Julia Hobsbawm: is the daughter of the Russian Jewish Marxist historian Professor Eric Hobsbawm. http://www.juliahobsbawm.com/
Eric Hobsbawm enjoyed a close friendship with fellow Marxist Ralph Miliband, father of Ed and David Miliband but they never agreed over the Hobcbawn’s refusal to condemn Stalinism’s 30 million dead, or the brutal Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956, on the grounds that the socialist end always justified the means. Relations between them deteriorated when Hobsbawn suggested in an article in Marxism Today in 1983 that the Left might prefer ‘a Thatcher government to a reformist Labour government’ in which they had lost faith. Hobsbawn was invited to the Milibands’ for New Year’s Eve and the two ended up having a terrific row, but they later made it up. Like all Left-wing thinkers, Ralph Miliband knew how to explain away awkward events.
She became involved with the Labour Party at the suggestion of Ken Follet who introduced her to the late Mo Mowlam and her late husband John Norton. Between them they founded and ran the Tony Blair networking fund raiser, called The Thousand Club. In 1991, Julia persuaded the De Beers diamond mining and marketing conglomerate to become a major donor to the Labour Party.
From 1993 to 2001, she was in partnership with Sarah Macaulay in the PR firm Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications. Ever the matchmaker Julia was an influence encouraging the romance of Gordon Brown and Sarah who were clearly compatible. Sarah married Brown in August 2000 and left the partnership in May 2001. http://www.thejc.com/lifestyle/lifestyle-features/63300/interview-julia-hobsbawm
More about the Tony Blair inspired fund raiser 1000 Club. McCaulay & Hobsbawm’s party-plan networking organisation for those with an annual £1,000 or so to give to Tony, which had existed since the early 1990s. It was described as a way to, “make middle-class participants feel like big shots” and we now know the sum falls far from that of a peerage. “The covering letter accompanying the club’s promotional literature in March 1996 – laden with such Blair clichés as, “young country” and, “new economy” — promised invitations to special summer and Christmas receptions, an annual conference dinner, campaign briefings and chances to meet members of the Shadow Cabinet. The reply-paid envelope was addressed to Hobsbawm Macaulay Communications in Soho’s Poland Street. Within five years, the event had grown considerably in stature. The 1996 dinner saw 450 tickets sold out a month before it was held in July. Hobsbawm Macaulay refused to release the guest list. “This is a private function”, an employee explained. “People who have bought tickets have asked not to have their names disclosed.” Names that did slip out included Bruce Shepherd, managing director of Shepherd Offshore; Caparo’s Swraj Paul; Ulster Unionist David Montgomery, chief executive of the Mirror Group; and Hanson director Peter Harper, the company’s linkman to Labour.”
Much of their work involved pandering to the vanity of the rich who wish to meet the famous: “But the prize for hypocrisy goes to the Labour politicians who condemned Prince Edward’s wife for exploiting her royal connections, while averting their gaze from the Chancellor’s wife, Sarah Macaulay. Over the years she and Julia Hobsbawm built up a successful public-relations firm. Early on, they had significant help, from Geoffrey Robinson, who was then buying his way into Gordon Brown’s favour and Tony Blair’s government. He lavished some £100,000 on fees to Hobsbawm Macaulay, partly in payment for organising his hospitality: once again, the rich met the famous.”(Bruce Anderson The Spectator, April 14, 2001) http://pinkindustry.wordpress.com/editorial-intelligence/
The summer of 1997 was an extraordinary time for Britain. Tony Blair had just won a triumphant election, the Spice Girls had goosed Prince Charles, and a bubbling London scene was busy ushering in a new era of Cool Britannia. Last but not least, Michael Bloomberg was about to burst onto the social scene. Bloomberg hired a modish public-relations outfit to set up his own private party network. Hobsbawm & McCaulay (HMC) offered a sort of bespoke introduction service to the city’s elite, organizing a series of discreet, informal dinners with social tastemakers like newspaper baron Conrad Black (now Lord Black of Crossharbour to you) and his wife, the conservative commentator Barbara Amiel, through to the influential art dealer Jay Jopling. “Mike wanted to be launched, and it was our job to introduce him, judiciously, to everyone who mattered,” says one who works with Hobsbawm, whom the industry describes as having “one of the most envied little black books” in London. “He was unknown one minute — and very hot the next.”
Hobsbawn is a member of the, “British American Project for the Successor Generation”, to give it its original, and now quietly forgotten, title, is an elite corporate/political talking and networking organisation. Its aims are to ensure that the left and liberal intelligentsia are not hostile to US foreign policy interests. It was founded in 1985. http://powerbase.info/index.php/British_American_Project
A survey completed after the referendum projected approximately 25% of those who voted , “No” did so in consequence of the extensive psychological brainwashing by heavily biased anti-independence media propaganda. The mainstream media outlet in Scotland, the BBC was singled out as being the most influential broadcaster. It follows therefore that a balanced media would have undoubtedly resulted in a massive, “Yes” vote. In any future referendum the, “Yes” side would be well advised to have in place robust systems designed to ensure a balanced media.
A Labour Party pedigree seems to be a predominant requirement within the BBC Scotland senior management team and a number of line managers and reporters, likely through nepotism and needs to be cleared out so that the organization fulfills it’s remit, to be accountable to the Scottish public. The organization also needs to be formally separated from London so that it can be truly independent. An over reaching Scottish body could be appointed, including members of the public.
Mainstream newspapers present an on-going problem going forward since they are owned by individuals, organizations outwith Scotland with result that editorial control is primarily unfairly biased against an independent Scotland. If only the, “Sun” could be persuaded to support independence next time ?? We live in hope.
Gaining inspiration from the enthusiasm of, Yes” campaigners a record of their, “anti-bias” march on the BBC Headquarters in Glasgow is attached. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttDkVoTYpLA#t=18
Examples of Blatant BBC Scotland Anti-Referendum Reporting Bias
12 January 2012: Entirely one sided report broadcast by British Forces Broadcasting Service, (BFBS) and this before any referendum. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fXpq9V41Iw
24 January 2012: Paxman out of touch with constitutional realities. As Mark Hennessy of the ‘Irish Times’ dryly observes “Most people watching that interview with Jeremy Paxman – I’m sure Alex Salmond would be very, very glad if he was to get more interviews like that by English presenters. It’s certainly the picture of the patronizing Englishman, and that’s going. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akfN7bO_2Bc
28 January 2012: A few good reasons for Scotland to be independent of Westminster rule. Powerful expose of Westminster abuse of power https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu-ttEDxgNs
9 February 2012: Patten meets Alex Salmond in BBC bias row. But the apology from BBC Reporting Scotland is still outstanding after they were censured by the BBC Trust and Patten has moved on. Evidently the BBC Scotland bias is Labour inspired. whilst in England the Tory Party reigns supreme. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUKMD0LDWWA
3 April 2012 BBC report – Stephanie Flanders flawed and biased analysis on the drivers behind Scotland’s independence referendum https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-5R5lYv9yY
14 April 2012: This provides explanation as to the BBC Scotland bias against Independence. BBC Scotland has decided to correct the errors contained in an online article it published on Saturday, fully two days after one of the most blatant pieces of politically motivated articles ever published by the state broadcaster appeared as the number one story in Scotland, the corporation quietly removed the offending fiction and replaced it with fact. Comment on how the BBC used headlines claiming the Deputy F.M made statements when she did not say anything that the headlines claimed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY4P9pTdw4o
30 April 2012: Fantastic. I can verify BBC bias very clearly. Being a Yes supporter and following several of the movements happening around that, and seeing how popular they have become, with events on EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK attracting a fair number of people… The BBC has completely ignored them. Debate meetings happening with the No side pulling out at the last minute, and very little of a No grassroots movement to speak of. This instant a supposed grassroots movement for No came about, Vote No Borders, funded by a wealthy Tory backer and investment banker, the BBC had a report all set to go, which didn’t even ask how a brand new grassroots movement could have made £150,000 in money on the same day as launching its website… Just complete propaganda machine I’m afraid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG3XtCmqI64
14 Jun 2012: First Minister Alex Salmond is about to expose the Scottish Labour party’s hypocrisy over modern apprenticeships, when the live broadcast is inexplicably cut short by BBC Scotland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57-0Or67iiw
20 October 2012: SNP party leader Alex Salmond gets a difficult interview with Andrew Neil on the future of Scotland, with respect to the proposed referendum on Scottish independence from the UK, or more specifically to Alexa Salmond, independence from Westminster! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q42xOo7HiCE
29 October 2013: BBC collude with Better Together presenting a clearly staged video report outside the local Scotmid. All involved were Better Together agents, some pretending to be members of the public for the benefit of the camera’s. http://wingsoverscotland.com/identity-parade/#more-43333 Check out Blair Henry and his photographic links to the Scotmid store used as background in the video.
22 January 2014: There are continual concerns at the running of the news operation which have now reached London but which simply don’t move Kenny McQuarrie whose job it is to guarantee an impartial and accurate news service without which there will be no BBC Scotland. It is the basis of the whole organization. http://derekbateman.co.uk/2014/01/22/breaking-newsbbc-threatens-academic/
13 February 2014: Question Time. Totally unbalanced discussion all anti Scot. Both Ireland and Australia used the pound after independence from Britain for a transitional period so why cant Scotland? The truth is they can but Westminster is using this as an opportunity to scare Scots into voting their way. They are making a big mistake and will pay for treating Scots like fools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qYhgoQw8AQ
11 March 2014: They didn’t want Scotland to know. The BBC executives were terribly sure about many things but didn’t seem to know much about this item. It’s almost impossible to believe that a directive has not been given to hide good news stories and emphasis bad news stories. If we lose the referendum on this basis, there is going to be so much hate about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a3apRD-ymk
11 March 2014: BBC bias on different ‘news /factual’ programmes standard answer followed by a rejection of the claim. Sure Nicky Clark is a political expert and his opinion was of such gravitas it could go without a chance to allow a differing opinion. Absolutely rotten to the core, no confidence in the BBC who will lose a potential £300million in license fee subscription. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmuoZVJTc-Y
11 March 2014: The BBC is a UK Government publicly funded propaganda channel. Over the past few months there has been gross bias toward the Better Together No camp. It could also be described in other ways like though control or censorship through giving a very disproportionate amount of time to that pseudo Scotsman Alistair Darling, who is actually English and a millionaire. He can insult with total immunity, calling Yes voters Nazi’s and making really distasteful allegations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkHURxtyH14
1 May 2014: Despite attacks by pro-Union politicians over remarks made by Alex Salmond about President Putin dominating BBC news, the BBC edited this important response from Mr Salmond OUT of its news bulletins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwsPTmLcAp4
11 May 2014: The BBC is the propaganda wing of the government. There’s no direct collusion which gives a sense of impartiality but there’s tacit acceptance in the BBC from the top down that they are that propaganda wing. Now, regardless of which political party is in power, the BBC does sway the stories the way that party wants them presented with a modicum of criticism of that party’s perspective, but the criticisms are wholly inadequate, almost intentionally so. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqoIZxfT398
8 July 2014: Abuse of the armed forces of Scotland by Westminster. All members of the forces sent letter instructing them to vote, “No”. They will stop at nothing to keep Scotland shackled and treated with contempt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PfP7u-QGRo
8 August 2014: Dan Snow, son of Peter Snow, husband of Lady Edwina Grosvenor (daughter of Duke of Westminster), great-great grandson of David Lloyd George, Oxford and Balliol, embedded in the British Establishment, mounts a campaign to get 200 rich celebrity pals to engage in nauseating sycophancy to keep Scots from voting to leave the UK that has done so well by Dan and his rich friends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Uz0TsfjFOY
8 August 2014: An exclusive look into mainstream media bias and the techniques they use to influence the independence debate. ‘The Bigger The Lie’ focuses on the significant research of Professor John Robertson into media bias during the Scottish Independence Referendum. The film covers Professor Robertson’s meticulous approach to the research and the subsequent fall out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajd4R-9BEIw
8 August 2014: Unadulterated BBC bias in sickeningly sycophantic Radio 4 profile of ‘independent’ Treasury Head Sir Nicholas Macpherson – politically partial, empire devotee, vested interests, Eton-educated, 30,0000 acre estate in Wester Ross and bankers best friend all rolled into one. No friend of Scottish independence, this is the guy behind the currency union denial. . http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04f8fbg
20 August 2014: BBC News Scotland gives the negative dominance over the positive slanting the article against the, “Yes” vote.. An independence “Yes” vote would break up the BBC with “devastating” consequences for Scottish broadcasting. The prediction was made by shadow Scottish secretary Margaret Curran, Labour Party and former BBC Director General Lord Birt. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28863806
4 September 2014: Jeane Freeman does a brilliant job here in the face of a hectoring Andrew Neil, the archetypal Brit/Scot journalist, worried about polls narrowing, making the fatal mistake of trying to patronize and bully one of the most incisive voices in Scottish politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23m6CukRUGM
10 September 2014: The BBC are still spouting lies every chance they get. Breaking their own charter, is in fact breaking their contract with us, who pay for their services. We’re supposed to get NEWS not PROPAGANDA. It’s time for a campaign of non-payment of the licence fee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY64-t3QbcA
11 September 2014: There should be an independent inquiry into the BBC bias during the referendum. It is a matter of saving democracy at this point. I would have happily taken a ‘no’ vote in the referendum, but with all the bias and hate spewed by the media and people on the no side, I have turned from being on the fence moderate to an SNP supporter all the way now. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzfSsd8hKtY
11 September 2014: BBC illegal activities exposed by the great Stuart Cosgrove The extraordinary bias shown by the BBC relates to their reporting the negative comments of business heads as factual major news when they are obviously simply opinions. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkZmxWX-JtE
13 September 2014: On the day of one of the biggest political rallies Scotland has ever seen:BBC national news reports ‘thousands from across UK in pro-union rally’ when it was actually an organized Orange Order march. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSOu8f549iM
19 September 2014: Leaked news, mob mentality, cybernats and the baby news. We look at some of the dirty underground tactics that cropped up during the Scottish Independence campaigns. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK6tWsTDf74
6 October 2014: WRITING OFF SCOTLAND explores the research of Dr David Patrick into press bias during the independence campaign. Carried out over Scotland’s most politically important year in centuries, the study’s findings are a shocking indictment of the role of the UK press in the independence debate. We all know newspapers take political positions but, uniquely for a western democracy, the entire media are against independence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bYajHIcXMk
13 October 2014. The BBC’s ‘Amazing Litany’ Of Bias: BBC coverage of the Scottish independence referendum is a compelling example of deep establishment bias. Some critics have characterized the BBC’s coverage, in particular, as though Scotland is merely a region or a county of the United Kingdom called ‘Scotlandshire’. http://medialens.org/index.php?option=com_acymailing&ctrl=archive&task=view&mailid=276&tmpl=component
Douglas Garven Alexander was born in Glasgow in 1967 and grew up in Bishopton, where his father was the local Minister.
