All-purpose news and politics thread: One Step Beyond!

[JCAll]

kind of how it works over there, aside from what they consider really serious crimes...if you can offer financial compensation (which is usually set by the court) they either reduce your sentence or let you go

That's basically how it works everywhere, just with bigger $$$.

[Iangould]

PA President Mahmoud Abbas is hinting strongly that Palestinians would be prepared to give up their right of Return in exchange for a two-state solution.

This has predictably been condemned by HAMAS and by Likud.

[king mob]

The BBC's Newsnight have backed out of naming a major Tory as a known paedophile, however the internet makes it quite clear who it is, especially if you search for 'Newsnight' on Twitter. The other story waiting to break is the old Private Eye story about another very well known Tory MP of the Thatcher era who was caught in Number 10 with a young boy and then very quickly shunted off to Brussels. That person was never officially named by the Eye, but it was very clear who it was by their description at the time.

Meanwhile at the phone hacking scandal, David Cameron texted Rebekah Brooks this:

In one message, Cameron thanks Brooks for letting him ride one of her family's horses, saying it was "fast, unpredictable and hard to control but fun", it is claimed.

Again, the internet has been saying it wasn't horses Cameron was riding.

[Iangould]

The BBC's Newsnight have backed out of naming a major Tory as a known paedophile, however the internet makes it quite clear who it is, especially if you search for 'Newsnight' on Twitter. The other story waiting to break is the old Private Eye story about another very well known Tory MP of the Thatcher era who was caught in Number 10 with a young boy and then very quickly shunted off to Brussels. That person was never officially named by the Eye, but it was very clear who it was by their description at the time.

Meanwhile at the phone hacking scandal, David Cameron texted Rebekah Brooks this:



Again, the internet has been saying it wasn't horses Cameron was riding.

Yeah I just went for a wander starting on Twitter and many of the allegations sound totally ludicrous and on par with the Satanic Sex Abuse panic the US.

[king mob]

Yeah I just went for a wander starting on Twitter and many of the allegations sound totally ludicrous and on par with the Satanic Sex Abuse panic the US.

The old Eye story came from Paul Foot and was said to have links with the Kincora scandal if i remember right, and the Tory who hasn't been named on Newsnight has spent an awful lot of money keeping his name out the papers this weekend but he's a new name in all of this. The old Eye story definitely has some legs as it's popped up every few years, and is about to break again this week with supposed new evidence.

The Cameron stories tend to focus round swinging parties in Chipping Norton and although that would be wonderfully funny and crush what little credibility Cameron has, but it's blatantly bollocks.

[Charles RB]

Freddie Starr was arrested this evening, which was probably brought on by him lying his tits off about his involvment with Savile in the 70's.

That made the front page of the Sun that day.

Front pages are great, they show you what the paper believes is most important to their readers: so the Sun has a celebrity nonce. "We've been told warplanes are heading to the Gulf!", cries the Independent. "Pensions may go bankrupt!", cries the Telegraph. "Obama doing better than Romney in polls!", cries the Guardian, because I guess Guardian readers care more about US politics than their own.

And the Mail had... how there are many single middle-aged people because of THE SCARY DECLINE OF MARRIAGE.

That was the most important story in the world for Mail readers.

But it's still better than how they ignored Superstorm Sandy in favour of a story about fucking wind turbines last week.

[Charles RB]

2. The Syrian National Council which claimed to be the political leadership of the revolution but which was mostly made up on western-based emigres ahs agreed to dissolve itself in favor of a new group representing priamrily the groups actually active on the ground inside Syria. The Local Co-ordinating councils - the civil non-violent opposition groups that are acting already as a de facto government in much of northern Syria and the FSA leadership are in favor. The LCC's official spoeswoman was really outspoken about the need ot restrain Islamists. ("Better an American occupation than a Saudi one.")

That's a big deal. It's just a few days ago that the SNC were pissed about a Qatari-proposed centralised opposition council.

4. There are now multiple, verified incidents of FSA fighters summarily executing captured government soldiers. Not only is this a war crime, it's spectacularly stupid when you're trying to convince other SAA soldiers to defect.

I've seen the excuse that they don't have the facilities to hold prisoners, and that might work if the Libyans hadn't taken prisoners during their civil war - the prison facilities were shite and neglect was widespread, but someone was still trying.

