Infowars: Council Vetoes Display of English Flag Because It’s “Offensive to Muslims”
Rainbow flag of “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride movement” allowed
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 16, 2013A local council in England vetoed the display of a St. George’s Cross flag over concerns that it would be “offensive to Muslims,” while allowing the rainbow flag of the “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride movement” to be flown.
“A local council decided against flying the flag of St George after concerns were raised that it would offend the town’s 16 Muslim residents,” reports the Telegraph. “Eleanor Jackson, a university lecturer, said the red and white symbol could cause upset in Radstock, Somerset, because it was used during the Crusades 1,000 years ago.”
Jackson suggested that use of the flag be dropped for 20 years not only because “it is offensive to some Muslims,” but also due to its use by “the far right.”
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Muslim groups reacted to the ban by deriding it as “oversensitive” and “political correctness going a bit too far.”
“Use by the far right is one thing, but to say that Muslims are offended I don’t think is correct. We understand the flag is part of this country’s heritage, and in fact many many Muslims will identify as being British themselves,” said Rizwan Ahmed, a spokesman for the Bristol Muslim Cultural Society.
Muslim Council of Britain spokeswoman Nasima Begum said that England’s patron saint “needs to take his rightful place as a national symbol of inclusivity rather than a symbol of hatred.”
After the decision stoked controversy, the council claimed that the views of Eleanor Jackson were “not really taken into consideration,” and that they had planned on purchasing a Union Jack all along.
The council did not seem to be worried that the display of a rainbow flag at “appropriate” times of the year to represent the “lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender pride movement” would offend anyone.
This is by no means the first time that displaying the national flag of England has been discouraged or banned by authorities over fears it might offend minority immigrant populations.
During the 2010 World Cup, 1200 council staff in Bolton were banned from flying the English flag ”over fears they could deemed as racist.”
When builders in Coventry flew the St. George’s Cross they were told by site managers to take it down within 20 minutes over concerns it might ”offend” the local multi-ethnic community.
In 2009, Labour-run Sandwell Council withdrew funding for a St George’s Day parade, citing fears that it “might attract far right elements.”
This story again illustrates how, while British people are expected to express their “patriotism” by supporting wars that primarily target Muslim populations in foreign countries, any attempt to display pride in one’s country that isn’t state-approved is routinely demonized as racist and offensive.
Unlike in America, it is also seen as abnormal and a potential indication of racism to display a St. George’s Cross on occasions that are not related to state or royal pageantry, such as the 2012 royal wedding.
While the former Labour government and many of its councilors who are still in power set about demonizing the display of the English flag as racist, they simultaneously oversaw a deliberate ”mass influx of immigrants” in order to “change the make-up of Britain” and “rub the Right’s nose in diversity.”
Lord Mandelson, who served in a number of different Cabinet positions under both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, admitted: “In 2004 when as a Labour government, we were not only welcoming people to come into this country to work, we were sending out search parties for people and encouraging them, in some cases, to take up work in this country.”
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
UK Police - Collision Investigation Unit
Infowars: Google-Berg: Global Elite Transforms Itself For Technocratic Revolution
Authoritarian, anti-democratic power networks are being re-branded as trendy, philanthropic-style forums
Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
May 13, 2013The secretive Bilderberg Group is currently undergoing a major transformation that will see it and other high profile networks merge under the banner of Google as the elite accelerates its plan to consolidate its technocratic agenda.
This past weekend, Infowars reporters Paul Joseph Watson and Jon Scobie visited the luxury Grove Hotel in Watford, UK, site of the 2013 Bilderberg Group conference set to take place June 6-9, a clandestine annual gathering of over 100 of the world’s most influential power brokers in the fields of politics, academia, technology, business and banking.
The investigation was prompted by our sources, who advised us to visit the Grove in advance of Bilderberg 2013. This is part one of what promises to be a developing story as the pieces of the jigsaw fall into place backed up by years of Bilderberg tracking and research.
What we discovered was groundbreaking and represents one of if not the most important development in Bilderberg’s 59 year history.