He attended Bishopton Primary and Park Mains High in Erskine. Aged fourteen he joined the Labour Party. In 1984, at the age of 17, he won a Scottish Scholarship to attend an international college in Vancouver, Canada, for two years. He returned to Scotland to study Politics and Modern History at Edinburgh University. After graduating he began work as a SPAD for Gordon Brown, a position he held for a year.
He was selected for education and training by the British American Project and remains to be a member of the exclusive and secretive political network.
He is also a senior member of the left leaning Fabian Society, a secretive organisation driven by the ideology of the supremacy of the “British State” over any other political formation.
Alexander Emerges From the labour Pack As Blair’s Protegy
Following the 2005 General Election he enjoyed the confidence of Tony Blair and in 2006 he was promoted to the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Transport and Scotland. At the time of the upcoming 2007 Holyrood Elections the Labour Government was in crisis. The Iraq invasion and the aftermath. Afghanistan a military and political disaster and Westminster scandals, (cash for honours) requiring Tony Blair to be interviewed by the police, gave warning of a humiliating SNP victory in Scotland.
The SNP lobbied Westminster seeking that the election process, in all respects be transferred to the authority of the Scottish Parliament. This was refused and the duty was subsequently delegated to, “Wee Douglas” who would also run Labour’s electoral campaign in Scotland.
Elections to Holyrood, in 1999 and 2003 had, (preventing voter confusion) used two separate ballot papers for the constituency and regional lists. Alexander and Scottish (Labour) government ministers decided that Local Council Elections would be held at the same time as the parliamentary election and both election selections would be printed on one ballot paper. Civil servants and an independent marketing firm warned that the ballot forms would lead to confusion and a higher-than-average number of rejected votes. The advice was ignored, Alexander and the Governing, (Labour) party claimed their changes would prove to be extremely popular. Civil servants and the, “Electoral Commission” were subsequently silenced.
In the election the SNP won by a single vote. Alexander was hugely praised by Labour Party mandarins since he had almost, “saved the day” for Labour. The elections, were however badly tainted by a chaotic voting process, blamed on the Scottish Office’s design of ballot papers. In excess of 146,000 votes were declared void. The largest in electoral history.
Seventeen MSP’s were elected to Parliament with majorities lower than the number of spoiled ballots in their constituency. There was a public outcry and, “Returning Officers” voiced their discontent about the election process. Wee Alexander, “Scottish Secretary”, the accountable person that organized the elections, stated there would be a statutory review of the election under the auspices of the Labour Party loaded Electoral Commission. The Scottish Electorate was outraged and demanded an independent inquiry. Tony Blair was forced to concede and an inquiry was commissioned.
Following an extensive, lengthy inquiry, an official report submitted by, Ron Gould, (a senior Canadian election official), heavily censured Alexander and the Labour Party stating that ministers in the Labour Scottish Government and at Westminster together with Mr Alexander’s political, “self-interested” moves, (as the Labour Party in Scotland’s election supremo), had abused their, “offices of state” making decisions about the election on “party political interest grounds”, with voters treated as an “after-thought.” So be warned. Alexander and the Labour Party are akin to “snakes in the grass”. They care only for the Party. The voter is a means to an end.
February 2 2007: Douglas Alexander is said to be furious that his attempt to introduce trials for his poll-tax-on-wheels scheme has been derailed by a Downing Street e-petition, which is approaching one and a half million signatures – up 100,000 in one day.http://order-order.com/2007/02/14/douglas-alexander-listens/
July 2007: Douglas Alexander wears girl’s knickers: that’s the response I am tempted to give to his ridiculous speech yesterday in which he said David Cameron was like a pig wearing lipstick. Clearly, it’s the kind of language Mr Alexander understands. Is this really the level of political invective to re-engage the electorate? Surely all it does is invite ridicule and contempt. Over the last few months Labour has attacked David Cameron as a chameleon, a sleazy estate agent (thus alienating around 70,000 estate agents in one go) and now a pig. Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. On the day the Guardian publishes a poll showing the Conservatives at their highest level for 13 years, diddy Duggie Alexander really believes that calling Cameron a pig in lipstick will knock dishy Dave off his perch. http://iaindale.blogspot.co.uk/2006/07/douglas-alexander-wears-girls-knickers.html
October 2011: David Abraham’s multi – million-pound business park development at Bowburn in County Durham, in the UK, was blocked by the Highways Agency. This was because of a ban on further development beside the congested A1 road. David Abrahams then donated money to the UK Labour Party. In October 2006, the Highways Agency lifted the ban on the business park development – and a separate one near Newton Aycliffe further south. The transport secretary at the time was Douglas Alexander. http://aangirfan.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/opposition-party-links-to-spooks-and.htmlhttp://www.theguardian.com/politics/2007/nov/27/labour.uk2
October 2 2012: Labour’s Douglas Alexander gets thrashed by Andrew Neil on Labour party policies, in particuilar on tax and the economy. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZ1LP8ec4vk
September 20 2013: Damian McBride claimed in his memoirs that Douglas Alexander told Gordon Brown his sister would have to stand down to, “avoid further damage”. Alexander insisted he, “always supported” his sister, despite claims from Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor that he, “dispassionately” advised the then prime minister she would have to quit her role as the party’s Scottish leader. Wendy Alexander stood down from the post in 2008 because of a row about donations to her leadership campaign. http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/labours-douglas-alexander-denies-claims-2287977
January 14 2014: Conduct Unbecoming
Ed Balls and Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander had to be ‘dragged apart’ when they almost came to blows during a blazing row, it was revealed last night. Former Cabinet Minister Tessa Jowell was forced to intervene, saying she feared the Labour rivals were about to get into a ‘fisticuffs’. The dust-up happened when the Shadow Chancellor and Mr Alexander clashed in a private room in the Commons over the party’s policy on Europe.Mr Balls told Labour’s Shadow Cabinet he had Mr Alexander’s full support in toughening Labour’s stance on the EU. But pro-Brussels Mr Alexander accused him of lying and the two men slugged it out in a furious confrontation. The row was disclosed by Labour insiders after Mr Balls’s bid to soften his ‘bruiser’ image by praising Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg as ‘friendly and warm’.
Labour aides say animosity caused by the Balls-Alexander flare-up is disrupting the party’s preparations for next year’s General Election. Mr Alexander is Labour’s election chief and allies of Mr Balls say the Shadow Chancellor has been ‘shut out’ of the campaign. The row happened when Mr Balls led a Labour ambush on David Cameron by backing rebel Tory MPs in a Commons vote demanding a cut in the EU’s budget in October 2012. Mr Alexander accused Mr Balls of plotting the U-turn while he was on a trip to America. By the time Mr Alexander returned to the UK on October 28, Mr Balls had talked Labour leader Ed Miliband into agreeing to the policy somersault.
The day after, an article co-written by Mr Balls and a reluctant and jet-lagged Mr Alexander, spelling out the Labour switch, appeared in a national newspaper. Friends of Mr Alexander say he was ‘bounced’ into it. On October 31, 2012, Labour and Tory rebels duly defeated Mr Cameron in the Commons vote – but Mr Alexander was seething. The Labour duo squared up to each other in the Shadow Cabinet Room, and a Dame Tessa – who regularly acted as peacemaker between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown during their time in Downing Street – had to intervene. She said later she feared the pair would come to blows. ‘She said it nearly ended in fisticuffs and she had to drag them apart,’ said a source. Another Labour insider added: ‘Ed and Douglas were screaming abuse and jabbing fingers at each other. ‘Ed said the decision to vote with the Tory rebels was agreed in full by Douglas’s team. Douglas was incandescent and called him a liar. Ed denied it.’ If they had come to blows, Mr Balls, who is more heavily built than Mr Alexander, may have had the upper hand.
Although they are both aged 46, ‘Bruiser Balls’ is a keen footballer and is as aggressive on the pitch as he is when shouting and gesticulating at Mr Cameron in the Commons. “Deadly Doug” is a wily behind-the-scenes operator, but mild-mannered by comparison. Both were leading members of Gordon Brown’s inner circle, but relations collapsed during Mr Brown’s on-off General Election fiasco in 2007, with claims that allies of Mr Balls tried to blame Mr Alexander. Mr Alexander was accused of ‘betrayal’ by friends of Mr Balls when he led Blairite David Miliband’s failed Labour leadership campaign in 2010. Dame Jowell allegedly had to act as peacemaker between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown during their time in office
In 2005, Mr Alexander was the Minister for Europe who approved a cut in the UK’s rebate from Brussels and an increase in the EU’s budget. Two years later, Mr Balls attacked the EU’s ‘outdated budget’ – seen as a side-swipe at Mr Alexander. More recently, Mr Balls manoeuvred to push Labour towards backing an ‘in-out’ referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU, a move fiercely opposed by Mr Alexander. A Labour official said: ‘Balls presents a cosy image of himself playing the piano and chatting with his new best friend Nick Clegg. But it’s a sham. Everyone knows he is a political thug.’However, a supporter of Mr Balls hit back: ‘Ed’s ploy to link up with Tory EU dissidents was a success. This is sour grapes by Douglas’s camp.’
July 18 2014: Among the politicians most crucial to the fate of the United Kingdom, one of the least often considered is Douglas Alexander. The shadow foreign secretary has charge of Labour’s election strategy and long before next May Labour needs to look on course to form the next government. Ever one to promote a confusing soundbite he offered the view that, “politics that defines itself by difference holds no appeal for me”. http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/18/douglas-alexander-interview
August 11 2014: So when you strip away all Alexander’s self-righteous verbiage, what are you left with? A cheap, partisan political operator who remains utterly convinced that the interests of his party and those of his country are still essentially the same. Bear that in mind next time you hear him say the words ‘National Convention’. http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2014/08/11/douglas-alexander-politician-thinker-great-briton/
Alexander posted an article in the Daily Record on 23 July 2014. The content, full of spin is very revealing.
After he and Ed Miliband had their pictures taken with President Obama. “The backdrop to our discussion was the tragic downing of Malaysian Airlines flight MH17” [which killed 10 British people], “the continuing conflict in eastern Ukraine and the suffering engulfing Gaza.” He refers to a “wide-ranging and free-flowing exchange” (it lasted 25 minutes), “covering everything from these current crises to the need to tackle climate changes in the decades ahead.”
All of these giant issues are dismissed in three sentences. The remainder of the article – 22 sentences – is devoted to President Obama’s views on the Scottish referendum. This is built entirely on one gnomic remark by Obama: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Everything that follows represents Mr Alexander’s thoughts on Scotland and the union, projected onto the President.
The article and the whole incident reflect poorly on Mr Alexander. When you are given a very short time with the President of the United States you should not waste any of it on what for him are trivial domestic British issues.
September 16 2014: Alexander attempting to defend the 3 amigo’s and their last minute offers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKJ1Jvm408c
September 19 2014: Scottish referendum ‘a wake-up call to all of us’ Labour’s 2015 election co-ordinator says it’s worrying that voters’ overwhelming emotion is one of distrust and hatred of politicians.
September 22 2014: Alexander, in a speech to the Labour conference 2014 in Manchester thanked the english students and Labour Party fifth columnists that invaded Scotland in the course of the referendum in support of the Better Together campaign.
