The Scottish National Party Government and associated Regional Branches employ approximately 841 people. An investigation of the Party organisation indicates that the bulk of this total was appointed to office depending on who they supported politically, eg LBGTQ+ supporters or were close friends of persons responsible for the offer of employment or close family members. Some might level charges of nepotism!!
The concerns of many Party members who have been alerted to the abuse of office by senior officers are being expressed widely on the internet social media network and the bubble is now burst.
The May 2022 Council election is the vehicle through which the SNP membership can send the message, “not in our name” to Sturgeon and her fellow political conspirators who are determined to deny Scots their independence through spurious subterfuge and downright lying.
The 841 non-independence compadres of the SNP gift themselves between £32,690,000 – and £43,150,000 each year. It would be safe to assume that much of the financial largesse is being tucked away in private bank accounts for retirement days in sunny warmer climes.
The breakdown of the annual cost of the SNP to the Scottish taxpayers:
Individual costs:
Local councillor: Salary + on costs + expenses: £20,000 per annum.
MSP support: Caseworkers and Administration: Salary + on costs + expenses + superannuation pension: £40-£60 per annum. Funding for three FTE = £120-£180 per annum
MSP: Salary + on costs + expenses + accomodation + superannuation pension: £90,000-£120,000 per annum.
MP support: Parliamentary Assistants and caseworkers: Salary + on costs + expenses + superannuation pension £40,000-£60,000 per annum. Funding allocation £180,000 per annum. Around 3+ staff.
The Scottish National Party Government and associated Regional Branches employ approximately 841 people. An investigation of the Party organisation indicates that the bulk of this total was appointed to office depending on who they supported politically, eg LBGTQ+ supporters or were close friends of persons responsible for the offer of employment or close family members. Some might level charges of nepotism!!
The concerns of many Party members who have been alerted to the abuse of office by senior officers are being expressed widely on the internet social media network and the bubble is now burst.
The May 2022 Council election is the vehicle through which the SNP membership can send the message, “not in our name” to Sturgeon and her fellow political conspirators who are determined to deny Scots their independence through spurious subterfuge and downright lying.
The 841 non-independence compadres of the SNP gift themselves between £32,690,000 – and £43,150,000 each year. It would be safe to assume that much of the financial largesse is being tucked away in private bank accounts for retirement days in sunny warmer climes.
The breakdown of the annual cost of the SNP to the Scottish taxpayers:
Individual costs:
Local councillor: Salary + on costs + expenses: £20,000 per annum.
MSP support: Caseworkers and Administration: Salary + on costs + expenses + superannuation pension: £40-£60 per annum. Funding for three FTE = £120-£180 per annum
MSP: Salary + on costs + expenses + accomodation + superannuation pension: £90,000-£120,000 per annum.
MP support: Parliamentary Assistants and caseworkers: Salary + on costs + expenses + superannuation pension £40,000-£60,000 per annum. Funding allocation £180,000 per annum. Around 3+ staff.
The influence over candidate selection by local MP Mhari Black and her supporters
In my previous update, I advised I had loads of readers and enquires but no answers to a number of questions I had raised. That update remains unchanged. But this follows up contains information about the emergence from the political shadows of previously mentioned in this article Natalie Don who was a local councillor and admin assistant to Derek MacKay MSP who left office under a cloud in 2020.
She was selected as the SNP’s candidate for the Renfrewshire North and West constituency in November 2020 and elected to office in the May 2021 Scottish Parliament election. Salary £66,000 +pension+expenses+ office staff. The projected total annual cost to the taxpayer is around £180,000.
A councillor for Bishopton, Bridge of Weir and Langbank ward from 2017 she retained that office until the 2022 local council election. The assumed annual cost to taxpayers is £20,000.
She was also an admin assistant in the office of Derek Mackay MSP from 2017 to 2020. Salary between £25,000 – £45,000
Total income and on-costs between 2017-2022: £55,000 -£74,000
Mhari Black and Natalie Don
The nomination of Natalie Don was not universally approved within the constituency.
The national press publicity attracted comments from a number of Renfrewshire readers. Namely:
12 Aug 2020: Comment from C.B.:
I just don’t agree with this “all-female” instruction. It’s MSPs of merit we need, not people thrust upon the electorate because of their sex.
12 Aug 2020: Comment from S.A.:
Ahhhh, an ideal candidate who meets the No.1 criteria in the SNP book of selection? Can we ask what Natalie Don’s life experiences are? What unique skills she is bringing to the Scottish Parliament & indeed the probable SG?
She has a degree in history, & to be fair one of my long time friends is a History Professor? I have an interest in this subject too. That aside, what commercial or business experience does this SNP Scottish parliamentary hopeful have to offer the already chocked chamber? Am I right to be concerned, that Ms Don, perhaps is yet another ‘Professional Politician’?
The political strata are already awash with ‘careerist’ politicians. You know the type? Went to uni, decided that hang working for a living, let’s get the public purse to fund my lifestyle? Remote from the proletariat, & their daily struggles to keep a roof over their head, feed, clothe, & bring up their children in a society that just doesn’t give a rats? Not that Ms Don will ever need to worry herself about things like that once she’s got Decko the sext pests, still warm seat, at Holyrood?..
12 Aug 2020: Comment from J.C.:
Sadly the SNP as a party ask their potential candidates to agree, before selection to being gagged from revealing any misconduct they may witness or encounter as a political appointee whilst in post. To me, the first thing to be sacrificed before climbing the greasy pole of politics is personal integrity?
I know I’m perhaps being unrealistic, in the forlorn hope of seeing an open & honest politician? Nevertheless, wouldn’t it be refreshing to hear a potential candidate actually tell it as it is, without reverting to meaningless slogans, or party ideology? I want my MSP to serve me, not a political party? After all, I, along with the rest of the electorate are their employers? We pay them that very comfortable salary, not the party they hold membership with?
I certainly will want to hear what my SNP sitting MSP has to tell me, other than an SNP rosette? I’ve already voted for over 1/4 of a century on that stance before changing to SNP? Up till now, after voting for them, their performance in Holyrood has been totally underwhelming?
I want to see the timeline for a vote for independence? I want the FM, to now hand the Covid crisis management over to one of her ministers! I want her to revalidate her commitment to independence, & what she intends to do when, her pleading with the lump of shaped lard, currently pretending to be the UK PM, tells her again & again NO?…. That approach isn’t, doesn’t, & will never work? Scotland is a nation not a county of England!
12 Aug 2020: Comment from KJ:
A friend of Marie Black, enough said.
S.A.: Commented:
But is Natalie Don the best, most experienced, multi-skilled, ideal candidate? She said she was working class! Well almost everyone in the district can claim to be working class? Brought up in a Council house? So was I? It was a nice Council house, in a good neighbourhood? But I do agree there is a dearth of working-class MSPs? Miss Don might have been able at one time to claim a working-class upbringing but that is very much in the past. Her education was completed at an excellent school, she has moved up in class and is now a middle class, white-collar worker. Indeed she is part of the upwardly mobile middle class. But the fact she is a close friend of Mhari Black shouldn’t even come into it? If the SNP, are relying on cronyism to punt candidates through the selection process (again), then they are entering the same dangerous place as SLAB found itself in? The electors should vote for a candidate they trust to do good works for them not someone who wears an SNP rosette.