Eric Schmidt. Image: Wikimedia Commons
Put simply, Bilderberg is merging with Google under the stewardship of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, a regular Bilderberg attendee. Google’s annual Zeitgeist conference, which has been based at the Grove since 2007, immediately precedes the Bilderberg Group conference by a matter of days.
Backed up by prior research, we were able to confirm in conversations with hotel managers and others that the Grove is now a central base for Google’s agenda to control the global political and technological landscape.
The talk in the Grove is not of Bilderberg, that is barely a footnote, the real excitement centers around Google Zeitgeist, which was described by the London Independent as, “a cuddlier version of the Bilderberg Group, the supposedly shadowy network of financiers that holds a private annual assembly, recast in the image of our new tech masters.”
Bilderberg is indeed being recast as ‘Google-Berg’ – partly because of efforts on behalf of activists to tear away the veil of Bilderberg’s much cherished secrecy, and partly as a means of re-branding authoritarian, undemocratic secret gatherings of elites as trendy, liberal, feel-good philanthropic-style forums like Google Zeitgeist and TED.
In reality, behind the scenes Google is using such forums as proving grounds on which to form the consensus that shapes the globe. We were told directly that the organizers behind the so-called “Arab Spring,” which began in Tunisia and Egypt, which as we have documented is in fact a series of contrived western-backed color revolutions masquerading as organic uprisings, were recruited by Google and subsequently attended the Zeitgeist conference at the Grove.
It’s also well documented that the man responsible for kick-starting the “revolution” in Egypt, which led to the installation of a Muslim Brotherhood dictatorship which the west can now use as a justification for further intervention, was Google employee Wael Ghonim.
Google’s growing influence within both the British and American governments is also well documented. Eric Schmidt was a campaign advisor and a major donor to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. He was also reportedly offered the post of Treasury Secretary within the Obama administration. In Britain, Google representatives have met no less than 23 times with Conservative Party officials since the general election in 2010. David Cameron addressed the inaugural 2006 Zeitgeist conference before going on to become Prime Minister four years later. British Chancellor George Osborne paid a visit to Zeitgeist just weeks before he also attended Bilderberg 2011 in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Bilderberg Transforms Into New Technocratic Elite
The crossover between Zeitgeist and Bilderberg has deepened in recent years, with the London Telegraph comparing the power of the Google confab to the World Economic Forum in Davos, “attracting figures of global significance to talk and to network.”
Former US President Bill Clinton, groomed by the Bilderberg Group, has also given speeches at Zeitgeist, as has fellow Bilderberg attendee Prince Charles. Another Telegraph report described Zeitgeist as, “one of the most high-powered gatherings of business leaders, thinkers and those that are considered to generally shape the global future.”
Google is clearly positioning itself to become a force more powerful than governments in controlling and monitoring people’s behavior across the globe through all manner of different means, from cars that drive themselves (and are constantly tracked by a centralized Google database), to Google Glass which is akin to having a Google microchip in your forehead, to Google’s deep involvement in manipulating mass movements through social media as they did in Egypt and Tunisia.
The Grove Hotel is a perfect staging ground for such machinations given its role in World War 2 as a “secret wartime HQ for the London, Midland & Scottish Railway” named “Project X”.
The direction in which this is all heading can clearly be surmised from remarks made by Eric Schmidt himself, who has repeatedly made it clear that he thinks privacy is a relic of the past and plans to turn Google into the ultimate Big Brother that makes George Orwell’s 1984 look like a children’s fairy tale.
“We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.”
“I actually think most people don’t want Google to answer their questions […] They want Google to tell them what they should be doing next.”
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
“We need a [verified] name service for people,” he said. “Governments will demand it.” (Chinese-style Internet control).
“We know everything you’re doing and the government can track you.”
“We will know your position down to the foot and down to the inch over time…Your car will drive itself, it’s a bug that cars were invented before computers…you’re never lonely…you’re never bored…you’re never out of ideas.”
In numerous speeches, including those made at Google Zeitgeist, Schmidt has outlined his vision for a collectivist, permanently networked world in which individuality and privacy are ostracized and those who refuse to sign up to the new religion of transhumanism are shunned as sub-human savages.
That is the primary agenda now being formulated by Google Zeitgeist luminaries in concert with the Bilderberg Group, which shares many of the same members.
