A Place to Stand

Previously I had done reviews of the motions at the Scottish Lib Dem Conference. They have actually published them this year & the conference starts today so I will give a quick review.

HIGHER EDUCATION (submitted by Policy Cttee)(p20 of pdf)

More money for Universities, more grants, no tuition fees, reduce student debt.

Everybody in is in favour of spending more but no mention of what they want to cut to pay for it. Typical of politic generally

VICTIM SUPPORT (Policy cttee) p21

Some good ideas here, mainly keeping the victims in the loop & letting them know if & why perpetrators are released.

HUMAN TRAFFICING (Inverness East) p22

They are against it

No mention of how deeply our Albanian KLA friends are involved in it - with the total support of the LibDems

TAKING ACTION TO TACKLE EXCESS PACKAGING (East Dunbartonshire & Clydebank) p23

Insist on supermarkets having bins so people can tear off the packaging which doesn't actually reduce it & more regulations & money for inspectors.

Typical

MEETING SCOTLAND'S HOUSING NEED (Ross Skye & Inverness) p26

Councils should sell some land for housing but it has to be offered first to Housing Association. More regulations to make sure that half of all new houses are "affordable". SNP should be responsible for ensuring 27,000 new houses by 2011.

Housing Associations are inept builders & regulations to make houses "affordable" as opposed to unaffordable houses which therefore never sell. This system might well produce 27,000 houses . We should & could be building more than that every year if builders were allowed to just get on with it.
NORTH SEA OIL (Aberdeen South) p 29

1) Reducing the supplementary Corporation Tax rate paid by the UK oil and gas
industry to ensure that the UK remains a competitive environment within the
global oil and gas sector, especially in the face of falling reserves.
2) Establishing stability within the industry by providing an assurance that there will be no further ad hoc tax increases.

Fairly sensible particularly 2, though I would be happier to see CT cuts on mainland industries. However Holyrood does not have the power to control this so no real idea how it will be done

RIGHT TO BUY (Policy Cttee) p29

Council house right to buy has been a success & therefore should be ended immediately for new tenants & in 5 years for everybody else.

Since right to buy is popular with ordinary people but not with political activists, who enjoy power, this phrased as saying how well it has worked & says "Ensure tenants with an existing right should only lose their right after at least 5 years" rather than phrasing it that they will lose their rights in 5 years.

That's 3 days out of several hundred people's lives

All the fuss about Prince Harry in Afghanistan sounds overblown since he will obviously have been well protected. However there is a precedent for a young Prince going off to war & in his enthusiasm getting himself killed.

Louis Napoleon, heir to the Emperorship of France, managed it a century ago during the Zulu war.

On the morning of 1 June the troop set out, earlier than intended, and without the full escort, largely owing to Louis' impatience. Led by Carey, the scouts rode deeper into Zululand. Without Harrison or Buller present to restrain him, the Prince took command from Carey, even though the latter had seniority. At noon the troop was halted at a temporarily deserted kraal while Louis and Carey made some sketches of the terrain, and used part of the thatch to make a fire. No lookout was posted. As they were preparing to leave, about 40 Zulus fired upon them and rushed screaming uSuthu! ("kill") towards them. The Prince's horse dashed off before he could mount, the Prince clinging to a holster on the saddle - after about a hundred yards a strap broke, and the Prince fell beneath his horse, trampling his right arm. He leapt up, drawing his revolver with his left hand, and started to run - but the Zulus could run faster.

The Prince was speared in the thigh, pulled the assegai from his wound, and turned and fired on his pursuers, another assegai struck his left shoulder. The Prince tried to fight on, using the assegai he had pulled from his leg, but weakened by his wounds, he sank to the ground and was overwhelmed. When recovered his body had 18 assegai wounds. Two of his escort had been killed, and another was missing.....

Louis Napoleon's death caused an international sensation, and in one slanderous account Queen Victoria was accused of deliberately arranging the whole thing. The Zulus later claimed that they would not have killed him if they had known who he was. Zabanga, his chief assailant, met his death in July at the Battle of Ulundi. Eugénie was later to make a pilgrimage to Sobuza's kraal, where her son died. The Prince, who had begged to be allowed to go to war, taking the sword carried by the first Napoleon at Austerlitz to war with him, and worried his commanders by his dash and daring, was described by Wolseley as "a plucky young man, and he died a soldier's death. What on earth could he have done better?".

I have considerable sympathy for Wolseley's remark. This is traditionally the role of both young men & kings. Prince Harry was not engaged in a risk free photo opportunity & I think the country is the better for it.

