´óÏó´«Ã½

this country is drifting right and the BNP could make a breakthrough mainly because we refuse to have a debate about immigration, all the main political parties are just hoping it will go away and it is right there up at the top of what most people talk about, so why are we living in this vacuum waiting for a reurn to Berlin aka 1933

"This 'trilateral diplomacy' is an essential part of his drive to get the key players pulling in the same direction in combatting Islamic militancy in the region."


The USA shouldn't be anywhere near the region. And the destabalization of Pakistan is largely the doing of the USA. With the help of the UK.

Musharraf, a military dictator, allied the country with the USA in the famous "GWOT" -- a move disliked by most of the population of Pakistan. And they still don't like it. Meanwhile, the original excuse for the USA invading Afghanistan was bin Laden -- long forgotten. Now it's supposedly all about the freedom of women and stopping of opium production, blah blah. The Taleban had reduced opium production to near-zero before 2001.

The USA had planned to invade Afghanistan well before 9/11, and the objective is the oil and gas reserves in the region and a pipeline deal which they can't sign with the Taleban but only with a pliant, "friendly", Government in Afghanistan. But Hamid Karzai has been complaining to the USA about so many civilians being killed by US bombing, plus he's involved in some corruption. So now the US wants to "impose" another candidate for their puppet Afghanistan regime.

Meanwhile, the US has been bombing the border areas (a border drawn in the sand by the British) where the Pashtun people move over and back in their thousands every year, as they inhabit both sides of this arbitrary border. And bombing the area with drones, killing many civilians in the process. No wonder they are driving the people into the arms of the Taleban. No wonder Pakistan is in upheaval. No wonder more radicals are recruited daily, against the USA and its tactics.

But Newsnight will not mention any of this because since the whole Gilligan/Greg Dyke affair, the ´óÏó´«Ã½ has given up all its teeth. We don't expect to hear anything only the US "party line".

It would take an idiot not to attempt to make the distinction between "Islamic militancy" & legitimate resistance on a day when scores of civilians have been killed by the USAF.

What would you do if your family were wiped out by occupying foreigners? Are we making things worse or better? Can we have someone with a less colonial mindset than Urban examining these issues please?

WALKING THE WALK - ON WATER?

I have long likened Barack Obama to Tony Blair. Now that the former is using 'The Force' of communication and persuasion (familiar?) it seems Blairingly obvious that he has the same megalomaniacal self-view.

Does rhetoric work when you can't speak the language? How does American oratory sound when falling on ears tuned to other chords?

Not to worry. Tony did it all on the back of belief, and look how successful he was!

BNP SUPPORT
Also tonight, Michael Crick will be reporting from Cumbria on the BNP and whether it poses a real threat to Labour.

If he could work in a rather obscure left-field attack on other opposition parties 'for balance' that would be just spiffy:)

Id like to see a debate about the real viability of alternative power generating systems for the UK - Mr Wave Snake, Windy Miller and Ms Photovoltaic.

And how can we change the NHS from this out of control dosh spewing monster of uncaring power crazed consultants fouling up the Camberwick Green life of the Mr and Mrs before time.

Re: Afgan - Pak any likelihood of Taliban Nukes = US hit Pak very hard from ground and air with Israel in on action, UK will stay in Afgan.

Modern Art is for upper middle/higher class and anyone who is rich and willing to be told what to do by *curators* No one else exists in their world unless they can be used especially the mega superficial TV media.
The delusion reason of the before time was God our delusion is the money God. The real problem is; what is, how and where is *value* and how this *value* changes through time by the minds that control it.
What we have is paradigm paralysis by feudal lock out of any revolution = compliant pussycats purring on demand of their masters.

Stick a WebCam in his Radio 4 studio, 'Evan Davis' style, and sell the output back to ITV. Bob's your auntie's uncle.

YOU LEFT OUT MR MOON (#6)

While the moon is up there the tides are regular and predictable. All the concentration on flooded estuaries and drowned habitat is a distraction (if JJ is right, perhaps 'constructively so). There is some recent kit being tried out that looks low maintenance and promising. My contribution is to suggest the turbine drives a hydraulic sea-water flow, piped ashore, where it is converted to electricity 'in the dry'. Who knows - perhaps judicious placement might limit erosion?

Worth keeping an eye on the Lockerbie appeal process which is underway.
´óÏó´«Ã½ Scotland reports that if the prisoner is transferred back to Libya
the appeal may be dropped ..... which might suit those who do not want
some of the evidence to reach the public domain .... and MSP Christine
Graham says she was 'blocked' from meeting Megrahi in prison this week:

BUT IT IS A DEMOCRATIC STITCHUP (#9)

Private Eye produced a special edition on Lockerbie. I hope all those being flimflammed know of it. The legal rulings have that Hutton feel about them. And as Harry Lime said: "What is one ant more or less." (Or similar.) The self serving, arrogant, amorality of our politicians, is no different from that of America's lot. Western democracy, that we are serially bombing into the backward foreigner, leaves this integrity vacuum in its wake.

