BORIS BE...

 

Malcolm Chisholm‏@MalcolmChishol1

Theresa May claiming SNP partly responsible for Brexit ( Scotland on Sunday) is indeed beyond parody !

THE UK PERFECTLY ENCAPSULATED IN ONE PHOTO ON FRIDAY

TRUMP RECRUITS FARAGE AS BACKER

Having been backed by Sarah Palin in the earlier stages of the campaign, Trump has now turned to the British version for support.  Somehow the irony of a foreign politician involving himself in an American presidential campaign, and at the same time complaining about a foreign politician involving himself in a UK campaign, seems to have escaped Nigel.

 Thanks to Danny for alerting us to this piece:

JEEEEEEEEZ!!!

This guy is scary!

WELCOME TO MISERY FOR BRITISH OAPs

There's an on-line petition... here.

It won't of course do any good, but I guess it does't hurt to let them know that we are aware that most other countries treat their pensioners with a bit more respect than the UK does.

THE UK GOVERNMENT IS INVOLVED IN THIS...

WARNING: SOME OF THESE PICTURES ARE HEARTBREAKING. DON'T READ ON IF YOU FIND IMAGES OF DEAD CHILDREN TOO DISTURBING

Her parents killed and her house blown up, so she sleeps on the street.

A couple of days ago on the Today Programme on Radio 4, Sarah Montague asked David Cameron about the war in Yemen.

She pointed out the enormous quantity of British arms that were being sold to Saudi to use in their war, that British advisers were training their military and that British personnel were in the control rooms advising as missiles were launched at targets in Yemen.

She also mentioned that among the buildings bombed was a Médecins Sans Frontières hospital.

Well done, you morons, you blew up an aid lorry.

Cameron didn't answer the question, of course. He never does, but he doesn't have to. He waffled for a while about the need to protect the democratically elected legitimate government of that country. Because of course Saudi likes its neighbours to have democratically elected governments!

Of course, as the most important country in the world, bar none, it is Britain's job to ensure democracy is upheld everywhere on Earth except, strangely, in Britain, where no mention had been made in parliament of their troops' involvement in this war. That's a bit odd in a democracy, isn't it?

But these days fewer and fewer of the laws that are passed in the "mother of parliaments" is actually discussed and voted on in the elected chamber. 

Someone discovered  statutory instruments, and is now busily putting them to use. It's even more fun than the Privy Council.

And this was a factory that made insulin. There are no other manufacturers in the country. Diabetics will now die.
 Bravo!

As so little is known about the war in Yemen, I thought we should share some photographs of the misery and, I imagine, war crimes, that the UK is currently involved in... and no one knows much about.

A police station. Full of policemen. Dead ones.

Your average day.

Downtown, where all the lights are bright.
Because everything is being blown up.

Dazed.

Helpless.

Starving to death.

...or dead...

...by the dozens

I'm so ashamed. I'm so disgusted. We must get away from these barbarians.

B IS FOR BAHRAIN, BLOODY, AND BAD

One of the Middle East's more repulsive regimes is that of Bahrain. it, along with Saudi Arabia, is reputed to be funding the utterly ruthless ISIS...that's the ones that Dave now thinks he wants to go to war with. Incidentally that's interesting becasue the last time he wanted to go to war in Syria it was against Assad, who is currently fighting ISIS. 

Needless to say, alongside the royal family of Saudi, the royals of Bahrain are close friends of the Saxe-Coburg-Gothas and the PM (prime minister, or pig man if you prefer).

This short video (90 seconds) summarises the relationship between the Brits and the Bahrainis. 

Apparently they are incredibly rich and buy vast amounts of arms from us, but rarely seem to use them for anything except putting down their own people... Plenty spare to be giving to ISIS then?

Incidentally, if you're confused about which side the UK is on, or should be on, or may end up on, then the Rev Stuart's piece here may (or may not) help you to make up your mind. 

It won't make any difference, of course, what you think, or even what Dave thinks, because the UK will be on the side that Mr Obama decides it is on.
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Update: Some more news about the people we do business with.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

So that's worked out well for us, hasn't it?

Quite a lot better for "them".

Well, it's not like we weren't warned.

Yes, we know.

And when you're sanctioned you don't like it.

Yes, turned my stomach too, or would have if I could have forced myself to watch all the hypocrisy

Be nice to leave you behind. You look charmless.

Well you can trust Queen Michelle to do the right thing by Scotslan.. by Michelle.

The Scotland Bill. Off to the bars  and stagger in at 7.30 to vote, hic.
Who cares what the haggis have to say?

I could work big time on that deficit Gideon.

Underwater hair-dryer comes to mind

No bloody wonder. 

Yes, this is hard hitting. Sorry. It's a dead kid.

But it's not just the West that has casualties.

And for the life of me I can't see this wee lass in Isis, can you?

It doesn't detract for a second from the horrific grief now being suffered by the families of the Parisian victims. 

But Syrian grief is every bit as painful as French grief.

Just geographically farther away from us.

Cameron proves to be an embarrassment to us, again

I was amused the other day to read an advance declaration on Twitter from someone who said: "In the event of me being involved in a disaster I want to make it known that I do NOT want a visit from David Cameron". I couldn't help but agree. 

It's bad enough to have to put up with this smarmy individual on the tv, where there is an off button, and when you are feeling quite well. Imagine the horror of him standing at your bedside making political capital out of your misfortune.

So yesterday my heart went out to those poor people in a Lebanese refugee camp who had the misfortune to be alighted upon for that purpose, by the aforementioned prime minister.

Whilst he was there, and giving the locals a break from the dubious pleasure of his company, he took time to talk to the press and to berate other European countries for not doing enough in the circumstances, and demanding that they 'step up to the plate'.

