer: everyone is in on it. Either receiving the grease. Or turning a blind eye to it. Conservative. Labour. Lib-Con. And now back to the Conservatives.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Really, Geoff? British political arms corruption has been going on this long, totally uninterrupted, gathering steam? Everywhere? Without any serious success in exposure by anyone else? Not even a hint? The massed ranks of the media, law enforcement, well-funded investigative non-profits notwithstanding? Nada? C’mon, Geoff.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Hmm. Ok. Here’s a teaser from my book. By way of illustration of the ubiquity of the arms corruption in Great Britain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Pick a guy. Any guy. I know. Try Sir Alan Duncan, MP, KCMG. Back in the Nineties, when he was a lowly British Conservative MP, not yet a Tory government Minister, he was the hand-picked successor to Jonathan Aitken.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Who was Jonathan Aitken? Well, read my other post. But, the short story is that Aitken was, until he went to prison for perjury, he was, in the Eighties and early Nineties, the guy who negotiated the arms bribes for Tory politicians, arising from arms deals with Saudi Arabia. Duncan was chosen by Aitken to take over this role when Aitken went to prison for perjury in the late Nineties.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then, in 2010, the new British Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron, made Duncan his Minister for International Development. One step below full Cabinet rank. Which was interesting. Seeing as Duncan had always been tipped for Cabinet.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But, here’s the thing. Cameron had more important work for Duncan. Arising out of his continuing, extracurricular arms activities. And Cameron needed Duncan to be doing that work, um, ‘out of sight.’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Britain has what many Tories (certainly) regard as a rather over-sized International Aid budget. Why? Because it ain’t about building dams. It’s about sweeteners to get arms deals. Buy our missiles and warships. Then you get a school and a dam.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In this regard, the Tories streamlined the vetting process. So that the program for clearing dams and schools was handled by the same person who signed off on the Export Licenses and Credit Guarantees for the associated arms purchases.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And that person, from 2010 to 2014, was Duncan. Tucked away, in the No. 2 position, in the seemingly warm-and-fuzzy International Aid Department.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why so hidden? Because, from 2010 to 2014, the Tories were in coalition government with the sandal-wearing <a href="http://bit.ly/2pEexY4" target="_blank">Liberal Democrat mob</a>. Who might have been offended by the tie-in between International Aid and weapons. Not to mention blood-money bribes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
However. Not to worry. In 2015, after that year's UK General Election, David Cameron's Conservatives assumed sole control of the government. Duncan was moved sideways. Out of government. Cameron had him lined up instead to take over the Chairmanship of the joint Parliamentary committee overseeing Intelligence. Until those pesky Parliamentarians interfered.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why was this committee important? Well. Seeing as Britain had by then become (and remains) one vast arms-dealing enterprise (which has included transforming the City of London into the world’s capital for dirty money), its Embassies have been morphed essentially into arms showrooms. And the primary function of British Intelligence is not to combat terrorism, but rather is to scout out new arms deals, and do opposition research on the competition.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why do you think the guy who produced the notorious opposition research Buzzfeed Dossier on Trump, collated as it was from considerable knowledge of dirty money dealings with the Russians, why do you think that guy was a former British Intelligence operative with MI6? Because that’s their specialty now.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So, Cameron wanted a 'friend' in charge of Intelligence oversight who could spike any uncomfortable investigations. And, by the way, do not be thinking all this corruption was just the Tories. Labour kept the whole pot boiling while they were in power from 1997 to 2010. It's all in my book.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Still not convinced? Well. Read the book. And remember. I was shot at. Two senior British journalists told me they were warned off the moment they began investigating Hugh. Oh. And Hugh ended up dead in a woodland glade in 1988.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And so. Welcome to today. As we remember Diana. Whose death I say was intimately linked to nascent arms corruption within British society and its body politic. A body politic now thoroughly corrupted with arms bribes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Approaching the <a href="https://www.caat.org.uk/" target="_blank">2017 London Arms Fair</a>. Which is held every two years in September. And is one of the largest arms fairs in the world.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Of course it is. This is where we are now. And it is the primary reason for my writing this companion post to the one about Diana’s death. The arms corruption killed her. And it continues. It’s time to take a stand.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why does any of this matter? Beyond the immorality. Gosh. Two examples:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
1) Refugees. When jobs are dependent on arms. When your lifestyle as a politician is dependent on bribes. It is in everyone’s interests to keep on selling arms to whomsoever. Especially if you are able to do it to both sides.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The biggest market remains the Middle East. And its hot spots. Some of the hottest spots for a while have been Syria, Iraq and Libya. Where there are all manner of opposing parties to whom one can be selling military technology.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If you sell arms. Folks use them. Those arms have become devastating. And so, they devastate. Do you think all of those millions of refugees left their homes to go on holiday? They left because their homes had been devastated. With weaponry their own countries did not manufacture.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
2) Britain sold the component parts for Sarin to both sides in the Syrian conflict. Not the USA. Not Russia. Great Britain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This is why arms corruption in Great Britain is so important. It affects folks in Great Britain. It devastates people around the world. And this is why we should be so appalled by the London Arms Fair. Ok?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Now. Why not expand your knowledge about the devastation British arms sales cause to Great Britain and to peoples’ around the world by buying my book? And then, do something about it by signing the petition on the <a href="https://www.caat.org.uk/" target="_blank">CAAT web-site</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
Too many of us settle for shrugging and saying, well gee, I just didn’t know about this. Well. You do now. And you can find out more. So do it. And then, start making a fuss. As Britons, we are better than this. As human beings we are better than this. It deserves more than our switching on the latest episode of <i>Game of Thrones</i>.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-58930149862223241772017-09-02T15:53:00.001+00:002017-09-02T15:53:55.805+00:00'Maggie's Hammer': Diana, Arms Deals, Death<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YPNCaWyk5yIQfpoG4KJZIsiOoOqs7vm93rriMk2sCNpkDB4ipem7BGoCEkZ4_djVfllC1AXmMXI8b4YHhbrLNRGaVd7xLWggINX6_PYksCC3aD6nNQrXIm_VXgBqSAw4kTVifw/s1600/21192897_10159218860325721_5014372695829459725_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="590" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YPNCaWyk5yIQfpoG4KJZIsiOoOqs7vm93rriMk2sCNpkDB4ipem7BGoCEkZ4_djVfllC1AXmMXI8b4YHhbrLNRGaVd7xLWggINX6_PYksCC3aD6nNQrXIm_VXgBqSAw4kTVifw/s400/21192897_10159218860325721_5014372695829459725_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Was there a connection between the death of Diana, Princess of Wales and the nascent arms corruption of the British body politic, which corruption I describe in my book, <i><a href="http://www.maggieshammer.com/" target="_blank">Maggie's Hammer</a></i>, and which I allege now exerts a dominating and toxic influence over most of the workings of the British government and the UK Parliament? Yes. But it was not what you thought it might have been. Read on.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
When the British Conservative Party was unceremoniously tossed out of power in May of 1997, after eighteen years of government under first Margaret Thatcher and later John Major, all manner of seemingly credible establishment figures began to make serious allegations about the involvement of senior right-wing Conservatives in very remunerative (um, bribes) and certainly illicit arms dealing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
One by one, the politicians among the accusers were bought off. With a juicy Shadow Cabinet position here. A threat or two there. All except for Mohammed al-Fayed, billionaire owner of Harrods, Fulham Football Club. And the Ritz Hotel, in Paris.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Al-Fayed had a continuing beef with the British Conservatives. They had denied him British citizenship. And he promised in 1997 to walk all over the grave of their election defeat with detailed revelations of the <a href="http://bit.ly/2iyg5gV" target="_blank">covert arms activities</a> of senior Conservatives. Naming names. Of all the participants. Including the Middle-Eastern arms middlemen. Folks who normally preferred to remain nameless, in the shadows.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Al-Fayed’s crowning moment came in June of 1997 when, just a month after the Tories’ election defeat, he provided the evidence which scuppered the libel action former Tory Cabinet Minister Jonathan Aitken was bringing against the (London) <i>Guardian</i> newspaper.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In 1995, the <i>Guardian</i> had run a piece alleging that Jonathan Aitken, while serving as Tory Minister for Defence Procurement (for which read, Minister for International Arms Sales), had in 1993 met in al-Fayed’s Ritz Hotel with one Said Ayas, one of the primary arms bagmen for the Saudi Royal Family.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Bagmen are the high-flying, backroom fixers who negotiate the level of arms commissions (bribes) to be paid, and who decide who receives how much. In 1993, some $300 million a year in arms commissions was being paid by the Saudi government into a special Bank of England account, for the political party in power in Great Britain then to divvy up among its friends.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
That money arose out of a multi-stage, rolling arms contract between the British government and Saudi Arabia, which began in 1985, continues to this day, and so far has been worth about $100 billion. The contract is known as <i>Al Yamamah</i>, Arabic for ‘The Dove.’</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Aitken was meeting with Ayas, in Paris, in 1993, to put the finishing touches to the bribes to be paid from <i>Al Yamamah II</i>, while commencing the negotiations for the commissions arising from <i>Al Yamamah III.</i></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Naturally, all of the parties concerned were less than happy with al-Fayed’s boasts that he was going to reveal details of the illicit Tory arms dealing which had been taking place in his hotel.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
However, no-one really took him seriously. Until, in June of 1997, al-Fayed triumphantly produced a fax which proved that Aitken had been lying in his libel action.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The fax made clear that, contrary to what Aitken had been insisting in his libel action, namely that he had never met Ayas, didn’t know him, and most certainly had been nowhere near the Ritz Hotel the weekend in 1993 when Ayas was holding court there. Aitken had indeed been in the Ritz Hotel that same weekend. Meeting with Ayas. In fact, the fax al-Fayed was waving in his grubby little hand was none other than a copy of Aitken’s hotel bill. Oops.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Libel action crashes. Aitken later goes to prison for perjury. Fayed is beside himself with joy. And the backroom arms dealings of the British Conservative Party and those shadowy Middle Eastern bagmen are suddenly being exposed all over the British media. Not a place shadowy arms middlemen like to have their photographs appearing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I continue with an excerpt from my book:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
“Al-Fayed was, of course, beside himself with joy. Not only had the offending event occurred in his hotel, but he had been able to get The <i>Guardian</i> story going in the first place, with his invaluable inside information about Jonny’s meeting.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
More than that. Al-Fayed had then been able to apply the coup de grace personally. For it was he who had supplied the trial with the Ritz Hotel fax that had proven that Jonny’s wife was in Switzerland, and not in Paris. Tubby little Fayed bobbed and weaved around London, in merriment and mirth, rubbing his hands in glee, just like Danny de Vito as the Penguin in <i>Batman Returns</i>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Along with the bobbing, and just before the weaving, al-Fayed was also trumpeting to the press that he would now hammer the nail well and truly into the coffin of the Conservative Party, with total exposure of the Tories’ remaining dirty dealings with respect to <i>Al Yamamah</i>. I put two and two together, and wondered whether he was in a position to do this because those dealings had also occurred in the Ritz Hotel?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I wrote a letter to al-Fayed (in early August of 1997), setting out my reasoning, and asking him if he’d happened to come across Hugh in his hotel, up to no good. Not really expecting al-Fayed to respond, I got a little “familiar” in the letter, and commended him on his courage in speaking out so boldly about arms merchants, who probably wouldn’t be too happy at his threats to expose them, along with right-wing Tories.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Less than a month later, in the middle of the night of August 31, 1997, his son Dodi was killed in mysterious circumstances in a car crash in Paris, as he was traveling from the Ritz Hotel back to his apartment. Also killed in the crash was his girlfriend. With him. In the back seat of his Mercedes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The girlfriend was Diana, Princess of Wales.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
