Jo Swinson is as bad as expected

As a key member of the (2010-2015) Tory/Liberal Democrat government Swinson waved through destructive Social Murder policies and dismantlement of NHS.  Her support for such policies was (and is) as keen as that of any Tory MP.  Despite claiming to be in favour of environmentally friendly government, Swinson received donations from the director of Warwick Energy Ltd, a firm with fracking licences across England.  She asked for a statue of Margaret Thatcher to be built and placed near parliament because “[Thatcher] showed she had long-term vision about our country’s future.”

Liberal Democrats do not want a no deal Brexit or any Brexit but the party’s MP’s main priority is to try to prevent a socialist government being elected and their fear of a Corbyn-led election victory for Labour overrides all other fears including the consequences of an abrupt departure from the EU without preparation.

One of Swinson’s first acts as leader was a proposal to table a motion of no confidence in Boris Johnson in parliament.  (That is not the same as a vote of no confidence in the government.)  Such a motion is a gesture, nothing more.  Rightly, Corbyn declined to support the motion because he had better and more important things to do.  Of course, Swinson expected his declination: The sole reason she tabled the motion was to receive a rejection from Corbyn so that she could make a spurious claim of his inaction.

In an article in The Observer Swinson said “[Corbyn] had yet another opportunity to prove that he can be the leader of the opposition.  And he bottled it.  Faced with the hardline Brexit government that Boris Johnson appointed, Corbyn did nothing.  On Wednesday I wrote asking him to table a motion of no confidence, but he didn’t.  Yet another test of Corbyn’s leadership, yet another failure.  Britain deserves better than an opposition that just doesn’t show up.”

The set-up re. the motion of no confidence was used By Swinson as a lead into a repeat of the confidence trickery of “new” politics for “a positive, alternative vision for our country.”  In the same Observer article Swinson, with deliberate offence, positioned Corbyn with extremists: “The forces of nationalism and populism have risen in our country with chilling consequences.  It is my biggest priority to grow this movement and take on Johnson, Corbyn, Nigel Farage and the rest.”

Her rhetoric matched the emptiness of Change UK’s pointless declarations.  That party died quickly.  Vacuum of ideas is not a new phenomena for Swinson.  In 2017, in a Guardian article and in a conference speech, she inelucidated similarly.  An MP or potential leader of a party can hide their limitations in knowledge or analytical acumen by selecting their public and media appearances and associated topics of conversation but a leader is exposed. 

Never trust a Liberal Democrat even if their views on Brexit appear to match your’s.  Whatever they might think of Johnson and his band of decepticons, the Liberal Democrats’ aim is to stop Corbyn and stop socialism.  Even their vocalisation of opposition to Brexit is expressed by misdirectional criticism of Corbyn and by equating left and right. 

Dishonesty requires shamelessness which, in turn, requires stupidity; vacuity of thought is the key component of Jo Swinson’s methodology as a politician. 

Recommended reading
Frances Ryan on Lib Dems
Joe Lo on Swinson’s political donations

Advertisement

Alastair Campbell committed his final cowardly act as a Labour member

Rightly, Labour Party expelled former adviser to Tony Blair Alastair Campbell after he admitted voting for Liberal Democrats in an election.  It was a simple straightforward decision to eject him in response to a clear, blatant and provocative breach of party rules.

When his expulsion was confirmed, Campbell, acting as always as a coward and a liar, decided to pretend that the decision to leave Labour was his.  He concocted a vomit-inducing essay, compliantly published by New European newspaper, and followed that with a tour of equally complicit TV and radio studios.  In the essay Campbell lied brazenly that Labour wanted to try to find a way to keep him in the party.

Be clear: Campbell was kicked out with a boot up his arse.  Out the door, permanently. 

His whining and self-promotion in print, TV and radio was unsurprising and showed what a duplicitous, untrustworthy, conniving and disreputable person he is.  The art of the con is his career but it comes easy to him because it is an extension of his personality. 

When he was Tony Blair’s adviser and desperate to please then US president George W. Bush, Campbell created a false analysis of the capability of Iraq’s military.  The consequence was hundreds of thousands of people killed or wounded and millions of lives affected.  But US oil companies made huge profits.  At best, Campbell should have been rotting in an Iraqi jail for over a decade interspersed with trips to The Hague; at best.

