Could humans colonize Mars?

 

Mars

The video footage we've seen of the planet Mars compiled by NASA is absolutely amazing and is a tremendous technological achievement. I know that Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars with humans but how could human beings possibly live on Mars and who would want to?

Mars is a toxic planet and it takes seven months to get there in a spaceship. It's also difficult to make a landing on the planet's surface and to get off it. The Martian atmosphere contains hardly any oxygen and the soil is toxic. Humans would also be exposed to radiation. It's a very cold planet with average temperatures of minus 80 degrees Fahrenheit and Martian gravity is only a third of what it is on Earth. A human weighs less on Mars but the lower gravitational pull would lead to muscle atrophy. The planet is prone to dust storms that can go on for long periods of time. If a human was exposed to the Martian atmosphere, they would asphyxiate as air would be sucked out of their lungs causing the lungs to implode. The blood would also boil because fluids in the human body would vaporize. It's all because of low pressure and the thin atmosphere of Mars. A human would also freeze to death. They say a dead human body on mars would not decompose as it would on Earth because it would dry out and mummify. It's not surprising that they've found no life on Mars.

We should consider ourselves fortunate to live on the blue planet with its diverse forms of life, abundance of water and oxygen. It's a beautiful planet and we should take better care of it and one another. We inhabit a rotating planet that is suspended in a black void called space, with scarcely a clue, why we're here or what real purpose we serve in the overall scheme of things. We may well be the only form of human life in the entire universe. It's truly amazing and difficult to comprehend.

Sunak accused of having "blood on his hands"!

 

Rishi Sunak

In a heated intervention in the House of Commons, Tair Ali, the Labour MP for Birmingham Hall Green, accused the UK's unelected Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, of "having the blood of thousands of innocent people on his hands" over his stance during the Israel-Gaza conflict. He told the House of Commons that while Sunak had spoken of Israel's respect for international law, recently released documents showed that the "Foreign Office had serious concerns with Israel's compliance with international humanitarian law and its ongoing assault on Gaza." The Labour MP said this assessment had been hidden from parliament. He called on Sunak to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and to end the British arms trade with Israel. Sunak's rather pathetic response was to declare "That's the changed face of the Labour Party."

In a tweet on X, Bella Wallersteiner, called this an "Utterly appalling intervention from an elected representative." While Israeli indiscriminate carpet bombing and Israeli military intervention in Gaza have led to the deaths of over 26,000 people with more than 64,000 wounded, many of whom, are innocent women and children, Wallersteiner has the gall and effrontery to say that Israel is fighting for the values we hold dearest in the UK and that this country will continue to stand by Israel. 

More than 10,000 innocent children have been killed by Israeli airstrikes and ground operations in Gaza since the 7th of October. According to a press release issued by Save the Children on 30 November 2023, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 63 children in the West Bank since the 7th October and yet we're expected to believe, that racist apartheid Israel, is fighting for the values we hold dear in Britain.

How Sunak can talk of Israel's respect for international law and keep his face straight at the same time, is mind boggling. Israel's military occupation of the West Bank since 1967, is illegal under international law and so are the Israeli settlements built in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights. Apart from the Americans, the rest of the international community considers the Golan Heights to be Syrian territory held under Israeli military occupation.

In total some 450,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank in contravention of international law along with 220,000 settlers in East Jerusalem and 25,000 in the Golan Heights. They are considered to be Israeli occupied territories and in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

The recent ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) restraining Israel from committing potentially genocidal acts in Gaza, is rather embarrassing for the U.K. and U.S. governments, who belittled South Africa's case that Israel was guilty of "genocidal intent." Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state called South Africa's case meritless and Britain's Foreign Secretary, David Cameron, warned South Africa not to bandy around with words such as genocide.

Tameside MPs abstain on Gaza ceasefire vote.

 

Both Jonathan Reynolds and Andrew Gwynne have connections with Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). Gwynne is a former Chairman of LFI and Reynolds is a vice chairman of LFI.

In 2018, Reynolds and Gwynne were criticised for visiting Israel as part of a delegation, at a time, when over sixty Palestinian demonstrators had been shot dead in Gaza and thousands seriously wounded. The visit or jolly, had been organised and paid for by LFI.

Angela Rayner is a supporter of Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East and so is the former Trotskyist, Sir Keir Starmer-oid, who is also a supporter of LFI. As the leader of Labour Party, Starmer-oid has said publicly, "I support Zionism without qualification." He's also said that Israel 'has the right' to withhold power and water from Gaza, which some regard as a war crime. With friends like Starmer-oid who needs enemies.

At a Chanukah event in 2018, Angela Rayner, expressed regret and apologised for quoting from the book 'The Holocaust Industry' by the anti-Zionist, Norman Finkelstein, who claims that the U.S. Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Holocaust for political and financial gain. In a Facebook post, Rayner wrote:

"As Norman G Finkelstein writes in his seminal book The Holocaust Industry it is important to fight for and preserve the integrity of the historical record."

The Board of Deputies of British Jews had faced calls to disinvite Rayner from the Chanukah event because she had cited Finkelstein. Ivor Caplin, chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, called on Rayner to 'apologise immediately' adding, "There is nothing seminal about accusing the Jewish community of collectively abusing the memory of the Holocaust." Angela Rayner said the quote had been taken out of context and that she'd been reflecting on her visit to Auschwitz and how important it was to remember the Holocaust and to continually challenge and confront antisemitism.

