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| BLAIRWATCH HAS MOVED |
Blairwatch has now moved!
You are here [the old site] because you have entered via a 'ringverse.f2s.com/' URL.
We now live at:
www.blairwatch.co.uk
and the new RSS feed is located at:
http://www.blairwatch.co.uk/?q=node/feed
Please update any bookmarks, and come over and visit us in our new lodgings. |
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ADMIN: site move and possible erratic behaviour...
Posted by: ringverse on Monday, October 24, 2005 - 09:46 PM
[Topic:-NotPolitics]
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Am moving the site to it's new webspace tonight, insh'allah...
Any erratic behaviour is as a result of me screwing it up...
Anything pointing at www.blairwatch.co.uk will continue to work, once it settles down. Anything pointing at www.ringverse.f2s.com/ won't.
Will post the new RSS feed details here as soon as I have got it all up and
working.
When you can't read this, it is working.
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"Hoon gets it right shock"
Posted by: DavidK on Monday, October 24, 2005 - 11:54 AM
[Topic:-Military]
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4371040.stm
Another person going to the High Court to get a pardon – if in this case only a conditional pardon – for a WW1 military execution.
Hoon turned down a full pardon for all the soldiers concerned when he was Def Sec following the year long review of records by the Adjutant Generals Corps supported by civilian historians and researchers. The conclusion was that while probably half were genuine shell shock cases the remainder of convictions were ‘right’, with a few maybes. And thus pardons to all the soldiers concerned was not reasonable and giving pardons to some would again raise the stigma of the ones who would not be pardoned as they deserved some form of punishment.
I wouldn’t agree that ‘the records don’t exist’ as the current Def Sec said - I have seen some case documentation where I would have had no hesitation in shooting the person involved.
But as he said, perhaps time to let it lie.
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Jobs for the Boys
Posted by: ringverse on Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 01:35 PM
[Topic:-Blair]
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Never let it be said that the Bliar doesn't look after his mates. His paying, sycophantic mates, that is.
Do you fancy a peerage? Well, just bung the New Labour party a few grand, and use whatever expertise you have to speak well of the Bliar and his policies, and that peerage is yours.
Tony Blair is to reward a clutch of millionaire Labour Party donors - including the head of the Priory celebrity rehabilitation clinic - with peerages, The Independent on Sunday has learnt.
In a move that will trigger a fresh row over "cash for honours", Mr Blair is to elevate to the Lords four businessmen who between them have given almost half a million pounds to the party.
A leaked list of forthcoming honours shows that Dr Chai Patel, a high- profile Labour donor who runs the Priory clinics, is among those who has been personally recommended for a peerage by Mr Blair.
The Prime Minister is also set to elevate to the peerage Sir Gulam Noon, who has made millions from ready-made curries and given more than £220,000 to Labour since 2001.
Mr Blair also plans to add to the next list of working peers businessmen who have been financially supportive of his flagship projects, including city academies.
For those whose relatives have been abused and neglected in Dr Patel's Nursing Homes, there is a new support group. For those of us sickened by this despotic nepotism and cronyism, tough.
New Labour's institutional sleaze makes the passing of cash in brown envelopes for parliamentary questions by a few bent Tory MPs look like a birthday present.
Shameless, but we knew that already.
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Another Great Success in Iraq
Posted by: ringverse on Sunday, October 23, 2005 - 10:32 AM
[Topic:-Iraq]
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Another 'triumph' in the war against terror, and 'vindication' of the British strategy in Southern Iraq...
Millions of Iraqis believe that suicide attacks against British troops are justified, a secret military poll commissioned by senior officers has revealed.
The poll, undertaken for the Ministry of Defence and seen by The Sunday Telegraph, shows that up to 65 per cent of Iraqi citizens support attacks and fewer than one per cent think Allied military involvement is helping to improve security in their country.
It demonstrates for the first time the true strength of anti-Western feeling in Iraq after more than two and a half years of bloody occupation.
The nationwide survey also suggests that the coalition has lost the battle to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, which Tony Blair and George W Bush believed was fundamental to creating a safe and secure country.
The results come as it was disclosed yesterday that Lt Col Nick Henderson, the commanding officer of the Coldstream Guards in Basra, in charge of security for the region, has resigned from the Army. He recently voiced concerns over a lack of armoured vehicles for his men, another of whom was killed in a bomb attack in Basra last week.