International Criminal Court, The Hague

Campbell is an extreme example of the rottenness of British politics.  

Sod off.  

Recommended reading
Adam Samuels for Dorset Eye

World 4 Brexit

No deal Brexit will be welcomed by disaster capitalists and economic extremists who are expecting a fire-sale of public services, a bonfire of workers’ rights, health & safety regulations and legal rights and the removal of human rights protection.

Opportunists in USA will be the largest threat to society because of existing trade deals between USA and UK, the warped special relationship between Trump and Johnson and lack of federal regulation of business practices in USA.  Assistance given to extreme Brexiteers by hard-right economic libertarians in USA started as soon as campaigning for the EU referendum began and continued since.

World 4 Brexit (W4B) is a device to collect money to pay for propaganda for no deal Brexit.  It is registered in USA to bypass UK law on declarations of donations for political organisations.  W4B promotional pamphlet stated that donations will be used for

• Opinion and message research
• Media and press relations
• Offices in London, Washington and Brussels
• Staff and admin during 2019 (intention is to be self-supporting via ongoing fundraising)
• Lobbying and influence in the U.K. and elsewhere
• Legal counsel advice to ensure our reputation for integrity
• Ongoing U.S. fundraising and support
• Support for development of further links and offices around the world
• Global events with high-profile international speakers
• Social media and advertising
• Economic/social studies

W4B people
Leave.EU’s co-creator Gerry Gunster was one of the founders of W4B.  Leave.EU was convicted of breaches of electoral law last year including failure to declare money paid to Gunster’s business Goddard Gunster for services related to the referendum campaign.

Peggy Grande, former assistant to US president Reagan, is chair of W4B.  In an article for extreme-right website Daily Caller Grande said “the implementation of Brexit will allow the U.K. to re-establish ties to trading partners who are currently alienated by the E.U.”  Her false argument about membership of EU restricting international trade was a ruse.  It translated as a desire for all protections – workers’ rights, food standards, health & safety etc. – to be removed to allow unfettered exploitation.

Republican Governor of Mississippi Phil Bryant helped to launch W4B.  Bryant enabled the set-up of data mining business Big Data Dolphins, that used the same processes as Cambridge Analytica, at University of Mississippi.  Big Data Dolphins was backed by Eldon Insurance owned by Aaron Banks.  

(Earlier this year Bryant contravened the US constitution when he tried to impose extremely-restrictive access to abortion.)

Also on board is ubiquitous Brexifter Nigel Farage.

Bryant, Grande and Farage

W4B tactics and strategy
The tactics of W4B are straightforward and simple: Relentless lies, misdirection, distraction and confidence tricks. 

Its strategy is compartmentalised into public and private. 

Public strategy is two-fold:

1) Lobotomy-inducing repetition of paeans to democracy re. the EU referendum vote and con-tricks about access to “free trade.”
2) Loaded denigration of opponents.

Private strategy focuses on convincing no deal Brexit’s would-be exploitative beneficiaries to part with money to fund propaganda and Farage’s offshore accounts.

W4B propaganda
In its own words W4B operational methodology will

• Proactively engage with the international mainstream.
• Build ‘watchdog’ groups to investigate media bias and expose the funders behind the ‘Remain’
• Write and place op-eds
• Use paid media to get our message out

The above plans made (possibly correct) assumptions about the compliance of media outlets and broadcasters.  It is not possible to “proactively engage” with non-complicit media and it is not possible to “place” op-eds with non-complicit media.   

Simple and dishonest rhetoric is the plan.  (Quotes below from W4B’s promotional pamphlet.)

“Imagine a country in which more than 70% of citizens democratically voted in a national referendum, only to have outside forces and the government overturn the results.”

Yes, 52% of 70% is 37%.  So, 37% voted for Brexit.  37% is less than half.

“Not a single referendum [in Britain] has been overturned after the fact, let alone toppled by external forces.”
“[W4B can] correct the international narrative about Brexit and serve as a ‘watchdog’ to understand the global funding for those opposed to democracy.”

