The nerve agent is “of a type developed by Russia”.

But no one has actually confirmed it was actually made in Russia?” 

Timeline of events

• Yulia Skripal flew into London's Heathrow Airport on a flight from Russia at about 14:40 GMT on 3 March
• On 4 March, at about 09:15 GMT, Mr Skripal's car was seen in Salisbury in the area of London Road, Churchill Way North and Wilton Road
• At 13:30 GMT his car was seen driving down Devizes Road, towards the town centre
• Mr Skripal and his daughter arrived at the Sainsbury's upper level car park at the Maltings shopping precinct at 13:40 GMT
• Police said the pair went to The Mill pub before going to Zizzi restaurant at 14:20 GMT, staying until 15:35 GMT

• At 16:15 GMT emergency services received the first report of an incident.
• Police found the pair on a bench outside Zizzi in an "extremely serious condition"
• A police officer who fell ill after attending the incident - Det Sgt Nick Bailey - was treated in hospital but discharged on 22 March
• 48 people were assessed in hospital in relation to the incident
• Only Mr Skripal and his daughter Yulia remain in hospital
• Investigators have identified 131 people who have potentially been in contact with the nerve agent. None has shown symptoms

Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "overwhelmingly likely" to have ordered the attack.

He also said the UK government had evidence Russia had been stockpiling the nerve agent used in the attack over the last 10 years and had investigated ways of delivering such weapons for assassination.

OK two points regarding the above.

1. "Overwhelmingly likely" is not irrefutable evidence.
2. If the "UK Government had evidence that Russia had been stockpiling the nerve agent used in the attack over the last 10 years" why hadn't the UK government reported it to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). 

“The same people who assured you Saddam Hussein had WMDs now assure you Russian ‘novichok’ nerve agents are being wielded by Vladimir Putin to attack people on British soil.”

Aitkenhead said the government had reached its conclusion that Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack by combining the laboratory’s scientific findings with information from other sources. 

The UK government moved quickly to make it clear that the prime minister, Theresa May, had always been clear the assessment from Porton Down was “only one part of the intelligence picture”. The comments came hours before an extraordinary meeting in The Hague of the executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), called by Russia.

However, two weeks ago Boris Johnson was asked by an interviewer on Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public international broadcaster, how the UK had been able to find out the novichok originated from Russia so quickly.

He replied: “When I look at the evidence, the people from Porton Down, the laboratory, they were absolutely categorical. I asked the guy myself, I said: ‘Are you sure?’ And he said: ‘There’s no doubt.’ So we have very little alternative but to take the action that we have taken.”

Here's a question...
We are led to believe the highest concentration of the Nerve Agent was on his door. The police went straight to his house the same day. It was four days later they turned up with protective suits. How come the police that entered the house, unprotected, through the door that we are told had the most contamination on it are not all in hospital?


In 2010 on a TV interview Putin said this

“Traitors will kick the bucket, believe me. Those other folks betrayed their friends, their brother in arms,” Mr Putin said.
“Whatever they got in exchange for it, those 30 pieces of silver they were given, they will choke on them.”

An interesting twist if true ...

Julia Davis@JuliaDavisNews

#Russia's state TV reports that an unnamed high-level White House source quietly told the Russians that the number of Russian diplomats in the U.S. is not being cut (they can send 60 other diplomats to replace the ones being expelled). They quote the source: "The doors are open."
10:08 PM - Mar 29, 2018

Unfortunately we will never know now... even if there was proof that it wasn't Russia. Do we really think that all the countries who have accused Russia will climb down and apologise. Nyet... that's why it was dangerous to claim that it was Russia when they havnt got conclusive proof. Once they had that, it would be fair game... Russia couldn't deny it and the world wouldn't be dealing with the onset of a new cold war.

I mean lets face it with Russia's history it probably was them, but I feel its a bit gun ho to go off making accusations without irrefutable evidence. In this area Corbyn has proved to be the sensible one yet again. Maintaining that we should not rush ahead of the available evidence.

If it was Russia then no one wants to see them get away with it again, if indeed they have in the past. Again no irrefutable evidence has been put forward. 

