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Saturday, February 11, 2006

NUCLEAR POLLING

Some time ago the Sunday Herald did a poll on nuclear power & Friends of the Earth decided to do their bit to help democracy along by sending out

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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 11:12:01 +0000
From: Friends of the Earth Edinburgh
To: list / FoEE Events list TEMP: ;
Subject: Action Alert: Vote in Sunday Herald poll on Nuclear

Hello

The Sunday Herald has an online poll on whether Scotland should use Nuclear
power. Please take a moment to vote NO: - see http://www.sundayherald.com/


---------------------------------


Having worked once (apart from my vote) a bit later the BBC did an item on nuclear power which also contained a poll & again FoE sent out this email
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2006 11:46:04 +0000
From: Friends of the Earth Edinburgh
To: list / FoEE Events list TEMP: ;
Subject: ACTION ALERT: BBC/nuclear online poll

*ACTION: BBC/nuclear online poll

BBC have an online poll asking if we should expand nuclear energy - so far
nuclear is winning 70/30%. Do your bit and vote no on the link below:

The answer is of course: NO

http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4638610.stm?dynamic_vote=ON#vote_4638750


*please pass this message to all your contacts
Naturally I again voted & passed it on.

The real matter of interest here is that, at the time I voted, the BBC voting was running 70/30 in favour of nuclear. I assume without the benefit of FoE's opinions it would have been even better. The BBC have decided to remove the poll & checking the comments page find it to be overwhelmingly anti-nuclear. While the BBC do give their word that the comments they choose to allow are a balanced selection of those received but I know from experience that somebody holding my views (ok then - me) has a statisticly zero chance of being selected. I would assume that the removed poll results remained at least as overwhelming & the comments could be expected to be similar.

Friday, February 10, 2006

DUNFERMLINE BY-ELECTION SHOCK

The by-election triumph of the Liberal Democrats in the previously safe Dunfermline seat deserves all the credit going.
Willie Rennie
Lib Dem 12,391 35.8% +15.6
Labour 10,591 30.6% -16.8
SNP 7,261 21.0% + 2.1
Conservative 2,702 7.8% - 2.5

Swing Labour to Lib Dems 16.2%
Swing Conservative to Lib Dems 9.1%
Swing SNP to Lib Dems 6.8%

John McAllion (SSP) 537
Ian Borland (UKIP) 208
James Hargreaves (Christian) 411
Tom Minogue ( Abolish Tolls) 374
Dick Rodgers (Common Good) 103
They didn't just overturn a ten thousand majority but turned it into a decent 1800 Lib majority in what used to be considered a socialist heartland. this is less than a year after the general election & in the midst of a leadership crisis which some people had said would lead to a "melt down" of the party's vote.

Voters do often, even usually, vote differently at by elections because they believe they can register dissatisfaction without bringing down the government. They also had what has been accepted as a particularly good candidate & party machine. It must be remembered that at Livingston & Cathcart they didn't get anything like this. I don't think anybody would expect a repitition of this sort of swing at the Scottish election but even half this from Labour to the Lib Dems would leave them as marginally the largest party. I think even that is being optimistic but they will certainly be able to go into Holyrood next time not just as kingmakers but as potential kings. Will Rennie the victor said in his speech that "People are fed up with Labour for taking them for granted for far too long, they are fed up of too much spin, and the people of Dunfermline and West Fife have spoken for the rest of the country with their views on the Labour government." I think this is dead on - it is not that the Lib Dems are that popular but that Labour aren't. The Lib Dems will now be the target of all parties & are going to have to be careful that they do not fumble the ball.

This will also put tremendous heart into the UK party since if they can do this the leadrship crisis is clearly not such a crisis. It was noticeable that Charlie Kennedy campaigned hard here (moreso than his replacements who after all had commitments of their own but I don't think anybody could have blamed him if he had stayed home). He was genuinely very popular on the doorstep which shows that he is still their star - this would make it very tough if Ming were to become leader since the relationship between the 2 is hardly trusting. Fortunately this seems much less likely since Chris Huhne is now leading Menzies 38% to 34% (this would not normally be a sure lead but since he achieved this from the position of never having been heard of a fortnight ago is pretty magnificent).

For Labour this is a disaster & then some. Having, for a decade chased "essex man", "mondeo man" & other pepsylogical chimeras they have lost the unswerving generations long loyalty of their core vote. With the SNP redefining their commitment to socialism into non-existence the idea that Scotland is intrinsicly socialist & Labour its natural representative is gone. A lot is being written about how Gordon Brown, who campaigned even longer than Kennedy has been wounded but what about Jack McConnell? "Lucky Jack" has run out of luck. He will probably survive until the election but he has never looked like a leader of any calibre merely floating on a wave & that wave is clearly going out. Perhaps the best thing for Labour would be to lose next time & spend a few years redefining them selves & hoping that their replacements screw up. If Wendy Alexander had the cojones she could try an immediate leadership coup before the pre-election period but the fact that she didn't stand against him before suggests she hasn't.

