On Sunday, the leader of the United Kingdom’s new Brexit Party announced that he will not stand for Member of Parliament (MP) in the coming general snap election on December 12. Nigel Farage, to many the face of the Brexit movement in the U.K., announced his decision in an interview on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
Farage later confirmed his decision in a tweet: “From tomorrow, I will be going out to campaign across the length and breadth of this country. We will explain to people why Boris’ Brexit is a betrayal of 17.4 million. That means I have no time to fight a seat myself, but I will support 600 people who are.”
Last week, after three failed attempts, Parliament finally voted in favor of holding the snap general election in an attempt to break the political impasse over Brexit. Johnson hopes to regain the governing majority he lost earlier this year when 21 Conservative MPs chose to stand against him on a key vote regarding negotiations with the EU. Johnson ousted those 21 MPs from the party, leaving no party or coalition with a firm majority.
Farage may not be running, but his Brexit Party will contest at least 600 seats nationwide. The party will contest districts held by every major party in the U.K., including Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative (Tory) Party.
Farage told Marr that he decided he should focus on campaigning nationwide rather than committing himself to one district. “I have thought very hard about this. How do I serve the cause of Brexit best?” Farage said.
“Do I fight a seat and try to get myself into parliament or do I serve the cause better traversing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom supporting 600 candidates, and I’ve decided the latter course is the right one.”
The announcement represents a change in course for Farage, who announced in late September that he wouldstand for MP. At that time, however, he also offered current PM Boris Johnson a deal in which the Brexit Party would not fight for Tory seats in exchange for a promise that Johnson would seek a clean or “no-deal” Brexit. Johnson flatly refused the offer, saying that the Tories do not do deals and that the only way to secure Brexit was to back the Conservative (Tory) Party.
Farage, who currently sits as a member of the European Parliament (MEP), has been extremely critical of Johnson’s new deal with the EU, calling it a “Remainer’s Brexit,” a “massive con,” and that it was “95 percent the same” as former PM Theresa May’s deal, which failed no less than three times in Parliament.
Farage has been very vocal in the past few months about aligning the various Brexit factions, believing that it might be the only way to secure a clean Brexit.
“I’ve wanted for months for there to be a Leave alliance, it seems obvious to me that no one party can own Brexit voters, there are Tory Brexit voters, there are Brexit Party Brexit voters and a lot of Labour Brexit voters,” Farage said.
“I always thought that to win an election, get a big majority so we can get a proper Brexit, a coming-together would be the objective.”
“I still hope and pray that it happens, but it doesn’t look like it will,” Farage concluded.
Some in the Conservative Party believe that Farage’s own party is now lining up against him, citing the example of longtime Farage colleague Arron Banks urging Brexit Party members to back Johnson’s new deal.
Read the entire article
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
‘The Bolton Gambit Succeeded’: Critics Warn Top Trump Adviser Has Put UK on Path to War with Iran
With the United Kingdom and Iran in the midst of a tense and dangerous standoff after the tit-for-tat seizure of oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, international observers are warning that the British government has fallen into a trap set by hawkish U.S. national security adviser John Bolton that could lead to a devastating military conflict.
After British commandos earlier this month swarmed and detained Iran’s Grace 1 oil supertanker in waters east of Gibraltar, Bolton applauded the move as “excellent news” and said “America and our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran and Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade.”
Simon Tisdall, foreign affairs editor and commentator for The Guardian, wrote over the weekend that “Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise.”
“But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident,” wrote Tisdall. “The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap.”
Read the entire article
After British commandos earlier this month swarmed and detained Iran’s Grace 1 oil supertanker in waters east of Gibraltar, Bolton applauded the move as “excellent news” and said “America and our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran and Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade.”
Simon Tisdall, foreign affairs editor and commentator for The Guardian, wrote over the weekend that “Bolton’s delighted reaction suggested the seizure was a surprise.”
“But accumulating evidence suggests the opposite is true, and that Bolton’s national security team was directly involved in manufacturing the Gibraltar incident,” wrote Tisdall. “The suspicion is that Conservative politicians, distracted by picking a new prime minister, jockeying for power, and preoccupied with Brexit, stumbled into an American trap.”
