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Messages - Phil Talbot

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211
63% IN BRITAIN SAY TROOPS HOME BY CHRISTMAS

Despite the best efforts of the government and media, the war in Afghanistan is deeply unpopular. Last week's BBC poll showed that 63% of the British public want the troops home by Christmas (SEE http://bit.ly/9meRQf ).

Yet all 3 leading parties - 'New' Labour, 'New' Tory and Liberal-Democrat - support the Afghanistan military 'adventure' - and so give the British people no choice of a real change in military policies.

This begs the question: 'Who should people who want British troops withdrawn from the unwinnable war in Afghanistan vote for in the coming general election?'

212
General Election 2010 / CND online anti-Trident lobby
« on: February 28, 2010, 02:20:02 PM »
CND has set up an on-line anti-Trident lobbying system for the election - details below. Do we went to get our preferred anti-war candidates listed on it? (It might be a way of directing potential supporters our ways)


http://www.cnduk.org/election/

http://www.iparl.com/election-cnd/index.php?postcode=ne34+7ln&submit=Find+your+candidates&submitted=TRUE&actionkey=1&username=cnd


The following candidates plan to stand in South Shields:

No response has yet been received from Karen Allen of the Conservative Party


No response has yet been received from David Miliband of the Labour Party


 
Send us missing info


Even if they have already responded to the survey please now lobby your candidates. Messages will be sent to those that are ticked:

 
 Karen Allen of the Conservative Party 
 David Miliband of the Labour Party 

Your name: 
Address: 
Address 2: 
Town: 
Postcode: 
Your email: 
 
Subject: 


With many parties going into the election talking about public spending cuts, we believe there is one very positive cutback any new government could make - scrapping the £76bn replacement of Trident.

Feel free to modify the letter to give it any local context you feel appropriate, but please leave the questions as presented - this will allow us to better collate all responses received.

     
I am writing to you, in your capacity as a prospective parliamentary candidate, to ascertain your views on nuclear weapons.

I am particularly concerned about the cost of Trident and its replacement at a time of national and global financial crisis. Many cutbacks are being proposed across the public sector, yet the replacement of Trident is expected to cost in excess of £76bn. In a situation where Britain's security needs are very different from those of past decades, with no state threatening the UK, the onus is on those who prioritise money for nuclear weapons above other commitments to make the case for such huge levels of spending. Spending money on nuclear weapons means we cannot use it for other more socially useful spending, or on helping to solve the problems of poverty and climate change.

I am also concerned about Britain's security. I believe that retaining nuclear weapons will make us less safe. Many of the threats we face as a country, from terrorism to climate change cannot be tackled by nuclear weapons, but their retention has the potential to make us less safe. The more that countries such as Britain justify their possession of nuclear weapons on the grounds of an uncertain future, the more likely it is that non-nuclear states will seek to use the same rationale to justify developing their own weapons systems. For this reason, there is increasing international demand for the global abolition of nuclear weapons as the best way to secure our safety. In fact, a majority of UN member states, including China, India and Pakistan, already back a Nuclear Weapons Convention, which would ban these weapons in the way that chemical and biological weapons are outlawed.

I have included two specific questions below to which I would appreciate yes/no answers. Your answers are likely to affect how I vote in the forthcoming election.

My questions are:

If elected, would you vote for or against the replacement of Trident?

If elected, would you back UK support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention, banning all nuclear weapons internationally?

I look forward to your response.

 
 
By submitting this form, I agree to allow you to forward the above message to my candidates after reviewing the content for abuse. I understand my data may be retained for monitoring purposes.
 I agree to you contacting me in the future using the information I have submitted. Privacy Policy
 


             
© Campaign

213
South Tyneside Stop the War / Re: 'Greens slam callous Miliband'
« on: February 11, 2010, 02:22:13 PM »
South Shields MP David Miliband 'Denies Everything' (and disgraces the real values of the town he pretends to 'represent') ... Again ... and Again ... and Again ... and ...

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate-uk/2010/02/10/torture-ruling-a-victory-for-free-speech/

Torture ruling a victory for free speech
By: Padraig Reidy

-Padraig Reidy is news editor at Britain’s Index on Censorship an organisation promoting freedom of expression. The opinions expressed are his own.-

The Court of Appeal’s decision on Wednesday to release material relating to the torture of “war on terror” detainee Binyam Mohamed is undoubtedly an embarrassment for David Miliband, the Foreign Office and the government.