But also we shouldn't be too quick to rush into a new cold war based on a mistake and politicians have made a few of those in the past.


LINKS

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/boris-johnson-issues-completely-new-story-on-russian-novichoks
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/16/skripal-attack-talk-war-vladimir-putin-theresa-may?CMP=share_btn_fb
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/unlikely-that-vladimir-putin-behind-skripal-poisoning-1.3425736
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/vladimir-putin-demands-thorough-probe-into-salisbury-poisonings/ar-AAvq8gE?li=AAmiR2Z&ocid=spartanntp
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sergei-skripal-mi6-handler-s-network-of-dissidents-78ckhrvcm
Russian spy: The police, the public and the poison
Russian spy: What we know so far
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201803131062469325-russia-nerve-agent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/uk-russia-nerve-agent-attack-spy-poisoning-sergei-skripal-salisbury-accusations-evidence-explanation-a8258911.html
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/14/17120696/russian-novichok-skripal-nerve-agent-chemical-weapon-poisoning-england
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/14/nerve-agent-novichok-produced-russia-site-expert
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/15/uks-claims-questioned-doubts-emerge-about-source-of-salisburys-novichok
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/apr/03/no-10-tries-to-calm-russia-row-amid-cold-war-rhetoric
Russia spy row: UK lab could be poison source, says ambassador
The long, terrifying history of Russian dissidents being poisoned abroad
Alexander Litvinenko: Profile of murdered Russian spy
Video re-emerges of Putin threat that 'traitors will kick the bucket'
https://www.rt.com/news/422871-russia-questions-uk-skripal-case/

PUTIN LINKS
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/putin-failed-scare-world-180305232554472.html
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Vladimir_Putin
Putin promises spending spree in pre-election speech
https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/how-putin-does-it/
http://www.russialies.com/

Boris Johnson A Categorical Liar - republished

Is it coincidence that local elections are looming on 5th May?
...................................................................................................

Evidence submitted by the British government in court today proves, beyond any doubt, that Boris Johnson has been point blank lying about the degree of certainty Porton Down scientists have about the Skripals being poisoned with a Russian “novichok” agent.

Yesterday in an interview with Deutsche Welt Boris Johnson claimed directly Porton Down had told him they positively identified the nerve agent as Russian:

You argue that the source of this nerve agent, Novichok, is Russia. How did you manage to find it out so quickly? Does Britain possess samples of it?

Let me be clear with you … When I look at the evidence, I mean the people from Porton Down, the laboratory …

So they have the samples …

They do. And they were absolutely categorical and I asked the guy myself, I said, “Are you sure?” And he said there’s no doubt.

I knew and had published from my own whistleblowers that this is a lie. Until now I could not prove it. But today I can absolutely prove it, due to the judgement at the High Court case which gave permission for new blood samples to be taken from the Skripals for use by the OPCW. Justice Williams included in his judgement a summary of the evidence which tells us, directly for the first time, what Porton Down have actually said:

The Evidence
16. The evidence in support of the application is contained within the applications
themselves (in particular the Forms COP 3) and the witness statements.
17. I consider the following to be the relevant parts of the evidence. I shall identify the
witnesses only by their role and shall summarise the essential elements of their
evidence.
i) CC: Porton Down Chemical and Biological Analyst
Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the
findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound. The samples
tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent OR CLOSELY RELATED AGENT.

The emphasis is mine. This sworn Court evidence direct from Porton Down is utterly incompatible with what Boris Johnson has been saying. The truth is that Porton Down have not even positively identified this as a “Novichok”, as opposed to “a closely related agent”. Even if it were a “Novichok” that would not prove manufacture in Russia, and a “closely related agent” could be manufactured by literally scores of state and non-state actors.

This constitutes irrefutable evidence that the government have been straight out lying – to Parliament, to the EU, to NATO, to the United Nations, and above all to the people – about their degree of certainty of the origin of the attack. It might well be an attack originating in Russia, but there are indeed other possibilities and investigation is needed. As the government has sought to whip up jingoistic hysteria in advance of forthcoming local elections, the scale of the lie has daily increased.