Update: Lots of readers and many also wanted answers but unfortunately nothing is forthcoming which prompts me to enquire further.
Robert Innes right
Natalie Don is resident in Bridge of Weir. This event occurred in the town in July 2010. Is this the same Robert Innes?
A resident of Bridge of Weir harassed at home by a group of yobs
Kenneth Horn of the Bridge of Weir snapped after months of harassment when yobs armed with weapons laid siege to his home. In the ensuing melee, he was hit over the head with a baseball bat. Paisley Sheriff Court heard how Horn and his family had been forced to endure a relentless campaign of terror and torment. He had previously reported numerous incidents to police and was “at the end of his tether” when a group armed with weapons appeared outside his home in Bridge of Weir’s Mimosa Road at 3.50am on March 28.
The stabbed man, Robert Innes had been socialising with friends in a neighbouring house and when Horn left his home at around 0400 hours to confront his attackers he joined the disturbance later claiming it was with the purpose of taking on a self-appointed role as “peacemaker”. But 22-year-old Innes ended up in a face to face confrontation with Horn, who was observed standing on a path holding a knife. As the pair drew close Horn prodded him on the left side of his chest with the knife and then fled. He ran to another house in the street where he asked the householder to hide the knife.
An ambulance was summoned and Innes was taken to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital with a one-centimetre puncture wound. The injury was dressed but did not require further treatment and he was kept overnight under observation.
Horn’s lawyer told Sheriff Susan Sinclair that he hoped to put the episode in perspective and revealed that his client’s house had been
“laid siege to and there had been numerous reports to the police of harassment and efforts were being made to have his family re-housed when the flashpoint occurred. He was acting under extreme provocation where armed youths had been hammering at his door and sincerely believed that his life was in danger that night and that the complainer was part of the attacking group.”
The lawyer further stressed that Horn had not gone out into the street armed but had been hit with the knife in question and had then been struck on the head with a baseball bat. The knife ended up on the ground after it had been discarded by one of the attackers, and he had retrieved it.
Horn was found guilty of assault and locked up for eight months after stabbing a man he thought was one of his tormentors.
From Innes Twitter posts:
In education: I didn’t get any standard grades at school (an ‘affluent’ school). I worked in retail and call centres for years after school and gained some great experiences. Decided to go back to college and then uni and graduated at the age of 28. Schools are not for everybody. As a youth, I joined the army at 16. I personally hated it and left. It’s not for everyone and the other guys I was in with loved it. It shouldn’t be forced on anyone. This talk of forcing national service on young people should be nipped in the bud now.
Comment: His LinkedIn profile only states he attended college. No mention of any qualification.Even providing that he did gain a qualification of sorts it is difficult to accept he would be experienced enough politically to provide advice and assistance to Mhari Black the holder of a distinction in politics from a grade 1 university.
On illegal drug-taking:
17 Jun 2019: RossThomson tweeted: I’ve visited a drug consumption room to see it in operation for myself. Opening them in the UK will be the thin end of the wedge. We need to ensure people end their addiction not simply manage it. Consumption rooms won’t cut heroin abuse and deaths.
Innes commented: Meanwhile back in reality. Like many people, I had a family member who used heroin outside of a DCR in front of me as a child. I have kept edgy in alleys and sat in drug dens while people o.d. These safe spaces would mean other youngsters wouldn’t have this kind of experiences.
On nepotism
Innes tweeted: You know you can be pro independence and also be against transphobia, homophobia, racism and bigotry while at the same time be against blatant careerism taking over your party. Comment: Ironic surely!!
Robert Innes has worked as one of Mhari Black’s Research Assistants at Westminster since around the beginning of 2016.
He is standing for election as a councillor for Houston, Crosslee and Linwood and his campaign was heavily promoted on Twitter and other media over the weekend and on other days by Miss Black and Natalie Don, the local MSP who gushingly declared him to be a local based stalwart and potentially wonderful servant of the people.
But there are questions I need to ask and have answers to before I am able to advise those who read my blog whether to support his candidacy.
The blurb states he has been employed at Westminster and has resided in London, not Renfrewshire, from 2016, nearly 6 years, Is this correct?
Prior to his appointment, he was a student studying politics and psychology at the University of the West of Scotland between 2011 and 2016 meaning that he has never been in paid employment from the time of his birth until selected by Mhari Black and appointed by herself to the post of Research Assistant at Westminster on a salary between £35-£55 plus expenses. Is this assertion correct?
His profile lists him as the father of two children. Nicola Sturgeon enjoyed an extensive photo opportunity with a child Alisa Innes. It is evident from the publicity that Sturgeon was promoting the Renfrew MSP candidacy of Natalie Don who the accompanying article said was the child’s mother.
Is Robert Innes, Alisa’s father? I think the public has a right to know. since their combined financial income from the state, courtesy of the SNP probably exceeds £130,000 per annum.
Update: Lots of readers and many also wanted answers but unfortunately nothing forthcoming which prompts me to enquire further.
Robert Innes right
Natalie Don is resident in Bridge of Weir. This event occured in the town in July 2010. Is this the same Robert Innes?
Resident of Bridge of Weir harassed at home by a group of yobs
Kenneth Horn of the Bridge of Weir snapped after months of harassment when yobs armed with weapons laid siege to his home. In the ensuing melee he was hit over the head with a baseball bat. Paisley Sheriff Court heard how Horn and his family had been forced to endure a relentless campaign of terror and torment. He had previously reported numerous incidents to police and was “at the end of his tether” when a group armed with weapons appeared outside his home in Bridge of Weir’s Mimosa Road at 3.50am on March 28.
The stabbed man, Robert Innes had been socialising with friends in a neighbouring house and when Horn left his home at around 0400 hours to confront his attackers he joined the disturbance later claiming it was with the purpose of taking on a self appointed role as “peacemaker”. But 22 year old Innes ended up in a face to face confrontation with Horn, who was observed standing on a path holding a knife. As they pair drew close Horn prodded him on the left side of his chest with the knife then fled. He ran to another house in the street where he asked the householder to hide the knife.
An ambulance was summoned and Innes was taken to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital with a one-centimetre puncture wound. The injury was dressed but did not require further treatment and he was kept in overnight under observation.
Horn’s lawyer told Sheriff Susan Sinclair that he hoped to put the episode in perspective and revealed that his client’s house had been
“laid siege to and there had been numerous reports to the police of harassment and efforts were being made to have his family re-housed when the flashpoint occurred. He was acting under extreme provocation where armed youths had been hammering at his door and sincerely believed that his life was in danger that night and that the complainer was part of the attacking group.”
The lawyer further stressed that Horn had not gone out into the street armed but had been hit with the knife in question and had then been struck on the head with a baseball bat. The knife ended up on the ground after it had been discarded by one of the attackers, and he had retrieved it.
Horn was found guilty of assault and locked up for eight months after stabbing a man he thought was one of his tormentors.
From Innes Twitter posts:
On education: I didn’t get any standard grades at school (an ‘affluent’ school). I worked in retail and call centres for years after school and gained some great experiences. Decided to go back to college and then uni and graduated at the age of 28. Schools not for everybody. As a youth I joined the army at 16. I personally hated it and left. It’s not for everyone and other guys I was in with loved it. It shouldn’t be forced on anyone. This talk of forcing national service on young people should be nipped in the bud now.
