George Orwell certainly knew what he was talking about in his book 1984, where he referred to “newspeak”. From that, our politicians have developed to a position of extreme expertise and have now most certainly reached the pinnacle of “double speak”.
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Protest 21st January 8am Queen Elizabeth 2nd Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, SW1P3EE http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2217/1/
Tony Blair is back in front of the Chilcot inquiry. The hearing comes against a background of the statement from his chief legal adviser which effectively says that Blair ignored his advice over the legality of the Iraq war. Lord Goldsmith, who was attorney general in the Blair government, has said that he felt uncomfortable with Blair’s public statements in the run up to war.
It is clear that Blair had a strategy of not asking for legal advice from his
legal adviser, trying to avoid it being put in writing, and in general
ensuring that he heard nothing which might hold him back in his determination to follow George Bush into the war.
Blair deliberately went to war despite knowing that the lawyers thought the war was not legal. He is now giving evidence for a second time at Chilcot, to try to explain the discrepancies between his original evidence and that of Goldsmith.
Stop the War, along with CND and BMI, is calling a demonstration outside the Chilcot inquiry this Friday, 21st January, at 8 am. We are asking everyone who can be there to attend. He is scheduled to be in the hearing from 9.30 to 2pm but there is now talk of him being there all day because of this latest statement. We would especially encourage people to come from 8 till 10.30, but there will be people there for the duration of the hearing.
Other things you can do to highlight Blair’s lies:
1. Call a local protest/set up a STW stall on Friday if you can’t make it to Westminster.
2. Hold a meeting on Truth and lies about Iraq – we can help find speakers for you.
3. Donate to Stop the War to help our campaigning, and take out a direct debit/membership to contribute to our work over the coming year.
Protest 21st January 8am Queen Elizabeth 2nd Centre, Broad Sanctuary, Westminster, SW1P3EE
Subject: North Kelvin Meadow.
“Time is running out to save an award winning community green space in Glasgow’s West End from Developers”.
North Kelvin Meadow, a well used and supported green-space in the heart of Glasgow’s West End is now the subject of a planning application to build 115 flats, which if successful, will mark the end of this well loved community initiative. The developer New City Vision Ltd (NCV) chosen by Glasgow City Council has now kicked off their drive to gain planning permission for their housing development by holding two public meetings allowing the community to comment on their design. However the fundamental question of whether any housing development is right for this green space will not be up for discussion (1). They expect their main planning application to go in by March 2011. Even after two and half years of hard work by the community, GCC have chosen “to carry on regardless with the sale process” and to bulldoze North Kelvin Meadow. They have never consulted with the local people about what should happen to this land.
Local people have been looking after this land in the absence of any management by the Council. And this work has been recognized for two years in a row with an award from Beautiful Scotland. They have cleared dumped rubbish off the land, regularly pick up litter, run a community composting service, and have set up community allotments so that local residents can grow fruit and veg. This green space is in constant use by dog walkers, children, and others who appreciate it as a wild park. They would like to extend their work to provide a permanent resource for the benefit of the whole community. The development by New City Vision will destroy this work and ensure there is one less public resource for the people of North Kelvinside.
*Douglas Peacock Chairman North Kelvin Meadow Campaign:*
“This planning application if successful will result in a Meadow and community Allotment being bulldozed, 100s of trees being cut down and a successful award winning community initiative ceasing. Thats not a great legacy to leave the next generation to say the least! This land has never
been built on and always used for the local community and that should continue.”
“Glasgow City Council are out of step on what people are looking for on this issue, this is backed up by the number of politicians voicing their support plus 1000 people to date have signed the petition, that and the overwhelming support from local people asking that this green space not be built on.”
*SNP Depute Leader Nicola Sturgeon* has recently mentioned, in Dec 2010, the plight of North Kelvin Meadow: http://www.snp.org/node/17556
*Notes*
1. A pre planning application was recently introduced by the Scottish Government to help communities, understand and get up to speed with what a developer is planning in their area prior to its main application for planning consent. This period last 12 weeks. North Kelvin Meadow is one of the first in Glasgow to be in this new process. Crucially though people aren’t being asked, and have *never* been officially asked, what they like to happen to this land. This pre planning consultation is mainly about what should happen to the small amount of open space which currently is shown as a small roundabout within the housing complex e.g. should it be grass, trees, seating, BBQ area, tarmac etc?
2 *North Kelvin Meadow web site* <http://www.northkelvinmeadow.com>
for further information email northkelvinmeadow@gmail.com
3. *Images for publication* available for download and use from
http://www.flickr.com/groups/northkelvinmeadow/
4. *New City Vision Ltd* <http://www.cloustonstreet.co.uk>
The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is on fire!.
A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 3,500 times in 2010. That’s about 8 full 747s.
In 2010, there were 173 new posts, not bad for the first year! There were 265 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 14mb. That’s about 5 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was May 16th with 49 views. The most popular post that day was BIG BROTHER IS HERE!!!.
The top referring sites in 2010 were digg.com, healthfitnesstherapy.com, slashingtongue.com, accesstoinfo.blogspot.com, and the-best-twitter.com.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for annarky1, pan european strike, “mickey z”, http://www.justiceforaafiasiddqui, and annarky1.wordpress.com.
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
BIG BROTHER IS HERE!!! May 2010
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500m more slum dwellers by 2030 March 2010
GENERALS RULE. May 2010
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REASON TO DUMP THE STATE. March 2010
ISRAEL’S HISTORY OF AGGRESSION. April 2010
Annarky1's Blog 