For the SNP this is more a dose of reality & a sign of long term problems than an immediate disaster. In fact their vote went up. What has happened is that the Libs have confirmed the Westminster result that made them the main opposition (as well as part of the government) & confirms the SNP as the 3rd party. However if they are aiming to be part of government, then the Libs, who are their likely partners, being strengthened to the cost of Labour, always their opposition, is a good thing. The immediate problem for the SNP is that they are, by their constitution, prevented from allying with the Tories. Putting together a post election coalition against Labour will be difficult - putting together one against both Labour & Tories is immensely moreso. The long term problem for them is that their main policy, independence, is not popular. I think they will have to vie with the Libs for the position of most competent opposition party - that would involve pushing their extremely sensible pro-growth policy & publicising some of the more loony policies the Libs have passed at conference - deciding that we need new nuclear stations too would help.

For the Tories it is a disaster. This happened in the height of the Cameron honeymoon & the Lib leadership crisis, with them high in the polls & the Libs down. If they get a swing against tham now survival in Scotland is the best they can hope for. Fortunately for them we have PR in Holyrood. They would be best advised to think about what role they could have in a coalition (or perhaps outside it but supporting a minority government) & what price they will demand for it. They could still play kingmaker & a Labour Tory deal is an option they could keep up their sleeve.

The SSP proved again that they are a one man show who have fired the man. I didn't have a high opinion of Tommy Sheriden but he would never have been stupid enough to call for the destruction of our national flag. They are toytown Marxists whose only ability is to throw tantrums.

It should be noted that the "also standing" parties got nearly 1,000 votes between them which is very high. This tends to substantiate the suggestion that Labour lost the support of the voters rather than anybody else winning it. Mr Rennie's statement shows he knows this - will the rest of his party?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

LETTERS - THE WORLD WILL NOT RUN OUT OF URANIUM IN 10/15 YEARS - 1 OUT OF 2

Another Scotsman letter today rather spoiled by the fact that it is published right after a letter from one of the guys I accuse of not answering Niall Walker's question.The edited the "Would the Scotsman" intro into "It would be silly" but still left the question mark
Would the Scotsman publish a letter that suggested that Scottish tourism exploit the fact that Arthur's Seat, at 30,000 feet, is the world's highest mountain? Letters from Messrs Sadler & Dunion (23rd & 28th Jan) that nuclear reactors produce up to 40% as much CO2 as gas are proportionately even sillier. They have, unsurprisingly, failed to produce any evidence for this despite Cllr Walker's remarkably restrained request that they do so. The fact that no anti-nuclear groups have written to dissociate themselves from what they must know to be an untrue claim speaks volumes for the entire movement's credibility.
I have sent a reply to the reply pointing out exactly why the Professor quoted to support the 40% claim (A) didn't quite say that & (B) was wrong anyway.
------------------------------
This went unpublished by the Herald in response to a similar letter in the Herald claiming that the uranium will run out, this time in 15 years> I am glad to say that they published a response from Sir Donald Miller who, I found later, is the former boss of Scottish Power.His reply better than mine - more figures & less flamboyance - still I would have liked them to do both.
I believe that one should be willing to defend one's views robustly, indeed I have on occasion been accused of it myself, so I have some cheerful appreciation of David McEwan ('Nuclear power is the greatest idiocy" ever - letter Monday). On the other hand he does seem to have achieved a uniquely high ratio of things that just ain't so. Surprising in a letter so long.

He starts by conjuring up the vision of spaceships going to the Moon to find uranium ore. Attractive, & relatively feasible as a return to the Moon may be it is hardly the only, let alone best place to look for uranium.

He then correctly says that all a reactor does is to bile a lot of water, which I suppose is true in the same way that all George Bush does is to throw a lot of sticks at people.

However the main error, on which he dwells at considerable length is that we are going to run out of uranium real soon - he says 15 years. This is nonsense, rubbish & claptrap, not necessarily in that order. Uranium is not going to run out in 15 years or fifty, or five hundred, or 5,000 or even 5 million. Uranium is, even on the Earth's surface, relatively common. The point is that you don't need uranium in large quantities. There is enough uranium dust in a spadeful of coal to produce more power than would be produced by that spadeful of coal. It is much more common in rock, particularly granite, which is why you are exposed to considerably more radioactivity in Aberdeen Cathedral than in Hunterston. It is vastly more common in ore - that is why it is called "ore". As a purely theoretical exercise Professor Bernard Cohen of Pittsburgh has calculated that by extracting the radioactive impurities in ordinary seawater we could keep our current nuclear industry going for 4.5 billion years. This is not the upper limit since, being a relatively heavy material it tends to be more abundant in ore underground. It is what keeps the Earth's core molten. The Sun is expected to explode in a mere 5 billion years. This is a more urgent problem than running out of nuclear power.

Except that we are currently on track to run out of it if 2023 when our last reactor shuts down.

Boiling the seas is not the most practical way to go, unless, of course, the alternative is windfarms or other "alternatives". Alternatives are called "alternative" for good economic reasons. There is no difficulty in mining. We could even afford to mine more expensive ores since the actual cost of our fuel works out at about 2 hundredths of a penny per kilowatt hour. Currently uranium prices are at an all time low which does not imply shortage.

Just as his fears of our imminently running out of uranium, which is rather like running out of rock, are unfounded the idea that we will have "hundreds of thousands of tons of waste" lasting over "thousands" of years is inaccurate. Reactor waste, the only sort that didn't come out of the soil in the first place comes in very small quantities, about a cubic metre per reactor year, but precisely because it is highly radioactive it has a short half life & will be down to safe levels in about 50 years. Our descendants 4 billion years from now need not worry.