Comment: His linkedin profile only states he attended college. No mention of any qualification.Even providing that he did gain a qualification of sorts it is difficult to accept he would be experienced enough politically to provide advice and assistance to Mhari Black the holder of a distinction in politics from a grade 1 universsity.
On illegal drug taking:
17 Jun 2019: RossThomson tweeted: I’ve visited a drug consumption room to see it in operation for myself. Opening them in the UK will be the thin end of the wedge. We need to ensure people end their addiction not simply manage it. Consumption rooms won’t cut heroin abuse and deaths.
Innes commented: Meanwhile back in reality. Like many people I had a family member who used heroin outside of a DCR in front of me as a child. I have kept edgy in alleys and sat in drug dens while people o.d. These safe spaces would mean other youngsters wouldn’t have these kind of experiences.
On nepotism
Innes tweeted: You know you can be pro independence and also be against transphobia, homophobia, racism and bigotry while at the same time be against blatant careerism taking over your party. Comment: Ironic surely!!
Robert Innes has worked as one of Mhari Black’s Research Assistants at Westminster since around the beginning of 2016.
He is standing for election as a councillor for Houston, Crosslee and Linwood and his campaign was heavily promoted on Twitter and other media over the weekend and on other days by Miss Black and Natalie Don, the local MSP who gushingly declared him to be a local based stalwart and potentially wonderful servant of the people.
But there are questions I need to ask and have answers to before I am able to advise those who read my blog whether to support his candidacy.
The blurb states he has been employed at Westminster and has resided in London, not Renfrewshire, from 2016, nearly 6 years, Is this correct?
Prior to his appointment, he was a student studying politics and psychology at the University of the West of Scotland between 2011 and 2016 meaning that he has never been in paid employment from the time of his birth until selected by Mhari Black and appointed by herself to the post of Research Assistant at Westminster on a salary between £35-£55 plus expenses. Is this assertion correct?
His profile lists him as the father of two children. Nicola Sturgeon enjoyed an extensive photo opportunity with a child Alisa Innes. It is evident from the publicity that Sturgeon was promoting the Renfrew MSP candidacy of Natalie Don who the accompanying article said was the child’s mother.
Is Robert Innes, Alisa’s father? I think the public has a right to know. since their combined financial income from the state, courtesy of the SNP probably exceeds £130,000 per annum.
Tory MSP Adam Tomkins and the Apfel family ties to the US State Departmentand Rwanda
Gillian Apfel is the sister of Lauren Apfel, wife of Adam Tomkins, Tory MSP and constitutional affairs spokesman for the Tory party in Scotland.
Gillian and her husband Rodney Ford are senior diplomats with the US State Department.
Gillian was influential in deciding US foreign policy when deployed to Bagdhad, Iraq and, not to be outdone, her husband Rodney, as a foreign diplomat actively influenced the outcome of political events in a number of countries in Africa over a period of 20 years.
This short review of their involvement in the affairs of African and Middle East nations exposes the hypocrisy of US foreign policy under the last four presidents and the callous support provided by the UK government.
Rodney Ford Centre
Rodney Ford: Diplomat. Foreign Service Institute. Department of State: Washington D.C.
Experience:
September 2017 – Present. Foreign Service Institute. Language Student – Italian
August 2016 – June 2017. Graduate Student – National Security Studies. National Defense University – National War College. Washington D.C.
August 2014 – August 2015. U.S. Department of State. Deputy Director, Bureau of African Affairs, Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. U.S. Department of State. Washington D.C. Oversee the allocation of more than $38 million in public diplomacy programming, providing daily policy guidance and program support to 49 Public Affairs Sections across Africa, and overseeing public diplomacy personnel assignments for the Africa Bureau in Washington and in the field.
July 2013 – July 2014. Spokesperson. U.S. Embassy Baghdad, Iraq. Responsible for all media-related activities advancing the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement.
August 2010 – July 2013. Information Officer. U.S. Embassy Rabat, Morocco. Served spokesperson and senior adviser for all media-related activities for the U.S. Mission to the Kingdom of Morocco.
July 2007 – July 2010. Public Affairs Officer. U.S. Embassy Antananarivo, Madagascar. Directed U.S. public diplomacy efforts in Madagascar and the Union of Comoros. Advised the Ambassador on issues related to U.S. interests in Malagasy and Comoran media.
June 2004 – December 2006. Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer. Bureau of African Affairs. Managed a full range of U.S. exchange programs with South Africa.
2002 – 2004. Consular Officer. U.S. Department of State.
Gillian Apfel: Diplomat. US Department of State
Experience:
Sep 2017 – Present. Foreign Service Officer. U.S. Department of State. Arlington, Virginia. Studying Italian at the Foreign Service Institute in preparation for assignment at the US Embassy in Rome.
Aug 2015 – Aug 2017. LNA Coordinator. U.S. Department of State.
Sep 2014 – Aug 2015. Consul. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Aug 2013 – Aug 2014. American Citizens Services Chief. Baghdad, Iraq. Refugee Coordinator for Admissions. Working at the US Embassy in Baghdad resettling Iraqi refugees in the U.S.
Jul 2012 – Jul 2013. Program Officer, Working at the Operations Center in Crisis Management Support. U.S. Department of State. Washington D.C.
President of Rwanda – Paul Kagame
The Rwandan government’s warped historical record of massacres in Central Africa was used to provide credence to President Paul Kagame’s 25-year totalitarian rule in Rwanda.
It was also used to justify the U.S.-backed invasion, occupation and plunder of the immensely resource-rich Democratic Republic of the Congo, despite many U.N. reports documenting Kagame’s army’s atrocities in both Rwanda and Congo.
Kagame was shielded by powerful friends, including Clinton, Blair and Obama. But any attempt to cling to power beyond 2017 would not be supported by the US, the UK and the EU.
Kagame is a longtime ally of former President Clinton who presented him with a Global Citizen Award in 2009. Asked about his closeness to Kagame, Clinton said that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide crimes that Kagame is accused of in U.N. reports had never been adjudicated in a court of law. Critics commented that U.S. administrations made sure that Kagame was never indicted by an international court.
Former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has been embedded inside General Paul Kagame’s government for over a decade. Blair’s institute boasts that “since 2008, we have been working alongside the Government of Rwanda to strengthen the systems and structures that are behind the country’s remarkable economic transformation.” Tony Blair’s wife, Cherie Blair, has deep roots in Kagame’s Rwanda, too. For example, she cashed in by representing General Karake Karenzi in court following his arrest in London for an international warrant for war crimes against civilians. Kagame’s relationship with the Blairs took a new turn. It turns out that Cherie Blair is the ‘ethics adviser’ to the Israeli firm, NSO Group, whose Pegasus Spyware Kagame deploys extensively to hack African leaders and those he considers enemies. Stay tuned.
26 Jul 2010: Campaign group sues UK government for enabling DR Congo violence
Global Witness is taking the British government to court for allegedly failing to report companies trading Congolese “conflict minerals”. The organization alleged that British companies had been trading in minerals controlled by armed groups in DR Congo in defiance of United Nations sanctions introduced in 2008 and 2009.
