Wednesday 5 May 2010

- INTERNATIONALLY-HIGH-PROFILE, CONSTRUCTIVE NATIONAL OBJECTIVES NEEDED -

A higher priority than balancing the country's budget and eliminating its debt- for whatever party gets elected to form govt- ought to be setting several internationally high-profile, mega-project-type national-objectives or programmes...

Objectives/projects intended to instill pride and purpose within the electorate & businesses 'in return' for their economizing and 'putting up with' cut-backs in certain areas of govt expenditure and paying higher taxes...

1) 'Made in the UK' high-speed train lines on a mega-scale through the whole of the UK- starting with an expedited line or lines from London to N Ireland and on to Dublin via an undersea tunnel linking N England or Scotland with N Ireland;

2) Development of a world-class high-speed and urban-rail transport research centre in the UK in which successful international companies with expertise in high-speed and urban rail as well as other types of commuter & business-goods transport are participants;

3) World-beating high-speed Internet connections to every home and business in the UK;

4) an Internet router, storage and broadband data-delivery research centre- in which successful international high-technology companies participate and play integral roles;

5) A Royal Navy with 'legitimate' aircraft carriers- instead of the grievously under-equipped, devoid of ship self-defence weapons & dangerously economized ones Labour has directed the construction of;

6) Upgrading the Royal Navy's capabilities to a functionally responsible level* by actioning a compressed build programme for operationally-sufficient numbers of new 'FULLY EQUIPPED', surface and subsurface combatants as well as support vessels for the RN and RFA…
======================

* IE: the objective- a Royal Navy that is capable of projecting constructive British presence world-wide and with capacities to deal with known and to-be-expected threats from both state and non-state actors...

"Argentina gets first Russian defense deal", 26_04-2010:

https://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2010/04/26/Argentina-gets-first-Russian-defense-deal/UPI-64361272276060/

"The deal also comes amid designs by Russia and Argentina to bolster relations in nuclear power development...

"... and share use of the Russian Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS)...

(in case the US ever cuts off Argentina access to the GPS system?????)

"ARGENTINA ABANDONED A NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAM DURING THE 1990's.... (my emphasis- rvl)

(Can the UK's politicians say with certainty that Argentina's nuclear weapons programme will NEVER be re-started??)

“Medvedev's visit to Argentina: more than 10 agreements signed", 15_04-2020:

https://en.rian.ru/world/20100415/158586719.html

https://www.deagel.com/news/Argentina-and-Russia-Sign-Nuclear-Power-Generation-and-GLONASS-Agreements-and-Sale-of-Two-Mi-171E-Helicopters_n000007291.aspx

Russian company Novator's Anti-ship Cruise Missile (ASCM) products are being marketed at international arms expos as store-able, transportable and launch-able from converted standard-sized shipping-containers, aircraft, subs and small coastal patrol boats...

https://www.janes.com/articles/Janes-Defence-Weekly-2010/Concealed-carriage-Club-K-changes-cruise-missile-rules.html

"Russia's Novator Experimental Design Bureau has developed a containerized version of its Club family of anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles.

"...The new variant, the Club-K Container Missile System (CMS), is perhaps the ultimate concealed weapon as the entire system is housed, transported and fired using a standard 40 ft shipping container...

"Soviet/Russian Cruise Missiles":
https://www.ausairpower.net/APA-Rus-Cruise-Missiles.html
https://www.nti.org/db/nisprofs/russia/delivry/novator.htm

"The Cruise Missile Challenge: Designing a Defense Against Asymmetric Threats", May-2007:

https://www.marshall.org/article.php?id=522

"Falklands' war tested modernized Super Etendard in Argentine Navy's agenda", 21_02-2010:

https://en.mercopress.com/2010/02/21/falklands-war-tested-modernized-super-etendard-in-argentine-navy-s-agenda

"... The possible transfer to Argentina of a refurbished model of the French manufactured fighter-bomber Super Etendard, which had an outstanding performance during the 1982 Falkland Islands conflict, is under consideration by the French Ministry of Defence..".
==========================

Add the Russia trade agreements with Argentina of the last 2-weeks to requests by Argentina to France from late February-2010 for the sale of advanced-capabilities fighter aircraft (currently being considered by France) and what does this demand from the UK after the coming election- total ignorance and the continued gutting and weakening of the RN- or prudent upgrading of RN capabilities???


_____________________
Roderick V. Louis,
Vancouver, BC, Canada

The vacuum that Mr Clegg has filled... has nothing to do with Conservative party policies- and everything to do with voter perceptions of the last Parliament, its dysfunctionality and sleaze and voters' abundant awareness- albeit not often articulated- of the precipices that the UK is hurtling towards:

1) the creation of a member-country-destroying EU superstate;

2) the bust up of the UK (caused primarily by Labour's 1/2 baked, incompetent and corrupt 'devolution' programme);

3) the City's subjugation to and disemboweling by overseas' financial centre's;

4) the neutering and grievous diminishing of the UK's once esteemed-world-wide armed forces;

5) the UK's armed forces' centuries of allegiance to the Crown replaced with being answerable to Brussels;

6) the removal of the UK from its 6-decade-long role filling one of the UN's permanent-5 Security Council positions;

7) the relegation of the UK from being one of the world's best innovator and inventor nations to a country- or 4 separate countries- that has less high-tech and industry research and development competencies and depth than many third world countries....