Last November, all three Tameside MPs, abstained in a House of Commons vote calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. On Friday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), ordered Israel to take action to prevent acts of genocide but stopped short of calling for an immediate ceasefire. It also called on Israel to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians and to ensure that its troops commit no genocidal acts in Gaza. Israeli officials responded by accusing the ICJ of anti-Semitic bias.

The pervasiveness of English 'Podsnappery'.

 

As I write this, it's absolutely freezing outside. I can't believe that anybody would choose to sleep outside on a night like this if they had other options. You're literally putting your life at risk of dying of hypothermia.

 Some fools like  Cruella Braverman, the former Tory British Home Secretary, would have us believe that being homeless is a lifestyle choice. It might be for the odd individual, but make no mistake, homelessness can happen to anybody.

 I think many of us in Britain could learn a great deal about British society from reading the novels of Charles Dickens. When Dickens wrote 'Our Mutual Friend' during 1864-5, starvation, want and neglect, claimed more lives over the course of any given year, than the later Jack the Ripper Whitechapel murders did, over a period of three years. It wasn't unusual to find people dead in the streets of London.

 The theme of food and hunger pervades throughout much of Victorian literature. While half the Victorian population subsisted on almost nothing, the other half, as V.S. Pritchett noted, was "disgustedly overfed." The Victorian upper classes, enjoyed the luxury of eating fifteen-dish meals. The wealthiest of Victorians often believed that the poor had only themselves to blame for their pitiful existence and shouldn't be helped or they were indifferent.

 In Our Mutual Friend, Dickens satirizes the English middle-classes through the character of John Podsnap, a rich, pompous, self-satisfied complacent upper-class Englishman. 'Podsnappery' has come to symbolise smugness and complacency and a refusal to recognise unpleasant facts. It needs to be rooted out like knotweed and disposed of.  

 In Britain, we're still living with the legacy of much Victorian thinking about sturdy beggars and the deserving and undeserving poor. There is a great deal of Podsnappery about. Braverman could easily have fallen out of the pages of a Dickens novel.

 

The French see the English has politically docile. Is this true?

 

The best thing I like about the French is their militancy. There's a tradition of revolution and taking direct action in France. The barricades were always going up in Paris. Now and again French people take to the streets to show the politicians who's really in charge.

The French see the English has being supine. They think the English allow themselves to be used as doormats by capitalists and politicians. There's a germ of truth in this, but in the 18th century, England was considered one of the most riot prone countries in Europe. In the years leading up to WWI, strikes and industrial unrest, were a common feature of life in Britain. Moreover, the English have never had a Vichy France or a Petain and Laval who collaborated with the Nazis. As Winston Churchill couldn't be certain which side the French would join, he sank the French navy to stop their ships falling into enemy hands. France wasn't liberated by the allies until 1944.

England certainly had Nazi sympathisers like Oswald Mosley and his British Union of Fascists. Nazi sympathisers could also be found amongst the English aristocracy, the Tory Party, and the House of Lords. Many of these aristocrats, like the Duke of Windsor, would have sold us out to the Germans. Lord Semphill, spied for Japan, but was never prosecuted.

The author George Orwell, said that the English upper classes didn't really understand Hitler, but what they did understand, was that Hitler was an anti-communist and on the side of the dividend drawer. There's no doubt that Winston Churchill had fascists sympathies and had initially admired Hitler's political skills and nerve. He also detested Stalin and communism. He visited Italy in 1927, and said that Mussolini - who he called the 'Roman genius' - had done the world a favour by crushing Bolshevism in Italy. Churchill also said that had been Italian, he would have been a fascist. But Churchill was an English patriot, a racist, and a staunch imperialist. He saw Hitler and the Germans has a direct threat to the British Empire and its interests.

As for the 'dividend drawer', we should not forget that while millions of people were being slaughtered in Europe by the Nazis, the German arms manufacturer Krupp, always paid the Dividend on time to its shareholders including its English shareholders.

At the end of the war, the directors of I.G. Farben, including its Jewish directors, were tried for war crimes at Nuremberg. I.G. Farben made the Zyklon-B gas that was used in the gas chambers. The Nazis had called I.G. Farben the citadel of Jewish capitalism.

Turkish journalist beaten up by Israeli soldiers

 

When they're not killing Israeli hostages, Hamas fighters, or innocent Palestinians, the Israeli Army are known to target and kill journalists. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, at least 63 journalists have been killed since 7 October while covering the Israel-Hamas war. The majority have been killed in Gaza. The picture in this posting shows Israeli soldiers attacking a Turkish photojournalist called Mustafa Haruf. He was first struck in the head by a rifle and then dragged to the ground and kicked in the head. The incident occurred in occupied East Jerusalem. Haruf who works for the Turkish news agency Anadolu, was hospitalised with severe head injuries.

Last month the news channel Al-Jazeera, reported that eight BBC employees had written to them criticising the BBC's "pro-Israel bias and insufficient coverage of Palestinian civilians compared to the Israelis in their broadcasts on the Israel-Palestine issue." The authors of the 2,300-word letter said the BBC had "failed to critically approach Israel's claims, couldn't tell the story accurately, and therefore couldn't help the public understand human rights violations in Gaza." They said the BBC used terms like "massacre" and "brutality" only for Hamas, and portrayed the Palestinian group as the sole provocateur of violence in the region. They claim the BBC carefully portrays Israeli suffering by telling audiences the names of the victims, covering funerals, and interviewing families. Yet, in comparison, the BBC journalists say that humanising coverage by the BBC of Palestinian civilians, has been singularly lacking.