To this day, Mohammed al-Fayed has not uttered a single word more about arms deals, arms merchants, arms middlemen, the Ritz Hotel or the (British) Conservative Party. He has four young children by his second marriage.”</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-4907442640936975972017-08-28T06:28:00.000+00:002017-08-28T06:28:23.143+00:00'Maggie's Hammer': Thatcher, Miners, Poverty, Arms<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpw9GP8dK5ZSVopTyR9RrPU6TXB3Twth68Z_E9yruoxCz5lSqwMycwC53pK5Cdt7Q7PK45hdodHWzIKuHHfIcYXcDHkLwLHyV64HbaA3DZ7ykqKMjL4VHBCPrSGxSlDd4ip18-g/s1600/21105436_10159199671220721_5715847577122215322_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGpw9GP8dK5ZSVopTyR9RrPU6TXB3Twth68Z_E9yruoxCz5lSqwMycwC53pK5Cdt7Q7PK45hdodHWzIKuHHfIcYXcDHkLwLHyV64HbaA3DZ7ykqKMjL4VHBCPrSGxSlDd4ip18-g/s400/21105436_10159199671220721_5715847577122215322_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>A heart-rending description in today’s (London) Observer newspaper of poverty in the former coalfields of <a href="http://bit.ly/2xCCE8S" target="_blank">Northern England</a>. So many to blame. So much to do. And so few driven even to try.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The tragic irony is that the Tories are now reaping the ‘benefit.’ For we were the ones who devastated the mining communities with our war on the unions in the Eighties. Not a proud moment in my life.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The article reminds us of the toxic danger of ignoring the long-term consequences of short-term political gain. And recalls for me the personal shame of having looked the other way.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
It was the evisceration of British industry which served as the trigger for the massive corruption of the British body politic with arms bribes. As first Margaret Thatcher, and later her successors, of all political hue, sought to replace the lost industry with <a href="http://bit.ly/2iyg5gV" target="_blank">arms manufacture</a>.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-88111141269355743772017-08-28T06:20:00.001+00:002017-08-28T06:21:37.059+00:00Tories, Neo-Liberalism and the Conservative Co-operative Movement<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnI5zZWZUh3kBZZ826pUOcGirL8cVQ2mSYQLYbW5nB9x91xk9cYbHalAVnDUfmvu5awWWIFlv2XydeXjW_qUw9jr2BVb8XCACwMhzXKxLODx-iwQ-XO2YJLBgargrOgD4F7cIZg/s1600/21013824_10159185439755721_7612188603435426791_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1025" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOnI5zZWZUh3kBZZ826pUOcGirL8cVQ2mSYQLYbW5nB9x91xk9cYbHalAVnDUfmvu5awWWIFlv2XydeXjW_qUw9jr2BVb8XCACwMhzXKxLODx-iwQ-XO2YJLBgargrOgD4F7cIZg/s400/21013824_10159185439755721_7612188603435426791_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Oh look. The British Conservative Party does have <a href="http://bit.ly/2vOoZMk" target="_blank">thinkers</a>. The linked to magazine is for those more towards the center of the Party. I’m always taken with what Jesse Norman has to say (Page 27). He comes from a banking background. But he realized quite early on that the economic model used by all major political parties in the UK, and by the UK Treasury, was totally broken. It treated people as predictable economic agents. Rather than the unpredictable a**holes we all are.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
His general thinking is that the solution is to devolve as much decision-making process as possible <a href="http://bit.ly/2wVLfUq" target="_blank">to the people</a> in all aspects of life. He is one of the prime supporters within the Conservative Party of <a href="http://bit.ly/2x9Nymv" target="_blank">mutualism</a>. Established the <a href="http://bit.ly/2v7bW6D" target="_blank">Conservative Co-operative Movement</a> (of which I am a founding member. And supports the concept of co-operative provision of both <a href="http://bit.ly/2wVybP5" target="_blank">private and public services</a>, including health care and education.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "SF Optimized", system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.12px; margin-top: 6px;">
Now, while we’re on the subject of old economic models, and alternative Tory thinking, let’s include a handy history of what is currently still regarded as ‘traditional’ Tory economic thinking – <a href="http://bit.ly/2wg1bnN" target="_blank">neo-liberalism</a>. All good background wonkdom …<br />
<br />
Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159185439755721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-58994386016498801222017-08-07T16:09:00.001+00:002017-10-01T08:39:46.947+00:00Life after (Election) Death for Red Toryism?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu8c0uBXMxVMjm29gzeQflsx8M5vWf7UlDlftMeXVQlly4M-cI39zavhmQv6dBlaWd0psw5hxfP6FC2SXHM72REwc_jlUgeHL5M0H_NMZ4mH8LZhvMqmv4Pp7TikOVgJ2i6lJ_CA/s1600/20663984_10159102847690721_8778465441781728822_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="960" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiu8c0uBXMxVMjm29gzeQflsx8M5vWf7UlDlftMeXVQlly4M-cI39zavhmQv6dBlaWd0psw5hxfP6FC2SXHM72REwc_jlUgeHL5M0H_NMZ4mH8LZhvMqmv4Pp7TikOVgJ2i6lJ_CA/s400/20663984_10159102847690721_8778465441781728822_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Nick Timothy, the ‘brains’ behind Theresa May’s pre-UK General Election 2017 brand of working-class Tory populism, is all over the place at the moment attempting to revive interest in <a href="http://bit.ly/2wiAXxA" target="_blank">Red Toryism</a>.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The thing is, I don’t disagree with <a href="http://bit.ly/2vtHrfe" target="_blank">his central premises</a>. That Tories should be interested in what is best for the whole nation. That they should always be concerned to reform, carefully. Wherever that reform sensibly should go. That they need to have an ear to what the populace wants. And that a lot of folk, especially working people, feel very uncomfortable with the prescription of the center-left for a supranational economic melting pot, which doesn’t appear to take care of those who can’t necessarily make the grade in the brave new world.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is the healthier aspects of this approach which allow me to meld those aspects of Red Toryism with my own brand of US proletarian populism, which I call <a href="https://democratpopulist.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Democratic Populism</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The problem is, when people are scared, they aren’t always at their, hmm, ‘healthiest.’ And, as <a href="http://bit.ly/2ufuqpS" target="_blank">another <i>Guardian</i> article</a> points out, it is often not the principle of free movement of labour, capital and goods that the ‘left-behinds’ vote against, as it is the colour of the skin doing the moving, and the fact that the capital ain’t moving into their bank account. Frankly, I think the author of this article, one Stephen Bush, misses a lot in his essay. But I do believe him correct when he says that, if Red Toryism dies, the alternative could be a lot uglier.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
As Nick Timothy himself admits, he is as much to blame as anyone for the possibility that his policy baby may well have got thrown out with the <a href="http://bit.ly/2wiYEG5" target="_blank">election-failure bathwater</a>. But, even before the 2017 UK General Election, some in the British Conservative Party were inadvertently doing their level best to condemn Red Toryism by allowing others favorably to <a href="http://bit.ly/2vC1XdB" target="_blank">compare it to Trumpism</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
For myself, I do believe that politics in both the US and the UK will be driven, for a while to come, by a large section of the working population who feel they want to retake control of their economic future. I think that is best obtained by devolving as much power over economic decision-making as possible as far down the political ladder as possible.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The upshot of that will undoubtedly be less interest in supranational decision-making. A desire for some breathing space, while new priorities are designed. Which itself may take the form of an element of protectionism and isolation. Together with some localized intervention in the marketplace, to keep at bay the impersonal forces of capitalist change, while ordinary folk better prepare themselves for that brave new world. And it might even see a surge of interest in mutualism. All in all, a gentle ‘qualification’ of the absolute freedom of the free market.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What I strongly believe will not work is boffins of right and left seizing on the distress that exists to superimpose trendy prescriptions of social engineering, which are not desired, and have not worked in the past, and may only result in further distress, and a headlong rush towards greater political ugliness.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is not left the people want. Nor right. Nor even the center. It is populism. It is what the people say they want. It’s easy enough to work out. Just stop prescribing before you’ve listened. And then have the generosity of political will actually to accept what you are hearing.<br />
<br />
Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10159102847690721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-85214535733924439162017-07-10T00:12:00.003+00:002017-07-10T00:13:31.622+00:00Left-Behind Folk in the UK much like those in the US<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLelKuM-A0NT4GTC0H-hv4K3BvuSrLLv1kZhXUim8NHtBg2A8FjCaKq5McxeOkBoteJob_FVlDG8Vim0HfEbz6m7WEcgDI_0SFn9Uaj1dnCCqHGJVGcGiZbS4exdp4yKGV9o5vA/s1600/19554044_10158894531235721_6529557067204283134_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="639" data-original-width="960" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCLelKuM-A0NT4GTC0H-hv4K3BvuSrLLv1kZhXUim8NHtBg2A8FjCaKq5McxeOkBoteJob_FVlDG8Vim0HfEbz6m7WEcgDI_0SFn9Uaj1dnCCqHGJVGcGiZbS4exdp4yKGV9o5vA/s400/19554044_10158894531235721_6529557067204283134_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>It is fascinating how much similarity there is at the moment between the US and the UK politically. Especially as regards the behavior of those who believe themselves ‘left behind.’</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I really have little more to add to this <a href="http://bit.ly/2sYOkDo" target="_blank">excellent analysis</a> in the (London) <i>Guardian</i>. Except possibly for this. Labour did, indeed, do brilliantly in the UK General Election in June. And many Labourites are acting as if the next election (probably not before 2022) will be a case of building on that success. I’m not so sure.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
For certain, Labour’s good result had much to do with the unexpectedly assured performance of Jeremy Corbyn. And the seeming attraction of Labour’s manifesto. But I still hold that history will show that 2017 was about rebellion much more than Labour.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Rebellion by Tory Remainers in London. Rebellion by Liberal Democrats against the LibCon Coalition record and against Farron. Rebellion against the European Union in the North and East of England. Rebellion by the young against austerity. The question is, how much of this rebellion will remain embedded in 2022?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I suspect the Liberal Democrats may be slightly regrouped under Vince Cable. Not much. Not enough. But some. Brexit will no longer be an issue. So just watch those Tory Remainers remain with Labour no longer. And I'm pretty certain the Tory government will merrily spend the next two years picking the more palatable and attractive cherries from Labour's offering of goodies, in order to calm further fears of pocket-picking going forward. At least among those whose votes the <a href="http://bit.ly/2tdJKzu" target="_blank">Tories want</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Meanwhile, as this article makes clear, the move by many voters in 2017 from Labour to Tory, in the North and East, was not just about Brexit. It was, as one correspondent describes, a 25-year movement. I’m not sure all those Labour voters will be returning. Besides, I don’t see how Labour will have anything more to offer in 2022 than they did in 2017. So, where does a <a href="http://bit.ly/2t6lmBx" target="_blank">better result</a> come from<span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">?</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
Add to all this the near-certainty that the British Conservative Party will have a new and likely younger leader (my money is on Priti Patel). The Tories will need a polling lead of only 3% for an overall majority, compared to 8% for Labour. And the fact that Labour will be led either by Jeremy Corbyn (who goes down much better at Glastonbury than in the North and East), or by someone he pretty much handpicks. And I’m not convinced that the Tories will not be eking out a fourth, consecutive, narrow election victory.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
(Facebook comments <a href="http://bit.ly/2ts1E4r" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-20272539498629595792017-06-09T18:18:00.002+00:002017-07-10T00:15:18.670+00:00UK General Election 2017: The Morning After The Nightmare Before<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqY9qoQJAnzg2pFeRVA83DKfoxOQ1z7VAugmc6E4-l3gILXzBM5X0VDddgsDpVUVSJay-XxP2DZK8vOkFT8oqBjKQgzEKOc_pJas3kspkS4g0g5h_QdtGaU5eE_SDRrPd-9Zvjg/s1600/photovisi-download+%25283%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1025" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihqY9qoQJAnzg2pFeRVA83DKfoxOQ1z7VAugmc6E4-l3gILXzBM5X0VDddgsDpVUVSJay-XxP2DZK8vOkFT8oqBjKQgzEKOc_pJas3kspkS4g0g5h_QdtGaU5eE_SDRrPd-9Zvjg/s400/photovisi-download+%25283%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>I’ve been involved in electioneering in <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/greatbritain?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">GreatBritain</span></span></a>, actively and as an observer, since the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/generalelection?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">GeneralElection</span></span></a> of 1979, when I was also a successful <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/britishconservativeparty?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">BritishConservativeParty</span></span></a> municipal candidate. And I have never seen a General Election as remarkable as the one just finished (<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/ge2017?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">GE2017</span></span></a>). Remarkable not just because so few expected it (except, sigh, for <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/yougov?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">YouGov</span></span></a>). But because the results themselves are still so confusing.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
