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Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Something for Gordon to Smile About
Apparently the French have withdrawn their support for Tony Blair to be the new EU President after heavy lobbying from the Germans. And we thought the Franco-German axis was dead. It appears not.
14 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Take a look at the picture of Blair that accompanies the Beeb's article on this and see if you agree that he's beginning to bear a striking resemblance to Old Nick himself.
Auntie Flo' - I have always thought he looked malignant. I have seen far worse photos of him than that on the BBC, and have been baffled that the British voters did not see what I could see so plainly in his face. He is an evil, malign, spite-filled, entity and there was always a smell of sulphur about him. I always expected clouds of pantomime smoke to follow him around.
Verity said: there was always a smell of sulphur about him. I always expected clouds of pantomime smoke to follow him around
Perfect description, Verity. I love the evocation of 'pantomime smoke', very apt as his grandparents were travelling performers and snake oil salesmen.
Let's hope that this malignant cancer on the face of democracy has seen his influence wane permanently. A Blair presidency would be harmfull for the entire world.
This man is the biggest enemy of liberty and freedom in current politics - just look at what he did to the British justice system:
Habeas Corpus - increasingly turning into a corpus juris, so people can be interned without charge (a la Guantanamo Bay). These guys are interned somply because Bush says 'they are bad people'! Well, if so, show us the evidence and charge them. Instead they are tortured. Are these the democratic values we invaded Iraq to give to the Iraqi people. We are as bad as Saddam was because we do the same as he did - intern, deny justice and torture!
Alsol what about extradition to face trial in foreign states when no shred evidence of a case against you need be presented, thus leaving you utterly unprotected by the norms of law (a la Nat West 3).
Innocent until proven guilty - all but gone, especially when it comes to your own money. Increasing numbers of people are having to 'prove' that the money they have is from legitiate sources, and if you cannot, the state simply takes it. They don't have to prove your guilt - you have to prove your innocence.
Right to Silence: Gone - this is what the 42/90 days detention argument is about - empowering the police to intern you long enough to 'break you donwn' so you incriminate yourself under duress.
Right to Privacy: We now have more CCTV cameras PHOP than any other country. we have the police regularly filming lawful and peaceful demonstrations. we have police colluding with the people being protested against in order to male the granting of injunctions 'easier' - thus making the police's ability to 'arrest to order' easier.
We have ID cards where information gathered about you will be sold by the Government to businesses and where every detail of yoour life will be accessable to any petty bureacrat.
we are not far away from a police state. The 'if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear' mentality is now all pervasive. 1984 ceases to be a work of fiction, and has now become a template for how to run Government!
All thanks to Blair.
As I said, this man is a cancer! Time for some radiotherapy me thinks!
"Alsol what about extradition to face trial in foreign states when no shred evidence of a case against you need be presented, thus leaving you utterly unprotected by the norms of law (a la Nat West 3)."
The NatWest 3 did plead guilty when they came to court. There was plenty of evidence against them.
British-French axis as crowed by the Labour-supporting press to boost Brown's statesmanship when Sarkozy visited Britain and helicoptered on to Arsenal's ground has fast disappeared. Blair and Labour was saying how madam Merkel liked Blair the statesman only to find that the madam has plunged her kitchen knife onto Blair's back. Europe had enough of the snake-oil salesman extraordinaire. Blair need not have to convert to Catholicism for this as he knows that Merkel and Sarkozy are as duplicitous as he was.
Adrian Yelland said: The 'if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear' mentality is now all pervasive. 1984 ceases to be a work of fiction...
Good posting,Adrian. The government (if we are charitable enough to call them that) have this 'if you have nothing to hide' cr*p mantra on their websites now.
How illuminating that Broon and his co-conspirators and their fat cat, corporate/celeb chums invariably ensure that they are exempted from the civil liberty crushing consequences of this IYHNH principle whenever Broon's latest piece of tyrannical legislation is drafted.
There should not be any exemptions for politicians from the effects of their lunatic legislation. Make them feel the full, irrational and intrusive weight of their own legislative folly as we do.
Make them live in the real world with us for a time each year too for, say, three months? What joy it would be to tell the inept idiots when they award themselves their proposed 25% salary increase that, as penalty, they must survive on the overtaxed salaries of the lowest paid for months.
I knew Sarkozy was absolutely wonderful when they had those first - now a revered Christmas tradition among French "youth" of a certain religious persuasion - mass car burnings and riots in Paris. Sarkozy, then - was it - Foreign Minister(?) visited one of the venues and shouted up at them, "Scum!"
I loved it!