Read the entire article
Friday, June 28, 2019
Friday, June 21, 2019
War against Iran will not end well for the aggressors
Here we go again. The shadow of war is again cast over the Persian Gulf. Having already destroyed Iraq over the past decade and more, the US is now threatening to do the same to Iran.
The escalation of events in recent weeks is, frankly, alarming, but a military invasion of Iran will not end in the same way as it did in Iraq. While Iraq itself as a country was never really subdued, the US and UK-led war of aggression did succeed in killing more than a million people. It also ignited a brutal sectarian civil war which tore the country apart for years, as well as birthing ISIS/Daesh, the so-called Islamic State. Moreover, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fell quite easily.
The government of Iran will not fall in the same easy manner that Saddam’s did in 2003. The US and its regional puppets, clients, and allies know this. So what Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all seem to be agitating for is not a full-scale invasion, which is likely to be defeated easily by Iran’s substantial military forces. Instead, the push seems more to be towards a bombing campaign, by air and sea, without the boots on the ground which would lead to too many body bags heading back home. Blanket bombing would weaken Iran and its armed forces.
As a major regional power, Iran is a country which, since 1979, has refused to submit to the dictates of US hegemony. It has independent domestic and foreign policies, which is anathema to the imperial power and its clients. This explains the true reasons for US hostility.
Read the entire article
The escalation of events in recent weeks is, frankly, alarming, but a military invasion of Iran will not end in the same way as it did in Iraq. While Iraq itself as a country was never really subdued, the US and UK-led war of aggression did succeed in killing more than a million people. It also ignited a brutal sectarian civil war which tore the country apart for years, as well as birthing ISIS/Daesh, the so-called Islamic State. Moreover, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fell quite easily.
The government of Iran will not fall in the same easy manner that Saddam’s did in 2003. The US and its regional puppets, clients, and allies know this. So what Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE all seem to be agitating for is not a full-scale invasion, which is likely to be defeated easily by Iran’s substantial military forces. Instead, the push seems more to be towards a bombing campaign, by air and sea, without the boots on the ground which would lead to too many body bags heading back home. Blanket bombing would weaken Iran and its armed forces.
As a major regional power, Iran is a country which, since 1979, has refused to submit to the dictates of US hegemony. It has independent domestic and foreign policies, which is anathema to the imperial power and its clients. This explains the true reasons for US hostility.
Read the entire article
Wednesday, May 29, 2019
Friday, May 17, 2019
Thursday, April 11, 2019
Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Tory MPs Threaten Revolt if U.K. Is Forced to Take Part in EU Elections
Members of the U.K.’s Conservative (Tory) Party are warning Prime Minister Theresa May that her time is short should Great Britain be forced to take part in EU elections, which are scheduled to occur May 23 through May 26. Tories are convinced that to take part in such elections constitutes a surrender to a long Brexit delay or no Brexit at all.
May survived a no-confidence vote in December, which technically gives her until December of this year before her own party can vote again to oust her. However, angry Tories are warning May that the calls for her to leave will become so cacophonous that she’ll be forced out long before then.
May has already promised to leave her job as prime minister once Brexit is delivered.
On Saturday night, May made one more desperate appeal for MPs to back a deal, claiming that there was a chance that Brexit could “slip through our fingers.” Parliament has repeatedly voted down the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal in place.
“Because parliament has made it clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all,” May said.
Read the entire article
May survived a no-confidence vote in December, which technically gives her until December of this year before her own party can vote again to oust her. However, angry Tories are warning May that the calls for her to leave will become so cacophonous that she’ll be forced out long before then.
May has already promised to leave her job as prime minister once Brexit is delivered.
On Saturday night, May made one more desperate appeal for MPs to back a deal, claiming that there was a chance that Brexit could “slip through our fingers.” Parliament has repeatedly voted down the possibility of leaving the EU without a deal in place.
“Because parliament has made it clear it will stop the UK leaving without a deal, we now have a stark choice: leave the European Union with a deal or do not leave at all,” May said.
Read the entire article
Friday, March 29, 2019
The Imperial Collapse Playbook
Some people enjoy having the Big Picture laid out in front of them—the biggest possible—on what is happening in the world at large, and I am happy to oblige. The largest development of 2014 is, very broadly, this: the Anglo-imperialists are finally being forced out of Eurasia. How can we tell? Well, here is the Big Picture—the biggest I could find. I found it thanks to Nikolai Starikov and a recent article of his.