First, the overall picture. Well, I should have stuck with my original April prediction, and the reasons for it, when I said that this might all <a href="http://bit.ly/2rmXh8K" target="_blank">backfire</a> on <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/theresamay?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">TheresaMay</span></span></a>. I suspected then that the pollsters and pundits were overestimating May, underestimating the holding power of <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/labour?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Labour</span></span></a>, and not factoring in the likelihood that <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/tory?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Tory</span></span></a> <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/remainers?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Remainers</span></span></a> would, well, ‘remain’ at home.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
That said, my <a href="http://bit.ly/2rGbhdZ" target="_blank">June adjustments</a> weren’t without merit. They just didn’t take account of certain things that really only became apparent on polling day itself.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<a href="http://bit.ly/2s4Gacv" target="_blank">Young people</a> turned out in droves – good for Labour. The <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/liberaldemocrats?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">LiberalDemocrats</span></span></a> did a teeny-weeny bit better than my second prediction assumed – bad for Tories. Not all of the UKIP vote in the North of England went to the Tories. Some 30% went to Labour – bad for Tories. <span style="background-color: rgba(88, 144, 255, 0.15); letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">#ToryRemainers</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;"> did stay at home, <a href="http://dailym.ai/2rL2OWL" target="_blank">especially in London</a> – good for Labour. All of which might have made for a better night for Labour, but for the unexpected success of the Tories in</span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;"> </span><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/scotland?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.24px; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Scotland</span></span></a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Ok. That is the big picture. But it wasn’t as simple as that. Take these two stats for example. At 4 o’clock in the morning (UK time). Within minutes of each other. The Tories won <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/mansfield?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Mansfield</span></span></a> in the North of England from Labour with an 18.5% swing. While <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/readingeast?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">ReadingEast</span></span></a> was won by Labour from the Tories with a 16.5% swing.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Never, not in almost 40 years of interest in British General Election campaigns, have I ever experienced results of such complete and utterly opposite trend. <a href="http://bit.ly/2sK8Fdt" target="_blank">What did it mean</a>?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I’ve been scratching my head. I think the answer is this. People were just bloody weary. Weary of politics. Weary of politicians. They treated the whole production as one big By-Election. And just decided to rebel against everyone and everything.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Labour pushed out <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/conservative?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Conservative</span></span></a>. Conservative pushed out Liberal Democrat. Liberal Democrat pushed out Labour. And everyone had a shot at the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/snp?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">SNP</span></span></a> in Scotland.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
People saw through Theresa May and <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/nicolasturgeon?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">NicolaSturgeon</span></span></a>’s manipulation, and gave them both a bloody nose. They saw authenticity in <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/jeremycorbyn?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">JeremyCorbyn</span></span></a> and <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/ruthdavidson?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">RuthDavidson</span></span></a>, and again, rewarded them both. Plus. The great British public decided they wanted to take it a bit easier on the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/brexit?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Brexit</span></span></a> negotiations.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Where does this leave us? Well. I could go into a long ‘constitutional’ chit-chat. But, I’ll spare you. Here’s my very brief prediction of a timeline. May becomes <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/primeminister?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">PrimeMinister</span></span></a>. Supported by the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/dup?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">DUP</span></span></a>. Eventually, there will be a vote of no confidence (may even come from her own side). <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/bojo?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">BoJo</span></span></a> will be given a shot. He will fail. Corbyn will take his chance. He’ll let everyone see a juicy Labour Queen’s Speech. He’ll wave from No. 10 a few times. Suffer indignities at the hands of the Tories. He’ll wring his hands. Grimace. Shake his head. Shrug. Go back to the country. And get an enhanced mandate.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why doesn't May just do the decent thing, and resign? Because she's a self-centered, selfish, stubborn pig. She didn't call this General Election for the good of the country, or for the good of her party. She called it to enhance her own <a href="http://bit.ly/2rGbhdZ" target="_blank">personal position</a>. Period. She knows she can't call a second General Election herself. She would be excoriated by the voting public. She knows her party grandees want rid of her. So, she's doing the only thing she can - for herself. Hanging on grimly.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Right. That’s really all I have to add to my <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/bbcexitpoll?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">BBCExitPoll</span></span></a> <a href="http://bit.ly/2s2uTta" target="_blank">post</a> of last evening. Save for a final personal note.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/nickclegg?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">NickClegg</span></span></a> lost his seat last night. And I’m sorry. Theresa May made great play of the fact, when she took over as Leader of the Conservative Party and <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/britishprimeminister?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">BritishPrimeMinister</span></span></a>, that she was putting the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/cameron?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">Cameron</span></span></a> legacy firmly in the past.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
That legacy, at least in government, and to a very large extent, was the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/coalitiongovernment?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">CoalitionGovernment</span></span></a> of 2010-2015. Which I believe, speaking as a wettish Tory, was one of the best experiments in governance I have witnessed in Great Britain. Not least because the charm, intelligence and patience of Nick Clegg brought out the <a href="http://bit.ly/2t2fg2g" target="_blank">better instincts</a> of <span class="_5afx" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; direction: ltr; font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/davidcameron?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: -0.24px; text-decoration-line: none;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">DavidCameron</span></a></span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
I will miss Nick Clegg. So will the <a class="_58cn" data-ft="{"tn":"*N","type":104}" href="https://www.facebook.com/hashtag/ukparliament?source=feed_text&story_id=10158778546610721" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;"><span class="_5afx" style="direction: ltr; font-family: inherit;"><span aria-label="hashtag" class="_58cl _5afz" style="color: #4267b2; font-family: inherit; unicode-bidi: isolate;">#</span><span class="_58cm" style="font-family: inherit;">UKParliament</span></span></a>. And the people of Great Britain owe him a huge debt of gratitude. He was, in every sense of the expression, a selfless statesman.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br />
(Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158778546295721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-11676473250086039642017-06-09T18:07:00.001+00:002017-06-09T18:23:10.641+00:00UK General Election 2017: The Exit Poll<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHHvbeXLBxgcSB9YiN6EOwQRXzyRoZHBQWcwVKqLOFnOf2F7rq-XshxUYF_XhJ0048fGXRanz9iC9fNqd4HDWRALtfI_Mec8oqNhFkxD39Rx3hE29ZHRh9Bzk-ZUV57cJjROllg/s1600/_96404475_2200_exitpoll_national-seat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="716" data-original-width="834" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJHHvbeXLBxgcSB9YiN6EOwQRXzyRoZHBQWcwVKqLOFnOf2F7rq-XshxUYF_XhJ0048fGXRanz9iC9fNqd4HDWRALtfI_Mec8oqNhFkxD39Rx3hE29ZHRh9Bzk-ZUV57cJjROllg/s400/_96404475_2200_exitpoll_national-seat.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Well. The notorious <a href="http://bbc.in/2sk0Iya" target="_blank">BBC exit poll</a> has been published. Exit polls are no more a result than any other poll. But these BBC exit polls tend to be accurate.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. First. Wow. Blimey. I was wrong with <a href="http://bit.ly/2rGbhdZ" target="_blank">my prediction</a>. But. At least I was on the right side of wrong. I wasn’t one of those predicting a May majority of 100, even 80.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
That said. This is a victory for Labour. A disaster for May. A goodish result for the Liberal Democrats. And the beginning of the end for the Scottish National Party.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Ok. What next? And let me give you a hint. There are next to no experts on the British Constitution among the British media. Absolutely none in the US. So. Pay no attention to them.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
As a consequence of the rules agreed to after the General Election of 2010, when there was also a Hung Parliament, rules drafted by the then Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell, the Queen will call on the Leader of the largest Party to attempt to form a government.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
May’s only real chance of a government is in coalition with the Democratic Unionists and the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats won’t. The DUP probably won't be enough. In my opinion, therefore, and if the exit poll figures hold true, May will probably fail to form a government that commands a natural majority in the House of Commons.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
She may try to govern without a majority. If I were Jeremy Corbyn, I would not give her the chance. Screw all the nonsense about Brexit negotiations beginning in 11 days time. The British government will tell the EU to wait.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Constitution requires that May be given a chance. But there is no written Constitution as such. It is all conventions, wisdom, paying attention to the voice of the people, sticking a finger in the wind.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And the bottom line is this. Two months ago, Theresa May had a polling lead averaging about 20%. The British public have utterly rejected her. More than this, they have voted positively for Jeremy Corbyn and his program. This will be especially true if the Labour vote turns put to be larger than in 2015.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It matters not what anyone says about the SNP voting on English matters. We are still one country, called Great Britain. And Great Britain handed a success to Jeremy Corbyn. He went up. Theresa May went down.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The result allows May to have her chance. But only a limited one. Corbyn’s success allows him to be hard-headed. But within reason. And it allows him to govern with the tacit support of the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green MP, the Liberal Democrats and like-minded parties from Northern Ireland.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If May stays as Prime Minister, she will not be challenged as Leader of the Conservative Party until after the Brexit negotiations have concluded.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Brits take this whole Queen thing seriously. The Prime Minister is the Queen’s Prime Minister, not Parliament’s.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Queen calls on a Member of Parliament to form a government. Parliament does not choose that person.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If the Queen calls on May to form a government. Then it will be May forming that government for the Conservatives. Not another Conservative.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There is just a chance that the Conservatives, desperate to hang onto power, may demand that May step aside, in favor of another Conservative MP, who might gain the backing of Parliament.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I think that unlikely. May is stubborn. And Corbyn could turn around and say, convention requires I give May a chance. But not any other Conservative. They lost this election. They went entirely the wrong way. By bucketloads. Why should I stand aside?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I can’t say as I’d disagree.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If I had to put money on it. If this exit poll is correct. Corbyn will be Prime Minister within two weeks.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But how did this happen? Well, those polls which were showing this to be a close election were correct. And those fashioning those polls said that their models were different because they were factoring in a large turnout of young people. So. I’m guessing young people (18-25) made the difference.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Whoever becomes Prime Minister, tactics with regards to the Brexit negotiations will now change.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Theresa May was playing hardball because she said she had the country behind her. The country is likely still pretty much Brexit. But not hard Brexit.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Besides, those doing the negotiating for the EU are going to be the ones <a href="http://bit.ly/2sJrjlJ" target="_blank">playing hardball</a> now.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What else? Oh yes. Once the Brexit negotiations are concluded, May will be gone. Unless she resigns before the end of this coming weekend. And. She won't be getting a bust in the Carlton Club.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Even if Corbyn does not become Prime Minister, he’s not going anywhere. He now has the opportunity to choose his preferred successor.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Liberal Democrats will be reasonable happy. Provided the exit poll works out. And gives them a few extra seats.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The SNP are finished. This was a bad result. They are not now going to get a <a href="http://bit.ly/2t2s3ln" target="_blank">second independence referendum</a>. Labour won’t give them one.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Labour will be taking the view that, once Brexit is done, once folk realize there isn’t going to be a second referendum, those folk will abandon the SNP as a one issue party. Just as UKIP proved to be. At which point, Labour will be expecting to get back their voters.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