“Outside forces?”  “External forces?”  Who are they and external to whom?  What “international narrative?”  What is the “global funding” opposed to democracy?  W4B didn’t answer those questions.  It left the phrases there to be interpreted in whatever way the reader chose.

Another of its “can do” claims was “educate communities with diverse backgrounds on the benefits of Brexit.”  Does W4B think that Brexit has a image problem related to race?

The creation of the Common Market in Western Europe coincided historically with the end of the British empire; W4B asked for a return to pre-EU “ties” with “successful and growing parts of the world.”

W4B advocated free international trade unrestricted by EU regulations and laws.  Its call for such trade was accompanied by a photo of and quote from former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.  Coincidently, Abbott is on the advisory board of Initiative for Free Trade (IFT) think-tank.  IFT wants complete worldwide access for exploitation, the “freedom” to exploit people everywhere equally.  Its president is economic libertarian Daniel Hannan.

The final sentence was hilarious: “We will draw on legal advice to ensure that we comply fully with all aspects of the law and demonstrate conspicuous integrity in what we do.”

Philosophically, W4B is nothing new and it is populated with the same gurning faces as all other Brexit propaganda groups and organisations.  It is part extreme grifting, for Farage, Gunster, Banks, etc., part pressure group on pliable hapless Boris Johnson and part propaganda machine with the help of complicit media.

Recommended reading
Adam Ramsay for Open Democracy
Turlough Conway for Byline
Bracey Harris on Big Data Dolphins

Boris Johnson’s first cabinet: Decepticons

Etonian buffoon Boris Johnson’s first cabinet is packed with ignorant, sociopathic, untrustworthy servants of disaster capitalism.

Sajid Javid: CHANCELLOR
Previous government post: Home Secretary; Business Secretary

When Javid was vice-president of Chase Bank a memo was sent on the bank’s behalf to the President of Mexico asking for action against indigenous people who supported a change of government that, if successful, would threaten Chase’s capacity for profit: “[The government] will need to consider carefully whether or not to allow opposition victories if fairly won at the ballot box.”  A few weeks later the Mexican government sent the army into Chiapas prompting thousands of indigenous people to flee into the Lacandon rain forest.

Priti Patel: HOME SECRETARY
Previous government post: International Development Secretary

Patel’s trip to Israel and Syria in 2017 for secret unminuted meetings with senior members of the Israeli government to broker arms deals and oil deals including oil deals for oil stolen from Syrian territory should have led to a criminal prosecution.  Her only punishment was a forced resignation.

Dominic Raab: FOREIGN SECRETARY
Previous government post: Brexit Secretary

Raab is disaster capitalists’ favourite.  He wrote a paper for right-wing think-tank Centre for Policy Studies called Escaping the Straightjacket that proposed annihilation of all workers’ rights.  He declared that “the typical user of a foodbank is not someone that’s languishing in poverty, it’s someone who has a cash flow problem episodically” and he admitted that “I hadn’t quite understood the full extent of this, but if you look at the UK and look at how we trade in goods, we are particularly reliant on the Dover-Calais crossing.”

Esther McVey: MINISTER FOR HOUSING, COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
Previous government post: Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

Having previously worked with Iain Duncan-Smith at DWP before losing her parliamentary seat, her return to that department was a sentence of execution for thousands of people particularly for people with disabilities and chronic illnesses.  She ignored and lied about evidence that Universal Credit would be disastrous.  The intent of Universal Credit was to cause destitution, debt, homelessness and death and McVey revelled in that.

Liz Truss: PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF TRADE
Previous government post: Lord Chancellor; Environment Secretary

Truss helped to create right-wing think-tank FREER, a subsidiary of Institute of Economic Affairs, that echoes Tea Party rhetoric of destruction of public services and tax reductions for wealthiest.  When Environment Secretary she cut fiscal assistance for solar farms and said they are “a blight on the landscape.”  She co-authored ‘Britain Unchained’ that declared “the British are among the worst idlers in the world.”

