The Planet is Fucked

And so are we. As a species we are far too successful for our own good, especially when it comes to exploiting, with total disregard, our dear Mother Earth, our home.

And when the shills for Big Energy start mumbling about the "Tipping Point" or anybody for that matter, you have my permission to fetch them a hearty slap around the lug 'ole.

The tipping point has long been and gone, all it is down to know, is where abouts we are on the 'Hockey Stick Graph.' The graph is so aptly named, for what is visually obvious, the planet has trundled along quite evenly for millions until it meets the business end of the stick, where it then takes off in an ever steepening curve.

Greenland glacier calves iceberg twice the size of Manhattan
Nasa images show the ice island breaking off the Petermann glacier, for the second time in two years
19 July 2012

The Petermann glacier grinds and slides toward the sea along the northwestern coast of Greenland, terminating in a giant floating ice tongue.

An iceberg twice the size of Manhattan broke free from Greenland's massive Petermann glacier, which could speed up the march of ice into northern waters, scientists said on Wednesday.

This is the second time in less than two years that the Petermann glacier has calved a monstrous ice island. In 2010, it unleashed another massive ice chunk into the sea.

The latest break was observed by Nasa's Aqua satellite, which passes over the North Pole several times a day, and was noted by Trudy Wohlleben of the Canadian Ice Service.

"At this time of year, we're always watching the Petermann glacier," Wohlleben said, because it can spawn big icebergs that invade North Atlantic shipping lanes or imperil oil platforms in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. A large piece of the 2010 iceberg did just that, but caused no damage, she said by telephone.

Nasa images showed the iceberg calving – breaking off from a floating river of ice called an ice tongue, part of the land-anchored Petermann Glacier – and moving downstream along a fjord on Greenland's north-west coast. A rift in the ice had been identified in 2001, but on Monday a crack was evident.

On Tuesday, the satellite images showed a bigger gap between the glacier and the iceberg, and the ice chunks further downstream were breaking up, Nasa said.

"The floating extension (of the glacier) is breaking apart," Eric Rignot of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. "It is not a collapse, but it is certainly a significant event."

One difference between the 2010 event and this one is that the present ice island broke off further upstream, where the ice was right up against the fjord's rocky side walls, damming the glacier's seaward movement.

"This piece that has been much further back, may have actually been providing more of a frictional force to cork (the glacier) up than the piece that broke off in 2010, which was much further out," said Andreas Muenchow, an Arctic oceanographer at the University of Delaware.

The 2010 break accelerated the Petermann glacier's movement toward the sea by 10-20%, Muenchow said. The current break could have a greater effect on the glacier's movement.

Coastal glaciers like this floating ice tongue tend to block the ice flow headed for the sea. When ice chunks break loose, the land-based glaciers behind them often move more quickly, Muenchow said.

The accelerated movement of the Petermann Glacier after the 2010 break was "noticeable but not dramatic," he said on his website.

The movement of this huge amount of ice into open water will have no immediate impact on sea levels, since this ice was already part of an ice shelf that was attached to land but extended over water, just as a melting ice cube in a glass of water does not raise the level of water in the glass.

Muenchow said climate change was a factor in the current state of the Petermann glacier. He said this glacier is as far back toward the land as it has been since the start of the industrial revolution more than 150 years ago. Gruniad

Peripheral three minutes, interesting: America's fascination with the apocalypse

Alabama: "Judicially Sanctioned Extortion Racket"

Alabama Judge Bars Local Authorities from Jailing Poor People Who Are Unable to Pay Fines
July 18, 2012

A judge in Alabama last week ordered the Harpersville Municipal Court to stop jailing people who cannot pay speeding tickets and the extra fees charged by private probation company, calling the practice "disgraceful."

Defendants in Harpersville, Alabama, charged with traffic and other minor violations who weren't able to immediately pay court-imposed fines and fees were charged several times the amount when their cases were turned over to Judicial Correction Services, a private probation company. Those too poor to pay the inflated fines and fees were locked up in the city jail.

Shelby County Judge Hub Harrington said he was "appalled" by what he characterized as a "debtors' prison" in Harpersville. The local court, he said, was running a "judicially sanctioned extortion racket."

Judge Harrington found that the court's actions repeatedly violated the constitutional rights of defendants who appeared before it. “Most distressing," he added, "is that these abuses have been perpetrated by what is supposed to be a court of law. Disgraceful."

Judge Harrington took over control of cases in Harpersville involving people jailed for failing to pay court fines and fees and ordered city and probation company officials to attend an August 20 hearing. EJI

Portugal Decriminalized All Drugs Eleven Years Ago And The Results Are Staggering

The why and the where escapes me, but I mentioned Portugal's decriminalising of all recreational drugs, not some few days ago.

But given that: In a country like America, which may take the philosophy of criminalization a bit far (more than half of America's federal inmates are in prison on drug convictions) I do have to say, nobody, anywhere in the world should be in jail for simple possession of any drug.

And if we are going to philosophise a spell, what right, in a country that purports to have a government of the people, by the people, for the people, does the establishment have to lock people up in such vast numbers, often for obscene lengths of time, sometimes for even life.

Philosophising further, one our one blessed experience of having a life on this planet, what right has anybody, individual or government, to dictate what a person might, or might not, experience on his or her journey through this unique and never repeatable existence. (See clips below)

That said, methinks a few 'toons are in order on a post such as this.

Portuguese moggies.

Portugal Decriminalized All Drugs Eleven Years Ago And The Results Are Staggering
Samuel Blackstone
July 17, 2012

On July 1st, 2001, Portugal decriminalized every imaginable drug, from marijuana, to cocaine, to heroin. Some thought Lisbon would become a drug tourist haven, others predicted usage rates among youths to surge.

Eleven years later, it turns out they were both wrong.

Over a decade has passed since Portugal changed its philosophy from labeling drug users as criminals to labeling them as people affected by a disease. This time lapse has allowed statistics to develop and in time, has made Portugal an example to follow.

First, some clarification.

Portugal's move to decriminalize does not mean people can carry around, use, and sell drugs free from police interference. That would be legalization. Rather, all drugs are "decriminalized," meaning drug possession, distribution, and use is still illegal. While distribution and trafficking is still a criminal offense, possession and use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender's unique situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system (like the U.S.), reports Fox News.

Still bearing their original title, Killer Cannabis, one could almost believe these were the work of the Daily Mail, where one toke will turn you into a paranoid shambling wreck. 1 - 2 - 3 Or failing that, it will definitely give you cancer.

