It seems that every day brings a new round of Iran baiting. The war or attack on Iran seems to be getting closer, or perhaps have even started, and as per the Iraq war many politicians and citizens seems to be falling for the propoganda war being waged against that country.
So what is the ‘Evil Iran Empire’ up to?
Earlier this week we get the revelation that the Iran state had, according to reports in the mainstream press in Europe and the US, failed to co-operate with the international community by failing to disclose a second uranium plant.
Now correct me if I’m wrong…don’t all nations hide their capabilities? Certainly the US, UK and most of the developed nations do.
Although it was the Iranians themselves that revealed the second uranium plant the timing of the revelation is being questioned. Why, say the critics of Iran, didn’t they reveal the plant earlier? Probably because it gives them a stronger bargaining chip in the forthcoming meeting between Iran’s representatives and the UN’s Security Council – the UK, China, France, Russia and the US – plus representatives from Germany.
The talk of increased sanctions etc is just so much propoganda by the mainstream press and their political masters. It appears that the war against Iran has already begun.
Iran – baiting the hook
For the the average non-political person taking a look around the Libertarian blog world can be one hell of a eye-opener into another world or domestic political view.
From the politically paranoid and bizarre through to those with well thought-out argument. It is sad that the bizarre seem to be getting the upper hand. It is also sad that many supposed Libertarians, whilst rightly condemning much of what the UK Labour Government have done to undermine freedom in the UK, are also intent on forgetting the former Tory Gov’t and it’s own dogmatic intrusion into private lives, use of police as storm troopers, attacks on different lifestyles and attacks on those that it perceived were not conforming.
I think we need to explain ourselves, our ideas need to be matched by reasoned argument not paranoia. We need to show people we are not of the right or the left, but Libertarian. Our arguments and ideas are good enough on their own!
The Murdoch owned Sky News channel is supporting the political status quo with it’s latest campaign to get the leaders of the three political parties dominant in Westminster politics and most often promoted by the establishment i.e. BBC and Sky, to appear in a debate together.
Why is it that other parties are not represented? Why despite there being support for other points of view throughout the UK is there no invitation to the UKIP leader, despite that parties performance in the European elections. Why no invitation to Ian Parker Joseph of the Libertarian Party and no invitation to the SNP leader or the leaders of Plaid Cymru or Mebyon Kernow?
Cameron has immediately voiced his support for the idea as has Clegg. No surprises there. Why do we have to listen to these parties inane policies and the point scoring of professional liars?
The answer is that it is easy tv, it is easy to support the establishment. It is easy to ignore difficult issues and different points of view.
The continuing farce of the UK and USA extradition fiasco is another illustration of how the state can decide on how to use powers it shouldn’t have in the first place. I don’t mean extradition per se, but the blaise way in which extradition is sometimes managed.
The current extradition treaty removed the requirement on the US to provide prima facie evidence (make out a basic case against a person) when seeking the extradition of UK citizens but does require prima facie evidence when the UK seeks the extradition of US citizens.
It appears that as far as US and UK governments are concerned UK citizens do not have the same rights in law as US citizens. The farce of the state continues…
UK taxpayers have been forced to fork out more than £1 million to support Police harassment of those attending a festival of music and motorcycles. The action by the police has been condemned by local politicians, residents, businesses and the Hells Angels who organise the annual event.
The ‘Bulldog Bash’ bikers festival, now in its 23 year, has just finished and although the event attracted more than 23,000 visitors only 11 arrests for minor offences took place, far less than most towns of that size.
Permission to hold the annual event, which is attended by people from all walks of life, was granted by Stratford District Council’s licensing committee. The committee said it had been presented with no evidence that the Bulldog Bash was “anything other than a well-managed public event” organised by law-abiding individuals.
Continue reading ‘Police Condemned for harassment and wasting money’
Local Government Authorities in the UK are spying on citizens by accessing emails and phone records. The continued growth in this particular form of Big Brother Government spying has come to light following the publication of “The Report of the Interception of Communications” published by the UK Government.
The report illustrates how more than 500,000 people, that’s one in every 80 of us, had private correspondence investigated by Local Government and Police.
