Hah!
From Contrary:
In case you haven’t been keeping up to date on the latest integrity initiative, its ties to the BBC and peddling anti-Russian narrative (with links to the paranoia filled Leask), RT (strangely enough) has a good piece on the latest leak – naughty naughty uk spreading their disinformation to the Balkans – but that’s what happens if you give your secret services untrammelled powers, so I’ve heard,
Integrity initiative and institute for statecraft – latest leaks Feb 2019
https://www.rt.com/uk/451312-integrity-initiative-balkans-campaign/
Sorry for not keeping up a positive take, but sometimes it’s healthy to let it out. I mean, we have direct links between an MP getting paid by a gold investment company, but barely reported, corruption and shitty behaviour at all levels in Westminster, barely reported, a wholly incompetent uk government – oh can’t say a bad word about them – , the whole world watching what they actually do in the House of Commons and laughing, it’s embarrassing (amusingly so in some cases right enough), and the whole world suddenly paying attention to the fact that Scotland STUPIDLY voted against independence in 2014 in bewilderment, it’s embarrassing, and the entirety of the English population still arguing with each other vehemently over something that has already happened – they are STUPID!
My latest suspicion on the reason for the decision to leave the EU – I have not abandoned the reasoning about how much the UK state government / actors wanted to get out of the EU before the tax transparency laws came into place and wreck their nice little laundering system – but I think that might have more to do with the timing than being the driving force. So this theory is more on the conspiracy side of thinking, but eminently plausible if you consider the close ties between US and UK security services, the need to maintain the status quo for all state actors, and the huge amount of money involved. It came to me while reading about the gold-standard ending – it was what the US based their currency value on until Nixon scrapped that in favour of our current fiat system (all western economies adopted it) – but the US went on to effectively base their value of currency on oil – hence the term petrodollar – making an agreement with Saudi Arabia so that all oil is bought and sold in US dollars – which effectively makes any oil-using nation beholden to the US. Nice work if you can get it.
Now, (yes I know this is taking ages, I have better things to do too), there was an incident recently – I will need to look for which country it was, I have totally forgotten that detail for some reason – where this country was making an agreement with the EU to buy oil in Euros. This is a major thing – it would mean the US didn’t have a monopoly, and the EU would be serious competition – and the value of the petrodollar would be in jeopardy. A huge problem for the US. Sanctions were applied or threatened I believe (I will have to check this), and no deal was made to buy oil in Euros.
Having observed some of the terrible behaviour of UK politicians in their ‘negotiating’ with the EU, and their generally hostile attitude, and their rather inflammatory attempts to negotiate with individual EU countries, and some of the reporting – sensationalised style – that the EU will not survive Brexit, it will soon crumble etc (despite every single piece of evidence showing it to be holding strong, united, and resilient – in fact more so now) – strange how this reporting is totally contrary to reality. We also have evidence, through the Anonymous leaks of the integrity Initiative documents that the UK is actively trying to influence other EU countries with misinformation (not really cricket that).
And we know that the US, the UK and Saudi Arabia are the bestest of buddies.
Well, what if the whole plan in the first place (opportunism or not) was to destabilise the EU? (To stop it muscling into the Oil selling/buying market with the Euro). The US promises the UK elites some rewards (gold investments I am sure are just a tiny fraction of deals going on), they full on make a dogs dinner of it to cause as much disruption as possible, and they are untouchable as politicians (refer to Tony Blair and war crimes) so can retire fat and happy. The EU doesn’t seem to be playing ball with this plan though. But keep an ear out for all those mentions of ‘the EU won’t survive this’, ‘it’s on its end days’, ‘PM will make a deal with,,,(EU country)’ – why else would these things still be getting said when at no time the EU has ever shown the tiniest chink of weakness, or shown any lack of solidarity or deviation of their stated intentions? So, could it be the US trying to oust the potential competition?
I feel so much better now I’ve got all that out 😉
Ed: No charge.
Talking-up Scotland 
“Perfidious Albion”
If the shoe fits…..