The resulting effect: a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years. Portugal's drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report.

One more outcome: a lot less sick people. Drug related diseases including STDs and overdoses have been reduced even more than usage rates, which experts believe is the result of the government offering treatment with no threat of legal ramifications to addicts.

While this policy is by no means news, the statistics and figures, which take years to develop and subsequently depict the effects of the change, seem to be worth noting. In a country like America, which may take the philosophy of criminalization a bit far (more than half of America's federal inmates are in prison on drug convictions), other alternatives must, and to a small degree, are being discussed.

For policymakers or people simply interested in this topic, cases like Portugal are a great place to start. businessinsider.com

Related: Drugs in Portugal: Did Decriminalization Work? Time Science











Words From The Grave: Aldous Huxley Thirty minute interview between Mike Wallace and Aldous Huxley 1958. And if you think George Orwell was a prophet, you really should watch this.

Fukushima 4 Spent Fuel Pool No Removal Until December 2013

Take your time, no hurry.

TEPCO removes unused fuel rods from pool
July 18, 2012

The operator of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has begun removing two unused fuel rods from a storage pool in the No. 4 reactor.

Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, began the work on Wednesday as a test for eventually removing all 1,535 fuel rods stored in the pool, including 204 unused ones.

Workers are carefully monitoring radiation levels and footage from underwater cameras to make sure they remove unused fuel rods, instead of a highly radioactive spent one.

This is the first time fuel rods are being removed from the storage pool since the plant was damaged in the earthquake and tsunami last March 11th.

In late August, TEPCO will check if there's any damage and corrosion to the metal container used to store the fuel rods.

If workers can successfully remove the 2 fuel rods, the utility plans to extract the remaining rods beginning in December 2013, as the first step in decommissioning four of the reactors at the Daiichi plant.

The building housing the reactor was heavily damaged by a hydrogen explosion following the earthquake and tsunami. This has raised concerns that fuel rods in the pool on the fifth floor of the building could pose a threat in the event of another earthquake. NHK World

See previous spent fuel pool related posts under Japan tag.

War Zone Britain: Welcome to the Olympics

War Zone Britain: Welcome to the Olympics
by Felicity Arbuthnot
18.07.2012


"But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked

"Oh, you can't help that", said the Cat: We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad.

"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.

"You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."

("Alice in Wonderland", Lewis Carroll, 1832-1898.)




When London scraped past Paris to win the 2012 Olympics by four votes on the 6th of July 2005, triumphalism of the "Rule Britannia" genre was rampant - and for many cringe-inducing and concerning in the extreme. The UK had joined the US in the invasions and near destruction of swathes of Afghanistan and Iraq. Award of this great international event surely sat badly with a large world view of Britain.

The then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, whose offices provided the historically misleading document about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction" sealing the decision to invade - was integral to the Olympic bid. Sir Steve Redgrave, one of the Bid Team in Singapore commented at the time, " ... if you have to pin it down on one person, it's Tony Blair coming out here ..."

The triumphalism was short lived. Fifteen hours after the announcement, explosive devices on London's transport system during the morning rush hour,placed on trains and a bus, killed fifty-two people and injured seven hundred and seventy.

The Olympic opening ceremony is on the 27th of July, the anniversary of the Centennial Park bombing of the Atlanta Olympics (the 27th of July, 1996) killing two and injuring one hundred and eleven.

Britain's Ministry of Defence surely do not believe in omens, but nevertheless, reality now is a world away from the UK's Award commitment that, "The 2012 Olympiad stands under the motto 'Green and Secure.' "

The US Dow Chemical company's "worldwide partner" status - is the highest level sponsorship of the Olympic Games for "a decade of positive association" with the "Olympic brand" at a price tag to Dow of $100 million, arguably hardly presents either a "green" or "secure" image.




Dow is parent company to Union Carbide, responsible for India's December 1984 Bhopal disaster, the world's worst chemical accident, resulting in at least eleven thousand deaths. A 2006 Indian government affidavit, pertaining to still ongoing legal actions, stated the leak caused a staggering 558,125 injuries.

Campaigners, survivors and the Indian government have protested Dow's sponsorship. It seems still uncertain whether the Indian team will take part in or boycott the Olympics. (i)

On the 30th of April, it became clear that Londoners could factor in a potential chemical, biological or missile attack. "Exercise Olympic Guardian" was announced - the UK had, of course, now enjoined the US again in threatening another two countries, Syria and Iran. London too has become a war zone.

"We are fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" has been the US and UK political mantra of their illegal invasions. Ironically, Olympic London's mobilization is now being compared by politicians to the World War 11 Blitz - when the area most devastated by Germany's bombs were East London - the main Olympic venue.

General Sir Nick Parker, in command of the totalitarian terrorization of Londoners and residents around other Olympic venues explained, "It's an air threat (of two kinds) the sort of 9/11 threat ... and also the lower, slower type of (missile) which might pop up closer to the Olympic Park, in which we would need to intervene."

Thus, in this most densely populated area, batteries of surface-to-air Rapier missiles (which launch at up to three times the speed of sound) have been sited on two residential blocks of flats within bombing range of the stadium. The "formidable" Rapier with warhead "to guarantee a kill," cited by its developers as a "hit-ile" rather than a missile, is being deployed at six London sites in all (so far).

Parker's concern is to protect Olympic venues from a "very serious threat." Should planes or missiles crash on residents, their lives and homes are clearly a price worth paying. "Drones will patrol the skies over the Olympic park, barricaded behind an eleven-mile electrified fence and guarded with sonic weapons and fifty-five teams of attack dogs." (Guardian, 11th of July 2012).




Sonic weapons can shatter windows and ear drums up to three kilometers away - of parents and children, people simply pottering around in their homes.

Typhoon jets and helicopters with snipers are based minutes hit time away at West London's RAF Northolt (first such deployment since World War 11), RAF Puma helicopters in East London with "side firing machine guns" are included in a "sad history" of British military aircraft crashes, according to the military savvy Daily Telegraph (3rd of July 2012).

Warships with Royal Navy Lynx helicopters: "now with increased firepower" based on board, are on the Thames and at the rowing venues at Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbour. General Parker's contingency plans, however, have not accounted for nature's near biblical deluges currently submerging cars in Weymouth's Olympic "Park and Ride" facility.

Portland, which overlooks the rowing contests, has been walled in reminiscent of US erected walls in Baghdad, to prevent massively inconvenienced residents' availing of small compensation in watching contests free.