Why is it that we're told the names of the Israeli hostages abducted by Hamas, but not the names of the innocent Palestinian women and children who have been killed in their thousands by Israeli carpet bombing? Obviously, to the BBC, some lives are more important than others. The eight BBC journalists, who have requested anonymity, "fearing reprisal", accused the corporation of "double standards' in how it reports on war crimes and the war in the Ukraine, with its reporting on the conflict in Gaza which has seen over 17,000 people killed, including many women and children. Over 10,000 children have been killed or are lost under the rubble and presumed dead following the Israeli carpet bombing of Gaza.

The Israeli authorities claim that 1,200 Israelis were killed by Hamas in the  attack on 7 October.  In Britain, neither the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak or the Labour Party led by Sir Keir Starmer-oid, have called for a ceasefire in Gaza. In failing to call for a ceasefire, are they condoning genocide and ethnic cleansing? In October, Paul Bristow, a Conservative MP, was sacked from his government job when he called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

Are all men potential rapists? Some women seem to think so.

 

Russell Brand

The feminist pitchfork mob seems to have it in for the comedian and TV presenter Russell Brand. Has Brand been charged or convicted of any crime?

Jess Phillips, Labour's former Minister for Domestic Violence and Safeguarding, said that women who accused Brand of sexual impropriety, which he denies, were effectively "made to feel like they have to prove themselves." Really? Isn't tangible evidence the basis of any prosecution in English law? Aren't people supposed to be innocent until proven guilty?

In 2018, Jess Phillips claimed to have been bombarded with 600 rape threats in one night. Jess seems to think that all men are potential rapists. Rape or any kind of sexual assault is a serious business, but so are false allegations of rape or sexual assault which do occur.

Last January, Eleanor Williams, aged 22 from Barrow in Furness, was sentenced to eight and a half years imprisonment after falsely accusing men of rape and trafficking her for sex. These false allegations devastated people's lives. A court found that her allegations were totally made up. She was in fact a rape fantasist who self-inflicted injuries on herself with a hammer and then posted it on social media to get attention.

Biased BBC reporting.

 

What sort of news service is the BBC offering the British public? It claims to offer impartial, factual, unbiased news reporting.

Last night, I watched a BBC news report about the U.S. and U K. military strikes against the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are targeting shipping in the Red Sea. Anybody who watched this BBC news report wouldn't have had a clue why the Houthi rebels were targeting shipping because the question was never brought up. We were led to believe that they were doing this at the behest of Iran who supply them with weapons. We heard from the former CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr and a Pentagon official, but not from anybody representing the Houthis.

The Houthi rebels say they have been targeting shipping in the Red Sea that is heading towards Israel and will continue to do so for as long as the war on Gaza continues, but this was never mentioned in the BBC news report. They now say that because of the attack on Yemen, all U.S. and British assets have become "legitimate targets."

Wife Selling. The perils of being a nagging wife.

 

I first heard of the practice of "wife selling" when I read the Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy. I didn't think it was historically accurate but it seems that it was. In Hardy's novel, Micheal Henchard, sells his wife Susan and baby daughter to a sailor at a county fair.

At Carlisle on 7th April 1832, a farmer called Joseph Thompson, sold his wife to a pensioner called Henry Mears for 20 shillings and a Newfoundland dog. According to the Lancaster Herald, Thompson's wife was about 22 years of age and "appeared to feel a pleasure at the exchange she was about to make." The Herald noted that "She appeared above the crowd, standing on a large oak chair, surrounded by many of her friends, with a rope or halter made of straw round her neck." Thompson told the crowd that his wife could "make butter and scold the maid, she can sing Moore's melodies, and plait her frills and caps; she cannot make rum, gin or whiskey, but is a good judge of the quality from long experience of testing them."

Although the practice of wife selling was rare and of questionable legality, Thompson seems to have put his wife up for sale because she nagged him too much.

Henchard, a farm labourer, sold his wife and daughter in a fit of drunkenness and regrets doing so when he sobers up. He gives up drinking, becomes a prosperous corn merchant, and the Mayor of Casterbridge. After a period of twenty years, his wife returns with their daughter and Henchard remarries her. He later discovers that his daughter, Elizabeth Jane, is the child of the sailor to whom he sold his wife. There's always a twist in a good story.

 

Blair denies involvement in Israeli plan to relocate Gazans to the Congo!

 

Tony Blair

There have been numerous reports that the former British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, has held talks with Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials about 'resettling' displaced Palestinians in Gaza to other countries including the Congo and Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, Israeli TV Channel 12, reported that Blair had been in Israel last week and had held talks with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the war cabinet minister Benny Grantz.

The Channel 12 news report came after two far-right Israeli government ministers called for Jewish settlers to return to the Gaza Strip after the cessation of hostilities and for Palestinians to be encouraged to emigrate.

News reports have said that the Israeli government see Blair playing the role of a 'go between' to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza and to see where they can be relocated.  Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, said:

"We must promote a solution to encourage the immigration of Gaza residents."

The Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant, has called Hamas and the 2.4m people who live in Gaza "Human Animals" and called for the people of Gaza to be denied electricity, food, water and fuel.

On Saturday, the Wall Street Journal reported that 70 per cent of homes in Gaza and half of the enclave’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed in Israeli air strikes.

Since the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October which Israeli officials say killed 1,200 people, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 21,800 people including 9,100 children, according to the government media office in the Gaza Strip. Both sides are accused of committing war crimes.