I love it that he is too busy getting divorced and getting married to sensational women to micro-manage the lives of the French citizenry. I love it that when he is photographed with Carla, he looks like the cat that got the cream.
Most of all, I love it that he has taken a few moments off his private life to knife Tony Blair in the back. That is was done so casually must be even more wounding for Tony Slime.
Sarkozy went home to Carla Bruni. Blair went home to Cherie. There is justice in the world after all!
Adrian @ 8.36am makes excellent points, all true, but I think, he is looking at it through the wrong end of the prism.
Blair is perfect for the EU Presidency - he has done everything they asked of him, including turning this country into the 3rd world police state it is today. You must break down to rebuild, you must divide to conquer. Please re-arrange these words into a sentence: at, Gate, head, spike, Traitor's, Blair's, on, a ... I'm sure you catch my drift.
The crimes they committed were in the UK, against UK interests. Therefore they should have been tried, found guilty and sentenced in the UK.
I am not saying these were the kind of men you'd want you daughter to married - they are scummy profiteering bankers who skated close to the law.
However, the point is the US offered no evidence of a crime committed in the US against US interests - ipso facto, they should not have stood trial in the US.
Until this foul piece of legislation became law, an extradition request had to present evidence of a crime committed against/in the applicant country.
Sarkozy needs Gaullist votes for re-election, of course. When are traditional Tories, or the Old Labour Right that has always been the norm in the heartlands, going to start exercising that sort of influence? Especially now that the neocons are so obviously falling apart.
Adrian Yalland said... NatWest3. "The crimes they committed were in the UK, against UK interests. Therefore they should have been tried, found guilty and sentenced in the UK."
The Serious Fraud Office disagree with you.
"When we considered a submission by the three former NatWest employees that we should open an investigation for potential prosecution in this jurisdiction the balanced view we took was that the US authorities had a stronger call on the matter. Alleged acts performed by the three were conducted in the US, thus their alleged fraud was conducted in the same jurisdiction as was the overall issue surrounding Enron. The place of residence of the three (ie, the UK) was not considered to be an over-riding consideration. The defendants were already indicted in the US in an investigation that had been in progress for some time and where the evidence had already been marshalled and assessed."
14 comments:
Take a look at the picture of Blair that accompanies the Beeb's article on this and see if you agree that he's beginning to bear a striking resemblance to Old Nick himself.
Blair, you are seriously creepy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7386891.stm
Perhaps Gordon Brown could put himself forward for this? After all, he will be out of a job soon and will need a little sinecure.
Courage, mon brave!
Auntie Flo' - I have always thought he looked malignant. I have seen far worse photos of him than that on the BBC, and have been baffled that the British voters did not see what I could see so plainly in his face. He is an evil, malign, spite-filled, entity and there was always a smell of sulphur about him. I always expected clouds of pantomime smoke to follow him around.
Verity said:
there was always a smell of sulphur about him. I always expected clouds of pantomime smoke to follow him around
Perfect description, Verity. I love the evocation of 'pantomime smoke', very apt as his grandparents were travelling performers and snake oil salesmen.
Vive la France!
Let's hope that this malignant cancer on the face of democracy has seen his influence wane permanently. A Blair presidency would be harmfull for the entire world.
This man is the biggest enemy of liberty and freedom in current politics - just look at what he did to the British justice system:
Habeas Corpus - increasingly turning into a corpus juris, so people can be interned without charge (a la Guantanamo Bay). These guys are interned somply because Bush says 'they are bad people'! Well, if so, show us the evidence and charge them. Instead they are tortured. Are these the democratic values we invaded Iraq to give to the Iraqi people. We are as bad as Saddam was because we do the same as he did - intern, deny justice and torture!
Alsol what about extradition to face trial in foreign states when no shred evidence of a case against you need be presented, thus leaving you utterly unprotected by the norms of law (a la Nat West 3).
Innocent until proven guilty - all but gone, especially when it comes to your own money. Increasing numbers of people are having to 'prove' that the money they have is from legitiate sources, and if you cannot, the state simply takes it. They don't have to prove your guilt - you have to prove your innocence.
Right to Silence: Gone - this is what the 42/90 days detention argument is about - empowering the police to intern you long enough to 'break you donwn' so you incriminate yourself under duress.
Right to Privacy: We now have more CCTV cameras PHOP than any other country. we have the police regularly filming lawful and peaceful demonstrations. we have police colluding with the people being protested against in order to male the granting of injunctions 'easier' - thus making the police's ability to 'arrest to order' easier.