Contrary to what the above article argues, the UK's Conservative party is being viewed by overseas' audiences as exemplary in its development of sell-able, needed policies:

1) "Canada and Britain: a tale of two oppositions", Globe and Mail, April 11-2010:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/canada-and-britain-a-tale-of-two-oppositions/article1529772/ -

"British Conservatives present, to use Leader David Cameron 's own words, 'a progressive party in tune with the modern world,’ and the policies match the rhetoric. Canadian Liberals have much to learn...."

"... in addressing their policy deficit, Liberals should closely study the performance of the Conservative Party in the current British election..."

2) "Time for a new tenant at 10 Downing Street", Globe and Mail, April 30-2010 "As finance minister, Gordon Brown exposed Britain to a harsh recession":

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/editorials/time-for-a-new-tenant-at-10-downing-street/article1553047/

3) "Britain’s political terrain: the real battlegrounds of the upcoming election", Globe and Mail, April 30-2010:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/europe/britains-political-terrain-the-real-battlegrounds-of-the-upcoming-election/article1552809/
---------------------------
---------------------------

AN EU SUPERSTATE IS NOT REQUIRED FOR THE EU TO CONSTRUCTIVELY MEET ITS FOUNDERS' INITIAL OBJECTIVES* AND WOULD END UP CONFLICTING WITH THEM...

Within an EU structured as an an 'aligned to-varying degrees' economically, politically and in internal legal & social-policy ways group of nations, the EU's member nations can, to a comparatively large degree, counterbalance each other in terms of polices, laws, directives AND FOREIGN ENDEAVORS...

In contrast, nations incorporated into an EU structured as an amalgamated superstate, will lose their abilities to moderate and effect the development and implementation of polices, laws, directives AND FOREIGN ENDEAVORS of the EU superstate...

... a superstate that would have 'regions' replace member countries...

... a superstate that would continue to have Brussels-based bureaucrats whose primary objective is the creation of an ego-motivated Goliath to stride the world's stages as its main purpose...

... contradicting the main motivations for the founding of the bodies that preceded the EU: eliminating potential causative factors on the Continent and amongst its countries that previously have led to and could in the future lead to ethnic intolerance, negative prejudices, inequitable application of christian principles, legal tenets and wars...

AN EU PRESIDENT, "FOREIGN MINISTER"; "AMALGAMATED MEMBER-COUNTRIES' MILITARIES" & THE LISBON TREATY GENERALLY: ARE UNASHAMEDLY DESIGNED TO FACILITATE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN EU SUPERSTATE... A SUPERSTATE THAT WOULD FUNCTION FIRST AND FOREMOST TO SATIATE THE DANGEROUS, EGO-MOTIVATED AGENDA'S OF CLOSED-MINDED BUREAUCRATS...

* ALIGNMENT- TO REASONABLY VARYING DEGREES- OF MEMBER NATIONS' SOCIAL, ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL POLICIES/LAWS...

Roderick V. Louis,
Vancouver, BC, Canada,

#65

What are you talking about?

Is it a warning or something?

#3. addendum.

In fact, indi, we now know exactly who your mates are. In other words, a revealing post.

It is a crazy system where the Labour vote could collapse and their supporters don't turn out and they could still be the largest party in seats.

The Tories don't want to change a system that ensures the pendulum must swing to them unless there is an unprecedented surge to the Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems merit their success and have a better internal cohesion so that you know that what you see is what you get. Would the Tories rein in the banks or just the deficit?

Will the Lib Dem surge have undermined the effect of the existing larger parties large cash donations leading to greater seat focus?

Almost nobody seems confident about how the popular vote will convert into seats.

I think there is a growing consensus across the country that we need a fairer voting system.

I for one hope that fellow Lib Dem voters will consider their own interests first but in the case of the BNP will ensure that a wasted vote that could help keep those headbangers out in Stoke and Barking and so on is not wasted.

They clearly are racists and fascists at heart and having their former BNP publicity officer arrested for threatening to kill their party leader, the odious Griffin, speaks volumes.

We are too complacent about the far right.

In New York the car bomb was described as WMD whilst the white supremacist lone wolf in the North East of the UK arrested with viable ricin hardly makes a ripple over here.

Its a pity Michael Crick couldn't have got more time with Blair but he did try.

Is Blair a non-dom now and does he contribute his millions to the party?

How does he feel about light touch financial regulation these days?

How much does he feel he contributed to the increase in BNP activity via the Labour immigration rules and the "16,000" Poles who were going to show up? Transitional rules?

Would getting the truth have been like trying to find WMD in Iraq you wonder though?

anyone else get the conservative contract leaflet?

i got it a week after i mentioned to a party worker no one has shown me a nation building plan.