A Busy Time at the Grove
Our source told us that there were “four or five big conferences” coming up at the Grove in May, June and July, but intimated that Google Zeitgeist was clearly considered the biggest, with the 227 room hotel not even large enough to accommodate all the guests and administrative staff required to be in attendance, adding that they had to be put up in London hotels.
Huge Temporary Buildings at The Grove
Huge temporary structures, watched by security guards, were also being constructed on grounds near to the hotel when we visited. These are set to be used for Google’s ‘Big Tent’ event, which is a more public showcase than their private ‘Zeitgeist’ confab. Whether the facilities will also be used by the Bilderberg Group remains to be seen.
The source emphasized that Grove staff had been told not to disclose any information about the Zeitgeist conference and that Google only released information they wanted the public to know. However, the upcoming confab was the talk of the bar and both employees and guests were clearly excited about it.
The source said that security for the event was the same as when heads of state would visit and that the hotel was coordinating with “state security” to run the conference, which inevitably means that taxpayer money will be used to fund the operation, as it is admittedly being used to provide security for Bilderberg. He added that the likes of Google and Bilderberg chose the Grove as a venue because security was far easier to provide compared to hotels in London which are surrounded by high-traffic streets.
Bilderberg’s 2013 Agenda
In terms of Bilderberg’s agenda for the 2013 confab, early indications from our inside source have thrown up a number of different issues that will be up for discussion before Bilderberg instructs its members to implement the agreed upon consensus in each of their fields of influence.
Bear in mind that the motivation behind Bilderberg’s scheming can probably best be encapsulated by remarks made by Bilderberg luminary Henry Kissinger which recently came to light thanks to Wikileaks.
“Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, ‘The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.’ [laughter] But since the Freedom of Information Act, I’m afraid to say things like that,” said Kissinger.
BIlderberg 2013: Early Agenda Leaked
At least some if not all of the following issues will be discussed and agreed upon at Bilderberg 2013.
- Targeting Iran’s nuclear processing facilities for destruction via air strikes within the next 3 years if Tehran refuses to give up its nuclear program.
- Prolonging the war in Syria by arming the rebels and overturning recent military victories by Assad’s forces.
- The threat of a global pandemic, caused in part by rising resistance to antibiotics, which given the role of some of the pharmaceutical companies represented at Bilderberg in “accidentally” releasing viruses is somewhat rich.
- The manufacturing revolution of 3D printing and ways to control it and prevent the democratization of production.
- So-called “cyber resilience,” which means more state control over the Internet. There is much talk of “Digital Wildfires” – they are scared stiff about losing control over information dissemination.
- Setting up a Ministry of Truth for the Internet similar to that advocated by Bill Clinton. Controlling what can be published on the Internet.
- Advancing so-called “smart cities” that spy on every aspect of public behavior. Installing systems like Intellistreets that record street conversations. Rolling out the landscape of the technocracy.
- The threat caused to social stability by declining living standards and wealth.
- A desperate last gasp move to prevent Britain from leaving the EU and crushing the dream of a centralized European federation.
- More bailouts to prop up the euro.
- Minimal economic growth in 2013.
- Increasing the amount of power obtained by central banks under the guise of “bank reform”.
- Organizing more aggressive powers of tax collection
- Managing a growing credit bubble that threatens runaway inflation in Europe.We will expand more on Bilderberg’s 2013 agenda as and when more information is obtained from our sources.
View a selection of photos from The Grove, site of Bilderberg 2013 and Google Zeitgeist below.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
Infowars: UK Newspaper Creates Illegal 3D Gun, Sneaks It On To Trains
British tabloid conducts cheeky “investigation,” gets away with committing potential act of terror
Adan Salazar
Infowars.com
May 13, 2013Following the successful test shooting of the world’s first 3D printed gun, known as the Liberator, media outlets have predictably rushed to demonize the technological feat, which instead of being considered a great accomplishment for mankind and science, is being used to fuel anti-gun paranoia.
On Sunday, the UK’s Daily Mail claimed to have “exposed” the “massive international security risk” the organization says comes when people are able to print their own guns.