Due to the "independence" declaration by the KLA I have put up quite a few comments on or relating to this in the last few days & have decided to post here in one lump:

Kosovo http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Kremlin-using-Kosovo-independence-as.3781366.jp#2486405

I don't know what is going on in Darfur. However I do know that over many years our media did deliberately lie to portray the Bosnian Moslem leader as a moderate censoring any mention of the fact that he was an ex-Nazi who had publicly called for the genocide of all non-Moslem communities (60% of the population). They did heavily push the "Srebrenica Massacre" omitting the very strong evidence that it is largely or entirely a fabrication & censored any mention of the prior & undisputed massacre by the Moslem Nazis of at least 3,800 Serb men, women & children (though mainly the latter 2 since the men were in the army). I also know they portrayed the KLA as freedom fighters when they knew they were NATO armed scum recruited from drug dealers, Albanian secret police torturers, pimps & ex-Nazis sent out to engage in genocide. I could go on for ages but check out www.tenc.net/

Knowing the western media's propensity to lie it would be immoral to punish anybody, Chinese, Sudanese or anybody else, purely on claims made by organisations which are provably so corrupt. Also looking at the accusations against Sudan you will see how curiously unspecific they are - specificity would not prove it since ITN "accidentally" fabricated a video of a specific "concentration camp" which wasn't, but the lack of attempts even to produce this much evidence suggests it doesn't exist.

Unfair to Stalin comparing him to Miliband. Stalin's aggressions can all be seen as forward defences to very real military threats to the physical survival of the people of the USSR One may argue over whether it was right to do so in face of Hitler's avowed desire to exterminate the whole people or the west's equally avowed willingness to use it's first strike nuclear capability to do much the same.

Miliband, on the other hand is merely a murdering Nazi war criminal. The difference being that, under international law, purely aggressive wars, which is what he has been involved in & is advocating more of, are criminal actions, accepted as such by the British state. Miliband is therefore legally guilty of murder on a scale that makes Fred West look decent.


Lord Bonomy http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/Scotland39s-disgrace.3784728.jp

The open secret about prosecuting Nazi war criminals is that we only went after the very small fry & usually non-Germans at that. Look at the trail over the last 10 years & you will not find a German from Germany there. Despite life sentences at Nuremberg virtually all of the big fish were let out between 1950 & 1955, one of the last being Sepp Deitrich kept so "long" not because of the 10s of thousands of Jews he murdered but because of murdering 300 US soldiers.

All of this was done because the Nazis were being rebranded as anti-communist freedom fighters.

The effect of this has been that Nazism is alive & well & hugely influential in running the EU, NATO, Bilderberg Group & our media, as evidenced by our support of ex-Nazis publicly engaged in genocide & the media's censorship of the facts, in Yugoslavia.

Comparing Holocausts https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6214838&postID=1638219904267997720

I remember a Viz "news" story written in tabloid style about ta poor little kid upset because its daddy wasn't coming home after a dispute over who somebody else had "been looking at" - as the story unfolded it was clear that the refusal of the authorities to return the father was because he had murdered in a pub knifing.

This article about a poor little kid upset because they, unlike to overwhelming majority of cases in Kosovo, have not been allowed to permanently steal somebody's home is similar except that apparently it not self satire.

This is another example of the completely dishonest reporting our media have done for the last 18 years deliberately portraying people they know to be out & out Nazis publicly committed to genocide in a favourable light.

The fact is that our government & media deliberately participated in several campaigns of racial genocide in the Nazi cause & that they have lied to us & continuously & deliberately & censored any reports of the numerous massacres totallying at least 6,000 murders to portray genocide as a good thing.

Are our media are in any way whatsoever supporters of freedom & human rights or to be trusted on anything?

Kosovo http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2051309.0.Tensions_high_as_Kosovo_goes_it_alone.phphttps://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=35447458&postID=8617256538253970986&page=1
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Grenades--gunfire-and-fourletter.3786706.jp#2495592
dailymail - 3 posts all censored
timesonline. - 4 posts all censored
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/comment/Easing-path-to-EU-membership.3790098.jp#2499585
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Bush-hails-Kosovo39s--.3790147.jp#2499610
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Border-posts-ablaze-as-.3794150.jp#2503525 http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/It39s-39Islam--lite39-.3799659.jp#2507608 http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/featuresopinon/display.var.2060860.0.0.php http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Body-found-after-US-Embassy.3805287.jp#2511650 https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=13989666&postID=3511161259746979031&page=1
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/world/Battle-lines-drawn-over-Kosovo.3809927.jp#2518268
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Hope-for--Cyprus-reunification.3813937.jp