On a sombre note, I am very much afraid the High Court evidence seems to indicate there is very little chance the Skripals will ever recover; one of the reasons the judge gave for his decision is that samples taken now will be better for analysis than samples taken post mortem.

——————————————————-

This website remains under a massive DOS attack which has persisted for more than 24 hours now, but so far the defences are holding. Some strange form of “ghost banning” is also affecting both my twitter and Facebook feeds. So please

a) Feel free to repost, republish, translate or spread this article anywhere and anyway you can. All copyright is waived.
b) If you came here by Twitter, please retweet but also in addition create a new tweet yourself containing a link to this post (or to any other site on which you have placed the information)
c) If you came here by Facebook, again please share but also in addition create a new post yourself which contains the information and the link.

The state and corporate media now have evidence of the vast discrepancy between what May and Johnson are saying, and the truth about the Porton Down scientists’ position. I am afraid to say I expect this to make no difference whatsoever to the propaganda output of the BBC.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/boris-johnson-a-categorical-liar/

Well done Ireland - Grand Slam and 6 Nation champions

To go to the fortresses of both France and England and pull of wins was no mean feat in itself. So fair play to Ireland well deserved Champions.

Oh and Happy St Patricks Day :-)


This stunning piece of vocal work I stumbled across seemed appropriate instead of the normal rugby highlights.

The Parting Glass - Peter Hollens

Oh OK here's the Irish Rugby best bits ...

Demand that the BBC publicly apologise to Jeremy Corbyn

Demand that the BBC publicly apologise to Jeremy Corbyn

On March 15th, the BBC broadcast an edition of Newsnight, the main focus of which was the alleged poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia.

As the backdrop for the programme, the BBC used an image of the Kremlin, onto which it pasted a photo of Jeremy Corbyn, which had been digitally altered to make it look as if he was wearing a Russian hat.

The implication here is clear - the BBC deliberately sought to imply that Mr Corbyn has connections with Russia.

The BBC's denial that the photo was altered is insulting. Anybody can see by comparing the original photo and the one broadcast by the BBC that the photo has been deliberately altered. The BBC's denial is confirmation of their complicity.

This action represents a State-funded, Government-controlled national broadcaster altering images of the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition, in order to imply that he is in cahoots with a foreign power.

This goes beyond bias - it is Government propaganda.

We demand that the BBC should publicly apologise to Mr Corbyn by inviting him to an interview on Newsnight, in which the producer of the programme personally apologises for using altered images for political ends.

Please sign this petition to demand that the BBC apologises.

Why is this important?

This is important because the BBC is supposed to be an impartial public broadcaster, not an outlet of the Conservative party.

It's important because the State should not use a public broadcaster to broadcast propaganda.

It's important because this is not just an attack on Mr Corbyn, it's an attack on British democracy.

Please sign this petition to demand that the BBC apologies.



https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/demand-that-the-bbc-publicly-apologise-to-jeremy-corbyn

Fire Doors

Grenfell Tower doors 'resisted fire for half the time expected'

Seems 3 fire door samples from Grenvil tower all failed in tests. They were supposed to be 30 minute doors but only lasted 15 min.

Having worked for a partitioning company and a interior refurbishment company I can claim to have  a little bit of knowledge about Fire Doors, although Im no expert.

The main points are

• Fire doors are notoriously difficult to get through a fire test and vision panels only exacerbate that.
• Once the fire door has passed the fire test and has a certificate, it then rely's on a few other things.
• Each fire door has to be manufactured in exactly the same way and using exactly the same materials.
• Once on site the door has to be installed in excatly the same way that it was when it passed the test.
• It has to be fitted in a frame which is exactly the same as the test. ie materials and construction.

This rarely happens

Further tests will be carried out on fire doors following the news that front doors to flats in Grenfell Tower burned in just 15 minutes, housing secretary Sajid Javid has said. 

However, he insisted that there is “no evidence that this is a systemic issue”

Due to the nature of how fire doors are tested and installed I believe there is a systemic issue.  There's no evidence because no one has looked for it.



LINKS
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-43413989

Trump, May, Christopher Steele and Sergei Skripa

Trump was very quick to re-tweet, without checking the facts, a Britain's First tweet. He didn't even know who Britain's First were.