The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change have said the report is "a lie." They added: "The story was published without any contact with Tony Blair or his team. No such discussions have taken place. Nor would Tony Blair have such a discussion. The idea is wrong in principle. Gazans should be able to stay and live in Gaza."

The Palestinian presidency in Ramallah condemned Blair's alleged involvement and said they would demand that the British government "not allow the meddling with the fate and future of the Palestinian people...We also consider Tony Blair to be an unwelcome person in the Palestinian territories.”

South African government calls on ICJ to issue arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu.

 

Gerald Kaufman

What happened to European Jews and other minorities and races in WWII, was absolutely shocking. Mass murder on an industrial scale by the Nazis.

But it's not uncommon today to see graffiti written on walls in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, which says, "Gas the Arabs". The Israeli Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, has described the Palestinians and Hamas as "Human Animals." Where have we heard that kind of language before?

I remember parts of the speech that Sir Gerald Kaufman, the Labour MP for Manchester, Gorton, made in the House of Commons in January 2009. He congratulated David Miliband on steering resolution 1860 through the United Nations Security Council and asked him what the international reaction would be if Hamas had slaughtered nearly 900 Israelis and subjected nearly 1.5 million Israelis to degradation and deprivation? He added:

"Is it not an incontrovertible fact that Olmert, Livni and Barak are mass-murderers and war criminals - Yes. And they bring shame on the Jewish people..."

Kaufman told the House of Commons that his grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town of Staszow. A German soldier shot her dead in her bed. He added:

"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The current Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploit the continuing guilt among gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians. The implication is that Jewish lives are precious, but the lives of Palestinians do not count."

What would Gerald Kaufman make of the destruction of Gaza today? Some 30,000 Palestinians killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, two-thirds of them, innocent Palestinian women and children.

Today, most MPs would be far too afraid to make a speech like that made by Gerald Kaufman (a Jew), who would now be denounced as a self-loathing Jew and an anti-Semite.

The South African government have accused the Israelis 0f "genocidal intent" and have have asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ), for an interim measure to prevent Israel from committing acts of potential genocide by calling for a halt to combat operations.  The have also asked the ICJ to issue an arrest warrant for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Police arrest pro-Palestinian activists for posts on social media.

 

Tony Greenstein

Although we're supposed to enjoy freedom of speech in the UK, it looks like the British bobbies are trying to silence people with pro-Palestinian sympathies who speak out against Israel and who condemn the deaths of thousands of innocent men, women, and children, in Gaza by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). Like George Orwell's 'thought police' or the Gestapo, they've been arresting people or 'thought criminals', for posting comments on social media that expose the atrocities taking place in Gaza following the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October. 

I recently posted a video on Facebook of Sarah Wilkinson, a disabled mother who was arrested by the police in front of her children for simply reposting on social media, articles about the current conflict in Gaza. Sarah maintains that’s all she did. After her home was raided by five police officers and her property confiscated, including vegetable plants that her children were cultivating, she was arrested under section 12 of the Terrorist Act and taken on a one-and-half hour drive to Swindon police station where she was held in custody for seven hours. She was told by police officers during her interview that she must "denounce" Hamas and Palestine and if she did so, she wouldn't be charged. The police told her that some people in this country might be offended by her being offended by talk of genocide and war crimes taking place in Gaza. One of her bail conditions was that she agree not use social media which she refused to accept. Sarah Wilkinson told the police she wouldn't be silenced or tell lies and that they should read out the Terrorism Act to the Conservative Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, who’s government are acquiescing with atrocities taking place in Gaza by supporting Israel and refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire. It looks like the police will be wanting to prosecute her under the Malicious Communications Act rather than the Terrorism Act.

It has just been reported on Skwawkbox that the veteran pro-Palestinian activist and anti-Zionist, Tony Greenstein, was arrested by the police in Brighton in the early hours of the morning of 20 December. It seems he was arrested for posting a Tweet on social media that the police have found objectionable. Greenstein was recently given a 9- months prison sentence suspended for two years, after he was found guilty with three others of intent to cause criminal damage to the Israeli arms company Elbit, in Shenstone, near Walsall. No actual damage was caused to the factory because the plot was thwarted by the police. All the defendants were part of Palestine Action and had targeted the factory because it makes drones and parts for drones used to kill Palestinians.

Unlike America, there is no First Amendment in the UK that protects freedom of expression. Article 10 of the Human Rights Act 1998, does protect your right to hold your own opinions and to express them freely without government interference. Article 10, is not an absolute right as it contains restrictions where the rights and freedoms of others, public order, and the general welfare, are concerned. However, the right of not being offended is not one of those restrictions.

We should always remember that all governments are capable of becoming repressive and authoritarian dystopias and that includes governments in liberal democratic societies. The ancient Greeks recognised that eternal vigilance was the price to be paid for freedom.

Euna Blair's 'Multiverse' reports near-tripling of losses.

 

Euan Blair

Euan Blair's apprenticeship firm 'Multiverse' sounds like the South Sea Bubble of 1720. It's a good example of what can happen when people succumb to group think and speculative bubbles and Ponzi schemes. 

Despite the company failing to return a profit for the last seven years, it was awarded the coveted tech "unicorn" status when it was valued at £1.4bn fundraising round driven by U.S. venture capital firms in June 2022. That put Blair's stake in the company at £420m.

Blair recently bought a seven-bedroom house in London for £22m. He was able to make the purchase after venture capitalist investors, allowed him to sell £320m-worth of shares to buy a home. 