We, five years from now, should. He is wrong to say that this is a problem only for England about whose difficulties we Scots may happily chortle. The opposite is true. So long as France is willing to make nuclear electricity at 1.5p a unit & sell to the south of England for 4 they are comfortable, & I suspect the French will not become unwilling to do so. We on the other hand are to far away & with the closure of Hunterson & Torness & some coal stations, are shortly going to lose 2/3rds of our electricity. It is grossly irresponsible of politicians to ignore this, presumably in the expectation that their careers will already be over then. 2,500 pensioners a year currently die in Scotland annually from fuel poverty but that will be dwarfed by what is coming if we choose not to replace & expand our current reactors.

Amusing though Mr McEwan's letter is the way in which such scare stories are preventing us, by which I mean the human race as well as Scots, achieving our potential is the great tragedy of our civilisation. There is no reason why we should not all be much wealthier, more comfortable, healthier & less worried than we are now. Yes, & have the Moon & Mars & points beyond as well. We only have to stop nursing our problems to keep them warm. Look at them honestly, admit that most of them are smoke & mirrors & solve the others. We are descended from people who did more with less. We should live up to our potential.

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

SCOTTISH LIBERAL DEMOCRAT POLICY ON YUGOSLAVIA

I am reposting this item which is the first thing I ever posted (which is why I got the typecase wrong) & is still available in my earliest archive. The reason is because this motion is the official policy of the Scottish conference on Yugoslavia. While it is only advisory for the party as a whole (& they decided to ignore the advice) Conference is legally the sovereign body of the party so that it is legally the policy. It is a technical matter since (A) no part representative has ever, to my knowledge, referred to it & (B) the leadership often make up or change policy on the hoof & indeed have to because circumstances don't hold still (for example nicol Stephen's policy of cutting business rates has never been put to Conference although he did refer to it when running for leader).

However it does impinge on the claim that my position on Yugoslavia is "incompatible with party membership".

I am also proud of it, I had to resubmit the motion several times before it was granted a "dead" debate time. It has been ignored ever since. Nonetheless I believe it was the first time a major UK party criticised the corrupt "war crimes trials".
___________________________

SPEECH TO SCOTTISH LIBERAL CONFERENCE 30/3/01

BY NEIL CRAIG

SINCE THE PRINCIPLES IN THIS MOTION ARE SUCH THAT IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR ANYBODY IN OUR PARTY OR EVEN THE LABOUR & TORIES TO DISAGREE I INTEND TO GO BEYOND THE AGREED MOTION.
IN DECEMBER 1991 ALL THE E.U. STATES EXCEPT GERMANY VOTED AGAINST RECOGNITION
OF CROATIA AND BOSNIA BUT GERMANY, WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE BILDERBERG GROUP AND THE VATICAN, WAS ABLE TO LEAN ON EVERYBODY ELSE, THIS WAS DESPITE THE FACT THAT UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW (I AM REFERRING TO THE COMPACT OF MONTEVIDEO) NEITHER COUNTRY FULFILLED ANY OF THE THREE CONDITIONS REQUIRED FOR LEGAL RECOGNITION.

THERE USED TO BE 581,000 SERBS (12% OF THE POPULATION) LIVING IN CROATIA.
THEY ARN'T THERE ANYMORE.

YUGOSLAVIA & SRBSKA HAVE 300,000 REFUGEES FROM CROATIA LEAVING 250,000 MISSING.
THE UNITED STATES HAS ADMITTED TO HAVING SENT OFFICERS TO TRAIN AND DE FACTO
LEAD THE CROATIAN NATZIS IN THE KRAJINA HOLOCAUST. THE U.K. FOREIGN OFFICE HAS REFUSED
TO DENY THAT WE ALSO SENT OFFICERS. NATO ALSO PROVIDED SOME TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE.

INDEPENDENT EXPERTS ALMOST ALL AGREED THAT TO CREATE A BOSNIAN STATE WAS,
DUE TO THE INTERMIXING OF COMMUNITIES, BOUND TO CAUSE AN INTERNECINE WAR LIKELY TO BRING
ABOUT THE DEATHS OF HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE (290,000 IS THE CURRENT FIGURE).

NOBODY SUGGESTS THAT ANY OF THE E.U. POLITICIANS INVOLVED IN THIS DECISION RECEIVED
DIFFERENT ADVICE FROM THEIR OWN EXPERTS.

THE BOSNIAN MOSLEM LEADER MR IZETBEGOVIC HAS BEEN WIDELY STATED IN THE MEDIA TO BE A LIBERAL MINDED MAN TRYING TO CREATE A MULTI-CULTURAL STATE.
IN FACT ITZEBEGOVIC IS KNOWN TO HAVE BEEN A MEMBER OF THE "YOUNG MUSLIMS" WHICH SUPPORTED THE NAZI OCCUPATION. TO BE FAIR I HAVE ONLY ONE SOURCE WHICH SAYS HE WAS ACTUALLY A MEMBER OF THE WAFFEN SS "HANDZAR DIVISION" WHICH COMMITTED GENOCIDE ON SUCH A SCALE THAT OTHER GERMAN UNITS COMPLAINED, BUT IT IS A MATTER OF RECORD THAT WHEN HE CAME TO POWER HE ESTABLISHED A BODYGUARD UNIT WHICH HE NAMED THE "HANDZAR DIVISION".
IN 1970 HE PUBLISHED HIS BOOK ENTITLED " ISLAMIC DECLARATION "WHICH WAS REPUBLISHED AGAIN IN SARAJEVO IN 1990 IN IT HE MAKES A CLEAR AND RINGING STATEMENT:
" THERE CAN BE NEITHER PEACE NOR CO-EXISTENCE BETWEEN THE ISLAMIC RELIGION AND NON-ISLAMIC SOCIAL & POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS".

