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Sep 24
These are just a few of the recent atrocities committed by the rogue state of Israel, a state that the UK government is arming and politically supporting.
At yesterday’s Labour party conference, a young man interrupted a preening Chancellor Reeves to protest the UK selling weapons to this outlaw state. After he was tackled by security personnel, dragged from the hall, knocked against the wall and put into cuffs, Rachel Reeves, with a rictus smile, said:
“This is a changed Labour Party. A Labour Party that represents working people, not a party of protests.”
No truer words were spoken. English Labour is a party that allows no protests, that allows no dissent from the Starmerite party line, that shuts down voices demanding justice for the poor, the old, children, the disabled and the persecuted.
English Labour is embracing the draconian 2022 Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, the 1986 Public Order Act and the 2023 Serious Disruption Regulations passed by Tory governments that suppress and silence dissent.
Authoritarianism has come to the UK, but also to the US and EU, where free speech and the right to protest have been under sustained attack.
Corporate control of western media and governments is propelling this descent into fascism. Politicians are funded by and beholden to these interests, the most powerful of which is the Zionist Israel lobby. English Labour, no doubt influenced by Labour Friends of Israel, has banned the words ‘genocide’ and ‘apartheid’ from its party conference.
The journalist Caitlin Johnstone summarised the Orwellian ‘rules’ on how we, the hoi polloi, are required to think and talk about Israel’s warmongering:
Rule 1: Recorded history began on October 7 2023. Maybe some things happened before that date, but nobody can remember.
Rule 2: Anything bad that Israel does is justified by Rule 1. This is true even if it does things that would be considered completely unjustifiable if it were done by a nation like Russia or Iran.
Rule 3: Israel has a right to defend itself, but nobody else does.
Rule 4: Israel never bombs civilians, it bombs terrorists. If shocking numbers of civilians die it’s because they were actually terrorists, or because terrorists killed them, or because a terrorist stood too close to them. If none of those reasons apply then it’s for some other mysterious reason we are still waiting for the IDF to investigate.
Rule 5: Criticizing anything Israel does means you hate Jewish people. There is no other reason anyone could possibly oppose military explosives being dropped on areas packed full of children besides a seething, obsessive hatred for a small Abrahamic faith.
Rule 6: Nothing Israel does is ever as bad as the hateful criticisms described in Rule 5. Criticism of Israel’s actions is always worse than Israel’s actions themselves, because those critics hate Jews and wish to commit another Holocaust. Preventing this must consume 100 percent of our political energy and attention.
Rule 7: Israel can never be the victimizer, it can only ever be the victim. If Israel attacks Lebanon, it’s because Hezbollah attacked it completely unprovoked while Israel was innocently minding its own business trying to commit a little genocide in peace. If people protest against Israel bombing entire cities into dust, then Israel is the victim because the protests made Israel’s supporters feel sad.
Rule 8: The fact that Israel is literally always in a state of war with its neighbours and with displaced indigenous populations must be interpreted as proof that Rule 7 is true instead of proof that Rule 7 is ridiculous nonsense.
Rule 9: Arab lives are much, much less important to us than western lives or Israeli lives. Nobody is allowed to think too hard about why this might be.
Rule 10: The media always tell the truth about Israel and its various conflicts. If you doubt this then you are likely in violation of Rule 5.
Rule 11: Unsubstantiated claims which portray Israel’s enemies in a negative light may be reported as factual news stories without any fact checking or qualifications, while extensively evidenced records of Israeli criminality must be reported on with extreme scepticism and doubtful qualifiers like “Lebanon says” or “according to the Hamas-run health ministry”. This is important to do because otherwise you might get accused of being a propagandist.
Rule 12: Israel must continue to exist in its current iteration no matter what it costs or how many people need to die. There is no need to present any logically or morally grounded reasons why this is the case. If you dispute this then you are likely in violation of Rule 5.
Rule 13: The US government has never lied about anything ever, and is always on the right side of every conflict.
Rule 14: (Americans only) Nothing that happens in the middle east is as urgent or significant as making sure the correct person wins the US presidential election. Ignore any inconvenient facts which distract you from this mission of unparalleled importance.
Rule 15: Israel must be protected because it is the last bastion of freedom and democracy in the middle east, no matter how many journalists it has to assassinate, no matter how many press institutions it needs to shut down, no matter how many protests its supporters need to dismantle, no matter how much free speech it needs to eliminate, no matter how many civil rights it needs to erase, and no matter how many elections its lobbyists need to buy.
If Scotland is to have any chance of escape from this fascist dystopia and regain its international voice, it knows what it has to do.
September 23
Embarrassments for Viceroy Murray are piling up. Here are just 3 in recent days.
First, in an interview with Martin Geissler the Viceroy disavowed his pre-election boast that he had £150m in levelling up funds to tackle poverty in Scotland.
Yet he’s on record as saying:
“This funding will help create jobs across the country and unlock opportunities across Scotland, especially in deprived communities who have been let down by the Tories and the SNP for too long.”
Now he claims the figure was made-up by the Sunday Mail. Funny he didn’t correct it before the election.
Second, it was revealed the Viceroy and branch manager Anas Sarwar accepted free hospitality on Saturday at Anfield where Liverpool beat Bournemouth (both English teams) 3-0.
Not a good look when his boss, Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Education Secretary Bridget Philipson have all been caught sponging off of Lord Alli.
Third, a 2022 tweet surfaced where Murray said pensioners will freeze in their homes unless (the then Tory) government acted.
He’s now defending Reeves’ Winter Fuel Allowance (WFA) cut and falsely claims next April’s paltry £460 pension increase will more than make up for the WFA loss when the increase applies only to 1 in 4 pensioners who get the ‘new’ state pension, not to those on the old pension. Oh, and he doesn’t mention that the October 10% rise in the energy price cap will hit the poorest hardest.
So maybe you’re wondering what exactly does the Secretary of State for Scotland do for his £158,851 salary (£91,346 MP salary plus expenses and £67,505 Cabinet minister salary)?
Here’s what the UK government says:
I’d say the Viceroy does very little. Prior to the Scotland Act 1998 and the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, all devolved matters would have been handled by Westminster - the Secretary of State for Scotland ensured that London’s decisions were implemented in Scotland.
Now the Viceroy is the ‘custodian’ of the devolution settlement, and is supposed to stand up for Scotland’s interests with the colonial overlord. I think we can agree that’s not happening. The Viceroy hasn’t supported any more powers for Scotland and he shows every sign of wanting to revert back to complete colonial control over ‘north Britain.’
But what really caught my attention is that the Viceroy is responsible for orders made under the Scotland Act 1998.
The Scotland Act Schedule 5 gives the Scottish Parliament the power to observe and implement international obligations under the Human Rights Convention such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which the UK ratified in 1976, but has failed to enact into UK law.
Although it’s not an order, it is a power granted to Holyrood that the Viceroy should encourage if he actually had Scotland’s interests at heart. That’s because implementing ICCPR into Scots Law would give the Scottish People the political rights they need to exercise their sovereignty.
In our Open Letter to the First Minister, we asked him to do just this but have had no response. So we lose nothing by asking the Viceroy to take up the cause as it falls within his brief. If nothing else, it will add to his growing list of embarrassments and it might encourage the First Minister to make good on his promise to give the People the democratic tools they need:
“I have complete faith in the people of Scotland to take the right decisions about their future. If we give them the tools, they can build whatever country they want.”
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