We have ID cards where information gathered about you will be sold by the Government to businesses and where every detail of yoour life will be accessable to any petty bureacrat.
we are not far away from a police state. The 'if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear' mentality is now all pervasive. 1984 ceases to be a work of fiction, and has now become a template for how to run Government!
All thanks to Blair.
As I said, this man is a cancer! Time for some radiotherapy me thinks!
"Alsol what about extradition to face trial in foreign states when no shred evidence of a case against you need be presented, thus leaving you utterly unprotected by the norms of law (a la Nat West 3)."
The NatWest 3 did plead guilty when they came to court. There was plenty of evidence against them.
So that's why HM the Queen had the Sarkozy's over for dinner last month. All becomes clear.....
British-French axis as crowed by the Labour-supporting press to boost Brown's statesmanship when Sarkozy visited Britain and helicoptered on to Arsenal's ground has fast disappeared. Blair and Labour was saying
how madam Merkel liked Blair the statesman only to find that the madam has plunged her kitchen knife onto Blair's back. Europe had enough of the snake-oil salesman extraordinaire. Blair need not have to convert to Catholicism for this as he knows that Merkel and Sarkozy are as duplicitous as he was.
Adrian Yelland said: The 'if you are innocent, you have nothing to fear' mentality is now all pervasive. 1984 ceases to be a work of fiction...
Good posting,Adrian. The government (if we are charitable enough to call them that) have this 'if you have nothing to hide' cr*p mantra on their websites now.
How illuminating that Broon and his co-conspirators and their fat cat, corporate/celeb chums invariably ensure that they are exempted from the civil liberty crushing consequences of this IYHNH principle whenever Broon's latest piece of tyrannical legislation is drafted.
There should not be any exemptions for politicians from the effects of their lunatic legislation. Make them feel the full, irrational and intrusive weight of their own legislative folly as we do.
Make them live in the real world with us for a time each year too for, say, three months? What joy it would be to tell the inept idiots when they award themselves their proposed 25% salary increase that, as penalty, they must survive on the overtaxed salaries of the lowest paid for months.
I knew Sarkozy was absolutely wonderful when they had those first - now a revered Christmas tradition among French "youth" of a certain religious persuasion - mass car burnings and riots in Paris. Sarkozy, then - was it - Foreign Minister(?) visited one of the venues and shouted up at them, "Scum!"
I loved it!
I love it that he is too busy getting divorced and getting married to sensational women to micro-manage the lives of the French citizenry. I love it that when he is photographed with Carla, he looks like the cat that got the cream.
Most of all, I love it that he has taken a few moments off his private life to knife Tony Blair in the back. That is was done so casually must be even more wounding for Tony Slime.
Sarkozy went home to Carla Bruni. Blair went home to Cherie. There is justice in the world after all!
Adrian @ 8.36am makes excellent points, all true, but I think, he is looking at it through the wrong end of the prism.
Blair is perfect for the EU Presidency - he has done everything they asked of him, including turning this country into the 3rd world police state it is today. You must break down to rebuild, you must divide to conquer.
Please re-arrange these words into a sentence:
at, Gate, head, spike, Traitor's, Blair's, on, a ...
I'm sure you catch my drift.
Anon 09.02:
The crimes they committed were in the UK, against UK interests. Therefore they should have been tried, found guilty and sentenced in the UK.
I am not saying these were the kind of men you'd want you daughter to married - they are scummy profiteering bankers who skated close to the law.
However, the point is the US offered no evidence of a crime committed in the US against US interests - ipso facto, they should not have stood trial in the US.
Until this foul piece of legislation became law, an extradition request had to present evidence of a crime committed against/in the applicant country.
If it's delivering this, then long may it remain.
Sarkozy needs Gaullist votes for re-election, of course. When are traditional Tories, or the Old Labour Right that has always been the norm in the heartlands, going to start exercising that sort of influence? Especially now that the neocons are so obviously falling apart.
Adrian Yalland said...
NatWest3.
"The crimes they committed were in the UK, against UK interests. Therefore they should have been tried, found guilty and sentenced in the UK."
The Serious Fraud Office disagree with you.
"When we considered a submission by the three former NatWest employees that we should open an investigation for potential prosecution in this jurisdiction the balanced view we took was that the US authorities had a stronger call on the matter. Alleged acts performed by the three were conducted in the US, thus their alleged fraud was conducted in the same jurisdiction as was the overall issue surrounding Enron. The place of residence of the three (ie, the UK) was not considered to be an over-riding consideration. The defendants were already indicted in the US in an investigation that had been in progress for some time and where the evidence had already been marshalled and assessed."
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