Soldiers patrol the streets, about 13,500 being deployed, more than deployed in Afghanistan - twelve thousand police, twenty thousand varying other security personnel, with at least a thousand American police and military personnel, maybe more, figures change.

But in spite of all, perhaps the most alarming material has come from an undercover reporter (ii) experienced in such work, employed as a security guard with G4S, the main contractors for Olympic protection. His truly terrifying recounting includes a plan to evacuate the whole of London (eleven million people) and the importation of two hundred thousand (body) caskets, each being able to hold four or five people.

So if you plan to visit the Olympics (traveling from abroad up to five hours wait to pass immigration at Heathrow Airport; part of a motorway to London is currently collapsed, but there is always the underground transport system). Enjoy your stay.

Update: as this is finished, a further three thousand five hundreds troops, many" just back from Afghanistan" have been drafted into the main Stadium area. Let's hope they remember where they are.

Weather forecast: "Cold, wet, windy." Not unique to Pravda

More great fashion images.

Olympics: Who Are These People?

Who are so fucking stuck for a shilling that they are ordering the police around in a manner that in this country mine, I find particularly unacceptable and extremely offensive.

Not to mention, that for sheer brass neck and the ludicrous, the story goes from the sublime to the gor fuckin' blimey!

And as to just who they are, enlightenment below the fold.

London 2012: Police told to empty crisps into plastic bags to avoid advertising rival brands in Olympics

Police guarding the Olympics were told to empty their crisps into plastic bags so they did not inadvertently advertise brands which aren't sponsoring the games
17 July 2012

Officers who will be patrolling the Games' rowing events at Eton, Berks., were amazed when told by senior officers told them they must not be seen with snacks such as Walker's crisps or Ginsters pasties.

Thames Valley Police insisted that before going to the Olympic events officers, including Royal Protection guards, must empty their snacks into a clear polythene bag.

The top-level instruction, based on guidelines from the Games' London organisers, was designed to protect advertising by the official sponsors including Coca Cola, Cadbury's and McDonalds.

With the games being televised around the world, organising bigwigs have moved to stop any free advertising for firms which haven't forked out millions in sponsorship money.



The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) sent a directive to all forces involved in the policing of the Games to comply with the order.

It meant that Pc's protecting the millions of spectators expected to watch the events live at venues in and around London will be forced to empty their branded sandwiches, crisps and chocolate bars into unidentifiable packaging.

With just days to go until the opening ceremony of the biggest sporting event in the world, police officers were up in arms over the absurd rule.

A Police Federation member for Thames Valley Police, who are policing all rowing events for the Olympic and Paralypic Games at Dorney Lake, in Eton, Berks., said: "I'd like to see a security guard try to tell a police officer to empty his lunch into clear bags.

"They'd have to be very brave because the answer he'd get would be very short indeed."

A Thames Valley Police spokesman said in a statement: "We are expected to comply with LOCOG requirements and therefore are not expected to enter the venue with any goods that do not reflect sponsors.

"This position will be briefed to all officers and staff, although operational effectiveness and any response to an incident will always be our priority."

However, after LOCOG was made aware of the strict interpretation of their rules by Thames Valley Police chiefs and the discord of officers, they spoke to the police and issued clarification.

"The revised guidance amounts to a major climbdown by our top brass who have realised they were taking the 'no branding or advertising' rules a tad too literally," said one police officer involved in the Dorney Rowing Lake events.

"It is a victory for commonsense - but if we hadn't kicked up a fuss, they would have had us decanting our crisps and pop into unmarked containers."

A spokesman for LOCOG said that the rule had been put in place to stop unauthorised brands advertising at the Games and not to stop anyone enjoying the event.

The spokesman said: "We wouldn't want to tell people what they can bring into the venues and what they can't.

"There are rules about brands which are aimed around advertising but petty things like food products aren't the target of it.

"The rule is there to stop the advertising of brands who are not authorised Olympic brands." Telegraph

Hacker Uses 3-D Printed Keys to Crack Police Handcuffs

I really need to read up on this technology, because truth be told I don't really understand it. Without doing that, all I can assume is that once written the program is fed into a machine tool with a three axis capability. But then why printer?

Something else to add to my things to do list, but not at this ungodly time of day. Back to bed for me.

Hacker Uses 3-D Printed Keys to Crack Police Handcuffs
By Will Oremus
July 16, 2012

High-tech criminals typically use their hacking skills to unlock information. But in a presentation Friday at a New York hacker conference, a German security consultant showed how 21st-century technology can be used to unlock, well, locks.

Forbes’ Andy Greenberg reports that the security consultant, who goes by the name “Ray,” used a 3-D printer to cheaply produce plastic versions of the keys to high-security handcuffs manufactured by the English company Chubb and the German company Bonowi. Ray’s plastic keys easily sprung open both firms’ cuffs.

This is a serious problem for handcuff makers, because police departments typically use the same keys to unlock all of the handcuffs made by a given manufacturer. And while determined crooks have always been able to reproduce keys at metal-working shops if they have access to the originals, 3-D printing makes it possible for just about anyone to churn out their own copies if they have access to the digital blueprint.

How would they get such access? Well, Ray has one answer: According to Greenberg, “he plans to upload the CAD files for the Chubb key to the 3D-printing Web platform Thingiverse after the annual lockpicking conference LockCon later this week.”

Ray says his goal is not to undermine police, but to make them aware of their handcuffs’ vulnerabilities. Police are supposed to monitor detainees even when they’re cuffed, but a false sense of security could lead them to ignore protocol.

This isn’t the only way that 3-D printing can come in handy for criminals. Gangs have used the technology in the past to build better skimmers for ATM machines, and gun enthusiasts have printed rifle parts that would normally require a permit to buy.*

Reactionary security types will probably interpret these anecdotes as reason to regulate 3-D printers, but that would be premature. New technologies don’t create the arms race between criminals and authorities—they just change the rules.

*Correction: This article originally stated that 3-D printing allowed gun enthusiasts to circumvent the federal assault weapons ban. That ban expired in 2004. Slate

The Totalitarian States of America

I paid a visit to the blog of Alexander Higgins, looking for a Fukushima update, but came away with these three stories.

It all rather makes the $8 Billion (total) expenditure of the present US presidential elections somewhat of an oxymoron don't you think? Because that what is writ below, don't sound much like democracy to me.

And the pay-back from the successful candidate to big business that has fronted that kind of money, even less so.

