Putin’s Russia pulls the strings and the Tory Party Dances to their tune
In the past ten years, approximately 10,000 super-wealthy Chinese and Russian business investors and entrepreneurs have been issued with “golden visas” by the Tory government providing them with a right of residence in the UK.
So many of Putin’s oligarchs and their wider families have gained the advantage of the scheme that the UK capital is now known as “Londongrad”.
Assertions that Tory’s welcome inward investment regardless of source is well-founded.
The “tier one” investor visa, requires only that the applicant operate a UK bank account with a balance of not less than £2m. This permits investors full residence in the UK for up to five years.
But eligibility for extensions and permanent residence is guaranteed after making further investments.
Scottish Torys have the affrontery to demand a Public Inquiry into Russian interference in Scottish politics
The Westminster “Intelligence & Security Committee” (ISC) only this week released its politically delayed Russia report warning that the UK is at risk of Russian exploitation because of the Tory Party’s acceptance of large amounts of political donations, establishing inappropriate relationships with Russian oligarchs. The report read:
“In brief, Russian influence in the UK is “the new normal”, and there are a lot of Russians with very close links to Putin who are well integrated into the UK business and social scene, and accepted because of their wealth. This level of integration London, in particular, means any measures now being taken by the Government are not preventative but rather constitute damage limitation.”
And information released to the public today revealed that 14 of the present Tory government ministers,(including six Cabinet members) have accepted tens of thousands of pounds in donations from Russian oligarchs.
A public inquiry should be conducted without delay so that UK citizens can be assured all measures necessary will be introduced urgently bringing an end to external interference in the nation’s politics. Including banning the practice of politicians taking money from foreigners.
But a 2018 Tory government inquiry giving a warning about Russian influence has been blatantly ignored
The report, published by Theresa May’s Tory government, “Foreign Affairs Committee”, accused government ministers of risking national security by “turning a blind eye” to Russian, “dirty money” flowing through the City of London.
Concerns were also raised about “golden visas” being issued in ever-increasing numbers despite the alleged involvement of Russia in the Salisbury Novichok nerve agent attack.
In its conclusion, the report demanded that the Government get tough on foreign nationals by tightening the rules of the scheme making it more secure.
But interestingly, the one voice of dissent from his own committee was from the then Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson who suggested that “there was no real role for Government in the process”.
The insidious dogma of hyper-extremist activists is holding Scottish politics to ransom
Scotland is a colony of England and its politicians are permitted to operate only under the strict control of the Westminster government. Faced with this reality the acceptable face of politics within Scotland has become narrow-minded and focused on encouraging the development of pressure groups with narrow agenda’s who are able to successfully transfer their aims and ambitions across the border to England.
LGBTQ hyper-extremist and fundamentalist activists increasingly exert political influence on society in England and Scotland well in excess of levels warranted by their numbers and mainstream politicians need to be alerted to this since many of the views and demands for change they wish to impose are toxic to the vast bulk of the electorate.
Addressing the issues in Scotland requires an understanding of the modus-operandi of the activists which is to become cuckoos in the nest of the SNP and over time crowd out anyone who failed to accede to their demands.
As of February 2022, the group have grown in numbers and influence and through a process of gerrymandering, internal election processes now dictate and decide SNP policies.
The SNP no longer exists in the form many of its members signed up to yet it strangely continues to promote itself to the Scottish electorate as the party of independence.
The two main LGBTQ activist centres are located in Stirling and Aberdeen and are focussed on the leadership of two SNP MP’s: Alyn Smith and Kirsty Blackman who together with their supporters have done little to progress the cause of Scottish independence and should have the courage of their convictions and leave the SNP too form a new political party and stand for office in a by-election in a new LGBTQ Party.
The Aberdeen faction first raised its head in January 2018 when a small number of LGBTQ activists located in the Grampian Region formed an umbrella organisation the “Aberdeen Independence Movement” (AIM). Its membership comprised:
Co-Chairs: Fatima Joji: from Westhill, Aberdeenshire, topped the SNP’s North-East regional list for the Scottish Parliament elections. Kenny Anderson: Longtime SNP supporter. Managing Director and Majority Shareholder, Anderson Buchan Properties Ltd.
Other members Neil Baillie: SNP Councillor Vicky Harper: SNP Councillor Andy Stuart: SNP Convenor Aberdeenshire West
Finance Team: Virginia Dawod: Manager, Robert Gordon University.
Theo Forbes: Graphics Media And Communications Officer. 2016 2018: Member of the National Executive Committee and National Events and Fundraising Officer, “Young Scots for Independence”. 2017 2021: Employed by the SNP as an intern from September 2020. Attended Aberdeen University studying Politics & International Relations.
Joshua Aaron Mennie: from Aberdeen 2018: 2020: Media Consultant. Intern for Kirsty Blackwood MP. 2019 – 2020: Member National Executive Committee (NEC) and Convener for the official LGBTQ+ wing of the SNP. 2022 – Pres: Communications & Officer Manager to Karen Adam MSP at Holyrood.
Tourette’s Syndrome* sufferer, Mennie is a person to note since his rise to prominence within the Party has been remarkable. In his 3 years of membership, he has been elected as a disabled member of the NEC. Heads the “Out For Indy” group and is the leader of the party within a party, the LGBTQ+ group of the SNP.
The Equality Act 2010 (‘the Act’) and Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (‘DDA’) defines a disabled person as:
“A person has a disability if they have a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on the person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.” Tourette’s syndrome is not listed in the Social Security Administration’s Blue Book (the guide used to help SSA representatives determine whether a person qualifies for disability based on their condition)
And the Mennie family are well represented in the party. His sister Jessica was elected in 2019, SNP councillor for Donside in Aberdeen (£18k annual salary). She was also the office manager (2015-2019) to Mark McDonald MSP, who was forced to resign from the Party by its leadership who outlandishly accepted an allegation of sexual harassment against him based on a joke about an autocorrect error in a single text message. It is claimed that she also works for party HQ in a new job which was allegedly not advertised and for which nobody else was interviewed.