The redacted evidence, itself a mere seven paragraphs, revealed reports that Mohamed, who has never been charged with any terror offence, was shackled during interrogation, subjected to sleep deprivation and suffered severe mental stress.

The paragraphs did not reveal any evidence of direct British intelligence involvement in torture, though the judges made it clear in the last paragraph: “The treatment reported, if had been administered on behalf of the United Kingdom, would clearly have been in breach of the undertakings given by the United Kingdom in 1972. Although it is not necessary for us to categorise the treatment reported, it could readily be contended to be at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of BM by the United States authorities.”

So one can understand the Foreign office’s attempts to cover up the evidence: but at a time when Barack Obama’s White House has revealed far more disturbing details of the treatment of renditioned prisones than the ones contained in these paragraphs, it seems disingenuous for Milliband to claim, as he did, that the publication of these paragraphs would endanger U.S.-UK intelligence sharing.

Miliband’s lawyers even went so far as to have a paragraph redacted from the Court of Appeal judgement at the last minute, in a scrabbling effort to defend the reputation of the security services.

So was there a motive beyond this? Embarrassment? Shame? Simple control freakery? Possibly a combination of the three. Both Miliband and his Conservative shadow, William Hague, have spun the judgement as upholding the “control principle” on intelligence sharing. This suggests that there would not be any significant difference in approach to secrecy by any future Conservative government. Meanwhile, Miliband has ruled out a public inquiry into Mohamed’s case — unsurprising when one considers the lengths to which the government went to conceal seven tiny morsels of information.

Of interest, however, to Index on Censorship and civil libertarians is this line from the judgement: “[In] principle, a real risk of serious damage to national security, of whatever degree, should not automatically trump a public interest in open justice…”

Encouragingly, (and unusually) an English court has committed to free expression and exchange of information as a principle. Our politicians understandably recoil from the free flow of information (God knows it did them no favours in the recent expenses scandal), but now their hand has been forced yet again, isn’t it time that all the UK’s parties started taking free expression to their hearts? The revulsion at attempts to cover up torture, the disgust at the refusal to be open about expenses, and the popular clamour for reform of the libel laws should demonstrate to UK legislators that whoever commits to free speech and free information this Spring will win not just kudos, but votes.

214
South Tyneside Stop the War / Beyond Imagination? or In Denial?
« on: January 19, 2010, 04:57:01 PM »
I was struck by something PM Gordon Brown said the other day as regards the Haiti Earthquake: he said it was a 'tragedy beyond imagination'.
Did this comment indicate limitations in Mr Brown's 'imagination'? and/or ... that he had not read, for example, reports of the effects of bombs and other weapons on human beings ... in illegal invasions such as that on Iraq, which he fully supported - and helped to 'bank-roll' - in which hundreds of thousands or people were also killed, injuried, made homeless, and otherwise traumatized? ...

215
Additional personal notes:
I, like most British people (I would imagine), have no 'dispute' and/or 'conflict' with the people of Yemen. So why has the British government decided that 'we' do? - and why has it withdrawn British diplomatic representation from there? And whatever happened to 'diplomacy' I wonder? And why can't 'they' think of better ways of starting a new decade than propagating fresh 'scare-stories' at home and pointing fingers at new 'bogey states' abroad?

216
It occurs to me that there's probably better 'understanding' of the present situation in (the mainstream media's favourite 'new enemy'/'bogey state') Yemen to be found within the South Shields 'minority' Yemen-origined community than in the British Establishment ... but, for the record, and for what it's worth, this is a summary of recent Chatham House / 'MI6' (take your pick!) 'intelligence' that is 'informing' present British foreign policy there ...

'Yemen: Fear of Failure'
Chatham House, Briefing Paper by Ginny Hill (Ms Hill, who the BBC, etc, have decided is a leading British 'expert' on Yemen, affects to be an 'independent' analyst, but, since she British state establishment sponsored, some might doubt that), first published November 2008 - and so suggesting long-term planning of present 'developments' : ...
'Yemen presents a potent combination of problems for policy-makers confronting the prospect of state failure in this strategically important Red Sea country. It is the poorest state in the Arab world, with high levels of unemployment, rapid population growth and dwindling water resources.
President Saleh faces an intermittent civil war in the north, a southern separatist movement and resurgent terrorist groups. Yemen's jihadi networks appear to be growing as operating conditions in Iraq and Saudi Arabia become more difficult.
The underlying drivers for future instability are economic. The state budget is heavily dependent on revenue from dwindling oil supplies. Yemen's window of opportunity to shape its own future and create a post-oil economy is narrowing.
Western governments need to work towards an effective regional approach with the member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council, in particular Saudi Arabia.
Future instability in Yemen could expand a lawless zone stretching from northern Kenya, through Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, to Saudi Arabia. Piracy, organized crime and violent jihad would escalate, with implications for the security of shipping routes, the transit of oil through the Suez Canal and the internal security of Yemen's neighbours.'