So all these millions spent on cancer research and all we have to do is turn ourselves into pepperheads, burn our gob/rear ends out with some red hot chili pepper to fight off the big C . Every five seconds there is some new cancer treatment trigger fouling up our hope emotion feel safe trip to our own full stop .

Will Mr Moon enter the fray I wonder, full moon = cancer lergy alert.

#9 Neil

A police force in Scotland was told on 27th October 2006 that the UK was going to suffer imminent and catastrophic flooding. They had a figure available of on or after 9th December 2006.

They decided to do nothing. The Tay suffered catastophic flooding on 13th December. The pattern continued across the UK in 2007. 13 people died and £5 billion of damage. So many people knew it was going to happen.

Nothing about Lockerbie surprises me.

Celtic Lion

Post Modern or Normal Science

Now I can't influence Barrie Singleton's reading habits or views on politics including American Presidents.

So this is only for Barrie. Obama dropped in a Burger bar for his dinner. Go to 54 seconds and check the table he is sitting at.



Now last month how many months did I say we had left before we reach a tipping point on the environment.



Celtic Lion

PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE

We have had an immigration debate, a couple of years go in fact. The results were clear, and it had nothing to do with racism, just skills, jobs and birth-rates. Yet in tonight's progrmame Crick tried to clobber the chap from the BNP with the racism issue.

Ron Paul probably best expressed the view of the rational non Neo-con US intelligentsia, but that's an ever smaller group these days....

Here, the BNP is a whipping stool. To understand just how difficult it is to stand up to neo-liberal economics and the damage which it is still doing, one has to struggle with the pervasive force of and appreciate that it does demand an enormous struggle, and why that is so....

Tuned in to hear about the South Bank Show story - seem to have missed it. What happened there?

The Scottish Criminal Review Commission enquiry into Lockerbie concluded that the matter should go back to the courts, which is what is happening.

What is unsatisfactory is that the Labour Government in London struck a
prisoner transfer deal with Libya - without consulting the Scottish law officers while denying that this was primarily motivated by this case -
and they also drafted in this very odd clause that requires proceedings
to be dropped if transfer takes place. That all seems rather convenient.

A real prisoner's dilemma .......

[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

David Winnock, Jacquie Smith....and the list of 'undesirables'.

This is a New Labour thought-crime wave disorder.

It must be all the stress...

BNP:
New labour lost it's 'narrative' years ago: i.e it lost the ability to lie convincingly. All the BNP ever needed was out-of-control immigration and a recession and Labours given them both on a silver platter. The govt has done its own studies and the results have shocked them into trying to out-flank the BNP with Brown and his cohorts trying to play the British tune...too little too late and all so very lame. If the BNP do well in the June elections you can lay the blame at new Labours door. Mind you, I might vote for them myself on account they are anti-european. My own personal favourite BNP policy is the reintroduction of capital punishment - a vote winner that one but always denied to the electorate by all the mainstream parties - and tougher jail sentences...all bread and butter policy politics that your average out-of-touch Guardian reader/Crick hack types don't understand.

"Looking at pygmy hippos in Madagascar, which possess exceptionally small brains for their size, suggests that the same could be true for H. floresiensis , and that (it could be) the result of being isolated on the island."

No they mean the BNP in the North West - its nowhere near Madagascar!

The BNP talk about racism n'stuff without ever talking sense because of the small brain ....

BNP SUPPORT

Why is it such a surprise that the general public are sympathetic towards The British National Party policies, despite the right wing accusation, you have to ask yourself what is so wrong with putting our country first. Why is it considered fascist to even suggest such things as border control or trading with the EU but not being ruled by them. BNP manifesto seems rather old Labour and patriotic, perhaps that is too alien a concept for our out of touch ministers to understand. Neither is it a surprise that the chickens are coming home to roost as the electorate rebel against EU rule and an increasing dictatorial currant government.

CUE DELUGE!(#13)

Nthing to add but: 'Hey!' (:o)

#14 Jaded_Jean

Some may say that when you actually are saying you are agnostic on the Holocaust and that Hitler just wanted to sell ice cream to the Russians you yourself are not being entirely truthful ....

#10 barriesingelton

What neutrals mat not grasp from your typically inadequate "spiel" is that you are not for democracy in the first place. I suppose you do admit to knowing a far right person or does your integrity not stretch to that?

#2 globalissues

Not sure if you are a far right head case but that is rubbish on every level.

The Taleban are within seventy kms of a capital belonging to a power with nuclear weapons.The rest of the world should put up its feet and chill with some tea? Not!

#17 Jaded_Jean

You are obnoxious in anyones world - but just too unimportant this year, maybe next year!