In retrospect the media could have homed in more on whether the Tories have the will to reform the financial sector as future stability and re-balancing the economy depend on that.

#3 mimpromptu

I haven't seen the #65 but assume its the indignantindegene login.

Never let them grind you down as they say.

Re: Motorway Man. Will Self is a very effective 'non-politician' by which I mean he professes to be unattached to a political party yet presents views which are extremely partisan and anti Conservative. On this last evening before the polls open I trust that Newsnight will ensure balance by allowing even contribution from the Conservative party.

'The BNP said it expects to be the UK's fourth-largest party by votes cast.

A spokesman for the party said that in the past three weeks their call centre "had received record numbers of enquiries, new members and donations". '

Previously the BNP have claimed that their website got more hits "than all of the other parties combined". So shouldn't they win the elction?

Then again if you believe them you may also believe that they are not a Nazi Party they are a "modern and progressive party".

Like many modern and progressive parties the Hitler loving Collett (BNP publicity) was arrested in Humberside recently over threats to kill Griffin their champagne National Socialist leader.

Can they accept new members by the way as I thought the EHRC still had an injunction on that?

GO1:
Is there a name for your condition? I thought it might have been OCD but I think it may be something more serious. I think I recognise your condition. I remember when I was a child - In Belfast, where I sung songs and threw bottles at the British army - I pestered my mumseywumsey for a Scalextric, the car racing game. When I finally got it, Xmas I think, I played and played it. I banged on about it to all my friends all of the time. I went out to the books shops and purchased books on everything scalextric. I had built up a large collection of Scalextric back catalogues, I had loads of cars. I even had a special 4 lane track that my daddseywadsey added to my collection. I was totally obsessed with everything Scalextric. And then one day my voice broke, I had reached puberty. I gave my Scalectric to a younger cousin. I discovered the opposite sex, alcohol, going out having fun, work, blah blah. Anyhow GO1, something tells me you are in your middle Scalextric years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaE2YA8vFEs

GO1 WROTE:
"Previously the BNP have claimed that their website got more hits "than all of the other parties combined". So shouldn't they win the elction?"

It's not a claim. Where do you gather your info from exactly...the Huffpost?

Hits to a web page/site is not unfamiliar to TV viewer count. Can you please deal with facts, maybe some might actually converse with you in debate. Race difffereces! fact, but why do you disbelieve this!?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

11

everyone who lived through the 80s has pcsd [post conservative stress disorder]

#13 kevseywevsey

Do you encourage all "English" patriots to throw bottles at "the British Army"?

You are clearly a very sensitive person and think a lot and unfortunately that's where it seems to go wrong.

You don't like answering questions about your views but you are a Nationalist who thinks "the Griff" could be a king maker.

But if you are duly a BNP supporter do you support the views of those who have polluted this page with Holocaust denial, racial nonsense and admiration of Hitler - whilst maintaining a balancing act on identifying themselves as BNP?

Perhaps you see the BNP not as a Nazi Party at all but as "modern and progressive"?

But if you try to propagate your views its likely people will challenge what you say and wonder whose side you are on - in particular when you cheerfully cite illegal acts against "the British Army".

But anyways today I am more interested in being hopefully within 24 hours of seeing the back of Labour - though they are 100 times better than the evil BNP.

#10

thegangofone

They are at it all the time, trying, that is but my intellectual facilities are not affected and I'm having fantastic time gliding and twirling to all kinds of rhythms & styles at speeds of my choice and my balance seems mega fine.

Big thanks for your cross bench support. I think I'll stick with the Tories.

mim

#13 kevseywevsey

"I discovered the opposite sex, alcohol, going out having fun, work, blah blah. "

An ex-BNP member blew up a London gay pub some years back. You tend to forget the names of these odious nobodies.

Griffins view on the atrocity was that the victims were "disgusting creatures".

They weren't with the opposite sex but they were out having fun.

So I tend to think society is very well advised to keep an eye on the extremists and pay attention to the signals that they put out.

But then that's what Prevent is doing these days as the far right has generated a number of wannabe bombers over the last decade.

Personally I think voting for the BNP is voting for evil.

An interesting piece in the Guardian on the BNP. Apparently there is concern that the BNP managed somehow to get hold of ethnic sounding names and direct mailed them a message that they were in fact very Christian.

Some will believe them millions would not.

Also:
------------------------
'Internal criticism over Nick Griffin's leadership came to a head last month when the publicity director, Mark Collett, was arrested on suspicion of threatening to kill him. In Stoke, the party's number two electoral target, Alby Walker, who led the BNP on the local council for four years, is standing as an independent.

Yesterday, a new row erupted when the BNP's website was closed down and replaced with a posting from the webmaster Simon Bennett, stating he had been "in dispute with some elements of the management of the party" and claiming there had been "several attempts to steal" his work. The website was later reinstated but on his own blog Bennett added that there had been a number of "highly questionable shenanigans going on at BNP HQ" with which he was unhappy.'
--------------------------

This guy has been involved with the BNP and he is surprised by "highly questionable shenanigans".