Mind you, this democracy thing, all it has ever been is an illusion.

Congress Now Trying To Outlaw Reporting On Government Corruption

Lawmakers are pushing legislation through Congress that will criminalize reporting on illegal activities and corruption in the US government.
July 13, 2012

Just when you thought the United States government couldn’t sink any lower our beloved politicians in Washington have introduced legislation that will criminalize reporting on US government secrets.

What makes this new legislation shocking is that we have seen the US government repeatedly use the “State Secrets” and the “National InSecurity card to suspend the Constitution at will to commit a wide variety of heinous activities from torture and indefinite detention without trial to outright forced drugging of prisoners and even repeated assassination by the government, of people including US citizens, which is now being done on the direction of the United States’ first even assassination czar.

Keeping that in mind the fact that lawmakers are now trying to go after reporters that “publish government secrets” more

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Obama Gives DHS Authority To Seize ALL US Communications
July 16, 2012

President Obama admits last weeks executive order gave the DHS authority to seize all public, private and commercial communication systems.

President Obama has taken the unprecedented step of handing the Department of Homeland Security the power to seize all communication systems in the United States — be they private, public or commercial — under any terms the government deems fit in another mind boggling executive order.

RT originally published a story last week reporting that EPIC and other organizations were crying foul because never in the history of the United States has the government ever been granted to seize private communication systems.

Originally the reports more

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Feds Charge Man As Enemy Combatant Supporting Terrorism For Uploading Youtube Video

Feds Charge Man As Enemy Combatant Supporting Terrorism For Uploading YouTube Video, Subjecting Him To Permanent Imprisonment, Torture, And Lethal Beatings Without A Trial
September 2, 2011

Take freedom of speech and other personal liberties — including protections against cruel and unusual punishment, right to face your accuser, and right to trial by jury — and throw them right out the window. All for the crime of uploading a YouTube.

That is what a 24 year old Virginia man, Jubair Ahmad, faces as the feds charge him with providing support for terrorism for allegedly uploading a propaganda video. The crime comes with the dubious distinction that the accused are treated as if they are actually terrorists or as the U.S. government labels them “enemies combatants”. With the declaration of being an enemy combatant the rights and protections engraved into the Constitution with the full force of our founding father’s very own flesh and blood are instantly nullified.

That’s right. The Department of Justice of the great United States of America has charged a Jubair Ahmad, a 24 year old Woodbridge, Virginia man, of providing support for terrorism because he allegedly uploaded a propaganda video to YouTube. The accusation alone instantly classifies the man as an ‘enemy combatant’ and ‘clear and present danger’. Such persons who are a ‘threat to national security’ have absolutely no rights. To make matters worse, businesses and nations aren’t allowed to do business with such so-called ‘terrorists’ or they will be declared a terrorist themselves. That means a lawyer who takes up his case can be charge with providing support for terrorism. That is if the United States government even decides to honor habeas corpus and give the man a trial in the first place. Our beloved supreme court has ruled that ‘enemy combatants’ can be abducted, tortured, assassinated, and even detained for ever without a trial because the constitution does not apply to them. Even worse, the lucky few who are released after being declared innocent have no right to legal recourse because revealing the details of their detention and torture is also a threat to national security.

This is what the ‘war on terror’ has escalated to, more

After Man’s Death, Woman Watches NASCAR with Him for 18 Months

How terribly terribly sad, poor old soul, "He was the only guy who was ever nice to me.”

After Man’s Death, Woman Watches NASCAR with Him for 18 Months

A Michigan woman didn't want to say goodbye to her friend, so she kept the corpse in his armchair.
By William Lee Adams
July 16 2012

Charles Zigler of Jackson, Michigan died in December 2010. Eighteen months later he was still sitting in his armchair, watching TV. That’s because 72-year-old Linda Chase, with whom he shared a house for more than ten years, decided to keep Zigler’s corpse well after he drew his final breath.

“It’s not that I’m heartless,” Chase told the Jackson Citizen Patriot on July 10. “It’s just that after so many bad things happen to you…I didn’t want to be alone. He was the only guy who was ever nice to me.”

Chase, who reportedly spoke to the newspaper in a flood of tears, said that Zigler passed away peacefully around Christmas 2010. He was 67. In the months that followed she dressed and cleaned the corpse daily. It appears that she carried on with her routines as if nothing had happened. She would still speak to her deceased friend while watching NASCAR. (Despite the deep attachment, Chase maintains the pair were not romantically involved.)

Friends and family grew concerned when they were unable to reach Zigler following the 2010 holiday. They made repeated attempts to visit him, but Chase, whom they mistook for his girlfriend, always said he had stepped out. His niece Barb finally called 911 on July 6, which led to the gruesome discovery. “[Chase is] always telling everyone he’s gone,” she says on the 911 recording, questioning how a man on an oxygen tank could stray so far so frequently. “We don’t understand how he could be gone when he’s in such bad shape.”

Chase cooperated fully and voluntarily. She admitted that she had kept and tended to the body, and revealed that she had cashed Zigler’s Social Security checks after he passed away. “I’m probably going to prison,” she told the paper. “I told them the truth. I didn’t lie about that.”

Chase not been arrested, but police have said they are investigating charges of financial fraud. Article with links and photo

Bringing Home The Bacon

A Short Musical Interlude

Enjoy.

Jussi Björling & Robert Merrill - Pearl Fishers Duet

A Charity a Chanel Clad Lady Meyer a Scandal

A charity, a lady, a scandal
By Michael Ezra,
May 31st 2011

A charity is often a very good cause. Whether it be assisting the aged, abused children, mentally handicapped, a repair for a local place of worship, cancer research, starving kids in Africa, or a plethora of other causes, we can understand why someone is shaking a tin for loose coins or requesting a cheque, a standing order payment or a prize to be auctioned or raffled to raise funds for the charity. If we have not heard of the charity, possibly because it is small, but the cause sounds reasonable and those associated with it include the great and good, then we may make a donation without much further investigation. This could be a big mistake.

I bring to your attention the charity PACT: Parents & Abducted Children Together. The website of the charity informs us that PACT “works with the government, the police and other NGOs to improve the way in which missing childrenís [sic] cases are handled, so that they can be rapidly located and retrieved unharmed.” Abducted children: a fine charitable cause. Tesco is associated with the charity. Among others, the trustees of the charity include the author Barbara Taylor Bradford, a former head of Special Branch in Northern Ireland and Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the United States. This is not all because the patrons include both Cherie Blair, wife of a former British Prime Minister and Laura Bush, wife of the former American president. A very credible selection of people.