WE HAVE BOMBED VILLAGES AND SCHOOLS THROUGHOUT SERBSKA FOR THIS MAN & HIS CAUSE.

WESTERN REPORTING OF THE YUGOSLAV WARS HAS BEEN UNIFORMLY SLANTED, THE CENSORSHIP OF MR IZETBEGOVIC'S VIEWS AND PAST IS BUT ONE EXAMPLE. ITN'S ACCIDENTALLY FAKED "CONCENTRATION CAMP" FILM IS ANOTHER.
ALTHOUGH ITN WON THEIR LIBEL CASE, TO QUOTE FROM THE JUDGES SUMMING UP, & I AM CAREFULLY ONLY GOING TO QUOTE FROM THIS, NOT ONLY HAD ITN'S JOURNALISTS "CONTRADICTED THEMSELVES" ON OATH BUT LM MAGAZINE'S ALLEGATIONS OF FAKERY WERE "ESSENTIALLY TRUE" & EVEN MORE FRIGHTENINGLY HE SAID "THIS DOESN'T MATTER". ITN DID NOT FEEL ABLE TO ACT AGAINST THE ARTICLE'S ORIGINAL GERMAN PUBLISHER'S WHICH WOULD HAVE ENTAILED SUING UNDER GERMAN LAW.

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK WWW.EMPERORS-CLOTHES.COM FOR REPORTING THIS CASE BETTER THAN THE BRITISH MEDIA HAS, AS WELL AS MAKING AVAILABLE A MASSIVE INDEX OF INFORMATIVE ARTICLES ON YUGOSLAVIA.
WESTERN REPORTING ALSO UNCRITICALLY PUSHED MR IZETBEGOVIC'S CLAIMS ABOUT RAPE CAMPS (60,000 WOMEN ACCORDING TO HIM, 20,000 ACCORDING TO THE EU) BUT DID NOT REPORT THE SUBSEQUENT U.N. INVESTIGATION WHICH FOUND ONLY 126 CASES. IN A COUNTRY SLIGHTLY SMALLER THAN SCOTLAND, THIS SHOWS THAT SERB MEN, IN THE MIDDLE OF A WAR, HAVE SHOWN MORE RESPECT FOR MOSLEM WOMEN THAN BRITISH MEN STATISTICALLY SHOW BRITISH WOMEN.

THE RAPE CAMPS STORY WAS ALWAYS LESS THAN CREDIBLE. IT IS A VARIANT ON PROPAGANDA HITLER USED AGAINST THE JEWS, SOUTHERNERS USED TO LYNCH BLACKS, BRITONS USED AGAINST INDIAN SEPOYS & INDEED, IN A MORE CIVILIZED FORM, GREEKS USED AGAINST TROJANS. IT IS AN ANCIENT & EASY LIE TO STIR UP RACE HATRED WITH & IT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN PUSHED BY OUR MEDIA.

AS FOR THE SERBRINICA "MASSACRE" (NOT THE MANY EARLIER ONES CARRIED OUT BY THE MOSLEM MILITIA ON LOCAL VILLAGES, OF WHICH YOU HAVEN'T HEARD). IT IS NOW KNOWN THAT 7000 SOLDIERS, WHO REACHED MOSLEM LINES WERE IMMEDIATELY SECRETLY TRANSFERRED ACCROSS THE COUNTRY. SO SECRETLY THAT EVEN THEIR FAMILIES DIDN'T KNOW. THIS HAPPENED WHILE MR IZETBEGOVIC WAS CLAIMING THEY HAD ALL BEEN MASSACRED. THERE IS IN FACT NO SERIOUS EVIDENCE THAT THIS "MASSCRE" EVER HAPPENED & QUITE A LOT THAT IT DIDN'T.
THIS HAS NOT PREVENTED THE WAR CRIMES COMMISSION TREATING IT AS GENUINE, BUT THEIR RECORD IS, TO SAY THE LEAST, ONE SIDED. THEY HAVE ONLY POSTUMOUSLY ACCUSED MR TUDJMAN OF BEING THE "BUTCHER OF MOSTAR" WHILE, OVER KRAJINA, A NUMERICALLY FAR WORSE ATTROCITY THEIR PRIME INDICTMENT IS AGAINST THE KRAJINA LEADER FOR ATTACKING CROATIA. THIS IS PRECISELY EQUIVALENT TO CHARGING THE SURVIVORS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO WITH ATTACKING THEIR SS GUARDS. HE IS ACCUSED OF FIRING 1,REPEAT 1, ROCKET AT ZAGREB. THE SAME COMMISSION HAVE DECIDED THAT MSSRS. CLINTON, BLAIR & CO WHO FIRED THOUSANDS AT NORTHERN YUGOSLAV CITIES DID NOTHING WRONG.
THE POSITION OF THE COMMISSION IS SLIGHTLY UNDERMINED BY THEIR FINANCING.

