It is strange that this story here should come up. I have heard about the case and the role of the security services in the Tomlinson union scandal. I was discussing with a friend a couple of days ago, how I assumed that all the extreme right parties: National Front, BNP etc, were actually staffed by MI5 and MI6 agents at the groups' highest level.
I guess if you walked into the room with Nick Griffin and co in the late 70s and 80s, and you did not work for the secret services, then as per Warren Buffet quote: you knew you were the patsy!
I think, in contrast, left wing groups and animal rights groups, etc, were crippled by 'division sowing', Monty Python, 'splitter teams' at the mid and low levels.
As for the journalists here, 50% of them, on a cash in hand basis (another 25% don't know where the money comes from). At the Guardian, BBC and ITV proper salaries on the MI5/6 books paid out by the embassies around the world. Nevertheless, what really surprised me was not Richard not-so-white-now, but the bit about Jill Dando in the comments under the article. I really never knew!
* As soon as I typed 'MI5' this programme started to slow down a great deal, and I have had several problems with the function keys. I am going to stop now, as there appears to be someone knocking at the d....
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There's no smoke without fire, I'd be more worried if MI5 were not infiltrating the IRS, jihadi groups etc. That's what MI5 is for.
I agree Mark. It is not a criticism. My mate really did not think that our press and security services did 'that sort of thing'.I can't imagine why he thinks that, given what we did, and did well, during the war. Its just plain easier to control (actually run) hard right and left that way.
As it happens though, I really did have a problem updating/editing/publishing that story once I imported the link. Just letting you know ;)
Yes, this blog has been deffo flaky this evening. A coinci
It infuriates me when the BBC and its ilk start classifying anyone they want to virtue-signal about as "right wing" or "extreme right wing".
One glance at the manifestos of the BNP / NF make it clear that they're National Socialist parties both of whom follow the pattern of Germany's National Socialists of the 1930s - no, not suggesting they have gas chambers anywhere, but using the race / religion card to stir up support and exalting the authority of the State over the individual. That makes them Fascist, by any reasonable definition of the word.
And Fascism is as neat an encapsulation of Socialism as you can get, whether National or International.
So. Not particularly trying to start a race to the bottom in pedantry, and not trying to start a scrap; but I'd be fascinated to understand better (from anyone who can be bothered to comment) why I'm wrong, if indeed I am. If Socialism = left wing, then right wing is surely the opposite - individual over State, small Government, freedom of choice and speech. Sounds good to me.
I've believed for a long time that one of the great victories of Socialism has been to dissociate itself from "Fascism" by reclassifying Fascism as right-wing. Gets 'em of all sorts of hooks (but not those meat hooks reputedly used by Beria and his ilk in the Workers' Paradise of the Stalin era).
BTW, as it happens I agree with Mark W's comment 21:16 . Small Government or not!
Tony Blair is now way to the right of the "far right". He now says importing loads of Muslims was not a great idea (a point the far right was making 15 years ago). Plus he took part in the slaughter of a million Muslims in Iraq (the far right opposed the war from day one).
So why aren't Westminster politicians and journalists screaming "Xenophobe, fascist, racist," etc at Blair? Because the latter two groups are a bunch of slimy, two faced, mutual back scratching, creeps!
QED.
Fifteen years ago Ralph Musgrave was standing in elections for the BNP: his election address is still on the Net.What a pity , for him, that he was too early to join UKIP whose policies , like making the ultimate economic sacrifice of our foreign trade for the chance to ban our fellow Europeans, have now been eagerly espoused by Bony May,after Cameron took on UKIP -and lost.None dare call May a fascist!She just inherited a party that funnelled bank-created money into the housing market to buy Homeownerist votes by the million and appeased the UKIP anti-immigrants who previous Tory Parties (as in the case of Enoch Powell)had shunned.None May call her fascist!
There is no doubt that Jill Dando was a professional assassination, but I think the Police were just embarrassed that a professional assassination was carried out on a public figure right under their noses so they picked on Barry George to get the heat off them. He is a bit strange and not very bright and people like that are easily led and don't defend themselves very well. Happens all the time.
RM. Far right opposed the war as did the far left. Them in or close to power [centre right and left) supported it.
formertory. Terms like left or right are often used in different contexts and interchangeably so making them rather difficult to pin down. Socially conservative UKIPers and some Tories (same sex marriage phobes, 'pro-life', pro grammar school, anti immigration) might all be called 'right wing' policies but the same groups can often support 'industrial strategy' by the state, 'big infrastructure' spends, renationalisation of railways and higher taxes on the wealthy, all of which one might call economically speaking, left wing.