He said, “Conference, we gather here in Manchester just days after a defining decision for our country. The referendum campaign in Scotland was about more than party politics. It was about who we are, what we believe and what we hope for as a nation.
And when, as Scots, we sent out the call to our friends and comrades in the Labour Party you answered that call. By coming to campaign alongside us, you demonstrated solidarity in action.
September 24 2014: Labour Party conference mind numbingly boring. There were even fewer open by the time Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary and man charged with organising Labour’s election campaign, had explained all his wall charts.
“Sixthly,” he announced deathlessly, sounding more and more like General Haig’s aide-de-camp planning the Battle of the Somme. “Chin up, chaps, I’ve got a plan.
What will happen is this. At 7am on 7 May, I will blow a whistle and we’ll all go over the top and take the Jerry trenches by breakfast.
October 10 2014: Labour’s election coordinator Douglas Alexander has said the party will not take any voter for granted following a narrow victory over UKIP in the Heywood and Middleton bye-lection.
Labour held the seat with 11,633 votes, just 617 ahead of UKIP. He reluctantly conceded: “We have work to do… we need to tackle the alienation that lies at the root of the anger with the Labour Party that so many voters feel.”
But heed his words 24 hours later, “Labour’s narrow lead in the Heywood and Middleton bye election was due to a collapse of the Conservative and Lib Dem vote into support for Ukip”. Hows that for spin?
November 9 2014: Will Labour miss the bus on local issues? This says a lot about Labour’s recruits. Anyone who’d worked in or with local papers, or even just worked and had to get the bus there, would have a better idea what readers and Labour voters want.
It’s this problem at the top that has prompted Labour’s election supremo Douglas Alexander to deploy teams of community activists across the country to focus on local issues that can be converted into votes.
He knows Miliband isn’t charismatic and that some of the politicians can’t connect because they’ve only previously known their patch from the pages of a think tank report.
November 14 2014: Scottish Labour were slammed yesterday after nearly a quarter of their MPs failed to show up for a crunch vote on the hated bedroom tax.
Influential MPs such as Gordon Brown, Douglas Alexander, Jim Murphy and Anas Sarwar didn’t vote after their party’s Westminster debate on the despicable Con-Dem policy.
In total, 46 Labour MPs no-showed in Tuesday night’s vote – including 10 representing Scots constituencies.
April 6 2015: Why did Labour Election Chief delete tweets slamming Nicola Sturgeon over alleged leaked memo comments?
Douglas Alexander deleted a series of tweets he posted attacking the SNP leader over the alleged claim that she would prefer David Cameron to remain as Prime Minister and her description of Ed Miliband as not “PM material”.
Ms Sturgeon, the French Ambassador and her Consul General have categorically denied she made the alleged comments..
27 Jan 2017: Prime Minister Theresa May pledged an end to ‘failed’ military intervention aimed to make countries more like UK as she addresses US law makers
In a later meeting with President Trump she told him that the UK will no longer answer calls from other Countries to intervene militarily unless the threat to the UK is real and immediate.
Defence Secretary, Michael Fallon, when asked about the policy said Britain shouldn’t be embarking “on foreign adventures for the sake of it”
Next morning, Interviewed on Radio 4 he withdrew his support of Mrs May’s new policy stating: “It has to be in the British national interest that we intervene in these countries or an ally that is asking for help.”
Note: There are 650 Scottish soldiers in the Ukraine providing training and support to the Ukraine armed forces. Which conflicts with the new policy since the Ukraine is not a member of NATO nor the EU
31 January 2017: Eastern Ukraine in Flames Again – Western Ukraine Forces Breach Peace Accord
The situation in the Donbas has deteriorated sharply during the recent days. Ukrainian security forces struck powerful artillery blows on the positions of the armed forces of Novorossiya and residential areas of Donetsk, as well as settlements of Makeyevka, Yasinovataya, Gorlovka and Dokuchaevsk.
A power line was damaged in the shelling, electricity supplies to the Donetsk filtering station were curtailed. Many homes were destroyed. Eye witnesses said that the scale of destruction and the intensity of the attacks mirrors that of the hostilities of 2014.
“What is the current situation?”
“They shell us all around the clock. It appears that they are completing a pre-planned mission to destroy water supplies. They targetted a major filtering station. There are other infrastructure losses, but the worst is civilian casualties. The OSCE monitors do nothing to stop the attacks.They confine their efforts to recording the results of the Ukraine forces attacks their expansion within the exclusion zone. It appears a full scale invasion is imminent
“Why has the situation worsened so dramatically in recent days? What are the causes?”
“The Minsk Accord is a legal document of little effect – this is the prime cause.
“What was the goal for President Poroshenko’s visit to Berlin?
“It is believed his urgent return had been planned in advance”.
Is the Ukraine President Expecting President Trump to intervene?
“Possibly, he wants to show the Trump administration that Washington will have to admit Ukraine’s activity. Ukraine has reformed its armed forces, and the Ukrainian army has been mobilized well enough. At the same time, we need 100 fighters on a conditional line of fire, but we have only 20 of them there.”
“The Kremlin, appears to be playing a subtle game. The People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk contribute to the economic growth of the Russian Federation. We are an industrial region, and Russia should take us a little bit more seriously. As many as 40 percent of our residents remain devoted to the Russian world, but around half of the other residents are ready to return to Ukraine so they can live without war. and its attending horrors.j
30 Jan 2017: British Warship Deployed to the Black Sea – Nearing Ukraine Coast
A warship of the British Royal Navy is in the Black Sea:The “Diamond Class destroyer, equipped with rockets, is approaching the Ukrainian coast. There are around 60 marines on board.
It is thought the ship may form part of a larger formation tasked to support 650 British soldiers who are in the Ukraine participating in ‘secret drills’.
UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon claimed that: “The UK is sending a clear message that we are committed to defending democracy across the world and support Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity”.
This is the first ever such deployment since the end of the Cold War and is consistent with Prime Minister, Theresa May’s assertion that “Britain and America should stand up to President Vladimir Putin.”
The foregoing confirms recent claims by the Head of the Russian General Staff that there has been much increased activity of the NATO’s naval forces in the Barents, Baltic and Black Seas. Further stating that NATO has been adding to its military contingents, accumulating weapons and developing military infrastructure in Europe. http://www.pravdareport.com/video/30-01-2017/136739-diamond-0/
The Ukraine – A Forced Marriage of Two Independent States
At the end of WW2 the Province of Ruthenia was ceded by a restored Czechoslovakia, to the Soviet Union. The Ruthenian speaking Western province of Ruthenia was subsequently merged with the Russian speaking Province of Novarossya. A new State “The Ukraine” was formed.
Relations between the former provinces were never other than barely tolerant. A state of affairs not assisted by failing crops and famine in Novarossya which created the “Haves” in the West and “have-nots” in the East.
Forming part of many communist “five year plans” the USSR invested in agriculture in Western Ukraine and in heavy industry and shipping in the mineral and sea port rich,(coal and the Crimea) East.
This then is the country that gained it’s freedom at the time the USSR collapsed. The Ukraine has never really been one country. This being the case the Eastern State of Novarossya has every right to hold a referendum and declare independence from the State of Ruthenia.
Victoria Nuland, the US-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs
Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the US Ambassador to Ukraine
February 2014: President Obama admits: US orchestrated a coup in Ukraine – overthrowing the democratically elected Ukrainian government – So that the Ukrainians would be brought on-side expanding NATO.
Obama told Fareed Zakaria, a member of both the Council For Foreign Relations (CFR) and Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission, that the United States “brokered” the coup in Ukraine in February 2014.
Obama’s candid admission should not come as a surprise following the release of a surreptitiously recorded conversation between Victoria Nuland, the US-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, and Geoffrey R. Pyatt, the US Ambassador to Ukraine.
The conversation centred on ousting Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and replacing him with one of several hand-picked State Department choices. Nuland instructed Pyatt to “have the UN glue this thing” and then dismissively added “fuck the EU” for its role negotiating the crisis.
The U.S. orchestrated “transition,” as Obama characterized it, resulted in the appointment of fascists to key positions in the Kiev government and led to the current war in eastern Ukraine launched by Petro Poroshenko, the former confectionery magnate turned Ukrainian president.
Poroshenko’s war on those who do not accept the nationalist government in Kiev has thus far killed more than 5,000 people, although unofficial tallies are far higher.
In the not too distant past, the U.S. government attempted to hide its involvement in coups and the removal of democratically elected leaders. It relied primarily on the CIA to ferment coups and counter-revolutions.
However, since the advent of NGO and foundation spawned “colour revolutions” attributed to the people of target countries, while in actuality orchestrated by USAID and the National Endowment for Democracy, the U.S. government has admitted its role in overturning governments.
February 2014: Video – Brokered it & broke it – Obama on Kiev deal that paved path to bloodshed
The Ukrainians’ expression of free will didn’t come without a nudge from Washington after all – in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, Barack Obama acknowledged that the United States had “brokered a deal to transition power in Ukraine.’
But Putin was determined Eastern Ukraine, including the Crimea Peninsula, base for the Russian fleet, would not transfer allegiances to an expanding NATO. He authorised a peaceful takeover of the Crimea.
Following a successful referendum of the mainly Russian speaking population he formally annexed the Crimea returning it and the large Russian Naval base back to Russia.
The EU and the USA imposed sanctions on Russia – with the intention of forcing Putin to cease Russian aggression against the Ukraine. Putin imposed “counter-sanctions” on the EU and today, EU’s growth rate is stagnant and falling.
Putin then gave up on Europe, turned to the East and rapidly established a new banking and business treaty (BRICS) with China, India, Brazil, South Africa and a host of other nations.
With it’s new buffer zone around Southern Russia there is not a single reason why Russia should cooperate with the West and it can cut off gas supplies to Europe anytime they choose.
Inside Russia, which had freely opened its economy to European and US capital witnessed thousands of Western companies withdrawing investment and set about replacing them with companies from their new expanding partners. The US and Europe are experiencing shrinking economies by result.
The only potential saver for the West is the price of oil which, due to a massive worldwide glut has fallen well below the level Russia needs to sustain the country’s economy. But the same failing apples to just about every country in the World including the US and Europe.
Providing some relief recent events in the Yemen have increased market concerns about the availability of oil from Saudi Arabia and other OPEC countries and the falling oil prices of the past few months appear to be taking a significant upturn.
So it follows that Russia is winning the war of attrition forced on it by the US and Europe. The Ukraine will soon be abandoned to it’s massive debts and considered “collateral damage” in the USA-Russia economic and political shoot-out.
Once more the old saying, “every loser wins” aptly fits. The pro-western euphoria of perestroika embraced by President Gorbachev and Russia is unfortunately at an end and regardless of leadership any future business will be entirely pragmatic.
South Yemen and the bustling port of Aden was brought under British control in the 1800’s so that anti-piracy measures would be sustained protecting the shipping of the ever increasing British Empire.
The advent of the Suez Canal served to increase the importance of Aden and this remained to be the case until Harold Wilson’s Labour government decided, (in the aftermath of the aborted invasion of Egypt by the British) to introduce the, “East Of Aden” policy in the mid 1960’s.
British intentions, mainly driven by the socialist ideals and pan-Arabist doctrines of Egyptian leader Gamel Abdel Nasser precipitated a wave of Arab nationalism spreading to the Arabian Peninsula and the anti-colonial uprising in Aden in 1963.
In the years that followed, small, localised anti-British guerrilla groups with varying political objectives finally merged into two large, rival organisations:
Events Take A Turn For The Worse
At the end of 1963 the British High Commissioner of Aden was subjected to a grenade attack.
He was uninjured but there were 51 civilian casualties.
On that day, a “State of Emergency” was declared.
The NLF and FLOSY began a campaign against British forces in Aden, relying largely on grenade attacks.
The guerrilla attacks largely focused on killing off-duty British officers and policemen.
Much of the violence was carried out in the Crater, the old Arab quarter of Aden.
British forces attempted to intercept weapons being smuggled into the Crater but their efforts met with little success.
Despite taking a toll on British forces, the death toll among rebels was far higher, largely to inter-factional fighting among different rebel groups.
In 1964 an Infantry Brigade was despatched to Aden to establish control and to conduct land operations in wider South Yemen.
The Brigade remained there until November 1967.
By 1965, RAF station RAF Khormaksar had been increased to nine operating squadrons in support of the army.
These included transport units with helicopters and a number of Hawker Hunter fighter bomber aircraft.
At the beginning of 1967, the NLF provoked street riots in Aden.
The Aden police failed to establish control and the British High Commissioner deployed British troops to quell the riots.
But no sooner had the NLF riots been crushed than, pro-FLOSY rioters took to the streets.
Fighting between British forces and pro-guerrilla rioters continued until the spring of 1967.
Arab police mutiny
The emergency was further exacerbated by the Six-Day War in June 1967.
Nasser claimed that the British had helped Israel in the war, and this led to a mutiny by hundreds of soldiers in the South Arabian Federation Army on 20 June, which also spread to the police.
The mutineers killed 22 British soldiers, shot down a helicopter, and occupied, (to the exclusion of British soldiers) the “Crater”, an Arab town nestling in an extinct volcano.