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I have checked with my tax and economy Expert, and have confirmation that my conspiracy theory is plausible, but the tax-transparency reason is not. No other information, so I will have to think on that one myself. The whole enormity of the result of the UKs method of leaving the EU needs some big driving force behind it, and a threat to the petrodollar fits into the category of big.
How does this affect Scotland? Obviously, we would be better not being associated with the whole affair. But also, you have to wonder at the wholesale intractableness of the UK gov’t in its ignoring of Scotland, it’s wishes, it’s needs – Scotland has oil. I’m sure the US might feel it was on shaky ground as regards a guarantee that an independent Scotland would trade in the petrodollar – although I doubt we’d do otherwise, the US probably think we are far too keen on the EU so maybe a ‘risk’, particularly as Scotland is well on the road into renewable technology – so instead of trying to smooch around Scotland we are getting stamped down on and put back in the box,,, maybe.
Why on earth are BritNatty people still believing it is England that holds all the power and we must stay part of their construct? I personally don’t care about power in the international stage, but Scotland has so much more potential as an independent country than being shackled to the union – it makes so little sense to continue being politically and fiscally embedded in the UK.
Sorry John, but it also makes sense, economically and politically, to be a member of the EU. I believe they will drop their neoliberal idealism soon enough, now that the Green New Deal is gaining traction, and with the influence of the UK gone it is likely there will be be a quick turn around.
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I like the thought of the disappointed principal at Notts Trent when his new terror researchers start looking at his own neoliberal management style instead of bidding for contracts from MoD and M.
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PS ta for no charging ed 🙂
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John, it was Iraq that wanted to move to Euros for its oil, so Saddam had to go. Ditto with Lybia when The Colonel, no not that one, wanted to move to an African currency for their oil.
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Libya!
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Could have been Labia. Many a slip…..
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Yes indeed.
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It was more recent than that, Bill. I’ve had a quick look (should have done it before!) – Iran in 2016 started kicking up a stink about trading oil in Euros:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oil-iran-exclusive-idUSKCN0VE21S
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Aha. aha. aha. Iran, Russia, China… sanctions, recent demonisation, recent step-up of anti-russian (and china?) propaganda. Oil and gas and the US: powerful influences.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-sanctions-trump-nuclear-deal-europe-russia-oil-un-a8556786.html
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Top RA work Country.
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Eh? Country? RA?
You are too busy fantasising your trotskyite dreams perhaps… Maybe I should NOT have shown you the paper on terrorising the neoliberals 😀
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CameronB Brodie should be commenting on TuS, John, he has some excellent links and relevant stuff:
https://wingsoverscotland.com/an-uncertain-future/#comment-2433997
He says:
CameronB Brodie says:
13 February, 2019 at 12:09 pm
Individual self-determination depends largely on maintaining a positive personal psychology. That’s why the BBC in Scotland makes you want to self-harm. Achieving a sense of positive emotions not only strengthens our cognitive abilities, it improves our ability to cope with change. Once again, this all boils down to the architecture of our brains.
Upward Spirals of Positive Emotions Counter Downward Spirals of Negativity: Insights from the Broaden-and-Build Theory and Affective Neuroscience on The Treatment of Emotion Dysfunctions and Deficits in Psychopathology
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908186/
What IS the protocol when you swipe links from someone else’s comment? I mean, it isn’t plagerism, but what is the decent thing to do? Should they be referenced? Does anyone care?
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Thanks so much again. Fascinating.
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John I don’t want you to have a heart attack so don’t watch tonight’s Labour Party broadcast,according to them the SNHS is on its knees and only they can save it HE HE.
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Where has my other comment gone? Disappeared into the ether? Probably,,, I really despair sometimes at my lack of internetty skills, I mean, I use a computer all day and know the ins and outs of some fairly complex software, but social media things seem to be beyond me. Sigh.
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I remember several states announcing an alternative to using the petrodollar, as others above have also mentioned. Libya in conjunction with Africa, I remember as the first followed by a rumour of a developing pact between Russia and China to use a different currency to the dollar. Iran was the last nation (that I remember) to announce departure from the petrodollar.
