South London Terror Attack: Sad News

Many of you will now be aware of an Islamist-inspired terrorist attack in the South London District of Streatham.

This is an area I know very well. It has no ‘significant targets’, and is a long way from any iconic tourist sites, or ‘important buildings’.

Yet it was the destination of choice for a young British Muslim who presumably wanted to ‘Die by Police’, in a rather pathetic attempt at immortalising himself through his religion and his actions.

Fortunately, both his victims are alive, and not seriously injured. That doesn’t mean that the scars and psychological affects of the incident will not continue to affect their lives though.

When the BBC News ‘calmed down’, it was soon reported that plainclothes police officers from the Anti-Terrorist Branch had shot and killed this man within two minutes of the first victim being stabbed. Video evidence clearly shows at least three such officers, one on a motorcycle, ‘dealing’ with the perpetrator at the scene.

More reports today revealed his name, and the fact that he had just been released from prison after serving less than half his sentence for ‘Terrorism Offences’. No doubt his history was serious enough that he was being followed by specialist officers, with close surveillance of his movements. Looking away from the brave actions of those police officers who stepped forward to shoot this man dead, despite him apparently wearing an explosive ‘suicide vest’, we have to ask why he was released in the first place.

He was released under the usual terms of British Law. Having served a large part of his sentence, he was ‘eligible’ for parole.

Sad to say, this law should no longer apply to convicted terrorist subjects who have been imprisoned for plotting such crimes. We saw what happened at London Bridge, and now in Streatham High Road. If those people want to put themselves above the law, purely in the name of their religion, then that law needs to change, where it relates to them.

They should have to serve ALL of their sentence, and not be released until we can be sure they no longer pose a threat to innocent people going about their daily business.

Something Worth Reading

This is an excellent article about the current misconceptions held by both sides in the Brexit debate, and it also supplies some basic facts about life in Europe that may well surprise everyone. I am unable to reblog or copy the piece, but here is a link to it and I am sure you would enjoy reading the refreshing facts.

Everything you know about Europe is wrong

On The British Monarchy

An intelligent and interesting appraisal of the British Royal family and their possible future. From an American who knows a lot of stuff!

toritto

As a Brooklyn born kid who grew up in Coney Island I know little about royalty other than what I read in the papers.  Class differences are so important that no one is really permitted to talk about them freely.

In my corporate career I have never met royalty, but I have met nobles.

When I was about 30 years old I was part of a small team examining the books of the Rothschild Intercontinental Bank in London, which my employer (Don’t leave home without it!)  was considering, and eventually did purchase.  The portfolio consisted of a smattering of sovereign credits which is what one would expect of a Rothschild bank.

It was headed up at the time by one Ralph Thomas George Stonor Lord Camoys,  just a few years older than I, who later served as Lord Chamberlain of Great Britain from 1998 – 2000.  The Lord Camoys traced…

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‘Stepping Back’: Nice work if you can get it

You can’t have failed to notice that there has been some big news surrounding some of our Royal parasites today.

Prince Harry and his American wife, collectively known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, have announced their intention to ‘step back’ from royal duties. They intend to split their time between a new life in North America, and some time back in the UK. (Presumably when the weather is nice.)

Speculation has been rife. Meghan has been upset by newspapers making unkind remarks about her clothing, apparently. Harry is only sixth in line to the throne, so pending an unprecedented royal disaster, he will never live to be a king. Harry has a rift with his brother William, about royal ‘directions’ he should be taking. There are lots of quotes from the couple of course, all intended to back up their reasons for leaving this country.

Meghan, 38, said she was told “you shouldn’t do it because the British tabloids will destroy your life”.

In an ITV documentary, she admitted motherhood was a “struggle” due to intense interest from newspapers.

Prince Harry also responded to reports of a rift between him and his brother William, Duke of Cambridge, by saying they were on “different paths”.

The duke, 35, said he and Prince William have “good days” and “bad days”.

He added: “We are brothers. We will always be brothers.

“We are certainly on different paths at the moment but I will always be there for him as I know he will always be there for me.

They are set to launch a new charity, apparently, and there are more rumours that Meghan intends to return to a career in acting.

“This geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter, including the launch of our new charitable entity.” (Harry)

The prince intends to give up the portion of his income provided by the UK taxpayers, but seems happy enough to continue to receive the annual small fortune bestowed on him by his father, drawn from revenues on the Duchy of Cornwall. (So, still ‘our’ money then.)

The couple has been quoted as saying that they feel more welcome in North America, as in the US, and Canada, than they do in Britain.

However, they do intend to keep hold of the free house they were given, Frogmore Cottage on the Windsor Park Estate of the Queen. Considering the UK taxpayer forked out £2.5 million to ‘refurbish the cottage to their taste’ just last year, that’s very kind of them, I am sure you will agree. Nice to have somewhere to pop back to, when Harry fancies a trip home.

I hope they leave soon, and never come back. Let’s see how well they do earning a living when they are not being paid by the state. Oh, I forgot, Prince Charles will still be handing over wads of cash to make sure they can buy groceries.

And my message to the couple is simple. Take the rest of them with you when you go.
Build a Royal Theme Park in America, and walk around waving at the crowds.
You have had enough practice.

Iran, Holidays, and Absent Leaders

Well, things are starting with a bang in 2020, that’s for sure.

The US President sanctions an attack that kills people in Iraq, including the second most powerful man in Iran, the head of the Revolutionary Guard, and a revered general.

He approved that killing from his luxury holiday retreat in Florida.
He saw no good reason to return to Washington D.C.

At the same time, the UK government sent British warships close to Iranian waters, patrolling the Strait of Hormuz, The official line is that they are there to ‘protect British merchant ships’.