Some people might wonder why a company that hasn't returned a profit in the last seven years is valued so high? How did Tony Blair's son manage to get the backing of some of the wealthiest people in America, like the Walton family? It has surely got something to do with his influential father and the prospects of expansion in U.S. markets.

Dublin City Council flies the Palestinian flag.

 

Dublin City Council have agreed to fly the Palestinian flag in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

Before she was sacked as Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, said that flying the Palestinian flag in the UK "may not be legitimate' if it's deemed to show support for acts of terrorism.

Although the Israeli government have been accused of indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, genocide, and ethnic cleansing, which has resulted in the deaths of over 15,5000 innocent civilians since 7 October, including thousands of women and children, Sir Kier Starmer-oid suggested that the Israeli flag be flown above Wembley arch when England played Australia in a friendly match in October. He also defended Israel's right to cut off water and food supplies to two million people in Gaza, almost half of whom, are children. The Football Association (FA), announced that the Wembley Stadium arch would not be lit in the colours of the Israeli flag but players would wear black armbands and there would be a period of silence held before the kick off.

When Celtic played Atletico Madrid in November, the stadium was transformed into a sea of Palestinian flags, as 60,000 Celtic fans showed their solidarity with the people of Gaza under Israeli assault. The main flag bearers were the "Green Brigades", an 'ultras' group renowned for their Irish Republicanism and unflinching support for the Palestinian cause.

Liverpool Council gag Jewish Palestinian activist.

 

Helen Marks

Helen Marks, a Jewish resident in Liverpool, and secretary of Liverpool Friends of Palestine, was originally granted a three- minute speaking slot to address Liverpool council, to urge the council to call for an immediate ceasefire and peace deal in Gaza in order to find a solution to the endless cycle of violence in the region.

Following a relentless bombing campaign by the Israeli's who have bombed homes, hospitals, and schools, some 15,000 people have been killed, including over 5,500 children. After being given permission to speak, Helen Marks was asked to submit her speech to the council who then wrote to tell her that she wouldn't be able to address the council.

Daniel Fenwick, the council's City Solicitor, told her that her speech would breach the IHRA definition of antisemitism which had been adopted by Liverpool council in January 2018. Fenwick also told her that while it was legitimate freedom of expression to criticize the Israeli government's policies and actions in Gaza, her statement was likely to be offensive to the Jewish community and "others in the city and beyond." She was also told that her statement which referred to the dehumanising of the Palestinian people by the Israeli's and Amnesty International's description of Israel as an "Apartheid state", would not foster good relations between Jews, Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims.

Although Liverpool council have adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism, the definition is not legally binding and has no basis in English law, even though the British Conservative government have adopted it and the Labour Party. The prominent human rights lawyer, Hugh Tomlinson QC, gave a legal opinion on the IHRA definition of antisemitism to a group of NGO's. He said: "The IHRA definition is unclear and confusing (it could be suggested, in fact, that it is calculatedly misleading), that the government's adoption of it has no legal status, and that the overriding legal duty of public authorities is to preserve freedom of expression..."

Stephen Sedley, a former Court of Appeal judge, has said that the IHRA definition of antisemitism fails the test of any definition because it is indefinite and that policy is not law, but is required to operate within the law. The 1998 Human Rights Act, makes it unlawful for a public authority to act incompatibly with rights that include the right to freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention. The right is not absolute or unqualified and it can be restricted where it is lawful to do so, proportionate, and necessary, in the interest of public safety, the prevention of disorder, or the protection of the rights of others. However, as Stephen Sedley points out, "These qualifications do not include a right not to be offended."

Some people might wonder why an intergovernmental body called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) needed to adopt a "non-legally-binding working definition of antisemitism" in May 2016, when most people understand antisemitism to be hostility to Jews as Jews.

Geoffrey Robertson QC, of Doughty Street Chambers, has said that the IHRA definition of antisemitism is not fit for purpose and is liable to deter "legitimate criticism of the state of Israel and coverage of human rights abuses against Palestinians." Many believe that its sole purpose. In practice, this is exactly what has occurred because people who have adopted the IHRA definition are conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism and defer to the eleven "contemporary examples of antisemitism" that are attached to the definition.

This is acknowledged by Kenneth Stern, who drafted the IHRA definition. Stern has said that he drafted the IHRA definition of antisemitism but it's right wing Jews who have weaponized it to chill and suppress free speech and legitimate criticism of Israel. Helen Marks, is just one of many to have had her right to freedom of expression curtailed by a definition of antisemitism that has no legal basis in English law.

At Saint Andrews University in Scotland, the rector, Stella Maris, has come under fire from the Israeli lobby for sending out an email recognising Israel as an apartheid regime and accusing the Israelis of waging genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza.

Ms Marks says that Liverpool council’s maneuvers were "feeble but predictable" and that she has sent her statement to all Liverpool's councillors.

Tommy Robinson arrested on march against anti-Semitism!

 

Tommy Robinson Under Arrest

Among the lesser celebrities who turned up to support Sundays march against anti-Semitism, was the far-right anti-Muslim activist, Stephen Yaxley Lennon (40), better known as Tommy Robinson, founder of the English Defence League (EDL). Although Robinson is a self-declared "Zionist" and a supporter of the Zionist nationalist state of Israel who boasts of his love for the country, his presence on the march, seems to have caused some embarrassment. It seems he was arrested by officers of the Met when he refused to comply with a direction to disperse under Section 35 of the Antisocial Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act. The police told Robinson, that this continued presence in the area was likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to others. He was directed to leave the area but refused to do so and was arrested and escorted away by the police.