Shock horror.

#18 mim

There are big divisions between the parties and their supporters but I am more than happy to remember that democrats have a lot in common and that we need to be united against the National Socialists.

I am sure your balance is fine and glad you are having a fantastic time.

BYT

I thought I'd let you know that I did skate to the James Bond today but will try and work on this one further.

I'm currently on the terrace of Anglesea Arms sipping lemonade while waiting for Queen's scallops.

mim

#19; to quote Hannah Arendt, perhaps more aptly, voting for "the banality of evil"; it seems clear that these people are quite angry, but exactly about what it's hard to fathom; they're clearly not high on the intellectual register, but class themselves superior; maybe they're so furious because none of the rest of us "get it" and they seem insufficiently articulate to explain to us what "it" is?

loved the ballet dancers, especially that last shot with the sky background and I thought the whole piece was brilliant and I liked the presenter, very artistic for Newsnight...

#23: they are just angry.

if the UK had not had immigrants for the murdochracy to attck, they would have been focussed upon the poor, or homosexuals. The anger is there, because of all the corruption, and the constant stream of deaths from Afghanistan, and the grotesque wealth inequality, and a whole host of other reasons.

somehow, our "fair and unbiased" media has managed to turn that anger against the other poor and weak, instead of the banksters and corrupt politicians who have actually wrecked our economy.

and yet it is very noticeable that none of the Big 3£ are talking about putting limits on media ownership, an essential part of a properly functioning Democracy. Indeed, the Tories will actually sell the Beeb off to Murdoch as well, i'm sure we are all *breathless* to see what improvements he will bring.

....WHEN YOU SAY NOTHING AT ALL...........

GO1 #15

".....I can't see the kevseywevsey posts yet....."

Well well well Go1, that comment says more about YOU than a million words of wisdom from anyone else ever can.

It's the B word again. Where is Gordy when you need him?

"WE'VE MADE AN AGREEMENT WITH THE BANKS" (James G Brown)

If I had a billion for every time Brown has said that, when asked about lack of bank lending, I could solve the whole debt problem

But he is NEVER challenged, directly, for using the word 'agreement' when is should be DIRECTIVE.

Clearly there is (at least) another layer of chicanery in UK (world?) banking that we are not privy to. WHY IS GORDON SCARED TO INSTRUCT THE BOSSES OF BANKS (THAT WE OWN) TO LEND? Is it to do with his post-political-career cushy sinecure?

#10 gofony:
"#3 mimpromptu;I haven't seen the #65 but assume its the indignantindegene login. Never let them grind you down as they say"

Try reading before commenting. Mimpromptu did not recognise my impromptu English humour about birds who drop bombs into people's eyes.
It takes years of living with a culture - and probably a DIFFERENT GENE!

But what's your excuse for being totally blinkered?

#7 "How much does he (Blair) feel he contributed to the increase in BNP activity via the Labour immigration rules and the "16,000" Poles who were going to show up? Transitional rules?"

Good post Gango, but isn't that a trifle racist? I thought you believed there to be no differences and no discrimination, so why the concern?

Tonight on NN
".. our Economics editor will be reporting tonight on the Greek crisis. At least three people have been killed in Athens today as protesters set fire to a bank during a general strike over planned austerity measures"

This must really worry you Go1. As you don't recognise differences in race or culture then we are due to repeat this experience when our austerity measures are introduced post-election?

Dear NN,

which reporter is travelling with Nick clegg and reporting on that? I only caught reporters covering 2 of the three competitors.

Obviouly it must be just a silly mistake on my part as clearly it could not be possible that such a prestigious respected news programme would give disproportionate coverage in favour of the incumbent political elite during an election.

can you imagine the hot water you would have been in if (when labour was third in the polls) you stopped covering them and sent Crick to cover the lib dems instead....

unthinkable right?

So please tell me what is any different about excluding the lid dems given the current political dynamic not seen in generations?

Surely there can not be editorial bias in a broadcaster funded by the people of this country.

Explain please.

#28

indi

During my snooze from which I've just woken up I had a dream about playing along James Bond and we went pidgeon shooting.

mim

The Tape Loop Election ....

.... is, according to some, over!

The androgynous - nay invisible - local candidates are running toward the finish line, with some decidedly on their last legs. The local Party Agents are stocking up with the instant coffee and at the same time - hedging their bets - a couple of bottles of imitation Champers and six packs of light ale. No doubt plastic cup sales will go through the roof. Even more assuredly most of these same plastic cups will end up cluttering the floors of sweat congealed abodes.

The top bods will be writing, more likely commissioning, their post-result excuses, jubilations and rants. The most senior underlings will trying to anticipate their future career options. The dogs-body, downtrodden, oft abused canvassers will be checking the opening hours of their local Cobblers at the same time as wondering whether they can afford the taxi fair home. They might also be feeling a bit miffed as to why the Party Agent only bought enough booze for the elite few! (No doubt some disinterested to the extreme - and perhaps a few carried away with ‘the moment’ - will be new parents nine months hence.)