Gavin Williamson: EDUCATION SECRETARY
Previous government post: Defence Secretary

Williamson lost his job as Defence Secretary after details of a cabinet meeting were leaked to the media.  He behaved in that role as if he were playing a game of Risk.  Chancellor Philip Hammond had to cancel a visit to China because Williamson said Britain’s largest aircraft carrier was being sent to patrol close to China.  His other military proposals included paintballing Spanish boats near Gibraltar and putting guns on tractors.

Julian Smith: NORTHERN IRELAND SECRETARY
Previous government posts: Chief whip

Smith instructed five Tory MPs to break pairing arrangements, without informing the paired MPs in opposition parties, during a parliamentary vote related to Brexit including a pairing with an opposition MP on maternity leave; only one of the five MPs, then chair of the party Brandon Lewis, agreed to break the arrangement.  Smith lied by saying that the instructions had not been given and claimed Lewis’ vote was made in error.  He said The Guardian should be face criminal prosecution for journalism related to its reports on Edward Snowden.

Grant Shapps: TRANSPORT SECRETARY
Previous government post: Co-chair of party

When an MP Shapps used pseudonyms, Sebastian Fox and Michael Green, for various businesses.  He initially denied doing so and denied having any outside business interests, and took legal action against a constituent who had exposed his actions.

Matt Hancock: HEALTH SECRETARY

Matt Hancock is an employee of right-wing think-tank Institute of Economic Affairs that is funded by privateers who want to steal the NHS from the British people.  He has facilitated the privatisation and theft of the NHS via a variety of scams while distracting observers with a series of stupid stunts.

Jo Johnson: MINISTER FOR UNIVERSITIES AND SCIENCE
Previous government post: Higher Education Minister

Johnson created Office For Students (OfS), a falsely-named quango designed to quash universities’ independence under the guise of representing students.  He appointed, and quickly sacked, notorious troll and charlatan Toby Young to a senior administrative position at OfS.  Johnson simultaneously displayed hypocrisy and authoritarianism toward universities by criticising the NUS for its criticism of the repressive Prevent programme while also threatening to fine universities that made their own decisions about which (far-right bigoted) speakers could or could not have a platform.

Johnny Mercer: VETERANS MINISTER

Mercer is paid £85k p.a. by a cyber security firm for four hours work per week to “train” ex-service personnel at high costs to the trainees.  He said “I do genuinely have a problem with a massive welfare state that saps the ambition and drive of a younger generation” and he has voted consistently in favour of vicious cuts to welfare that targetted people with disabilities including thousands of military veterans.

James Cleverly: CHAIR OF PARTY
Previous government post: Deputy Chair of Conservative Party

Nominative indeterministic Cleverly is known primarily as a persistent and relentless liar on social media, in interviews and in the House of Commons.  The de facto leader of the Tory Bratboys, no stunt or behaviour is too childish for him.  He was the lead in the Tories’ concocted pantomime when they accused Jeremy Corbyn of calling Theresa May a “stupid woman.”  

Ben Wallace: DEFENCE SECRETARY
Previous government post: Security Minister

Wallace compared Jeremy Corbyn to USSR spy Kim Philby.

Dominic Cummings: SPECIAL ADVISER
Previous government post: Special adviser to Michael Gove

Cummings was campaign director of Vote Leave and invented most of its dishonest claims used during the EU referendum campaign.  He was found in contempt of parliament for failing to attend a Privileges Select Committee hearing.

Matthew Elliott: ADVISER TO CHANCELLOR

Elliott founded Tax-Payers’ Alliance, a right-wing think-tank that advocates destruction of public services and lower taxes for the wealthiest.  It is a keen supporter of tax havens.  He also founded Vote Leave.

Chloe Westley: DIGITAL ADVISER

Social media troll Westley is Campaign Manager at Tax-Payers’ Alliance.  She called extreme-right racist activist Anne-Marie Walters a hero.

(More to follow)

Related blogs
Priti Patel
Raab & Hancock
Sajid Javid
Matt Hancock
Jo Johnson
Gavin Williamson
Johnny Mercer
James Cleverly and Brandon Lewis
FREER
Tax-Payers’ Alliance
Institute of Economic Affairs
Centre for Policy Studies
Tory Bratboys

Paper: Raab’s ‘Escaping The Straightjacket’

Theresa May’s despicable attempts to erase her guilt

Tomorrow (24th July) is Theresa May’s final wretched day as Prime Minister.  A final day of lies, evasion, abuse and utter contempt for humanity.  Soulless, sociopathic enabler of destruction of society and Social Murder is her disgusting legacy.