So Trump will comment on anything he wants to even if its fake news, as is normally the case with him, but an attack on British soil .... nope nothing

Lets just run that one again ....A chemical nerve agent is used in an attack in the UK and Trump says absolutely nothing.

Now why would that be?

Lets think about what would happen if the shoe was on the other foot.

• The UK would immediately condemn the attack.
• The UK would offer any assistance in tracking down the perpetrator.
• The UK would offer technical assistance.

Now its well known that Trump has business interests in Russia, so is that the reason?  Well he didn't have to mention Russia just condemn the attack. He didnt.

Trump only does things that suit his own agenda not his own country. This obviously didnt suit his agenda, maybe because it was real rather than fake.

Strangely enough there seem to be reports linking Christopher Steele an ex MI6 officer with Sergei Skripa through a security consultant employed by Christopher Steele, who compiled the Trump dossier.

"Mr Steele went into hiding a year ago when he was revealed as the author of a document detailing salacious allegations about Mr Trump, which was circulating before the election."

"The dossier has sparked a formal investigation in the US into Russian collusion in the US presidential election, to the fury of both presidents Trump and Putin."

So main points would be

• The particular Nerve Agent used links to Russia.
• If not Russia then as the PM has said, Russia lost control of some of its WMA.
• The man who helped delevop the Nerve Agent says it could only come from Russia.
• The Russians, Trump and possibly the UK gov all have reasons, to use and the wherewithal to have the Nerve Agent.
• Why would the Russians use something that directly pointed back to them?
• Why didnt Trump comment?
• Its almost a certainty that both the US and the UK have access to and antidotes for this nerve agent.
• Why arnt Sergei Skripa and his daughter dead yet. Was the antidote ready and waiting for them?

We wait and see.


LINKS
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5492371/The-White-House-refuses-MENTION-Russia-Salisbury-comments.html
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/live/2018/mar/13/tillerson-firmly-backs-uk-over-salisbury-spy-poisoning-as-white-house-refuses-to-blame-russia-politics-live
https://www.itv.com/news/2018-03-13/rex-tillerson-russia-nerve-agent/
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/donald-trump-says-us-will-accept-russia-behind-salisbury-poisoning-if-we-agree-with-uk-findings_uk_5aa7d517e4b03c9edfafc9b3
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/poisoned-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-close-consultant-linked/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/03/13/boris-johnson-warns-russia-not-underestimate-uk-outrage-fails/
http://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/national/16083671.trump-says-it-sounds-like-russia-is-to-blame-for-salisbury-nerve-gas-attack/
http://www.newsweek.com/russia-poison-spy-steele-dossier-836768
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/donald-trump-says-us-will-accept-russia-behind-salisbury-poisoning-if-we-agree-with-uk-findings/ar-BBKamAZ?li=AA59G2
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2018/03/us-russia-nato-uk/555407/
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/03/07/poisoned-russian-spy-sergei-skripal-close-consultant-linked/ 
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/01/05/british-ex-spy-behind-lurid-trump-dossier-should-criminally/

Mayhems whodunnit

So if your the head of a country and things arnt going too well its known that the best thing to do is get involved in a war.

Remember Thatcher was heading for an election defeat in 1982. The decision to go to war indisputably saved her. Ive had people argue that, but there is no question without winning the Falklands war Thatcher would have lost the next election. I cover my reasoning on that in two other blogs .

https://garysoapbox.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/was-falkands-war-thatchers-gamble.html
https://garysoapbox.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/mayhems-falklands.html


Back to the present there arn't too many countries that the UK can kick off against and Korea, having mustered the protection it needed, is now off the radar and everyone is going to talk .... for the present.

Is it just me or did Trump go very quiet once it was obvious the man had working nukes and the bully boy tactics wouldn't work any longer?


Brexit is just not going to well for Mayhem and the Tories, prices are rising and in turn inflation. The pound is still low and companies are now starting to get itchy feet. To top all that the problem of the Irish border still remains a so far insurmountable problem and time to be honest is running out.

So I shall play devils advocate .........