Whilst the UK Government claims the report offers “reassurance that the powers are being used appropriately”, most liberty minded people see it as further evidence that members of the public are under continued surveillance.
The lack of outrage from the so-called free press illustrates how little they care about freedom in the UK. As a critic of surveillance I am sickened by the lack of outrage amongst the public. It just feels like those who say we are sleepwalking into a surveillance state are absolutely correct.
Having recently been made redundant I’m looking for work of the same kind or decent training for a career/job change as the market for the skills I currently have is shrinking.
I’ve been investigating what is available…which is not a lot in the public sector, although I could learn how to type a CV and a letter or do a basic math course. I tend to think with my skills (publishing design/editorial) that any of those choices are a little useless. I’m annoyed at this. I am forced to pay tax yet when I ask for help from those whom my money pays for the ridiculous training schemes and yet they can offer me nothing. I was basically told not to make a fuss and that my needs could not be met. Then why tax me?????
The private sector is not much better.
So what is available in for the career changer in the private sector? Can any of these private sector courses deliver on their promises? And if I do spend my money on their particular course and I don’t get the help they promise or the job they say is out there do I have any recourse?
According to one online advert there is a huge shortage/high demand for truck drivers. In fact nearly every site advertising courses for would-be truck drivers says that commercial drivers are in dire need. Sounds like a good investment and I love yorkie bars….I search through a list of job search websites…not very many vacanies there. I also hear on a radio show about employment that there are too many drivers searching for too few vacancies.
Both can’t be right, and I’m sure both sides to this arguament have ample proof about what jobs there are to support their own particular arguament. Now if I decided to book the drivers course, would I be entitled to any recompense if after a reasonable time and a reasonable job search on my part, I was still unemployed?
I think one should be compensated. When one responds to marketing material, one is responding to methods the company has employed to persuade you to exchange your money for their course. If a suggestion was made by the company that jobs were pretty likely once qualified, then if this is not the case then the company has either misled you or the market has changed since the time the marketing material was developed. If the company continues to use the incorrect and misleading marketing material it should be held accountable.
There are Commercial Drivers courses that make statements like: “The UK is currently suffering from a major shortage of qualified HGV drivers – industry estimates show over 80,000 driving vacancies, so you’ll be in great demand.”
I’ve just done a quick search for vacancies online…..approximately 600 vacanicies UK wide via seach engines. OK the research is less than scientific, but number of vacancies is less than 0.1 percent…so even accounting for my having missed some…where the hell is this huge demand?
I hate misleading advertising and believe those who contiue to use it to lure others to part with their monies, should recompense those that take their courses and are unable to get the work suggested.
LPUK Candidate ON AIR
The Libertarian Party’s Norwich North candidate Thomas Burridge appeared on Future Radio in Norwich. Sounding a hell of a lot more mature than 18 Thomas comes across really well. Early days for the LPUK and therefore very important. It’ll be interesting to see how they do in this election and the General Election.
Helicopters? Lives? Afghanistan?
The news media and politicians in the UK seem to be missing the point when arguing amongst themselves about whether or not UK troops need more helicopters in order to save more lives. Anyone with any sense could tell them, if you bring the troops home, more UK lives will be saved.
It’s not rocket science, it’s perfectly straight forward. The Afghans are not going to be invading the UK anytime soon. The cost of keeping UK troops etc in Afghanistan is much greater than the money we put into infrastructure. Remove the troops, save money and lives, both Afghan and British. Then give tax payers their money back. Then taxpayers can then choose to support Afghan redevelopment through charity if we wish to.
Indoctrination paid for by you!
I just met up with an old friend who works as a Head Teacher at a school in the North West area of the UK. The school she manages is small, under 350 pupils, and doing very well. Although State owned it has the air of a well-run independent school. The school’s approach is secular, although no child is ostracised for following a particular religion, the school staff don’t hold any form of daily worship – this I was shocked to learn is illegal in the UK (as a non-parent, non-religious type and someone not involved with school please forgive my ignorance).
The Democratic Libertarian 