“We built the weapon, which is capable of firing a live round, from blueprints available on the internet – then smuggled it on to a packed Eurostar train,” the tabloid reported.
Austin-based 3D printing group Defense Distributed sparked outrage from the leftist media last week after they were able to produce a functional firearm created mostly from 3D printed parts, subsequently distributing the schematics freely online. The only parts not printed were the firing pin, which is an easily obtained standard nail, and a 6 ounce piece of metal which makes the gun comply with laws such as the Undetectable Firearms Act, legislation outlawing guns not detectable by airport x-ray machines.
In an awkward and trivial attempt to prove that a plastic gun can be rammed through security undetectably and then smuggled on to a train, the Daily Mail proceeded to print the parts and assemble the piece, intentionally neglecting the 6 ounce metal piece and the metal firing pin, which the paper admits they omitted for “legal reasons.”
Daily Mail journalist prepares to break laws. / Screenshot taken from DailyMail.co.uk.
The fact that the paper could have gone to any toy store and purchased a plastic gun to test this very same concept makes it clear they genuinely intended to mislead their readers, hoping to negatively influence public opinion regarding 3D guns.
Preying on their readership’s naivety, the paper announced that access to the “deadly, precision-made parts” pose a huge security threat, despite the paper creating their firearm under dubious circumstances.
Fortunately, savvy readers saw through the tabloid’s cunning ploy, calling them out for fomenting an atmosphere of fear where the reality of such a threat is miniscule.
“Utter scaremongering – what use is it without ammunition? That is metallic and would be detected. Must try harder DM,” replied one Daily Mail reader, echoed by another user who stated, “Hello…THE BULLETS would set off the metal detectors! And If they are used as a musket you have to get really close…. and would only be able to get one person before everyone else ran away…so much for mass destruction! Very unlikely terrorists will use this!”
Yet another reader saw the paper’s scheme as illegal in every sense, considering the fact that they openly admitted committing the crime of bringing a firearm on to a train: “So your not only admitting to taking a gun on a train but also evidence for the [Crown Prosecution Service] cps! Nice police have been informed I hope they act.”
Defense Distributed also took aim at the paper’s cheeky experiment, stating in a blog post: “The DM has engaged in an act of terrorism to show us that Eurostar trains will now only be safe when the public itself is eliminated.”
Far from demonstrating whatever it is they sought to prove, the Daily Mail merely highlighted the fact that their “journalists are agents of state terrorism and above the law,” responded Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson.
Given the State Department’s recent issuance of a take down notice of DefCad.org’s Liberator gun files, coupled with the minimal prospect that “the masses” will soon have access to printable weapons, we can be sure to expect more hit pieces aimed at demonizing the technology, which may grease the skids for increased Internet censorship and government control.
Infowars: Groundbreaking New Bilderberg Revelations Coming Soon
Key intelligence uncovered: Transformation of Bilderberg into new breed of technocratic elite
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 11, 2013Bilderberg 2013: Infowars Reporters at the Grove Hotel
Major new revelations concerning the secretive Bilderberg Group have been uncovered by Infowars reporters who visited the Grove Hotel in Watford, UK – site of the elitist confab’s 2013 get-together.
With international policy having been set by Bilderberg for decades behind closed doors with complete contempt for transparency and the democratic process, the organization is in the process of merging with a new breed of technocrats under the umbrella of Google – with the behemoth corporation being handed the baton by Bilderberg to implement policies in a variety of different fields, both technology-related and geopolitical.
Infowars reporters who visited the Grove were able to document how the site is being used as an outpost for social media-driven regime change under the auspices of the “Arab Spring”.
The hotel is a key encampment for the newly extended private corporate-global government.
Other sources had already indicated that this was unfolding which is why Infowars reporters were sent to the Grove well in advance of Bilderberg’s 2013 confab.
Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson outside the Grove Hotel, Hertfordshire.
The information set to be released is a game changer and will highlight how Bilderberg is transforming itself into a new technocratic elite, with Google at the helm.
Infowars was also able to fully document the layout of the hotel and the sprawling grounds which surround the complex outside of which will gather hundreds of protesters when the clandestine group meets from June 6-9.