Robinson has a lengthy criminal record which includes convictions for violence, contempt of court, drug possession, stalking and mortgage and immigration fraud. A former member of the neo-fascist and white nationalist British National Party (BNP), he has served at least four separate terms of imprisonment. Robinson was also a political advisor to the former UKIP leader, Gerrard Batten. In 2019, the news channel Al-Jazeera, reported that both Robinson and the far-right Dutch racist Geert Wilders, received money from the pro-Israel think tank, the Middle East Forum, to offset their legal costs after they were charged with incitement of hate against Muslims.

Although the leaders of Sunday's march said they wanted nothing to do with the former BNP member, Robinson has been invited on sponsored trips to Israel where he visited illegal Israeli settlements and was even pictured, carrying a rifle while standing on an Israeli army tank in the Israeli occupied Golan Heights. In 2017, Tommy Robinson met with members of Manchester's Jewish community at a secret gathering in Prestwich. According to the Jewish Chronicle, one community member said her friends had organised the meet-up but she would "take legal action" if her own name was linked to the event. The 'meet-up' was acknowledged by Robinson on Twitter. It's believed that he addressed around dozen people at the meeting in Prestwich where he outlined his extremist views on Islam. Other Jewish organisations in Britain condemned the meeting.

Tommy Robinson is not the only far-right leader to have received a warm welcome in Israel. In 2018, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, visited Israel and was described by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has a "True Friend of Israel." The visit proved controversial with some Israeli protestors accusing the Hungarian leader of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism in his home country. The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, also received a warm welcome from Netanyahu when he made a four-day visit in 2018. His visit to the country also proved controversial after he compared his anti-drug campaign to the Holocaust. In a rambling speech Duterte had said: "Hitler massacred three million Jews, now, there is three million drug addicts. I'd be happy to slaughter them." Clearly, some people can be anti-Semites while still admiring Israel as a tough, militaristic, nationalist, apartheid state.

One-in-seven adults in England advised to go private by NHS.

 

The Conservative Party and the doctor’s union the British Medical Association (BMA), were initially opposed to the introduction of the NHS in 1948. The BMA opposed it because they thought doctors would lose money. You might say that they put their own backyard before the fate of the nation.

Aneurin Bevan, the Labour Minister for Health, was asked how he'd persuaded the doctors to accept the NHS and he replied: " I stuffed their mouths with gold." What Bevan meant, was that British doctors or consultants, could continue to see private paying patients if they accepted NHS patients.

The Conservatives opposed the NHS because they believed it would lead to a full-time salaried service for doctors which was a threat to the patient-doctor relationship and they believed, it would also wreck the voluntary hospital system. They were also incensed that Bevan had abandoned their 'Willink plan' for health reform as unworkable. The Conservative health minister, Henry Willink, had produced a White Paper in 1944, entitled, ‘A National Health Service’. However, under the Willink proposals, it was accepted that no doctor or patient would be forced to join the new service and it was assumed that private practice, would continue on a substantial scale.

Bevan wanted the full nationalisation of hospitals and socialised health care that was free of charge. The Conservatives voted consistently against Bevan's NHS Bill. From day one, Bevan included dental, ophthalmic, and hearing services within the NHS. Prescriptions were also free. Mental and physical health services were also integrated. The Bill had plainly stated that it was the duty of the Minister of Health to provide a comprehensive health service to improve the physical and mental health of the people free of charge. That responsibility was removed when the Conservative-led coalition government introduced the 2012 Health and Social Care Act.

For some years now, successive British governments have presided over the managed decline of the NHS, culminating in staff shortages, lower funding, growing waiting lists, and delays in patients accessing health care. This is a political decision. Patients are going private because of delays in accessing health care and growing waiting lists for hospital surgery, which is creating a two tier health service. Some people are crowdfunding to pay for health treatment or going abroad. Some NHS hospitals and medical staff are actively encouraging people to go private so they can jump the queue and get prioritised. The Observer newspaper says that one in seven adults in England have been advised by the NHS to go private.

The Daily Telegraph reported in August 2023, that GP pay had risen by 20% in the past three years despite GP's seeing a third fewer patients face-to-face. According to published data, GP's earned an average of £118,000 in 2021-22, up from £98,000, in 2018-19, before the pandemic.

Since the COVID lockdown in March 2020, many GP practices removed walk-in surgeries and never reinstated them. They replaced this with triage. Despite NHS England issuing guidance to practices in 2021 which says GP patients must now be offered face-to-face appointments if that is their preference, many GP's are still reluctant to see patients face-to-face and are resorting to phone and video consultations. This has led to increased pressure on emergency departments and A&E services. Unlike, molly-coddled and over-paid British GP's, hospital doctors and nurses have to deal with patients face-to-face, they have little choice in the matter.

Covid inquiry told Sunak was known as "Dr Death the Chancellor".

 

Matt Hancock - "Congenitally Untrustworthy"

Although Boris Johnson broke every rule in the rule book that his government introduced during the COVID lockdown, the COVID inquiry has been told that he wanted to impose massive fines on the general public if they broke lockdown rules.

For dozy Boris, it was a case of don't do as we do, but do as we say. At 10 Downing Street, there was 'Wine-time Friday's between 4pm and 7pm every week for as many as up to 50 people. In May 2020, some 100 people were invited to a "bring your own booze" garden party at Downing Street. There were farewell gatherings and birthday parties in Downing Street and even a 'secret Santa' Christmas quiz. In April 2021, two parties were held by Downing Street staff, the night before Prince Philip's funeral.