Concern grew about the safety and security of British families and emergency evacuation plans were hastily evolved and actioned.
Following the mutiny, the Crater District remained occupied by an estimated 400 Arab fighters.
NLF and FLOSY fighters then took to the streets and engaged in gun battles, while arson, looting, and murder was also common.
Order was restored in July 1967, when the 1st Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders entered the “Crater” under the command of Lt Col Colin Mitchell and occupied the entire district overnight with no casualties.
The Argyll’s were ordered by Labour Party politicians in London, to leave the Crater District but this was ignored by, “Mad Mitch” on the basis it made no military sense to do so and armchair generals and politicians had no right to interfere with operational military decisions.
The British Public warmed to the Argyll’s but Lt Col Mitchell was the only officer commanding an army unit not to receive a commendation on return to the UK. A harsh punishment for a brave soldier by a petty Labour Government.
Withdrawal from South Yemen
Nevertheless, deadly guerrilla attacks by the NLF soon resumed against British forces, and the British left Aden by the end of November 1967, earlier than had been planned by Prime Minister Harold Wilson and without an agreement on the succeeding governance.
British casualties in the period of the emergency included 57 killed and 651 wounded, while local government forces lost 17 killed and 58 wounded
Casualties among the NLF and FLOSY are unknown.
Following the British departure, the NLF managed to seize power, and established the People’s Republic of South Yemen.
But the new oil-poor South Yemeni nation was starved of business and revenue, due to the closure of the Suez Canal, after the 1967 “Six Day War” and this precipitated severely disruptive economic circumstances for many years.
The Aftermath 1967 – 2003
Twenty-three years of police state thuggery followed, with the Soviet KGB replacing the British.
Even after Aden and the rest of the south merged with North Yemen, there was another civil war in the 1990s.
No wonder then the Yemen today is battered and bruised, and its people frustrated by the follies of their rulers. It is a forgotten place anchored to a forgotten time.
External Influences 2003 To date
After Yemeni unification in 1990, some Shiite tribes in the north of the country joined forces to fight the Sunni-dominated central government’s increasing influence.
In 2011, they supported an uprising against President Ali Abdullah Salih.
The fighting resulted in numerous casualties and further deterioration of the region’s already weak economy.
The Yemeni Zaidi Shias accused the country’s government of discrimination towards the Shia minority. and demanded official recognition of their rights including restoration of the Shiah Imamah that was abolished during the revolution of September 1962.
In the wake of Salih’s overthrow, however, they were excluded from a national dialogue on the creation of a new government.
When a draft constitution emerged in the summer of 2014, the Houthis protested. Above all, they opposed the planned new federal structure that merely provided them with a landlocked province.
The Houthis found a supporter in the ousted President Saleh, who hoped an alliance with the Houthis would help him topple his successor and return to the presidential palace.
2014 to February 2015
The Houthi rebels’ key opponents, supporters of the Sunni Hirak movement, had also been excluded from the national dialogue.
The southern Hirak, like the Houthis, also saw themselves as losers in the Yemeni unification process and indicated an intention to secede from the federation.
Houthis, went to war in February 2015, seized the capital Sana’a and took control the city of Taiz, in the country’s central belt and advanced further south before being held up North of Aden by troops loyal to Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who had fled from Sana’a to the southern port city, once a key way-station of the British Empire.
The Shiite-led Houthis, whose leaders have received training and weapons from Iran, now controlled Sana and nine of the country’s 21 provinces claimed they were advancing in order to prevent the expansion of jihadist militancy (al-Qaeda) in the country.
But it is unclear whether they really believed they could take on al-Qaeda’s Sunni tribal heartlands in the centre and east of the country.
But they had the upper hand against a government in disarray.
Their lightning strike on Taiz took Mr Hadi’s forces by surprise, though a coalition of local fighters and soldiers managed to hold the advance at al-Maqatirah, 60 miles north of Aden
The internationally recognised foreign minister of Yemen appealed for international intervention as the Houthi rebels, an Iran-allied rebel group advanced on Aden plunging the country further into civil war.
“They’re expanding in territory, occupying airports and cities, attacking Aden with planes, detaining whom they please, threatening and gathering their forces,” Riyadh Yaseen, Mr Hadi’s foreign minister, said in an interview with al-Jazeera.
“We have expressed to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the United Nations as well as the international community that there should be a no-fly zone, and the use of military aircraft should be prevented at the airports controlled by the Houthis.”
Britain and America confirmed they had pulled out their special forces.
A handful of SAS troops had been based in the country liaising with local commandos and US forces as well as providing protection to embassy personnel.
Philip Hammond, the Foreign Secretary, stressed the desirability of finding a “peaceful solution”.
The Houthis are Shia and allied to the Lebanese militia Hizbollah and Iran, which has gloated at the group’s success in taking the Yemeni capital.
Saudi Arabia is Iran’s main strategic rival in the Gulf.
Mr Hadi’s election as president of Yemen was a high-point of Western diplomacy during the Arab Spring, but has backfired badly.
He was vice-president to Yemen’s president of 30 years, Ali Abdullah al-Saleh, who for months resisted pressure from demonstrators to stand down but was eventually pressured into quitting by the GCC and its western backers.
Now Yemen is dangerously split between the Houthi-Saleh alliance, the recognised government, a separatist movement also based in the south, al-Qaeda, ISIS and militants.
Further complicating matters the pro-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant faction have claimed responsibility (March 22) for a triple suicide bombing of mosques in Sana’a which killed 142 people and a gun attack in the south which killed a further 29 the same day.
26 March 2015: Saudi Arabia launches military operation in Yemen
Saudi Arabia launched a military operation in Yemen.
Other Gulf states and Middle Eastern countries, (Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan) have said they are committed to the protection of Yemen from a Shiite Houthi takoever.
“The operation is to defend and support the legitimate government of Yemen and prevent the radical Houthi movement from taking over the country,” the Foreign Secretary said.
The military action was announced as reports surfaced that President Abed Rabbo Mansour Haddi had fled his Aden palace and left the country by boat, although his aides denied the claim.
Saudi consultations with the US were said to have taken place “at a high level” before the operation was launched, a Washington official told the Reuters news agency.
Yemen has become increasingly divided between a north dominated by Houthis and a south largely controlled by Hadi supports.
Former President Ali Abdullah Selah, who resigned in 2012 after protests, has been accused of backing the Houthi rebels in an effort to regain influence.
Saudi warplanes continued to bomb the Houthis on Thursday as part of their offensive “Storm of Resolve” to weaken the Shiite rebels.
Four naval vessels were additionally being sent from Egypt and were expected to be in the Red Sea soon, to secure the Gulf of Aden.
Washington, “commended the work of the coalition taking military action against the Houthis” and ensured Washington’s support in “intelligence sharing, targeting assistance and advisory and logistical support for strikes against the Houthis.”
27 March 2015: The air war that is already taking its toll on the civilian population of the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa is just the beginning, as Saudi Arabia is telegraphing their planned ground invasion of Yemen, and touting the number of Sunni Arab allies who will be going along.
The latest reports are that some 150,000 Saudi ground troops have massed along their border with Yemen, along with heavy artillery. Egypt also confirmed an undisclosed number of troops on transport ships off the Yemeni coast, who will join the invasion.
Egypt is not alone in joining the war, as a number of other Sunni Arab nations are reportedly involved, with an eye on fighting the Shi’ite Houthis, who control the capital city of Sanaa.
At present, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are confirmed to have help from Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan, Morocco, and Sudan.
There are also reports of Libya’s government giving its approval, though they are unlikely to contribute troops, and Saudi state media also claimed Pakistan as part of the coalition.
News of the war sent the price of oil jumping, as while Yemen itself is not a major producer, Saudi Arabia is, and its own oil production is centred around the territory of its Shi’ite minority.
If fighting spreads to the Yemeni coast it could also imperil key shipping lanes.
Saudi officials are already trying to downplay the scope of the war, saying they don’t intend to 100% occupy Yemen, but rather to just fight a big war and weaken the Houthis in the hopes that President Hadi, who resigned in January, will take over again.
That seems unlikely, with Hadi having fled the country yesterday in the face of a minor Houthi offensive.
The more likely immediate impact of the Saudi intervention will be emboldening the Sunni Islamist forces in the country, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) and ISIS, and giving them an advantage in expanding their territory.
10 Jul 2017: Saudi-America – The Rogue Nation at the Heart of All the Misery, Death and Destruction in the Middle East
Saudi Arabia is fully protected by the USA from any external aggression.
Probably the world’s most authoritarian regime, its repression of its own population and blatant aggression against its neighbours is appalling.
Its protector, the USA is also the country’s largest supplier of arms, munitions and just about every tool of war in existence, short of nuclear arms.
Of major concern to the UN in recent years is the use of the Saudi military machine against its neighbours
In this period a very significant amount of the aforesaid arms and munitions has been expended against a few thousand rebels in Yemen.
Total overkill by a so called Saudi led coalition who seem to be determined to destroy the rebels even if this brings about the complete destruction of the Yemen.
At the end of July 2017 more than 10,000 Yemeni have been Killed
A woman puts her malnourished son on a weighing scale at a malnutrition treatment centre in Sanaa,
10 Jul 2017: The Role of the Brits
Next in the supply line is Britain who have been training Saudi armed forces personnel and selling them many £ billions of tanks, aircraft, munitions, missiles etc.for countless years
The British government licensed £283m worth of arms sales to Saudi Arabia in the six months after an air strike by the Riyadh-led coalition killed 140 mourners at a funeral in Yemen.
A UN sanctions monitor told the security council that last year’s double air strike, which targeted both mourners and those who helped them in Sana’a, the Yemeni capital, violated international law.
It was one of the bloodiest attacks in a two year campaign waged by Saudi Arabia against Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Following the attack, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson advised Trade Secretary Liam Fox to grant four export licence applications to supply the Royal Saudi Air Force with equipment which could be used in Yemen.
Figures compiled by the Campaign Against Arms Trade show that from the time of the attack on 8 October 2016 until the end of March 2017, the UK government authorised exports including £263m worth of combat aircraft components and £4m of bombs and missiles to the country.
The figures exclude aircraft cannon equipment, targeting software, aircraft components and assault rifles exported under 24 open licences, which are seen as even less transparent.
Famine and Disease
31 Jul 2017: War-torn Yemen is facing a famine caused by the Saudi led coalition blockading ports preventing the supply of food and medicines into the country.
Time is not on the side of the UN who estimate over 70% of the Yemeni population are nearing starvation.
Added to the misery over 450,000 have been struck down by cholera with no sign of an end to the epidemic.
Seeking to justify the actions of the Saudi led coalition a spokesman said: “Weapons and ammunition is being supplied to the rebels by Iran using small shipping units and we are denying them this outlet.”
But there is no evidence of any such assistance reaching the rebels.
The Annihilation of Yemen by Saudi American Led Forces – The first 6 months March – August 2015
5 Mar 2015: The Saudi’s, inspired by newly appointed Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman attacked Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The campaign was expected to be executed swiftly and with minimum casualties.
But three years later the battles rage on with no sign of an end.
Below is a tabulated account of the first few months of the war followed by a statement of recent events which should give concern to any decent minded person.
The Arab nations need to call a halt to the war now or bear witness to a catastrophic disaster.
09 Mar 2015: Saudi Arabia agrees to host peace talks with Houthis militants at the request of President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi after Houthi’s and Al-Qaida militants overran and held the city of Mahfad in southern Yemen for hours before an army counter attack pushed them out.
25 Mar 2015: The Saudi ambassador to the United States announced that his country had initiated air-strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
The Saudi operation has been named “Decisive Storm.”
The Saudi’s have gathered a 10-country coalition of Sunni states to bomb the Houthis.
26 Mar 2015: Warplanes from the Saudi led Arab coalition bombed Huthi rebels in support of Yemen’s embattled president, as regional rival Iran warned the intervention was a “dangerous” move.
Egypt also participated in the Saudi led campaign against Shi’ite Houthi militias in Yemen with its naval and air forces.
The US military rescued two Saudi pilots who ejected from their jet off Yemen’s coast.
27 Mar 2015: At least 21 Yemini, rebels were killed when residents in a tribal southern region opened fire on their vehicles.
Saudi warplanes targeted Houthi forces controlling Sanaa and their northern heartland.
In a boost for Riyadh, fellow monarchy Morocco said it would join the rapidly-assembled Sunni Muslim coalition against the Shi’ite Muslim group.
27 Mar 2015: Egyptian and Saudi Arabian warships have been deployed to the Bab al-Mandab straits off Yemen to secure a strategic sea passage.
28 Mar 2015: Saudi Arabia’s navy evacuated dozens of diplomats from Yemen and the United Nations pulled out international staff after a third night of Saudi-led air strikes trying to stem advances by Iranian-allied Houthi fighters.
29 Mar 2015: 38 killed in Yemen in clashes between rebel forces and tribes near a southern oil region.
Saudi led warplanes bombed the main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in Sanaa.
31 Mar 2015: Saudi led air-strikes pounded Yemen’s Shiite rebels for a sixth day, destroying missiles and weapons depots controlled by the rebels.