Visit Infowars.com on Monday to uncover the true agenda behind “Googleberg” as well as the Bilderberg Group’s talking points and political agenda for 2013.
Infowars: Watford Mayor: Bilderberg Protesters “Can And Do Cause Violence And Disturbance”
Jurriaan Maessen
Infowars.Com
May 11, 2013The mayor of Watford, Dorothy Thornhill, told the local newspapertoday she fears violent protests at the upcoming Bilderberg conference. The mayor would be wise to consider signing up for a crash-course on how not to escalate an event before it even takes place.
“I have my concerns about it because it does attract people who can and do cause violence and disturbance.”, Thornhill told the Watford Observer. Although she added she is “confident the police will be able to minimise that”, she appears to suck up to the global elite by stating “it is very good the Grove has been deemed a prestigious enough venue.”
Dorothy Thornhill is the political leader of Watford Borough Council and the borough’s first Directly Elected Mayor.
The Watford observer ran another article today, noting that close to a thousand protesters may be present around the cordoned-off area of the Grove Hotel and its immediate surroundings.
“Most of The Grove’s grounds will be closed to the public while the conference takes place and Hertfordshire Constabulary will be given the job of keeping the crowds out.”, the report reads.
The local newspaper insists on describing the expected demonstrators as “crowds” of conspiracy theorists, ready to run over the gates and storm the Grove Hotel. It doesn’t mention that the annual confab usually attracts peaceful but critical protesters. Talking about last year’s conference in the US, the reporter for the Watford observer implicitly expresses doubt that the protesters will abide by the law:
“In the main the crowds (at Bilderberg 2012) were kept confined to the lawns outside the hotel, and although the barriers were strictly enforced, there were no reported arrests. Whether Watford can expect the same crowds is yet to be seen.”
These passive-aggressive words by an uninformed local reporter, and the foolish statements made by mayor Thornhill, seem to echo some feeling of discomfort on the part of the local establishment at the prospect of their area filling up with critical people trying to make sure the media blackout on Bilderberg does not endure. This feeling of discomfort is understandable. But, like any vague disturbance of the mind, it would be wise for them to reach for the roots of their discomfort. It is not the protesters that should be their main concern. It is the fact that the world’s political, financial and military elite meet in absolute secrecy, including their own elected officials.
Jurriaan Maessen’s article first appeared at ExplosiveReports.Com.
Infowars reporter Paul Joseph Watson outside the Grove Hotel, Hertfordshire.
Exposure Update - The Jimmy Savile Investigation (by JoeDnufc4life)
Interesting look at a UK celebrity who after his death turned out to be a aggressive pedophile who did over 200 sex abuse acts on minors in his life.
How there were coverups and police refused to act on allegations of abuse while he was alive.
Infowars: Police Confirm Bilderberg 2013 to Take Place in Watford, UK
Authorities will “facilitate peaceful protest”
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
May 7, 2013Hertfordshire Police have confirmed that the 2013 Bilderberg Group meeting will take place at the Grove luxury hotel in Watford, United Kingdom early next month as over 100 of the world’s most influential power brokers will meet clandestinely to discuss global policy behind closed doors.
Although the site of the meeting had been known amongst Bilderberg sleuths for weeks, police confirmation appears to diminish any chances that the location was a red herring designed to throw activists off the scent.
“A Hertfordshire Police spokesman confirmed the event was taking place but declined to comment on operational policing details,” reports the Watford Observer.
The spokesman added that the force would “facilitate people who want to undertake peaceful protest.”
Image: The Grove, Watford
The police’s insistence that demonstrations will be allowed (despite a “security exercise” which is expected to surround the hotel grounds and keep prying eyes away), bolsters the view that Bilderberg has learned from previous years when protesters and journalists were treated with disdain, leading to negative press attention.
According to the Observer, the dates of the conference are June 6-8, although it is expected that most of the attendees will leave on the morning of the 9th as is routine.
As we reported yesterday, Alex Jones will travel to the United Kingdom to cover the protest unless he is barred from entering the country by UK authorities who have previously prevented other media personalities such as Michael Savage from entering based on their political viewpoints.
