Indo-UK News and Discussion - April 2013

[IndraD]

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/salm ... 97667.html

Salman Khan's UK visa rejected

[Philip]

Trade is just one benefit,an old report is below.There are several benefits which are denied to non-CW nationals.Here are a couple of interesting details:

Commonwealth citizen travel documents

Commonwealth citizens outside the UK are eligible to apply for a British emergency travel document if they need to travel urgently and their passport has been lost/stolen/expired (as long as the FCO has cleared this with the government of the Commonwealth citizen's home country).[24]

When a British embassy or consulate in a foreign country is required to provide a replacement passport to a Commonwealth citizen whose government is unrepresented in that country, it will issue a British passport with the nationality of the holder marked as "Commonwealth citizen".[25]

http://www.thecommonwealth.org/news/345 ... eminar.htm

Commonwealth members enjoy up to 50 per cent trade advantage

Kamalesh Sharma, speaking at the Trade seminar, taking place at the Commonwealth Secretariat's headquarters on 30 September. He said: "It is perhaps in the field of trade that our country-to-country links can most obviously be manifested and where we – as a community – can be more dynamic."

30 September 2010

Between them, Commonwealth countries traded around US$4 trillion worth of goods in 2008, new research finds

A Commonwealth country’s trade with another member is likely to be a third to a half more than with a non-member, even after taking into account other possible contributory factors such as proximity, level of development and language, according to new research published today by the Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS).

The research also reveals that, over the last two decades, the importance of Commonwealth members to each other as sources of imports and destinations for exports has grown by around a quarter and third respectively.

“The Commonwealth may be best known for its Games, but it seems to be delivering some serious Gains on the trade front,” said Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, Director of the RCS. “Though founded on shared political bonds, the Commonwealth’s future may lie in promoting economic ties.”

These findings were announced by Dr Sriskandarajah at a seminar taking place at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London on 30 September. This event was organised by The Worshipful Company of World Traders and the Institute of Directors City of London Branch.

Dr Danny Sriskandarajah, Director of the Royal Commonwealth Society

Speaking at the opening of this event, Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said: “It is perhaps in the field of trade that our country-to-country links can most obviously be manifested and where we – as a community – can be more dynamic. Our newest member, Rwanda, said as much: it was its eye on new trade opportunities which is a key reason why it sought Commonwealth membership.”

Also speaking at the event was Lord Howell of Guildford, Minister of State at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Lord Howell said: “In a changed international landscape the Commonwealth can be the face of the future and a platform for the 21st century."
Sharma's speech

Click here to read

“It is easier to invent, mobilise capital and build trade opportunities within the Commonwealth because of the many shared advantages. Studies have also shown there is a Commonwealth premium when member nations trade with one another. The Commonwealth network is a wonderful template for doing business.”

Other key findings in the RCS report, ‘Trading Place – The Commonwealth Effect revisited’, include:

- Between them, Commonwealth countries traded around US$4 trillion worth of goods in 2008.

- Intra-Commonwealth trade accounts for about one-sixth of total Commonwealth members’ trade, with an average for each member of around one-third.

- The share of intra-Commonwealth trade has grown steadily from around 12 per cent in 1990 to around 16 per cent in 2008.
Lord Howell (left) and Kamalesh Sharma at the Trade seminar, held at the Commonwealth Secretariat's headquarters on 30 September

I like this one best!

Pakistan was suspended twice during the military rule of President Pervez Musharraf.

[Kakkaji]

Philip Saheb:

Which country has a British Embassy but does not have an Indian Embassy?

Any stats on how many stranded SDREs have actually got a Commonwealth passport from a British Embassy abroad over the last 65 years?

What special trade benefits has India availed of from the UK that it has not got from, say, the US?

Coming to brasstacks, if the current India-US trade is more than 5 times (to account for the US:UK population ratio) then I would say the Commonwealth trade benefits haven't amounted to a hill of beans for India.

The Commonwealth was beneficial for ordinary Indians during the '50s and '60s when a bunch of SDREs took advantage of the special Commonwealth travel provisions and landed up en masse in UK and Canada. After that, the UK and Canada clamped down on immigration from India and instituted visa restrictions which today are quite severe for Indians. So that travel advantage is long gone.