The UN human rights office in Geneva said that in the past five days, at least 93 civilians have been killed and 364 wounded in five Yemeni cities.
Air strikes hit a dairy factory near Hodeida killing 23.
A family eat breakfast outside their hut at a camp for people displaced by the war near Sanaa, Yemen September 26, 2016
01 Apr 2015: Saudi led coalition warplanes bombed Shiite rebel positions in both the north and south of Yemen, setting off explosions. Anti-aircraft guns returned fire.
03 Apr 2015: In Yemen Houthi forces pulled back from central Aden after warplanes from the Saudi led coalition dropped weapons and medical aid to fighters defending the southern Yemeni city.
An air strike on a village near Sanaa killed a family of nine in what appeared to be a hit by the Saudi led military campaign against Houthi militia.
Local militia forces said they killed 10 Houthis during the fighting which pushed the Shi’ite movement out of Crater.
They also said Houthis killed two medics and two patients when they opened fire on an ambulance ferrying casualties from Aden peninsula to hospital on the mainland.
04 Apr 2015: A Saudi adviser said Saudi Arabian special forces are involved in a military operation against Shiite Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen.
A second Saudi led coalition force pounded rebels in the south and dropped more arms to loyalist fighters.
05 Apr 2015: In eastern Saudi Arabia a policeman was killed and three were wounded during a raid in al-Awamiya, a predominantly Shiite town.
05 Apr 2015: In Yemen warplanes from a Saudi led coalition bombed Sanaa overnight on the eleventh day of the campaign against Iran allied Houthi.
A senior Houthi member said Yemen’s Houthis are ready to sit down for peace talks as long as a Saudi-led air campaign is halted and the negotiations are overseen by “non-aggressive” parties.
07 Apr 2015: In central Yemen warplanes from the Saudi led air coalition bombed a military base controlled by Houthi fighters and their army allies.
A website of the Houthi-run defence ministry said two students were killed at a neighbouring school.
Suspected al Qaeda militants stormed a remote border post with Saudi Arabia, killing at least two soldiers including the senior border guard officer.
08 Apr 2015: In southern Yemen warplanes from the Saudi led coalition struck al-Anad airbase overnight and targets in areas around the southern port city of Aden.
At least 22 people were killed in tank and mortar shelling by rebel forces on residential areas in Aden.
Warships from the Saudi led coalition blocked a vessel carrying more than 47,000 tons of wheat from entering a Yemeni port, demanding UN guarantees that the cargo would not go to military personnel.
09 Apr 2015: The Pentagon said the US has begun daily aerial refuelling for planes in the Saudi led coalition carrying out air strikes in Yemen.
10 Apr 2015: Yemen’s Houthi rebels killed 3 Saudi border guards in a mortar attack in Saudi Arabia’s Najran province.
12 Apr 2015: In Yemen suspected Al Qaeda militants killed an army colonel in central Shabwa province.
Saudi Arabia dismissed Iranian calls to end air strikes on Yemen as Saudi led attacks hit a military camp in Taiz, killing 8 civilians.
14 Apr 2015: Iran proposed a four point peace plan for Yemen and called for an end to Saudi led air strikes against Houthi rebels.
It comprised of a ceasefire, humanitarian assistance, an intra Yemeni dialogue and the establishment of a broad-based government.
18 Apr 2015: Saudi Arabia pledges to cover the entire $274 million in humanitarian aid sought by the UN for conflict-torn Yemen, where a Saudi led coalition has been bombing Shiite rebels for three weeks.
19 Apr 2015: A Saudi border guard was killed and two troops wounded by heavy gun and mortar fire from Yemen.
20 Apr 2015: In Yemen Saudi led air strikes on a missile depot in Sanaa, the rebel-held capital, sparked explosions that left at least 18 people dead and 300 wounded.
21 Apr 2015: Saudi Arabia announced that it would end almost a month of air strikes against the Iranian allied Houthis.
Hours later Houthi fighters captured an army brigade base loyal to the government in Yemen’s central city of Taiz following heavy fighting.
A Saudi air strike hit the brigade headquarters shortly afterwards.
22 Apr 2015: In Yemen rival forces fought on despite a declared halt to a Saudi led bombing campaign, showing how tough it may be to find a political solution to a war stirring animosities between rival Gulf powers Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The Houthi rebel movement said it wanted to return to UN sponsored peace talks but only after a complete halt to a month of Saudi led air strikes on the group.
The Saudi-led coalition bombed southern Houthi positions carrying out at least 12 air strikes.
23 Apr 2015: Warplanes from the Saudi led coalition pounded Houthi militiamen and military bases with at least 20 air strikes throughout Yemen, despite Riyadh saying it was winding down its campaign.
27 Apr 2015: In Yemen Saudi led aircraft pounded Iran allied Houthi militiamen and rebel army units in central Yemen and Sanaa despite a formal end to the air strikes.
01 May 2015: Saudi Arabia said its forces killed dozens of Iran-backed rebels from Yemen who launched their first major attack on the kingdom since Saudi led air strikes began last month.
04 May 2015: Senegal is sending 2,100 troops to Saudi Arabia as part of an international coalition combating Houthi rebels in Yemen.
05 May 2015: Saudi King Salman announced the establishment of a centre to coordinate humanitarian assistance for Yemen, and invited the United Nations to join in relief work for the Arab country.
05 May 2015: Yemen’s Houthi rebels fired mortars and Katyusha rockets at the Saudi city of Najran, killing at least 3 civilians.
A husband and wife were killed as a missile from war-torn Yemen struck their building in the Jazan region.
Five Saudi soldiers were reported captured by rebel fighters.
06 May 2015: Saudi led coalition warplanes struck Yemeni provinces near the Saudi border overnight, killing at least 43 civilians.
Another 9 people were killed and 18 were wounded in air strikes on a police academy in Dhamar province.
Aid agencies warned that fuel shortages could halt their efforts to tackle Yemen’s humanitarian crisis.
Houthi fighters entered Aden’s al-Tawahi district, one of the last strongholds of supporters of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
Fighting across Yemen killed 120 people, mostly civilians, including at least 40 who were trying to flee Aden in a boat that was struck by Houthi shells.
07 May 2015: Saudi Arabia offers a five day humanitarian truce to the Houthi militia it has hit with weeks of air strikes in neighbouring Yemen, on condition that fighting across Yemen stops.
08 May 2015: The Saudi led coalition declared the rebel stronghold of Saada in Yemen a war zone and said its entire territory would from now on be considered a “military target,” urging all civilians to leave by 7 p.m. local time.
09 May 2015: The Saudi led coalition struck northern provinces of Yemen in a third consecutive night of heavy air strikes.
More than 100 air strikes hit areas of Saada and Hajjah provinces, including the districts of Haradh, Maidi and Bakil al-Mir.
11 May 2015: Saudi led warplanes pressed air strikes against rebel positions in Yemen, 36 hours before a scheduled five-day pause to allow the delivery of much-needed humanitarian aid.
The air strikes on a rocket base in Sanaa killed 90 people and wounded 300.
12 May 2015: In Yemen at least 69 people were killed and 250 others were wounded by explosions after Saudi led warplanes hit an arms depot a day earlier on the outskirts of Sanaa as bombing continued.
13 May 2015: King Salman doubled Saudi Arabia’s aid commitment to Yemen to $540 million on the first day of a humanitarian pause in a bombing campaign it has led.
A jet fighter from the Saudi led coalition struck a military convoy belonging to Shiite rebels and their allies in southern Yemen, straining the humanitarian, five day ceasefire.
21 May 2015: In southern Yemen Saudi led coalition warplanes carried out fresh raids on rebel positions as pro-government tribesmen advanced on Shiite Huthi strongholds in the north.
Saudi shells hit an international humanitarian aid office in northern Yemen, killing 5 Ethiopian refugees and wounding ten.
24 May 2015: In Yemen Saudi forces and Houthi militia traded heavy artillery fire overnight, which destroyed part of the Haradh border crossing, the main border crossing between the two countries.
In Taiz Houthi forces and pro-Hadi fighters fired tank and artillery shells at each other throughout the city overnight, killing 5 civilians.
Local fighters combating the Houthis in the south said they killed 8 Houthi fighters in an ambush in Dalea province.
26 May 2015: In northern Yemen 7 members of a family were killed in an overnight strike by Saudi led warplanes on a border village.
In the south the Saudi led air force launched nearly 20 raids on Houthi fighters in the port city of Aden.
27 May 2015: Saudi led air strikes killed at least 80 people near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia and in the capital Sanaa, the deadliest day of bombing in over two months of war in Yemen.
31 May 2015: In Yemen, aircraft from the Saudi led coalition bombed Houthi outposts throughout the country.
Yemen’s exiled government in Saudi Arabia said that senior Houthi officials are holding talks with the United States in neighbouring Oman to help end the nine-week conflict.
Human Rights Watch published new evidence alleging a Saudi-led coalition is using internationally banned cluster bombs in Yemen.
01 Jun 2015: In Yemen at least 8 civilians were killed and 20 wounded in explosions sparked by Saudi led air strikes on rebel arms depots in Sanaa.
03 Jun 2015: In Yemen Saudi led air strikes killed a group of around 20 Houthi fighters outside the southern port city of Aden and also shook the capital Sanaa in the north.
04 Jun 2015: In central Yemen warplanes from the Saudi led coalition pounded rebel positions as air raids intensified amid attempts to revive UN-proposed talks in Switzerland.
05 Jun 2015: Four Saudi troops, including an officer, were reported killed after an attack was launched from the Yemeni side on border areas in Jizan and Najran.
06 Jun 2015: Yemen’s dominant Houthi group and its army allies fired a Scud missile at Saudi Arabia which the kingdom says it shot down.
Eyewitnesses said around 10 Arab air strikes pounded Houthi positions in Aden’s Northwest suburbs.
07 Jun 2015: In Yemen 20 civilians were among at least 45 people killed in Saudi led air strikes on the rebel-held armed forces headquarters in Sanaa early today.
09 Jun 2015: In Yemen a series of air-strikes from the Saudi led military coalition targeted the Defence Ministry building, which is under control of Shiite rebels who control Sanaa.
The air-strikes also targeted the homes of military commanders allied with the rebels in the Northwest Sanaa district of Hamdan.
11 Jun 2015: In Yemen a Saudi led air-strike hit a public bus on a highway north of the southern city of Aden, splitting the vehicle in half and killing at least 20 civilian passengers.
Air strikes over the last 48 hours also hit a family travelling in a private car and a farmer driving a pick-up truck loaded with potatoes, also near Aden.
12 Jun 2015: In Yemen Saudi led air-strikes targeting Shiite rebels and their allies destroyed historic houses in the centre of, Sanaa, a UNESCO world heritage site.
The Saudi led coalition denied claims that it carried out the strike, suggesting a rebel ammunition cache may have exploded.
13 Jun 2015: In Yemen 9 people were killed when Saudi led coalition warplanes bombed a district in Sanaa inhabited by relatives of ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh. At least 60 people were reported wounded.
17 Jun 2015: Al Qaeda militants in Yemen killed two alleged Saudi spies, accusing them of planting tracking devices which enabled the assassination of the group’s leader in a suspected US drone strike last week.
Four car bombs hit three mosques and the political headquarters of the Houthi movement in Sanaa, killing and wounding dozens of people.
Jun 19 2015: In Yemen Saudi led warplanes bombed elite Republican Guard forces allied with the dominant Houthi faction.
Houthis reported that 9 civilians were killed in air strikes on the Razeh district of the northern province of Saada.
UN-sponsored ceasefire talks broke off in Geneva without a deal to end nearly three months of fighting.
24 Jun 2015: Yemen’s Shiite rebels launched two late night attacks along the Saudi Arabia border, killing three Saudi soldiers and one from the United Arab Emirates.
26 Jun 2015: In Yemen air strikes by a Saudi led force hit military bases across Yemen. 10 people were killed in air raids in Jawf.
06 Jul 2015: In Yemen Saudi led warplanes bombed the Sanaa headquarters of the party headed by rebel allied former president Ali Abdullah Saleh overnight.
More than 45 civilians were reported killed in a Saudi-led air-strike in Fayoush.
16 Jul 2015: In Yemen fighting intensified in the southern port city of Aden as Saudi backed troops pushed to drive Shiite rebels out of several neighbourhoods.
The Shiite rebels meanwhile fired rockets at the city’s airport, killing at least 3 people.
Senior members of the exiled administration flew into Aden to make preparations for the government’s return.
11 Jul 2015: In Yemen a UN proposed truce, aimed at delivering desperately needed aid to millions threatened with famine, failed to take hold.
The spokesman for the Saudi led coalition targeting Yemen’s Shiite rebels in air-strikes since March said the coalition is not bound by the new truce deal.
22 Jul 2015: In Yemen a Saudi military plane loaded with arms for fighters loyal to Yemen’s deposed president landed at Aden airport, the first flight to reach the embattled port city in four months.
24 Jul 2015: In Yemen Saudi led coalition air-strikes killed more than 120 civilians and wounded more than 150 after shelling a residential area in the Taiz province.