• May is in the shit.
• She needs to deflect attention away from her and the Tory failings.
• Cant start a war with anyone.
• But can start a war of words with Russia.
• How do we provoke that?
• I know lets poison an ex MI6 spy with something that can only really be traced back to the Russians.
• Brilliant that will do it, the argument could go on for months, years even.

Lets remember that they have so far not said that the nerve agent definitely came from Russia.

"The PM said it was "highly likely" Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack".

So okay why do i think that its a possibility there is some smoke and mirrors going on here, its obviously the Russians Right?

Mrs May said: "Either this was a direct action by the Russian state against our country, or the Russian government lost control of its potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into the hands of others."

Well it certainly looks like it, but then I think well isn't it a bit obvious?

I mean if the Russians were going to attempt to kill someone, why use something that is so obviously traced back to them. There are plenty of ways of killing people and a lot more effective than what was used.

Why are they still alive .... was an antidote readily available?

This guy was out in the open, he didn't have a protection team. There would have been so many opportunities to take him out. Without going to the effort of smuggling in a nerve agent. He was also apparently in regular contact with the Russian embassy.

Now Russians might be a lot of things but im going to gamble that they are not that stupid. So either they attempted to kill with a nerve gas that would lead right back to their door because they wanted everyone to know they did it.

Or they didn't do it.

Oh has anyone noticed a distinct lack of noise from Trump.  No twitter comments.... Nothing as far as I can see.

Strange that isn't it?

I mean hes always been very quick to comment on our NHS and retweet Britain's First posts without checking them.

But apparently an ex MI6 spy being poisoned with nerve gas in the middle of the UK wasn't worthy of a mention.

Strange that isn't it?

As I said at the start just me playing Devils Advocate. The British government doesn't get involved in assassinations.  I know that because a tory MP said so on the radio today :-)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43315636
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43377856
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sergei-skripal-regular-contact-russian-embassy-former-kremlin-officer-spy-poison-nerve-agent-a8244926.html

Casey Cagle Tweet on NRA

Well there you have it, if anyone needed any evidence.


LINKS
http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/375646-georgia-lt-gov-threatens-delta-unless-it-restores-relationship-with-nra

Dog Poo

TAKE YOUR SHIT HOME OR BIN IT, ITS SIMPLES

Apart from this... it really winds me up that people litter the contyryside with poo bags. Why?? because your too damm selfish to carry it to a bin.

Better to leave it unbagged if you really cant be bothered and if you cant be bothered why have you got a dog in the 1st place?

Dont litter the countryside with poo bags.

Lets put it this way if you knew that if you left your poo bag on the floor it would end up smeared all over your car, would you still leave it on the floor?


LINKS
http://metro.co.uk/2017/04/21/horses-die-because-they-ate-dog-poo-bags-thrown-into-their-field-6589167/
https://troton.com/blogs/articles/item/775-two-horses-die-after-eating-bags-of-dog-poo-dumped-by-owners-horse-welfare
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/16038474.Horse_owner_s_plea_over_potentially_deadly_dog_waste_bags/
http://www.friendlyandfree.com/dog-poo-bags-killing-horses/
http://www.equisupermarket.co.uk/blog/dog-poo-bags-dangerous-horses/

Trump: I would have run into school during shooting even without a gun

Ok I like facts so what he actually said was ....

"You don't know until you test it but I really believe I would have run in there even if I didn't have a weapon"

Yeah yeah Mr President, its easy to stand on a pedestal, big yourself up and say what you might have done. How many security men are standing around you?

Takes a special person to step up when shits flying and I think you'd be the one hiding behind the car.

Take a look at this little incident .....

Lets just say he almost shit himself and there wasn't even a bang .... "I was ready for them" ... Oh dear, yes of course you were.

"Don't worry about the NRA,” Trump told the governors. ”They're on our side.” 

You mean your in their pocket Mr Trump, your bought and paid for.... 