The new UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, approved this deployment from his holiday villa on the luxury island of Mustique.
He was renting the villa with his girlfriend, at a cost of £20,000 a week. That’s around £4,000 more than someone on minimum wage earns in a YEAR.
He saw no good reason to return to London.

Across vast areas of Australia, devastating bush fires have killed many people, untold millions of wild animals, and made thousands homeless.
One of the reasons why it has been so hard to fight the fires is the government cutbacks to emergency services in that country, leading to an unusually high dependence on unpaid volunteer firefighters. Some of whom have been killed.

Yet the Prime Minister of Australia, Scott Morrison, initially saw no good reason to return from his luxury holiday in Hawaii.

So America could be facing some kind of extensive and prolonged war with Iran, and possibly having to fight once again in Iraq.
Britain could well be dragged into that too, as one of the main allies of the US.
Australia has never seen bush fires like this in its history, and they are still burning.

But as long as all three leaders don’t have to cancel their luxury holidays, that’s all right then.

British Communists: Have they given up?

I have made no secret of the fact that I used to be a member of The Communist Party in Britain. I started as a teenager, in the Young Communist League, then transferred to adult membership when I was 18 years old. I wasn’t a very good local member. I rarely attended meetings, and never sold the Morning Star newspaper on the streets. But I did actively support the cause in other ways. I became a trade union ‘agitator’, with a Communist intent to try to make the unions more militant. Much later, I was part of a large group that infiltrated the Labour Party, by joining it, and then signed up as a member of an offshoot group, ‘Militant Tendency’, with an agenda to change the Labour Party into a radical Hard-Left organisation.

That ‘plot’ was discovered, and I was formally expelled as a member of the Labour Party. As that was at the time of Neil Kinnock’s leadership, I saw that almost as a relief. Soon after, I split from the Communist Party, because it took an anti-Soviet stance, and I felt that they were becoming too ‘soft’. The last time I was able to vote for a Communist candidate was in 1987, when I still lived in South-East London. He lost his deposit, and received so few votes that they never stood a candidate there again.

During the EU referendum, The Communist Party took a very anti-EU position, and that attracted me. This is what they had to say about the EU.

Nevertheless, the CP will continue to oppose Britain’s membership of the European Union, recognising that the treaties, rules, directives and policies of the EU are designed to protect big business interests and their capitalist markets against any advance towards socialism in any EU member state.
Like most Communist and workers’ parties across Europe, the Communist Party of Britain understands that the EU has also been designed to be unreformable as a construction to defend and promote capitalism and is now developing a military dimension in order to promote the common interests of Europe’s main imperialist powers.

This was exactly how I had always felt about the EU, and why I voted against joining, in 1975.

Since moving to Norfolk in 2012, I have not had many opportunities to vote. But when they have arisen, I have voted for The Labour Party. This is generally perceived to be a nominal protest vote in this region, which is firmly and traditionally Conservative, and on the right-wing of that party too.

So with last Thursday’s election giving an emphatic win for the Conservatives throughout much of the UK, I wondered what The Communist Party had been up to, and why they had never put up a candidate in Norfolk for me to vote for. I found this, online.

The Communist Party reaffirms its commitment to working for the election of a left-led Labour government on a left and progressive manifesto at an early general election.
Once again, we will call upon all socialists, progressives, trade unionists, Greens and Scottish and Welsh nationalists to vote for such a government led by a socialist who has a long and proven record of defending the interests of working people and their families and of opposing militarism and imperialist wars.
In order to demonstrate its commitment to unity around this perspective, the CP will not be standing candidates of its own in the next general election, providing Labour retains its left leadership and fights the election on a left and progressive manifesto.

It appears that they have so little faith in their own policies, that they urged their members to vote for Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, as the ‘best option’ for some kind of Socialist government in this country. Further research told me that it also did this in 2017, and in 2018, it announced that it would no longer stand any candiudates against Labour, as long as the current leadership was in place. Looking into it a little more. I discovered that the current Communist Party in Britain has less than 900 members.

I conclude that they have ‘given up’.

Backlash Politics

So the Conservatives win again, with a bigger majority.

This despite having a leader who almost nobody likes, and policies that nobody really wants.
Unless they are very rich of course.

And despite promises by the opposition to make the NHS secure, nationalise transport and utilities, and give out free broadband.

All too easy to blame it all on Jeremy Corbyn. Supposedly, the public just don’t like him, and his leadership cost Labour the election, as well as losing many historically-held seats.
That’s not really the case though, we all know that.

The election was only ever about one thing, and that was Britain leaving the EU.

Since the summer of 2016, Leave voters have been derided for being racist, stupid, uninformed, misinformed, duped, and many other things, including apparently all being overweight. Not one of them was ever given the credit for understanding what they were voting for, because they were considered to be unintelligent, incapable of reason, and unable to comprehend anything. The Labour Party was taken over by people insisting on remaining in the EU, as was the Liberal Democrat Party. During the recent campaign, many Labour candidates (including the one where I live) openly stated that they would fight to cancel Article 50, and stay in Europe as a member of the EU.

The Liberal Democrat leader made staying in Europe the main feature of her party’s policies and platform. She lost her seat, and has resigned as leader.

In former Labour strongholds that had voted to leave the EU, Labour was defeated by a swing to the Right that was unprecedented in those communities.

This is the backlash. The revenge of those people deprived of democracy after voting Leave in the referendum in 2016, and winning that vote. Ever since, they have had to sit and watch as politicians and organisations attempted to overturn that vote, and unravel the whole democratic process we thought we lived by.

So now we have this government. One run by the rich, for the rich, and nobody knows how bad it will get over the next five years. This country may well have a increasingly right-wing Conservative government for the rest of my life.

Is anyone surprised? I’m not.