25 Jul 2015: Saudi led coalition forces announced a five day humanitarian ceasefire would take effect starting July 26 evening at the request of exiled president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.
27 Jul 2015: Yemeni military sources Saudi led coalition warplanes hit positions of pro-government forces in south Yemen by mistake, killing 12 people on the first day of a humanitarian truce.
28 Jul 2015: In Yemen Saudi led warplanes resumed raids on rebels, who clashed with loyalists.
Air strikes targeted rebels north of Aden, rebels in nearby Lahj province and a rebel convoy near Sabr.
Other raids hit a building occupied by insurgents in Jaawala.
An overnight strike hit rebels in Marib east of Sanaa.
29 Jul 2015: From Saudi Arabia Yemen’s exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi ordered that militias battling Shiite rebels in Yemen be merged with his national army, in an apparent attempt to unify ground forces.
29 Jul 2015: In Yemen Saudi led warplanes bombed targets in northerly Saada province.
A car bomb exploded outside the Ismaili Al Faydh Alhatemy mosque in an eastern district of Sanaa, killing 3 people and wounding seven.
The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility.
Ismailis are a minority Shi’ite Muslim sect, as are the Zaydi Shi’ites, a community whose interests the Houthi group says it defends.
07 Aug 2015: A Saudi soldier was killed by shelling from across the Yemeni border, becoming the third death this week.
08 Aug 2015: In Yemen pro-government forces, strengthened by tanks newly supplied by the Saudi led coalition, launched an offensive to retake Zinjibar, the rebel-held capital of Abyan province.
A Saudi led coalition airstrike hit allied fighters in a friendly fire incident, killing at least 20 fighters on a coastal road as they headed toward Zinjibar.
17 Aug 2015: The Saudi military said 2 soldiers have been killed along the border by a missile fired from inside Yemen.
21 Aug 2015: In Yemen a helicopter from the Saudi-led forces battling anti-government fighters crashed along the Saudi border, killing the two pilots.
Huthi rebels said they have shot down a Saudi Apache helicopter.
25 Aug 2015: In Yemen about 100 Saudi forces arrived in Aden to help rebuild the local police force.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it has temporarily suspended its activities in Aden after its office was raided by unidentified gunmen a day earlier.
Al-Qaeda dynamited a headquarters of the secret police in Mukalla.
26 Aug 2015: In Yemen al-Qaeda militants blew up an army headquarters and set up checkpoints in the jihadist network’s southeastern stronghold of Mukalla, Hadramawt province.
Yemeni army units allied to the Houthi militia fired a ballistic missile toward southern Saudi Arabia but the Saudi military said it intercepted it and retaliated with air strikes on Yemeni territory.
04 Sep 2015: President Barack Obama hosted Saudi Arabia’s new monarch for the first time and said that the US shares King Salman’s desire for an inclusive government in Yemen that can relieve that impoverished Arab country’s humanitarian crisis.
04 Sep 2015: In Yemen Iranian allied Houthis attacked a weapons storage facility in Marib killing 45 soldiers from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 5 Bahrainis, 10 Saudis and 4 Yemenis.
06 Sep 2015: Saudi led coalition jets bombed a Houthi military position and army bases in the Yemeni capital Sanaa through the night and into this morning in what appeared to be further retaliation for the killing of dozens of coalition soldiers two days ago.
Note: The war of attrition against Yemen has now progressed through 5 x 6 monthly cycles.
Death and destruction in each period has spiralled and the situation in the country is now desperate.
The Telegraph – Sputnik News – The Guardian – Anti-War News
March 2015: Major Realignment of the World’s Banks
The US dollar has been the worlds controlling currency for a very long time. In times of financial constraint, eg the 2007-8 crisis the US Federal Bank simply printed more dollars and this has resulted in a glut of paper money which cannot be supported by gold reserves. Many countries are uneasy at this state of affairs and in 2013 a group of five comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) decided to form an anti-dollar alliance breaking away from the, International Monetary Fund, The World bank and over time the US dollar.
The fear in the US is the loss of power that would be brought about through a transfer of control of the worlds finance to Russia and China. Meeting the challenge was considered crucial and the US tasked the NSA, CIA, FBI and other covert agencies to monitor events so that they would be placed to ensure the group did not expand further.
The full extent of the covert eavesdropping operations were revealed to the world by the US National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden and former CIA agent John Kiriakou and resulted in many countries curtailing diplomatic relations with the US. The clumsy attempt to retain the status quo accelerated the growth of the newly formed BRICS group. http://rt.com/usa/kiriakou-snowden-letter-leak-618/
BRICS are an innovative team and spawned a Development Bank promoting growth within the group. Many new countries have committed to the new bank including the UK, Germany, France and Italy. It follows that relations between the US and europe are strained and the full effects of the new alignment will be far reaching. There is talk of the US reverting to the inward looking status it pursued, up to 1942. For those inclined to know more I have tabled below a sequence of events, to date. Enjoy the ride.
October 2013: NSA hacked the phones of 35 world leaders
The National Security Agency monitored the phone conversations of 35 world leaders after being given the numbers by an official in another US government department, according to a classified document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The confidential memo reveals that the NSA encourages senior officials in its “customer” departments, such the White House, State and the Pentagon, to share their “Rolodexes” so the agency can add the phone numbers of leading foreign politicians to their surveillance systems. The document notes that one unnamed US official handed over 200 numbers, including those of the 35 world leaders, none of whom is named. These were immediately “tasked” for monitoring by the NSA. The revelation is set to add to mounting diplomatic tensions between the US and its allies, after the German chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday accused the US of tapping her mobile phone.
Merkel suspected the surveillance after finding her mobile phone number written on a US document, is said to have called for US surveillance to be placed on a new legal footing during a phone call to President Obama. “The [German] federal government, as a close ally and partner of the US, expects in the future a clear contractual basis for the activity of the services and their co-operation,” she told the president.
Earlier in the week, Obama called the French president François Hollande in response to reports in Le Monde that the NSA accessed more than 70m phone records of French citizens in a single 30-day period, while earlier reports in Der Spiegel uncovered NSA activity against the offices and communications of senior officials of the European Union.
The European Commission, the executive body of the EU, this week backed proposals that could require US tech companies to seek permission before handing over EU citizens’ data to US intelligence agencies, while the European parliament voted in favour of suspending a transatlantic bank data sharing agreement after Der Spiegel revealed the agency was monitoring the international bank transfer system “Swift”.
October 2013: BRICS Countries Build New Internet to Avoid NSA Spying
BRICS countries are close to completing a brand new Internet backbone that will bypass the United States entirely and thereby protect both governments and citizens from NSA spying. In light of revelations that the National Security Agency hacked German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, in addition to recording information about 124 billion phone calls during a 30-day period earlier this year, the fallout against the NSA has accelerated.
A 34,000-kilometre undersea fiber-optic cable will be in place by 2015 running from Vladivostok, Russia to Fortaleza, Brazil, via Shantou, China, Chennai, India and Cape Town, South Africa. The project will create, “a network free of US eavesdropping,” which via legislative mandates will also force the likes of Google, Facebook and Yahoo to store all data generated by BRICS nations locally, shielding it from NSA snooping.
July 2014: BRICS morphing into anti-dollar alliance
the Governor of the Russian Central Bank used a meeting with the Peoples Bank of China to let the world know about the technical details of its international anti-dollar alliance. She outlined the need to establish an international alliance of countries willing to get rid of the dollar in international trade refraining from using dollars in their currency reserves. The ultimate goal being to break Washington’s money printing machine that is feeding its military-industrial complex and giving the US ample possibilities to spread chaos across the world.
Currency swaps between the BRICS central banks will facilitate trade financing while completely bypassing the dollar. At the same time, the new system will also act as a de facto replacement of the IMF, because it will allow the members of the alliance to direct resources to finance the weaker countries. As an important bonus, derived from this “quasi-IMF” system, the BRICS will use a part (most likely the “dollar part”) of their currency reserves to support it, thus drastically reducing the amount of dollar-based instruments bought by some of the biggest foreign creditors of the US.
Commenting, Andrei Kostin, the president of the state-owned VTB bank and one of the staunchest supporters of anti-dollar policies, offered an interesting perspective on the situation in Europe: “I think the work on ruble-yuan swap line will finalized in the nearest future and the way for ruble-yuan settlement will be open. If the current trend continues, soon the dollar will be abandoned by most of the significant global economies and it will be kicked out of the global trade finance. Washington’s bullying will make even former American allies chose the anti-dollar alliance instead of the existing dollar-based monetary system. The point of no return for the dollar may be much closer than it is generally thought. In fact, the greenback may have already past its point of no return on its way to irrelevance. Read more: http://sputniknews.com/voiceofrussia/2014_07_03/BRICS-is-morphing-into-an-anti-dollar-alliance-6229/
July 2014: Brazil and Russia leaders discuss the creation of a development bank to promote growth in Brazil, India, China, Russia and South Africa.
The Brazilian President, meeting with President Putin a day before leaders of the five emerging BRICS nations meet, told reporters the bank would top the summit’s agenda, adding she hoped the event would produce an agreement on the proposed institution. She said the five countries “are among the largest in the world and cannot content themselves in the middle of the 21st century with any kind of dependency.” Brazil and Russia also signed bilateral accords on air defense, gas and education.
July 2014: Anti-Dollar Alliance Prepares Launch Of BRICS Bank
There has been a growing anti-dollar hegemony alliance across the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). Their efforts concentrating on creating a structure to serve as an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank (which are dominated by the U.S. and the EU). Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff and Russia’s Vladimir Putin have discussed the creation of a development bank to promote growth across the BRICS and hope to produce an agreement on the proposed institution at this week’s BRICS Summit.
July 2014: BRICS Announce $100 Billion Reserve To Bypass the US Federal and Developed World Central Banks
The BRICS anti-dollar alliance has successfully created a so-called “mini-IMF” The world’s developing nations stated “We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) reforms, which negatively impacts on the IMF’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness.”
President Putin explained, this is part of “a system of measures that will help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions made by the United States and their allies.”
Initial capital for the BRICS Bank will be $50 Billion – paid in equal share among the 5 members (with a contingent reserve up to $100 Billion) and will see India as the first President. The BRICS Bank will be based in Shanghai and chaired by Russia. Simply put, it’s game over for the dollar.
The creation of the BRICS Development Bank has a political significance too, since it allows its member states to promote their interests abroad. “It is a political move that can highlight the strengthening positions of countries whose opinion is frequently ignored by their developed American and European colleagues. The stronger this union and its positions on the world arena are, the easier it will be for its members to protect their own interests.”
Perhaps the following sums it all up perfectly. Economists warn the IMF’s legitimacy is at stake, and they say U.S. standing abroad is being eroded. “Eroded” indeed…if the current trend continues, soon the dollar will be abandoned by most of the significant global economies and it will be kicked out of the global trade finance. Washington’s bullying will make even former American allies choose the anti-dollar alliance instead of the existing dollar-based monetary system. The point of no return for the dollar may be much closer than it is generally thought. In fact, the greenback may have already past its point of no return on its way to irrelevance.
Key excerpts from the Full statement:
We remain disappointed and seriously concerned with the current non-implementation of the 2010 International Monetary Fund (IMF) reforms, which negatively impacts on the IMF’s legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness. The IMF reform process is based on high-level commitments, which already strengthened the Fund’s resources and must also lead to the modernization of its governance structure so as to better reflect the increasing weight of EMDCs in the world economy.
The Fund must remain a quota-based institution. We call on the membership of the IMF to find ways to implement the 14th General Review of Quotas without further delay. We reiterate our call on the IMF to develop options to move ahead with its reform process, with a view to ensuring increased voice and representation of EMDCs, in case the 2010 reforms are not entered into force by the end of the year. We also call on the membership of the IMF to reach a final agreement on a new quota formula together with the 15th General Review of Quotas so as not to further jeopardize the postponed deadline of January 2015.
BRICS, as well as other EMDCs, continue to face significant financing constraints to address infrastructure gaps and sustainable development needs. With this in mind, we are pleased to announce the signing of the Agreement establishing the New Development Bank (NDB), with the purpose of mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging and developing economies. We appreciate the work undertaken by our Finance Ministers. Based on sound banking principles, the NDB will strengthen the cooperation among our countries and will supplement the efforts of multilateral and regional financial institutions for global development, thus contributing to our collective commitments for achieving the goal of strong, sustainable and balanced growth.
The Bank shall have an initial authorized capital of US$ 100 billion. The initial subscribed capital shall be of US$ 50 billion, equally shared among founding members. The first chair of the Board of Governors shall be from Russia. The first chair of the Board of Directors shall be from Brazil. The first President of the Bank shall be from India. The headquarters of the Bank shall be located in Shanghai. The New Development Bank Africa Regional Center shall be established in South Africa concurrently with the headquarters. We direct our Finance Ministers to work out the modalities for its operationalization.
