So Aubrey from Fleet, Hants, England, sums it all up for us.
I thought you might all like to go look at Jim Murphy's new website. I had fun going through it considering what he was saying about himself. My particular favourite was on his CV where he said he "stood down" as Labour leader in Scotland "after the 2015 election" without mentioning that he had originally had no intention of doing anything like that, and that he had been pushed into after losing 40 of their 41 seats in the country... Seats that they had held for decades, and in some cases 80 years and more. Seats in which they had had weigh-able votes and now had lost . There was no mention either, of his demotion by Ed Miliband. Funniest thing of all is that he calls himself the "Rt Hon" Jim Murphy. Honestly! Even monumental jokes like Blair and Cameron don't do that. He doesn't get any less creepy with time, does he? Ironically, given his reputation among colleagues for being able to start a row in an empty room, his new company appears to be dedicated to conflict resolution. Oh, they make you laugh.
I thought you might like to see how Chinese royalty were treated here, and how massively impressed they were by it. Now we know why Osborne gave away all that stuff.
Munguin just doesn't give a damn...
OK, I'll get my coat...
No seriously, I'll get it right now...
On the way out, I'll leave this Daily Mail thing with you...
...and if you were thinking of doing a bit of decorating in New York, Paris, Madrid, or mainly in Glasgow, just give these boys a shout...
I watched both Jeremy Corbyn and Stewart Hosie on the Marr show today. I thought both of them made perfect sense.
If the United Nations means to tell countries that they can bomb Syria, then they should leave them in no doubt that that is the resolution of organisation's aim.
There was the same sort of situation over the Iraq war with the English Attorney General telling Blair first that the resolution passed DID NOT and then, two days later, DID authorise military action.
It was never totally clear but with the passage of time it seems to have been agreed that the war was illegal.
If there is no doubt about the intention this time, let us have confirmation in a proper resolution authorising war.
Fallon, on the same programme, gave a performance that was described here by Craig Murray. His interview was a tissue of lies, start to finish and far less plausible than either of the two opposition parties.
The ex-Ambassador to Syria has also rubbished the claims of the government.
War should never be contemplated until every other possibility has been explored and attempted. And even then, it should be remembered that it comes with consequences, and massive expense in terms on people's lives and of course money, which we are told we don't have. Involvement will surely bring retaliation...and why wouldn't it?
As Stewart suggested, why don't we follow the money, and the oil; cut the supply chain, which I would bet we are a part of (we export billions of pounds worth of weapons to Saudi every year, and have done so for a very long time. Until they started slaughtering the population of Yemen recently they seem not have used the weapons...)
Isil doesn't manufacture sophisticated weaponry...what would they do if they couldn't get any more guns; any more ammunition?
War, any war, is indescribably terrible and will always have repercussions. It must be the very very last resort.
Don't read any further if you have a weak stomach. A couple of these photographs are pretty graphic. But this is what war does.
There are some very big business names that will do nicely from another war.
Send Cameron to fight one to one with the head of Isil?
Amazingly, there are members of the shadow cabinet who want to use this situation to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn.
Who supplies ISIL? Who's regime is closest to Isil's? And who supplies them with arms?
It's not unfair or unreasonable that those who want war should go fight it. Same here. They can line up behind Cameron.
Of course, few in the PLP give a stuff about what conference for the membership think. That's why they are so angry with Corbyn for asking them.
The ridiculous claims that no civilians would be injured are farcical and insult our intelligence. Have they forgotten that we read Twitter and Facebook?
And what about the refugees we will create as we bomb cities to the ground?
Fallon, Cameron and Benn may not mind having this on their consciences. I do.
Along with a pile of stuff he's doing, mainly in England from what I could see, he apparently wants money from me.
Good luck to him with that.
Dear
Peregrin,
The
Autumn Statement I gave today delivers on the promise we made to the British
people that we would put their security first:
To protect our economic security, by
taking the difficult decisions to live within our means and bring our
debts down. The
public spending plans I set out today mean we will reach a surplus of
£10.1 billion in 2019/20 – that’s higher than was forecast at the Budget
and means Britain will be out of the red and into the black.