SUCCESSFUL JUDICIAL SYSTEMS WORK ON THE PRINCIPLE THAT INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD NOT MAKE A PAYMENT TO THE JUDGE. FOR THIS REASON WHEN IT WAS SET UP IT'S ARTICLES CLEARLY STATED THAT IT WOULD BE FUNDED BY THE U.N.. THE COMMISSION IS CURRENTLY BEING FUNDED BY, AMONG OTHERS, THE U.S. STATE DEPT. & BILLIONAIRES ASSOCIATED WITH THE BILDERBERG GROUP SUCH AS THE ROCKEFELLER TRUST & MR GEORGE SOROS.

ON TO THE RECENT WAR OVER KOSSOVO. HISTORICALLY THE KLA HAD BEEN A VERY MINOR TERRORIST GROUP, LESS THAN 1/10TH AS DESTRUCTIVE AS THE I.R.A.. AFTER THE DAYTON AGREEMENT THEY BEGAN RECEIVING LARGE QUANTITIES OF MONEY, WEAPONRY & MILITARY EQUIPMENT, LIKE THE GERMAN UNIFORM PARKAS WORN IN A KLA PROMOTIONAL VIDEO. THE SOURCE OF THIS LARGESS HAS YET TO BE OFFICIALLY DETERMINED.

IN JANUARY 1990, 2 MONTHS BEFORE GOING TO WAR FOREIGN SECRETARY ROBIN COOK TOLD PARLIAMENT THAT THE MAJORITY OF KILLINGS IN KOSSOVO WERE CIVILIANS KILLED BY THE KLA. THIS PROVES 2 THINGS. FIRSTLY, SINCE THE KLA WERE FAR WEAKER THAN THE YUGOSLAV ARMY & THE VAST MAJORITY OF PEOPLE IN THE AREA WERE ALBANIAN THE KLA, BUT NOT THE YUGOSLAVS, MUST HAVE BEEN DELIBERATELY KILLING PEOPLE ON A RACIAL BASIS (THIS IS TECHNICALLY KNOWN AS GENOCIDE). SECONDLY IT PROVES THAT THE CABINET KNEW THEY WERE GOING TO WAR SPECIFICALLY TO SUPPORT A CAMPAIGN OF GENOCIDE.

SINCE NATO TOOK RESPONSIBILITY FOR KOSSOVO THE KLA HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO MURDER OR DISAPPEAR APPROXIAMATELY 3000 CIVILIANS OF ALL NATIONALITIES, INCLUDING ALBANIAN. THIS GENOCIDE HAS GONE LARGELY UNREPORTED. FOR EXAMPLE LAST AUGUST A MASS GRAVE OF 160 PEOPLE WAS DISCOVERED IN THE UK'S ZONE. THESE PEOPLE HAD BEEN MURDERED SINCE N.A.T.O.S OCCUPATION. THIS, THE SECOND LARGEST SINGLE MURDER CASE IN CONTEMPORARY BRITISH HISTORY, AFTER LOCKERBIE, HAS NEVER MADE EITHER THE BBC OR ITN NIGHTLY NEWS. THEY WOULD BOTH DENY THAT THEY PRACTICE CENSORSHIP. IF SO THEY HONESTLY BELIEVE MASS RACE MURDER CARRIED OUT WITHIN OUR AUTHORITY IS TO UNIMPORTANT TO REPORT. I HOPE THERE IS NOBODY AT THIS CONFERENCE WHO WOULD AGREE.

I ASK YOU TO SUPPORT THIS MOTION. KILLINGS ARE CONTINUING IN KOSSOV AT AN AVERAGE OF 5 PER DAY. IF THE MOST WE CAN DO HERE TODAY CAN SAY IS TO SAY THAT THIS IS WRONG THEN THAT IS THE LEAST WE SHOULD DO.

A FINAL WORD ON THE RECENT ATTACK ON MACEDONIA. THOSE WHO HAVE DEMONISED THE SERBS & MR MILOSOVIC AS AGGRESSIVE HAVE IGNORED HIS TREATMENT OF MACEDONIA. ALTHOUGH IT IS OBVIOUS MACEDONIA'S MOVE TO INDEPENDENCE OWES LESS TO AN OUTBREAK OF NATIONAL FEELING THAN TO THE E.U.'S ECONOMIIC BLACKMAIL MR MILOSOVIC DID NOT DISRUPT IT.

TODAY WE HAVE AN INSTANCE OF A AN AGGRESSION PLANNED & LAUNCHED FROM N.A.T.O. TERRITORY AGAINST A FRIENDLY COUNTRY. THIS IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A WAR CRIME. IF THE WAR CRIMES COMMISSION IS TO CLAIM THE SLIGHTEST SIMILARITY TO A JUDICIAL BODY THEY WILL ISSUE AN INDICTMENT AT LEAST AS QUICKLY AS THE ONE THEY ISSUED AGAINST MR MILOSOVIC IN RESPONSE TO N.A.T.O.'S ATTACK ON HIM.