Those that donate money to charity, however wealthy they are, have limited funds to donate. A donation to one charity means a smaller or no donation to another. If asked by a friend or acquaintance for a donation to PACT, a charity founded in 1999 by Lady Meyer, the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, one might have done so in the belief that their donation was doing good. But was this really the case?

As the accounts of the charity show . . . more

36% of Fukushima Children Have Thyroid Cysts or Nodules

And so it starts.

There is a little information at the link, but I'm posting this as much as a reminder to myself, in order that I might track down something more comprehensive.

From the very beginning, the health concerns regarding children of the area, is something I have been most vocal about.

Now 35.8% of Fukushima children have thyroid cysts or nodules — 13,646 do and 24,468 don’t

Flouting the Telegraph's Memory Hole

The article the Telegraph tried so hard to make disappear.

Cherie Blair steps down as a patron of Lady Meyer's charity

Cherie Blair steps down as a patron of Pact after figures showed the lion's share of its income was going to its employees
By Tim Walker
09 Jan 2012

Without any fanfare, Cherie Blair has stepped down as a patron of the charity Pact which is presided over by Lady Meyer, the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, formerly Our Man in Washington.

Mrs Blair’s name is no longer on the list of patrons on the charity’s website and Catherine Meyer tells Mandrake: “There is no comment I wish to make about this”.

The former prime minister’s wife chose not to speak out in defence of Pact when Mandrake disclosed last year that all but £9,500 of the money received in donations by Pact, which stands for Parents & Abducted Children Together, was paid to Lady Meyer, who is the chief executive, and to one member of staff. The latest figures from the charity showed that Lady Meyer, who is also its president, and her employee were paid a total of £49,586. Lady Meyer received almost 70 per cent of that sum. Pact’s income from donations was £59,056 and it received a further £38,234 in grants.

The Meyers and the Blairs had enjoyed a close relationship, but it had become strained after the publication of DC Confidential, a memoir by Sir Christopher which was less than flatttering about Tony Blair’s government. Sir Christopher’s appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry, when he said that a year before the Iraq war Blair had “signed in blood” a deal with President Bush to overthrow Saddam Hussein — a charge that the former prime minister denied — led to a greater froideur.

“We are doing a huge amount of work for very little salary,” Lady Meyer said in response to my story last year. “I used to work in the City and earned much more.”

H/T Maren. Courtesy of http://themaddiecasefiles.com/topic17499.html

Original Telegraph article - the Wayback Macine.

Meyer now has its own tag. Please see previous posts for relevance.





Follow on

Cherie Blair is in no hurry to speak up for charity boss Lady Meyer

Cherie Blair, a patron of Lady Meyer's charity, Pact, has failed to make a public show of support after questions were raised about the charity's finances.

By Tim Walker
25 May 2011

When Mandrake disclosed that Lady Meyer faced searching questions about the finances of her charity, Pact, she might have expected its patron Cherie Blair to issue a fulsome statement in her support.

Fourteen days later, however, the wife of the former British ambassador to Washington Sir Christopher Meyer is still waiting for a public endorsement from her.

“Cherie is very proud of her charitable work and takes it very seriously,” says a friend of the wife of Tony Blair. “She wouldn’t dream of being paid by her own charity.”

As I reported, all but £9,500 of the money received in donations by Pact, which stands for Parents & Abducted Children Together, was paid to the Chanel-clad Catherine Meyer, who is the chief executive, and to one member of staff.

Lady Meyer, who is also its president, and her employee were paid a total of £49,586. Lady Meyer received almost 70 per cent of that sum. Pact’s income from donations was £59,056 and it received a further £38,234 in grants.

The previous year, Lady Meyer and the employee were paid £63,877, even though the income from donations was a mere £6,036. That year, the charity, of which Sir Christopher is a trustee and a member of the management committee, received £20,823 from the City Bridge Trust.

“We are doing a huge amount of work for very little salary,” she said. “I used to work in the City and earned much more.”

Her husband, and six of Pact’s 11 trustees, added in a letter: “We consider it to be at the low end of the pay scale for chief executives of charities with a demanding brief.

“She recommended reducing her salary in 2010 because of the difficulty of fund-raising in the harsh economic times.”

On Tuesday, Mrs Blair’s spokesman said she was still unavailable for comment.

The Wayback Machine

Popcorn: The Real George Orwell & 1984

Two of six parts: Biographer DJ Taylor profiles Eric Blair for The South Bank Show in 2003.

Full 1984 John Hurt/Richard Burton movie below.








Tribune Columns of George Orwell - 1943 to 1947

First of all, a message to English left-wing journalists and intellectuals generally: ‘Do remember that dishonesty and cowardice always have to be paid for. Don’t imagine that for years on end you can make yourself the boot-licking propagandist of the Soviet régime, or any other régime, and then suddenly return to mental decency. Once a whore, always a whore.’ 1 September 1944

Lady Meyer Kate McCann Now I See

'Twould appear that Lady Meyer's chum, newly appointed Ambassador for Missing Children, Kate McCann, have one or two things in common, not least, lining their pockets with other peoples' money. One without a doubt fraudulently, and t'other, how shall a describe it? Perhaps I don't need to, you might glean your own description after reading the text.

But the "now I see" certainly seems to ring a bell, could it be . . . . ah yes! I remember now, I have employed that phrase before, let me go and seek it out.

Here you go, The McCann Connection: Now I See

PACT: Matthew Steeples Exposes PACT - LADY MYER And Her Charity - Nothing More Than A Sham.

Published BY Matthew Steeples. 2011

I am Matthew Steeples and having seen this I thought I should explain how I came to be involved with a charity that turns out to be a sham. I met Lady Meyer with mutual friends in 2004. She was charming and polite and I had no reason to doubt her or her motives. She had just returned from Washington, where her husband had been an ambassador at a most interesting time in history. She was a good conversationalist and well versed. He had interesting tales to tell. She told of the problems she’d had “recovering” her children. When she explained what, she claimed, happened, I thought “how awful” and felt her plight. She mentioned she was having a fundraising ball at The Dorchester and asked if I would like to come. I attended along with friends. Between us we spent £1500 on a table.

I now cannot comprehend why I then continued to believe this lady and her nonsense for six years, but sadly I did. I supported Lady Meyer’s events initially just by attending, but invited her to a dinner I gave above the Ferragamo showroom in 2005 and at this point she persuaded me that I should become more involved.