Now, let's first define our terms. By Anglo-imperialists I mean the combination of Britain and the United States. The latter took over for the former as it failed, turning it into a protectorate. Now the latter is failing too, and there are no new up-and-coming Anglo-imperialists to take over for it. But throughout this process their common playbook had remained the same: pseudoliberal pseudocapitalism for the insiders and military domination and economic exploitation for everyone else. Much more specifically, their playbook always called for a certain strategem to be executed whenever their plans to dominate and exploit any given country finally fail. On their way out, they do what they can to compromise and weaken the entity they leave behind, by inflicting a permanently oozing and festering political wound. “Poison all the wells” is the last thing on their pre-departure checklist.
You might also notice that the Anglo-imperialists have been getting very, very angry. They have been doing everything they can to vilify Russia, comparing Putin to Hitler and so on. This is because for them it's all about the money, and they didn't get what they paid for. What the Anglo-imperialists were paying for in corrupting Ukraine's politics was a ring-side seat at a fight between Ukraine and Russia. And what they got instead is a two-legged stool at a bar-room brawl between Eastern and Western Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine accounts for a quarter of the Ukrainian economy, produces most of the coal that had formerly kept the lights on in the rest of the country, and contains most of the industry that had made Ukraine an industrialized nation. Western Ukraine is centered on the unhappy little rump of Galicia, where the political soil is so fertile for growing neo-Nazis. So, paying billions to watch a bunch of Ukrainians fight each other inconclusively while Russia gets to play peacemaker is not what the Anglo-imperialists wanted, and they are absolutely livid about it. If they don't get the war they paid for PDQ, they will simply cut their losses, pack up and leave, and then do what they always do, which is pretend that the country in question doesn't exist, which, the way things are going in the Ukraine, it barely will.
Read the entire article
Now, let's first define our terms. By Anglo-imperialists I mean the combination of Britain and the United States. The latter took over for the former as it failed, turning it into a protectorate. Now the latter is failing too, and there are no new up-and-coming Anglo-imperialists to take over for it. But throughout this process their common playbook had remained the same: pseudoliberal pseudocapitalism for the insiders and military domination and economic exploitation for everyone else. Much more specifically, their playbook always called for a certain strategem to be executed whenever their plans to dominate and exploit any given country finally fail. On their way out, they do what they can to compromise and weaken the entity they leave behind, by inflicting a permanently oozing and festering political wound. “Poison all the wells” is the last thing on their pre-departure checklist.
You might also notice that the Anglo-imperialists have been getting very, very angry. They have been doing everything they can to vilify Russia, comparing Putin to Hitler and so on. This is because for them it's all about the money, and they didn't get what they paid for. What the Anglo-imperialists were paying for in corrupting Ukraine's politics was a ring-side seat at a fight between Ukraine and Russia. And what they got instead is a two-legged stool at a bar-room brawl between Eastern and Western Ukraine. Eastern Ukraine accounts for a quarter of the Ukrainian economy, produces most of the coal that had formerly kept the lights on in the rest of the country, and contains most of the industry that had made Ukraine an industrialized nation. Western Ukraine is centered on the unhappy little rump of Galicia, where the political soil is so fertile for growing neo-Nazis. So, paying billions to watch a bunch of Ukrainians fight each other inconclusively while Russia gets to play peacemaker is not what the Anglo-imperialists wanted, and they are absolutely livid about it. If they don't get the war they paid for PDQ, they will simply cut their losses, pack up and leave, and then do what they always do, which is pretend that the country in question doesn't exist, which, the way things are going in the Ukraine, it barely will.
Read the entire article
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Farage: MPs Engaged in ‘Betrayal of Greatest Democratic Exercise in Our History’
Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage has said that the political class ignoring the will of the people is a “complete betrayal of the greatest democratic exercise in the history of our nation.”
Calling out the establishment for attempting to frustrate Brexit, Mr Farage said on Jeremy Vine on 5 on Tuesday, “Let’s be clear: we didn’t just vote [to Leave the European Union] in a referendum — we backed it up in a General Election where 80 percent of people voted for parties that said they would honour the result of the referendum.”