LINKS

http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/375597-trump-i-would-have-run-into-school-during-shooting-even-without-a-gun

If God were morally perfect

The existence of evil and suffering in our world seems to pose a serious challenge to belief in the existence of a perfect God. If God were all knowing, it seems that God would know about all of the horrible things that happen in our world. If God were all-powerful, God would be able to do something about all of the evil and suffering. Furthermore, if God were morally perfect, then surely God would want to do something about it. And yet we find that our world is filled with countless instances of evil and suffering. These facts about evil and suffering seem to conflict with the orthodox theist claim that there exists a perfectly good God. The challenged posed by this apparent conflict has come to be known as the problem of evil.  

(from James Bebee, “The Logical Problem of Evil”)

(1) If God existed, then He would be all-knowing, all-powerful, and morally perfect.
(2) If God was all-knowing, then He would be aware of all evil.
(3) If God was all-powerful, then He would be able to prevent all evil.
(4) If God was morally perfect, then He would be motivated to prevent all evil that He is aware of and able to.
(5) If God was aware of all evil, and was able to prevent all evil, and was motivated to prevent all evil that He is aware of and is able to, then there would be no evil.
(6) There is evil.


Difficult to fault the logic ....



LINKS
http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/wasserr/114/Arguments.pdf

Tories policies have failed

The Tories policies have failed, the evidence is all around us. The have failed on every economic forcast and this isnt just because of the Finacial crash because pretty much every EU country is doing better. If that isnt an indication of failure then I dont know what is.

Weak and Wobbly the Conservatives of Chaos......

"UK is the worst-performing advanced economy in the world, official figures confirm"

"The UK is on course for its longest fall in living standards since records began more than 60 years ago, with real disposable incomes now set to fall for 19 successive quarters."

"We are in danger of losing not just one but getting on for two decades of earnings growth,"

"The latest official figures showed workers' earnings, excluding bonuses, rose 2.2% in the three months to September compared with a year ago."
"But they fell 0.5% in real terms when accounting for inflation, marking seven months of negative pay growth, according to the Office for National Statistics."

"GDP grew at just 0.2 per cent during the first three months of this year – slower than all other G7 and European countries, the Office for National Statistics reported"

 "The UK economy, which had held up better than expected in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote, is now lagging behind all of the other countries in the G7 group of advanced nations and all other European countries."

LINKS
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42096806
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-economy-world-worst-performing-advanced-countries-state-g7-european-union-a7817046.html 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_governments

The EU Cabbage - Myth

Did a government memo regulating the sale of cabbages use 26,911 words? 

Very basically ..... 

No its bollox

[Collected via e-mail, April 2012]
For anybody who doesn?t fully understand the Euro situation,
it is explained very simply in the picture below……..
THIS IS BRILLIANT – and loopholes Europe in a “few” words
Pythagoras’ theorem – 24 words.
Lord’s Prayer – 66 words.
Archimedes’ Principle – 67 words.
10 Commandments – 179 words.
Gettysburg address – 286 words.
US Declaration of Independence – 1,300 words.
US Constitution with all 27 Amendments – 7,818 words.
EU regulations on the sale of a cabbage – 26,911 words

Previous versions
[Collected via e-mail, 2000]
Pythagorean theorem: 24 words
The Lord’s Prayer: 66 words
Archimedes’ Principle: 67 words
The Ten Commandments: 179 words
The Gettysburg Address: 286 words
The Declaration of Independence: 1,300 words
The US government regulations on the sale of cabbage: 26,911 words

• Various versions have been around for at least 50 years
• The EU did have a document relating to cabbages which was 2000 words long.
• The EU no longer has a document relating to cabbages

  

In 2006, Regulation (EC) No 634/2006 addressed the size of cabbages, and how they should be labelled, in just under 2,000 words. In 2009, however, these regulations, along with some other rules on the sale of fruit and vegetables, were repealed.

 For those who are unsure how big a 2000 word document is. Its aproximately 5 pages of A4 and the actual document is here.

Interestinly the actual document is actually 5 1/2 pages and 1,996 long in english

FR - 4 Pages 775 words
EL - 7 pages 781 words
ET - 3 Pages 480 words
DE - 8 Pages 1793 words





LINKS
https://www.snopes.com/language/document/cabbage.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35962999
https://www.indy100.com/article/dont-believe-anything-a-eurosceptic-tells-you-about-cabbage--bJHxXSSIebZ
http://www.skeptical-science.com/politics/cabbages-vs/

Mayhems Falklands

In 1982 Thatcher was heading for an election defeat. The decision to go to war indisputably saved her, it was a gamble that paved the way for the destruction of the unions and Thatcherism.