She asked me to get involved in fund raising for PACT. I should have asked to see PACT’s accounts. I did not and there is no excuse for that. It is a lesson I will take forward with me and I urge others to do the same. Do NOT donate to a charity without knowing that the majority of funds raised actually goes to the cause rather than on salaries. Over the following years I, without charging the charity a single penny and believing that Lady Meyer did the same, I helped organise:

PACT with STARS, Ralph Lauren, 25th May 2010; PACT Barbecue, Firehouse, 10th July 2010; PACT Emilia Wickstead Fashion Show, Papillon, 23rd April 2009; PACT Speed Dating, Firehouse, 20th November 2008; PACT Speed Dating, Stanza, 7th February 2008

At most of these events, the majority of attendees came from my address book and those of my friends and so to did the majority of donations. My friends were also duped by the supposedly charming Lady Meyer and her infectiously enthusiastic manner. They handed over cash, paintings, prizes and gave time to create drawings for another fundraiser. They gave up their time, they wrote letters supporting PACT and most of all they believed in Lady Meyer and her cause. They, like me, wanted to support missing children. In addition, Lady Meyer took advantage of my personal connections to help her in other ways. She was determined to forge herself a new career and I involved her in a project I had been approached about. Strangely the people who I was dealing with pulled out after meeting her. I think I now know why. Though she now states “I used to earn a whole lot more in the city”, in relation to her charitable salary, this successful company didn’t want anything to do with her.

At Christmas in 2009, the Meyer pair had nowhere to go as the Eurostar was cancelled and their planned trip to Paris couldn’t happen. I invited them into my home for the day. In the six years I knew them, never did they invite me to dinner in their home and I can only think of a couple of occasions where I was a guest at a lunch or dinner – and I wonder now who really picked up the bill.
The first cracks came in April 2009 when a good friend had a very public row with Lady Meyer. Letters were exchanged and I told this individual how wrong he was. It was me that got it wrong though and for that I again apologise to my friend.

……Cont

Something previous, only an hour or two ago as it happens. Down The Telegraph's Memory Hole

Matthew Steeples blog

Down The Telegraph's Memory Hole

Update below

Three pages from the Daily Telegraph, appear to have vanished without trace.

Odd that.

And I did, to no avail, try a direct search of the Telegraph's Website. Even odder

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/9000854/Cherie-Blair-steps-down-as-a-patron-of-Lady-Meyers-charity.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8505534/Ambassadors-wife-faces-questions-over-Bush-and-Blairs-charity.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/8534133/Cherie-Blair-is-in-no-hurry-to-speak-up-for-charity-boss-Lady-Meyer.html


Links were posted here.

http://jillhavern.forumotion.net/t4168-cherie-blair-steps-down-as-a-patron-of-lady-meyer-s-charity

I shall be more than prepared to remove this post, if it me that is in error.

A tweet from researcher extraordinaire Win @Winnower1 - http://newsoutlines.blogspot.com/

Telegraph articles whooshed- 2 verifiable: journalisted.com/article/2xtzj / journalisted.com/article/1z83j / Last one effectively wiped from net

I can't even find the last one in Proquest or elibrary. Still looking. Good censorship effort

The Ballad of Reading Goal

Each man kills the thing he loves,
by each let this be heard.
Some do it with a bitter look,
some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss,
the brave man with a sword.

Some kill their love when they are young,
some when they are old.
Some strangle with the hands of lust,
some with the hands of gold.
The kindest use a knife because,
the dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little,
some too long, some buy and other sell.
Some do the deed with so many tears,
and some without a sigh.
For each man kills the thing he loves,
yet each man does not die.

Oscar Wilde: The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Saturday Round-Up

Pride of place to this, from the land of free.

Californian city extends smoking ban to include apartments More

Shame on you.

Merkel to allow circumcision in Germany despite ban More

Further tales from the land of the free.

Woman convicted of battery for protesting TSA pat-down More

I think we might thank the influence of the Catholic Church for this one.

Jamaican doctor arrested for performing abortion on 12-year-old
Dr Lloyd Goldson and the girl's mother have been arrested for allegedly procuring an abortion, and could face life in prison More

Shameful, but then I don't live in a slum built on top of the local dump.

Indian campaign confronts prevalence of female foeticide
Activists target antenatal clinics as people face so many problems, killing newborn girls has to compete for attention More

Not so free ourselves in England's green and pleasant land.

There was some surprise in the comments of yesterday’s post over the fact that the United Kingdom has effectively outlawed encryption: the UK will send its citizens to jail for up to five years if they cannot produce the key to an encrypted data set. More

What has the Egg and Spoon race come to, if it has come to this?

‘Lethal force’ at the ready: No-fly zone over London Olympics
It’s official: starting Saturday, Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) may use “lethal force” against any unauthorized craft, including passenger jets, caught violating London airspace during the Olympics. More

We are not insane, honest! we've just got religion.

Virgin Mary image on tree in West New York still drawing onlookers More

It's A Funny Old World: Explosives Up The Ass Edition

Anal sex is your passport to paradise – but only if you’re a suicide bomber
By Barry Duke
July 13, 2012

While stressing Islam’s abhorrence of sodomy, a Muslim cleric reportedly said it was permissible if it enabled suicide bombers to comfortably accommodate explosives up their bums. Story

I despair, I really do, mankind is such a bollocks.

Kate McCann Becomes Ambassador For The Charity Missing People. Odd Choice That

How to get your message across without getting wound up. Not something I manage to do in the main.

Kate McCann Becomes Ambassador For The Charity Missing People. Odd Choice That
July 12, 2012

R.F.Wilson writes from London: Pardon me for asking but what exactly was Kate McCann thinking when she agreed to become the ambassador for the charity Missing People that deals with issues concerning people going missing. How did it actually play out between her and her public relations advisors? And what was the charity itself thinking when it offered Kate the position of its ambassador? Because let’s face it, she’s not exactly the best person by far to advice anyone on missing people, having left her own kids without supervision when one of them, 4-year-old Madeleine, went missing.

The whole point of preventing people, especially children, from disappearing is to keep an eye on them or, failing that, hiring someone to do that. Kate and her husband Gerry failed to do both of these thing when on a sunny day in May 2007 they decided to leave their children all by themselves in their holiday apartment in a Portuguese sea resort to have dinner with friends.