The secret poll appears to contradict claims made by Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, who only days ago congratulated British soldiers for "supporting the Iraqi people in building a new and better Iraq".
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'Backing Blair' is Back!
Posted by: ringverse on Thursday, October 20, 2005 - 03:29 PM
[Topic:-Blair]
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Backing Blair is Back:)
With another stunning animation, and a pledge...
"I will pledge £10 to a cash prize fund to be awarded to the person who proves Tony Blair is a liar and prompts that PM's removal or resignation as a result,
but only if 100,000 other people will too."
— Tim Ireland, Bloggerheads.com |  |
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Jack Straw Joins Condoleezza Rice's 2008 Presidential Election Campaign
Posted by: ringverse on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 11:54 PM
[Topic:-Labour]
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It looks like Jack Straw is doing his bit, to support his local NeoCon[lite]...
Schedule For Condoleezza Rice's Visit To Alabama
Friday, Oct. 21- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Secretary Condoleezza Rice will fly together to Tuscaloosa, Ala. in the morning. They'll have a formal arrival ceremony there. They will then drive over to the Bryant Conference Center on the University of Alabama campus, where they will both give major speeches at the Blackburn Institute. Dr. Blackburn was Rice's father's mentor.
Rice will then have lunch with the Blackburn Fellows, some British students and the Marshall Fellows. On all of the events Jack Straw will be with her.
They will then drive to Birmingham and they will tour the Brunetta C. Hill Elementary School. That was Rice's elementary school when she was a girl.
After they visit the school, they'll travel to the University of Alabama Birmingham Medical Center, where they will do an event and be briefed on some of the modern technology advances at UAB. One of the strategic objectives for the trip is to highlight some of the facets of the new Birmingham and the new Alabama.
Secretary Rice and Foreign Secretary Straw Friday night will host a thank you reception for all the volunteers who worked on the Hurricane Katrina relief. It will include the Alabama National Guard and local citizens. One of the things you'll see during the visit is a heavy emphasis on the Katrina relief since the United Kingdom provided a lot of relief there.
After the reception, Straw and Rice will have a press dinner with members of the American Press and the British press at a downtown restaurant yet to be determined.
Not that Condi admits to any desire to move into the Whitehouse of course... having repeatedly dodged the question:
RUSSERT: ... Would you accept a position on the Republican ticket in 2008?
RICE: Tim, I'm flattered that people think of me in that way, but I think it was on your show that I said I don't know how many ways to say no. I really am – I'm not somebody who wants to run for office, haven't ever run for anything. I don't think I ever ran for high school president. And I think I'm doing what I need to do, which is to try and promote American foreign policy and American interests, the president's democracy agenda at an extraordinary time. And to the degree that I can do that across the world, that's what I'd better keep doing.
At least now we understand, what the Bliar means when he talks about his 'influence' on US politics.
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Tories show they are crazy - Clarke is out
Posted by: bedblogger on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 05:42 PM
[Topic:-]
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Votes have just been announced in Tory leadership
DD = 62
DC = 56
LF = 42
KC = 38 and is now out.
Always knew these lot are a) crazy, b) don't see how popular KC was to the wider public, and c) don't really understand the logic of a strong opposition being neceesary for democracy - they need new voters and more opposition MPs needed for that to happen.
Wankers. Tory dreamteam of KC and DC crushed.
Liam Fox and DD will never bring in new voters, stolen from New Labour.
DC possibly, but...
Let's wait and see what the News of the Screws pull out of the tittle-tattle hat in time for the constituency vote.
A 9 page expose of university tooting, perchance?
Cos it ain't gone away, its just asleap...
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Food, glorious food...
Posted by: DavidK on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 01:30 PM
[Topic:-International]
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4349916.stm
"The US has blocked the distribution of 357,000 British ration packs sent out to help survivors of Hurricane Katrina, amid fears they are infected with mad cow disease. So what happened?"
Their loss; our rat packs - especially the big ones lucky tank people get - are the best in NATO. You get Spangles or Rolos in them. Although the French ones do include a powdered wine concentrate which would be a nice change from tea...
Apologies for the lack of political satire, must be lunch time.
