By Julie Hyland(WSWS)
Labour will not contest the by-election forced by the resignation of shadow home secretary David Davis, which he says is intended to initiate a public debate on the government’s attack on democratic rights.
Archive for June, 2008
Britain: Labour refuses to answer Davis’s by-election challenge
Posted by seumasach on June 21, 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror", New Labour against democracy | Leave a Comment »
Sharp decline in bees becomes national issue
Posted by smeddum on June 20, 2008
Bees are a key component in crop reproduction
© Keystone
Sharp decline in bees becomes national issue
by Jeremy Allen
20 June 2008 | 10:52 subscription article at (Swisster)
The Swiss government announces measures to discover the reasons behind a sudden and sharp decline in the country’s bee population, and to counter it. Mobile phones, a parasite and insecticides are among the potential culprits.
see EoE archive
Posted in Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: cell phones, The Disappearing Bees | 1 Comment »
Zimbabwe: West uses blacks against their own
Posted by alfied on June 20, 2008
By Peter Mavunga
THE Brits have turned into a fine art the very act of using others to achieve their own ends.
The trick — and they have got it just right — is to make it look as though they are helping you.
So to the uninitiated, their role in the politics of Zimbabwe is entirely honourable and they want nothing, but the best for the people of Zimbabwe. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Zimbabwe | Tagged: Zimbabwe | Leave a Comment »
G-8 fails to sound the charge
Posted by smeddum on June 20, 2008
By John Browne(ASIA TIMES)
With market watchers the world over feeling increasingly alarmed by spreading economic problems, much hope and attention was focused on Japan last weekend as finance ministers and central bankers of the G-8 (Group of Eight) nations gathered to apparently map out a coordinated global response.
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: dollar collapse | Leave a Comment »
Things Fall Apart
Posted by seumasach on June 20, 2008
THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 2008
Things fall apart(Missing Links)
There has always been a problem trying to piece together anything but fragmentary and discontinuous accounts of Iraqi affairs, but the problem is getting noticeably worse. What’s happening in Mosul following the publicized security campaign there, or is that campaign still going on? What about the provisional Sadrist okaying of the campaign in Amara; what does it say about conditions in the Iraqi army and police? And what is the meaning of “foreign minister” Zebari touting in Washington the near-certainty of a bilateral agreement by the end of July, in the face of more or less contradictory statements by the Prime Minister?
Posted in Iraq | Leave a Comment »
If the poor of Africa are hungry, send them arms
Posted by seumasach on June 19, 2008
Mark Steel(Independent)
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
It’s so difficult, apparently, to work out how to solve the food shortages in Africa. Because the price of food has just gone up, the way prices do sometimes, caught by a freak gust of wind or flare from the sun or something and whoosh, up they go, whether it’s oil or an Olympic Games or rice and it’s just bad luck.
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: arms industry, world hunger | Leave a Comment »
All Power to the Bank
Posted by seumasach on June 19, 2008
These changes are a ratification of existing policy i.e. the bailing out of the banks at the expense of the general population. It also looks like a further concentration of financier power, something already observed by some authors in the USA.
Just as we, in our dotage relive childhood experiences, the British financier power is reliving its early days, going back through the various bubbles of the early 18th century, to its birth with the establishment of the Bank of England as a consortium of private financiers effectively controlling a weakened executive. The role of doge, allegedly shunned by William of Orange, now falls to the hapless Gordon Brown.
Bank of England changes leave Mervyn King in pole position
Jonathan Loynes
19th June, 2008
Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has won new authority to manage financial crises and promotions for two of his proteges in the biggest shakeup of Britain’s economic policy making in a decade. Jonathan Loynes of Capital Economics explains that the changes will strengthen Mr King’s hand.
The changes at the Bank of England announced today would appear to strengthen the position both of the Bank itself and, in particular, the Governor Mervyn King.
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| Mervyn King (left) and Charlie Bean are close allies |
Not only has the Bank taken on more responsibility for banking supervision, albeit with accountability to a new “financial stability committee”, but confirmation of Charlie Bean’s appointment as Rachel Lomax’s replacement as Deputy Governor with responsibility for monetary policy will also be seen as a victory for King.
And if, as rumoured, Paul Tucker takes over from the “retiring” Sir John Gieve in the other Deputy Governor position, the Governor will have two bank insiders and close supporters at his side.