As for socialism, libertarian socialism is a good example of a small state anti corporatist ideology. Anarcho syndicalist (anarchist right wing?)is broadly in tune with the said ideology. I've heard it argued that Adam Smith falls into the former category although he would have been something of a proto libertarian socialist naturally, predating socialism as he did.
Thanks Rich Tee, that outline fills in the first step. It is the Balkans connection that makes me ask; What the...?
Formentory, Spot on. My wife has to shut me up every night when we watch the 'news'. I despise the 'instruction set' at the introduction of each item. 'Extreme left/right supporters of x,y,z etc etc say...'. Shut the fook up, I can do my own thinking! I delayed paying my BBC licence for three months over this!No, the aerial is not connected to the TV! BBC sent me a licence document in the end that stated that this document was 'not a BBC licence'. Which delights me.
Happy to debate issues raised from different perspectives. HG forces everybody to shift from old cherished beliefs. I was going to say, flesh your argument out little and ask Wandsworth if he would put it up. We do go over this from time to time (I see paul 156 has made a good start). Not my Blog though, so I will say no more.
Other comments on thread, Not to everybodies taste, but the central problem with Corbyn and Momentum is that they cannot be shifted over the issue of a war crimes trail for Blair and the cabinet. So they would be destroyed for this fact alone. More generally, Blair, not Trotsky is the glue that holds all these lefty folks together. This is not a guess :)
Mike, Former tory used to have posting rights on here, but he stopped posting so I cancelled them. I'm hapoy to reinstate FT if he asks.
Mike W, on the subject of the TV licence, I haven't had a TV since I know not when. When I moved into my present abode, I told the TV Licencing apparatchiks that I had no TV and that was that for a while. Then they asked me again, so I told them again, then they asked me a third time and I thought fsck it and ignored them. Every month, without fail, a pathetic threatening letter arrives trying to imply I'm going to be taken to court or promising me a visit from an inspector. Either he turns up when I'm out or they can't be bothered to send someone into deepest West Wales, so, so far, nothing has happened. I'm wondering how long they will keep up the letters without actually doing something or giving up. We shall see.
Paulc156: Terms like left or right are often used in different contexts and interchangeably so making them rather difficult to pin down
That's rather my point. The confusion and wilful misuse (imho) of these terms over the past 6 decades has resulted in the real Fascists being able to claim to be nice people by sliding the definition of fascism generally to the point where that word and the term "right wing" have become interchangeable.
MikeW: Thanks. I try to chase this one down from time to time. Mrs FT (or as she occasionally says she should be called, sympathetically, "Mrs FFS") would be rolling her eyes about now........ and frequently does when the news is on.
Mark W: Thank you. It's a kind offer and appreciated, but I'm happy just wandering through my morning blog list these days :-) .
To add further confusion there was a wild-eyed American "expert" on Newsnight last night who claimed that the Russians (not really Communist) were aiming to bring down western democracies by supporting right-wing nut jobs .
DBCR, do you think the Russians need to be Commies to be the go-to hate figures for the USians, or do they just need to be Russians?
Bayard above,
For quite a while I used a large computer moniter and was happy with BBC I Player for the odd programme. I got a few letters too, but I ignored them. I was living near a student area back then, so I guessed they would never turn up and they didn't. That loophole has gone (I assume you know) Ignoring so called 'news' issues, the price for Free View/Licence I think, is good value. I 'fined' the BBC in fact, for not being able to do a DD monthly, as they would not back down on the, 6 months in advance part of that plan and run it exactly after the previous year ran out. They said, in effect,tough, I should complain to parliament, as the MP's set the plans. I do know of someone who also has no TV and is having more heated exchanges over rights of access threats.
Mike, re, iPlayer, me too. I watched about two or three programmes a month on average, so that would make a TV licence rather expensive. I gave up having a TV long before iPlayer came into existence. Today I discovered that the licence-hounding is outsourced to Crapita, the same Crapita who refused to stop paying housing benefit and the dole to a friend of mine, despite ever more strenuous efforts on her behalf to persuade them to cease. Luckily she squirrelled it all away in a separate bank account because, just as she suspected, as soon as they finally realised she was in work, they became very nasty in demanding all the money back. She kept a copy of the email trail, it was hilarious. I had a copy but lost it when my hard disk died.
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