“And then 500 MPs voted for Article 50… they are our elected representatives, they took the decision, and now they are trying to wriggle out of that,” the Brexiteer said, alluding to MPs attempting to suspend or even stop Brexit to avoid leaving on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms if Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU Withdrawal Agreement is voted down on Tuesday evening.
“Our political class cannot accept the idea that we become an independent country. They haven’t got the vision, they haven’t got the breadth, they haven’t got the imagination and clearly none of them are looking for the Channel and seeing what is happening in France right now — what’s happening in Italy right now,” he continued, in reference to the populist riots against French president Emmanuel Macron’s progressive reforms and the election of the populist-nationalist government in Italy — both representing a rejection of the globalist European Project.
“The European Union is about to go through a massive wholesale change. Here’s our chance to lead the way to a better Europe of sovereign countries working together.”
Read the entire article
Calling out the establishment for attempting to frustrate Brexit, Mr Farage said on Jeremy Vine on 5 on Tuesday, “Let’s be clear: we didn’t just vote [to Leave the European Union] in a referendum — we backed it up in a General Election where 80 percent of people voted for parties that said they would honour the result of the referendum.”
“And then 500 MPs voted for Article 50… they are our elected representatives, they took the decision, and now they are trying to wriggle out of that,” the Brexiteer said, alluding to MPs attempting to suspend or even stop Brexit to avoid leaving on World Trade Organization (WTO) terms if Prime Minister Theresa May’s EU Withdrawal Agreement is voted down on Tuesday evening.
“Our political class cannot accept the idea that we become an independent country. They haven’t got the vision, they haven’t got the breadth, they haven’t got the imagination and clearly none of them are looking for the Channel and seeing what is happening in France right now — what’s happening in Italy right now,” he continued, in reference to the populist riots against French president Emmanuel Macron’s progressive reforms and the election of the populist-nationalist government in Italy — both representing a rejection of the globalist European Project.
“The European Union is about to go through a massive wholesale change. Here’s our chance to lead the way to a better Europe of sovereign countries working together.”
Read the entire article
Monday, December 31, 2018
Friday, October 19, 2018
Skripal and Khashoggi: A Tale of Two Disappearances
Two disappearances, and two very different responses from Western governments, which illustrates their rank hypocrisy.
When former Russian spy Sergei Skripal went missing in England earlier this year, there was almost immediate punitive action by the British government and its NATO allies against Moscow. By contrast, Western governments are straining with restraint towards Saudi Arabia over the more shocking and provable case of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The outcry by Western governments and media over the Skripal affair was deafening and resulted in Britain, the US and some 28 other countries expelling dozens of Russian diplomats on the back of unsubstantiated British allegations that the Kremlin tried to assassinate an exiled spy with a deadly nerve agent. The Trump administration has further tightened sanctions citing the Skripal incident.
London’s case against Moscow has been marked by wild speculation and ropey innuendo. No verifiable evidence of what actually happened to Sergei Skripal (67) and his daughter Yulia has been presented by the British authorities. Their claim that President Vladimir Putin sanctioned a hit squad armed with nerve poison relies on sheer conjecture.
All we know for sure is that the Skripals have been disappeared from public contact by the British authorities for more than seven months, since the mysterious incident of alleged poisoning in Salisbury on March 4.
Read the entire article
When former Russian spy Sergei Skripal went missing in England earlier this year, there was almost immediate punitive action by the British government and its NATO allies against Moscow. By contrast, Western governments are straining with restraint towards Saudi Arabia over the more shocking and provable case of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The outcry by Western governments and media over the Skripal affair was deafening and resulted in Britain, the US and some 28 other countries expelling dozens of Russian diplomats on the back of unsubstantiated British allegations that the Kremlin tried to assassinate an exiled spy with a deadly nerve agent. The Trump administration has further tightened sanctions citing the Skripal incident.
London’s case against Moscow has been marked by wild speculation and ropey innuendo. No verifiable evidence of what actually happened to Sergei Skripal (67) and his daughter Yulia has been presented by the British authorities. Their claim that President Vladimir Putin sanctioned a hit squad armed with nerve poison relies on sheer conjecture.
All we know for sure is that the Skripals have been disappeared from public contact by the British authorities for more than seven months, since the mysterious incident of alleged poisoning in Salisbury on March 4.