The ballots will close, the analysis will meander and drone and the media will prey sic for the - several inevitable - Portillo Moments. The papers will bugle, bluster preach or lament!

And .... then ....

Most of us will suffer!



For those that are still undecided (The topic of the day as the media doesn’t want to look as though it ‘got it entirely wrong”!)

The trick to deciding as to whom to vote for is in the relevant party’s name ....

But you need to add a short question afterward ....

i.e. ....


Conservative .... For whom?

Labour .... For whom?

Liberal .... For whom?


To finish with a bit of nostalgic twist ....

Will the last person to leave the country ....

Send us a postcard?

DEVIL TAKE THE HINDMOST

Just musing. If we wake up on Friday to a balanced/hung parliament, might we then not apply the rules of bicycle racing to the big three if a suitable coalition is not

The party who polled the fewest votes drops out.

Loved Jeremy's interview with Lord Armstrong and also the discussion with my favourite trio of Danny/Olly/Peter :o)
:p Oh the imbecile making faces behind Michael. Made me laugh!

BRILLIANT JEREMY TONIGHT - A NEWSNIGHT 'HIGH POINT OF THE ELECTION'

Let Joy be unconfined. 'You couldn't make it up'. After all my futile protestations, as Newsnight's costly background fripperies just kept on expanding - swirling, flashing, flickering and waving - drowning all content played out before it - tonight it all came right.

AS ONE LONE, UNPAYED, UNLIT, DUN-COLOURED WALLY, PERFORMED BACKGROUND FRIPPERIES FOR FREE, Jeremy 'Paxo' Paxman could not countenance it, and called for Crick to stop his peroration. Does Paxo not know that his studio walls are one great, expensive display of wallydom?

Newsnight already heads for the street, regardless of relevance to the interview. As an economy, why not do ALL future broadcasts from the pavement; forget the son et lumiere walls, and rely on passing boso and bosette to add that edgy backing to otherwise turgid content?

This time the award will be deserved.

Loved the posturing "imbecile" behind Michael Crick - what a splendid way to finish the election coverage. It says it all.

Anybody thinking of voting BNP should remember Nick Griffin on Question Time saying the KKK were not so bad - he had spoken up for them before.

Today:

'Raymond Foster, 45, of the northern Louisiana town of Bogalusa, was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder of Cynthia Lynch.

A former KKK member testified that Foster shot Ms Lynch, 43, after she told him: "I want out", AP reports. '

What with Collett being arrested for allegedly threatening to kill Griffin (both BNP) is this the way to go .....

No!

#28 indignantindegene

"It takes years of living with a culture - and probably a DIFFERENT GENE"

As has been pointed out to you many times in the past the far right have no idea of science and genetics or they would not talk such rubbish.

There is no difference between the races genetically as its all cosmetic climate adaptations generally.

#29 indignantindegene

"Good post Gango, but isn't that a trifle racist? I thought you believed there to be no differences and no discrimination, so why the concern?"

Rubbish as usual. The transitional rules were there to be used and would have prevented such an uneven migration and its what most of the nations used.

But as you yourself are not the BNP but a UKIP voter who does not believe in racial discrimination why are YOU so concerned about discrimination.

Indegene is your clever way of saying indigenous isn't it.

Thats what the BNP are always ranting on about.

#26 brighhtyangthing

"Well well well Go1, that comment says more about YOU than a million words of wisdom from anyone else ever can."

Probably not as after a while even a subnormal far right poster would pick up on the patterns of what people will say and what they won't.

Kevseywevsey duly went on to talk proudly about his past of bottle throwing at the British Army and singing songs about them in Belfast. \its what all good English Nationalists do.

Why won't they let the BNP join the army?

Tssch its a toughie ain't it.

#36

I think you underestimate Jeremy, singie, but let's leave it at that.

#68 from previous page

gnu

And what if there are 'enemy' agents close by having even more sophisticated equipment apart from ordinary folk who I seem to get on excellently with and who don't seem to treat me like a schizophrenic, as was the case with at least some of the psychiatric nurses on the ward who had the opportunity to watch me day and night?

Too late 'mate' - missed opportunities - the glory's not, and never will be, yours.

#43 addendum

I have a sneaky feeling that Barack Obama knows all there is to know about fridges and hot and cold water taps.

indi

Re: pigeons

You 'complained' about me not being English and then made a mistake in the spelling of the word 'pidgeon' and I foolishly copied it. But to make absolutely sure about the correct spelling of the 'dropping bird', I've gone into Google and found the following article:

https://www.pigeonoff.co.uk/about_pigeons.htm

#22

As I was munching on the Queen scallops and sipping my lemonade a group of people sat at another table on the same side and one of the ladies looked just like Judi Dench in the role of M in James Bond movies.

m

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Thought tonight's edition just fine and enjoyed sharing the final moments with each of the three main contenders. Your election night graphics look appealing with the caveat that a presenter gesturing weatherman way at some feature he can't actually see is always uncovincing and naff and why TV carries on doing it beyond me.

