Anyone coming across this blog might be interested to know that since the last post here, due to changes in life circumstances, I am no longer resident in the west of scotland but am now \living in Devon.
My new blog is http://silvertonia.blogspot.com
Iraqi police record the recovery of 85 bodies in and around Baghdad as the 3rd anniversary of the invasion approaches (al-Jazeera and BBC), meanwhile The Guardian publishes extracts from the memoirs of the British general, Whiteley, who played a leading role in the initial invasion, recording how the US commanders at the time, had a very limited interest in what was to be done in terms of rebuilding and pacifying the country that they had just invaded. When millions marched against the war in 2003, few could have realised, even then the magnitude of the crimes that the invasion would unleash. How the decisions of a bunch of power crazed idealogues in washington backed up by a pipsqueak, wannabee Gladstone in downing street would turn an already economically and militarily crippled nation into a training ground for islamic militants and a pivital force for destabilisation throughout the arabian peninsula and western asia.
The millions who marched in fevruary and march 2003 have not gone away, some are still marching and organising. many, horrified by the slaughter have retreated into a stunned silence, others dissolusioned by the lies and corruption of the warmongers have retreated from activity, but as the third anniversary of the greatest western foriegn policy disaster need to mobilise once more, for the activists who think that all that needs to be done is to march around the streets of London or washington and vicariously chher on the fragmented iraqi resistence from the sidelines the message has to be, as it must be for other former activists, is that the time has come to realise that for us, the main enemy is at home, and that means, rather than tokenistic parades around city centres there must be consistant and unrelenting political pressure brought to bear to turn a passive majority that oppose the war into an active majority prepared to drive the warmongers from office.
To lift a title from an old Little Feat number. It been damn cold even here on the clyde coast the past week or two. here on the coast we are supposed to be under the benevolent influence of the gulfstream, but wou wouldnt believe it at the moment. Due to the weekend blizzards and subsequent cold I have been forced to put off my spring visit to devon until early april for the first time ever. Maybe this is the first sign of the gulfstream being turned off or maybe its just a bit of a freak spell, who knows, one things for certain, the sooner its history, the better.
In a spirit of solidarity with those unfortunate enough to live in Cumnock, we give a plug to.
http://www.singlecellpress.co.uk
A fine new venture in radical publishing and musicmaking
I heard the witless Ben Bradshaw of the Brit ministry of Agriculture or whatever its called these days, on the radio this morning telling the nation, that despite the fact that bird flu has now been confirmed in Lyon, its by no means certain that its going to reach Britain because its not on the migration routes.This is another wonderful example of Government ministers treating the public is if they are all totally thick. Migration routes although reletively well worn tracks for migrating birds are not a fixed entity like the West Coast railway line. Weather conditions take the weary avian travellers off route and into areas they dont normally go, and the current winds are from the east which means the Baltic where victims of bird flu have already been found.
And as we speak, According to Channel 4 news, Scientists are testing a swan found dead near Weybridge in Surrey. So another serious situation being disguised by crap and spin from the Blair government.
I was out and about in a neighbouring town this morning collecting some shoes from the only remaining shoe repairer of any worth in the district this morning, and I was reminded of why February always seems the bleakest month. Having to wait around for buses in the pouring rain in the freezing cold, reminds us, that the west of scotland, whatever the tourist boards would have you believe, is not always the best place to be. Better though by far, then being banged up in Guantanamo bay on the word of some bounty hunter intent on making a personal fortune for himself or his clan, as reported by an American law professor earlier in the week, better also, then the fate of the film director, Michael Winterbottom and his team, detained under the PTA whilst on the way to attending an awards ceremony for a film made about Guantanamo. You increasingly get the feeling that february rain is symbolic of a more profound chill that is settling over our once rather innocent societies.
A very quick first entry in whats my third attempt at a Blog. This will be an occasional look at life from a hill not far from the sea in south west Scotland not far from the birthplace of Robert Burns. More later.