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.
Fiona Robertson who 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. Campbell, whose partner is SNP MP Anne McLauchlin, did not recuse himself from the vote.
Greg McCarra from the Association of Nationalist Councillors (who is neither disabled nor BAME) also declared he was seeking nomination. He did recuse himself from the vote.
Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates. The 2011 census identified, 2.66% of the Scottish population as Asian and 0.5% Black and the SNP policy is unfairly discrimatory against Asians. Not a lot of wisdom in directly transferring and implementing American electoral policies in Scotland
Those subsequently included on the protected list for the North East of Scotland included: Fatima Joji, Christian Allard, Fergus Mutch, William Duff, Julie Bell, Nadia El-Nakla, John Cooke, Lynne Short, Gillian Al-Samarai and Joshua Mennie.
Gillian al-Samari
Comments on the North East Scotland list candidates:
Joshua Mennie. See before. Claimed to be disabled suffering from Tourette’s Syndrome
Gillian al-Samari: Councillor for Dyce, Bucksburn and Danestone (salary £18K) also worked for Mark McDonald MSP between 2013-2019. McDonald was forced to resign from the Party by its leadership who outlandishly accepted an allegation of sexual harassment against him based on a joke about an autocorrect error in a single text message. Councillor Samari ceased working for McDonald on 23 March 2019 and transferred her employment to Kirsty Blackman MP on 1 May 2019, taking up a position as a caseworker. Her swift transfer was criticised by opposition party’s who accused her of double-dipping” the taxpayer’s purse.
Fatima Joji: Caseworker for Richard Thomson MP. interests: politics and development advocacy. Holds a postgraduate diploma in ‘International Development (Poverty, Inequality & Development). Chair of AIM. Key political statements:
26 May 2021: Unsuccessful in the Scottish election in the North East regional list she tried to address the issue within the party but felt she now needed to speak out after being “harassed for months” with no support from the Party.
On her experience as a candidate for selection in Aberdeenshire West, she said that as a Black candidate it had been mixed. While the local membership was “largely positive” her name had been included in a tweet claiming that Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf had overturned the decision to fail several BAME candidates at vetting, allowing them to stand.
But Joji insisted she had passed vetting without issue. “But I think it did have an impact,” she said of the tweet.
She urged the SNP to address the under-representation of BAME candidates, particularly in areas with large communities of colour through the list system Saying. “I think there is a real opportunity there to turn rhetoric into reality.”
10 Sep 2021: I am SNP because of its progressive and inclusive policies that are built upon the foundations of equality fairness, dignity and respect.
Mennie attacks Kate Forbes
The SNP’s Finance Secretary, Derek Mackay, fell from grace after revelations in the press that he had made sexual advances toward a 16-year-old boy, inundating him with inappropriate Facebook messages and inviting him to meet up.
Mackay resigned on the day he was supposed to present the SNP Government’s budget and the Government’s Public Finance Minister, Kate Forbes, completed the task. Her presentation was excellent and she became the front runner to replace MacKay as Cabinet Secretary for the Economy. But in Mennie’s mind, her proposed appointment, as opposed to Mackay’s resignation, became the controversy.
The zealous monomaniac and ferocious tweeter ignored an actual scandal. Mackay, a 42-year-old minister, was tipped to be the next leader of Scotland 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 indeed other non-church going ministers also believe, 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.”
As evidence of these “questionable” views, he also tweeted: “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).
Scottish 2014 Independence Referendum: Guidance for the UK and Scottish Governments and Civil Servants
Departments need to take particular care in approaching activity during this period and civil servants must ensure that they conduct themselves in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Service Code. In particular, civil servants are under an obligation: not to undertake any activity which could call into question their political impartiality; and, to ensure that public resources are not used for party political purposes.
In addition, the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013 (‘the Act’) sets out the legal framework for the referendum, including restrictions on Scottish Government publicity. The Act provides a 28-day restricted period from 22 August 2014 to 18 September 2014. During this period, the Scottish Government and Scottish public authorities will operate under statutory restrictions on the publication of information. Under the Edinburgh Agreement, the UK Government committed to act according to these same restrictions.
25 Aug 2014: Scottish Independence Referendum – The underhand conduct of the CBI and the UK Government
There was panic in the ranks of the UK government-led “Better Together” campaign following the second TV and final debate on Scottish independence when Alex Salmond emerged victoriously.
The Westminster Civil Service “defence of the Union” team, led by the most corrupt cabinet secretary in British political history, Sir Jeremy Heywood decided that something of significance needed to be thrown into the mix and this was manifest with the publication of a letter canvassed and organised by Amanda Harvie, leader of the Tory Party in Scotland, Media Response Unit.
Harvie, on being questioned about the spontaneity of the response to her canvassing activities admitted that many Business Leaders had refused to sign the letter or had failed to respond.
The letter devalued by the narrowness of its contributors and its political bias was signed by 133 business leaders from banking, mining, engineering, food, whisky and technology was published on the front page of every major newspaper and given repeated exposure over 3 days on a number of Scottish television programmes, stated that vital issues including currency, regulation, tax, pensions and support for exports around the world had not been resolved and a ‘Yes’ vote would be “bad for business”.