Read the entire article
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
UK Begged Trump Not to Declassify Russia Docs; Cited “Grave Concerns” Over Steele Involvement
The British government “expressed grave concerns” to the US government over the declassification and release of material related to the Trump-Russia investigation, according to the New York Times. President Trump ordered a wide swath of materials “immediately” declassified “without redaction” on Monday, only to change his mind later in the week by allowing the DOJ Inspector General to review the materials first.
The Times reports that the UK’s concern was over material which “includes direct references to conversations between American law enforcement officials and Christopher Steele,” the former MI6 agent who compiled the infamous “Steele Dossier.” The UK’s objection, according to former US and British officials, was over revealing Steele’s identity in an official document, “regardless of whether he had been named in press reports.”
We would note, however, that Steele’s name was contained within the Nunes Memo – the House Intelligence Committee’s majority opinion in the Trump-Russia case.
Steele also had extensive contacts with DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie, who – along with Steele – was paid by opposition research firm Fusion GPS in the anti-Trump campaign. Trump called for the declassification of FBI notes of interviews with Ohr, which would ostensibly reveal more about his relationship with Steele. Ohr was demoted twice within the Department of Justice for lying about his contacts with Fusion GPS.
Read the entire article
The Times reports that the UK’s concern was over material which “includes direct references to conversations between American law enforcement officials and Christopher Steele,” the former MI6 agent who compiled the infamous “Steele Dossier.” The UK’s objection, according to former US and British officials, was over revealing Steele’s identity in an official document, “regardless of whether he had been named in press reports.”
We would note, however, that Steele’s name was contained within the Nunes Memo – the House Intelligence Committee’s majority opinion in the Trump-Russia case.
Steele also had extensive contacts with DOJ official Bruce Ohr and his wife Nellie, who – along with Steele – was paid by opposition research firm Fusion GPS in the anti-Trump campaign. Trump called for the declassification of FBI notes of interviews with Ohr, which would ostensibly reveal more about his relationship with Steele. Ohr was demoted twice within the Department of Justice for lying about his contacts with Fusion GPS.
Read the entire article
Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Monday, May 28, 2018
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Friday, May 18, 2018
Thursday, April 5, 2018
All Russiagate Roads Lead To London: Evidence Emerges Of Joseph Mifsud’s Links To UK Intelligence
Over the last few months, Professor Joseph Mifsud has become a feather in the cap for those pushing the Trump-Russia narrative. He is characterized as a “Russian” intelligence asset in mainstream press, despite his declarations to the contrary. However, evidence has surfaced that suggests Mifsud was anything but a Russian spy, and may have actually worked for British intelligence. This new evidence culminates in the ground-breaking conclusion that the UK and its intelligence apparatus may be responsible for the invention of key pillars of the Trump-Russia scandal. If true, this would essentially turn the entire RussiaGate debacle on its head.
To give an idea of the scope of this report, a few central points showing the UK connections with the central pillars of the Trump-Russia claims are included here, in the order of discussion in this article:
Read the entire article
To give an idea of the scope of this report, a few central points showing the UK connections with the central pillars of the Trump-Russia claims are included here, in the order of discussion in this article:
- Mifsud allegedly discussed that Russia has ‘dirt’ on Clinton in the form of ‘thousands of emails’ with George Papadopoulos in London in April 2016.
- The following month, Papadopoulos spoke with Alexander Downer, Australia’s ambassador to the UK, about the alleged Russian dirt on Clinton while they were drinking at a swanky Kensington bar, according to The Times. In late July 2016, Downer shared his tip with Australian intelligence officials who forwarded it to the FBI.
- Robert Goldstone, a key figure in the ‘Trump Tower’ part of the RussiaGate narrative, sent Donald Trump Jr. an email claiming Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign. He is a British music promoter.
- Christopher Steele, ex-MI6, who worked as an MI6 agent in Moscow until 1993 and ran the Russia desk at MI6 HQ in London between 2006 and 2009. He produced the totally unsubstantiated ‘Steele Dossier’ of Trump-Russia allegations, with funding from the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
- Robert Hannigan, the head of British spy agency GCHQ, flew to Washington DC to share ‘director-to-director’ level intelligence with then-CIA Chief John Brennan.
Read the entire article
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)