+

... oddly, perhaps, Ms Hill's 'indeprednet' analysis omits all mention of  Saudi military 'adventures' in Yemen ... and ... etc ...

217
(This is cut and pasted from what I wrote in Silence Is Shame Volume 2 in February 2004)

219
In Glasgow on 15 February 2003 (when the anti-war march was taking place in London)
Tony Blair was distorting reality with characteristic
kinds of word-twisting. This is what he actually said:
‘The moral case against war has a moral answer: it is the moral case
for removing Saddam. It is not the reason we act. That must be
according to the UN mandate on weapons of mass destruction. But
it is the reason, frankly, why if we do have to act we should do so with
a clear conscience.’
This was a deliberately unclear and issue obscuring statement by
Blair. With hindsight it can be understood more clearly.
As we now know, he did not have that United Nations mandate, and
he did not have real evidence of ‘weapons of mass destruction’, but
he was determined to back the American President George Bush in
the attack on Iraq to get rid of Saddam Hussein.
It is important for the anti-war movement to repeat as often as possible
that by any standard convention of international law it was illegal
for the American-British led forces to invade Iraq without a UN mandate
and to topple Saddam by force - however obnoxious he might
have been. This act broke standard conventions of international law
that exist to protect the integrity of nation states. It set a very danger
ous precedent. In future other powers are likely to attempt to justify
invasions of other nations and topplings of foreign governments of
which they do not approve by back-reference to the U.S.-U.K.-led
attack on Iraq in 2003.
And Blair must have known that what he and Bush were planning to
do was illegal - which was why he put out the smokescreen over
‘weapons of mass destruction’, and which is why, with that
smokescreen now blown away, he attempts to justify the war in terms
of the removal of the tyrant Saddam.
Saddam was a tyrant, yes, but it was illegal for the USA and UK
governments to topple him as they did. You do not fight tyranny
effectively by debasing the rule of law and acting like violent tyrants
yourself.

220
See also

http://www.northeaststopwar.org.uk/southtyne/html/movies_page_07.html

+

Plus ...

http://www.northeaststopwar.org.uk/southtyne/html/movies_page_06.html

(My response to the way 'military establishment' - and allies in BBC etc - seemed to be (mis-)using 'Remembrance Sunday' to shore up public 'support' for the campaign in Afghanistan - according to them, apparently, the waning public support is all due to a failure of 'explanation', and the British public are in the minds of these militaristic 'experts' seemingly just too 'stupid' to 'understand' what's going on in Afghanistan, and the 'security reasons' why we 'have' to  be there fighting the Afghans in their own country ...)

Phil

222
Earlier this year Mr Mandelson was attempting to (in effect) privatize the Royal Mail / the Post Office.
He was stopped from doing that by union activity and a back-bench revolt in Parliament.
He is presently (effectively) supporting the 'hatchet men' in charge of the Royal Mail - whose bullying tactics have put ordinary postal workers in an almost impossible position re their jobs and future prospects.
He is presently (effectively) supporting these 'hatchet men' as they attempt to hire some '30,000' strike-breakers/'scabs' to help break any industrial action by the postal workers.
These 'strike-breakers' are being recruited from the 'reserve army of relatively under-skilled unemployed workers' maintained by the 'Thatcherite' New Labour government (despite their stated aim of 'full employment') - which can be used in 'divide-and-rule' ploys to keep the workers in their places in times of economic crisis.
The 'reserve army of unemployed relatively under-skilled workers', of course, also be recruited as foot soldiers for the government's overseas military adventures.
And this sort of thing is being done under a so-called 'Labour' government.

223
A while ago I heard a North-East England Labour MP (who was very definitely NOT 'New Labour') say at a public meeting: 'Those B'stards came up here and stole our party from us!' I wonder who he meant?!

224
This week in 2009 I seem to remember that it was more or less about this autumn time back in the year of 1980 that I was awarded the 'British Government and Politics' study prize at Harton Comprehensive School (now called under New Labour redesignations 'Harton Technology College'), South Shields.

This award was given to me about a year after the Thatherite electoral victory in 1979.