But supporters of an independent Scotland had their champions in Sir George Mathewson the former chairman of The Royal Bank of Scotland, who said: “Scotland’s vital financial services sector would flourish if Scotland voted “yes”. There is nothing to suggest that being part of a smaller country hinders a financial services industry. Switzerland, for example, has in Geneva and Zurich not one, but two of the world’s top 10 financial centres. Singapore, with 5 million people, is ranked 4th. Investment is an increasingly global business, where success depends much more on people than on borders.”
The economist and former head of Scottish Enterprise, Sir Donald MacKay, argued that an independent Scotland would be in better fiscal shape than the UK saying: “An independent Scotland should use that financial advantage to invest in re-engineering our economy towards industrial, manufacturing and tradeable services development.”
Jim McColl, one of Scotland’s richest men and head of the engineering investment business, Clyde Blowers Capital, was enthusiastic about Scottish independence and said he would consider returning home to Scotland from Monaco in the event of the “Yes” vote prevailed.
Willie Walsh, the chief executive of IAG, owner of British Airways, also said that independence would be good for Scotland.
Business for Scotland hit back with the statement: “Business for Scotland has 2,500 members who run businesses in Scotland, employ people across the country in a range of industries, and all believe that Scottish independence is in the best interests of Scotland and Scottish business. It’s a position reached after looking at the facts and figures and realising that, from a simple balance sheet point of view as well as other considerations, our best interests lie in becoming an independent country.”
27 Aug 2014: Scottish Independence Referendum – The CBI Dinner in Glasgow
Early in 2014, the CBI registered as a formal “Better Together” campaign group in the referendum but withdrew its registration after it prompted more than a dozen members to resign or suspend their membership. In an attempt to limit damage and save its membership base the CBI formally adopted a policy of strict neutrality in all matters pertaining to the referendum. It came as a bit of a bombshell therefore when the London based organisation betrayed its membership and convened a quasi impromptu dinner/business meeting in Glasgow on Thursday 27 August 2014.
The Electoral Commission had previously been formally advised of the CBI position of neutrality and asked the organisers for additional information, including the cost of the dinner then ruled that proposals did not constitute campaigning stating that it had received assurances that the cost would be within the spending limit of £10,000.
Subsequent inquiry revealed that the CBI had originally planned to host a much larger event but this had been greatly reduced to meet campaigning rules.
A revelation that confirmed, in the minds of many Scots, an act of collusion between the Electoral Commission and the UK government promoting the “No” campaign.
The lobbying event which was was promoted as a pro-Union ‘Better Together’ get together confirmed the falsity of the BBC’s much-hyped neutrality on the referendum following revelations that the corporation had been secretly paying the CBI tens of thousands of pounds membership fees each year.
Prime Minister Cameron who had cancelled all plans and meetings and rushed up to Glasgow to attend the dinner was humiliated when the CBI president Sir Mike Rake used the occasion to warn that the real danger to Scotland’s and Britain’s businesses came not from a “Yes” vote but from the Prime Minister’s promise to hold an in-out referendum on EU membership.
Not long after his address arch unionist supporting BBC reporter Nick Robinson interviewed Cameron and failed to challenge his wildly inaccurate assertions about a number of matters including a claim without foundation that the billions of pounds of deficit incurred the Bank of Scotland at the time of the World financial crash would need to be accounted for by an independent Scottish Government.
He also asked a previously rehearsed loaded question: “will you guarantee more powers to Scotland in the event of a “No” vote and, if so, when? In a clear breach of “Purdah,” Cameron replied: “Yes and soon is the very short answer to that.” View here: (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28952197)
Alex Salmond later commented: “The dinner was a humiliating experience for Cameron since it exposed the powerful Eurosceptic seam within the Tory Party which is dragging Scotland ever nearer to the exit door of Europe. For Cameron to be lectured by one of the UK’s most senior business figures about the dangers of his in-out referendum shows just how worried companies are about the prospect of the UK being taken out of Europe. For Scotland, the choice is clear. A “Yes” vote which will protect our place in the EU as an independent member, or a “No” vote which results in us being dragged out of Europe against our will, shutting us off from a single market of more than 500 million people with potentially devastating consequences for jobs and investment. He wants his Unionist Government to continue to run Scotland from London with an occasional ministerial public eye visit just to keep an eye on things. Alistair Darling seems to have been shoved aside he’s not even allowed on to the phone-ins, he was replaced by (Labour MP) Douglas Alexander just a few hours ago and he has since been replaced by David Cameron. When is David Cameron going to have the guts to do what Alistair Darling did. Have a debate with me on Scotlands future.
A few months before the start of the 2014 Scottish referendum campaign the BBC decided to clear out a number of Scottish based presenters replacing them with reliable Unionists.
Broadcaster Sarah Smith, the daughter of the late Labour leader, John Smith who fitted the profile perfectly, was recruited at great expense from Channel 4 to anchor BBC2’s Referendum programme.
Sarah was ecstatic since she and her husband enjoy a close family relationship with her mother Baroness Smith with whom she lives, in Edinburgh and her Scottish based sister who is married to Lord John Robertson’s son.
She was married, on the island of Iona, by the Rev Douglas Alexander, father of Labour Party stalwarts Douglas and Wendy.
A picture of Labour Party links so strong it should have ensured she would be the last person on earth to be contracted by the BBC to present unbiased commentary in a referendum which could possibly bring an end to the party of her beloved father and all of her close-knit family and friends.
Lord Robertson
The BBC – A Labour Party Fiefdom and the 2014 referendum
Including Smith, the impartial BBC blatantly foisted a number of other high profile Unionists supporting television and radio presenters onto the Scottish public.
Two of the most prominent are Kirsty Wark, a close personal friend of the Labour Party ex-first minister McConnell and James Naughtie, right-wing unionist and chief executive of the British American Project.