WHEN N.A.T.O OCCUPIED KOSSOVO WE HAD PREVIOUSLY UNDERTAKEN UNDER CLAUSE 1 OF THE HELSINKI TREATY TO "REFRAIN FROM ANY ACTION AGAINST THE TERRITORIAL INTEGRITY" OF YUGOSLAVIA. UNDER THE OCCUPATION AGREEMENT WE UNDERTOOK NOT ONLY TO MAINTAIN THE RULE OF LAW IN KOSSOVO BUT ALSO TO DISARM THE KLA.

IF WE HAD KEPT OUR WORD ON ANY OF THESE 3 POINTS PEOPLE IN KOSSOVO & MACEDONIA WOULD NOT TONIGHT BE DYING.

MOTION WORDING:
War Crimes in Former Yugoslavia

Since international law cannot properly be applied selectively on a racial basis and since indictments have been issued overwhelmingly against Serbs, this Conference calls on the War Crimes Commission for former Yugoslavia to report as a matter of urgency on:

1 whether there is evidence that the late President Tudjman of Croatia and members of his cabinet are criminally responsible for the ethnic cleansing of approximately 500,000 Serbs from ethnically Serbian territory seized by Croatian forces;
2 the fate of the large proportion of the people above who have not been recorded as arriving in Yugoslavia or Republika Srbska as refugees;
3 the 'disappearance' of over 2,500 persons from Kosovo since NATO took over responsibility for that territory together with the continuing involuntary migration of large numbers of Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, Macedonians and other minority ethnic groups;
4 the feasibility of prosecuting those KLA leaders involved in the large majority of killings in pre-war Kosovo; and
5 the identification and indictment of the leaders of the countries which, in clear violation of international law, supplied the KLA with vast quantities of weapons whilst they were an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation.

THE MOTION WAS UNANIMOUSLY PASSED DESPITE THE FACT THAT THE LEADERS REFERRED TO IN PART 5 CERTAINLY INCLUDE BILL CLINTON & HELMUT KOHL. SCOTTISH PARTY LEADERSHIP HAS IGNORED IT.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

CLIMATE CHANGE - ITS WORSE THAN PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED

From Moscow News a useful paper if only to get some perspective on our own dear media.

Starting from 2,012, the process of global cooling will start on the Earth and by the middle of 21st century the whole planet will be captured by low temperatures, an expert from the Russian Sciences Academy Observatory was quoted by NewsRu.com as saying Monday.

The cause of the expected global cooling is a decrease in the flow of the Sun's radiation, Khabibulo Absudamatov says.

"We have already witnessed a cooling of the kind in Europe, in North America and Greenland in 1645-1705, with canals freezing in Holland, and people abandoning settlements because of nearing glaciers in Greenland. This is what we are expecting again in some decades," he said.

Analysis of the Sun's radiation fluctuations that influence the climate on Earth shows that the planet at the moment is on the peak of the global warming process, Absudamatov said. Now, with the decrease in the Sun's radiation, global temperatures are going to decrease, too.

"In 20th century, the Sun's activity could be characterized by a general increase in the amount of radiated energy, and global warming was a result of this process. Global warming is by no means an anomaly, but a normal phenomenon. Global warmings, as well as global coolings, have happened before."

According to Absudamatov, the global cooling will start in 2,012 or 2,013. By 2035 the Sun's radiation will reach its minimum, and 15 years later a deep cooling of the Earth's climate should be expected.

I don't know if this is any more reliable than the global warming scare & the fact is that neither does anybody else, or rather that those who claim to be certainty thereby prove themselves untrustworthy.

Despite the fact that the IPCC's beloved Hockeystick graphs denied the existence of cold periods at times of low sunspot activity these certainly happened & can be expected to happen again.

What we need is (A) more research, good research always pays off even, or particularly, when it finds something unexpected & (B) a space going civilization - the only place where we can not only see what is going on here but build the mirrors, shades etc to fine tune the weather (& to divert 100 million tons of cometary ice coming in faster than a speeding bullet) is in space.

RADIO SCOTLAND SOUNDBITE

The Israeli embassy's PR man has just been interviewed on Gary's show on Radio Scotland & I have just had this email I sent in read out (about 12.50). I was quite gratified to have it done in full, even with an "as he would see it" added to the NATO bit:
The number of Palestinians who were driven from Israeli territory (or as Israel would have it left voluntarily) was half a million. By comparison half of Israel's population were Jews driven from Arab lands (or as the Arabs would have it left voluntarily) & 2 million of the population of Serbia & Montenrgro are people ethnicaly cleansed from Croatia, Bosnia & Kosovo with the very active assistance of NATO, "as he would see it".

What do you think motivates people, particularly in Europe more affronted by Palestinain than Jewish or Serbian refugees?

His entirely reasoned & sensible reply was that the Palestinians had been kept as refugees quite deliberately as a symbol whereas the arabic Jews had got on with building a country. Israelis had hoped the Palestinians would have followed their example. I think this somewhat underestimates the problems the Palestinians have, but not all that much so, when you look at the problems that Israel faced in building the country on their side of the border.

He did not fall for the implication in my question that there is an undercurrent of anti-semitism in the opponents of Israel, particularly non-Moslems (which there certainly is) & considerably more than an undercurrent of Nazism in the attitude to Serbs (which is also true).