At that time the Thatcherite ideology had won one election, but it was far from being politically 'triumphant'.

The then Conservative Party government seemed to be floundering and there seemed every chance that that party was going to lose subsequent general elections.

Three decades on, in 2009, the Thatcherite ideology does seem depressingly to my mind 'triumphant' - or at least, having won every election since 1979 (whether under Conservative Party or 'New Labour' guize) 'electorally dominant'.

The consequences of the 'Thatcherite triumph' are there to be seen in the daily reports of economic/financial/business 'crisis'/'crises'.

YET  all three 'major' British  parties - 'New' Conservative, 'New' Labour, Liberal Democrat - are now essentially 'Thatcherite' parties.

They all seem to have swallowed whole the 'Thatcherite' ideology - essentially 'privatize profit and nationalize debt'.

It seems as if all three major parties are still effectively parrotting the Thatetcheite myth 'there is no (ideological) alternative'.

For what it's worth, the prize I received for Harton Comprehesive School  'British Government and Politics' studies back in 1980 was a book called the 'Crossman Diaries'

It was an insider's account by a former Labour minister Richard Crossman of the Labour Governments of the 1960s.

That Labour government of the 1960s - whatever its (arguably 'many') 'failings' - could at least reasonably be described as the last Labour government that could honestly claim any sort of 'socialist' credentials.

Some might argue that there was very little 'socialist' about the 1960s Labour Government.

But, whatever the rights or wrongs of its 'ideological' description, it is a fact that the Labour government of the 1960s presereved elements of 'socialism  in its economic programmes.

And, significantly, it declined to  support the then war-mongering American government in military attacks on other sovereign nations, particularly North Vietnam.

The present so-called 'Labour' MP for South Shields, Mr David Miliband, actively supported the then right-wing Republican American president Mr George Bush in an illegal attack on the sovereign nation of Iraq in 2003.

That act by their sitting MP brought, to my mind, disgrace on the people of South Shields.

It is also a fact that the then so-called 'Labour' MP for Hartlepool, Mr 'Lord' Peter Mandelson supported that then same right-wing Republican American president George Bush in his illegal atack on the sovereign nation of Iraq.

Contrary to what many now pretend, it was possible at that time to be a leading policitian in the British and/or American 'establishment(s)' who, in good faith, opposed the illegal attack on the sovereign country of Iraq. (Opposition to the war wasn't just from a 'usual suspect' radical minority, in other words.)

The present President of the United States Mr Barrack Obama did just that.

All Liberal-Democrats in the British parliament did just that.

Several leading Tories, including the former chancellor Kenneth Clarke did just that.

The present British foreign secretary Mr Miliband, who is also MP for South Shields, failed to do that.

The present British (effective) 'deputy prime minister' Mr Mandelson, who was in 2003 MP for Hartlepool, failed to do that.

The present British Prime Minister Mr Gordon Brown failed to do that.

The present British Leader Of The Opposition and man considered most likely to be the next prime minister, Mr David Cameron, failed to do that.

+

What follows are sketchy notes ...

And so it was that ...

This week, 29 years after I received that small town Harton Comprensive School 'British Government and Poltics' study award ... I was thinking about politics in a 'small town' sort of way ...
And I turned my mind to why it was that ...
Mr 'Lord' Peter Mandelson and his New Labour friend and ally, the MP for South Shields, David Miliband, both of whom supported a right-wing American president in an illegal attack on the sovereign country of Iraq are being 'feted' at my former home town school, Harton Comprehensive School, South Shields.

And ... consequently ... for this an other reasons ... I cannot help thinking that something has gone 'badly wrong' somewhere in my home town.

How on Earth is it that a person such as Mr Mandelson, at Mr Miliband's request, is delivering the so-called 'South Shields lecture' at 'Harton Technology College'?

I do not believe that the people of South Shields have anything much to learn from a 'lecture' by this man  Mr Mandelson - except, perhaps, as a bad example (of how NOT to do good faith politics).

Personally,  I find myself 'troubled' by the terrible state of modern British Government and Politics -typified by what I consider to be essential 'bad faith' people like Mr Mandelson and Mr Miliband.

+

My politics tutor at Harton Comprehensive School almost three decades ago was a man who later became headmaster of the school.

It was a fact that he was a Conservative Party member who had stood for that party in at least one general election campaign.

He never made any secret of his Conservative Party sympathies.

It did not seriously bias his teaching of politics as an academic subject.