We are pleased to announce the signing of the Treaty for the establishment of the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with an initial size of US$ 100 billion. This arrangement will have a positive precautionary effect, help countries forestall short-term liquidity pressures, promote further BRICS cooperation, strengthen the global financial safety net and complement existing international arrangements. We appreciate the work undertaken by our Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors. The Agreement is a framework for the provision of liquidity through currency swaps in response to actual or potential short-term balance of payments pressures.
July 2014: Germany Secretly Planning to Join BRICS
NSA surveillance controversy centered on U.S. fear that Europe’s economic powerhouse will dump the dollar. Jim Willie, a statistical analyst who holds a PhD in statistics sensationally claimed that Germany is preparing to ditch the unipolar system backed by NATO and the U.S. in favor of joining the BRICS nations, and that this is why the NSA was caught spying on Angela Merkel and other EU leaders. “I think they were looking for details of a secret movement for Germany to get away from the dollar and join the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.) This is exactly what I think they are going to do,” said Willie.
Earlier this month, the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), announced the creation of a new $100 billion dollar anti-dollar alternative IMF bank to be based in Shanghai and chaired by Moscow. Putin launched the new system by saying it was designed to, “help prevent the harassment of countries that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions made by the United States and their allies,” a clear signal that Russia and other BRICS countries are moving to create a new economic system which is adversarial to the IMF and the World Bank.
In another sign that BRICS nations are moving to create an entirely new multi-polar model adversarial to the west, the five countries are also constructing an alternative Internet backbone which will circumvent the United States in order to avoid NSA spying.
Willie also links Germany’s move to last week’s shoot down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which has been exploited by the U.S. and Britain to push for more stringent sanctions on Russia despite the fact that they have had little effect so far and only appear to be harming the trade interests of countries in mainland Europe.
“Here’s the big, big consequence. The U.S. is basically telling Europe you have two choices here. Join us with the war against Russia. Join us with the sanctions against Russia. Join us in constant war and conflicts, isolation and destruction to your economy and denial of your energy supply and removal of contracts. Join us with this war and sanctions because we’d really like you to keep the dollar regime going. They are going to say were tired of the dollar. . . . We are pushing Germany. Don’t worry about France, don’t worry about England, worry about Germany. Germany has 3,000 companies doing active business right now. They are not going to join the sanctions…period.”
Comments:
I thought the EU was at least a year out from this decision. If the EU follows Germany’s lead (and many of the nations of the EU owe Germany money) and join the multi basket of currencies that much of the world has joined……..the dollar will collapse.
This is really serious, folks. Germany and France are the leading nations of the EU, and of the two, Germany is the strongest. I don’t know if one member can dump the dollar without the agreement of the other 27 members (many are weak, and in debt to Germany). If Germany can move on their own, the rest will follow, because they will have to in order to operate.
The US is run by fools. They have done everything wrong. I have been disgusted and horrified by the behavior of the leaders, they do NOT represent the will of the people, they don’t care what we think. Bullying, spying, sanctions on nations that don’t use the dollar…….all these acts have made the US look aggressive, and foolish in turn. All they can do is offer threats and sanctions…….they have NOTHING left.
Oscar Wilde once said “we have nothing left to offer but compliments, they are the only things that don’t cost money.” Pity, the US didn’t learn from him…….compliments win a lot more friends and support than threats.
This is an unmitigated disaster. If this happens on Obama’s watch, he will replace Clinton as the worst president we ever had. Calling the Russians a rogue nation makes true what many psychologists say: “Ask a man about another, and he will tell you all about himself.”
For God sakes, the US is the rogue nation. Russia now has an alliance of over half the world…….the US is relying on the EU to avoid collapse of the US dollar. If the US loses the EU, the game is over for the US, and millions of fools who right now think they are doing just fine will be screwed. I have no sympathy for them, greedy people deserve the worst life can bring them.
But, millions of people struggling with skyrocketing prices now, living on a fixed income will really be hurt. Suicides will skyrocket as well because they will not be able to survive, and most people will not accept the prospect of homelessness. This is happening so much faster than I foresaw. I saw this coming, but now it is upon us.
Russia has China, India, Brazil, Turkey, Iran, South Africa and many emerging African nations, much of South and Central America, Argentina……much of the world economy using their system. New Zealand and Australia dumped the dollar, also India and Japan. Obama gave Japan a pass, whatever that means.
For those who need a quick review, it started in 2010 with Hugo Chavez and his tiny organization, the South American Trade Association. He introduced the first electronic currency, the Sucre, so that member nations could trade with each other using their own currencies, leaving the dollar out. The Sucre translated the value of each currency at the time of transaction, making the need for any world reserve currency obsolete. It was a tiny organization, and it flew under US radar.
Russia and China watched it closely. In November, 2010, they adopted a similar model between each other, trading with each other, leaving the dollar out. They went on to recruit much of the world, and finally went public only a month ago. I was surprised, because I had been watching it since 2010. As it stands, they hold the majority of the world market. There are many more aspects to this, but this is enough for now. The US is in deep trouble, and the leaders are too damn stupid to know it. Fools and their money are soon parted.
March 2015: US anger at Britain joining Chinese-led investment bank AIIB
The White House has issued a pointed statement declaring it hopes and expects the UK will use its influence to ensure that high standards of governance are upheld in a new Chinese-led investment bank that Britain is to join. In a rare public breach in the special relationship, the White House signalled its unease at Britain’s decision to become a founder member of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) by raising concerns about whether the new body would meet the standards of the World Bank.
The $50bn (£33.5bn) bank, which is designed to provide infrastructure funds to the Asia-Pacific region, is viewed with great suspicion by Washington officials, who see it as a rival to the World Bank. They believe Beijing will use the bank to extend its soft power in the region.
A White House spokesman stated “it is up to individual countries to decide on joining a new China-led lending body”, as media reports said France, Germany and Italy also agreed to follow Britain’s lead and join the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). He further added “This is the UK’s sovereign decision. We hope and expect that the UK will use its voice to push for adoption of high standards.”
George Osborne – who has discussed the decision to become a founder member of the investment bank with his US counterpart, Jack Lew – has been the driving force behind developing closer economic ties between Britain and China. The chancellor has led the way in encouraging Chinese investment in the next generation of civil nuclear power plants in the UK and he ensured that the City of London would become the base for the first clearing house for the yuan outside Asia.
The US administration made clear in no uncertain terms its displeasure about Osborne’s decision to join the AIIB. A US official told the Financial Times: “We are wary about a trend toward constant accommodation of China, which is not the best way to engage a rising power.”
Britain was unsurprised by the decision of the US administration to air its concerns in public after the formal announcement that the UK would join the new investment bank. Sources said, in addition to the talks about British plans between the chancellor and the US treasury secretary, British and US officials have been in regular contact ahead of the announcement. UK officials say that, by joining the bank as a founding member, Britain will be able to shape the new institution.
In its statement to the Guardian, the White House national security council said: “Our position on the AIIB remains clear and consistent. The United States and many major global economies all agree there is a pressing need to enhance infrastructure investment around the world. We believe any new multilateral institution should incorporate the high standards of the World Bank and the regional development banks.
“Based on many discussions, we have concerns about whether the AIIB will meet these high standards, particularly related to governance, and environmental and social safeguards … The international community has a stake in seeing the AIIB complement the existing architecture, and to work effectively alongside the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.”
Human rights groups and others have complained that the UK has become too willing to placate China – particularly in light of its muted comments over the tight restrictions set out for voting rights in Hong Kong – but Thursday’s remarks seem to be focused on the bank.
“I think the US has had its questions about the UK posture towards China on other issues and I suppose this announcement probably triggered renewed concern in Washington about overall British politics vis-à-vis China. But [we] don’t normally arbitrate these things in public and I’m a little unsure as to why the US has chosen to pick a fight with the UK on this bank at this time, because I thought it had somewhat softened its posture on the bank. It’s a bit surprising to me,” said Matthew Goodman, senior adviser for Asian economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Goodman said the US had legitimate questions about the AIIB when it was first announced last summer, such as the governance of the institution, its lending standards and procurement rules.
“Notwithstanding that, I think they should have been more willing to engage in discussion with China and others about the institution. There’s a big infrastructure gap in Asia, existing institutions are not filling it and China has the wherewithal to contribute on the right terms.”
Some surmised that the US was responsible when Australia backed away from signing up to the bank at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Beijing last autumn, after widespread speculation a deal was on the cards.
“The US did reach out to Australia, Koreans and others to consult about questions and concerns, and that’s been interpreted as leaning on allies not to join the bank,” said Goodman.
As the world’s second largest economy, China has grown increasingly frustrated that it does not have more influence at the IMF and World Bank, and sees little prospect of more say regarding the Japanese-backed Asia Development Bank.
The Establishment And How They Get Away With It – Owen Jones
Owen is a young author and Guardian columnist and is one of those who is not afraid to think critically while accepting there is far more than meets the eye, and certainly than the controlled media would like revealed. To wit, from the book’s official blurb:
“Behind our democracy lurks a powerful but unaccountable network of people who wield massive power and reap huge profits in the process. In exposing this shadowy and complex system that dominates our lives, Owen Jones sets out on a journey into the heart of our Establishment, from the lobbies of Westminster to the newsrooms, boardrooms and trading rooms of Fleet Street and the City. Exposing the revolving doors that link these worlds, and the vested interests that bind them together, Jones shows how, in claiming to work on our behalf, the people at the top are doing precisely the opposite. In fact, they represent the biggest threat to our democracy today – and it is time they were challenged.”
The following infographic from the book, showing “how the media controls Britain” reveals the schism between popular British sentiment about key social issues courtesy of media influences and reality, indicating that the “establishment” is happy to sow discord within the working/middle classes using its traditional “objective” distribution channels, while it remains aloof, collecting the rent its record capital provides.
And while the middle class around the world fights for scraps, and has seen its real wages over the past three decades largely unchanged, the “establishment”, wrapped in a comfortable cocoon spun by the captured media, benefits:
December 2014: Argentina and UK Falklands Dispute Resurfaces
The Falkland Islands, an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean comprising of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 smaller islands, have placed a strain on relations between Argentina and the UK since the days of colonialism.
Up to 1,500 troops, backed by a naval warship that visits throughout the year, are permanently based on the Falklands, along with four RAF Typhoon jets, plus anti-aircraft and artillery batteries.
In 1982 Argentina lost a brief war with Britain over the islands. The encounter lasted 74 days and ended with Argentina surrendering on June 14, 1982. A total of 649 Argentine and 255 British military personnel, together with 3 Falkland Islanders were killed. At the end of the war the dispute was referred to the United Nations who passed a resolution calling on both parties, “to resume negotiations over sovereignty and to refrain from introducing unilateral modifications in the situation as long as the dispute persists.” There has been little progress in 30 years and it appears the, “sabres are rattling” once more.
After the war the UK introduced a new “Falkland Islands Constitution”, under which the UK undetook responsiblity for the islands’ foreign affairs, retaining the power “to protect UK interests and to ensure the overall good governance of the territory.”
October 2014: Replacement Aircraft Contract Cancelled
Argentina needs to replace its depleted fighter fleet and in October, defence minister Agustin Rossi announced the purchase of 24 Saab Gripen fighters, which were to be provided by Brazil, but Whitehall squashed the deal as some of the jet’s parts are made in the UK.
December 2014:
The Ukraine. UK took the lead criticising Russia over it’s annexation of the Crimea and military support of separatist elements in the east of the Ukraine. Pressing allies hard, imposing ever harsher financial and good & services sanctions further complicating matters providing military support in the form of training the Ukrainian armed forces.
Russia retaliated, banning food imports from the US, along with goods from the EU, Norway, Australia and Canada. This encouraged Russia to seek new markets in South America.
December 2014: Russia & Argentina
Russia has been developing friendly ties with Argentina since 2010, when it signed a “historic” contract with Buenos Aires and delivered two Mi17 assault helicopters to serve in the country’s national Air Force. The sale was the first time the Argentinean military had bought Russian military hardware.
President Vladimir Putin’s visited Argentina in July 2014 further boosting relations between the countries, paving the way for exchanging Russian military hardware for food and goods.
At the end of December 2014 reports surfaced that a deal was about to be signed off involving a lease/lend of twelve Sukhoi Su-24 all-weather attack aircraft, which NATO calls “Fencer A”. The jets are well capable of completing operations over the Falklands.
Whitehall Defence officials are fearful Argentina will soon take delivery of the planes certainly well before the projected 2020 deployment of the Navy’s 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth and its much delayed F-35B fighters, opeining a “real window of vulnerability.” http://rt.com/uk/152136-argentinauk-drills-nato/
December 2015: Argentina calls on Britain to discuss Falklands sovereignty
Argentina President Cristina Kirchner has called on Britain to discuss the Falklands’ sovereignty in light of an historic deal between the US and Cuba. The 61-year-old said she hoped the normalisation of diplomatic and economic ties between the former adversaries would be an example to Prime Minister David Cameron.
American President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart Raúl Castro had talks yesterday which could lead to the removal of a US embargo on Cuba. The Embassy of Argentina in London today revealed how Mrs Kirchner hoped the South American country and the UK could find a “peaceful settlement to the Malvinas question”.