It hasn’t gone well, sofar in any challenge to the US hegemony. The interference in Venezuela makes me suspect that Venezuela might have been going that direction, or merely Washington expected them to. The largest oil reserve in the world, socialist and just “down the road” from America, they could have been more diplomatic, or softly softly with their nationalisation plans.
I find it difficult to assess between, what might be conspiracy, bluff, double bluff and double bluff bluff, to arrive at a reasonable conclusion. It leaves me (a boat driving, woodworking, farm jake) at a point of, mibees aye mibees naw.
As a small but energy rich independent country we will need to be careful. We can only be sure that economic power is shifting/shifted, an equilibrium will be reestablished, a new hegemony. I’ll use an analogy I have real experiance of, this stirring of the ferment is like that of a sceptic tank, it will bring jobbies to the surface.
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Eh, good analogy!? 😀
Really good points Alan. I don’t think we will ever know the actual full story of any of this – it is just knowing that the reasons we are being fed for the current actions are so spurious you know they can’t be true, and I have a need to rationalise behaviours into possible motivations, based on the relative cost-benefit analysis of any situation. The cost of Brexit is far too much to make sense of with any of the current stated reasons – so it is something else.
The actual vote here is irrelevant – it was so close that any government could have wriggled their way out of either option, given the incentive, so that leaves us with: what could be their incentive. I can accept not ever really knowing, as long as I have a good enough idea of what is plausible.
It is my own personal need to rationalise the world around me that I feel the need to present these theories. But it is useful to put these global shenanigans into perspective and present it – it could have consequences for an independent Scotland. Whether the UK is in cahoots with the US or not to make trouble for the EU, looking at the behaviour of the US towards other oil producing nations is informative for us as a nation.
I have an updated, fully edited conspiacy theory now I have better info, and some more insights 😉 just hope John’s blog accepts the links,,,
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Aye, I too try to analyse what I hear is happening here and abroad and as I said find it difficult to arrive at any conclusion. The results of my thoughts and observations I place on a shelf, a brain shelf of probabilities and possibilities.
I did have tax avoidance on the shelf, quite prominent for a time, not so secure now. For me it wasn’t discredited, as a theory, I still see large amounts of money being made through a hard brexit, by people hedging the pound and currency deals but I view this as opportunistic rather than initiating, although some like Farage appear to be abetting.
The most probable theory, for me at the moment, is ideology. The ideologically driven bunch, full of zeal, brim full of confirmation bias and hell bent on seeing their vision a reality. Who are they? They are the ones behind the 2005 booklet, “Direct democracy an agenda for a new model party”. Although this was 2005 they have been on the go since the Maastricht treaty. With more joining, some thinking it was to finish off what Thatcher had started, finish her legacy. Others, no doubt out of self interest or part of some seedy cabal, join because of the money/tax issue.
How have they gained power? Serendipity and opportunity. A large percentage of the electorate pissed off, weak government, split parties, failed politicians seeking legacy. A media (at least in part) that may have given a New Labour candidate a fair crack but no way were they going to be fair to such a left-winger, this left the field open for a weak and minority government to hold on to power but only with help. That’s the serendipity part which handed opportunity to the ideological nut jobs to hold Cameron to ransome.
Whether a similar dismal state would have been reached if Labour had been in power, I don’t know. It could be another element to serendipity that the Conservatives are in power, the Conservatives have the ability to hold their nose and paper over the cracks, when sitting along side some of their less savoury members, providing they hold onto power. The present fiasco has/is testing the nose holding beyond the endurance of some tories.
That’s my barrow emptied.
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Alan, always good to empty the barrow every now and then – you get the chance to fill it up with all sorts of new stuff then!
I did post my updated streamlined theory here, but it has been disappeared. I also indulged Craig’s commentariat, so will just link to that in case anyone wants to look at it (and see how much better comments can be made if they are edited?!)
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/02/craig-is-in-jacobabad/comment-page-5/#comment-829450
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Thanks Contrary. Went with the link, read your comment and others. Found many interesting points, although I agree with you it is hard enough to stay grounded when trying to work through the knowns, the creditable knowns, the links and possible links between the cast of players, to come up with a theory that makes some sense of where we are. To try and predict the future when there is clear fresh air opening up under both feet, this I side step.
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