But was it a gamble or a well executed plan to avoid defeat in the 1983 election. Thatcher would have had to turn around some negatives not only in her own party, the Tories were already sharpening the knives and she had little support in her own party. She was also well behind in the polls defeat was almost inevitable.

There are several points that lead me to believe that Thatcher constructed the ability of the Argentines to invade by purposely missing obvious signals. (I've already covered this in another post linked here)

The main points were

1. The British ignored things that the Argentinian's were saying in the UN or hints that they were making about military action.
2. John Nott withdrew the Endeavor which was the support ship for the Falklands.
3. The British government brought in the British nationality act of 1981 which replaced the full British citizenship of Falkland islanders with the more limited version.
4. Intelligence had been received that the Argentinian's might attempt something and Thatcher was advised to dispatch a small military force, but refused to do so.

As the Guardian reported

Though spring brought some relief to the battered economy, Thatcher appeared a weak, broken leader with little support even within her party. What was later called Thatcherism was still a dream, with only top-rate tax cuts in place. The ruling obsession was reducing double-digit inflation and cutting public spending. Nothing else seemed to concern the government.

In the frontline for cuts were defence and foreign affairs. John Nott's defence review would pull back the surface fleet to home waters. Hong Kong was to be handed over to the Chinese and a tiny colony of islands in the south Atlantic was being negotiated for "sale and leaseback" to neighbouring Argentina by Thatcher's trusted junior foreign minister, Nicholas Ridley. The one naval vessel in its vicinity, HMS Endurance, was to be withdrawn.

To Argentina's military junta, the British government was patently eager to dispose of the Falklands. Thus when Ridley's initiative was mauled in the Commons and talks stalled, the invitation to the Argentinian junta to imitate India's seizure of Goa in 1961 was irresistible. The invasion was named Operation Goa. Even with tension mounting, Thatcher turned a deaf ear to pleas from the Foreign Office to reinforce the islands and deploy ships to the area. The foreign secretary, Lord Carrington, felt his relations with Thatcher were too delicate to press the matter.

The gamble or plan paid off and the rest is history

So lets move onto Theresa May

Pretty similar, having a car crash year. Bad decisions regarding elections, losing support within her own party. Down in the polls with Labour taking a lead in recent polls.  Probably being set up to take the Brexit flack as she's unlikely to lead the Tories into the next election on current standing.

So maybe North Korea will become Mays Falklands ...... could 1982 be rewritten with 2018? Time will tell.

The prime minister's decision to go to war in 1982, with her government on the brink of collapse, changed everything.

The latest headlines

Britain 'draws up battle plan for war with North Korea'

Britain makes battle plans for war with North Korea: Top brass could send new aircraft carrier BEFORE it's had flight trials as Trump says 'only one thing will work' after 25 years of failed talks

UK draws up North Korea BATTLE PLAN amid fear WW3 starts TODAY

LINKs

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/apr/09/margaret-thatcher-falklands-gamble

https://garysoapbox.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/was-falkands-war-thatchers-gamble.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/09/britain-prepares-war-north-korea-new-carrier-could-rushed-service/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4960972/Britain-draws-battle-plan-case-North-Korea-war.htm

http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/world-news/650818/north-korea-donald-trump-kim-jong-un-missile-h-bomb-uk-military-ww3-attack

Theresa May ~ AKA Mayhem, Maybe, Maybenot

Theresa May ~ AKA Mayhem, Maybe, Maybenot

 We can now add dead May walking and May Fall



Theresa May has now made more bad decisions than any normal Prime Minister would be allowed to get away with. The Tories are not known for holding onto deadwood just look at what happened to Thatcher.

They know that Brexit is a poisoned chalice with the country split down the middle, 50% of the people are pretty much guaranteed to be unhappy with what is negotiated.

So Theresa May is the fall guy. They will keep her on to take the flack from whatever fallout there is from Brexit and then she'll be booted like Thatcher was and a new boy/person will take charge.

