Stef's Blog - a native London Southlander and unrepentant 'Conspiraloon™' who doesn't trust anyone, not even himself. Sometimes I take pictures. I also enjoy swearing immensely and think much faster than I can type, so each post comes guaranteed to include at last one confusing typo. OK?
A few days ago I was engaged in conversation with a non-conspiratorially minded chum who works in UK property sales
Times are definitely a changing as, for the first time, he acknowledge to me that, yes, the UK possibly was headed towards a period of severe economic hardship for the massses. He was, however, confident that the UK government 'has got clever people working behind the scenes who can see what's coming and the government probably has already started spending money on starting up some industries that will help pay us out of the mess the country's in'
My response was that there is absolutely no sign of that whatsoever and that whatever industry we could think of getting into, the Asian economies can think of getting into with a much lower cost base.
Even if they consented to enduring the same standard of living as the Chinese or Indians, the wages of British workers cannot be slashed to be competitive with Chinese or Indian labour because UK property costs are so much higher. Property costs that the British have to meet directly in rent or mortgages and indirectly through the rentierelement concealed within the price of essential goods and services
However, as I explained to my chum, I have seen copious evidence that the British, and other Western, establishments are preparing for the possiblity of some kind of economic collapse. They haven't invested much in the way of productive manufacturing industry but they have spent shed loads on tooling-up their police forces
But that, my chum argued, was necessary because of the threat of terrorism...
Evidently, he's still in need of a little more conspirasizing
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I've been pulled up a couple of times in this blog for suggesting that British police have become more like para-militaries in recent years. The people who've pulled me up have have referred to the pitched battles, complete with cavalry, during the miners strike and the treatment meted out to people like Blair Peach and Stephen Waldorf as being evidence that the police have always been a bit 'tasty' when it comes to dealing with people who get in their way
And, yes, these commentators have a point but, with all respect, have you taken a look at the British police recently...
Even former senior coppers and yes, though I still can't quite believe it, Max 'Have you read my book about how great the SS were' Hastings have recently written articles suggesting that having machine-gun toting police who can execute people with impunity is probably not the way for supposedly civilised societies to go...
Sir Max Hastings - sole liberator of the Falkland Islands and born-again bleeding heart pinko fag subversive
But even these (presumably) principled voices against the militarisation of our police compromise their argument by agreeing that, because of the threat of terrorism, there is a place for some British policemen to be kitted out with the kind of weaponry and mentality that wouldn't be out of place in a 1970s junta, but only sometimes
Now, to me, it's plain as day that the Terror threat is being at least bigged-up, and possibly at least partially instigated, by the numerous interest groups that benefit from a society collectively crapping its pants
But that's actually a moot point
Even if I believed that the Terror threat was 100% genuine and as really, really scary as our Overlords keep telling us it is, we should still reject the surveillence state and militarised police on the time-honoured bases that those who surrender liberty for a little temporary safety really do deserve neither, that freedom has a price and that if we change our society in response to terrorism the terrorists have achieved their objectives
You will hear none of these arguments being promoted by British politicians, journalists or officially sanctioned (low) pressure groups like Liberty
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The gun fashionably displayed by the group of licenced potential killers in this photo is a variant of the iconic Heckler & Koch MP5...
The MP5 can chuck out bullets at rates of up to 500-600 rounds a minute. It's black, it's scary looking and it can kill a lot of people very quickly. It's the kind of high-quality weapon that gives serious gun nuts a roaring chubby just thinking about it.
MP5s, and a smattering of the higher velocity H&K G36, are now a common sight in London in the hands of Metropolitan police officers. If you're ever at one of London's airports take a look up sometime and you'll see police officers at the mezzanine levels strutting around with their MP5s, presumably ready to cut loose from elevated positions of fire at the drop of a hat.
If you think about it for a moment that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Even if the quality of domestic terrorist was to take a quantum leap up from the kind of sad losers who make bombs out of flour and set fire to their underpants to the kind of terrorists who actually have access to guns, are the police really going to open fire with machine guns in crowded airport terminals? And, even if so, why do those armed police have to be there right in front of our fucking faces all the time?
The answer, I fear, is the same reason why the government sent light tanks to Heathrow before the invasion of Iraq. That weaponry is not there to scare potential (and, remember, allegedly suicidal) terrorists. It's there to scare us
...suspects were planning to copy the 2008 attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai*, where 10 gunmen went on a three-day rampage, killing 166 people and injuring more than 300, the sources said.
In response police armed response units are being given more powerful weapons.
Our correspondent said the UK authorities had been planning for such an attack ever since Mumbai* happened.
"David Cameron has taken a personal interest in the problem ever since his first threat assessment given to him when he took office in May.
"Now police armed response units are getting their firepower and their stocks of ammunition increased to deal with multiple terrorists armed with automatic weapons," he said.
More powerful than MP5s and G36s?!
What the fuck are they planning to start dishing out?
A few days ago I posted this clip as being a possible model for the introductory titles to any new TV series about the Metropolitan Police...
It was an attempt at weak humour
And it's weaker by the day
* = You remember the Mumbai attack, that's the one that included operatives with connections with US intelligence that the Indians are getting pissy about. A back-story that has been lavishly covered by the British State Broadcasting Company. Or, there again, maybe not. And don't forget to read the hard-hitting, insightful and totally objective analysis from the SBC's totally unspooky Frank Gardner to the right of the article about UK police being armed with gatling guns or whatever the fuck it is they're getting. Frank's analyses are worth the State Propaganda Tax on their own
For anyone interested in the BBC's utterly impartial, establishment agenda-free coverage of the domestic War on Terror, I heartily recommend a visit to the following post, and the first comment underneath it, on Lord P's blog...