Any attempt to deport Jones will be seen as an embarrassing PR disaster for both UK authorities and the Bilderberg Group, who previously attempted to get Jones kicked out of Canada back in 2006 only for the incident to cause a huge media spectacle.
It remains to be seen how much attention the British press will bestow on a group that habitually relies on a castrated and compliant media to either ignore its existence or play down the Bilderberg as a mere “talking shop,” despite innumerable instances of the group wielding its influence with scant regard for democratic transparency.
In 2010, former NATO Secretary-General and Bilderberg member Willy Claes admitted that Bilderberg attendees are mandated to implement decisions that are formulated during the annual conference of power brokers.
In 2009, Bilderberg chairman Étienne Davignon even bragged about how the Euro single currency was a brainchild of the Bilderberg Group.
Back in February, Italian lawyer Alfonso Luigi Marra requested that the Public Prosecutor of Rome investigate Bilderberg for criminal activity, questioning whether the elitist organization’s 2011 meeting in Switzerland led to the selection of Mario Monti as Prime Minister of Italy.
Last month, Honorary President of the Supreme Court of Italy and former Senior Investigative Judge Ferdinando Imposimato accused the Bilderberg Group of being behind terrorist attacks in Europe.
Hundreds of activists are expected to descend on Watford and Infowars invites as many people as possible to make the trip in order to force the mainstream press to give Bilderberg the attention it deserves, thereby dismantling the shadowy group’s much cherished veil of secrecy.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
Infowars: Local Council Elections: UKIP Make Big Gains
Sky News
May 5, 2013The UK Independence Party has made huge electoral gains and declared itself the “official opposition” – largely at the expense of the Tories – as Prime Minister David Cameron vowed to win back Conservative voters who had defected.
With UKIP averaging 26% of the vote in county council polls, leader Nigel Farage said he was “astonished” by the party’s breakthrough, and put it down to what he described as the “total disconnect” between the “career politics” of Westminster and ordinary people on the streets.
“UKIP is actually speaking the language of millions of ordinary voters,” he told Sky News’ Boulton & Co programme.
U.K. police hope to sniff out pot growers with marijuana-scented cards
Thousand of houses in the United Kingdom are being sent marijuana-scented “scratch and sniff” cards in a new bid to track down marijuana growers.
In a press release, the charity group Crimestoppers explained the cards were designed to educate residents about the smell of marijuana. They hope once people can recognize the smell of cannabis plants, they will be able to help law enforcement officials identify illegal growing operations.
“The Crimestoppers campaign will help members of the public to recognize the signs and smell of a cannabis farm. The police will use the intelligence generated by the campaign to help build on recent successes in tackling this issue,” said Andy Bliss of the Association of Chief Police Officers.
“We also know that many people don’t realize that the empty, run down house or flat on their street with people coming and going late at night may actually be a commercial cannabis farm. It’s not just the stereotype of the remote rural set or disused industrial estate unit.”
The green-and-black cards also provide other signs to look out for, including homes that have “visitors at unsociable hours” or buildings that generate an excessive amount of heat. Homes with closed blinds should be under suspicion as well, according to the leaflet.
Poor Richard's News: UK Independent Councilor: Disabled children should be 'put down'
A local Independent Councilor in Great Britain was recently quoted as saying that disabled children are costly and should be “put down.” And while he later apologized for the outrageous statement, public pressure forced him to resign his post as councilor.
From Life Site News:
Disabled children place too great a burden on the country’s nationalized health care and other services and ought to be “put down” to save money, an independent councillor for Wadebridge East in North Cornwall has said. The comments, made to a member of the Disability Cornwall charity at County Hall in Truro in 2011, have cost Collin Brewer his position. He announced yesterday that he will resign.
At an event organized to help councillors meet and speak with various charities, Brewer approached a stall run by Disability Cornwall. When told about the work of the charity, he responded, “Disabled children cost the council too much money and should be put down.”I could give you a long diatribe filled with righteous indignation regarding this unbelievably offensive statement but I’d rather leave you with this thought:
Morality aside, as I ponder his horrific statement, it is clear to me that his opinion is truly dangerous because, in his country, those responsible for governing are also responsible for the health care of the people and the costs associated with it. In other words, in a free society where every individual has God-given rights, including that of life, these types of atrocities can’t happen (not legally anyway). However, in a place where the government is god, where individual rights come from the state and where health care is distributed per the discretion of bureaucrats, anything is possible. And this man’s vote counts as much as a mother with a boy who has Down syndrome. That, to me, is why his opinion is that much more tragic.