To protect our national security, by
defending our country’s interests abroad and keeping our citizens safe
at home. There
will be no cuts in the police budget with real terms protection for
police funding and we deliver on our commitment to spend 2 per cent of
our national income on defence.
But
this Spending Review does not just ensure the economic and national security
of our country, it builds on that with:
Full funding for the Five Year
Forward View that the NHS itself put forward as the plan for its future with the first £6
billion delivered up-front next year.
The biggest real terms increase to
the basic State Pension in 15 years. Thanks to our commitment to the triple lock,
next year the basic state pension will rise by £3.35 to £119.30 a week.
The biggest housebuilding programme
by any government since the 1970s with a doubling of the housing budget to over £2
billion a year. Our bold plan to back families who aspire to buy their
own home will deliver 400,000 new homes by the end of the decade.
The phasing out entirely of the
local government grant. By the end of the parliament local government will
keep all of the revenue from business rates. We will abolish the uniform
business rate so councils will be able to cut rates to attract a new
business to their area, but because the amount the government raises in
business rates is much greater than the amount we give to local councils
through the local government grant we will phase that grant out entirely
and devolve additional responsibilities.
A new apprenticeship levy to deliver
3 million apprenticeships. This will ensure large businesses share the cost of
training people, but no business with a pay bill below £3 million will
have to pay. We will also increase the funding for each apprenticeship
to make sure these are high quality apprenticeships.
Real terms protection of schools
budget. We
will maintain funding for free infant school meals, protect rates for
the pupil premium, and increase the cash in the dedicated schools grant.
We’re also going to open 500 new free schools and University Technical
Colleges, and invest £23 billion in school buildings and 600,000 new
school places.
The largest ever investment in free
childcare so working families get the help they need. From 2017, we will fund
30 hours of free childcare for working families with 3 and 4 year olds.
We’ll support £10,000 of childcare costs tax free and to support
nurseries delivering more free places for parents we’ll increase the
funding for the sector by £300 million.
The improvement in the nation’s
finances used to help on tax credits. Because of the improvement in
the public finances, the simplest thing to do is not to phase these
changes in, but to avoid them altogether. Tax credits are being phased
out anyway as we introduce universal credit.
An average saving of £30 from the
projected energy bills of 24 million households by introducing a cheaper
domestic energy efficiency scheme.
Five
years ago, when I presented our first Spending Review, our economy was in
crisis and as the letter Labour left behind said: there was no money left.
Our job then was to rescue Britain. Today, our job is to rebuild Britain.
Build our finances. Build our defences. Build our society.
A man who might be expected to know something about the area. But as Craig Murray will tell you, they never listen to people who know anything about anything.
Aye, so you will be.
Playing soldiers while other people suffer.
What would a country like Saudi Arabia need £3.9 billion of arms for? Oh yes, ISIS.
I wonder if he has worked that out yet. And worse, whose side he will be on when it's all over.
If only you would lead.
Sums him up. Please, I want to be Winston Thatcher and Margaret Churchill all rolled up with Tory Blur.
For those who have a passing interest in the truth, Alex Salmond did indeed unveil his portrait today in Edinburgh at lunch time. He had attended First Minister's Questions in his capacity as a MSP, and afterwards hosted a reception for veterans. He also briefed MSPs on the Syrian situation. He knew about the Syrian situation, you see, because he himself had been briefed the evening before by the Cabinet Office (along with some other Privy Councillors), of exactly what the Prime Minister would say. There was no need for him to be in Westminster. It should also be noted that when The Prime Minister makes a statement, the leaders of the opposition parties are required to give a response. That would be Mr Corbyn first (not Hilary Benn), then Angus Robertson (not Alex Salmond). That's the way it is done. You'd have thought they would know that kind of thing. The Prime Minister has said that a debate will be held next week on whether or not to go to war.
Mr Salmond's duties in Scotland were pre-existing. The notice of the Prime Ministerial statement was made latterly. It says something for the state of the press and of the opposition parties that the best that they can do to fight the SNP is to tell half truths and apply innuendos to the comings and goings of Alex Salmond. Perhaps if there were a policy or two from the opposition parties in Scotland... and I mean policies that don't fall to pieces within an hour, the newspapers would be able to propose a better and brighter future for us under Labour or the Tories. As it is, of course, all any of them can do is bleat SNP bad.