While the endless (and pointless) battle to be her successor ran its pathetic course May concocted offensive attempts to rewrite her political legacy to be the opposite of what it really is.  This reversal of truth was her final explosion of faeces into the faces of the British people.

Resignation Speech
May’s initial resignation speech was a malodorous stream of misrepresentation and grotesque lies.

May statement: “I have striven to make the United Kingdom a country that works not just for a privileged few, but for everyone.  I am proud of the progress we have made over the last three years.”
FACT: Millions of people were forced into extreme poverty due to removal of welfare support, removal of workers’ rights and abject lack of housing.  Meanwhile, the wealthiest enriched themselves exponentially due to Tory enabling of tax avoidance and exploitation.

May statement: “The deficit is almost eliminated, our national debt is falling and we are bringing an end to austerity.”
FACT: Fiscal debt increased hugely.  Austerity was never a policy to save money; it was an ideological policy.

May statement: “We have helped more people than ever enjoy the security of a job.”
FACT: A sub minimum wage, insecure, zero-hours “job” is just exploitation.

May statement: “We are building more homes and helping first-time buyers onto the housing ladder.”
FACT: It is near impossible for anyone on an average salary to afford a mortgage.  Council house building ceased.  The only homes being built are for the wealthiest.

May statement: “I put proper funding for mental health at the heart of our NHS long-term plan.”
FACT: The only long-term Tory plan for the NHS is its destruction.

May statement: “I set up the independent public inquiry into the tragedy at Grenfell Tower – to search for the truth, so nothing like it can ever happen again, and so the people who lost their lives that night are never forgotten.”
FACT: Former Grenfell Tower residents are still without homes.  The inquiry is a sham.

May’s blatant unashamed lies in her resignation speech were more than erasure of facts.  They were part of a plan to create a positive legacy for the most anti-humanity Prime Minister since Wellington.

She had a few more confidence tricks wherein she claimed to want to do something that was diametrically opposed to what she did as Prime Minister.

Office For Tackling Injustices
A couple of weeks ago May created the Office for Tackling Injustices.

“Deep-seated societal injustice requires a long-term focus and cannot be eliminated overnight.  I have challenged the injustices which still exist in our society.  The Office for Tackling Injustices will go further, using the power of data, gathered from extensive sources, to shine a spotlight on key injustices and provide the catalyst for better policy solutions.”

May’s government had continued the deliberate Tory policies that caused “societal injustices” including removal of access to legal aid.  She fortified and enhanced injustices, never challenged them.  She was the architect of the racist Windrush scandal when Home Secretary and its executor when Prime Minister.

Domestic Abuse Bill
One of the final bills May brought to parliament was the Domestic Abuse BIll.  She knew that the stated intent of the bill will not be realised because of severe cuts to local services as a result of government cuts to central grants to councils and because Boris Johnson will not have any interest in it.

Help for victims of domestic abuse deteriorated and disappeared throughout May’s time as Prime Minister due to benefit cuts, closure of refuges resulting from huge cuts to central support for councils, lack of affordable housing and May’s “hostile environment” policy toward immigrants where some women were fearful of seeking help in case they were deported or detained.

The Bill was a another gesture by May to enhance her legacy but she was one of the main causes of the deterioration in the lives of victims of domestic abuse.

Public sector “pay rise”
Public sector workers will receive a pay rise.  Allegedly, the rise will be “above inflation.”

There were two obvious flaws with this attempt to redeem her image.  For years May’s government, and preceding Tory governments, denied pay rises to public sector workers or gave them rises below inflation.  Secondly, there is no extra fiscal funding for the pay rises; thus, their costs will be met by reductions to staff numbers and by cuts to services.

Shameless deception
Shamelessness is a necessity to be a successful Tory politician.  Limited intelligence assists persistent shamelessness.  May’s stupidity was and is a vital component of her personality.