Ancillary to Kosovo
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/letters/display.var.2051288.0.0.php?act=add#comments http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/Holocaust39s-vital-lessons.3786633.jp#2495526http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Cyprus-unity-on-agenda-.3786717.jp http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/China39s-broken-promises.3790042.jp http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/comment/George-Kerevan--Scotland-must.3794094.jp#2503484
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/Uncovering-mass-grave-of-the.3799627.jp#2507540
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/opinion/Why-are-we--helping.3805050.jp#2511562 https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6214838&postID=1863681831248836261&page=1 https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=6214838&postID=2481382097856428095&page=1
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/Cameron-wrong-to-label-Holocaust.3810355.jp#2520560
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/letters/Value-of-Auschwitz-visits.3813792.jp#2524285
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/world/Hope-for--Cyprus-reunification.3813937.jp#2524318
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/Fears-for-judicial-independence-under.3818297.jp#2527716

The western media have unanimously pushed the claim that the Serbs drove the refugees from Kosovo thus "proving" the moral case for bombing.

The truth is the exact opposite. The refugees fled because they were in the target zone 10s of thousands of NATO bombs. This is proven by the fact of many interviews with refugees who said this (though their western provided translators didn't. It is also proven by the fact that a larger proportion of the Serb than of the Albanian population fled, albeit deeper into Serbia There is also the instance of the Albanian refugee convoy which NATO bombed, killing 334. This convoy was returning to their homes, having been persuaded by Yugoslav officials that the "cleansing" story was a lie perpetrated by the KLA & NATO & that they were safe to return. That they weren't was not in any way whatsoever the fault of the Yugoslavs.

All this has could only have been censored by media willing to tell any lie whatsoever in support of NATO's deliberate racial genocide.

The democratic right of the Albanian immigrants to Kosovo rests on the deliberate genocide & ethnic cleansing carried out, under NATO authority by the NATO police (as the KLA have since become). For example, shortly after we took over the British occupation authorities deliberately allowed their "police" to murder 210 unarmed civilians in the Dragodan Massacre. This official UK genocide would only have received front page coverage in every newspaper in Britain if these newspapers had been something other than wholly corrupt Nazi mouthpieces.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/letters/display.var.2057427.0.0.php

This was the the bombshell dropped very quietly into Imagine on BBC 11.05 last night. It was a programme about the career or Richard Rogers, builder of the Pompidou Centre, LLoyds building, Millenium Dome, Madrid Airport Terminal etc etc.

He said specifically that the Millennium Dome had only cost £46 million to build & in a separate soundbite his partner said it was 7% of the official cost, which is pretty much the accepted building cost of £670 million.

Officailly

The Millennium Dome is the biggest dome in the world ... The overall cash budget of £758m comprises £670m base cost

according to the official website. There is a general suspicion that the final cost is actually close to £1 billion after you include all sorts of hidden subsidies.

I have blogged a number of times before about how dreadful the degree of government padding to public works projects is (eg the next Forth Bridge being 13 times more expensive, after inflation than the previous one or comparable works across the world). The Edinburgh tramline costing £600 million for one line. The quoted price for a Forth tunnel being £4,673 million when the Norwegians have regularly built equivalents at under £40 million.

Even so & even though I had thought I was cynical about it it is clear that I had underestimated the sheer useless waste in government papershuffling & profits.

This should be making headlines everywhere. It is not like Mr Speaker being found to ripped us off for a mere few hundred thousand this is big. As is the fact that Rogers & co were warned by the government not to speak even though theu were getting some comments from people who knew what it should have cost.

Meanwhile here are the official figures:

The Dome: (note *) 260
Construction & infrastructure 198
Exhibition & central attraction 95
Operations & running costs in year of operation
The Challenge 54
Central costs:
Marketing 29
Support services 34
Central Contingency 88

This Morning Radio Scotland were doing a piece on the intention of the Scottish government to increase subsidies of ferries to the Scottish isles to "road equivalent" ie that the fare costs, in theory, no more than driving would if a road existed. This sounds to me like fares will have to be reduced to the almost free stage but I have seen no costings.

However I have been pushing the Scottish Tunnels Project & this seemed worth mentioning as a 100% road equivalent, without the inconvenienc or long term costs so I rang in & got on the air.

It went well. I was only on for a minute or so but I got to mention, twice, that the cost of Norwegian tunnels was £3.5-£11 million per km & that they had built nearly 700 km of them. Indeed Gary seemed fairly keen mentioning that bridges & ferries have to close in bad weather (an earlier caller from Lewis had mentioned that the ferry was off today for that reason) whereas tunnels don't. He also mentioned the Forth crossing & I agreed that, though not part of today's discussion, I thought a tunnel was a better option for it too. Perhaps they will ask a minister about this some time.

I had not particularly expected to be called & indeed only phoned up about 9.20 (it ended at 9.30). The producer wasn't sure they would get me through the queue in time but they did & I was the last caller. The BBC must have some automatic device that registers previous callers because the woman answering knew my name without me having to give it.