Global Witness said groups controlling the trade in minerals such as tin and tungsten use the money generated to buy arms to fund campaigns against civilians. A group legal adviser said it was applying to the High Court in London for an order requiring the government to put forward sanctions on British firms violating the UN resolutions.
She said: “We approached the UK government in early 2009 once sanctions were passed where you could list entities supporting armed groups for sanctions. We decided to take advantage of that and requested they put forward certain names. But no action was taken.
Further evidence again came up during that period, which showed that these companies were breaking sanctions. In eastern DR Congo there are still high levels of violence. By the UK government not taking action it allowed the funding of armed groups in these areas and allowing the conflict to perpetuate.”
The UK’s Foreign Office released a statement stating, “the government expects all British companies operating in the minerals sector in the DR Congo to follow high standards of due diligence. We will continue to take reports that they are not doing so seriously, and will assess in each case whether there are grounds to consider recommending to UN partners that sanctions measures be imposed or supporting proposals for listings made by other states.”
Aug 2010: UN report shows Rwanda massacred Hutus in DR Congo
A UN report detailed the mass killing of Hutu refugees by Rwandan forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the late 1990s. The document investigated allegations of genocide and other human rights abuses in eastern DR Congo, between 1993 and 2003 when over a million Hutus fled to DR Congo in the wake of Rwanda’s 1994 genocide.
In a Wikileaks expose, Clinton Foundation staffer Amitabh Desai wrote:
“Rwandan Ambassador said criticism of Kagame seems to have quieted, partly due to Clinton and Blair’s unwavering support. Kagame and Rwandavery much appreciate their unflinching support.”
The report identified “systematic attacks” against Hutu refugees by the Rwandan army – and the Congolese rebel group the AFDL – in the years 1996 to 1998. Kagame spent many weeks attempting to quash the report and threatened to pull Rwandan troops out of UN peacekeeping missions over the allegations.
25 Nov 2011: the U.S. backed the invasion of Eastern Congo on Obama’s inauguration day
There was a U.S.-backed campaign to destabilize, depopulate and colonize Eastern Congo/Zaire since the first U.S.-supported invasion of 1996, which occurred under President Clinton, and which followed the U.S. destabilization and coup d’etat in Rwanda.
In 2001 the U.S. and its allies, again deployed their proxy army, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), comprising many child soldiers, in a secret campaign to balkanize Congo and create a Republic of the Volcanoes in the region. The mission was to expand Rwanda through the annexation of the Kivu and Maniema Provinces.
Fellow participants Uganda also with U.S. support, set out to annex the Ituri province. The campaigns were backed by multinational corporations, and the goals were political, military and economic. So President Barack Obama invaded Congo, the heart of Africa, on his Inauguration Day?
The U.S.-backed military invasion of 20 Jan 2009 included U.S. military commanders, special forces, military advisers, technicians and other U.S. military personnel, and it involved weaponry supplied by the U.S. and Britain.
2 Jan 2014: Rwanda’s former spy chief ‘murdered’ in South Africa
Kagame’s former chief of external intelligence, Patrick Karegeya, was found murdered in a posh Johannesburg hotel. In exile, Karegeya had secretly been advising South African and Tanzanian intelligence.
Kagame officially denied involvement in the assassination, but speaking on the matter to a domestic audience shortly thereafter, said: “You can’t betray Rwanda and not get punished for it.”
Comment: So the U.S. supported a President complicit in the murder of former spies resident in foreign lands.
14 Jul 2015: Rwanda parliament votes in favour of Kagame’s third term
Rwandan legislators voted in support of a referendum allowing President Paul Kagame a third term in power, backing a petition signed by millions of citizens. The Rwandan constitution, adopted in 2003, limited the number of presidential terms to two and therefore barred Kagame — elected first in 2003 and again in 2010 — to stand for a third term.
But petitions signed by a total of two million people demanded that Kagame be allowed to stay in office. Parliament subsequently amended the constitution allowing Kagame to run for a third term of office. Addressing the press Kagame said that he was open to going or remaining based on what Rwandans decided ahead of 2024.
Gillian Apfel
Dec 2015: US State Department briefing by Rodney Ford
Bureau of African Affairs spokesman Rodney Ford said the U.S. will not support Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s bid to abolish Rwanda’s constitutional term limits so that he can remain in power. Ford’s statement came as a surprise because Rwandan President Paul Kagame has been such a close, longstanding and useful ally and “military partner” to the U.S.
The statement was, however, unequivocal: It read:
“ The United States supports the principle of democratic transition in all countries in the region through free, fair, and credible elections, held in accordance with current constitutions, including provisions regarding term limits. The United States believes that democracy is best advanced through the development of strong institutions, not strongmen. For that reason, we do not support changing constitutions to benefit the personal or political interests of individuals or parties. Changing constitutions and eliminating term limits to favour incumbents is inconsistent with democratic principles and reduces confidence in democratic institutions. We are committed to supporting a peaceful, democratic transition in 2017 to a new leader elected by the Rwandan people.”
Comment: Kagame ignored the US State Department’s statement and got himself elected yet again. And the US is still backing him because they need his army to police other states.
5 Aug 2017: Kagame re-elected president with 99% of the vote in the Rwanda election
Paul Kagame, 59, the controversial president of Rwanda, won a landslide victory in the African state’s election, securing a third term in office, and extending his 17 years in power. The result will surprise no one, inside or outside Rwanda. Kagame won international praise for the stability and economic development he brought Rwanda since the 1994 genocide when an estimated 800,000 people were killed, but he has also been accused of running an authoritarian, one-party state.
1 Dec 2014: Nigeria ends U.S. mission to counter Boko Haram
In May 2013, the U.S. Army posted a story on its official website announcing that soldiers and special operators would train a Nigerian 650-man Ranger battalion to fight Boko Haram, marking the first time that U.S. troops would train their African counterparts for a mission other than peacekeeping.
Col. John Ruffing, chief of US Army Africa’s Security Cooperation Division, said: “It is not peacekeeping — it is every bit of what we call decisive action, meaning those soldiers will go in harm’s way to conduct counterinsurgency operations in their country to defeat a known threat.”
But only 8 months later it emerged that the Nigerian government had terminated the U.S. effort to train a battalion of its troops to fight Boko Haram, an Islamist terrorist group responsible for abducting hundreds of schoolgirls earlier in the year.
According to Rodney Ford of the State Department. Who stated:
“We regret the premature termination of this training, as it was to be the first in a larger planned project that would have trained additional units with the goal of helping the Nigerian Army build capacity to counter Boko Haram. The U.S. government will continue other aspects of the extensive bilateral security relationship, as well as all other assistance programs, with Nigeria. The U.S.government is committed to the long tradition of partnership with Nigeria and will continue to engage future requests for cooperation and training.”
The move followed the U.S. refusal to sell Cobra helicopters to Nigeria. The transfer was denied over concerns that Nigeria couldn’t properly use and maintain the Cobras, a State Department spokeswoman said.
The decision drew criticism from Nigeria’s ambassador to the U.S., who said it would hinder the country’s efforts to bring down Boko Haram.