Neither he nor Gary mentioned the point about the Serbs which is what I expected - in fact I was quite surprised he hadn't cut that line.

Monday, February 06, 2006

OSAMA BIN LADEN SPOTTED - "IRRELEVANT" SAYS JUDGE

A very interesting wirness statement form the Milosevic "trial" here from Ms. Eva Prentice a British journalist who has covered the Balkans for both The Guardian and the London Times newspapers since the 1980s. Over the course of her career she visited the former Yugoslavia at least forty times, & just about the only Britsh journalist who is clearly honest.

The most explosive part of her testimony dealt with an interview that she scheduled with Alija Izetbegovic in November 1994. While she was waiting in Izetbegovic's foyer both she, and a journalist from Der Speigel, saw Osama bin Laden being escorted into Izetbegovic’s office. Yes *that* Osama bin Laden -- the same Osama bin Laden who masterminded the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Needless to say this evidence did not sit well with the tribunal. Mr. Nice immediately objected and Judge Robinson cut off the testimony immediately declaring it “irrelevant.”

Remember that this is what western media were virtually unanimous as announcing as the "trial of the century". You would think they would report that (before the invasion of Iraq they devoted many column inches to much less spectacular alleged links between Iraq & Osama). In pure news value this is a story that should be considerably bigger than the nonsense about cartoons. This was at a time when Paddy Ashdown & other assorted NATO spooks were in & out of Izetbegovic's office like rats in drainpipes. Did they meet? Very probably, though I suspect not in that office.

I have had a bit of stick from the Lib Dems for saying that Judge Bonamy was wrong to say that Islamic terrorism does not cause a security threat - so I'll probably get more for suggesting that the presence of bin Laden in the office of what, if the BBC is in any way honest, was a " moderate minded Moslem committed to a multi-cultural state" is somewhat relevant.

The rest of Ms Prentice's evidence is just as damaging though less spectacular & I suggest you read it here are some sinps
She testified that the Kosovo-Albanians told her that they were leaving Kosovo primarily because they were afraid of the KLA and the NATO bombing. She only came across one Albanian who told her that he was leaving because the Serbian police had told him to.

She said that the KLA was telling the Albanian population that it was their “patriotic duty” to leave Kosovo in order to make it appear that the Serbs were victimizing the Albanians and ethnically cleansing the province.

Ms. Prentice testified that she took measures to speak to Albanian civilians at times when Serbian police were not around. Her Albanian interpreter was a lawyer who worked for Ibrahim Rugova.

She testified that Albanian civilians were afraid to speak freely in the presence of the KLA. She recounted one instance in Kosvoska Mitrovica where she was interviewing a group of Albanians and they would not speak to her once a member of the KLA came within earshot.

.......She also witnessed the destruction caused by NATO bombing raids in Gnjilane, Istok (Dubrava Prison), Orohovac, and Meja. In each of these cases the indictment accuses Serbia for the destruction.

......While she was in Gnjilane she did not see any evidence of the deliberate burning of shops and houses alleged by the indictment. All she saw was the destruction caused by NATO.

The indictment says that Serbian troops forced the Albanian population to leave Prizren from March 28th onwards. But Ms. Prentice said that there were a lot of Albanians in Prizren while she was there in May.

Ms. Prentice was bombed by NATO herself. At about 3 PM on May 30, 1999 she was on her way to Prizren. She was on the road about 8 km east of Prizren when NATO attacked. Her driver was killed in the attack, and a cameraman she was traveling with was blown into a river several meters away.

She said that the NATO aircraft were flying low enough that they could have easily seen the civilian cars on the road below.

Ms. Prentice, who has a pilot’s license herself, estimated the aircraft to be flying at about 2,000 ft. Because she was traveling with a cameraman she also has videotape of the NATO aircraft. She was ultimately rescued from the scene Yugoslav Army personnel who took her to safety and gave her medical treatment.

About two weeks after the bombing Ms. Prentice began to suffer health effects. She lost her voice. Her immune system weakened. She has had cancer twice since then, and the presence of heavy metals in her blood stream causes her to suspect that NATO used depleted uranium weapons during the attack.

NATO has publicly denied that it carried out the bombing raid, but Ms. Prentice’s father (who is a member of the British House of Lords) received information from his contacts in the British military that NATO had indeed carried out the bombing.

Ms. Prentice testified that after NATO entered Kosovo a massive exodus of the non-Albanian population occurred. She said that the KLA, together with Albanians from Albania, went around Kosovo forcing the non-Albanian population to leave. She said that NATO did nothing to protect the non-Albanian population.
.........Milosevic questioned the witness questions about the Markale market. Over the course of her work, Ms. Prentice spoke with people who had access to ballistics data on the blast. According to the information she received the blast did not come from an outside projectile. The blast came from an explosive device that had been taped under one of the tables at the market.

When she interviewed Lord Owen she asked him whether he had believed that the Bosnian-Muslim government planted the bomb themselves. She said that Owen responded by refusing to confirm or deny the suggestion. The Markale Market is significant because NATO used it as the justification to bomb the Bosnian Serbs.

Ms. Prentice testified that when she visited Sarajevo in 1994 she did not find the city under siege. She said that there was some shelling but not a siege.