The McCanns seem not to understand that they are coming across as pretty unpleasant people, having joined the celeb circuit with the help of some dodgy public relations weasels, who obviously had good contacts in the media. Luckily for them Rebekah Brooks, the vain and unintelligent editor of the Sun newspaper, decided that Madeleine’s disappearance would be a great story to run, for weeks and months, with the two parents sharing their grief with the world but never mentioning the fact that they were the main cause of it. It was only a matter of time before the search for Maddy turned into some sort of international public relations campaign, with McCanns getting all offended if anyone dared to point out to them that they should really start grieving in private and raise money to fund their search in a less obvious way.

But encouraged by their advisors the couple pressed onwards, irritating more and more people for obvious reasons. It became pretty clear at some point that Madeleine was dead and that efforts by her parents to keep the interest in her fate alive smacked more of a publicity campaign than of a proper search. And when Prime Minister David Cameron decided to intervene, probably pushed to it by his friend, Rebekah, and ordered a full blown investigation by Scotland Yard into Madeleine’s disappearance, it all started to look distinctly unpleasant. Why should 40 odd investigators be spending their time looking for a child who had disappeared because her parents decided to have some fun and not spend any money on a nanny who was available at their holiday home? It actually looked bizarre, this decision to reopen the case at a cost of millions. It smacked of some perverted sense of justice, if justice is a proper word here.

The McCanns, who are obviously not very intelligent people, can’t seem to understand that their behaviour is offensive to people, who have lost their children through no fault of their own and yet didn’t make a huge fuss of it in public. And both Kate and Gerry should realise that under the circumstance they should be blaming themselves and calling on others never to leave their kids alone. Instead, they pretend to be victims of tragic circumstances rather than accept that they are the ones who are responsible for what had happened on that day. stirringtroubleinternationally

15-Year-Old Girl Faces Life in Prison for a Miscarriage?

15-Year-Old Girl Faces Life in Prison for a Miscarriage? Why Conservatives Are Criminalizing Pregnant Women

The creeping criminalization of pregnant women is a new front in the culture wars over abortion.
July 4, 2011

Rennie Gibbs is accused of murder, but the crime she is alleged to have committed does not sound like an ordinary killing. Yet she faces life in prison in Mississippi over the death of her unborn child.

Gibbs became pregnant aged 15, but lost the baby in December 2006 in a stillbirth when she was 36 weeks into the pregnancy. When prosecutors discovered that she had a cocaine habit – though there is no evidence that drug abuse had anything to do with the baby's death – they charged her with the "depraved-heart murder" of her child, which carries a mandatory life sentence.

Gibbs is the first woman in Mississippi to be charged with murder relating to the loss of her unborn baby. But her case is by no means isolated. Across the US more and more prosecutions are being brought that seek to turn pregnant women into criminals.

"Women are being stripped of their constitutional personhood and subjected to truly cruel laws," said Lynn Paltrow of the campaignNational Advocates for Pregnant Women (NAPW). "It's turning pregnant women into a different class of person and removing them of their rights."

Bei Bei Shuai, 34, has spent the past three months in a prison cell in Indianapolis charged with murdering her baby. On 23 December she tried to commit suicide by taking rat poison after her boyfriend abandoned her.

Shuai was rushed to hospital and survived, but she was 33 weeks pregnant and her baby, to whom she gave birth a week after the suicide attempt and whom she called Angel, died after four days. In March Shuai was charged with murder and attempted foeticide and she has been in custody since without the offer of bail.

In Alabama at least 40 cases have been brought under the state's "chemical endangerment" law. Introduced in 2006, the statute was designed to protect children whose parents were cooking methamphetamine in the home and thus putting their children at risk from inhaling the fumes.

Amanda Kimbrough is one of the women who have been ensnared as a result of the law being applied in a wholly different way. During her pregnancy her fetus was diagnosed with possible Down's syndrome and doctors suggested she consider a termination, which Kimbrough declined as she is not in favour of abortion.

The baby was delivered by caesarean section prematurely in April 2008 and died 19 minutes after birth.

Six months later Kimbrough was arrested at home and charged with "chemical endangerment" of her unborn child on the grounds that she had taken drugs during the pregnancy – a claim she has denied.

"That shocked me, it really did," Kimbrough said. "I had lost a child, that was enough."

She now awaits an appeal ruling from the higher courts in Alabama, which if she loses will see her begin a 10-year sentence behind bars. "I'm just living one day at a time, looking after my three other kids," she said. "They say I'm a criminal, how do I answer that? I'm a good mother."

Women's rights campaigners see the creeping criminalization of pregnant women as a new front in the culture wars over abortion, in which conservative prosecutors are chipping away at hard-won freedoms by stretching protection laws to include foetuses, in some cases from the day of conception. In Gibbs' case defence lawyers have argued before Mississippi's highest court that her prosecution makes no sense. Under Mississippi law it is a crime for any person except the mother to try to cause an abortion.

"If it's not a crime for a mother to intentionally end her pregnancy, how can it be a crime for her to do it unintentionally, whether by taking drugs or smoking or whatever it is," Robert McDuff, a civil rights lawyer asked the state supreme court. Go to page two.

September 11 The More You See, The Harder It Becomes To Ignore

The more you see, the harder it becomes to ignore.

WTC was always a no no. The Pentagon was laughable.

But for me, the most telling thing, was that nobody was curious enough to find out what brought down WTC7.

Richard Dawkins: Creationism at Giant's Causeway 'is intellectual baboonism'

Richard Dawkins: Creationism at Giant's Causeway 'is intellectual baboonism'
7 July 2012

The National Trust should not have buckled to pressure from the “intellectual baboons of young Earth creationism”, one of the world’s leading evolutionists has told the Belfast Telegraph.

Professor Richard Dawkins said it was regrettable that the trust had “paid lip service to the ignorant bigotry” of fundamentalists who believe the world is just 6,000 years old after references to creationism were included in the Giant's Causeway visitors' centre.

TV science broadcaster Professor Brian Cox also waded into the row. He said: “The National Trust should be ashamed of themselves. I don't mind creation stories presented as mythology, but to suggest there is any debate that Earth is 4.54 billion years old is pure s***.”

The trust’s move was hailed by the Caleb Foundation — an evangelical Protestant lobby group whose members believe in the literal truth of the Bible — which said the gesture “respects and acknowledges an alternative viewpoint” on the origins of the Earth.