Greek report okay. Paul Mason always appreciated by me but I was unhappy with the concluding quote of George Osborne's that our national accounts are a 'work of fiction'. Not in any way at all in the way the Greek ones are and the night before an election I don't think that was a remark that ought to have gone unchallenged. Of course Osborne too lightweight and absurd to be taken seriously by any including (especially) his own supporters plus he looks terminally ill but on principle it shouldn't have been allowed to happen.

Newsnight should do a piece soon elaborating the difference between our deficit problems and Club Med's. It's not just that we don't have their problem with the Euro, we also don't have anything like the same problem with short term debt as those nations do.

Take two

High-level meeting on the International Monetary system :-

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

Take three

Forgot you don't allow pdf stuff.

https://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2010/5/4_Explosive_Gold_Catalyst_.html

That's one important meeting.

#50

Take care flicks of your eyes - all this gold search may render you blind

Simon Johnson - 'Expect nothing'

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/simon-johnson/expect-nothing_b_564023.html

"The Europeans will do nothing this week or for the foreseeable future. They have not planned for these events, they never gamed this scenario, and their decision-making structures are incapable of updating quickly enough. The incompetence at the level of top European institutions is profound and complete; do not let anyone fool you otherwise."

..The theory that markets are efficient and reflect all possible information and therefore, are never wrong, is as flawed now as it was two years ago. As we've seen countless times in scandals from Enron and energy trading, to Sumitomo and copper trading, to Goldman and derivatives trading, markets can often be unbalanced, distorted, illogical, manipulated and subject to out-and-out fraud. ..

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/malignant-market-forces-set-sights-on-europe-2010-05-06

so why does our political class love the market fundamentalism model [pfi etc] as a way to deliver national and strategic services? how much more evidence do they need?

markets deliver profit not services or justice. its not the markets fault but those who have no nation building philosophy or science.

#44 addendum

I wonder whether Barack Obama knows anything about washing machines?

Thinking of the troubles in Greece. Has it occured to anyone that all those Greeks have the right to come and live and work here?

#54; not sure, but am becoming increasingly convinced that he is a Jedi knight.

Gordi is Jabba, Dave is c3po, Cleggie is Skywalker and.. well, we know who Lord Vader is.

But who is the Emperor? Rupert Murdoch?

:o( Nigel Farage has been in a plane crash

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/election/article-1273591/General-Election-2010-UKIP-candidate-Nigel-Farage-dramatic-plane-crash-election-banner-catches-tail-fin.html

#55

And what is the inference of what you are saying ?

BEWARE OF GREEKS WHO CAN'T AFFORD GIFTS (#55)

Not sure if your post is hate crime or a terror offence Eco. It is certainly Wilful Mocking Derogatory language!

Speaking of language, do Greeks talk like they write? That would be TANGLISH then.

It's all going awfully well.

PS - is it me or is Hyman on a promise of an OBE (On Brown's Exit)? His attempts to turn ANYTHING into proof of a Labour rally/surge/hidden-vote or what have you, seriously disrupt the cosiness of the panel.

SOCIETY OF PEDANTS AMALGAMATES WITH THE PEDANTS' SOCIETY (#55)

That's 'implication' flicks. (:o)

I reckon Ecolizzy is implying another swamping could be on the cards.

There is, surely, a connection between the monetary cock-up of the EU (now proved) and the 'over-mobility' within the EU, sampled by US but, with further financial collapse looming, who knows what comes next? It is down to the incompetence of cipher politicians is it not? (With a top dressing of corruption.)

AND WE CAN DO NOTHING.

#56

No, not him, Kashi, the potential Emperor is sorting things out.

mim

#60

"AND WE CAN DO NOTHING."

The problem is square with the banks, hedge-funds and the use of derivatives. The politicians are now just pawns to mega banks.

Answer - remove your money from banks and buy real gold. No banker or politician is to be trusted.

The inference question remains.

#60

As if corruption only applied to politicians, singie.

Re: amalgamates

I'm searching for the finest element!

mim

#45
Re: pigeon(d)droppings

Well spotted min. My intention was not to 'complain' about you not being English, but to goad GO1, which succeeded. In the process I managed to get mixed up with Pidgin English.

Thanks for your link. Pigeons are regarded as a menace and health hazard and I saw the best solution in a Melbourne park where they have a large cage, shaped like a dove-cot. The top has lots of perches and openings, which the pigeons enter and lay their eggs in the nesting area inside at ground level. Park attendants then replace their eggs with glass ones so the pigeon population is kept in control and one can look up with less risk.