For anyone wanting to try a phone in the competition is not tough (they do get a lot of idiots). I would suggest writing down some points, phrases or statistics you want to use (I didn't but have already written the Tunnels project article so I could just crib that). Another advantage of having something written is that when you ring up you can tell the receptionist what you want to say immediately, rather than stuttering & sounding like a dick. I would also suggest phoning in early which means they have more time available for you & seems polite. They will phone you back when they want you, or not as the case may be.

Scotsman letter. This is the letter as submitted. Fortunately the quote was given in full in the paper edition. They have dropped half the 3rd last paragraph, the 2nd last paragraph & the last 2 sentences but none of these change the meaning:

"May I congratulate Bill Jamieson on his article today (22nd Feb) pointing out the incongruity of alleging catastrophic global warming as all across the world we see extraordinary amounts of snow. He will doubtless receive many letters from "environmentalists" saying that such comments should not be allowed in your pages because "the debate is over". In November 23rd 2006 you published a letter from an eminent Scottish clergyman who criticised your publication of an earlier letter from me on this subject, on the grounds that "an overwhelming scientific consensus that global warming is a reality, to a degree never even remotely approached at any previous stage of history" existed & should not be disturbed.

No doubt you will hear that this "consensus" still exists (always excluding the 19,000 scientists who signed the Oregon Petition saying the opposite, among many others). More important than the opinions of the "great & good", more important even than the opinions & computer models of scientists, are the facts. It is a fact that since 1999 the world has not got warmer.

Climatologists, historians & archaeologists agree that the Medieval Warming was, even being cautious, as warm as now & the Late Roman (when grapes grew at York) probably significantly warmer.

It is good to see that there is somewhere willing to publish evidence that opposes the purely political "consensus". That is what good journalism is about. I hope you will show such scepticism over the next "environmental" scare story, whatever it may be.

Yours faithfully
Neil Craig"

Canon Kenyon's letter, for it was indeed he, & another by Roy Turnball on the same page were a direct response to a drastically shortened letter of mine on 1st November. My original is here

I was therefore being accused of being "those who claim otherwise seldom have any real authority and often are funded by groups with a vested interest in avoiding the implications of the reality" & an "inability to recognise the truth". My authority is equal to that of the Canon's, my knowledge considerably greater & my funding by evil plutocrats non-existent.

I strongly suspect the Canon was merely wanting to make a PC point & get his name in the paper & his 2nd letter shows some consternation that he had stirred up Matrin Livermore of the Scientific Alliance, Dr GM Lindsay & Jim Sillars whom he was not well informed enough to dispute with.

I am quite proud of this (which is why I wrote today's letter) since it is one of the earliest times we saw a serious media debate on the subject - the position having been that the debate, never having taken place, was over. This is still the position in the broadcast media although even there the BBC are passing each other emails about how they ought to try to at least look more impartial.

My unpublished reply at the time to the Canon's letter

I think a little perspective on how recent it was that it was possible to say "the debate is over" is worthwhile.

On a number of occasions in the past people have left comments saying extremely flattering things about my continued posting on our aggressions against Yugoslavia. I obviously feel this to be far more important than the respectable media do, both from a moral point of view & from the destruction it has done to international law, thus making the world a much more dangerous place for us all.

There is no question that the NATO powers have not only participated in genocide but have broken international law & the Helsinki Treaty Section 1 A

Accordingly, the participating States will refrain from any acts constituting a threat of
force or direct or indirect use of force against another participating State.
Likewise they will refrain from any manifestation of force for the purpose of inducing another
participating State to renounce the full exercise of its sovereign rights.

Europe is a relatively small area with high technology. When fighter jets can cross 2 countries before they can reach top speed we need some system whereby we can be relatively assured against aggression & NATO have destroyed it. Moreover they have proved to the world that no treaty or agreement with most of the NATO countries is worth the paper it is written on, which will not make it easier to make such agreements in future & has visibly helped in growing the Shaghai Pact.

For that reason my support of the Yugoslavs is not purely noble but contains a fair amount of self interest. On the other hand I do like to think it contains a fair bit of nobility as well & like everybody else, I am very flattered & grateful for praise.

However I will not usually post a reply comment to a comment saying only this. Partly I don't know what to say which would not seem as gushing and embarrassing as any Oscar speech. Partly it is that comments sections are for you - I get all the big space. I will usually answer a question & often say where I think a comment is factually wrong but generally would like to encourage more comments & don't think I will achieve this by monopolising the conversation.

But I would like to thank you for watching me & my little show & I love you all.

(& blogspot's spellcheck seems to be working again)