My then politics tutor was also well aware  that (like many pupils in a traditional 'Labour' area) I regarded myself as 'socialist' - and was at the time (but not now in 2009 or any time in the foreseeable future) a 'Labour Party supporter'.

Knowlege of my political outlook did not seem prejudice him against my work in academic politics studies.

Nor did my understanding of his political outlook prejudice me against his work as my academic politics tutor.

In good faith political discourse, you can acknowledge and respect reasonable differences of opinion, and discuss them sensibly (you don't corrupt the discourse with deliberately reality distorting 'spin' - as Mr Mandelson and Mr Miliband have done throughout their professional political careers).

I had more respect then former politics tutor, a Tory (and so a 'political opponent' of my ideological tendencies) than I have now for the present professional 'New Labour' politicians  Mr Miliband or Mr Mandelson.

Although I disagreed with him on fundamental matters of political belief,  my former politics tutor at Harton Comprehensive School was recognizably an 'honest' and 'decent' and 'honourable' man.

I do not think the same words can be applied to Mr Miliband nor Mr Mandelson.

Both these men represent to me the modern breed of essentially 'morally bankrupt' hack professional politicians.

Back in 1980, when a student of politics and others subjects at Harton Comprehensive School, I could never have imagined that local Labour traditions could have become as travestied to such an extant that a man like Mr Mandelson would be invited along by Mr Miliband to the school to deliver a 'lecture' to the local people.

How can these two men - neither of whom have any real North-East England roots, nor feeeling for the North-East England people, and both of whom have quite obviously disgraced 'Labour' traditions - be 'feted' at Harton Comprehensive School, South Shields in 2009? (and also with costly police protection - and just why do Labour Politicians need 'police protection' in what is supposed to be a 'Labour heart-land area' anyway?!)
 
Mr Mandelson, as has been recorded elsewhere, was in fact twice removed from senior ministerial office jobs in Britain because of personal financial irregularities.

This should have made him 'unfit' for any further public office.

For some reason, beyond my understanding, it did not.

For some reason, even having been twice dismissed from British ministerial office because of personal financial irregularities, he was nevertheless elevated to a senior position in the European Union Commission - apparently on the basis of recommendations from the still in power New Labour Government.

Of late Mr 'Lord' Mandelson has somewhat unbelievably actually returned - for the third time - to a senior position in the British Government.

He is even generally regarded  to be the effective 'deputy prime minister'.

Meanwhile, Mr David Miliband the so called 'right honourable' (sic) MP for South Shields, was/is the British foreign secretary who allowed British citizens to be TORTURED (in fact) and who then claimed 'security reasons' for not allowing the details of the TORTURE to be released to the wider British public.

British judges in British courts of law have in fact dismissed such claims as Mr Miliband's as claims unfounded.

That such a man as Mr Miliband (who voted for an illegal attack on Iraq, who has attempted to cover-up the torture of British citizens using bad faith spinning gimmicks, and who has otherwise attempted to distort reality in diverse bad faith ways) should be the Member Of Parliament for South Shields is in my view an ongoing DISGRACE to the people of this town.

etc ...

225
Reasons The People Of South Shields Don't Need a 'Lecture' From Mr Mandelson include ...

He is among the least 'credible' people in modern British politics.

He mastered the art of 'spinning disinformation' , taught it to the rest of New Labour (including his 'apprentices' like Mr Miliband).

This style of 'bad faith spin' has become the standard mode of discourse in British public life under the New Labour government - which Mr Mandelson helped to mastermind. It is one reason politics is now in such general low repute.

He was removed from top ministerial jobs twice because of allegations of personal financial 'irregularities'.

He was never truly 'cleared' of the those allegations of 'irregularities' - he 'spun' his way out of them, and remained,  somehow, a high profile figure among the British rich and powerful.

His name is Mr 'Lord' Peter Mandelson.

His name is widely regarded as synonymous with 'bad faith spin'.

He is an effective personification of 'bad faith politics'.

He is the man invited by South Shields MP David Miliband (whose career he helped to 'mentor') to deliver a 'lecture' to the people of the town.

The very notion of a 'lecture' suggests the idea of an arrogant elitist talking down to the people.

Personally I doubt that the people of South Shields have anything much to learn from a 'lecture' by Mr Mandelson - except, perhaps, as a bad example to avoid.('The way to do decent politics is NOT to do it in the ways this man Mr Mandelson does it.')

He also seems to me to represent a very 'bad role model' to the young school students of Harton Technology College, where he will be delivering his 'lecture' to the people of South Shields.

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