Jeremy summed up the whole "List of Undesirables" perfectly - " a waste of time." David Winnock stated that he believed in free speech, yet here he was denying it! Charlie Wolf was the only one of the guests who talked sense on the issue. Although the "undesirables" may not gain entry into the UK, they can still be broadcasting on the internet, so it's completely pointless banning them.

shock jocks

is this the outraged free speech usa that banned cat stevens?

if there is such a least wanted list why publicise it? vanity? another political judgement bungle by this govt, like 10p tax, 50p tax, iraq, financial regulation, emails etc.

new board

seems to be down a lot? ie unavailable, claims to be busy etc. so the new board is much like the first NN board? underpowered. given the previous board worked ok what is the 'improvement' now its hard to access it?

its taken more than one go to post this

shock jocks

is this the outraged free speech usa that banned cat stevens?

if there is such a least wanted list why publicise it? vanity? another political judgement bungle by this govt, like 10p tax, 50p tax, iraq, financial regulation, emails etc.

new board

seems to be down a lot? ie unavailable, claims to be busy etc. so the new board is much like the first NN board? underpowered. given the previous board worked ok what is the 'improvement' now its hard to access it?

Go1 #22, #23, #24, #25

Do you log in solely to abuse and insult? Or do you sometimes have something constructive to say?

thegangofone (#25) "You are obnoxious in anyones world - but just too unimportant this year, maybe next year!"

I suspect you just find learning obnoxous, but there you go.

Ed Balls today on Rose Report on SATs. Background: These are proxy IQ tests (English=Verbal IQ, Maths=Spatial IQ, Science=Non Verbal IQ). 'g' is largely genetic but settles as one ages, it does not improve through teaching (although one can improve test performance per se by practice - 'teaching to the test'.

In New Labour speak, standards have been 'raised' between KS2 and secondary because more kids get higher levels, but in reality they have owered standards by feminizing maths and science SATS (boys better at maths girls better at languages). The population is being dumbed down by high differential fertility (over education of brigher females basically) and mass immigration to compensate for low birth rates overall. The higher lower-skilled birth-rate and lower smarts' birth-rate amounts to a slow 'topping' of the intelligentsia (classic Trot/free-market technique to remove competition) and a simultaneous expansion of the uncritical consumer (underclass) base, who will buy any old tosh.

You keep fighting for 'freedom' though..... just be sure you know what it is you are fighting for - some kids want the freedom to play on railway lines ;-)

The most important global event of 1979 was probably not the UK election
but the return of Ayatollah Khomeini to Iran and Saddam Hussein's 'coup'
in Iraq. 30 years on Thatcher is history - but these events reverberate.

My vote would still go to 1989 - and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gorby & Willy Brandt remain in my view the two great heroes who mended Europe.

"My vote would still go to 1989 - and the fall of the Berlin Wall. Gorby & Willy Brandt remain in my view the two great heroes who mended Europe."

'Under the weight of recent history, I did what people do when words fail them. In this way I commemorated millions of murdered people." Willy Brandt

Would that be millions of murdered German people?

'Mended'.....'mended'.......'mended'.... nope, don't get it..

Please see .

'mended'.....hmmm ...'mended'....m e n d e d........tut..nope better ask....

Please explain..

its summer so time for Gas price cuts...

However, Ofgem the energy regulator, said the wholesale price of energy peaked in December 2008.

"We would have expected much bigger reductions considering that wholesale gas and electricity prices are half what they were at their peak last year," said Robert Hammond, energy expert for Consumer Focus.

"This again raises the question of whether wholesale price cuts are being fairly passed on to consumers," he said.

Some consumer groups have complained the energy companies are quick to put up their prices but slow to bring them down in relation to wholesale prices.

But Ofgem said they while they continue to monitor the situation they have no evidence to support the suggestion.....



because ofgem have their own interests and its not those of the british public? ie lower prices.

it is national scandal.

thegangofone (#25) Let me ask you a straight question.

Have a look at Table 7 on page 41 of by HMG. Why is the ordinal relationship of these groups (Indian is an exception because of selective migration) the same one found by IQ test 'race-realists' internationally?

If you are at all unhappy with this, please provide us with some evidence to substantiate your views. That is how science works. In the absence of that you are just being abusive.

1979 was the more important year. The right wing took over in the UK, the USA and in Afghanistan. What a mess there is now in all these states.
1979 was also the year I placed my feet on the low rung of the employment ladder.

ladymaryellenwood (#35) "1979 was the more important year. The right wing took over in the UK, the USA and in Afghanistan."

Yes, but they were anarchists if you look into it. There was much that was good before 1979. Still, there's no stopping anarchists in liberal-democracies, they're basically intellectual hoodlums.

thegangofone (#19) "The BNP talk about racism n'stuff without ever talking sense because of the small brain ...."

For humans, smaller brains and lower IQs do seem to go together according to the available research, but I don't see this has much to do with the BNP, although some of their polices as reported by the ´óÏó´«Ã½ recently, do seem a bit unrealistic.

Howver, as you raise the issue of race, do you note anything about the author ? Why the name change and why did people like he and Gould, and Lewontin and Rose and Kamin and.........well, so many others of the same group, invest so much effort into trying (and failing) to establish that race and IQ are myths? Especially given that so many of their group complain about (and demand special treatment due to) their alleged persecution as a race, whilst asserting rather narcissistically in my view, that they're 'The Chosen Ones', i.e better than everyone else?

It suggests something psychopathological to me, racist even.