Um. That's it. Until we get some actual results. May. 100 seat majority. Wipe away the tears of mirth. Never a dull moment in the UK, eh?</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br />
(Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158775889170721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-87483506235976833672017-06-06T07:50:00.000+00:002017-06-06T09:59:07.970+00:00UK General Election 2017: Pre-PostMortem<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxCn8xiXjeVEFodrQGT_YQjhHOVNViEA0qurUf2R3g6OjPrImbZ9r5SJwm87YFQsGHdN-0rUXHEl6ZAXjUrs3M_li5PzhHtqRy2rn0P9sfkQOwKviGUo3Q3fKcqr6EQE7lJNhpQ/s1600/18951098_10158751617925721_7129568474130403130_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="540" data-original-width="960" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgxCn8xiXjeVEFodrQGT_YQjhHOVNViEA0qurUf2R3g6OjPrImbZ9r5SJwm87YFQsGHdN-0rUXHEl6ZAXjUrs3M_li5PzhHtqRy2rn0P9sfkQOwKviGUo3Q3fKcqr6EQE7lJNhpQ/s400/18951098_10158751617925721_7129568474130403130_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>On the subject of distinguishing between real media and <a href="http://bit.ly/2sB4zDv" target="_blank">‘fake’ news</a>. My view of why we got the result in the UK General Election we got. In advance of getting it.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And my apologies for writing about tacky politics at this difficult moment in the land of my birth. But politics is the answer. And writing about it remains important.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Pretty much as I predicted when the <a href="http://bit.ly/2rmXh8K" target="_blank">election was called</a>, Theresa May and the British Conservative Party will win an outright majority. But of no more than 40 seats.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I’m not going to spend a lot of time rehashing what everyone else is saying, or will say. I’m going to offer my own personal perspective.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
First, what is different between my earlier prediction and this pre-postmortem? Answer: the Liberal Democrats.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Pretty much all that I said in the earlier prediction, especially the collapse of UKIP, and the opening that would offer the Tories, <a href="http://bit.ly/2syEQN1" target="_blank">will come true</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But, the <a href="http://bit.ly/2sssA0C" target="_blank">Liberal Democrats</a> have also collapsed. Which means the Tories will pick up a few extra seats in the <a href="http://bit.ly/2suUCbK" target="_blank">South-West</a> I was not predicting on April 20.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The other major change is I do not think a low majority for May will be due to low turnout. It will be because she has turned out to be a manifestly <a href="http://bit.ly/2qLnEm8" target="_blank">awful campaigner</a>. While Jeremy Corbyn has been surprisingly <a href="http://bit.ly/2rPhHsx" target="_blank">affable and effective</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Which is not to say May made a mistake calling a snap election. She didn’t call it for the health of her party, or the country. She did it to make the most of what she privately perceived as her own shortcomings.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I think Theresa May is a lot like Gordon Brown. Controlled. Controlling. Introspective. Shy. Insecure. With all the charisma of a soggy Margaret Thatcher 1979 tea towel.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Unlike Gordon Brown, I believe May was well aware of her personality shortcomings. Like Gordon Brown, she had a plan all worked out for maximizing her leadership in the first few months of her reign. Then, unlike Brown, she had the balls mercilessly to take advantage of her temporary popularity.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Plus, she was canny enough to look ahead, and realize that the Tory brand was waning.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
May transformed the Tory Party, after her ascension, from Cameron’s touchy-feely tree-hugging to UKIP. Not UKIP-lite. No. Full bore UKIP. With devastatingly-effective and cruel manipulation, May took full advantage of all the emotional consequences of <a href="http://bit.ly/2qXbwm3" target="_blank">Brexit</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
She wasn’t in the slightest bit interested in the future. She was interested only in this election.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I think the clever people around May. And they are very clever. Told her that, once Brexit was done, well before the chosen date for the next General Election of 2020, the voting public would have no reason to vote for the Tories other than their record.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And even the most fervent of Conservative blue rinses has to accept that the time for this version of Toryism is over. The sell-by date is past.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Electorates never vote out of gratitude. They vote for goodies they are going to get tomorrow.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Whatever folks may think about Tory claims that they rescued Great Britain from Labour excess and recession. That was all so five minutes and Nick Clegg ago.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
People have had enough of being noble. Of being told they need to accept cut, and cut out and cut off, for the good of the country, their children, the world, someone over there.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It’s time for some sugar. The clever people around May told her that, by 2020, and with Brexit out of the way, the Great British voting public would be looking for a bit of Bert after all the Mary Poppins. A spoonful of sugar. And Tories don’t do sugar well.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It’s no good talking about nationalization, and price controls, and ceilings being a part of the failed past. No-one cares about the Seventies. Besides, people like to do their own failing. They won’t get warned off it by being told it’s going to end in tears.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If people paid any attention to history and causes, marriage counselors and bookies would have gone out of fashion a long time ago.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. May knew 2020 was going to be a disaster for the Tories. Knew her best shot was now. Knew that those 20% polling leads would dwindle the moment she began to put her foot in her mouth. And so, she called her snap election. For herself. And for herself alone.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Now. To be fair. I suspect she knew her polling figures would take a knock. But not as much as they have. Very few punters predicted Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign. And let’s be clear, Jeremy has done more than cement his own position as Labour leader post-election. He has, in my humble opinion, made Labour favorites to win the next General Election.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Corbyn and Momentum made a conscious decision not to offer Tory-lite in 2017. They presented a coherent alternative economic and social policy. Based on assumptions which rang true with the current British electorate.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Again, it matters not if Tories and others whined that nationalization didn’t work last time. Neither party was offering anything all that new. There never really is anything new in politics and economics. It’s all a rehash of the past.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The only thing that matters is whether or not it is a rehash whose time has come. And Jeremy Corbyn, with his integrity, charm, affability and humor, created a space, entirely all his own, in which that rehash could be viewed positively. And I predict that will be a stepping stone to likely Labour success in five year’s time.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I’m not sure Corbyn will hang around for another election. But he will now likely go on his own terms. And I suspect not least because the more intelligent of those who opposed him will realize that he really was the man for the hour. There probably was not another candidate who could have done a better job of making Labour policy look so warm and fuzzy in 2017.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
Oh. An even further look ahead in my pre-postmortem crystal ball? Unless May exceeds all expectations, and does in fact get a majority of at least 80 seats, she will be history by the time of the next General Election.<br />
<br />
(Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158751617925721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.)<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-10467563089127473022017-06-06T07:02:00.001+00:002017-06-06T08:50:11.131+00:00The YouGov Model for UK Election 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NkWNv4JFTrMueZVoRpI2fPUCESB-DKI9cXiHNkRKl9zkZBOlaPQIOyGUwqjLNha8tQDUTJueSc79O-e0ozHNG67XD0YNufVBxa9Q5GGaZmwA_t6bJTW1B9Ne6bxtckXnknzSmA/s1600/yougov-model-uk-2017-general-electio-banner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="660" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9NkWNv4JFTrMueZVoRpI2fPUCESB-DKI9cXiHNkRKl9zkZBOlaPQIOyGUwqjLNha8tQDUTJueSc79O-e0ozHNG67XD0YNufVBxa9Q5GGaZmwA_t6bJTW1B9Ne6bxtckXnknzSmA/s400/yougov-model-uk-2017-general-electio-banner.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<b>Well. With all the brou-ha-ha in the UK over today's YouGov poll. Which suggests. Completely against the grain. That the Tories will actually lose seats on June 8. I thought I'd be fair and offer the 'science' behind the <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2017/05/31/how-yougov-model-2017-general-election-works/" target="_blank">YouGov polling</a>. From the very lips of their chief political scientist.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
To be honest, I lost interest after "This model is then used to estimate the probability that a voter with specified characteristics will vote Conservative, Labour, or some other party."</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
Sigh. Why not just walk down a bloody street and ask people how they're going to bloody vote? When did this all become <a href="http://bit.ly/2rFLhO8" target="_blank">so complicated</a>?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-18104851527573117282017-06-05T10:34:00.000+00:002017-06-05T10:34:33.745+00:00HSBC<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKaXIGIOPJBTaWElhySy6ElL5eWAb9Y-O133uKieaDmZQ9PSB0t_JN8A3z5FDaQGrEl4Tfu_V2TMpn-OIc4M7EFs6_MgEDUBtzy5xMcKDFe8Zx6vcyqfFD-v1oaqzFXz4WbsNRQ/s1600/HSBC+Tory+scandal+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="547" data-original-width="1052" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggKaXIGIOPJBTaWElhySy6ElL5eWAb9Y-O133uKieaDmZQ9PSB0t_JN8A3z5FDaQGrEl4Tfu_V2TMpn-OIc4M7EFs6_MgEDUBtzy5xMcKDFe8Zx6vcyqfFD-v1oaqzFXz4WbsNRQ/s400/HSBC+Tory+scandal+2.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<b style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">It ain't just me rabbiting on about <a href="http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-rogue-bank-failing-company-and-tory.html?m=1" target="_blank">corruption</a> in the British Conservative Party. Mind you. My corruption isn't about drugs and banks. <a href="https://maggieshammer.com/british-political-arms-corruption/" target="_blank">Mine</a> is about arms deals and banks. Well. I say 'mine.'</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Thank you for posting the original story, <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=758344731&extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/gerry.platt?fref=mentions" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Gerry Platt</a>, and for directing me to it, <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard-prefer-more-content-show="1" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=1076453551&extragetparams=%7B%22fref%22%3A%22mentions%22%7D" href="https://www.facebook.com/maggi.gilson?fref=mentions" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;">Maggi Gilson</a>.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
I've contacted the people behind this story. For help. To exchange. Whatever. With my luck, they'll think I'm a British Intelligence stooge ...</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
(Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158600411010721?hc_location=ufi" target="_blank">here</a>.)</div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-72829650552021510222017-05-08T12:57:00.001+00:002017-05-11T21:59:01.924+00:00Trump, Brexit, Big Data, PsyOps - and 'Maggie's Hammer'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sOFV8LrvYg6xB2pRGWuLnhlYgXGGH1xQu1rY0IrjT2Ma973fa39cogU3O_Bxpy8rfhvqEG59DILDdj4sqopPrJG8F1guBIi4lBbxM44nB09T4QtZmOmiR5SovmkQ7tbjwOWMNA/s1600/sleeping-pill-psyop-660x330.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7sOFV8LrvYg6xB2pRGWuLnhlYgXGGH1xQu1rY0IrjT2Ma973fa39cogU3O_Bxpy8rfhvqEG59DILDdj4sqopPrJG8F1guBIi4lBbxM44nB09T4QtZmOmiR5SovmkQ7tbjwOWMNA/s400/sleeping-pill-psyop-660x330.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>This is one of the scariest articles <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/07/the-great-british-brexit-robbery-hijacked-democracy" target="_blank">I've ever read</a>. And I've had moments of being very scared these past 29 years. Have I mentioned <a href="http://www.maggieshammer.com/" target="_blank">My Book</a>?</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We wonder about big data, about the NSA, about surveillance, Russia, hacking, e-mails, Clinton, corporate media, fake news, alternative facts, the Brexit con, the Trump con. This story connects all the dots. It will chill your blood.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'm reaching out to a small band of dedicated left-wing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158600411010721?hc_location=ufi" target="_blank">anti-corruption activists</a> in the UK, to help me finish the <i>Maggie's Hammer</i> investigation. Finally. And for the first time, in a long time, I am today seriously wondering: why bother? If this is what we're up against.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What does it matter if we find some people who will now talk? What does it matter if we end up with the story of the century? The absolute proof that the British body politic is corrupted from top to bottom with hundreds of millions of dollars in arms bribes.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If the story can be stifled with technology, private intelligence companies and rogue nations? Not to mention a British military-political-industrial complex, which sits on the boards, and has a vested interest in protecting its arms kickbacks, and now possesses the resources and opportunity to do so?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The most chilling aspect is that the entire enterprise appears to be being orchestrated by otherwise cuddly Silicon Valley types. I dunno. For fun? Because they can? Household names. Google. Uber. PayPal. Working with the dark side.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Actually, that would be the most chilling aspect were we not also being told that all of this modern technology, and the villainous working relationships outlined in this article, are combining the forces of the military, the private sector, data companies and computer scientists to update the concept of governments using psyops against their populations.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I deal with this in my book. The allegation that British governments began to use military psyops against the civilian population in the early Seventies. When some bright spark in British Intelligence decided that what had been used with success to win hearts and minds in Northern Ireland could be used to win hearts and minds more generally on the British mainland.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Problem was, as these things tend to go, and as this article confirms, it is usually right-wingers who go for this type of manipulation. And so, it is generally a right-wing agenda being pushed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This was the case in Great Britain in the Eighties. When intelligence psyops helped to bring Margaret Thatcher to power. And she responded by giving British Intelligence carte blanche to do what it liked.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Which is how British Intelligence (and my mate) became so involved in arranging illicit arms deals, pipelining arms kickbacks to Intelligence officers, bankers and politicians. And, along the way, honing its skills at psyops, in order to hide all the corruption, and hold successor British governments to ransom. All the while, laying the path for the toxic and far-reaching collaborations detailed in this article.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
I knew that all aspects of this corruption had become an industry. I just wasn't aware it had become such a hi-tech industry. And I wasn't expecting to read about it in The [London] Observer, on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Bloody hell. I need to go lie down.<br />
<br />
[Facebook comments <a href="http://bit.ly/2pqKIWG" target="_blank">here</a>.]<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-71491710874138247062017-04-24T13:34:00.000+00:002017-04-29T03:54:35.696+00:00Brexit, British General Election 2017 and Blair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-0wZ-pXmXFOCTZTm8hoqBm7NWaca9ezpd2iNt9xENtlxSEU44wLoBUnnokjtfIhTJOUBQjPDlbV4KUUel7ZXVCzxO-iFtEEZ3i2eE15ThgdOQ8FJoDzjwNj5S8R4Yx43HTnPpQ/s1600/840x4501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_-0wZ-pXmXFOCTZTm8hoqBm7NWaca9ezpd2iNt9xENtlxSEU44wLoBUnnokjtfIhTJOUBQjPDlbV4KUUel7ZXVCzxO-iFtEEZ3i2eE15ThgdOQ8FJoDzjwNj5S8R4Yx43HTnPpQ/s400/840x4501.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Leading British Labour Party politician Chuka Umunna today posted on his <a href="http://bit.ly/2q6SswR" target="_blank">Facebook Page</a> a note angrily rejecting former Labour Party British Prime Minister Tony Blair's call to Labour supporters to vote Conservative or Liberal Democrat in the June British General Election, in order, according to Blair, effectively to block a Brexit 'at any cost.'</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This is some indication of the confusion I believe Brexi<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">t is going to impose on the June British General Election. Making it almost impossible to predict what will be the outcome. Although, once again going against the grain, I have <a href="http://bit.ly/2onnAMn" target="_blank">already predicted</a> that I do not believe, as most of the talking heads are suggesting, that current Conservative Party British Prime Minister, Theresa May, will walk away with a landslide. I think she will have a Parliamentary majority of about 30 ...</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><br /></span>
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">(Facebook comments </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158544692500721" style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;" target="_blank">here</a><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">.)</span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-71253156096839587892017-04-20T01:30:00.001+00:002017-04-29T03:53:47.947+00:00It May All Backfire For May<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkd5lipg0NfboANNewoS7867rChGqY2Ur2l8zAHkiX8_EbSOrRx-PzjsoWm4Ylo3yP9yAzSqUXFxoLUGN7Yrm1sBqgeBa2IJsqndkBBLvmEnaJHnFyX-3NW8mdumfzEKF76R5rsw/s1600/stream_img.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkd5lipg0NfboANNewoS7867rChGqY2Ur2l8zAHkiX8_EbSOrRx-PzjsoWm4Ylo3yP9yAzSqUXFxoLUGN7Yrm1sBqgeBa2IJsqndkBBLvmEnaJHnFyX-3NW8mdumfzEKF76R5rsw/s400/stream_img.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>And so. Everyone and his uncle is predicting that British Prime Minister and her Conservative Party will reap the rewards of a double digit polling lead over the opposition Labour Party, and win the General Election in June by <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158519615225721" target="_blank">a landslide</a>. I'm not so sure.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yes. She will win. I'm going to stick my neck out and say, with a majority of no more than 20-30. Which will be seen as a shocker. Bearing in mind she has a majority of 17 now.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The first thing that everyone forgets is how badly all the pollsters got their call of the 2015 General Election, and why. You may remember (because I'm an insufferable pr**k, and won't let you forget), I was one of the few to call that election correctly. And the reason is that I paid attention to the true nature of the underlying trends.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Most analysts - even now - say the unexpectedly good result for the Tories was due to a collapse in the Liberal vote. This was true of the seats that the Conservatives gained in the South-West. But, in the North of England, it was the Labour vote which collapsed.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So. All this talk of the huge majority that May will rack up, due to a collapsing vote in the North of England? Folks. It already happened. But. But. The polls, Geoff. The polls. What about the double digit lead that the Tories didn't have back then?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
First, we live in a totally different age now. I mean, literally. The SNP closing out Labour in Scotland. Brexit changing the political landscape. Tactical voting now being second nature. Fake news. Alternative facts. Leaders who lie as a political philosophy.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
No-one actually tells the truth to pollsters any more. Polls are no more than Christmas wish lists, people thinking aloud, wondering 'what if.' You watch those polls tighten dramatically as reality strikes home. Or not, as folks continue to lie.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Won't make any difference. Because this election is going to be about the stay-at-homes. Tory voters are pretty good at turning out. But, what about those Conservative Remainers? They are used to expressing displeasure by hopping over to the Liberal Democrats. Look at Richmond. They know May is going to win. So, maybe a few surprises there?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Yeah. Liberals Democrats are hopping with joy. But, they worked decades to get to some 54 MP's just a couple of elections ago. They'll pick up a lot of Tory Remainers. But they'll lose some of their own Leavers. Plus, their left-wing, which deserted to Labour in 2015. They ain't coming back. And the few Tory seats they may pick up in the South and South-West. Will be offset by the potential gains they lose to the Tories in the North. Where former Labour Leavers, who moved to UKIP in 2015 (the Labour collapse pollsters missed in 2015), will now switch from UKIP to the Conservatives. Snatching several potential gains from the Liberals.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Please note that last point. This, in my opinion, may well be the trend that everyone else misses this time. UKIP Leavers in the North switching to the Conservatives in droves. But, not enough to offset a surprisingly strong Labour showing, a low Tory turnout overall, and strong(ish) Liberal activity.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Which brings us to Labour. Yes, there are too many who dislike Corbyn. Yes, there are those who will say, s**t, we're going to lose anyway, let's send a message we want Corbyn gone. But. The core Labour folk. The diehards. Those who still sing the Labour anthems in the grimy sandstone temples they call Labour Clubs. They'll turn out. Along with all those Momentum acolytes. The collapse won't be enough to hand May a 100-seat majority.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
I could go on. But. Bottom line? One more time. Too many Tories will stay at home. Labour already collapsed in 2015. Any more collapsing between the main parties will pretty much offset itself. Save for UKIP shifting to the Tories in the North. The Liberal Democrats will be lucky to come away with about 60 seats. And, as I say, the Tory majority will be no more than about 30. And the history books will excoriate May. Who will be gone by the following General Election.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
[Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158519615225721" target="_blank">here</a>.]<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-8238983893383055132017-04-20T01:22:00.003+00:002017-04-29T03:53:16.664+00:00May in June<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-TRmcEHIA3x7jk5jNPgqrnMnz8RiBLRtN0-AsJpNXDhYi6mOQzdoBA4uCNZ4BF4eh79FLphLCz6mpHA0_WNNgva6xDaOghEQ_9wJfUUEyguM9E-IusaJR5COKI8xXHVoCl2mJkA/s1600/stream_img-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-TRmcEHIA3x7jk5jNPgqrnMnz8RiBLRtN0-AsJpNXDhYi6mOQzdoBA4uCNZ4BF4eh79FLphLCz6mpHA0_WNNgva6xDaOghEQ_9wJfUUEyguM9E-IusaJR5COKI8xXHVoCl2mJkA/s400/stream_img-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">Well. British Prime Minister Theresa May has called a snap election. This has to be the biggest political yawn since.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'm sorry. I'm so underwhelmed. I can't even be bothered to think of a semi-humorous analogy.</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
The ruling British Conservative Party has been recording a double digit polling lead over the main opposition Labour Party since.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The Labour Party itself is led by the most ridiculous and disastrous political leader since.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
As British General Elections go, there hasn't been a better chance for a sitting Prime Minister to win re-election in a landslide since.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Of course May is not going to play ball, and offer any of the opposition parties <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/apr/18/theresa-may-rules-out-participating-in-tv-debates-before-election" target="_blank">a foot in any door</a>. No-one has occupied a more commanding political position since.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I mean. Let's get real. I haven't yawned so much since.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
[Tomorrow, if I can be bothered, I will be offering a stunning and comprehensive analysis of the possibility that the British Prime Minister called the General Election in June, because her surname is May.<br />
<br />
Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158519615225721?comment_id=10158519702185721&notif_t=feed_comment&notif_id=1492607395725480" target="_blank">here</a>.]<br />
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-63770512863217869652017-04-16T04:01:00.000+00:002017-04-29T03:52:54.678+00:00Freedom -v- Security<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DkvG9KkYDEY-OjHMl5Gk1kL5XYnznysar1yNgPAfS6aKfju4QwvzfnlQ5TCY5aRxzk9p33tEi1FsVCOckpyi_6xa5AVOki8CdMECdqX8R0spXaHS7Q5PgY4O6VQgcLLacCrBcw/s1600/8378984-3x2-940x627.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DkvG9KkYDEY-OjHMl5Gk1kL5XYnznysar1yNgPAfS6aKfju4QwvzfnlQ5TCY5aRxzk9p33tEi1FsVCOckpyi_6xa5AVOki8CdMECdqX8R0spXaHS7Q5PgY4O6VQgcLLacCrBcw/s400/8378984-3x2-940x627.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><b>In the light of the actions of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/23/westminster-attack-police-arrest-seven-people-in-raids-at-six-addresses" target="_blank">Khalid Masood</a>, this may be regarded as an insensitive post. I do the sensitive bit at the end. But the fact is that we live in times increasingly dominated by the public interest argument about the relative emphasis civilized societies place on security versus freedom.</b></span><br />