Unfairly, the 2014 “Better Together” campaign was led by a group of Anglos all with a Unionist persuasion, who had long ago deserted Scotland for greener pastures.
People whose concept of Scotland and Scots mirrored the village of Brigadoon.
Not for them the re-birth of Scotland, as a democratic state taking its place in the world once more.
The Internet Social media hits back
A post on the “exposing anti-independence bias on the BBC” Facebook page asserted:
“The appointment of Sarah Smith to “assist” the coming referendum debate alongside Jim Naughtie is another instance of London based “talent” being shipped in to make the case for the Union.”
Saville Inquiry – Sarah Gets Wise long after the event
The BBC was ordered to launch an inquiry into its cultural practices in previous decades and recently.
Business Correspondent Sarah Smith reflected on her own experience with the Corporation in the 1990s:
“I joined the BBC in Glasgow as a 20-year-old trainee in 1989. I never saw any underage sex or rapes. But in those days sexist jokes and inappropriate touching were considered normal. That same year the BBC Scotland TV newsroom Christmas party had the theme of “Grape and Vine”. Someone thought it was funny and went around Broadcasting House and deleted the “G” on every poster, changing the theme to “Rape and Vine”. A fellow, female, trainee lodged a formal complaint with management, saying she did not wish to work in a newsroom displaying the posters and asked for them to be removed. She was immediately shunned by just about all of the male journalists in the newsroom. In the follow-up, she was systematically ridiculed for being unable to take a joke and treated unfairly when assignments were being handed out. The posters stayed in place leaving our only avenue of protesting a boycott of the party.
September 23 2007: It was the most poignant of walks down the aisle for Sarah the eldest daughter of late Labour leader John Smith yesterday as she was married yards from her father’s grave.
Family and friends who travelled to Iona for the wedding included:
Lord Chancellor Derry Irvine. (Mentor of Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson and architect of New Labour)
Lord Gordon, former chairman of Scottish Radio Holdings.
Lord Robertson, former Secretary-General of NATO.
Lord Robertson’s son, Malcolm, married Sarah’s younger sister, Jane, three years before, at Port Charlotte, on Islay.
Jane, 35, was Sarah’s matron of honour while her other sister, Catherine, was a bridesmaid.
Other guests included Sarah’s Channel 4 colleague Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and main presenter Jon Snow.
The traditional service was led by family friend Rev Douglas Alexander, the father of International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander and new Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander.
Marriage Simon Conway & Sarah Smith
back at BBC Scotland, Things were not going well
In the months before the 2014 referendum, BBC journalists and staff were at loggerheads with senior management over the role, identity and broadcasting profile of the BBC Scotland News and Current Affairs team.
Management and Staff consultation procedures had broken down on a number of occasions following accusations that management ruled by diktat and pronouncement which rendered fruitful discussion impossible.
Many organisational and programme presentation changes had been dropped on staff without discussion or warning.
An example is the surprise announcement that BBC Scotland “News-night “Scotland’ would be shut down soon. No discussion. No date of Closure. No staff briefing about their future. The staff were made to sit on death row for months without knowing their fate.
Other worrying behaviour patterns developed. Scottish based journalists and staff employed for many years by the organisation were increasingly sidelined. Their views and opinions were given very little purchase.
Staff became increasing aware that management had turned its face away from Scots who had made a great success of devolution. Preferring to promote retention of the union. The BBC had gone back 10 years.
The placement in the team, in leadership roles, of Unionist supporting presenters Sarah Smith and James Naughtie on very expensive contracts was paid for by the withdrawal of employment from some staff. This caused much consternation and unhappiness. Management and Staff union discussions failed to resolve matters and the unhappiness was manifest for some time.
Smith and Naughtie have qualities but they also have deep-seated Labour Party and Unionist roots and backgrounds and have not been engaged in the Scottish debate, having spent long periods living elsewhere but Scotland. Their express dismissal of anything positive about the SNP was prevalent in their persona and this has never been challenged by management despite staff unease.
The company is a global leader in the design, supply and ongoing service of engineering equipment for the mining, oil and gas, power and industrial sectors and is listed on the London Stock Exchange. With annual sales in excess of 2 billion, it employs around 15,000 people and operates in more than 42 countries.
It maintains manufacturing facilities in North and South America, the UK, mainland Europe, Australia, South Africa, India and China.
Annual profits vary between 300-600 million.
Lord Smith of Kelvin was chairman of the Group between 2002 and 2013.
Additional information
The companies main operational thrust in the UK over the next few years (2016-2020) is to be directed at the development and expansion of Nuclear Power and Fracking
The Group has consistently and actively solicited support to its campaigns against any form of Scottish devolution or independence and although founded and registered in Scotland less than 5% of the Groups total workforce is Scottish based.
The Group is an active member of the networking organisation, “Common Purpose” which provides unique and highly productive opportunities through its extensive connections.
In 2013, a team of leaders undertook specialist leadership development programmes and attended a global leadership conference run by “Common Purpose” which had assembled exceptional senior people from across the Commonwealth to tackle challenges that businesses, governments and society face today with the aim of building global relationships for use in the future. The Weir Groups tentacles of influence spread far and wide.
Iraqi Oil for Food Programme
Trade sanctions against Iraq were introduced after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 but the measures contributed to an increase in the suffering and starvation among the Iraqi population and the UN set up the Oil for Food Programme (OFFP).
From 1996 onwards, Saddam Hussein was allowed to sell oil, but all the receipts were placed in a UN account in Paris. Iraq was then able to use the funds to buy goods approved by the UN for the benefit of its population.
Using its French subsidiary Wemco to administer the deals (because of Iraq’s “Buy British Last” policy), the Weir Group tendered for and won several contracts which involved supplying spare parts for water and oil pumps to Iraq’s North Oil Company and South Oil Company.