The social gatherings in Downing Street became known as 'Partygate'. Johnson told the House of Commons that he'd been reliably informed that all rules and guidance on COVID, had been followed at all times within Downing Street. He repeatedly denied that he'd intentionally or recklessly misled Parliament. He was later fined £50 by the police for attending a birthday party in Downing Street that broke COVID lockdown rules. Carrie Johnson and Rishi Sunak were also fined £50 for attending the same party.

In June 2023, the House of Commons Privilege Committee, found that Johnson had "deliberately misled MP's" on following COVID guidelines. He then resigned as an MP rather than face a 90-day suspension. The disgraced former Prime Minister, was also banned from entering the House of Commons.

During the COVID inquiry, the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has been disparagingly referred to as "Dr Death the Chancellor" for his "eat out to help out scheme" which studies have suggested, might have been responsible for up to a sixth of new infection clusters during the summer of 2020.

Mat Hancock, the former Health Minister, has come under attack for being dishonest, incompetent and more interested in self-promotion than tackling the spread of coronavirus. He was described at the inquiry, as "congenitally untrustworthy." In a WhatsApp message, the former cabinet secretary, Mark Sedwill, told Boris Johnson to sack the "lying" health secretary to "save lives and protect the NHS."

The Guardian newspaper wrote: "Boris Johnson has been portrayed during the inquiry as a borderline-sentient hologram of a leader who failed to grasp basic science and would adopt the view of whoever he last spoke to."

I've often thought that if Boris Johnson resembles any historical figure in British politics, it has got to be the corrupt Edwardian fraudster, Horatio Bottomley. A member of Parliament, he was also the editor of a populist magazine called 'John Bull'. It's said of Bottomley, that he had the ability to charm the public even while swindling them. He also had many mistresses. In 1922, Bottomley was convicted of fraud and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. He finished up sewing mailbags in Wormwood Scrubs.

 

Supreme Court rules Rwanda scheme unlawful.

 

Suella Braverman 

Suella Braverman's dream of sending aeroplane loads of immigrants on a one way trip to Rwanda, now lies in tatters after the Supreme Court ruled the British government's Rwanda policy unlawful yesterday.

The proposal to deport migrants who arrive illegally into the UK, some 4,000 miles to Rwanda, in east Africa, was first announced by Boris Johnson in April 2022. The policy was meant to deter people from crossing the English Channel in small boats or in the back of lorries, but it hasn't deterred. The British government said that anyone who entered the UK illegally after 1 January 2022, could be sent to Rwanda with no limit on numbers. The government said that when in Rwanda, their asylum claims would be assessed and if successful they could remain in Rwanda or apply for asylum in another country, but not Britain. If they were unsuccessful, they would be returned to the country of their origin from which they had fled.

While some migrants such as unaccompanied asylum seeking children, asylum seekers from Rwanda, the disabled, pregnant women, and those with sexual issues, are exempt, those eligible for a one way trip to Rwanda are migrants who had failed to claim asylum in the first safe country they have entered and those deemed to have tried to enter the UK by dangerous means. Migrants from Rwanda are exempt because the British government doesn't consider it a safe country in which to return them but nevertheless, considers Rwanda a safe country for other refugees. However, the government's main target turned out to be young single men.

Some critics immediately denounced the Rwanda plan has unlawful, unworkable, and a political stunt by the Tory government. The Rwanda scheme has already cost the British taxpayer £140 million and yet not one migrant has been deported to Rwanda.

For the last 18 months, the British government have been embroiled in costly legal actions that seek to challenge the legality of the plan under international law. In June 2022, the first flight to Rwanda was halted after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) examined the case of a 54-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker who crossed the Channel in a boat. The ECHR said they were granting an interim measure and told the British government that the applicant should not be removed to Rwanda until three weeks after the delivery of the final domestic decision on his ongoing judicial review. Although the ECHR didn't rule on whether the policy or relocations were unlawful, the interim measure was issued because it was felt there was an "imminent risk of irreparable harm" to the Iraqi national who is believed to have suffered torture. It also opened the door to other legal challenges. 

In December 2022, the High Court ruled that the government's plan to deport migrants to Rwanda was lawful in principle. However, the court didn't make a determination on whether Rwanda was a safe country to deport migrants to. It simply considered whether the Home Secretary had made a lawful decision.

By a majority decision the Court of Appeal, found that there was a real risk of asylum claims receiving inadequate consideration in Rwanda and a consequent risk of claims being refused and asylum seekers with valid claims being returned to their country of origin where they might suffer persecution, which is known as 'refoulement', which breaches the ECHR and the Refugee Convention. The court also ruled that Rwanda is not a "safe third country." The British government appealed against this decision.

The Supreme Court ruled that Rwanda is not a safe country and that it would be unlawful for refugees to be removed there. The court declared that Rwanda is widely acknowledged to have a poor human rights record and is in breach of numerous treaty commitments it has made. It noted that the courts in Rwanda don't act as an effective check on government behaviour and there is no real judicial independence. The Supreme Court said that Rwanda had breached the terms of a previous asylum deal it had entered into with Israel.