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Frankly, it is almost never a very honest debate. It depends on one's political starting point. And where in history one chooses to begin the narrative.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Who fired the first shot? Who invaded whom first? Who is due the most retribution? When? And for what? Was it The Crusades? The Moorish push westwards? The desire for oil? Militant Islamic fundamentalism? Migration of Muslims into the West? Fear of cultural and religious differences? The 'militant tendency' of the Islamic faith? The vigorous fundamentalism of Old Testament Christianity? What?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
To be fair. To be effective. To live in the real world. For myself. I begin the discussion with where we are now. In which regard, I think it fair to say that the first responsibility of any level of government is to protect all of the individuals who live within the jurisdiction of that level of government.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If we are talking about Great Britain, that 'protection,' in my opinion, means equally protecting the security of people going about what used to be called their lawful occasions. And it means protecting the rights and freedoms of Muslim residents to be Muslim. Of anyone to be who they are.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I do not see the need for choice. Legislators and law enforcement use their best efforts to ensure that folks are safe from any danger. Societal oversight then makes sure that government does not overreach itself in offering protection from that danger. And all citizens remain vigilant to respect the differences between the many different beliefs, religions, cultures, preferences and lifestyle choices of all those living together in a nominally free society.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Beyond that, yes, it is incumbent on all of us who choose to be sentient to look to the causes of hateful difference between us, to see what can be done to minimize the possibility of that hateful difference becoming harmful. Whether to individuals, or to society generally.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is also incumbent on all of us who choose to care to pay attention to all the possible triggers for violent behavior: emotional issues, lifestyles, environment, belief systems, whatever.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
There will be much argument in the coming days about what lay behind this attack in London. That is important. It is why I began this post by addressing that subject. For, to be frank, while a relatively small group of people will be spending their time dealing with the immediate and personal grief following the loss of their loved ones (and my heart very genuinely goes out to them), the rest of us will be engaging in that wider debate about cause and consequence.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I wanted to offer my primer in a discussion which, because of the nature of the times in which we live, will almost certainly involve much heat, innuendo, blatant falsehood, distraction, and toxic hate. This post won't prevent that. But at least it allows me the opportunity for contribution, in what I hope is a calm and measured manner.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
All of which said. I do very truly feel terrible anguish for those who died. Those who are injured. Those who suffer, because of loss, concern, worry and the tremendous amount of care that is yet to come. Not least, because the rest of us will likely forget all these good folk, just as soon as the news cycle moves on.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I also grieve for a society. Any society. Which creates a soul, so lost, that he or she feels the only way he or she can feel safe, can express themselves, is the need to engage in violence against another. I feel desperately sorry for a society that stands by and allows them to be so lost. So forgotten. That gets its priorities so wrong.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Perhaps somewhat controversially, I have feelings for the bringer of violence, who died in the violence of his making. He is likely the product of circumstances not all of his own making. We can pretend otherwise. But that will, with respect, achieve little, if we are truly looking for a safer society. I have feelings for anyone who was born in what most people in the world regard as an obviously 'civilized' and peaceful corner of the world. And yet was so troubled, so unhappy, so disturbed, so unsatisfied with that corner of the world, that the way he felt he could best bring meaning to his life was to take the lives of others. He has much to answer for. So do we.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
And finally, I feel tremendous sadness that we feel the necessity to elect leaders whose first reaction to episodes such as this attack will almost certainly be to calculate how they can use the episode to maximize their political status.</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-29543441443665151042017-04-16T03:55:00.001+00:002017-04-29T03:52:36.292+00:00Deluded Losers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2njKYWXkZN8zZtwlZXg-lymYh6iDQ9TOYLwaL7fQ4KvRWjfkqcswT2u9ScrbvIMFyuqYws0j0mJ4oGkoAjlXxZZMMVYCYmKY4wFX6qlAL0Uutu47c4YIe5seYEwPzSK74ohn9g/s1600/Thatcher_Cabinet_H_3303702k.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih2njKYWXkZN8zZtwlZXg-lymYh6iDQ9TOYLwaL7fQ4KvRWjfkqcswT2u9ScrbvIMFyuqYws0j0mJ4oGkoAjlXxZZMMVYCYmKY4wFX6qlAL0Uutu47c4YIe5seYEwPzSK74ohn9g/s400/Thatcher_Cabinet_H_3303702k.jpg" width="397" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px;">
<b>I link to what I regard as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/26/westminster-attack-terrorism-thatcher-mcguinness" target="_blank">an appalling article</a>, from the former Editor of <i>The</i> London <i>Guardian</i>.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We elected Donald Trump. We voted for Brexit. We discover it is not just Russians bombing the Middle East and killing civilians. <a href="http://bit.ly/2mE8hOk" target="_blank">Martin McGuinness</a> did what he did. <a href="http://bit.ly/2nknMb6" target="_blank">Khalid Masood</a> did what he did. And behind all of these events are people who acted for reasons.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
As human beings, we judge. But. If we want things to change, we have to move beyond the judgmen<span class="text_exposed_show" style="display: inline; font-family: inherit;">t, and understand the reasons. Understanding requires what Preston reviles as 'the oxygen of publicity.'</span></div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
It is my God-given right to think any way I choose. To express those opinions however I want. And to act upon them in any manner that is legal.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But when you are the former Editor of a respected news outlet, and you are read by many, there is an especial responsibility upon you to recognize your outsized contribution to that 'oxygen of publicity' (certainly outsized compared to you or me), and to act accordingly.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is my undersized but considered opinion that, with this article, Preston acted like a narrow-minded pig.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-50863339296475339162017-04-16T03:48:00.000+00:002017-04-16T03:48:15.756+00:00It's The Agenda, Stupid!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgwrdlKbSztin-8_ZBsd7uDYXie9IneOh0aTOm-QWwcikIUu_kTXQTaMa-9BP3QHtiRYzqlgZJpKNSGNI3OBC1C0SPdNEFe_KuNnljflICE-6kLJYPXeuuW89eQTADX1gZXa5Ig/s1600/tp-composite-gibraltar-new-v3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtgwrdlKbSztin-8_ZBsd7uDYXie9IneOh0aTOm-QWwcikIUu_kTXQTaMa-9BP3QHtiRYzqlgZJpKNSGNI3OBC1C0SPdNEFe_KuNnljflICE-6kLJYPXeuuW89eQTADX1gZXa5Ig/s400/tp-composite-gibraltar-new-v3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>I read <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/13/gibraltar-accuses-spain-hijacking-telegraph-poll/" target="_blank">an article</a> in <i>The</i> London <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, the headline of which screams: 'Gibraltar accuses Spain of 'hijacking' Telegraph poll.'</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Sigh.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The themes are: nothing is what it seems to be; all is virtual; anyone can hack anyone; nothing is objective; everyone has an agenda; find out for yourself; decide for yourself; and stop blaming other people for the dumb decisions you make.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The NSA has so many satellites in space (not to mention the British, French, German, Australians, Israeli's et al), it looks like Steptoe and Son's scrapyard up there.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
They record every electronic communication made anywhere in the world. They have infrared, x-ray, microwave, ultraviolet and plain 'ol normal eyesight. You can't shit in a pot without the US knowing what you are doing. And that's just the US and the NSA.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
They don't need warrants. Warrants are what you get to introduce evidence to trial. Not to spy on your granny. And anyone with an associate degree from Peoria Community College and Photoshop can turn it all around, and change what is on your computer, in your pics, on your record, what shows up in a poll.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Your computer and your telephone can be hacked when they are turned off, inside a lead box. And it doesn't take a lot of money. It ain't just Donald Trump, Breitbart and United Airlines changing the story.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We live in a world of the immediate. Where your fifteen minutes was so sixteen minutes ago. Standards went the way of the horse carriage and the audio cassette. Mainstream went conspiratorial, in order to keep up with Daisy May's viral blog on alien cooking and the rise of the altright.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
No-one wants boring and staid and honest any more. They want color. Vibrancy. Crazy. Silly. Cats. And if it's a 'true' story about the cat eating the alien cooking that Daisy May says brought the altright to power, then so much the better.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
So.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Stop believing what you read. What you are told. What you see in your Facebook feed. Find out for yourself. Look to an author's credentials. Their politics. Find purpose. Agenda. Form your own view. Own it. Act on it. And take responsibility for it.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Oh. And as for Gibraltar. Wake up. Let's mouth the words. Colonies are ancient history. Worse than slavery. But. People should be allowed to decide for themselves. To design their own destiny.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Got that? With me so far? Now. Chuck that out the window. And let the harsh glare of cold hard reality shine a little sense onto the equation.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Gibraltar stands at one of the two entrances to the Mediterranean. It is owned by the UK. Which just left the European Union. Underneath the Rock is one of the least secret and largest 'Top Secret' military bases possessed by Great Britain.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
It is a primary training base for those activities of its special forces GB doesn't want the rest of the world knowing about. GB ain't giving up Gibraltar anytime soon. Whoever hacked <i>The</i> London <i>Daily Telegraph</i>'s poll ...</div>
<div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-76809820284901341722017-04-16T03:36:00.000+00:002017-04-16T03:37:40.839+00:00Who Have We Become?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0EY6De-vrRp5mHu00WPRVeiE7GhL56fFFqAL-nL74TOPZO84UJCzYbQCbwiGUXYAt-JavqvZH0QSgtSxI-NXEJTlGc_HP4Nw45AmGQY1-2CAwZ7KhyphenhyphengPLpxm9OY_kso6lXDMsg/s1600/694940094001_5397184625001_5397146082001-vs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEil0EY6De-vrRp5mHu00WPRVeiE7GhL56fFFqAL-nL74TOPZO84UJCzYbQCbwiGUXYAt-JavqvZH0QSgtSxI-NXEJTlGc_HP4Nw45AmGQY1-2CAwZ7KhyphenhyphengPLpxm9OY_kso6lXDMsg/s400/694940094001_5397184625001_5397146082001-vs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>And not just the <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2017/04/11/news/united-passenger-pr-disaster/index.html" target="_blank">CEO of United</a>. Not just the employees who dragged this man off the plane. Not just the police who aided and abetted. All of us.</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The passengers who took video's. Rather than offering up their own seats. Or stepping in. And just saying. This is wrong.</div>
<div class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;">
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px;">
I watched the whole video. All the way through. Did I do so because I was shocked? Or did I do so out of trainwreck curiosity?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If you do watch the whole video. It becomes quite clear at the end. That the gentleman in question has issues. He is horribly disturbed.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I can understand why. But do most of us really care? Do most of us watch the video and say. This man believed himself to be in a place of safety. And they made him feel unsafe. Or do we just snigger at such a notion?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Do we really care? Or do we just use it as an excuse to attack large corporations?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Do we really care? Or do we post another attack on the police?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Do we really care? Or is it just another opportunity for political insult, political point-scoring?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
What do we care about? Who have we become? We engage in verbally violent language about anyone who does not agree with us. And then we wonder that casual violence follows.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We think that it is better to gain fifteen minutes of fame through viral social media. Than doing the right thing. Stopping the wrong thing.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We believe ourselves righteous. Yet we cannot see the poisonous self-righteousness when our positive outlook survives only because we perceive the negative so strongly in others.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Why do we redefine the most basic values? Find reasons to hedge on simple truths, like honesty, responsibility, loyalty, and decency? I mean, what the heck ever happened to the notion of simple decency in civic life? In every aspect of our lives?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And we are all to blame. None of us is excused. We have all of us left decency behind. There is now always too much at stake in winning with respect to all that we do.</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
When did we put aside the idea of losing gracefully? The notion that there is not always just one right? When did we decide that preaching was more important than listening? Winning more important than taking part?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