The BBC's Newsnight have backed out of naming a major Tory as a known paedophile, however the internet makes it quite clear who it is, especially if you search for 'Newsnight' on Twitter. The other story waiting to break is the old Private Eye story about another very well known Tory MP of the Thatcher era who was caught in Number 10 with a young boy and then very quickly shunted off to Brussels. That person was never officially named by the Eye, but it was very clear who it was by their description at the time.

The latest Eye is also explicitly naming Sir Cyril Smith as someone who should be re-investigated.

I'm wondering if Newsnight backed off because the story got mentioned on Twitter before, apparently, the BBC lawyers had seen in - which was frankly a stupid move by Iain Overton. What the fuck was he thinking?

The name on Twitter is Lord McAlpine but no sign of where that name came from. I have seen Piers Morgan on Twitter saying

So #Newsnight bottled it again tonight re exposing a paedophile? And they have the gall to mock tabloids? Grow a pair, Paxo.

when he isn't naming the guy either, and with his media connections he can find out who it is.

[Charles RB]

A good thing about that Newsnight programme: the Welsh government might open a new inquiry.

The Children's Commissioner for Wales is to write to the nation's first minister to request a new inquiry into the abuse of children at care homes in north Wales in the 1970s and 80s.

Keith Towler says he suspects a group were protected by each other's power, enabling the abuse to continue.

...


A Welsh government spokesperson said it was "very concerned" by the latest claims.

"Even though the allegations relate to the period before devolution, we believe in transparency in dealing with such issues, but are unable to comment further until we have more detail."

Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood said Mr Messham's concerns "must be further looked into" and she would be raising questions in the Welsh Assembly to "see exactly what can be done".

[Iangould]

There's been another massive rally in Kuwait - activists are claiming 200,000 people turned out in a country with a population of 3 million.

Oh and that's after the poice sealed off the original rallying point and the organizers had to move it to a new site 20 kilometres away on next to no notice and announce the move via Twitter.

[Gryphon]

In Canadian politics

So, I was reading the Toronto Star today and in the letters to the editor there were more accusations lobbed at the Tories of voter fraud with Robocalls. I thought the investigation concluded that the liberals were involved? And someone said 76% voted against Harper. Where are they getting these numbers from?

Today there were more accusations against Harper. Did they wait to ensure no heat would be on the liberals so they could attack the tories again? I know that after Elections Canada fined the liberals, the papers simply dropped all discussion of it. Did they feel now that enough time had passed and people were focusing on the US election, they could just resume attacks on Harper?

[Gryphon]

There is a new Eastern Orthodox Pope now.

[Iangould]

There is a new Eastern Orthodox Pope now.

No, there's a new Coptic Pope.

Different Church.

[Gryphon]

Oh, my mistake.

[Nick Soapdish]

Today there were more accusations against Harper. Did they wait to ensure no heat would be on the liberals so they could attack the tories again? I know that after Elections Canada fined the liberals, the papers simply dropped all discussion of it. Did they feel now that enough time had passed and people were focusing on the US election, they could just resume attacks on Harper?

Are you getting that from the letters to the editor again?

You said that it was the liberals, but when I Googled, the only thing that I came up with was a $4900 fine for not identifying the source of the robocalls. But the scandal seems to be something else entirely - a sworn deposition from a caller hired by the Conservative Party to mislead voters in live calls and tracking the source of the robocalls to an IP address in the Conservative Party headquarters although Prescott (who used the same computer as "Pierre Poutine", who bought the disposable cell phones, within minutes of the guy) and Sonos weren't charged.

[Gryphon]

Are you getting that from the letters to the editor again?

You said that it was the liberals, but when I Googled, the only thing that I came up with was a $4900 fine for not identifying the source of the robocalls. But the scandal seems to be something else entirely - a sworn deposition from a caller hired by the Conservative Party to mislead voters in live calls and tracking the source of the robocalls to an IP address in the Conservative Party headquarters although Prescott (who used the same computer as "Pierre Poutine", who bought the disposable cell phones, within minutes of the guy) and Sonos weren't charged.

Elections canada concluded their investigation. The sworn desposition is bullpatties, and that wiki page has been edited many times just so you know.