While it claims to be non-party political, its chairman is Wallace Thompson, a former adviser to DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds. The vice chair is DUP MLA Mervyn Storey, who represents North Antrim, where the Causeway centre was built. Mr Thompson said Caleb had “worked closely with the National Trust over many months” to ensure the creationist position was included and it was very pleased with the results.

Prof Dawkins said that while the trust exhibit presents the scientific view of the Earth’s age, the charity had also “paid lip service to the ignorant bigotry of ‘young Earth creationism’, a view which flies in the face not only of science, but of theology too”.

“The age of the Earth is a matter of scientific fact, not opinion, and balance and fairness do not enter into matters of fact.

“The National Trust should not have given any consideration whatsoever to the intellectual baboons of young Earth creationism,” he said.

But the trust said it had merely acknowledged such views. A spokesman said: “We reflect, in a small part of the exhibition, that the Causeway played a role in the historic debate about the formation of the Earth, and that for some this debate continues today.“

Background

Creationist theories have sparked controversy here in the past. Two years ago the then Culture Minister Nelson McCausland called for museums to give more recognition to creationism after meeting Caleb Foundation lobbyists. Mr McCausland later asked for alternative views on the universe’s origins to be represented in museum exhibitions here. Belfaarst Telegraaph

H/T Eddie Izzard

Related: The (US) Photo Galleries of Volker Dierks


Give yourself a visual treat, the causeway photo I found at: Weird and Strange Wonders of the World

Why Does An Uprising Revolt So Many Brits

How could a fellow not run an article that starts: It is curious that in post-Christian Britain

Why does an uprising revolt so many Brits?

Let's hope the latest tax avoidance scandal will finally inspire people to kick up a storm
Kevin McKenna
Sunday 8 July 2012

The 1819 Peterloo Massacre, a rare example of popular revolt. Photograph: Bridgeman Art Library

It is curious that in post-Christian Britain we yet reach for the language of the apocalypse to describe events that elude our immediate understanding. There has been a sequence of occurrences recently to which we have assigned biblical portent. If taken literally, then it would seem that the big chaps with the scythes and horses may be pounding along any minute now. The secular soothsayers in our midst first felt ripples in the water last month when the Queen met Martin McGuinness. When this was followed by the end of Rangers FC, they were in ferment. At this rate, if Scotland votes yes to independence in 2014 then we will all be watching the skies in our sackcloths and ashes.

Yet we have probably all exaggerated the significance of these events, unthinkable though they would have been a few years ago. The Queen's encounter with the former commander of the IRA in Belfast was merely symbolic of a peace process that had begun 18 years earlier. Rangers' fall, though spectacular, will not cause permanent damage. A team bearing their colours and name will be competing for honours again at Ibrox Stadium within five years. And will it very much change our lives if Scotland becomes independent two years hence? These events, though they may yet come to define an era, are easily explained when subject to further scrutiny.

What I will find much more difficult to explain is if some kind of violent upheaval has not occurred before the second decade of the 21st century has elapsed. I have always been puzzled by the absence of any real and prolonged social unrest in modern British history, especially when most of the world's most important nations have all endured their own revolutions.

France, Russia, the US, China and Germany had their social landscapes altered for ever by popular uprisings or belligerent despots. In Britain, we had a couple of riots in the English north and a skirmish at the Carron Ironworks in Stirlingshire. Not much else by way of revolt got off the ground despite hundreds of years when the vast majority of people in this country were enslaved by a tiny privileged minority. The aristocracy, though, had the perfect weapon at their disposal whenever hoi polloi began to get restive. They organised a war somewhere and called on the proletariat to defend the honour of the crown. How our ancestors didn't simply tell the government to take a flying fuck when a war was arranged and stick the crown up their jacksies sideways I will never know.

So the wars came thick and fast as Britain built its empire, fought the French, got involved in the Austrian succession and disputed the question of Jenkins' Ear. No issue, territory or kingdom was deemed irrelevant to the British aristocracy's interests and millions of the crown's scum subjects died in the pursuit of glory. This meant there was precious little time between wars for the workers to organise a proper domestic revolution. They were all too busy singing country airs from the shires and getting themselves killed in Europe with that dreadful old Uncle Tom, Richard Sharpe.

The workers of 21st-century Britain though, have far fewer excuses not to organise a revolution. For Britain doesn't really do wars any more, unless you count the pathetic turkey shoots it sporadically organises against developing countries to keep our forces all shipshape and Bristol fashion. What hasn't changed since millworkers were being abused by the men who made the Conservative party is the extent to which ordinary people in this country are held in contempt by rich and unaccountable people who can bend the British government to its will.

Graham Aaronson QC is the man who will design new laws aimed at curbing aggressive tax avoidance. Recently, he warned of social unrest if affluent people are allowed to continue to cheat the revenue. What then would he have said about the revelation that Barclays had manipulated interest rates and had probably been joined in the adventure by other high street institutions? Ever since Northern Rock collapsed in 2007, it has become clear that the banking industry has been allowed by two governments to operate as a corrupt and fraudulent cartel. It is a mafia in all but name and it has been permitted to operate within a legal exclusion zone that the last Labour government euphemistically called "light touch" regulation. Perhaps Craig Whyte, the pantomime villain of the Rangers downfall, should have said that he was only applying a "light touch" approach to his relationship with HMRC.

The day after Mr Aaronson made his grim warning banking chiefs lobbied David Cameron to enlist his support in their fight to stop Brussels limiting the amount of millions that they can be awarded in bonuses. In five years, Britain has learned that a tiny, unaccountable parcel of multimillionaires wrecked the economy largely owing to their greed; that we bailed them out on the understanding that their obscene bonuses would be cut; that they ignored this; that they falsified lending rates and that they still want bigger bonuses. The actions of these people have destroyed thousands of businesses, will lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses and will prevent many ordinary people sharing in the nation's wealth. This is largely because the nation's wealth has been squirrelled away in an offshore account where HMRC cannot get it. No one has yet been convicted for this spectacular national fraud.

The government, though, has learned the lessons of how Britain's imperialism kept a lid on seditious behaviour. It has organised a royal wedding, a royal diamond jubilee and spent £11bn on the Olympic Games to occupy our minds and prevent any unruly behaviour. Instead of wars, we now indulge in a crazed militarism where maimed and bewildered soldiers are paraded on our high streets to make the rest of us share in a perverted sense of national pride. It remains to be seen if such bread and circuses are enough to prevent a proper revolution.

As long as this is allowed to continue, the SNP doesn't need a strategy for independence. Observer