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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
11/01/2009
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06:04
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New Year, new topic. If you want to see the old one do a forum search for same title but 2008.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 29/03/2011 : 05:10
Every government since the 1960s has progressively given the banks more rope. The only party that escapes blame is the Liberals but then they never had the power. ConDem Coalition has done nothing concrete yet to adress the problem even though the economists tell them that another crash will come eventually. See Mervyn King on the subject. By the way, he's gone quiet, has sombody had a word in his ear?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk  |
catgate
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Posted - 29/03/2011 : 10:38
quote:
Stanley wrote:
Every government since the 1960s has progressively given the banks more rope. The only party that escapes blame is the Liberals but then they never had the power. ConDem Coalition has done nothing concrete yet to adress the problem even though the economists tell them that another crash will come eventually. See Mervyn King on the subject. By the way, he's gone quiet, has sombody had a word in his ear?
You must have heard the term "Puppet Government". Just look at who is pulling the strings.
An old Arab proverb has it that :- "The dogs may bark; the caravan goes on ! ."
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 30/03/2011 : 07:05
Catty. You know I do, you actually read my posts. Do you think it's time I did my brief lecture on the shift in political power 17th C to 21st C?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/04/2011 : 06:59
I've been listening to the latest reports on 'progress' in Libya. US has come to the conclusion that they can't protect Behghazi by use of air power alone. Reports that CIA already has 'boots on the ground'. I've been reading John Simpson's autobiog and so hearing his report from Libya this morning had added weight because from his book I have a good idea of his worth as a reporter. He was saying that a cease-fire and stalemate would suit Gadafi at the moment. Shades of other conflicts. There's a great picture in his book of two freelance photo-journalists Peter Jouvenal and Chris Hooke with whom Simpson was in Afghanistan in 1989. They are digging tins of pork and beans out of the road. The US had dropped rations from the air for the mujaheddin evidently not realising that they didn't appreciate pork so they were used for filling potholes. Seems to me to be some sort of commentary on the US activites there which spawned the Taliban and Al Quaeeda. You couldn't make it up. See Baer's book, 'See No Evil' for the same period.
Some very pointed questions are being asked about the coalition motives in Libya. Meanwhile, on the Ivory Coast thousands of civilians die in the battle to get rid of another dictator, Laurent Bgagbo. What's the difference?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
frankwilk
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Posted - 04/04/2011 : 09:17
What's the difference?
Malta.
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
HerbSG
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Posted - 04/04/2011 : 10:07
It is a sad day when the USA need to eliminate a minister of a "sick" church to save lives in Afghanistan. This whacko has set back the situation there to square one, and I am convinced we should all get to hell out and leave the country to its own demise. The same minister who had threatened to burn a copy of the Koran months ago now plans a march later in April.
HERB
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handlamp
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Posted - 04/04/2011 : 10:36
Frank, you've probably hit the nail on the head there. have you been down the Gut lately?
Ted |
frankwilk
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Posted - 04/04/2011 : 10:45
No Ted
just Straight Street 
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 05/04/2011 : 06:03
Herb, couldn't agree more and I've been banging on about it for years. Look at the whole range of countries from the Balkan States right across to Iran and the one thread that unites the hot-spots is that the worst are the ones where 'The Western Democracies' interfered and tried to impose their preferred mode of exploitation/government. Ask yourself why Egypt and Turkey seem to be able to manage change better than others who have the same ethnic and tribal mix. History seems to show that it's because we interfered less in those countries. We have an example nearer home, Ireland, exactly the same syndrome. What is it about Western culture that makes us assume we have a God given right to interfere and put other cultures on 'the right path'? Is it any wonder that what they see as repression spawns movements like the re-establishmant of the Caliphate?
Here's a snippet from the Wiki entry on Crusades: "In March 1095 at the Council of Piacenza, ambassadors sent by Byzantine Emperor Alexius I called for help with defending his empire against the Seljuk Turks. Later that year, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join a war against the Turks, promising those who died in the endeavor would receive immediate remission of their sins"
Probably the worst foreign policy decision in our history, we are still suffering the consequences. What a legacy and we don't seem to have learned anything.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
frankwilk
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Posted - 06/04/2011 : 13:37
Belle, she was pretty good, lucid at times and well informed.
at times is my addition to Stanleys quote.
The gang of 4 Shirl, Roy and David now who was the other one ??
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
catgate
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Posted - 06/04/2011 : 15:14
quote:
Stanley wrote:
.... Later that year, at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II called upon all Christians to join a war against the Turks, promising those who died in the endeavor would receive immediate remission of their sins"
That says much about the competance, reliability and imagination of religious leaders. Granted the imams have now added a few virgins to their enticement package, but think what could have happened if the old pope had included not only a few virgins but also a week in the Seychelles at half board.
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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catgate
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Posted - 06/04/2011 : 15:17
quote:
frankwilk wrote:
Belle, she was pretty good, lucid at times and well informed.
at times is my addition to Stanleys quote.
The gang of 4 Shirl, Roy and David now who was the other one ??
David X 2 ?
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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frankwilk
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Posted - 06/04/2011 : 20:25
Ah that David, I think he ran away to Scotland to fill his boots on devolution money if I remember correctly ?? and of course to be called Lord.
Frank Wilkinson Once Navy Always Navy |
Bradders
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Posted - 07/04/2011 : 00:34
Bill Rodgers , actually.
Oooops , sorry ! ....That wasn't intended to sound gruff , but Bill was the other member of the SDP's founding "Gang of Four".....
Edited by - Bradders on 07/04/2011 01:20:00 AM
BRADDERS BLUESINGER |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 07/04/2011 : 04:21
Frank. Do not edit my posts, write your own.
I've been thinking about Cameron. I had big problems with both Thatcher and Blair but I have to give them their due, they had their own agenda, stuck to it and were effective in their own terms. Cameron is a different kettle of fish and I'm beginning to wonder if the difference is that he is too much in thrall to his 'policy advisers'. I don't see any clear signs that he is in control of the ship of state.
GANG OF FOUR
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
SPEAKER'S CORNER 2012
