How Britain spent £40 billion suffering humiliating defeat in Afghanistan

by Will Hutton

The Ministry of Defence and the military establishment are revealed as over-optimistic boneheads, says Will Hutton, and the amount of money squandered beggars belief.

A cortege carrying the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan passes through Wootton Bassett in 2010.

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The Ministry of Defence and the military establishment are revealed as over-optimistic boneheads, says Will Hutton, and the amount of money squandered beggars belief.

In Afghanistan, Britain has just suffered a humiliating defeat, the worst in more than half a century and, arguably, ranking with the worst in modern times. The truth is inescapable: we are no longer a great economic, technological or military power.

You And Whose Army!

What a magnificent turn-out for the four hour strike last Monday 13th October. All in all LAS UNISON organised 34 picket lines across the LAS. We attracted a lot of media attention around the stations in general and particularly at Waterloo HQ.

 

Thanks go to all our members. Whatever role you played on the day, you were all part of our action against the pay policy of this Coalition government.

 

The rain and the military did not deter us!

NO PROSECUTION OF GALLOWAY OVER ‘ISRAEL-FREE ZONE’ SPEECH

The Crown Prosecution Service has confirmed that Bradford West MP George Galloway will not be charged over a speech in made in Leeds in August declaring that Bradford was an ‘an Israel-free zone’.

Following the speech on August 2, which was posted online, several complaints were made to Yorkshire police that Galloway’s comments amounted to hate crime. These allegations have been comprehensively dismissed by the CPS.

“This has been an extremely expensive waste of police’ and CPS’ time forced on them by ultra-Zionists who were pursuing a vendetta against me,” Galloway said. “My comments were aimed at the state of Israel which – I repeat what I said at the time – is an illegal, savage and barbarous state, and had nothing whatever to do with race or religion. And they have the benefit of being true. That country has more censures against it by the United Nations than the rest of the countries in the world put together, refuses to abide by resolutions and continues to illegally grab land and persecute the rightful owners of it and uses its military to blockade and murder the people of Gaza. I take back not a word and I will continue to forcefully condemn Israel.”

Galloway described a visit by the Israeli ambassador to Bradford shortly after the speech as a “cheap and vulgar publicity stunt” and condemned the local Muslims who had met him as “willing dupes”.

He continued: “It remains the case that there is a worldwide boycott of Israel, its goods, its services, its academics. I hope the citizens of Bradford will join me in refusing to treat with the advocates of this hateful and oppressive regime and truly make Bradford an Israel-free zone.”

The tragedy that is Karachi

The cuts in development funds played havoc with the already poor state of jobs and infrastructure as the pressure of a forever rising population increased the misery of the people

One of the three truly metropolitan cities of the subcontinent, along with Mumbai and Kolkata, Karachi has the honour of being Jinnah's choice of Pakistan's Capital and his final resting place. Referred to as 'the city of lights' in the not too distant past and the commercial nerve centre of the nation, Karachi's dynamism provided hope to the country's aspirations. From Mai Kolachi's sleeping village on the sea to witness of the birth and engine of the early development of a new nation to now a bleeding and bruised metropolis of 20 million oppressed souls, is certainly a tragedy of great proportions for the city as well as the country.

Peaceful and progressive, Karachi was the gift of the generous Sindhis to the Quaid and it welcomed all with open arms; the refugees flocked from India and then the Pathans from the frontier and also the Punjabis and Baloch came, all to try their luck in the capital. The city grew from less than 500,000 people to over two million in no time! Due to the Korean boom speedy industrialisation was taking place in the city; jobs were being created so was an entrepreneur class coming into being. The nation was beginning to forget its painful birth and Karachi was leading it all.

Let's Not Make Child Grooming about Ethnicity, But We Can Talk About Race If You'd Like

by: Assed Baig

The level of depravity and abuse revealed by the Jay report into the Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal has shocked the entire country.

The fact that 1,400 children have been abused has been lost on some as they rush to link the crimes of predatory men to ethnicity.

The case that these crimes were carried out by Pakistani men does not warrant the level of attention it has received in the press.

We do not judge other crimes by race. But we could try. If journalists and politicians were to talk about crimes based on race what would it sound like?

"Ten white straight men jailed over North Yorkshire girl's sex exploitation" is one headline a twitter user sent me. Are white people more inclined towards acts of mass murder - like murdering Native Americans; bombing Iraq, Afghanistan, Hiroshima, Nagasaki; slavery and colonialism? White people carry out the majority of sexual attacks committed against animals in this country. Is it something in white culture? Can I hear white community leaders condemning such acts? In fact, let's hear from the highest ranking white community leader in this country, David Cameron, and have him explain and apologise for these actions carried out by white people.