How the Weir Group worked the scam
Knowing the money could not be paid into an Iraqi bank, it was agreed an Iraqi agent would pay it from his own pocket. When it received the money from the OFFP, the company paid a 10 per cent kickback plus a further 4 per cent for the agent’s services to a fake Geneva-based company, Corsin Finance Ltd. The payments did not arouse suspicion as paying an agent to act on overseas deals was in itself entirely legitimate.
Two meetings were held on 13 and 14 September 2001 at the behest of a group director who was not involved in the OFFP contracts but had become aware of what was going on. At the second meeting, the director gave the go-ahead for the kickbacks despite being told they were illegal. The first payment was made that same day. In total, Weir Group plc secured 16 contracts worth 35 million paying kickbacks of 3 million.
2010: Weir Group prosecuted for providing kickbacks to the Iraqi regime
The “Oil For Food Programme” OFFP was put in place by the United Nations UN to ensure sanctions would not punish Iraqi citizens for the excesses of their government.
The Weir Group agreed on supply contracts heavily overcharging the programme, between 2001 and 2003 diverting around £3.1 million away from humanitarian aid to the coffers of Saddam Hussein.
The company was fined £3 million. The judge said he was taking into account the company’s guilty plea and its willingness to pay back the £9.4 million profits it made from the deals and the £3.1 million it had diverted from the OFFP together with a £1.4 million sum it had paid to its Iraqi agent for acting as a conduit for the illegal payments.
Weir Group PLC put profits before ethics; when told it had to pay a 10 per cent kickback or it wouldn’t win contracts, any scruples about UN sanctions disappeared.
Not one, of the more than 50 employees of the Weir Group involved was identified or pursued through the courts. Despite the fact that a number of individuals from other UK companies charged with similar offences of corruption and violation of sanctions, were charged, tried and punished. Moreover, though most of those at the helm at the time had moved on, many secured prestigious posts elsewhere.
In a statement explaining its decision to keep individuals out of the frame, the Crown Office said: “In the course of this investigation it became clear that the decision to pay kickbacks to the Iraqi government and to pay fees to the Iraqi agent, was taken at Weir Group level. It was, therefore, deemed that the most appropriate course of action was to prosecute The Weir Group plc rather than any individual who may have been involved in these events.”
A critic of the Crown Office said “the fines levied against The Weir Group was a pittance when set against its overall turnover. And they will simply be incorporated into the annual profit and loss account reducing the corporation tax bill. The fines should have been made the personal responsibility of the directors which would have added bite to the punishment.”
Lord Smith of Kelvin, Weir Group’s chairman, said the judgement “finally drew a line” under the prosecution investigation. “What happened back in 2001 was wrong and we accept full responsibility”.
27 August 2014: Weir Group chief executive canvasses support of business leaders to his cause.
Announcing their opposition to a yes vote, 133 business leaders said: “Our economic ties inside the United Kingdom are very close and support almost 1 million Scottish jobs and the rest of the UK is Scotland’s biggest market by far. Our conclusion is that the business case for independence has not been made.”
Their intervention was coordinated by Keith Cochrane, chief executive of the Scottish engineering company the Weir Group and coincided with a campaigning visit to Scotland by David Cameron.
In a follow up on BBC Radio Scotland, Cochrane said he expected Scotland to face higher interest rates and higher costs for business if there was a yes vote. “Scottish business is deeply frustrated at the lack of answers to some basic questions which are pretty fundamental to business as we look forward. The economy is clearly one of the most significant concerns of voters and we felt it was important that Scottish business contributed to the debate. These are real businesses accounting for real jobs.”
RIVALS: Weir Group chief Keith Cochrane (left) “Better Together” and Clyde Blowers Jim McColl (right) “Yes”
12 September 2014: Weir Group to move Glasgow HQ if Scotland votes ‘yes’
Chief Executive Keith Cochrane has said that the group could not guarantee that it would keep its Glasgow headquarters if Scotland became independent after the referendum, although the group’s three service centres would remain in the country.
27 November 2014: Lord Smith of Kelvin the former chairman of the Weir group which championed the anti-independence to chair the DevoMax commission
The Smith Commission issued its report on the shape and form of the devolved powers promised to Scotland by the political parties at Westminster in the days before and after the Scottish Independence referendum.
Scottish peatlands sustain the bulk of Scotlands wildlife and provide storage and filtration systems ensuring a plentiful supply of clean water.
In addition, they store around 2 billion tonnes of carbon and are capable of holding many billions of tonnes more but not without a major investment of finance which is well beyond the means of a devolved Scottish government.
So, once again the future health and well being of Scots is in the hands of Westminster politicians.
Scotlands climate change prevention targets are also subsumed into the UK target and this places an extra burden on Scotland since the bulk of the peatlands in England are extensively damaged, many areas beyond repair due to massive drainage, peat extraction and burning over many centuries.
Scottish peatlands have suffered damage but not to the same extent. But it is calculated that around 25 million tonnes of co2 are released back into the atmosphere each year by Scotlands damaged peatlands a situation that needs to be rectified without undue delay.
The drawback is a lack of government funding. Around £1 billion is needed now and expectations are that £30 million might be made available.
Trees also absorb large amounts of carbon and store it in their wood but as in the case of the peatlands, huge areas of Scottish native woodland has been destroyed over hundreds of years and must be replaced.
Attracting new money is imperative to success so that the afforestation of Scotlands woodlands can be assured and rewilding measures will need to include investment opportunities for forestry management affording the production of conifer trees for the provision of wood to be used on sustainable projects.