Time will tell.

What did Khan actually say about Manchester bombing

Sadiq Khan's statement in full

"London stands united with the great city of Manchester today after this barbaric and sickening attack. This was a cowardly act of terrorism that targeted a concert attended by thousands of children and young people.

"My heart goes out to the victims, their families and everybody affected. Once again we have seen the heroism of our brave emergency services. They have our full support and are in all our thoughts today.

"I am in constant contact with the Metropolitan Police, who are reviewing security arrangements in London. Londoners will see more police on our streets today.

"Manchester and the rest of Britain will never be cowed by terrorism. Those who want to destroy our way of life and divide us will never succeed."




LINKS
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live/2017/may/24/manchester-arena-bombing-terror-attack-victims-threat-critical-ariana-grande-concert-live-news

Trump has little qualification to run a country

 

 

Apart from being a bull shitter Trump has little qualification to run a country.

2/3rds of his business ventures have been failures and if he didn’t start with access to a massive fortune and his father’s business contacts he would have failed big time years and years ago. Any normal person would have been out on the street as soon as they defaulted on a bank.

Transpose his business failures to that of his decisions as president and that would mean we can expect 2/3rds of decisions to be bad. Pretty much what we are seeing now, evidence is proof.

Main qualifications ...Bankruptcies (his own companies), defaults, deceptions, indifference to investors (take that as the voting public now)

He is also pretty good at self-deception, and plain old deception. Trump is willing to claim success even when it is not there. Again we have seen evidence of this which is difficult to refute.

With that amount of arrogance, propensity to failure and willingness to open his gob without thinking, Trump is a danger to the whole world.

LINKS

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2017/06/14/433942/trumps-conflicts-interest-israel/

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/security/news/2017/06/14/434171/trumps-conflicts-interest/ 

https://www.timesofisrael.com/when-it-comes-to-jewish-ties-no-gop-candidate-trumps-trump/ 

What do you call a pay rise that isnt

Lets spell this out simply ...

Since 2010 inflation has averaged 2.7%, according to the Bank of England.

So anyone who hasn't had a pay rise for 7 years has basically had a pay reduction.

7 years x 2.7% = 18.9%

Anyone who hasn't had a pay rise for 7 years has in effect had a pay cut of 18.9% on average.


Whilst any pay increase is not to be sniffed at its hardly a flag waving event when people are still on a pay cut.  Even if people achieve a pay increase of 4% they will still be sitting on a pay decrease of 14.9% over 7 years.

A proper pay rise would be 19% because even tho the actual rise is only 0.1% it would actually be a rise.

I'm not even sure what you can call a pay rise that isn't a rise.





















LINKS
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/education/Pages/resources/inflationtools/calculator/default.aspx

12 billion on foreign aid v 94 billion in tax concessions

12 billion on foreign aid against 94 billion a year in tax concessions to big corporations

Now whilst I don't necessarily agree with sending money abroad when we have problems with our own poor and homeless. The situation of our poorest people is one that has quite clearly been made worse by the Tories.  I've no problem with helping people,  I do have a problem with 94 billion being given away to rich corporations though.

Even if you don't agree with that statement you have to agree that giving away 94 billion in tax concessions that were neither asked for or required is...OK lets be nice .... Generous.

For a Country that's struggling to get control of a debt of now 1.7 trillion, yes the Tories have increased the Countries debt by over 800 billion in 7 years.

Its Generous in the extreme!

So if they hadn't given yours and mine money away we could have paid 94 billion off the UK's debt each year.  Or we could have paid 50 billion off the debt and 44 billion into the NHS. We could have paid 94 billion into projects that were going to generate money for the UK rather than foreign countries.

So as you are good at sharing memes complaining about foreign aid, why not share one about the 94 billion tax concessions handed out.

By the way the foreign aid budget is 11% of  the 94 Billion a year that big Corporations get handed each year courtesy of Osbourne.

Fight for the big money!





LINKS
https://fullfact.org/economy/uk-spending-foreign-aid/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/07/corporate-welfare-a-93bn-handshake
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/uk-foreign-aid-budget_uk_57d953afe4b00f741735477f