The first generation of leaders of independent India were all British-educated and heavily influenced by the Brits. So, naturally they felt they belonged to the Commonwealth. That generation is long gone. Their progeny was educated in the US. The leaders of today's India are either US-educated, locally educated, or uneducated . There is no special affinity left for the British. We probably do more trade with Germany or France than with the UK.

The Commonwealth is an anachronism for today's India. It is only beneficial to a few Indians who are on Commonwealth staff. We should get out of it and have normal ambassadorial relationship with the UK.

If India leaves the Commonwealth, a number of other Commonwealth countries in Asia and Africa may follow suit. But that is not our problem.

The only countries that really belong to the Commonwealth are the ones with British 'heritage' like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. They, along with the UK, are the true Commonwealth. The rest of us are just hangers-on.

JMT

[vishvak]

UK bankers pre-WWII were not averse to selling wealth looted by barbarian Nazis. Clearing house only.
The Bank of England knowingly helped to sell looted Nazi gold

Despite an attempt by the British government to block all Czech assets in the UK, the transfer went ahead

What to do only. The govt did attempt everything after all.

[rsingh]

Kakaji, simple diplomatic paradox.........we are to gain more if we are in club then we were out of it. I understand what are you saying. Only benifit on commonwealth I have ever seen is my IAS cousin getting oxford scholarship in forest management with firstclass British Airways ticket.

[eklavya]

Trade is just one benefit ...

Philip, the UK's trade laws (tariffs, etc) are determined by the EU, of which the UK is a member. India has the same access (or lack thereof) to every EU market. The UK does not feature as a top 10 trading partner of India and vice versa.

Britain's most important diplomatic, security and trade relations are with the US, NATO and the EU states, not with the Commonwealth.

The Commonwealth is truly an anachronism.

India should maintain good relations with the UK, Canada, Australia, South Africa, etc, but we do not need to be a member of the Commonwealth in order to do so.

[krisna]

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/salm ... 97667.html

Salman Khan's UK visa rejected

any MPs and brfites volunteering to write to kamaron to give visa.
am sure congi prestitutes will take it in a big way.
termite queen will be unhappy and shed some precious tears in the name of kameenal harmony

[eklavya]

krisna,

The relevant rules are provided below:

http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/polic ... rfl/rfl10/

The new Immigration Rules provide for ten key areas in which a person with criminal history may fall for refusal, whether the offences were committed in the UK or any other country,

These are:

A conviction which resulted in a sentence of 4 years or more imprisonment - Paragraph 320 (2)(b) and S-EC.1.4.(a) Appendix FM provides for a mandatory refusal where a person has been convicted of an offence and sentenced to at least 4 years' in imprisonment, at any point in the past.

I understand that Salman Khan got a sentence of 5 years for killing a protected species. But his old man is suggesting that its a mere "technical hitch":

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/salma ... e/1150314/

Someone with more "technical" knowledge than myself is better placed to comment.

[Haresh]

"11-rupee heroes who fought to keep us all free: Minister salutes Indian soldiers' contribution to the Great War"

By Baroness Warsi

The article is hidden away on the website. I don't suppose they want the majority of their readers to see it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... z2azhTi9o0
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[krisna]

eklavya,
It is not wrt ukstan but wrt Indian political scene.
never mind.

[Philip]

Haresh,you must visit the Royal pavilion at Brighton on the south coast.It is a spectacular oriental/India architectural fantasy built by the then Prince Regent,later George IV.During WW!,on the command of the king,it was used as a hospital for treating wounded Indian soldiers ,which is well featured by an audio-visual presentation.The king awarding the VC and other medlas to soldiers is featured in the historic film clips.The The locals took the Indian soldiers to heart.We seldom hear of this ,the gallantry and sacrifice of Indian soldiers in WW1 fighting under the Raj.India Gate is the great memorial to this fact of history.

http://www.black-history.org.uk/pavilionindian.asp

1914-1918 - Wounded Indian Troops at the Brighton Pavilion

Very early on in World War I it was apparent that the allies did not have enough forces to cover all the areas of fighting - for example in North Africa, Europe and the Middle East. So it was decided to employ troops from the Indian Army. One of the reasons for this was that the Indian Army could be mobilised immediately. It would be the first time that the Indian Army would be deployed to fight outside of India.