Brexit
Departing from the European Market returned the UK to World Free Trade ideals and all its benefits and pitfalls.
A financial pot returned was £4.50 Billion previously handed over to the EC each year to provide financial support of the EC farming policy which only encouraged the inefficient use of farming land and the production of unwanted produce.
The bulk of the pot will be withheld by the Westminster government and farming grants will be much reduced due to the commitments to trade agreements put in place post Brexit with countries worldwide for the supply of produce.
The foregoing pressures will force many small farmers off the land and large estate holders will also feel the pinch as their grants dry up.
Scottish Land Commission
Farmers identified items of concern that they believe are relevant to the maintenance and development of the tenant farming sector in Scotland, namely: support and carbon trading.
Bolstered by the recent announcement of a new government-appointed advisory board to oversee proposals for future agriculture support, farming leaders’ attention is focused on future support for the industry.
Farmer groups have also advised the Scottish Government on how to cut emissions and the new advisory board is committed to the creation of a package of pilot measures as part of the Government’s approach.
The aim is to meet the Government’s climate change obligation to transition to net-zero carbon emissions by 2045. This means the adoption of measures to reduce greenhouse gasses:
Optimise slurry and manure usage and storage.
Increase innovation in areas such as feedstuffs and use of fertilisers, causing less disturbance to soils.
Support carbon sequestration and storage through planting trees, restoring peatland, or growing biomass.
The Clearances
Scotland is on the cusp of a boom in the purchase of many millions of acres of Scotlands highland and lowland estates, peatlands and forests with businesses looking to invest billions to meet their climate change commitments.
The land grab is being led by hedge funds and large conglomerates that are seeking to offset their carbon emissions with their purchases.
Authorising a transfer of title will be subject to the approval of the Scottish Land Commission who will insist on rewilding measures including extensive tree planting and peatland restoration supported by financial grants adding value to the land boosting profits.
Comment:
Westminster politicians took our oil and gas and our wind and wave power and the final indignity. Our land.
Zionist businessmen, politicians and those associated with them have absolute control over the lives of every individual in the UK
In the early eighties one such altruistic businessman, James Goldsmith, announced to the world that he was an environmentalist who would be committing his considerable financial resources to support “green issues.”
Many rallied to his cause and promised international cooperation, a much-welcomed consequence of the Zionist movements’ commitment to the “new world order.” which promised great benefits to the planet.
He was also instrumental in convincing Thatcher and the Tories to commit substantial financial resources to the support of “green” issues.
One Goldsmith venture that found favour with the Tories was “debt-for-nature” swaps. Thatcher backed a radical proposal to preserve endangered rain forests which meant offering Third World countries deals involving their crippling international debts.
The terms of the schemes required the United Kingdom to buy up Third World debt and agree to forego interest payments on the condition that tropical rain forests were left untouched.
What wonderful saviours of the world Goldsmith and the Tories appeared to be. But ever the opportunist Goldsmith had been plotting. What he advocated was a tried and much utilized British imperialist raw materials grab.
And Brazil was the first target for a “hostile” takeover. It transpired that Goldsmith’s brother Edward, he of the “Green Party” was a very good friend of Brazil’s Environment Secretary and unsurprisingly Brazil, accepted foreign limitations on its sovereignty in the form of “debt-for-nature swaps.”
At a meeting of all Brazil’s bank creditors, the Finance Minister stated that the mineral-rich country was prepared to accept converting part of the $60 billion it owed into environmental conditionalities.
Other countries including, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and the Philippines also entered into similar debt deals in which environmentalist groups such as Prince Philip’s “World Wide Fund for Nature” bought the defaulted debt of those nations from bankers at very steep discounts.
The environmentalists put up 10-15% of the nominal value of the debt, and the government paid the full nominal value in local currency to their local front group to buy up lands, ostensibly for protecting them.
Only the oligarchy associated with the green group had access to the protected enclaves. This meant that Goldsmith and his ilk retained control over forests and underground minerals and other resources worth many thousands’ times more than was paid it.
But Goldsmith really did love lumber. In 1985, he purchased “Crown Zellerbach” an American forest products company with vast timber reserves. In doing so he became the sixth-largest owner supplier of timber, with huge reserves primarily in Washington, Oregon, Louisiana, and Mississippi. His control of third world forestry added a premium to his US forestry.
Afternote: The “Worldwide Fund for Nature” is a “Zionist Bilderberg” financial money pot providing a source of tax-free income for the rich and famous.
At the beginning of the 1970s, the UK was in crisis faced with working-class challenges to an establishment that had failed to improve standards of living in preference for the retention of the “class” system which had endured for many years.
The Labour Party though hopelessly divided was given chances in government but failed to provide the consistent leadership required to improve the lives of those who voted it into government and the Conservative Party seized the initiative with the assistance of Mi5.
Its Director Joseph Ball, (believed by many to have played a central role in the 1930 Zinoviev Letter scandal that brought down Ramsay MacDonald’s Labour Government), established the Conservative Research Department (CRD) a secretive “Special Operations” unit and perfected the sustained delivery to the UK public, through the media and the BBC, of dirty tricks and disinformation campaigns many of which were designed to poison the minds of the electorate against the Labour Party, Trade Unions and Scottish Nationalists with false news accusing them of being fronts for the USSR and communist agitators.
Tory MP, Douglas Hurd, who had been recruited from the Foreign Office in Rome to the CRD wrote a novel “Scotch on the Rocks” a drama which told a story of Mi5 and Special Branch officers infiltrating a Scottish Nationalist paramilitary organisation, the (SLA) in an effort to thwart a separatist military coup.
The BBC actively supported the aims of the (CRD) in 1973, with the commissioning, production and delivery of the anti-Scottish nationalist television programme “Scotch on the Rocks” an adaptation of the book.