The interminable Tory leadership contest allowed her time to pretend to propose policies and present plans that were designed solely to massage her image.  The fact that May and her advisers thought the public will be fooled was an example of how much contempt she has for people and, simultaneously, how stupid she is.

Recommended reading
Harriet Hill on Domestic Abuse Bill
Susie Marwood on Domestic Abuse Bill
Emily Dugan and Jane Bradley on May and child trafficking
Tommy Sheridan on May’s legacy
Mark Serwotka on May’s legacy
Dawn Foster on May’s legacy
Len McCluskey on May’s legacy
Nathan Akehurst on May’s legacy toward immigrants
Alex MacDonald on May’s legacy in Middle East

Related blogs
Theresa May: Political obituary
May’s stupidity
May’s contempt for Grenfell victims
May the collaborator

British oil tanker?

Last week Iranian military seized an oil tanker in Strait of Hormuz as a direct response to an attack on and detention of an Iranian oil tanker by British armed forces near Gibraltar a few weeks earlier.  

Predictably, Tory government and British media side-stepped shamelessly their hypocrisy and condemned the Iranian military’s actions.  Neither seizure of a tanker was justified; both were political posturing. 

US government directed Tory government’s instructions to UK military to board and withhold the Iranian tanker.  Cowardice and acquiescence to US demands from the Tories was unsurprising.  The Tory government, current or pending, is utterly subservient to the whims of the US government and the obsequiousness will grow post-Brexit as Johnson and his hapless colleagues beg for scraps of extortionate trade deals.  Mike Pompeo clicked his fingers and (current) Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt sprung to attention and ordered British troops to violate maritime law in the Mediterranean Sea.

Bizarrely, the tanker seized by Iranian navy, the Stena Impero, was described relentlessly by Tories and media as a “British” tanker but it is not British.  It is owned by Swedish company Stena, manned by crew from India, Russia, Latvia and Philippines, and was built in China.  It has no connection to Britain other than its flag of (financial) convenience concocted by Stena’s tax accountants.  

Hunt promised more naval protection for tankers but why should British military vessels, funded by British people, protect privately-owned vessels thousands of miles from Britain?  The British government should keep well out of the nonsense but Britain’s weak international standing, exasperated by Brexit and compounded by fearful, unintelligent politicians, means more such incidents will occur as Etonian self-serving buffoon Boris Johnson prostrates himself to preserve the ‘Special Relationship.’

“Hold a kipper in the air;
Stick a deckchair up your nose“

Related blogs
Special relationship
Jeremy Hunt: An obedient soulless inhumane broker for the arms industry
Boris Johnson, Prime Minister?

Special relationship

Cowardice, venality and obsequiousness will direct the post-May Tory government’s relationship with Trumpism.  Whether led by Etonian Johnson or by Charterhouse’s Hunt, the reconfigured government intends to spring to attention and accept orders whenever Trump, Pompeo or Bolton issues a diktat.

The Special Relationship between USA and UK has always been an owner-dog relationship.  Tony Blair epitomised eagerness of dependence in his partnership with Bush jr.  Via Brexit, Hunt and Johnson’s intent is to make the dog a snivelling tail-wagging beg-for-treats little mutt.

Boris Johnson (left) and Donald Trump

No deal Brexit will be a windfall for disaster capitalists.  Induced (or invented) fiscal financial desperation will allow the Tories to create further false excuses to destroy society.  Public services and public property will be handed to made-up tax avoiding “businesses” at knock-down prices.  Workers’ rights, Health & Safety regulations and food standards regulations will disappear.  The pace of the carve-up and destruction of the NHS will increase rapidly.  UK’s stature as a tax haven for the wealthy will be enhanced.

The beneficiaries of the annihilation of anything that signifies social cohesion and humanity are exactly the same businesses and people for whom Trump and his cronies work, and Trump, his awful family and its nested concoction of corporate filth.  Trump’s consistent support for the most disastrous of Brexits is assisted by multi-million dollar tax avoider Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to UK.