Although Rishi Sunak has said that his Conservative government will press ahead with the Rwanda plan in spite of the Supreme Court ruling, and have said that Britain might leave the ECHR, no-one credible, thinks the Rwanda plan is practical or that it deters significant numbers of refugees. What are the likely costs of detaining tens of thousands of refugees in detention camps and then flying them to Rwanda? The Home Office say it costs £169,000 to send one asylum seeker to Rwanda. The chartered Boeing 767 Rwanda asylum flight that had to be cancelled in June 2022 because of a legal challenge, cost an estimated £500,000.  In 2022, the British government managed to remove around 500 failed asylum seekers. And how many refugees can Rwanda really take? In reality, the Rwanda scheme, is likely to apply to probably a few hundred individuals.

Most countries recognise that something has to be done about the issue of refugees and asylum seekers, but the British government's policy of deterrence, isn't really working. The country needs to speed up the process of dealing with the backlog of asylum claims and ensure that the process is quicker and less complex.

While Suella Braverman talked about England being invaded by asylum seekers, the UK actually receives far fewer refugees than other countries in Europe or elsewhere. The Supreme Court judgement will prevent the UK government from lawfully removing anyone to Rwanda based on the evidence as it currently stands.

Suella Braverman SACKED.

 

Minister for Hate Suella Braverman

Sue-Ellen Cassiana Braverman, who has just been sacked as Home Secretary, is not exactly reliable when it comes down to telling the truth. She's was no stranger to embellishing the truth when she wanted to make the headlines. As the Home Secretary, she often made public statements that were at odds or were even contradicted by evidence held by the Home Office and were inaccurate and baseless.

Two examples come to mind - bogus asylum seekers and the ethnicity of grooming gangs. In December 2022, Braverman backed the assertion made by her predecessor former Home Secretary Priti Patel, that "70% of individuals on small boats are single men who are effectively economic migrants." In December 2021, Braverman told MPs, "There is considerable evidence that people are coming here as economic migrants, illegally."

When the Home Office was asked for the evidence to support the claim made by former Home Secretary Priti Patel that the majority of those who are trying to reach the UK are so-called "economic migrants", they couldn't provide it. The Home Office said: "We have carried out a thorough search and we have established that the Home Office does not hold the information requested." However, the "Home Office's own data did confirm that most of the people who reached the UK by small boat in 2022 - at least six in ten (60%) - would be recognised as refugees." This is because many of them are fleeing war, persecution, trafficking, violence and torture, and qualify as asylum seekers.

The fact that refugee’s/asylum seekers try to cross the English Channel in small boats is because the British government have closed or severely restricted safest routes to the UK. This makes room for traffickers.

According to government figures around 70 to 75% of those claiming asylum in the UK, are successful, with another 25% of claims being rejected. Many of these rejected claims are won on appeal. Although the Home Office failed to provide any evidence to support the claims made by Braverman and Patel that the majority of those refugees trying to reach the UK are "economic migrants", the statements made by both Home Secretary's, were never corrected or retracted. Both Patel and Braverman deliberately gave the public misleading figures on refugees and boat people to gain a political advantage and to pander to the base instincts of some English voters, who fear being swamped by illegal immigrants or dislike foreigners.

Though Braverman and Patel have vilified and demonised refugees, both their parents are of Indian origin and came to this country as immigrants from East Africa.  Braverman's father, Christie Fernandes, who was born in Nairobi, left Kenya in the late 1960s along with many other Asians, when restrictions were placed on them by Jomo Kenyatta, the leader of the newly independent Kenya. There was political turmoil in Kenya and a policy of "Africanisation." Fernandes was offered a British passport and left the country. Ugandan Asians were expelled by Idi Amin.

Braverman's mother, Uma, was recruited from Mauritius to work in the NHS. As the Tory Health Minister during 1960 to 1963, Enoch Powell, famous for his rivers of blood speech, recruited many nurses from abroad to work within the NHS and many were from the West Indies.

Before being sacked as Home Secretary, Braverman falsely claimed that child grooming gangs in the UK were "almost all British-Pakistani." The press regulator, Ipso, found that her decision to link "the identified ethnic group and a particular form of offending was significantly misleading" because the Home Office's own research had concluded that offenders were mainly from white backgrounds. Four days after publishing the article, the Mail on Sunday, who published the article, offered to amend the article to make clear that the claim related specifically to high profile grooming gangs. The wording was rejected by the complainant who took the case to Ipso. The Mail on Sunday also said that before publishing the article they had double checked with advisers to the Home Secretary and the prime minister about Braverman's decision to single out British Pakistanis, who confirmed they had "no concern with this particular line."

Since her sacking, Braverman, has been denounced as the most divisive British Home Secretary in history and dubbed the 'Minster for Hate' and Cruella Braverman. A Buddhist with a Jewish husband, she was a divisive and authoritarian figure who sowed racial division and unrest and inflamed racial tensions in this country which played into the hands of the far right. Her language was inflammatory and dangerous. This daughter of immigrants said she dreamt of seeing immigrants deported to Rwanda and believed that rough sleeping was a lifestyle choice. She denounced the pro-Palestinian marches has "hate marches" and called on the Met to ban them entirely.

It seems some protestors were carrying placards depicting Braverman and Sunak has "coconuts", and there have been press reports that the Met are now treating this has a possible "hate crime." This analogy is often used as a derogatory term for a black or Asian person who is perceived to conform to "white culture", at the expense of his or her own ancestral culture. The term "Uncle Tom" syndrome, is also used. Braverman's husband, Rael Braverman, who has lived in Israel and some sources say was born in South Africa, describes himself as a "proud Jew and Zionist." He works for the Mercedes -Benz Group as a manager.