She said that one day while she was at the offices of the Bosnian presidency a shell exploded near the house she was staying. She observed that the shell fell in a location that was surrounded by tall buildings and narrow streets meaning that the shell could have only come in from a steep angle, which meant that it could only have been fired from a Muslim-held position.

During her time in Bosnia she visited Pale. She said that she was surprised to find that a large number of non-Serb refugees were being given shelter there. Before she actually visited Bosnia she had believed what the rest of the media told her about the Serbs.

She recounted one occasion where she tried to convince Robin Cook to visit Pale so that he could see for himself that non-Serbs were living freely in the Bosnian-Serb capital. Cook, who was on a fact finding mission, told her that he would not visit Pale because he thought the Serbs were “monsters.”

Robin Cook was the monster. An obscene lying genocidal Nazi piece of excrement - ie a typical cabinet member.

WHO "does not really have a place in the party"?

Oaten blames dirty tricks as he quits Lib Dem race
By Brendan Carlin Political Correspondent
(Filed: 20/01/2006)

"The Liberal Democrat leadership contest has descended into allegations of dirty tricks as Mark Oaten quit the race after leaked e-mails killed off his campaign.
.........
Yesterday Mr Oaten, the party's home affairs spokesman, withdrew after calling in the police over the alleged theft of an e-mail showing Charles Kennedy, the party's former leader, had at one stage canvassed on his behalf.

The leak provoked aides of Mr Kennedy into a damaging rejection of Mr Oaten's campaign. It had already been virtually devoid of support from fellow MPs and the disclosure effectively forced him to pull out.

.....Mr Oaten - who revealed that his wallet had gone missing - said he was "very upset that private conversations I had been having with Charles ended up in the press".

His departure leaves three candidates in the race - Chris Huhne, a little-known Treasury spokesman, Simon Hughes, the Left-leaning party president and Sir Menzies, now the hope of the party's so-called "Orange Book" economically liberal modernisers.

........Sir Menzies declared: "Under my leadership, the Lib Dems will not be making polite interjections from the sidelines - we will be hammering on the doors of power."
........
He effectively admitted that the recent exchange of leaked e-mails had helped force his hand yesterday. Mr Opik said yesterday that whoever was responsible for the "underhand" leak from Mr Oaten's office "does not really have a place in the party".



NOTE The first part of this post has been deleted by me since the original link has assured me that he has received a credible asurance that it had no foundation.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

CARTOON CAPERS

No I am not going to link up to any of these cartoons. Ok take it as a given that I support free speech - if I support it for Nick Griffin I must support it for Danish cartoonists.

I do. Taken together I would have to say that what Griffin said, that some 2nd generation Moslems might turn into suicide bombers was less offensive, though more frightening because true, than saying that Mohammed would. So yes I do support their intrinsic freedom to do so.

But it isn't courteous.

If you go around gratutously insulting people then you deserve no respect. (Note that when I accuse Bliar, the Pope, Clinton, Kohl etc etc of various sorts of murders this is entirely tuitously insulting them & at least to some extent so is Griffin's), The Danish cartoons however seem to be just silly. Much worse the reprinting by foreign papers, & even more on the web are being done just to make a mess, like a small boy at a dinner party dropping his pants.

Lets not go light on the protesters either. For at least 1300 years people in Denmark have said rude things about Mohammed - for most of that time it was almost compulsory. What difference did it make to Haroun al-Rashid? Stop going around deliberately looking for things to be insulted by. In many cases you can see that individuals are attaching themselves to this "protest" movement for their own agendas. Palestine is threatened with melt down - what exactly is the point of armed street gangs/political activists going around Gaza looking for Danes to shoot. Actually the point, as with most street gangs, is to prove how tough you are but it has nothing to do with defending the ability not to anthropomorphise your worship of the Deity (which is the relatively sophisticated reason for not drawing their prophet).

Lets try reversing it - a good way of seeing the other guy's view. Should we defend the right of somebody in the Gulf to burn the flag (ours or the US), how about celebrating 9/11. In the former I think we should & to be fair to the Americans though there is a movement to make flag burning unconstitutional it isn't & I suspect never will be - when push comes to shove they do understand what their constitution is about. 9/11 is tougher. In theory, if freedom to insult Mohammed is that important then we should also defend the right to gratuitously celebrate that but I think I would draw a line there. If there was point to celebrating it that would be different but purely gratuitously upsetting people is different. Fortunately Moslems aren't going to produce jokes about Jesus in a blender because they believe in him too.

A lot has been made of the way Dave Allan made a living from jokes about the Pope some of them pretty wicked, thus proving how much nicer we, or possibly only Catholics are. The difference is the he was obviously, indeed he made it obvious with every word, an Irish Catholic. Thats allowed. Equally a Jewish audience will love a series of funny Jewish jokes told by a good Jewish comedian but an obviously goy one will go down like a lead balloon. The Reverend Ian Paisley telling Pope jokes doesn't work either or a Frenchman telling an American audience drunk jokes about Bush. You have to be inside the group to poke fun at it. This was why the Salman Rushdie affair had a real moral dimension, he was brought up in Islam & knew exactly what he was talking about & was an informed critic, whereas this is just about people who want to start something - from a safe distance.

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