At the time of the screening, Hurd was Private Secretary to Prime Minister, Edward Heath and was well aware of the intent of the programme and its links to the Security Services.
“Scotch on the Rocks” was a provocative broadcast, released to coincide with the end of the Scottish Conservative Party Conference, during which the 80-year old founder of the National Party of Scotland, Wendy Wood was quietly removed from the hall at the Conference just one day before the programme was broadcast.
The series sent shockwaves throughout Scotland and the BBC Programme Complaints Commission upheld criticism by the Scottish National Party that its five-part thriller had seriously impugned the party by suggesting it was involved in using violence for political ends. The BBC responded by promising never to show the series again.
But the furore after the broadcast had no detrimental impact on the Scottish National Party. The energy the drama had pumped into the mythical “home rule” movement resulted in Harry Selby losing one of Scotland’s safest Labour seats, Glasgow Govan to the SNP’s Margo MacDonald and with a re-energized “it’s Scotland’s Oil” campaign the party won a further six seats in the General Election that followed and the SNP took 33% 0f the Scottish vote.
Comments: Eton educated Tory MP, Douglas Hurd served in the governments of Margaret Thatcher and John Major as Minister of State (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) 1979-1983, Minister of State (Home Office) 1983- 1984, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland 1984-1985, Home Secretary 1985-1989 and, Foreign Secretary 1989-1995.
His son, Eton and Oxford-educated Tom Hurd was appointed by Boris Johnson to the post of “Director-General of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism” in 2020 and was lined up to take over as chief of MI6 in 2021 before his transfer to the UN where he is a member of the UK/UN Security Council team. And there are many untold stories about his career in the underworld of politics.
The article highlights the similarities between the under the radar activities and successes of the European Research Group (ERG) and the Conservative Research Department (CRD)
Formed around 1994 the European Research Group (ERG) only came to public prominence in 2017 as a pressure group within the Tory party when it sent a letter to Theresa May warning her against signing a transitional deal with the EU keeping the UK in the single market.
In a follow up soon after the group’s chairperson Suella Braverman, then a junior government aide, (since appointed Attorney General by Boris Johnson) appeared on television and said: “justice must be done to Brexit. No deal is better than a bad deal.”
The political intervention in matters of state by the previously little known group caused consternation in political circles and investigative journalists gave attention to unmasking its membership and political history. What they unearthed was a group of hardliners, including a number of government ministers who had created a party within a party.
Adding insult to injury it was identified that because the group’s purpose was political research it had been funded by taxpayers through a mechanism that allowed contributing MP’s to reclaim donations as an expense. Members were required to pay an annual membership fee of around £2,000 each year. It is estimated that the partisan pressure group varied in strength over the years but forty would be an appropriate figure providing a total income of £2.20 million.
Incredulously the public purse unknowingly underwrote the ERG’s fictitious research for years. The taxpayer funding was crucial to the ERG’s success since it paid for the staff that moulded it into a well-drilled political force dedicated to leaving the European Union. A highly efficient “WhatsApp” group was activated and provided daily updates briefing members of breaking news and current affairs.
The success of the “leave” campaign strengthed the Euroscepticism of the ERG and extended its popularity to private donors. Paul Dyer, a pro-Brexit businessman, gave £10,000 and the ERG also received cash from the Constitutional Research Council,(CRC) the shadowy group behind the Democratic Unionist Party’s secretive £435,000 Brexit donation. In December 2016, the CRC gave £6,500 to then chair Steve Baker for an ERG Christmas party.
By that time the ERG had established links to key figures in the DUP. Nigel Dodds, the party’s Westminster leader, was a regular at ERG meetings. Former DUP Westminster chief of staff Christopher Montgomery joined the ERG as a researcher.
Like Dodds, Montgomery was a former Vote Leave board member who had maintained a long-standing personal relationship with the CRC’s chair Scottish Tory, Richard Cook who posted in the “WhatsApp” group: “I applaud Steve Baker’s outstanding leadership of Brexit. He is indeed a superstar in a parliament with too many political pygmies!” the Scottish businessman wrote.
The ERG is an unincorporated association, (as is Richard Cook’s, CRC) and it is not required to publish accounts or list its members. This means it is able to exert an influence on British politics well beyond its legitimacy with little or no oversight or transparency about the sources of its finance. And the substantial new finance available afforded the opportunity for the ERG to consult widely in Northern Ireland and led to the drafting of alternative proposals for the Irish border.
And the establishment of a number of front groups” such as “StandUp4Brexit” staffed by those who worked with former “Vote Leave” chief technology officer Thomas Borwick provided manufactured evidence of a groundswell of popular support on social media for key ERG policies.
Similar spoiler campaigns appeared almost daily all opposing the EEC and Prime Minister Theresa May’s withdrawal agreement. The ERG was even reported to be working with Australian spin doctor Lynton Crosby’s agency which had run the 2015 and 2017 Conservative general election campaigns and donated money and staff to Boris Johnson’s successful Tory leadership bid.
The British people were given a referendum on Europe in 1975 and voted decisively for joining the Common Market, then defined as an economic alliance of individual nations.
But by the early 1990s public concern about the direction of the European Union had risen sharply and the Euro-skeptic movement although embraced by only a small group of Tories in Parliament was well underway in the Conservative ranks.
The deal-breaker for the Tories was “Maastricht” when more of them became angered by regulations passed by the European Commission in Brussels which took precedence over laws passed in Westminster.
Concerned about the strengthening of European bureaucracy and its effect on Britain’s democratic sovereignty, more and more Tories joined the Euro-skeptic wing.