When did we lose sight of the fact that maintaining the dignity of others should always be more important than the way we look to our friends, to our gallery, on Facebook, on Twitter, in the mirror?</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
When will we all wake up, look in that same mirror, and truly ask of ourselves: who have we become?<br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><i><br /></i></b>
<b style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><i>[Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/geoff.gilson/posts/10158478089420721" target="_blank">here</a>.]</i></b><br />
<b style="font-family: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><i><br /></i></b></div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-77817978080941173582017-04-16T03:28:00.000+00:002017-04-16T03:37:55.310+00:00Ordinary People Taking Back Political Definition?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yzOgNmYoKkjTKYrwCnaFcaryrT-oECBvDLExFvj0ddbpBkahXCqz4b4_xuOEqN7rsqfybTqPXB-z7ESKfLoN-HJqD0qWK1TO5p4uEpeSx7BlQoEs-x0tFj28N4uYAO6RnGE1Ug/s1600/17757425_10158449292585721_3628980753282705654_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-yzOgNmYoKkjTKYrwCnaFcaryrT-oECBvDLExFvj0ddbpBkahXCqz4b4_xuOEqN7rsqfybTqPXB-z7ESKfLoN-HJqD0qWK1TO5p4uEpeSx7BlQoEs-x0tFj28N4uYAO6RnGE1Ug/s400/17757425_10158449292585721_3628980753282705654_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Yesterday, I posted several posts on Facebook (at least one of which a contributor described, probably accurately, as provocative) about the definition of political terms, in particular our use of the term <a href="http://bit.ly/2o1V1jU" target="_blank">'feminist.'</a></b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
[Plus, <a href="http://bit.ly/2nPkkEU" target="_blank">'Demonization, Polarization and the 'Policing' of Social Terms'</a>]</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I'm bound to say, the discussion about the use of the term 'feminist' has become (it continues) quite an interesting debate, devoid of heat. Wish more political argument at the moment was the same.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The nature and the topic of the discussion got me thinking. I believe we are witnessing at the moment one of the great political shifts of history.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Even though, at the moment, it appears to be all about a move to the right, I do not believe that history will show that is/was its primary thrust. I take the view that history will show that the underlying trend is/was about ordinary people taking back control.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I think this has been building for about forty years. Since about the Sixties. When, in my opinion, politicians of all political hue began to seduce electors by giving them political permission to do whatever they liked, without thought for the consequence to society as a whole.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Cutting a long story short, this came to a grinding halt, again in my opinion, with the Great Recession of the last decade.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The primary political reaction was a progressive one. But it was one proffered less by ordinary people, and more by an entrenched left-of-center political elite.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The prescription did not produce enough. Anywhere in the world. Not of itself. And also because it was set against a tapestry of forty years of permissive politics and globalist economic trends. Where all was about, on the one hand, global ambition, without thought for the social or spiritual welfare of individuals, who were, on the other hand, 'bought off,' with the admonition that, within this impersonal structure, they could pretty much do as they wished.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The reaction to this formalized progressive approach was a right-wing backlash. The conservative drift had been gathering steam for some time. But it truly only came into its own with the failure of the progressive response to the Great Recession.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
This conservative reaction became, in my opinion, ugly, when, in the past 18 months, it took populist form. And here is where I may set myself apart from other talking heads.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I do not see this populist trend as set in a right-wing mold. I think this is a current, even if unfortunate, phase. There is much about the current right-wing populist offering which is inherently impossible to achieve and implement. That will become apparent. And folks will eventually go looking for a more centrist or even leftist populist alternative. I truly understand this offers little support to the many individuals who will suffer in the meantime:</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<a href="https://democratpopulist.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow noopener" style="color: #365899; cursor: pointer; font-family: inherit; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">https://democratpopulist.wordpress.com/</a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
All of that on one side. Wherever the current populist trend ends up on the political spectrum. I do see a huge inherent silver lining. Namely, ordinary people finding a way to declare that they've had enough of professional politicians treating them as guinea pigs in some never-ending series of social experiments.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
That can only be good news in the long-term. And it brings me back to where I began this post. The discussions I referenced at that point seem to recognize that one of the ways in which professional politics seeks to exclude ordinary people, and to 'keep them in their place,' is to use a whole glossary of 'accepted' terminology, a whole slew of debating rules and precepts, the purpose of which is simply to confuse ordinary folk.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I am delighted that the threads of discussion to which I refer appear to accept that no one section of our society has the right to exclude others from political debate, merely by stating that they are not qualified to debate or to vote, because they do not understand the issues, and/or they do not understand or they do not subscribe to the terms or the verbiage or the precepts the 'professionals' insist should be adhered to in any debate.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
If nothing else, I do see this rise in populism putting an end to that exclusionary nonsense.</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><b><i>[Facebook comments <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10158449292585721&set=a.139131545720.215045.884570720&type=3&theater" target="_blank">here</a>.]</i></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "san francisco" , , , ".sfnstext-regular" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-6047821536047393522017-04-16T03:16:00.000+00:002017-04-16T03:38:08.102+00:00When Brexit Means 'Bromide'<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifpOGqqNmNwyiiWjjPNewV-F3ae3LCFEmDEG0N7pmIU5KBmfEyrSFFntMrTsn1RYYeTtI-h8HlHDoXAFymmCaUeoWws9Jc8hDi2EinDcOFhwuDtUgf-S4kcjrIkDGYbCvW5Xg7vw/s1600/15774682_10157982319860721_4559555136875376898_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifpOGqqNmNwyiiWjjPNewV-F3ae3LCFEmDEG0N7pmIU5KBmfEyrSFFntMrTsn1RYYeTtI-h8HlHDoXAFymmCaUeoWws9Jc8hDi2EinDcOFhwuDtUgf-S4kcjrIkDGYbCvW5Xg7vw/s400/15774682_10157982319860721_4559555136875376898_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">[‘Bromide’: a trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate. "Feel-good bromides create the illusion of problem solving."]</b></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
I know I can be a bit thick on occasion. But there are aspects to this <a href="http://bit.ly/2iYUf7R" target="_blank">post-Brexit conversation</a> that I simply don’t understand.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Here’s what I believe I know. And I think the best way of understanding Brexit is to compare it to a marriage break-up.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We’ve been throwing pots and pans for decades now. Time to grow up. The kids are sick and tried of it. Stay together. Split. Make up your minds.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Ok. Says Dad. I’ll have one last go at trying to agree terms with Mom. Then you kids get to decide.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Agrees pretty weak terms. But. It’s the best he can do. Kids say: sucky terms; split.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then, all the neighbors weigh in. Well. We know you said the kids could decide. But what about the relatives? Don’t they get a say? Did Mom negotiate in good faith? Did the kids have the telly on when they voted?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Next up. Split suddenly becomes a ‘process.’ The kids start saying. Ok. We said: ‘split.’ But. Terms have to be agreed. Right? And you know. Maybe we’d like another vote on those terms.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Huh?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Well, we’re going to be affected by your splitting. And. And. But, you knew that when you voted ‘split.’ What did you think was going to happen?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Besides. Says Dad. Help me here. What if. We negotiate terms of the split. And you don’t like them. And you vote ‘no’ to the terms. What are you suggesting? We get back together after all?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Ok. Enough of the analogy. It’s almost as confusing as reality.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Look. I’m no rocket scientist. But here is the reality, as I see it. The nation voted to Leave the European Union. I’m not entirely sure why that Leave is dependent on what the French think. Or the Slovakians. The Polish, the Germans, or the Lithuanians. Bless them all.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
In other words. Why the all-fired focus on negotiating terms? Didn't David Cameron already do that? Why do we think we're going to get better terms for Leaving than we were offered for Remain? And isn't all this backchat actually just a backdoor way of trying to overturn the Leave vote? I mean. Bearing in mind I'm thick.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Surely the process is: the British government works out what it wants Leave to look like. Maybe has some options. Discusses with other British political parties. Has a vote in Parliament. Calls a General Election, and then has a vote in Parliament. Whatever.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
Then it goes to the EU. Once. And says: here are the options. Choose. Puts a time limit on it. Either they choose. Or they don’t.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
If they don’t. We shrug. And we Leave. Because the people already voted to Leave. And the terms are ours to present; not the EU's to negotiate.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
We pursue our own path. It will then be up to France and Germany and Slovakia and Poland and Lithuania either to trade with us, exchange immigrants with us, or not. Face sanctions from the EU, or not.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
But. At some point, surely, we no longer accept diktat from the body we have voted to Leave. That is our decision. And ours alone. Surely?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
And as to Tim Farron’s call for a second referendum, to take a view on the negotiated deal with the EU. How exactly does that work?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
The first referendum had a consequence. If we vote Leave, then we Leave the EU. What happens if we say ‘No’ to the negotiated deal? We Leave the planet?</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; display: inline; font-family: "San Francisco", -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 14px; letter-spacing: -0.24px; margin-top: 6px;">
Or, is there something I'm missing?<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-86466430608294910392016-09-25T22:33:00.001+00:002016-11-26T10:14:58.757+00:00Charlotte, Police Training, Citizen Design, Mutual Responsibility<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidT5r8ffOXA_bLdM916VWtFVnsrF54eZvxhWbTnZICeZpZODQOkGBw3Y-pMg4r05wa41F_W64UAnWLZhzg-uRlRasAOhBR_0NuEAy6O4KAwbW7ebXD0A-KJoZ71GYv0AiaQAwz2Q/s1600/photovisi-download-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidT5r8ffOXA_bLdM916VWtFVnsrF54eZvxhWbTnZICeZpZODQOkGBw3Y-pMg4r05wa41F_W64UAnWLZhzg-uRlRasAOhBR_0NuEAy6O4KAwbW7ebXD0A-KJoZ71GYv0AiaQAwz2Q/s400/photovisi-download-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>I have little time for photo-opportunity, headline-grabbing advocacy
by mindless protest. I believe in advancing solutions that might make
matters better.</b><br />
<br />
I am truly sorry for <a href="http://cnn.it/2dtdFyX" target="_blank">Keith Scott and his family</a>. As I am for all individuals who have to suffer the consequences of violent death.<br />
<br />
Our systems of government and civil order are not perfect. But, until
we change them through the channels and by the means that our
communities have evolved since the founding of the United States of America, then they
are the systems that apply to all of us. However unfair or unequal some
of us may view them to be.<br />
<br />
I spent some time recently advocating, as effectively as one man can,
for a change in the way that policing policy in the US is devised and
implemented – <a href="http://bit.ly/2d0DT9p" target="_blank">Citizen Design of Policing</a>.<br />
<br />
But, here’s the thing. How many people, whether in my immediate
community of Carrboro, NC, where I specifically attended the inaugural <a href="http://bit.ly/2cvQq70" target="_blank">Citizen’s Police Academy</a>,
back in 2015, so that I could address that concept, face-to-face with
Carrboro police officers. How many of my fellow citizens in Carrboro, or
anywhere else in the US, who may have read my posts, how many of them
have taken any steps to change policing policy in their communities? As
opposed to raising a fist at a football game?<br />
<br />
What I regard as a truly realistic pathway to allow communities to
design the manner in which they are policed exists right now. It
requires no new legislation. No new governmental bodies. No new funding.
Just the will of citizens to demand of the elected officials commanding
the allocation of resources to police authorities that those elected
officials immediately make the allocation dependent on those police
authorities understanding that, henceforth, their rules of engagement
will be defined by those allocating the resources, on behalf of the
local citizenry, and with the involvement of concerned citizens. It
really is as simple as that.<br />
<br />
Yet. As much (or, as little) as I have advocated. What movement has
there been among the citizenry of Carrboro, NC – my current hometown?