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ID Cards - A Simple Question
Posted by: quarsan on Tuesday, October 18, 2005 - 06:04 AM
[Topic:-Labour]
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ID Cards are slowly being whittled away. first the cut-price card and now:
The home secretary, Charles Clarke, will today guarantee that the personal details contained on the national identity card will not go beyond those currently held on passports.
He is to announce that he will write the guarantee into the legislation which passes through its final stages in the Commons today.
So my simple question is: If ID cards are going to have nothing that isn't in my passport, why do we need an ID card? Why not use my existing passport?
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BBC News - 17 Oct 05 *UPDATE*
Posted by: Vervet on Monday, October 17, 2005 - 11:12 PM
[Topic:-Domestic]
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So what's this about the RAF ready to shoot down civilian aircraft ???
Very, very peculiar BBC report about the readiness of the RAF to shoot down any flying thing that looks dodgy ??? A completely unexpected story.
Seems like a New Labour planted story to me - it's either covering something completely different or it's getting us ready for exactly that scenario
UPDATE Here's the link
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Is Sir Iain Blair Waking Up, and is that Coffee he Smells?
Posted by: ringverse on Monday, October 17, 2005 - 04:48 PM
[Topic:-Domestic]
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SIR IAN BLAIR, the Metropolitan police commissioner, has admitted he may soon be forced to resign over the shooting of an innocent Brazilian man on the London Underground.
Britain’s top policeman told a private gathering of business leaders and officials last week that he might have to go “fairly soon” over the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.
So, Sir Iain Blair considers himself damaged goods...
I guess that's the first thing he has said that everyone else agrees with, but in times like these, why is he still in post? If the man had any respect for the people he serves [us], or the people who work for him, then he would have resigned at the time.
Bliar by name, Bliar by nature.
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Alabama 3 and Population Demographics...?
Posted by: ringverse on Saturday, October 15, 2005 - 01:03 AM
[Topic:-NotPolitics]
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 | I do get out, sometimes, and Saturday night is Alabama 3 night.
In Preston of all places! I'm not sure if the band, or Preston are ready for this...
Oh, and the population demographics thing? Well, it's more of a city stereotype...
From Orlando's tour diary, in today's Independent:
LIVERPOOL
Larry delivers his standard opening line:
'Hello Liverpool! This one's for all the housebreakers in the room!'
The entire crowd roars.
OXFORD
'This one's for all the housebreakers in the room!'
No reaction; just the sound of 600 people collectively wondering if they've remembered to turn on their home security systems.
[MP3s]
Are you ready for some country...:-)
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Judge Describes Byers' Justification for Lying to Parliament as "little above gibberish"
Posted by: ringverse on Friday, October 14, 2005 - 06:13 PM
[Topic:-Domestic]
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It comes as no great suprise to find out that the shareholders have lost their case against the government over the 're nationalisation' of Railtrack.
Mr Byers described the verdict as:
"A great victory".
He added: "The Railtrack shareholders put my honesty and integrity at the heart of their case and the court has found in my favour," he said.
The Judge, however, was less than complimentary about Mr Byer's evidence, saying of his explanation for why he lied to parliament:
"His explanation as then given seemed to me little above gibberish, but it will be for parliament to assess what he meant.
However don't hold your breath waiting for parliament to hold Byers to account for his lies, it would appear that he is trying to pre-empt his referral to the standards and privileges committee by making an apology to the house first...
The shadow leader of the Commons, Chris Grayling, said he would be formally writing to the Speaker on Monday asking permission to table a motion referring Mr Byers to the standards and privileges committee.
If the Speaker agreed, Mr Grayling said that there would then be a short debate in the chamber followed by a vote of MPs on whether the matter should be referred to the committee.
Mr Grayling said that he expected Mr Byers would try to pre-empt him by apologising in a personal statement to the house.
If he was unsuccessful however, Mr Grayling said that the government would then have to decide whether to use its Commons majority to block a standards and privileges investigation.
"I think it would be outrageous if they did. It would be a sign that they are more interested in looking after their own than maintaining the propriety of parliament," he said.
Mr Byers later confirmed to Sky News that he would be seeking to make a personal statement in the Commons "early next week" to explain his actions. And he insisted there was a "very clear distinction between something being untrue and deliberately setting out to mislead".
Given our government's current attititude to the judiciary, it's my bet that what the judge describes as gibberish will be more than enough for Labour MPs.
Move along, move along, nothing to see here...
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