#60

'We can do nothing'. -

Have I put a fine cat among the pigeons this morning?

mim

At the moment I'm the only adult surrounded by very pleasant young people enjoying themselves and practising on ice
and I'm thinking about their future.

mim

Hhhmmm well Barrie what I was thinking about was the mess the poor Greeks are in, where do they go from here. Although I think retiring at 53 is pretty farcical I heard on Radio 4, that there are groups of communist agitators within the demonstrations, and it is often them that start the trouble, e.g. firebombing banks, thus killing innocent people. Why damage the infrastructure, when you are in a parlous state. The bank could have other uses, e.g. a school, or homes.

And then I got to thinking about Europe in general, and then I remembered the item I posted the other day of the trouble in Hungary. And then I thought, well I'm blowed as we are all open and anyone can travel anywhere in Europe, if there is trouble anywhere in Europe they could all come here to live and work, what's to stop them, nothing.

Nothing racist or anti, just realising we could be swamped with yet more refugees, even if they are economic ones.

As for buying gold, I don't have enough money to do that. And isn't that what the Nazis did in Germany, collected gold.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_gold

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Flics

There is a urgent EU IGC next month.

https://www.europolitics.info/institutions/commission-recommends-igc-june-date-likely-art270182-39.html

I suggest the topics up for discussion will be more than just mere MEP numbers by then.

Lets hope we have a new government that will, at lest, negotiate in the UK interests , rather than rolling over and getting their belly tickled by the euro federalists.

Who knows , maybe , just maybe , we might have to , by law, have a referendum this time.

Like the Greeks on the island that,I think, Channel 4 News visited this week; one pensioner, whose income was about to be reduced by one third said he would make up the difference by catching and selling or eating the occasional octopus, a local government official said she would grow more vegetables and that she needed to lose some weight anyway and the third person topped them all by consoling himself that the sun and the sea were still free.Now there's civilized!

Don't think many of them will be flocking this way.Isn't it amazing what a bit of good weather can do for the weltanschauung? Suppose it explains a lot about the grumpy, hangdog approach of the Brits.

My info is that it's mostly, as already mentioned, agitators, anarchists and a few Militant Tendency types causing the trouble but that the civilized Greeks will round on them after the recent deaths.

Loved the idea that families can inherit the pensions of dead relatives; very Ottoman!!

ONLY ONE SURE WAY TO STEER YOUNG MEN AWAY FROM WANTON DESTRUCTION (#67)

The Greeks had a word for it.

You have to be a bloke Eco. We just LOVE making stuff happen. If there is nothing there, we build something. If there IS something there, we destroy it.

IT'S CHANGE - AND US WOT DUN IT!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

#68 -Then watch the value of the pound go down as the value of gold goes up. You cant print 200 billion backed by nothing and call it value. Money in banks = an incentive to destruction via credit default swaps plus devaluation by QE. People cant get it into their heads that the UK is in serious trouble and that means their money. Just wait and see what hell will be if the banks arnt broken and incentive to destruction isn't stopped.

A hung Parliament = run on pound and gold goes up just look at the price right now - sky high:-

https://www.goldprice.org/gold-price.html

I believe we are close to gold being once again tied to paper money and being as their is not enough to go around its value will have to increase by at least 5 fold and silver may also be brought into play.

#67 ecoiz
"...if there is trouble anywhere in Europe they could all come here to live and work, what's to stop them, nothing. Nothing racist or anti, just realising we could be swamped with yet more refugees, even if they are economic ones."

Let's hope that many, as I, had that in mind when casting ther votes for 'change'.

A little while back former Mr Ethical man interviewed Hugh Hendry - hedge-fund manager Mr Ethical man absolutely put his finger on it when he questioned the use of credit default swaps to pour more misery on the people of Greece. Just remember 70% of hedge-funds are in the UK.

So if the Greeks came over here they may like to question Mr Hendry and his like. Now for sure they should have collected tax and put a stop to corruption, but tell me; if any of you could get away without paying tax wouldn't you ?

I'm not at all sure whether it's of any interest to anybody but earlier today I did a bit of 'EPeing' on ice at Queen's, among them Elvis Presley's 'Blue Moon' and Edith Piaf's 'Padam', as well as a bit of Bonding.

Then a tall Rapper came with his kids, asked me whether I was all right and told me it was all about happiness, that happiness was the thing.

mim

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF IT SO FAR?

My first impression of the all singing all dancing flashing lights, bells and whistles and knobs of the oki koki 2000 election results show is............... A bit of a (Panto)Mime show.
I think the BBC are trying to do too much and too many failures and timing issues

And I would rather wait a little longer for my constituency result than have vans and students running and half throwing ballot boxes around JUST in order to hold or make a record.



and here's one I made earlier


#72
"....ONLY ONE SURE WAY TO STEER YOUNG MEN AWAY FROM WANTON DESTRUCTION"

I guess that's what young women were made for then????????

I know my place!

:o) Love watching Jeremy direct from his naughty step!

"It's all going AWFULLY....well!" (as barrie would say)

With angry voters at several polling stations blocking the despatch of ballot boxes cos they weren't handed their ballot paper before the 10pm deadline, police investigations (presumably) proceeding into alleged postal voting fraud in several constituencies, and MPs being elected on the votes of less than half the electorate. We appear to be set for a hung parliament with pressure groups demanding a re-run soon.