Kagame and the Clintons
The United States Is Illegally Sponsoring an Army That Recruits Child Soldiers
American law prevents military aid to countries that employ child soldiers—but that hasn’t stopped the US in South Sudan where approximately 13,000 children have been recruited into armed groups, according to the United Nations children’s Fund (UNICEF).
In 1996, the United States began funnelling military equipment through nearby Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Uganda to rebels in southern Sudan as they battled for independence. A decade later, after the civil war ended in a peace deal, Washington officially began offering military “assistance” to the SPLA, according to State Department documents.
At that point, without fanfare and far from the prying eyes of the press, the United States launched a concerted campaign to transform the SPLA from a guerrilla force into a professional army. Asked about the scope of the training, Rodney Ford, the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs spokesperson, said:
“ The US government began a comprehensive defence professionalization program which started in 2006 and continued after the referendum and independence of South Sudan until December 2013. This assistance included infrastructure, vehicles, human rights training, logistics, administration, medical, military justice, finance, and English language training among an array of other military subjects. The US government, for example, conducted a comprehensive medical program with the South Sudanese military which entailed procuring mobile field hospitals, building clinics, training nurses and improving the military’s medical infrastructure.”
Ford emphasized that no “lethal equipment” was provided and noted that the lessons were designed to “give soldiers the tools and skills that would benefit the civilian population.”
It sounded almost like they were building a South Sudanese Peace Corps. In reality, there was more to it. US support was not strictly a kumbaya effort of medical clinics and human rights instruction. It included:
Training and equipping of the elite presidential guard.
Construction of a new SPLA headquarters in Juba.
Renovation of a training centre at the SPLA Command and Staff College in Malou, a town north of the capital.
Construction of the headquarters of two SPLA divisions in the towns of Mapel and Duar.
Training programs for general officers and senior instructors.
Deployment of a “training advisory team” to guide the overhaul of intelligence, communications, and other key functions.
Employment of Kenyan and later Ethiopian instructors to teach basic military skills to SPLA recruits.
Provision of secure voice and data communications to SPLA general headquarters.
Development of riverine forces and up to 16 tactical watercraft.
Military police instruction.
Training of commando forces by Ethiopian troops.
Establishment of a non-commissioned officers academy at Mapel with training from private contractors and later US military personnel.
Comment: Disgraceful support of military forces largely staffed by underaged children. But oil is the key factor.
16 Aug 2014: Time running out for Iraqi judge who jailed terrorists
In 2008, the U.S. Congress authorized a Special Immigrant Visa program to allow Iraqis, Kurds and Afghans who had worked for the U.S. government and were now in danger of doing so, to immigrate to the U.S.
For more than five years, Iraqi Judge Hussein Al-Anbaki worked alongside U.S. troops battling to bring terrorists to justice only to be denied safe haven in the USA. Now he’s engaged in an even bigger fight — trying to get himself and his family into the U.S.
In a letter to Al-Anbaki, Gillian Apfel, refugee coordinator for the U.S. Chief of Mission, stated:
“You were not actually employed by or on behalf of the U.S. government. Your work with the Law and Order Task Force was the result of a cooperation agreement between Multi-National Force Iraq and the government of Iraq.”
A local state prosecutor and a New Haven immigration lawyer are spearheading an effort to convince the U.S. government to issue Al-Anbaki and his family special visas.
They say with U.S. troops gone from Iraq terrorist groups have become emboldened and are assassinating judges, and they are worried Al-Anbaki is next on their list.
“This is not just about wanting a better life for himself and his family, this is about wanting a life. Their lives are now in peril because he helped us. As an investigative judge, Al-Anbaki worked within the Iraqi judicial system gathering evidence on terrorism against both American soldiers and Iraqi citizens that he would then present before an Iraqi trial panel. He did it because he believed it was the right thing to do because these were people not only dangerous to the Americans in Iraq, but to the Iraqi people as well,”
Trudeau went on to say that it had been the judge’s decision not to be on the U.S. government’s payroll. He believed he could do a better job if he was considered neutral. She said:
“He purposely remained neutral as a member of the Iraqi judiciary, but he did receive other compensation from the U.S. We supplied him with a secure housing facility so he could carry out his work without getting killed. If I had hired someone in Iraq to keep up my WiFi, giving them a paycheck, that person would be eligible to come to the U.S., but not the judge. He tries to come here and gets the door slammed in his face.”
2006, murder and execution by insurgents of Army Specialist David J. Babineau and captured Private First Class Kristian Menchaca and Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker is worthy of comment. She said:
” Eight thousand American and Iraqi soldiers searched for three days before finding their bodies. They had been tortured and mutilated and rigged with an improvised explosive device. Judge Al-Anbaki volunteered to lead the investigation into their deaths. It was the first time an Iraqi judge had worked to get justice for Americans murdered in Iraq. He also rode with convoys of U.S. troops into the insurgent territory to interview potential witnesses to the kidnapping and murder of the two soldiers. He was instrumental in persuading local Iraqis to come forward and testify against terrorists, something that had never been done before because people were too afraid. He convinced them to have faith that the legal system would bring bad people to justice. Eventually, as a result of his efforts, a terrorist was convicted in the case. While on one hand, it was disappointing that only one of the terrorists was convicted, the fact that there was a conviction through the Iraqi judicial system was a victory, and it did bring some justice to the families of the soldiers that were killed,”
Referring to another incident, she said
” On Nov. 14, 2006, paramilitary gunmen in the uniforms of Iraqi National Police commandos raided a building belonging to the Ministry of Education in Baghdad’s Karrada district and arrested around 100 members of staff from two departments and around 50 visitors. The bodies of those kidnapped were found buried in shallow graves in 2012. Judge Al-Anbaki again volunteered to get involved. His work required him to question at length many senior officials of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government who were responsible for corruption and sectarian violence. In doing so the judge placed the lives of his family and himself in great danger. But he believed he could use the Iraqi justice system to weed out corruption and terrorists from the government.”
Comment: A cold unfeeling response from Gillian Apfel, to a plea for help from someone who put his own and his family’s lives in jeopardy in support of the US.
Robert Innes has worked as one of Mhari Black’s Research Assistants at Westminster since around the beginning of 2016.
He is standing for election as a councillor for Houston, Crosslee and Linwood and his campaign was heavily promoted on Twitter and other media over the weekend and on other days by Miss Black and Natalie Don, the local MSP who gushingly declared him to be a local based stalwart and potentially wonderful servant of the people.
But there are questions I need to ask and have answers to before I am able to advise those who read my blog whether to support his candidacy.
The blurb states he has been employed at Westminster and has resided in London, not Renfrewshire, from 2016, nearly 6 years, Is this correct?
Prior to his appointment, he was a student studying politics and psychology at the University of the West of Scotland between 2011 and 2016 meaning that he has never been in paid employment from the time of his birth until selected by Mhari Black and appointed by herself to the post of Research Assistant at Westminster on a salary between £35-£55 plus expenses. Is this assertion correct?
His profile lists him as the father of two children. Nicola Sturgeon enjoyed an extensive photo opportunity with a child Alisa Innes. It is evident from the publicity that Sturgeon was promoting the Renfrew MSP candidacy of Natalie Don who the accompanying article said was the child’s mother.