Their top private schooling taught Hunt and Johnson to be utterly subservient to the power of corporate money.  Any possible tendencies toward empathy, social responsibility and morality were schooled out of them.  Now, both are focused resolutely on feeding themselves and like-minded sociopaths at the expense of everyone else.  No deal Brexit provides them and their colleagues with a once in a lifetime opportunity for rampant destruction and vacuuming up the spoils but only if they follow instructions relayed via the White House.

Jeremy Hunt (left) and Mike Pompeo

As Foreign Secretary, Hunt demonstrated keenly his willingness to be obedient.  He parroted Pompeo’s words on the ludicrous false flag attack on oil tankers in Gulf of Oman and he ordered the Royal Navy to use military force to detain an Iranian oil tanker and its crew near Gibraltar under the false pretext of a breach of EU sanctions against Syria, the tanker’s destination.  The latter event’s stated reason was a fabrication; Hunt merely acted on orders from Pompeo who desired action as part of the US government’s attempt to start a war against Iran.

The Foreign Office denied two Russian TV stations, RT and Sputnik, access to an international media conference on “media freedom” in London.  Both stations supported Julian Assange and Edward Snowden who are wanted by the US government for exposing war crimes by the US military.  No journalists or broadcasters from Venezuela were invited to the conference; the US government does not recognise the democratically elected Venezuelan government and it allowed an associate of terrorist Juan Guaido to forcibly occupy the country’s embassy in Washington.

Without a ministerial position in the final months of Theresa May’s government Johnson’s displays of servitude were less noticeable recently.  When Foreign Secretary he gushed praise for Trump and the admiration was returned.  Both observed mutual usefulness in attaining financial goals through the consequences of Brexit.  However, both were and are aware that one of them is useful as management and the other is useful as dogsbody.  During his visit to UK in 2018 Trump said “he’s [Johnson] been saying very good things about me as president.  I think he thinks I’m doing a good job.  I am doing a great job.”  Johnson received tactical advice from former Trump advisor Steve Bannon.

Pointedly, Johnson declined to support (former) British ambassador to USA Kim Darroch who received a torrent of abuse from Trump following the leak of e-mails Darroch had sent that were critical of Trump.  Darroch resigned due to lack of support for him from the UK government.

There is a Trump fan club in the Tory party waiting to accept cabinet positions.

As soon as Trump was elected Iain Duncan-Smith, former chief of DWP Social Murder, spoke excitedly about the Special Relationship: “Brexit means we are now freer to make arrangements.”

Etonian Jacob Rees-Mogg expressed his full support for Trump often, including compliance with Trump’s verbal attack on the Mayor of London: “I think what the Mayor of London said was deeply disgraceful.  Mr Trump is the democratically elected president of our closest ally.  I think that Mr Khan demeans his office and demeans the nation.  What he has said is quite wrong and deeply improper.  So I think for the president to hit back and say he’s a failed mayor of London, which is true, is fair enough.  So I’m backing Mr Trump in this row.”

Ahead of Darroch’s resignation Bill Cash criticised him in the House of Commons: “These toxic and unjustified attacks on the president of the United States and his administration are regarded by many people as completely unjustified.  As chairman of the European scrutiny committee I was more than well aware of Darroch’s own prejudices in relation to the EU.  Surely it is not his so-called frankness which should be the issue but his lack of judgment, which disqualifies him from his post.”

Well-trained servant Johnny Mercer did not approve of political protests against Trump when he visited the UK: “He is president of our greatest ally and I’m afraid that special relationship, particularly away from the public eye in the security services and the military that ultimately guarantee our freedom, is as close as it’s ever been.  And I think we need to get real on that.”

Disgraced former Defence Secretary Liam Fox, on his way to a meeting with Ivanka Trump, said he would apologise to her for Darroch’s comments: “I will be apologizing for the fact that either our civil service or elements of our political class have not lived up to the expectations that either we have or the United States has about their behavior, which in this particular case has lapsed in a most extraordinary and unacceptable way.”

John Redwood equated being a “great advocate of the UK” with not being critical of Trump: “The outgoing Ambassador was right to resign.  The next Ambassador must be capable of good analysis in private communications, expressed in moderate & professional language & be a great advocate of the UK.”