Bean’s replacement as the Bank of England’s chief economist, Spencer Dale, is also a Bank insider and a King ally.
It is always difficult to gauge how changes in the composition of the MPC will affect its voting behaviour but, at face value, the changes would seem to bolster King and his hawkish camp.
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: banker's dictatorship | Leave a Comment »
Spain, US, SAfrica backed E Guinea coup, accused tells court
Posted by seumasach on June 19, 2008
“Ships are sent out at the first opportunity; the natives driven out or destroyed; their princes tortured to discover their gold; a free licence given to all acts of inhumanity and lust, the earth reeking with the blood of its inhabitants: and this execrable crew of butchers, employed in so pious an expedition, is a modern colony, sent to convert and civilise an idolatrous and barbarous people.”
Gulliver’s Travels- Jonathan Swift
As in Sierra Leone, shades of 18th century imperialism.
Rodrigo Angue Nguema(YAHOO)
Wed Jun 18
South Africa, Spain and the United States each approved a plot to topple Equatorial Guinea’s president, British mercenary Simon Mann told a Malabo court Wednesday.
Posted in Drive to Global War | Tagged: colonialism, mercenaries | Leave a Comment »
New Message from Yukihisa Fujita – June 18, 2008 – Time for an International Investigation of 9/11
Posted by smeddum on June 19, 2008
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged: "War on Terror" | Leave a Comment »
Mr Bean to take over British finance
Posted by alfied on June 18, 2008
Bank’s No 2 to stand down early
By Robert Peston
Business editor, BBC News
Sir John Gieve is to stand down early as Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, the BBC has learned.
He is in charge of the Bank’s operations responsible for the stability of the financial system.
Sir John’s departure comes as the Treasury moves to strengthen the Bank’s financial stability role.
The surprise announcement is expected to be made officially on Thursday. The Bank’s chief economist Charles Bean is expected to be named a deputy governor.
Mr Bean will take charge of the Bank’s monetary policy side, replacing the other deputy governor, Rachel Lomax.
It is unclear who will replace Sir John.
Interrogated
The Bank of England’s senior directors would probably wish the new financial stability Deputy Governor to be Paul Tucker, the Bank’s executive director in charge of markets.
The Treasury is refusing to comment on the changes.
Sir John was savaged when interrogated last autumn by the Treasury Select Committee for allegedly being insufficiently on top of the crisis at Northern Rock. His colleagues regarded the attack as unfair.
However Sir John is not a markets specialist. And it is thought that the Treasury wants someone with greater technical knowledge in charge of an expanded financial stability division at the Bank.
Sir John was appointed Deputy Governor in January 2006 and has two and a half years of his term to run.
His appointment was pushed through by Gordon Brown, when he was Chancellor, in the face of stiff resistance from the Bank of England Governor Mervyn King.
Mr King recently had a battle with the Treasury to have his preferred candidate, Charles Bean, appointed as the replacement for Ms Lomax.
Posted in Financial crisis | Tagged: Bank of England | Leave a Comment »
Mystery virus threatens to wipe out bees
Posted by seumasach on June 18, 2008
Marie Celeste Syndrome is not a virus; it is a condition whereby bees simply disappear from the hive without apparent reason. This would indeed be a mystery but for the well-documented fact that EM radiation, now everywhere around us, both disorientates bees, preventing them from returning to the hive, and weakens their immune system as it does for all life. But because powerful forces do not wish us to make this connection they are using all their influence to prevent this becoming public knowledge. As a consequence, scientists are using every kind of contorted logic to make this syndrome appear compatible with traditional aflictions of bees such as, pesticides, mites, viruses etc.. To our knowledge none of these either singlely or combination causes bees to disappear from the hive: the dead bees would be found in the vicinity of the hive. Beekeepers seem to be aware of this: here, for example, is Jerry Hayes former president of the Apiary Inspectors of America:“With affected hives, there are no dead or dying bees on the ground as we see with pesticide exposures or other diseases. No one can explain this behavior.”Or the Canadian Honey Council website which informs us that:“To the beekeeper, the most obvious sign of pesticide poisoning is the presence of an exceptional number of dead bees in front of the hives.”
SCOTLAND’S population of honeybees could be wiped out by a mystery virus.
Posted in Colony Collapse Disorder, Ecological and Public Health Crisis | Tagged: ccd, EM radiation | Leave a Comment »
In These New Times 