Is Robert Innes, Alisa’s father? I think the public has a right to know. since their combined financial income from the state, courtesy of the SNP probably exceeds £130,000 per annum.
Males who, after puberty transition to the gender of “woman” (transwomen) and complete body reassignment then take testosterone suppression medicines might reduce their inbuilt physical advantage over women by up to 5%, after 3 years, a modest change which is insufficient to cancel out the physical and muscular differences between males and females.
Western society is being forced to accept LGBTQ+ activist agendas for change normalising the provision of sexual education to children from pre-school age and upwards. Education includes extensive discussion of subjects including the promotion of homosexuality, gender dysmorphia and gender reassignment. All without the knowledge or permission of parents.
What is of increasing public concern is the promotion and financing of the movement by US billionaires and a close association of wealthy people who will be seeking a financial return on their investment. But where does the incentive rest?
The answer is in children’s biology which is the reason LBGTQ+ activists are insisting on heavily promoting gender identification education on youngsters who are easily persuaded that they suffer from body dysmorphia which without the knowledge or involvement of parents might prompt school authorities to refer a child to psychological services and irreversible medical intervention.
It would be easy to dismiss the foregoing as over-imaginative and unrealistic but human biology dictates that successful gender reassignment is only ever really effective when completed pre-puberty.
Human Biology
In line with the biology of sexual reproduction and evolutionary pressure on reproductive fitness, males and females are physically different. Physical divergence begins with primary sex development at around seven weeks in utero when, triggered by genetic information inherited at fertilization, bipotential gonads differentiate as either testes in males or ovaries in females. The differentiation and development of gonad type generates a sex-specific hormonal profile that drives ongoing development associated with sex class. Testes contain cells that produce the hormone testosterone, and it is testosterone and its derivatives that mediate the development of male internal and external genitalia, the establishment of growth parameters during high-testosterone “minipuberty” in the neonatal period, and the development of secondary sex characteristics at puberty.
In females, the absence of testosterone production from the developing ovaries permits female internal and external genital development, and the activation of estrogen pathways promotes the development of secondary sex characteristics at puberty.
The secondary sex characteristics acquired during puberty in preparation for reproduction lead to measurably different body morphs between males and females (“sexual dimorphism”) across many physical parameters. Broadly, when compared with females, males are taller and have longer bones with narrower hips and wider shoulders; have lower body fat and higher muscle mass differentially distributed across sites, with more resistant connective tissue; have larger hearts and lungs, and higher levels of haemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen within the blood.
The bulk of male physical advantage is acquired at puberty, when males experience a surge of testes-derived testosterone that results, in adulthood, in circulating testosterone ranging from 8.8–30.9 nanomoles per litre (nmol/l), while female testosterone remains low, ranging from 0.4–2.0 nmol/l. Thus, from puberty into adulthood, testosterone levels between males and females form a non-overlapping, bimodal distribution.
Keir Starmer Aided by The John Smith Foundation To Launch Their Assault on Scotland
The Leader of the Labour party, Sir Keir Starmer will launch a new devolution deal for Holyrood as part of an attempt to revive Labour’s fortunes in Scotland. The pressure has been building within the Labour movement pushing the party towards a “devo-max” proposal that would see the Scottish Parliament take control of more powers and would also include the reform of the House of Lords to give greater representation to the UK’s nations and regions at Westminster.
In his address to the John P. Mackintosh Memorial Lecture, he will give the first indication of his constitutional offer to Scots before next May’s Holyrood election.*
*Cancelled due to covid lockdown.
He is also rumoured to be planning to displace Richard Leonard who will be forced to give up his role as leader of the Labour Party in Scotland.
So a full-on fightback is in the wind and I expect the John Smith Foundation and its supporters will muster all guns in their support. This is a do or die moment in their history and the 5th columnists and 77 Brigade will be active. Read on and get a more informed view of past events.
Judged by the Company they Keep
Effective political strategy nullifies opposition and is usually revealed after the event But the SNP under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon and her supporters are so confident they have absolute control and that any challenges to their political agenda can be first contained then eliminated.
A number of vociferous individuals in the “Sturgeonista Group” only joined the Party within the last ten years and their pedigree and political affiliation are questionable.
Fifth Columnists and the Havoc They Generate
The Westminster, London based Zionist financial cartel loosely titled the Government of the people is well versed in the art of deception and its response to the scare of the 2014 Scottish Independence Referendum was swift and decisive.
Remedial action was necessary to maintain unionist control and this required that the SNP should first be neutered and then merged with the Labour Party branch in Scotland. The mission would be achieved over a period not exceeding ten years through the use of fifth Columnists who would join the SNP and operate from within bringing about fundamental changes to the pursuit of Scottish independence.
What follows is conjecture but is based on my near 60 years of political activism in Scotland. If only 20% of what I offer up is true then the SNP government will be forever dammed by its actions and betrayal of the founding principle of the Party, namely full independence for Scotland and divorce from the Westminster Zionist elite that controls it.
Westminster Strategy Exposed
Glasgow University, a safe haven for Unionists for over 300 years has been selected by Westminster to be the operational control centre. Baroness Smith, the master spy and widow of Bilderberger, the Late John Smith, has set up the John Smith Centre to operate from there.
SNP members are linked to the discredited charity, a front for the Fife-based Integrity Initiative and 77 Brigade Spying organisations controlled and funded by the Foreign Office in Westminster.
The SNP spokesperson for Defence & Member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Stewart McDonald MP, Douglas Chapman MP, Chris law MP and SNP frontbench adviser Neal Stewart, enjoyed a fully-funded trip to Ukraine in 2018. The funding source has never been revealed. In Westminster afterwards, they regularly took up parliamentary time criticizing Russia. But contributed not a jot about Scottish Independence.
Members of the group and its leader Alyn Smith MP also featured in the November 2020 paper from the SNP Westminster group submitted to the UK Government integrated review of foreign policy and defence. Amid the verbiage, there is a clear shift towards multilateralism, a disingenuous softening of the party’s commitment to unilaterally ratifying the UN Treaty on Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons, and a call for Lossiemouth to be the hub for combined Scottish, UK and US P-8 maritime bombers. This is causing deep concern among veteran anti-nuclear campaigners inside the SNP. See: (https://www.conter.co.uk/blog/2020/11/17/snp-the-week-the-gloves-came-off)
A number of SNP MSPs succumbed to the temptation of the American dollar and followed trails previously trod by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown in the 1990s when they left the UK as staunch supporters of Unilateral disarmament only to return two weeks later as confirmed Multilateralist inline with the policies of the USA. In Jul 2016, Labour Party Leader Kezia Dugdale MSP, Jenny Gilruth MSP, Nicola Sturgeon’s Civil Service chief of staff (the Executioner) Elizabeth Lloyd and Daily Record Journalist David Clegg enjoyed a two-week working holiday in the USA.
The invitation to attend the all-expenses-paid jaunt had been extended by the organisers of the USA Government-funded International Visitor Leadership Programme. The inclusion of a pseudo civil servant and a tabloid journalist surprised some. Clegg would go on to later exclusively reveal intimate details of charges of sexual harassment against Alex Salmond. The government official that leaked the information has never been revealed.