This must have gone down well with the rest of Europe and in particular with Frau Merkel. Germany admittedly is now struggling and has had to temporarily close its borders to new refugees, but it should be remembered that last weekend it took 70% as many refugees as Cameron intends to accept in the next 5 years.

Other countries are doing sterling work. Even smaller states, including the very smallest, are taking some people.

At the same time Cameron and May, whilst accepting the scale of the crisis, refuse to do anything much but throw money at it. 

In fairness it is true to say that the UK has sent a great deal of money as part of it's overseas aid budget (with one eye on the added advantage that it secures their G8 membership requirements). 

But they want the refugees to stay ...well anywhere, as long as it isn't Europe. Despite the ridiculous overcrowding in terrible conditions of the camps in Lebanon and Jordan, they think that these countries  should take more, and that the countries of North Africa should set up holding camps. 

I'm not sure if I were a refugee that I'd particularly want to be in Egypt or Libya... and not even Tunisia since the Arab spring (so much supported by the UK government) and since the absolutely disastrous war in Libya, waged by the Brits and French at the behest of the Americans, which has left yet another state in complete lawless turmoil.

Of all the countries in Europe, France and Britain are most responsible for the instability in the Middle East (Britain more so than France, given France's refusal to take part in the illegal war in Iraq which left a huge part of the region in chaos and with no real effective government), so  thinking that it can tell other countries to step up to the plate is more than a little ridiculous.

I also think given the extreme nature of the legislation being debated in the Westminster parliament yesterday, the man behind it should have had the courage to turn up and listen to the discussions. (Craig Murray has an excellent analysis of the implications here.) 

If Cameron were half a man he'd have been there, not sliming (not slimming, as the pic above shows) his way across in the Middle East like the Spiv PR man he really is.

I WAS GOING TO EXPLAIN, BUT THIS PERSON GOT THERE FIRST...

I expect, in reality, Cameron wants a war. 

Things aren't looking good for him.

Business confidence is down; there's outrage over IDS killing thousands of people; the SNP has 56 seats in their parliament and is working as a real opposition to his tiny majority; he's had to withdraw Bills and last night he was defeated; the row over top people's paedophiles won't go away; he's been wrong-footed over refugees, by everyone; polls show the English will vote to take Britain out of the EU... and on and on goes the list.

A war will take all the bad news off the front pages and get him praise from the cheapo tabloids, the Mail, Express, Sun and Telegraph. 

He'll be victorious and be photographed sitting astride a tank in the desert and everyone will proclaim him a hero...

Because it always works out for the best when Britain goes to war and kills loads of foreign people.

Doesn't it?

THANK GOODNESS THAT THE ECONOMY HAS RECOVERED

So we have heard a great deal today, about how the economy, under Osborne's benevolent control, has come good. And now everything is hunky dory.  

Well, it is, isn't it? 

There are all these new jobs....

That'll keep the wolf from the door in this all singing all dancing Tory economy...

Although, it seems that many others may be doing better....

Whatever, it's no thanks to this moron.

... and his interminable lies about benefits Britain.

As we are all in it together, I'm sure that scenes like this will be a thing of the past within the next few days.

And, of course, Scotland is always treated fairly in matters of the economy.

And from top to bottom we are all benefiting from Mr Osborne's economic miracle

I suppose it must be the neighbours bring down the tone of the area.

Yes, that's it.

Maybe, now that the economy has recovered, we can stop killing off the poor and the sick, and start supporting them again like civilised people do.

TORIES TAKE THE LOW ROAD...IN GERMANY

The Tory Campaign Poster

The General election campaign has started!

But the Tories appear to have taken a wrong turn already!

They have chosen the slogan... "Let's stay on the road to a strong economy", which would be more appropriate if any of us, outwith those people at the top, actually felt that there was even a modicum of truth in it. How many strong economies are £1.6 trillion in debt, and growing?

With a little adaptation

That aside, and who was expecting any truths in the campaign, of course any advertising for anything in the days of photoshopping is always open to a little adaptation so it's not surprising that some clever work from the keyboard satirists has been going on. Every party will experience that and the advertising companies employed to come up with poster ideas should take sabotage into consideration when presenting their ideas, as should the parties when selecting them!

...and some more adaptation

So some of these doctored posters must have been expected. However, the Tories' opponents couldn't have planned for the what comes next. 

It appears the road used in the advertisement is not in fact even in Britain.

The original photograph

It is claimed that the illustration is, in fact, from a photograph taken in 2008, by German photographer Alexander Burzik, not far from his home town of Weimar. 

Initially, when asked, Gideon insisted that the road was definitely in Britain, but then, after careful consideration, the Tories admitted that the road was a composite of several images, but added that they had been assured that all of the illustrations used were in Britain.

You should have checked, Gideon, because it does look remarkably like the whole thing, while doctored, was based or Herr Burzik's picture!

Stefan Drew  a marketing expert told the Mail: "When you first look at it it's just a grey road going into the distance. 

"But the more you look at it, the more you see that it's actually quite an evocative picture with a lot of hidden messages. 

"It taps into emotions – the green and pleasant land, (or should that be "grün und angenehm Land") the straight and narrow, blue skies and the patriotic Union flag."

Somewhere nearer the truth

I'm puzzled, though. 

For all the economic failures of this and previous governments, there are some very attractive roads in the UK. Some of them are reasonably straight, stretch off into the distance, and with a little bit of artistic licence could be made to look as if they were not full of pot holes.  So why complicate things by using a composite of images, whether or not they were elsewhere?
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Ah, that sounds just like our lovely UK

Added to all that, Gideon unveiled the poster on a government visit, seemingly violating the rules that government and party business must be kept separate.