John Kerry urges Syrian opposition to attend Rome talks
bbc.co.uk
February 25, 2013John Kerry has urged Syria’s opposition to attend an international meeting in Rome this Thursday, on his first trip abroad as US Secretary of State.
Speaking in London, Mr Kerry said he understood Syrians wanted results from the summit and promised it would not just be a talking shop.
He has held talks with PM David Cameron and Foreign Secretary William Hague.
Infowars: Schiff: ‘The Pound Gets Pounded’ and Gold Will ‘Hit the Fan’ During Obama’s Second Term
Peter Schiff
LewRockwell.com
February 21, 2013The Pound Gets Pounded
As the global currency war intensifies, the majority of attention has been paid to the 17% fall of the Japanese yen against the U.S. dollar over the past few months. The implosion has given cover to the sad performance of another once mighty currency: the British pound sterling. But in many ways the travails of the pound is far more instructive to those pondering the fate of the U.S. currency.
Japan has a unique economic and demographic profile which makes it a poor stalking horse. Newly elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Bank of Japan have clearly and forcefully committed Japan to a policy of inflation at any cost. Even in a world of serial money printers their plans stand out as exceptional. Britain, on the other hand, is charting a more conventional course to the same destination.
The UK government, under conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, has succeeded in bringing marginal discipline to their budgetary imbalances. From 2009 to 2012, British government expenditures rose a total of just 1.6%, which was far below the official pace of inflation. (In contrast, U.S. federal spending grew by 7.9% over that time period). Since 2009 the British have kept their debt-to-GDP ratio lower than America’s and have cut into that metric at a faster rate. But while the British are conservative when compared to their American cousins, they are hardly austere when compared to Germany (which continues to have a nearly balanced budget and extremely low debt to GDP). Paul Krugman blames Britain’s lackluster economic performance on their misguided experiment with austerity.
The monetary side of the equation also puts the UK within the spectrum of its peers. Ever since the Great Recession began in 2008 the Bank of England, led by outgoing Governor Mervyn King, has been far more stimulative than the European Central Bankers in Frankfort (but not quite as much as the Federal Reserve or the Bank of Japan). In contrast to the permanent and ongoing bond-buying quantitative easing programs underway in the U.S. and Japan, the Bank of England has engaged in such measures only selectively.
Given the relatively moderate approach pursued by the British, the poor performance of their currency may be hard to fathom. The deciding factor may be that the Pound Sterling is not nearly as vital to investors, or as integrated into the global economy, as the U.S. dollar or the euro. The greenback, being the world’s reserve currency, has always benefited from demand that is independent of its economic fundamentals. The euro benefits from the size of the euro zone and the legacy of German banking discipline. The pound enjoys no such privileges and as a result foreign central banks do not feel as pressured to prop it up. As a result, over the past few years the pound has been… pounded. Since July 2008, the currency is down 26.7% against the U.S. dollar, and in recent months it has started falling faster than all other developed currencies except for the Abe-pummeled yen. Since October 1, 2012 the pound has fallen by 4% against the dollar and 8% against the euro.
The pound’s health is made more suspect by the extreme challenges faced by the Bank of England as it tries to stimulate the most admittedly inflation prone economy among the major Western nations. Unlike the Federal Reserve, which is tasked by statute to combat both inflation and unemployment, the BofE has only a single mandate: to keep inflation contained. On that score it has been failing habitually. Inflation in the UK has been north of its 2% target for the past five years (the current official rate is 2.7%). In its most recent inflation projections, Mr. King admitted that it will stay that way for years to come, and that it may exceed 3% this year and next. With its currency weakening and inflation accelerating, the mandate of the BofE would clearly indicate that the time has come for monetary tightening.