Gerrymandering the Membership of the NEC By the NEC
The election of the NEC in 2020 had the potential to bring about a fundamental change in the party in its present form since its NEC will decide the future direction of the party. The choice of independence tactics will be polarized between two factions. The WOKE activists favour the “Gradualist” approach” or the “Fundamentalists” who prefer direct action.
Anticipating the election of a significant number of “fundamentalists” the NEC imposed new and restrictive rules on branch management ensuring that the NEC would be enabled to veto and force changes to candidate shortlists so that a marked prevalence of WOKE activists would be listed as candidates. The process was duly adopted early in November.
This is the real reason the present NEC membership, choc-a-bloc with WOKE activists postponed the Party conference from June until late November 2020. The NEC needed to be sure the fundamentalists had been castrated.
Where were we 6 months short of the next Scottish General Election?
The issue of Scottish independence is no longer a negative factor and if the political scene remains as it is the campaign will yet again pit the SNP against the Tory Party. The Greens will gather second choice votes sufficient to ensure the return of a similar number of list MSPs as will the Liberal Democrats. The Labour Party will be squeezed further and might suffer more losses resulting in its relegation to fourth Party status at Holyrood. But tactical voting might yet dictate a different outcome.
A new Party pledged to the cause of Scottish Independence, without compromise might yet emerge and persuade the electorate to transfer their second vote from the SNP to it which would ensure a parity of voting providing Nationalists with a significant majority over all other parties. This approach would add strength to the cause of independence since Unionists’ arguments would largely fall on deaf ears.
ALBA was formed only a few weeks before the Scottish election but failed to achieve a breakthrough due to negative campaigning against it by the WOKE motivated SNP leadership.
And What About Indy Ref 2?
The question is best answered by harking back to the 2014 referendum when only 2 days before the vote the Unionists played their final card and offered Devo max, an option just short of total independence, for a “no” vote. Scots were attracted by the ploy which was publically supported by the entire Unionist community and the Queen herself. Gordon Brown issued a solemn promise stating “There will be no backtracking on the promise, my iron fists will prevent it.”
Gentle John Sweeney, led the Nationalist team in the subsequent negotiations and was completely outflanked by the Unionists who reneged on many of their “Devo max” pledges. Nothing was heard from Gordon Brown or any of the other Unionist leaders. Scottish voters were furious at the betrayal but unable to reverse the outcome of the referendum they bided their time until the next election only 6 months on and decimated the Unionist party’s in Scotland returning a nearly full house of SNP MPs to Westminster with a clear mandate to pursue the cause of independence yet again.
A mandate commitment was undertaken by all parties to the negotiations in Edinburgh only a few months before. This is the statement:
“Reflecting the sovereign right of the people of Scotland to determine the form of government best suited to their needs, as expressed in the referendum on 18 September 2014, and in the context of Scotland remaining within the UK, an enhanced devolution settlement for Scotland will be durable, responsive and democratic. And it is agreed that nothing in this report prevents Scotland from becoming an independent country in the future should the people of Scotland so choose.”
And What About the Secret Service presence at Glasgow University?
This is a concern given the increasing number of SNP politicians who are in close association with Baroness Smith and her team. It raises the possibility that measures approved by the Bilderbergers in the USA, will be put in place providing a way forward to limited Scottish independence tied to a merger of the SNP and Labour under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon. Impossible!!! Wait and see!!!!
2021: Control freak’ Sturgeon’s ‘Stalinist power grab’
Nicola Sturgeon and SNP party chiefs are tightening their grip on power with sweeping reforms to the Party’s top brass of management.
The SNP National Executive Committee (NEC), the highest decision-making body for the party, is being slimmed down from 42 to 32 members.
But an immediate consequence is that around half of the party’s regional officers representing thousands of members across hundreds of branches across Scotland. are set for the chop. But the move has sparked fears over the lack of scrutiny the party will have from members in future following the “slimming down.”
In a draft paper, the SNP leadership said: “Feedback from our consultation highlighted the need for further reform of the NEC, not least from those with experience of NEC membership.”
Former SNP member Kenny MacAskill, now an Alba Party MP, branded the move as a “power grab” by party chiefs saying: “The SNP has gone from being one of the most democratic political parties to being one of the most autocratic.
This Sturgeon power grab is just the latest example and one of which any Stalinist would be proud. All power in the SNP is concentrated in the hands of two people. Its leader and its chief executive are of course married to each other. This unhealthy dynamic does not allow criticism or dissent and this move is designed to remove the last vestiges of democracy from the SNP and to ensure the NEC is nothing more than a rubber stamp for the leader and chief executive. It does this by changing the balance away from those elected by the members and towards those appointed.” (Press)
George Kerevan provides a damming analysis of what has happened to the SNP after many years in office
The shift to the right in policy terms has been accompanied by the rise of a powerful Party bureaucracy. The policy is made by employed special advisers rather than members and Corporate lobbyists have easy access to ministers.
With success in Westminster elections, a large number of MPs and their staff have become dependent on our opponents (the UK State) for salaries and pensions and there is a powerful system of patronage and a career ladder to keep aspiring high flyers in line and ensure their loyalty.
The Party HQ and the Leadership now have a deeply ingrained disdain for members and especially for the volunteers who run the branch and constituency networks. Associated with this is the large cohort of MPs and MSPs, their energy perhaps sapped by the routine work of representing individual constituents, whose focus and drive appear suppressed by a combination of healthy salaries and a position of relative impotence in relation to the tiny select Leadership group.
There are many who enjoy the largesse of the Party leader and her select inner circle of LGBTQ+ activists. One is the patronage and continuous employment in politics gifted to french-born, Aberdeen Councillor Christian Allard whose Linkedin profile lists his political interests as Economic Empowerment • Education • Health • Human Rights • Politics • Poverty Alleviation. Strange !!! No mention of Scottish Independence. And an examination of his Twitter activity reveals a dearth of mentions of Scottish independence.
Political career: Gave up working in the private sector in 2013 and has been in paid employment continuously with the SNP between 2011-and 2022 and has been awarded “Protected” status.
Jul 2011 – May 2013 · 2 years: Constituency Officer (Kintore) for Dennis Robertson (MSP).
May 2013 – May 2016 3 years: Member of Scottish Parliament (MSP): Committee service.
May 2016: Scottish General election: Topped the SNP’s regional list in the North East. Not elected due to the strong performance of the party in the constituency vote. Regional seats went to candidates from the lists of other parties.
May 2017 – Present 5 years: Aberdeen: Councillor for Torry and Ferryhill: Elected with 910 1st preference votes.
Aug 2017 – Apr 2018 9 months: Aberdeen: Community Integrated Care: Support Worker.
Jun 2019 – Jan 2020 8 months: Member of the European Parliament (MEP).
May 2021: Scottish General election: Automatically selected as the second list candidate for the SNP in the North East. Not elected due to the strong performance of the party in the constituency vote. Regional seats went to candidates from the lists of parties, other than ALBA on the instructions of Nicola Sturgeon.
May 2022: Standing for re-election as councillor Torry and Ferryhill. Success would extend his employment with the SNP to 16 years. Surely time for someone else to get a chance at earning some easy money courtesy of the protection of the Party Leader.
Another benefitting from the “nod and a wink” politics now so prevalent in the SNP is Joshua Mennie, a protected candidate who gains that security through his claims that he suffers from Tourette’s syndrome!!