I've switched from BBC to Sky and Channel 3 as I cannot stand being lectured by a jumped-up Lord who was twice dropped as MP for dubious dealings. So at midnight I'll have a banana and retire to bed.

Dimble talks about drilling
Millli thinks it's 'exciting'
Then some prof talks about heating
What is it about, i'm wondering.

#82

Hold on , Mistress76uk, let's not treat Jeremy as just a sex object. There's much more to the man than that.

mim

#78

A really good answer to singie. BYT.

Although it is too early to say, it looks like I was right to claim that I normally
back the winners, as was the case with the current President of the USA, Barack Obama.

Are you actually watching the election transmission?

mim

#83

Yep Mim

STILL with it.

I am fascinated by the 'lock out

Having spent a number of years as a national examination board chief invigilator I can see some of the intricacies and hand binding in the issue but simply CANNOT understand how so many people in authority (the returning officers) had NO idea as to what the bottom line was and how to meet it at all costs.

I also undertook the last census which I beleive is run under similar guidelines.

It's turning into a real cracker!

My constituency is couple of hours off being very rural and very broad.

would be very interesting to hear what % of the votes cast in each constituency are by postal/proxy votes. Especially in these huge swings.

add in the polling stations complete farce, and surely there should be not only some prosecutions, but also widespread re-runs of constituency elections.


--just heard the "markets" are quite happy, and seem to be believing in a Tory victory - just as the bush regime 'managers' and promoters were quite confident of a Bush victory, even thought the exit polls were quite strongly against him.

hmmmm.

it seems it all depends upon how much clegg wants PR - or how far he will go to annoy his Party by supporting the tories, either in coalition or just supporting them in Parliament.

what with the massive electoral fraud, and the public's desire for PR, and the *obvious* complete disenchantment with politics in general, despite the dislike for Brown (perhaps he could resign, and Claire Short become caretaker PM until a Labour Party leadership election, to work with Clegg to achieve electoral reform?), the Public has also clearly rejected the Conservative Party. What better time could there BE to have a referendum on Proportional Representation??

also wondering if some of those stations that ran out of ballot papers were stations with lots of supposed 'proxy votes'. Would explain some - but not excuse the general incompetence.

accidental incompetence on this MASSIVE scale. Florida reborn.

we need "strong decisive Govt" according to the Tories.

--exactly what % of the entire electorate (voted and non-voted) have chosen to go out and vote for a Tory Govt??

how DARE they claim they have any kind of "mandate" from the british people?

we are now seeing the likely result of all this emphasis upon 'tactical voting' against the Tories, by the LibDems and Labour - just like in the US, the right-wing media and talking heads have used that as a "threat" to mobilise the right-wing vote, as well as turning-off Labour/LibDem voters due to the obvious horse-trading and politicking.

another clever political tactic of media-manipulation and scaremongering by the right-wing that has also crossed the Atlantic, not to the benefit of our democracy, i would say.

and largely created yet again by our outdated and iniquitous electoral system.

we're waiting up for Caroline Lucas for the Greens! Surely THAT will be the only notable result tonight. History in the making, the entry in Parliament of a brand new Party.


#ian hislop: oh yeah, i can just imagine the Public reaction should the Big 3£ essentially scrap the election and form a Govt amongst themselves.

what have they all got in common? Cuts,and more wars.

emily should have a remote control - i can't imagine a respected senior male Beeb journalist having to constantly bend over to push stupid screen buttons.

#84

Brightyanthing

It's something to do with the Moon & Sun light + Watts' Horseman & Hope - the strength and perseverence

mim

whilst its an undeniable pleasure watching these senior NuLabour figures getting the chop, seeing them replaced by Tories somewhat takes the joy out of it.

out of the frying pan...?

hey mim, can't deny waiting to read your post is more gripping than most of this election tonight! :)

...gosh, what could it be?? :o

beeb: any chance of showing national % points of votes cast already, to give a rough idea/comparison with what a PR system would have produced?

#92: surely more to do with incompetence, either accidental or intentional?


darn, blears is back. Oh well.

ashcroft: bit like watching a snake eyeing a chick hopping around in front of its nose. So nice after 10 years he is now finally going to pay UK taxes, shame he neither apologised for that 'slip', nor promised to pay the back-dated taxes he now accepts he should have paid.

even the corrupt MPs repaid what they had taken. Guess he is too rich to give a flying **** about what the British Electorate might think, as long as his Party wins power to cut taxes upon his entire class - whilst putting them up on the majority population.

how lucky for us that the Lords is STILL a haven for people who regard themselves as 'better' than the common people.

#88 & #95: ty for the info.

8 million have now voted for the Tories - out of an electorate of 40 million+, or thereabouts?

https://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/v/_/bush_mandate.jpg

i like cameron's former tutor. :)

-perhaps Sinn Fein will actually take their seats this Parliament, to prevent a Conservative/Unionist take-over, and support electoral change?