By 1996 the Tory Party was in trouble. After 18 years in power, it was losing ground with the British electorate despite an economic boom financed by oil revenues from Scottish oilfields. The Tories had squashed the unions, decimated social-welfare programs, privatized many key state-owned industries and promoted a free low tax business environment. London and the South East had flourished at the expense of North East England and Scotland who had borne the brunt of Thatcher’s excesses.
Since his election as Labour Party leader in the spring of 1994, Tony Blair alerted to the failure of the Tory Party had captured the public imagination by moving the Labour Party to the centre-ground of British politics.
On just about every economic issue, Blair’s party co-opted Tory promises pledging not to increase public spending or raise taxes with result that the Labour Party enjoyed a consistent lead of some 20 points over the Tories in the months before the 1997 election.
The late Sir James Goldsmith (1933-1997) & the Referendum Party
The Goldschmidts, neighbours and rivals of the Rothschild family, were a wealthy, Frankfurt-based, Jewish family that had been influential in international merchant banking since the 16th century.
James Goldsmith was a billionaire crusading politician who fought to change the future of Europe. A high-flying financial buccaneer he was the father of eight children, who lived an infamous unconventional life, sharing homes in London, Paris, Burgundy, Spain, and Mexico with his wife, a British aristocrat born Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart, the sister of the Marquess of Londonderry, and the inspiration for the eponymous “Annabel” nightclub in London’s Berkeley Square. His ex-wife (the former Ginette Lery, his one-time secretary) and a mistress (Laure Boulay de la Meurthe, a wellborn French magazine editor), who at one time lived in two parts of the same house in Paris. Like an Arab pasha, Goldsmith moved among all three households, supporting everyone with lavish generosity.
Having multiplied his fortune as a brash corporate raider in the United States during the 1980s, Goldsmith was an unlikely politician. But his retreat from business led him to question many of his assumptions about the world and he came to believe that global free trade would lead to severe societal dislocations. He also concluded that the movement to unify Europe politically, as well as economically, would restrict national sovereignty and undermine democracy as unelected European Union bureaucrats assumed greater control.
His beliefs spurred in him the impetus for the creation of the “Referendum Party” which he launched in November 1997 when he concluded he could have a greater impact in Britain because democratic traditions were stronger than on the continent and in an early statement using rhetoric that was direct and withering he said: “European nations are deeply rooted but you cannot push nations together against their will. The Conservative government is appalling on all the most important issues that matter and John Major thinks leadership is equilibrium but he is the ultimate rubber-man and “New Labour” is nothing more than a soft Tory Party. They are all as one.”
For Goldsmith, being attacked meant being noticed, and being noticed meant being taken seriously. At the start of campaigning, he said: “I am prepared to spend upwards of £30M fielding Referendum Party candidates against every member of Parliament in the 1997 general election who argues against a plebiscite. We will pressure the British government into giving its citizens a chance to vote on the extent of their involvement in the European Union.”
In 1994. in France, he was elected to the European Parliament. Then terminally ill with cancer, in 1997 he failed in his bid for a seat in the British Parliament.
Goldsmith knew he would never be the British Prime Minister and his bid for a seat in parliament was unsuccessful, two months later he died but he altered the mood and the thinking in Britain about the value of a unified Europe and elevated a political concern into a national preoccupation.
United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIRP)
The financial backing of Goldsmith supported the early careers of prominent members of the Bruges Group, formed in 1988, under the leadership of University of Oxford undergraduate student, Scotsman, Patrick Robertson.
Alan Sked (who went on to found the UK Independence Party in September 1993).
Its founding chairman, Lord Harris of High Cross (former head of the Institute of Economic Affairs, 1957-1987 and board member of Rupert Murdoch’s Times Newspapers Holdings Ltd from 1988 until 2001).
Many of the Referendum Party’s activists and voters went on to join and support UKIP which ultimately led to a sea-change in English politics and twenty-three years later the withdrawal of Britain from the European Union.
Patrick Robertson Founder & Chairman of WorldPR
Robertson is an international political strategist and professional public relations, consultant. He founded WorldPR in the early 1990s and has been an advisor to many British and international political and business leaders for nearly three decades. He currently offers strategic advice to foreign corporations and governments on, among other matters, the opportunities and implications of Brexit.
His experience of frontline political campaigns started early, in 1988, when as an undergraduate at Oxford he founded the Bruges Group to campaign against European federalism. In recognition of the group’s remarkable success in provoking a nationwide debate, Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister, became its Hon. President in 1990. The Bruges Group is credited with having played an influential role in Britain’s ultimate decision to leave the European Union in 2016.
After a period based in Geneva as a Special Advisor to the World Economic Forum Robertson went into business with Gerald Howarth and Lord Parkinson, former Chairman of the Conservative Party and cut his teeth as a political adviser to senior British Tory government ministers, including Neil Hamilton, Corporate Affairs minister, and Jonathan Aitken, Chief Secretary to the Secretary. He also enjoyed, for a number of years, a highly successful business collaboration with Lord Tim Bell, PR adviser to successive British prime ministers.
In 1994, Sir James Goldsmith, the Anglo-French billionaire and financier, hired WorldPR to orchestrate the campaign of the Referendum Party, the most ambitious eurosceptic campaign of modern times, with an unprecedented spend of £35 million.
As the party’s Chief of Staff, Robertson was responsible for executing its strategy for the 1997 British general election in which it fielded 547 candidates and, as a measure of its success, secured the historic commitment from both the Conservative government and the Labour Opposition not to join the European single currency without a binding referendum.
Among the early staffers of the Referendum Party who went on to achieve front-rank careers in British politics is The Rt. Hon. Priti Patel MP, Home Secretary, and Ben Elliot, Chairman of the Conservative Party.
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