At the time the Finance minister, McKay resigned and Kate Forbes came to the rescue with an excellent presentation of the budget, the zealous monomaniac and ferocious tweeter Mennie ignored the scandal of McKay being forced to resign for grooming a child to confront an imaginary one.
A church-going minister tipped to be the next Finance Secretary, who believes as the bulk of the Party membership also does that the legal definition of male and female ought not to be changed without informed public discussion and agreement.
He tweeted: “The last thing our party needs is Kate Forbes climbing the ladder when she has such questionable views on equality. I’m always concerned when politicians conflate their personal religious beliefs into their work-life to the detriment of others,” confirming a complete lack of self-awareness.
His tweet, (since deleted) was his response to a letter published in the press (https://www.thenational.scot/news/19859777.kate-forbes-calls-tolerance-gra-debate) highlighting concerns over the Scottish government’s proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act, a law that would replace the legal definition of sex with gender self-declaration.
Jan 2021: NEC Meeting hijacked by LGBTQ activists
The LGBTQ group proposed that the SNP’s eight regional lists for the Scottish parliamentary election should include in top place, either a *BAME or a disabled candidate.
Four regions would be allocated a BAME person and the other four a disabled person. The proposal carried the rider that disabled status should be by self-identification with no confirmatory checking being carried out.
The proposal was debated at some length since many members believed it would be illegal to adopt the proposal under equalities law. The matter was deferred and referred to the Party’s legal counsel, Jonathan Mitchell QC who warned that the policy was legally dubious and open to challenge in the courts and any case brought by a person disadvantaged by the rule would probably succeed, and cost the SNP tens of thousands of pounds in legal expenses.
But the LGBTQ group insisted the proposal should be decided by the NEC and its LGBTQ Chair, Kirsten Oswald allowed the matter to be put to a vote. The vote was tied and it was expected that in compliance with accepted practice the Chair would cast her vote for retention of the status quo. She didn’t and passed the motion placing the Party at great risk of legal and costly claims of discrimination.
Three members announced conflicts of interest before the vote and should have recused themselves from the vote. They were:
Fiona Robertson declared that she intended to seek the top spot on the North-East list as a disabled candidate who was in attendance as a substitute for an NEC member who was unable to attend. Did not recuse herself from the vote.
Graham Campbell, a councillor from Glasgow who declared his intention to stand on either the Glasgow or Lothian lists, both of which were to have their top spots reserved for BAME* candidates under the proposal. He did not recuse himself from the vote. His partner is SNP MP Anne McLauchlin.
Greg McCarra from the Association of Nationalist Councillors (who is neither disabled nor BAME) also declared he was seeking the nomination. He did recuse himself from the vote.
Those subsequently included as candidates on the protected list for the North East of Scotland included. The nature of their self-declared disability has been withheld but it is common knowledge they are all LGBTQ+ activists:
Fatima Joji Christian Allard Julie Bell Nadia El-Nakla Lynne Short Gillian Al-Samarai Joshua Mennie
19 Mar 2018 marked 15 years since the U.S.-U.K invasion of Iraq in 2003, and still, the World has no idea of the enormity of the calamity the invasion unleashed since the military refused to keep a tally of Iraqi deaths. But it is calculated that there has been a catastrophic 2.4 million Iraqi deaths since the 2003 invasion.
The number of Iraqi casualties is not just a historical dispute, because the killing is still going on today. Since several major cities in Iraq and Syria fell to Islamic State in 2014, NATO has conducted the heaviest bombing campaign on any country since the US bombing of the Vietnam war, dropping 105,000 bombs and missiles and reducing most of Mosul and other contested Iraqi and Syrian cities to rubble.
An Iraqi Kurdish intelligence report estimated that at least 40,000 civilians were killed in the bombardment of Mosul alone, with many more bodies still buried in the rubble. A recent project to remove rubble and recover bodies in just one neighbourhood found 3,353 more bodies, of whom only 20% were identified as ISIS fighters and 80% as civilians. Another 11,000 people in Mosul are still reported missing by their families.
Of the countries where the US and UK have been waging war since 2001, Iraq is the only one where epidemiologists have actually conducted comprehensive mortality studies based on the best practices that they have developed in war zones such as Angola, Bosnia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala, Kosovo, Rwanda, Sudan and Uganda. In all these countries, as in Iraq, the results of comprehensive epidemiological studies revealed 5 to 20 times more deaths than previously published figures based on “passive” reporting by journalists, NGOs or governments.
Two such reports on Iraq came out in the prestigious The Lancet medical journal, first in 2004 and then in 2006. The 2006 study estimated that about 600,000 Iraqis were killed in the first 40 months of war and occupation in Iraq, along with 54,000 non-violent but still war-related deaths.
The US and UK governments dismissed the report, saying that the methodology was not credible and that the numbers were hugely exaggerated. In countries where Western military forces have not been involved, however, similar studies have been accepted and widely cited without question or controversy. Based on advice from their scientific advisers, British government officials privately admitted that the 2006 Lancet report was “likely to be right,” but precisely because of its legal and political implications, the U.S. and British governments led a cynical campaign to discredit it.
A 2015 report by Physicians for Social Responsibility, Body Count: Casualty Figures After 10 Years of the ‘War on Terror,” found the 2006 Lancet study more reliable than other mortality studies conducted in Iraq, citing its robust study design, the experience and independence of the research team, the short time elapsed since the deaths it documented and its consistency with other measures of violence in occupied Iraq.
The Lancet study was conducted over 11 years ago, after only 40 months of war and occupation. Tragically, that was nowhere near the end of the deadly consequences of the Iraq invasion.
While the figure of a million people killed was shocking, the Lancet study had documented steadily increasing violence in occupied Iraq between 2003 and 2006, with 328,000 deaths in the final year it covered. The later finding that another 430,000 Iraqis were killed in the following year was consistent with other evidence of escalating violence through late 2006 and early 2007.
The “Iraqi Death Estimator”updated the Lancet study’s estimate by multiplying passively reported deaths compiled by British NGO Iraq Body Count by the same ratio found in 2006. This project was discontinued in September 2011, with its estimate of Iraqi deaths standing at 1.45 million.
Accepting the estimate of 1.033 million killed by June 2007, then applying acceptable methodology from July 2007 to the present using revised figures from Iraq Body Count, it is estimated that 2.4 million Iraqis have been killed since 2003 as a result of the illegal invasion, with a minimum of 1.5 million and a maximum of 3.4 million.
These calculations cannot possibly be as accurate or reliable as a rigorous up-to-date mortality study, which is urgently needed in Iraq and in each of the countries afflicted by war since 2001. But in calculating the judgment, it is important to make the most accurate estimate.
Numbers are numbing, especially numbers that rise into the millions. Each person killed is someone’s loved one. They are mothers, fathers, husbands, wives, sons, and daughters. One death impacts an entire community but collectively, they impact an entire nation.
At the start of the 16th year of the Iraq war, the US and UK need to come to terms with the scale of the violence and chaos they unleashed in Iraq. Only then may we find the political will to bring this horrific cycle of violence to an end, to replace war with diplomacy and hostility with friendship so that other countries can be spared a similar fate to that of Iraq.
caltonjock 