I've already posted a link to the following story via a comment in a previous post. I think it's worth linking to because it illustrates a couple of things...
- The assault on personal freedoms being made in the name of the bullshit 'War on Terror' is truly global
- If there aren't any Muslims on hand to justify the establishment of a police state framework virtually anyone else will do. And if they're not scary enough they're encouraged to be a bit scarier
Police teams set up to identify terrorism threats and risks to national security are spying on protest and community groups, including Greenpeace, animal rights and climate change campaigners, and Iraq war protesters.
Police officers from the Special Investigation Group (SIG) have carried out surveillance and used a paid informer to gather information not just about planned protests but the personal lives and sexual relationships of group members.
The police informer, Christchurch man Rob Gilchrist, whose activities are revealed in today's Sunday Star-Times, was a key member of various community groups during the past decade.
He helped arrange protests and was close friends with leading campaigners, and advocated radical and illegal activities by the groups.
Last week he said he was embarrassed and sorry for what he did. The people he spied on were not security threats. "I know they are good people trying to make a better world."
Wellington human rights lawyer Michael Bott said the surveillance of peaceful groups was repugnant and "has shades of Big Brother and Soviet Russia". Surveillance of the personal lives of members of peaceful groups meant the basic right to privacy was being eroded. "It just appears fundamentally abusive and wrong."
Gilchrist was unmasked recently when his animal rights and Labour Party activist girlfriend Rochelle Rees was helping him fix his computer. She stumbled across signs of him passing information about protest groups to an anonymous email address.
This address has since been traced to two SIG officers based at the Christchurch central police station, Detective Peter Gilroy and Detective Sergeant John Sjoberg. Gilchrist privately referred to them as "Uncle Pete" and "Uncle John".
Melbourne newspaper The Age reported a similar case three months ago, where an undercover police officer had infiltrated community groups. He worked in Animal Liberation Victoria, taking part in a midnight raid on a battery hen farm, and helped organise anti-Iraq war demonstrations.
He worked for Australia's similarly named Security Intelligence Group, which is also officially focused on terrorism...
There is, of course, just a little bit of irony about state operatives monitoring NZ Greenpeace for terrorist tendencies when you recall that Greenpeace itself was the victim of state sponsored terrorism when French government agents blew up the Rainbow Warrior twenty years ago
Not that states, especially western democracies, ever actually sponsor terrorism and even if they did we'd know all about every single terrorist act they ever sponsored because we'd read about it in the newspapers. Definitely
Austrian artist Christian Eisenberger (1978) was arrested on Monday bythe Metropolitan Police on the corner of Bishopsgate and New Street inthe City of London. After a brief interrogation he was released, carrying parts of his outfit in a plastic bag.
Eisenberger, who is well known in Austria for his sculptures and performances in public spaces as well as for performances in the middleof nature, was walking on Bishopsgate, wearing a clown's outfit, when amember of the public alerted the police. Most probably, the reason forthis was that Eisenberger wore not only a typical clown's costume withthe appropriate clown's make-up, but also carried a belt around his waist fitted with brightly coloured artificial explosives.
Eisenberger, who was visiting London for 48 hours, commented that he knew that the walk through London would fail at a certain point, but tohis surprise his visits to Downing Street, Parliament Square, the newSaatchi Gallery and the Tate Modern went unchallenged. The publicresponded with amusement and while some members of the public raised eyebrows, none of the security guards at the various sites took action.
However his freedom as a clown ended when he was spotted by members of staff at the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) who stood outside smokingcigarettes.
Minutes later, exactly 20 footsteps away from the police station at Bishops Gate near Liverpool Street Station, eight policemen surroundedEisenberger, handcuffed him, and led him to the nearby police station,having relieved him of his red clown's wig and red nose. Where the same performance earlier this year in Vienna caused onlyamusement, it goes without saying that walking through London'sfinancial centre in an 'explosive clowns costume" will draw not onlyreactions by the public, but also by the police who will react swiftly.
Perhaps in these chastened times, tragicomic figures will draw attention and will make people stop and think. The irony of this event is that theclown 'Eisenberger' was not only being a clown but he also seemed to bea potential threat to the public. HVS December 2008
'Suspected' terrorist and 'alleged matermind' Rashid Rauf is 'reported' to have been killed by 'a suspected United States drone', the guardian cautiously informs us. A great blow in the war on terror or merely a lightening of the load on our over burdened public purse?
Which ever it is, it seems we will now never know the shocking, chilling truth behind the transatlantic liquid bombing plot which our government has so singularly failed to prove existed.
It is hard for the civilised human mind to encompass this man's awesome potential for destruction. What kind of evil genius could carry out such an enterprise? What crazy plans was he hatching as he wandered in and out of police custody?
It is our tragedy that a monster of his talents worked for our enemies.
Ages ago, I tried to formulate the ultimate Daily Mail news story of the future. A story which encapsulated all the establishment-promoted fears which are being used to herd people towards the security state.
And, at the centre of that story, I imagined the ultimate threat to our sacred way of life and freedoms being something along the lines of a crazed immigrant paedophile jihadist; with a nail bomb under one arm and a small blue-eyed boy under the other
There's a post about it somewhere at the arse end of this blog a few years back
In all honesty, I never imagined that the establishment's War on Terror bollocks factory would ever believe that it was in a position to actually seriously promote something so OTT
First two paragraphs say one thing; the following paragraphs, particularly the sixth, say ooh, actually it might not be true after all, they are looking into it.
Thanks to Paul over at the Conspiraloon Alliance for making me aware of this powerful simulation of what might really happen under certain circumstances:..
this is going to be a winner with the kind of people who hold in-depth conversations with their cats or who buy pyjamas for their poodles .
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