Johnson’s leadership campaign chair for Scotland Ross Thomson displayed his unambiguous willingness for the British government to be an obedient lapdog for the US: “We have to be realistic about this, the president of the United States himself has said I cannot work with this person.  We have to make sure we have the best possible relationship with the US, and that means having someone that the US administration can trust.  I think Boris Johnson has shown leadership by not just playing to the crowd and saying what everyone else has been saying.  I think it’s really important that in the national interest we have the best possible relationship with the United States.  I think it’s really important post-Brexit in terms of new trade deals, in terms of security and defence.  We actually had the president saying that he could no longer with that ambassador, given the unvarnished comments that were released, and essentially when that happened it was right to move on.”

A post-Brexit Johnson or Hunt-led government will be unashamedly and relentlessly directed by the US government.  Britain will be less than a vassal state.  The Special Relationship will be declared as a necessity and that declaration will be used to excuse anything.  Britain will be a source of income for parasites and an enabler of tax avoidance.  Everything that was fought hard for over decades and centuries will disappear.  

 

 

 

BBC’s John Ware is at it again

On Wednesday 10th July (2019) the BBC will broadcast another concocted attack on Labour in an edition of Panorama called Is Labour Anti-Semitic?  Despite the programme’s title being a question the promotion blurb made clear that the creator of the show, John Ware, has chosen his answer.

“Reporter John Ware reveals the evasions and contradictions at the heart of the political party which leader Jeremy Corbyn says has anti-racism at its very core.”

There is no other expectation of the programme’s content than a deluge of lies, ridiculous exaggerations, misdirection, innuendo, bizarre juxtaposition and absurd faux deductions.  Its intent is displayed brightly in advance.

John Ware

John Ware has form.  He has a lot of form.  Four years ago he was the reporter and writer of another Panorama documentary Jeremy Corbyn: Labour’s Earthquake.  It was recorded during the Labour leadership election campaign and broadcast three days before voting ended.  To acquire interviews with Corbyn and his colleagues Ware lied to them by claiming he was making a documentary about all the candidates.  There were more lies in the programme’s content.  The intent of Ware’s documentary was to try to dissuade Labour members from voting for Corbyn.

Last year, after Labour adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism, Ware complained about Labour’s previous “antisemitism code of conduct” that was superseded by the IHRA definition, and he complained that Labour had not accepted all the IHRA’s examples.  Ware’s complaints and analysis were scattergun nonsense and bereft of logic or of linear train of thought.  The purpose of Ware’s article was to attack Corbyn and to add to the narrative of antisemitism charges; any details were irrelevant.  Interestingly, Ware repeatedly interchanged the words “Israel” and “Jews” which is itself in breach of the IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Ware has often been accused of being anti-Islam.  In a Guardian interview in 2006 he responded to the accusations with a smirk.  He wallowed in the fact that he had been placed in the same company as racists Melanie Phillips and Michael Gove and said

“we [Ware, Phillips, Gove, etc.] have all come to this view independently that – potentially – politics and Islam is an incendiary mix.”

In the interview Ware did the “Islam is OK but..” routine popular with right-wing voices.  He spoke patronisingly about Islam’s attitude to society but he added that “a [fearful] chill ran down my spine” when he heard a preacher defending Islam. 

He said “political Islam needs to be explored robustly on BBC1, it should not be tucked away late at night on BBC2.”  He was unbothered by the screaming contradiction between his use of the phrase “political Islam” and his remarks elsewhere about people conflating Judaism and Israel.

Not everything by Ware were attacks on Islam or false accusations against Corbyn and his colleagues.  A month after Martin McGuinness died Ware wrote a strange description of the former’s alleged tactics in the execution of a British army spy.  He waited until McGuinness died for fear of being sued for libel.  

Ware is happy with his assigned accolade as investigative reporter and documentary maker, tasks for which he accepted “awards.”  But, everything he created was designed from a political perspective and almost always fitted nicely into prevailing (right-wing) narrative.  He made what suited a populist trend.  At present, fear of a socialist government is rampant and he knows his role is to fight against the cause of the fear.  Ware is the opposite of what an investigative reporter or undercover documentary maker should be: He doesn’t challenge the establishment, he pleases it.

Recommended reading
Beware of John Ware
Anti-Muslim witchhunts