What plans advanced by the Carrboro Board of Aldermen? Why is Carrboro
important, in the greater scheme of things? Other than the fact that
many within this highly liberal borough are today extremely vocal about
events three hours down the road, in Charlotte, NC. Other than that fact, it isn’t. Unless
you agree with my oft-stated position that, if we were to experiment
with a concept like Citizen Design in a small community like Carrboro,
we might then be able to export the successful notion to more at-risk
communities around the US.<br />
<br />
That would be an achievement far more effective than a raised fist, a tweet, a photo opportunity or a CNN-headlining flash mob.<br />
<br />
Now. Citizen Design alone will not change everything. One thing I learned during my advocacy and while engaging in <a href="http://bit.ly/2djfECE" target="_blank">quite proactive conversation</a> at the Carrboro Police Academy is that all US police training is based on suppression, not de-escalation.<br />
<br />
Literally, the rules of engagement in any confrontation between
citizen and police officer are designed on the basis of command
suppression. The police officer is trained to create a command presence.
Shouting commands to the citizen to comply with the commands. Lack of
obedience is then used as the trigger for escalation. Leading to use of
force to bring the confrontation to an early close.<br />
<br />
In fact, we had one quite interesting exchange in one of the
experiential scenarios in which we engaged after some eight hours of the
Academy. My police officer team-mate ‘shot’ a fake perpetrator, as I
was engaged in talking to the perpetrator. We had a quick review
afterwards.<br />
<br />
To be honest, I liked those of my hometown officers who participated.
We were on first name times. The discussion was vigorous, but
respectful. And that is the way it should be.<br />
<br />
I made only a quick point. There was not time for more. But I stated
that, if we had more time, I would argue that the shooting of the
perpetrator was wrong.<br />
<br />
My team-mate said that the shooting was standard policy. The
perpetrator was threatening a police officer (me). I countered that,
although the perpetrator had initially advanced towards me, the advance
had halted when I took a deliberate step back. I was no longer in
immediate danger. And the call should have been mine. I had my ‘gun’
drawn, and was fully capable of protecting myself.<br />
<br />
I believe the latter to be a standard policing approach in, for
example, the UK. Where it is the belief that most perpetrators generally
are not attempting to threaten wider society, but merely to carve out a
place of safety. Allow them a heavily-defined area of safety. And one
can <a href="http://bit.ly/1nGd8Uk" target="_blank">de-escalate the situation by containment</a>.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure I convinced my team-mate in that one brief exchange. But
I did two things. I began a conversation. In which all who truly care
about policing should be engaged. And I fully understood the
consequences of what I believe to be the current misguided thinking
behind US police training. Namely, that we are going to have many more instances
of contested police shootings as long as training emphasizes
suppression over containment and de-escalation.<br />
<br />
Now. Looking to the wider picture. And to thoughts which may well
unsettle some folks. We all have a responsibility for civil order in our
communities. We may not like the manner in which law enforcement is
legislated in our society at the moment. But it is a form of enforcement
that has been evolved by communities using the existing channels of
legislation and government. If we want matters to change, then we use
those channels and advocate for change.<br />
<br />
In the meantime, we should all commit ourselves to make the existing
system of enforcement work. We should all get stuck in. We do not stand
to one side. Yelling, screaming and rioting.<br />
<br />
Now, let me make that point even more clear. And I may be
contradicting what I have said in the past. I am not saying don’t yell
and scream. In the immediate moment. I am saying, don’t stand to one
side. Commit. Make that moment of law enforcement work. As best we can.
Understanding that all humans are, well, only human.<br />
<br />
Which means that. Sometimes. When the situation arises. When we
personally are faced with an immediate challenge. In a law enforcement
scenario that thrusts itself upon us. Very often the outcome will be one
which depends upon our personal commitment, our personal morality and
our personal investment.<br />
<br />
And so. Whether it leads to outrage or not. I’m going to say it. If
Keith Scott’s wife had truly wanted to protect her husband, she should
have run over, put her own life at risk for her husband and inserted
herself between the police officer and her husband. She should not have
stood by taking a video.<br />
<br />
Keith Scott’s wife had enough time to make a decision. And she chose to take a video rather than saving her husband’s life.<br />
<br />
That in no way exonerates the police. That does not lessen my
revulsion at rules of engagement which can only lead to confrontation
and death. That does not remove responsibility from the police for their
actions. But, as a statement, it does place upon Keith Scott’s widow
the responsibility that is hers alone.<br />
<br />
We as a society are responsible for what we do and what we don’t do.
We are responsible when we support the existing status quo, which allows
police to suppress not de-escalate. And we are supporting that status
quo when all we do is raise a fist, rather than actively involving
ourselves in the processes that give effect to change.<br />
<br />
Police are responsible for their actions. They are responsible when
they draw a gun. They are responsible when they fight back against
citizenry attempting to take control by designing the policing policy in
their community.<br />
<br />
And Keith’s Scott widow is responsible for the decision she made. To
take a video. Rather than running to the aid of her allegedly mentally
unwell husband.<br />
<br />
I’m not sure what it is. Too much social media? Too many
technological advances? Too much life by instant celebrity? I truly do
not know. But it seems to me that we have become a society of
bystanders, passers-by.<br />
<br />
We do not achieve. We ape. We do not commit to our own advance. We
watch the virtual ambitions of others. We do not seek substantive gain.
Merely fifteen minutes of personal celebrity.<br />
<br />
There is much about our society at the moment which just leaves me
puzzled. Much about our politics. Much about our elections. And much
about this horrible episode in Charlotte, NC.<br />
<br />
But of one thing I am reasonably certain. We are where we are not
because one side is wrong and the other side is right. Not because one
person or group of people did something terrible. And the rest of us are
exonerated. But because we have all of us allowed our own personal
moral compasses to become terribly corrupted. Before we look to
excoriating others, we might better look to wondering about our own
actions, inactions and thought processes.<br />
<br />
And lest you think I’m totally missing what others may think is the genuine bigger picture, let me link to the <a href="https://policy.m4bl.org/" target="_blank">Movement for Black Lives platform</a>.
With this caveat. We will only move forward together. If we start
placing more emphasis on the realistic and consensual ‘yes,’ rather than
an unrelenting focus on the uncompromising ‘no.’ If we roll up our
sleeves and get involved, rather than merely standing by. If we say the
hard things that are unpalatable, rather than always playing for
Facebook ‘Likes.’<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34572153.post-14093492205396871802016-07-07T16:12:00.002+00:002016-07-07T16:12:25.497+00:00Chilcot: The Limerick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukOoh7Xy4J6N5Ch_cEGr1XgGqZy1lvJMPz23EIAOv37L_JbHdvDoAriKXFGS9wxkEbvMuya5p0QPWVhuIVnOXX-qt5PoarLM7MlUxtpszce4V8SlQ-GR0LabRI6TsZLkqiIRwBA/s1600/Chilcot-AFP-Getty.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiukOoh7Xy4J6N5Ch_cEGr1XgGqZy1lvJMPz23EIAOv37L_JbHdvDoAriKXFGS9wxkEbvMuya5p0QPWVhuIVnOXX-qt5PoarLM7MlUxtpszce4V8SlQ-GR0LabRI6TsZLkqiIRwBA/s400/Chilcot-AFP-Getty.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<b> </b><br />
<i><b>“There was an old man called Chilcot<br /> Whose Report on Iraq was all shot<br /> He declared without fear<br /> What we wanted to hear<br /> That WMD’s there were not”</b></i><br />
<br />
Well. We learn the lesson time and time again. And then a week later,
we forget it. Whether it is Brexit, Trump, Benghazi, Clinton’s e-mails,
or now, for the – how many British Iraq War Reports have there been? –
umpteenth time. The more information we are given by establishment
figures of supposed repute, the more we can be absolutely certain we are
still in the dark.<br />
<br />
And so. Gee. Which first? The plug? The
explanation? The expose? The conspiracy theory? Tell you what. I’ll
leave you to do most of the legwork this time. I’ll try to keep it
simple.<br />
<br />
I have written essentially two books. The first one, very kindly published by a wonderful gentleman called <a class="profileLink" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/user.php?id=100004252268014" href="https://www.facebook.com/robert.millegan">RA Kris Millegan</a>, and entitled <a href="http://maggieshammer.com/" target="_blank"><i>Maggie’s Hammer</i></a>. The other is the kitchen sink version, from which the latter was
artfully distilled, and is known as <a href="https://conservativecompassion.wordpress.com/" target="_blank"><i>Dead Men Don’t Eat Lunch</i></a>.<br />
<br />
Between the two, I set out my belief that the world continues to be fed
a massive lie about WMD’s in Iraq. Namely, that there were always WMD’s
in Iraq. That the invasion was staged in order to make them disappear.
For reasons of which I am not certain. <a href="http://bit.ly/29ooMXX" target="_blank">And all the rest is establishment collusion</a>. Also for reasons of which I am not certain. <br />
<br />
I’m not going to feed you the rationale for that belief. If you really care, buy the books. I have only three things to say:<br />
<br />
1) A British government scientist called <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Kelly_(weapons_expert)" target="_blank">David Kelly</a> ended up dead in
the woods (there was a lot of that in my story) because he believed
that, in 2003, there remained substantial potential in Iraq for Hussein
to construct a deadly biological weapons capability, and the British
government were lying about it.<br />
<br />
He believed this because he was the lead scientist tasked by the United
Nations Special Commission on Iraq (<a href="http://www.un.org/depts/unscom/" target="_blank">UNSCOM</a>) with reporting in 1998 on
what still existed in Iraq with respect to its biological weapons
program after seven years of United Nations inspections.<br />
<br />
Kelly produced a 100-page report setting out all that still remained in
Iraq in this latter regard. This was no ‘sexed-up’ report. No Blair
pipe-dream. It was Kelly’s factual account. And it related only to
biological weapons. Similar reports were produced in respect of Iraq’s
continuing chemical and nuclear ambitions.<br />
<br />
2) Nick Cohen,
currently a columnist with the respected (London) Observer newspaper,
laughed at me in, ooh, I dunno, about 2005, when I ran by him my
rationale for suggesting that the Iraq invasion was merely a cover to
make Iraq’s WMD’s disappear.<br />
<br />
He did me the courtesy of not
laughing when I asked him the following, rather convoluted question: Ok
Nick, so, when the US and the UK governments told you and the rest of
the world’s gathered media that, oops, there aren’t any WMD’s after all,
how many of you stuck your hands up in the air, and said, um, hang on,
holding all the UNSCOM reports here, the ones from 1998, when their
inspectors were thrown out by Saddam, the ones with the pretty maps
showing us where all the weapons sites were/could be/should be. Er. When
are we going to be taken on the grand tour, to prove to us that all
these sites no longer exist?<br />
<br />
Not only did Nick not laugh. He did
me the further courtesy of saying, in no particular order: huh, good
question, and, er, no-one …<br />
<br />
Mind you, he didn’t want to talk to
me any more. This might have been ‘cos I didn’t know when to stop. And I
might have made the rather dry point that, he and the world’s gathered
media simply bought the first explanation on offer from the very same
people they had just accused of lying …<br />
<br />
3) Would anyone care to
explain to me how it was that ISIS, you know, the nasty military group
headed by Saddam’s former generals, how they managed in 2014 to lay
their hands on the very same <a href="http://bit.ly/1nRKCRQ" target="_blank">chemical weapons in Iraq</a> that, you know,
weren’t supposed to exist? <br />
<br />
I think I’ll leave it there. You read Chilcot. Believe what you want to believe. Then, construct your own conspiracy theory …<br />
<br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">geoffgilson</div>Geoff Gilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00121390007106359678noreply@blogger.com