The statement referred to the Falkland Islands by its Argentinian name. Mrs Kirchner urged Mr Cameron “to sit and dialogue with Argentina, as the US did with Cuba”. She referred to the historic deal as “a ray of sunlight” which she hoped would “warm the hearts of British leaders.” Mrs Kirchner added: “I pray that this action taken by the United States will inspire its European partner”.
She also praised the role Pope Francis, an Argentinian, had in the US and Cuba agreement. The pontiff has previously also backed his home country’s sovereignty claim over the Falklands. The British Foreign Office said there would be no discussions about sovereignty until Falkland Islanders voted in favour of such talks. A spokesperson said: “There are three parties to this debate, not just two as Argentina likes to pretend. “The Islanders can’t just be written out of history. “As such, there can be no negotiations on the sovereignty of the Falkland Islands unless and until the Islanders so wish.”
In March 2013 Falkland Islanders voted overwhelmingly in favour of staying British during a referendum. Some 1,517 votes were cast after a 90 per cent turnout. Only three people voted against the archipelago not being a UK overseas territory. The issue of the islands’ sovereignty has been raised by Argentina numerous times since the Falklands War. http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/547935/Falkland-Islands-Argentina-UK-sovereignty-David-Cameron-US-Cuba
March 2015: ‘Chill out’, look at Falklands, Russian MP tells UK over Crimea demand
Russian sovereignty over Crimea is more legitimate than the UK’s sovereignty over the Falkland Islands, the chair of the foreign relations committee in the Russian parliament said in response to Philip Hammond’s criticism of the Crimea referendum. “London should pause and chill out. All Western opinion polls in Crimea say the absolute majority supports reunification with Russia,” Aleksey Pushkov tweeted on Sunday. “Take notice, London. Crimea has much more reasons to be part of Russia than the Falklands to be part of Britain,” he added.
Pushkov was responding to British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who earlier on Sunday called Crimea’s referendum to join Russia held in March 2014 a “flagrant breach of Ukrainian and international law” and demanded that Russia returned the peninsula to Ukraine.
In 2013, Britain held a referendum in the Falklands, with 99.8 percent of the 1,517 residents voting for remaining a British overseas territory. Buenos Aires rejected the referendum, saying the “implanted” British population didn’t have a right for self-determination.
In the Crimean referendum held in March 2014, about 97 percent voted for joining Russia. Western backers of the post-coup government in Kiev rejected the referendum, claiming it was conducted at gun point, even though post-referendum opinion polls showed the majority of Crimean people considered it free and fair.
Crimea is Russian territory. It was illegally annexed by Ukraine in 1954 and legally reunited with Russia in 2014. End of story.
The Rothschilds and their stooges on Wall Street still cannot discard the prepostrous notion that Russia needs to be broken up and plundered, so that the banksters can save their fiat currencies known as the dollar and the euro, both of which are printed backed by Nothing. Russia will not disintegrate, as desired by the so-called Western elite (a bunch of criminals really).
What will disintegrate is the Anglo-Saxon financial system. This means that in the end the chief continental countries in Europe will turn to Russia and the BRICS, while the Brits will end up on a bankrupt island. Think carefully what you are doing. No double standards.
Afternote. The UK has joined BRICS. The US is not at all happy
March 2015: Britain to send more troops to Falklands amid Argentine invasion fears
It is expected that Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will announce reinforcements of troops and equipment in response to a Ministry of Defence review which suggested an attack on the South Atlantic archipelago was more likely.
Russia is reportedly planning a deal to lease 12 bombers to Argentina as the country re-arms more than 30 years after the Falklands War. A Whitehall source briefed “The Defence Secretary’s decision reflects operational judgments and the increased nature of the threat. We want the people of the Falklands to know they are uppermost in our thinking.”
A Russian lawmaker claimed yesterday that Moscow has “far more” right to Crimea than Britain does to the Falkland Islands. Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, made the controversial comment after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond denounced Russia’s “illegal annexation” of Crimea. Mr Pushkov tweeted in Russian: “Attention London: Crimea has far more reason to be in Russia than the Falklands have to be part of Great Britain.”
The long-running dispute over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, has re-erupted in recent times under the presidency of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner whose government and term of office is nearing a re-election date, (much as Margaret Thatcher’s government was in 1982)As in the case of Thatcher, the Argentine President is determined to achieve glory through claiming back the Falklands for Argentina.
Prime Minister David Cameron, in his Christmas message to the Islanders last December, said this year would also see the unveiling of a bronze statue of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands. He said 2015 would be a year when “the British government, again, steadfastly defends the freedom she helped you secure”. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/565961/Falkland-Islands-Argentina-Putin-Britain-invasion-threat
March 2015: Britain to send more troops to Falklands amid Argentine invasion fears
It is expected that Defence Secretary Michael Fallon will announce reinforcements of troops and equipment in response to a Ministry of Defence review which suggested an attack on the South Atlantic archipelago was more likely.
Russia is reportedly planning a deal to lease 12 bombers to Argentina as the country re-arms more than 30 years after the Falklands War. A Whitehall source briefed “The Defence Secretary’s decision reflects operational judgments and the increased nature of the threat. We want the people of the Falklands to know they are uppermost in our thinking.”
A Russian lawmaker claimed yesterday that Moscow has “far more” right to Crimea than Britain does to the Falkland Islands. Alexei Pushkov, head of the Russian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, made the controversial comment after Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond denounced Russia’s “illegal annexation” of Crimea. Mr Pushkov tweeted in Russian: “Attention London: Crimea has far more reason to be in Russia than the Falklands have to be part of Great Britain.”
The long-running dispute over the sovereignty of the British overseas territory, which Argentina calls Las Malvinas, has re-erupted in recent times under the presidency of Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner whose government and term of office is nearing a re-election date, (much as Margaret Thatcher’s government was in 1982)As in the case of Thatcher, the Argentine President is determined to achieve glory through claiming back the Falklands for Argentina.
Prime Minister David Cameron, in his Christmas message to the Islanders last December, said this year would also see the unveiling of a bronze statue of former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the Falklands. He said 2015 would be a year when “the British government, again, steadfastly defends the freedom she helped you secure”. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/565961/Falkland-Islands-Argentina-Putin-Britain-invasion-threat
February 2015: “World-Leading Economist” And Advisor To Chancellor Osborne Busted For Smoking Crack
Professor Douglas McWilliams, 63, is head of the well-known Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) think tank and one of the most prominent modern economists, in fact in his own words “one of the world’s leading economists…best known for his work in forecasting” as well as advisor (and cheerleader) to none other than UK Chancellor George Osborne. His background:
Douglas is one of the world’s leading economists. He was chosen in 2012 from over 300 applicants to become the Gresham Professor of Commerce.
His Gresham lecture series ‘The world’s greatest ever economic event’ looking at the impact of globalisation on the Western economies has attracted widespread attention and large audiences. He covers all aspects of economics but is best known for his work in forecasting, the economics of the IT and telecoms sectors and transport economics and for his knowledge of the Far East economies. He works with clients who are particularly looking for an economist with a public presence to help make their case.
After setting up CEBR, he was Chief Executive for 20 years. Previously he was Chief Economic Adviser to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and Chief Economist for IBM UK. He is famed for his communications skills and is one of the most widely quoted economists.
Yes, a “forecasting” economist. That in itself could have been the joke right there, but the real reason why we bring him up is not due to his seasonally-adjusted oracular abilities but because, this “world leading” economist also does whatever he can to boost UK GDP through the use of illegal narcotics, or to avoid the political correctness, crack cocaine.
A leading economist is to step down as executive chairman of CEBR an influential City think-tank amid drug abuse allegations. Professor Douglas McWilliams, 63, revealed that he is to leave his role at the Centre for Economic and Business Research after footage emerged of him allegedly smoking crack cocaine in a north London drug den. The think-tank, which he founded in 1992, confirmed he will take a five-month sabbatical.
Professor McWilliams, who has also advised London Mayor Boris Johnson on housing, said last night he was ‘taking time off to deal with issues I have not had the chance to address fully when I have been in full-time work’.
It comes just two weeks before the launch of his book “The Flat White Economy” which tells how London swapped the City’s champagne and supercars lifestyle for bicycles and trendy flats.
Suddenly, the top echelon of politicians are doing everything they can to distance themselves as much as possible, starting with the UK’s own Secretary of the Treasury. “Referring to reports that Professor McWilliams was an adviser to George Osborne, the spokesman added that ‘neither he nor any other member of CEBR staff has spoken to or met George Osborne since he became Chancellor’, but that CEBR has ‘briefed or advised all four major political parties’.”
One of Chancellor George Osborne’s senior advisers on economic policy has been captured on video smoking crack cocaine in a drugs den. Professor Douglas McWilliams, who last year estimated we would all be £165 a year better off by the election, is seen inhaling it through a glass tube at a flat in North London.
The executive chairman of influential City think-tank the Centre for Economic and Business Research then slumps dazed on a sofa after repeatedly smoking on the makeshift crack pipe involving a miniature Martell Cognac bottle. Red-faced and slurring his speech, he later told the dealer he had “too much” and that he had spent the day on a binge. Two rocks of the deadly drug can clearly been seen on a table beside the dazed professor. The grainy footage will heap embarrassment on the Chancellor and raise serious questions about his choice of adviser.
A source said: “Last Sunday McWilliams turned up at the den around 10pm and was there about a hour and a half. There were two rocks of the drugs. He smoked it over a table and then sat there all spaced out. He was in a suit and started talking about the economy and all that for about 20 minutes. He kept mentioning someone famous he worked with but didn’t make much sense. He was asked if he wanted any more and said ‘I’ve had too much’.”
Oh the irony: On Christmas Day he tweeted about an Office for National Statistics decision to include earnings from drugs and the sex trade in economy figures. He wrote: “Prostitution and illegal drugs help UK overtake France in global wealth league.” Little did the world know then that a small portion of the contribution was due to the “economist” himself.
Of course, none of this would actually be a problem and certainly worth the mention if only the CBER wasn’t actually taken seriously. The think-tank’s website states: “CEBR’s clients are mainly public, private, government, professional bodies and third sector organisations. Most are UK based although several have a global reach. We advise 25 of the FTSE 100 companies.” It adds: “We advise a number of UK government departments and independent government bodies. Recent projects include the Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) and Arts Council England.”
The worst news is that now that the entire world has become one massive, and terminal, experimental playground for precisely these Keynesian fanatic world-leading economists, crack cocaine addicted “central planners” is just one more reason why 7 years after “quantative Easing” was started, everyone – except for the richest 1% of course – is wondering: why has nothing been fixed yet? For the answer, please check your local opium den: chance are you will run into at least one “world-respected” economist.
December 2014: Prostitution and illegal drugs help UK overtake France in global wealth league and Increase Our Cotributions to the EU
Britain’s illegal, multi-billion pound sex and drug industries have helped the UK to become the world’s fifth largest economy. The latest global economic league tables include a £10bn boost in UK earnings from drugs and sex – which earlier this year resulted in Brussels issuing a £1.7bn bill to the Treasury. While the Chancellor George Osborne may cite the new rankings as further evidence of the success of his financial strategy, the UK’s jump up the table comes with a caveat – a number of EU countries, including France do not include prostitution or narcotics income in gross domestic product (GDP) calculations, so where’s the justice in that.
GDP – the value of all final goods and services produced inside a sovereign state – is not the only way of calculating economic power. PPP (purchasing power parity), also based on IMF estimates, already makes China the world’s largest economy. But regardless of which measurement is used, The highly regarded London based, Centre for Economic and Business Research (CEBR) say that with globalisation reaching a “mature phase” by 2030, the world’s economic league placings are “settling down to a new order” and the UK has just overtaken France on the leadership board, courtesy of prostitution and drugs. Brilliant, austerity has injected a massive boost in our drug dealing and prostitution industries. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/prostitution-and-illegal-drugs-help-uk-overtake-france-in-global-wealth-league-9945007.html
Comment:
Confusing. When the matter of an unplanned massive additional annual contribution to the EU budget first surfaced, press releases, issued by the Treasury stated only that the extra 2bn charge was due to an increase in the relative size of our economy. Now we know it was the inclusion of the notional value of the illegal trade in Prostitution and Drugs. The newly identified source of goods and services forming part of the UK return, At first glance it is baffling that France and other countries of the EU are able to exclude it, keeping their EU contributions down. The figures:
* According to the estimates there were 60,879 prostitutes in the UK in 2009, who had an average of 25 clients per week – each paying on average £67.16 per visit.
* There is also detailed data on drugs. The statisticians reckon there were 2.2 million cannabis users in the UK in 2009, toking their way through weed worth more than £1.2bn. They calculate that half of that was home-grown – costing £154m in heat, light and “raw materials” to produce.
The con-trick, (for that is what it is) foisted on the UK public is typical of the Con/Dem Treasury team led by Osborne, Alexander and the recently censured Permanent Secretary McPherson and his team of fear campaign fixers. The purpose of including an unmeasurable illegal output is that it makes the vast and growing debt of 1.8trillion and the recurring monthly deficit look smaller by comparison. SMOKE and MIRRORS.
Diamond Class destroyer,
caltonjock 