However, like all central bankers, Mr. King, and his successor, the Canadian Mark Carney, will not be bound by such triflings as statutory mandates and past promises. In his press conference last week, Mr. King spoke of “looking past” current inflation figures to a time when he expects inflation will moderate. When the choice is between inflation and the political pain of economic contraction, bankers (at least those who don’t speak German) will choose inflation every time.
While the American media has poked fun at the Bank of England’s backtracking, they somehow do not understand that the Federal Reserve would be doing the same if not for the advantages given to us by the dollar’s reserve status. Our ability to monetize the vast majority of the annual government deficit while exporting our inflation through half trillion dollar trade deficits and the overseas sale of hundreds of billions of Treasury bonds annually means that we do not yet face the pressures bearing down on the Bank of England.
For now at least Cameron is sticking to his guns and making the politically difficult case to voters that today’s hard choices will yield benefits down the road. This puts all the pressure on the Bank of England to satisfy the calls for stimulus. The Federal Reserve is fortunate in that the Obama Administration shares none of Cameron’s fiscal determination.
But already the Fed has done plenty of backing off from its prior promises. Just a few months ago Ben Bernanke announced specific inflation and unemployment triggers that would apparently put monetary policy on automatic pilot. But just last week, Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen announced that those goalposts (6.5% unemployment and 2.5% inflation) should not be considered “triggers” but as thresholds past which the Fed “may consider” tightening. When U.S. prices start to rise in earnest, look for the denials and rationalizations to come in torrents. The Fed will never acknowledge high inflation no matter what the data, nor will it ever take any steps to combat it. The simple reason is that it will be unable to do so without bringing on the economic contraction that is so terrifying to the British.
However, as British inflation accelerates, the pressure on the Bank of England to change course will intensify. As monetary stimulus continues to take its toll on the pound, price pressures will mount, even as the economy continues to stagnate. In other words, it is charting a course to stagflation. Perversely, this will put even more pressure on the BofE to ease. However, more cheap money will not stimulate the economy but merely cripple it further by fueling the inflationary fire.
At some point the British will have to admit that stimulus doesn’t work. To break the inflationary spiral and rescue the ailing pound, the BofE will be forced to aggressively raise rates, at which point the British government will have no choice but to slash spending more deeply than would have been the case had they taken their medicine sooner. However, if the BofE refuses to tighten even in the face of much higher official inflation, the pound may deteriorate further and the UK might be left with the embarrassing choice of adopting the euro.
As far as the United States is concerned, the U.K. is the canary in the coal mine. What they are going through now, and what they may be about to go through, we will surely experience in the years ahead. The only difference is that the leeway afforded to us by our special status simply gives us more rope to hang ourselves. When the noose finally tightens, the fall will be that much more painful.
Gold Will ‘Hit the Fan’ During Obama’s Second Term
Peter Schiff: It’s Going To Hit The Fan During Obama’s Second Term - Fox Business 2/18/2013
A word of caution from one of the world’s foremost financial experts, Euro Pacific Capital’s Peter Schiff warns not to get too cozy with the current pace of things as gold has seen a huge surge in the past 10 years alone.
Infowars: Deepest undersea vents discovered by UK team
David Shukman
bbc.co.uk
February 21, 2013UK scientists exploring the ocean floor in the Caribbean have discovered an “astounding” set of hydrothermal vents, the deepest anywhere in the world.
Deploying a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) in the Cayman Trough, they stumbled across a previously-unknown site nearly 5000m below the surface.
Video pictures relayed live back to the research ship mounting the operation show spindly chimneys up to 10m high.
They are belching out dark water – “a stunning sight”, one scientist said.
Alex's Blog: Hundreds of UK drones ‘missing’ in Iraq and Afghanistan
Nick Hopkins
The Guardian
February 13, 2013Almost 450 drones operated by the British military have crashed, broken down or been lost in action during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq over the last five years, figures reveal.
The Ministry of Defence has disclosed for the first time the five Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems used in the conflicts and the number that have perished due to pilot error, technical faults or the undesirability of retrieving them from hostile areas.
Reaper – 13 September 2012
The figures highlight the military’s increasing reliance on technologies that are regarded as a way of minimising risks to frontline troops. Officials say the UAVs have operated for thousands of hours on sensitive operations.
(via infowarsdotcom)