Ridiculous isn't it? No more ridiculous than repeated attempts to suggest that there is something inherent in Pakistani identity that would drive men from that background to commit sexual crimes against children.

“Are We Going To Die In Our Sleep Tonight?”

by MrE Commenter

It is past 1:30 am and I have given up trying to sleep.

Seeing the death and destruction of innocent lives in Gaza is hitting me like little else has ever done. May be its because I have three nieces and nephews, and it is only too easy to imagine them in that situation, asking me the same question that Gazan elders have to face:

“Are we going to die in our sleep tonight?”

“Why are they bombing us?”

“Am I going to be killed tonight? I was going to wear my favourite dress”

The only response I could possibly give to these questions is silence, and in that silence are echoes.

The words that are echoing in my mind are HasbunAllahu Wa Ni’mal Wakeel (roughly translated as Allah is sufficient for us and He is the best disposer of affairs). These words echo in my mind, not because I am trying to stave off any sense of responsibility for the genocide by fobbing it onto the lap of God, and leaving it to Him to sort out.

No, these words echo in my mind, they echo with the same voice that I first heard them – shouted into the smoke-filled air by a man who had just seen his home being obliterated.

It was the voice of a man who has just seen every possession in his life being vaporised, in one short moment. And this is being repeated time and time again, in one neighbourhood after another, all across the Gaza Strip.

If the word PAIN was to be redefined it will be for this
 man  who has just lost all his grandchildren at once

These are people who have survived decades of occupation, put together something that could possibly be called ‘life’ against all odds – only to have it torn from their grasp.

For these people every job, every schoolchild, every meal, every day, every smile, every breath and every action is an act of defiance against the occupier. A moment in their lives is more valuable than a month full of my sleepless night.

It’s now past 2:30 am and I am no closer to falling asleep. But when the morning comes, Insha’Allah (if Allah wills) I will dedicate the day to doing something worthwhile for my Ummah, and the day after that, and the day after that, and so on. May be then – just may be – I’ll deserve to sleep at night.

GALLOWAY TO LAUNCH PUBLIC ENQUIRY INTO BBC

 George Galloway has announced that he will establish his own public enquiry into the BBC’s role in reporting the events of the past few weeks in Gaza.

    The Bradford West MP had previously announced that he is refusing to pay his licence fee until the BBC demonstrated a more impartial standard of broadcasting on the conflict. Galloway has been openly critical of the its editorial standpoint on the conflict, arguing that the BBC has a duty, as a publicly funded organisation, to adopt an unbiased approach to such major stories.

    Many in the country were outraged when the BBC failed to report on the July 19th national demonstration which had been attended by tens of thousands of demonstrators. It belatedly addressed this with a hastily-arranged piece on its website, for which it had to borrow an image from a rival broadcaster. It has also been commented that since the outcry, the BBC’s reporting had apparently become more balanced. This was in part down to the reporting of Middle East correspondent Jeremy Bowen from the front-line in Gaza. Strangely – indeed, inexplicably – Bowen is absent from the reporting this week as he is, according to Twitter, ‘on holiday’.

    The BBC has been dogged by scandals in the past year and has faced questioning on its integrity, from the child abuse scandal to questions about executive pay-offs, with licence fee payers increasingly turning their backs on the institution in favour of other media outlets.

    We will keep you up to date with the developments on the public enquiry. If you can help in any way with the enquiry, please email gallowayg@parliament.uk

Quranic justification for cutting trees during war...

In the name of Allah, the most Gracious the most Merciful

I wrote this article in response to the question posed by an atheist friend of mine who quoted the following aayah of the Qur’an:

Whatever you have cut down of [their] palm trees or left standing on their trunks - it was by permission of Allah and so He would disgrace the defiantly disobedient.

(Quran 59;5)

His argument has been that, "I have been told hundreds of times that Islamic ethics of war even prohibit chopping of trees unnecessarily, let alone killing of innocent civilians, women and children. Yet the above verse of Quran justifies not only the way Jews of Medina were treated but the chopping of tender palm trees."

Response:

In order to understand the reasoning behind Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) dealing with the Jews of Medina and ordering the cutting of ‘tender’ palm trees, it is important to understand the historical background of that particular incident.

Largest Convoy To Syria Feature Documentary

By Abid Mahi

Missing In Action

by Eric Roberts 

Pay within the National Health Service has been cut from between 8% and 12% since 2010!

 

Coincidentally from the same time the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats took it upon themselves (they have no mandate from the British people) to butcher the NHS and sell the carcass on to the highest bidder, who, nine times out of ten, have been wealthy donors to, and, supporters of,  you've guessed it, the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Parties!

 

60% of staff within the NHS will not get a pay increase in 2014! The 'lucky' 40% who do, will get 1% (non consolidated) with not so much strings attached, but River Mersey ferry docking ropes attached!