Binyam Mohamed and Princess Diana

So Binyam Mohamed has been released from the concentration camp at Guantanamo without charge or trial having lost 7 years of his life. Well done the good old US of A.

Mohamed is alleging that he was tortured at the request of the Americans with the complicity of British intelligence, all denied of course. So the question must arise, if you have a handwritten confession, before the witnesses who saw you write it -- for corroboration--, why aren’t you standing in a dock facing a charge? The answer is, of course, that the confession was tortured out of you and it’s just stupid for the US and British governments to deny it. We are asked to accept identity cards on the basis that if we have nothing to hide we have nothing to fear, so why won’t the papers in the case be released. If it’s good enough for us it’s surely good enough for them. So never mind the judicial enquiry. The judges work for the English Establishment (which includes far too many Scots for my liking). Just admit what has been done to this man, sack the bastards who procured it, and worse, the bastards who turned a blind eye to it in the hope that their hands would be thought to be clean. These are the people who are the real threat to democratic rule in this country.

But there’s a problem there also. The English Establishment are a very powerful force in our semi-democracy (only half of our legislative chambers have electoral legitimacy). There is a preponderance of ex-military types in the Establishment who eke out their pensions by consultancies to arms manufacturers or who sit in the Lords, or on the boards of major companies (or all three), and the intelligence services are their enforcement wing and international sales force. So anyone who dares to try to shine a light on the intelligence services and the fact that they account to nobody is a threat to the fabric of privilege and has to be nullified. Any one who tries to blow the whistle suddenly finds that they have either a sudden urge to take their own life (e.g. Dr. David Kelly) or has a tragic accident (e. g. Princess Diana). All of the theories about marrying a Muslim and disgracing the royal family are complete bullshit, but she didn’t last long when she took on the English Establishment in the form of the arms manufacturers in her campaign against the bread and butter of British barbarism, the anti-personnel land mine, which they were selling to anyone with money, irrespective of reputation.

So, please stop treating us as if we were fucking fools. We know that in the Wilson years, (and still today) when such things were nearly possible, if the lurch to the left were to have been realised these people would have prevailed upon the Crown (which heads up the forces of the English Establishment, and is completely ruthless) to declare a constitutional crisis and move to martial law without a single moment of hesitation. They have admitted they were spying on the elected representatives of the people and were ready for action. They still are, because their privilege is at stake.

So no doubt we can ready ourselves to read shortly about how Binyam Mohamed is suffering from severe depression as a result of his imprisonment and is having treatment for suicidal feelings, either that or he has been given a lift home by a drunk. That’s how they operate.

Salmond's Blatant Cowardice on Council Tax

Statement by the Scottish Socialist Party is reproduced below. More mutual back scratching between the main Parties and their robber baron friends. When will working people say, 'Enough's enough' and get rid of the lot of them in favour of a completely new approach to economic, social and political organisation? This is a complete betrayal of their manifesto promise, and for what? So they can go on arse-licking with Soutar, Trump etc.

The Scottish Socialist Party today accused the SNP government of a cowardly manifesto u-turn, abandoning pensioners and low paid workers in favour of the rich and business interests who bankroll their party after Finance Secretary John Swinney told MSPs that legislation to introduce a local income tax would not be introduced in the current parliament.

This is not the first time the SNP has abandoned opposition to the Council tax and watched hundreds of thousands of pensioners and low paid workers who stood to benefit most from abolition of the Council tax lose out.

SSP national co-spokesperson Colin Fox said today;

“The SNP’ cowardly manifesto u-turn means that the super rich businessmen like Brian Souter who bankroll the SNP with their bonuses will continue to benefit while pensioners, low paid workers and millions of those worst affected by the current economic recession, like the thousands of sacked Woolworths workers who would have at least enjoyed some financial relief with the reduction in their Council tax bills, will continue to be hammered by this unfair Tory tax”

“The SNP has again failed to capitalise on the majority support across Scotland for abolishing the Council tax. They have now given up the idea without a fight or even a vote in Parliament.”

“How different their approach to that of the Scottish Socialist Party on this issue.”

“The SSP, with just 6 MSP's, were able to make far greater headway. Our Bill to abolish the Council tax, a bill which incidentally the SNP voted down [on Feb 1st 2006] attracted considerable support across civic Scotland.”

“The SNP's subsequent local income tax plan with its regressive 3p across the board charge attracted much less enthusiasm. Our local income tax replacement by contrast was graduated to ensure the better off paid more as their income went up and the poorer were exempt.”

Treasury Select Committee and the Robber Barons

I think one of the most telling things to come out of the Treasury Select Committee hearings is the fact that not one of the 4 heads of HBOS or RBS had any sort of banking credentials or qualifications. This was the 'Old Boy Network' exposed for what it really is; a completely self-serving systematic robbing of both staff and ordinary shareholders by a greedy elite. One of the sacked heads is being retained by his former employer at £60k a month as a consultant. It runs across the whole of the sector, sitting on each others boards as non-executive directors playing you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours in each others remuneration committees while forcing down wages for junior counter staff in the name of cost cutting and efficiency, and getting more bonuses for the savings they make. Well, they have shown us efficiency in action and they shouldn't only be apologising to the Commons, to their staff, or to their shareholders. They should be apologising to the whole country which they have forced to the point of bankruptcy with their greed, and especially to the minimum wage workers who will lose their jobs in every sector of the economy, not just the financial sector, because of their greed. They should be barred from holding directorships, because the morally bankrupt are much more despicable than the economically bankrupt. It's sick.

Financial Crisis Notice of Meeting

YOU ARE PAYING!
WHAT’S THE ALTERNATIVE?
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS
—your questions answered.
THIS GREED WAS BEYOND IRRESPONSIBLE!
Kirkintilloch Leisure Centre Conference Room
Saturday 7th February, 10.30am– 12.30pm
Facilitated by the SSP co-convenor,
Frances Curran
Speakers—Raphie de Santos— was head of Equity Derivatives Research and Strategy at Goldman Sachs International. He was an advisor on derivatives and financial markets to the Bank of England, London Stock Exchange, London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange and the Italian Ministry of Finance. Raphie has been a guest lecturer on derivatives and financial markets at Harvard and New York universities and the London School of Economics and has spoken at the annual Nobel Foundation conference in Stockholm.
Bill Newman spent most of his working life in banking, latterly as head of economics and then as Assistant General Manager of a City of London bank. For some 15 years he was also editor of and wrote for a journal on international monetary economics.
Bill was also on the Executive Committee and the Management Committee of the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU) and a delegate to the TUC.

THE CAMPSIE BRANCH SSP invite your participation in this important discussion. How will this crisis effect YOU?

About the Scottish Socialist Party
While it fights to defend jobs, working conditions and living standards and for houses and health the SSP also demands a new economy.
Such an economy would start the task of harnessing the stupendous technological and material resources which already exist to meet the needs of society rather than the greed of the few.

Link to Campsie Branch of the SSP in the sidebar