On the 8th August 1914 the first Indian troops to fight in World War I left India headed for Egypt to be held in reserve. However the fighting on the Western front was so desperate that they were needed on the front line instead of being kept in Egypt as reservists. So the troops were redirected to the fighting on the Western front in Europe. Still dressed in the khaki uniform suitable for Egyptian not European weather, the troops arrived in France on 26th September 1914 ready to battle.

Soldiers wounded in battle on the Western front needed to be hospitalised somewhere. Originally it was hoped that the wounded Indian soldiers could be hospitalised in France, but the number of casualties was so great that this was not possible, and alternative arrangements had to be made to accommodate the wounded soldiers.

The next best option was the South Coast of England, and Brighton was one of the main towns that offered its service to the war office. There were also other offers of accommodation in the South East: Brockenhurst, New Milton, Southampton and Bournemouth, to name a few.

On the 21st November 1914 Colonel Sir Walter Lawrence visited Brighton and met with the Mayor at the time Alderman Sir John Otter. The meeting was to inform the Mayor that King George V had requested the use of the Royal Pavilion as a militarily hospital for wounded Indian soldiers. This was immediately agreed.

After a consultation with the Chairman of the Pavilion Committee (Councillor Bartlett) and the Town Clerk (Mr. Hugo Talbot, O.B.E.), the following telegram was sent to the Secretary of State for War (Lord Kitchener):

"Understanding that the Royal Pavilion at Brighton is specially suited for hospital treatment of Indian troops, the Corporation beg to place it at His Majesty's disposal for that purpose".

The Royal Pavilion estate had to be able to accomodate the three main Indian religions: Hindu, Muslim and Sikh, in order for soldiers to be able to worship. The Sikh temple was a marquee erected in the Pavilion grounds. The Muslims were able to use the lawn in front of the Dome, as this was facing East. Nine kitchens were erected in the grounds to cater for the various religions.

The Royal Pavilion was not the only building in Brighton to be transformed into a militarily hospital for wounded Indian soldiers, the Brighton General hospital Elm Grove at the top of a hill near the Brighton racetrack was renamed the Kitchener General Indian hospital, the York Place school, were all converted and especially adopted for the wounded Indian soldiers.

As a memorial tribute,a special Indian gateway was erected at the entrance to the Pavilion,opened by the Maharajah of Patiala in Oct. 1921 .

The Gate-Way to the Royal Pavilion 1921

The inscriptions on the Gateway:
This gateway is the gift of India in
commemoration of her sons who –
stricken in the Great War - were tended
in the Pavilion in 1914 and 1915.
Dedicated to the use of the inhabitants
of the Brighton, B.N. Southall, Mayor’ .

Today many thousands of people pass daily through the Pavilion Gate.

In replying His Highness said.
‘For many of those who had returned to India he had heard expressions of fervent gratitude for the attention and care
lavished upon them by 'Doctor. Brighton',
whose fame and skill as a healer and health restorer were talked of in many hundreds of remote Indian villages.

A chattri was also erected to mark the spot where the fallen were cremated.

The memorial now known as the Chattri was erected after the war, and unveiled by the Prince of Wales on the 21st February 1921. The memorial was built on the exact spot where the bodies of Indian soldiers had been cremated. The Chattri bears the following inscription, in Urdu, Hindi and English:

“To the memory of all Indian soldiers who gave their lives for their King-Emperor in the Great War, this monument, erected on the site of the funeral pyre where the Hindus and Sikhs who died in hospital at Brighton passed through the fire, is in grateful admiration and brotherly affection dedicated”.

Today the Chattri can be seen from many parts of the town - a white memorial within an area of green, marked off by a square of trees. Since June 2000 a commemorative service is held in honour of the Sikh and Hindu soldiers who died in Brighton during the First World War.

In comparison,look at the manner in which the gallant heroes of the IPKF were treated by the nation,ashamed to acknowledge their supreme sacrifice,where it was the Lankans who first set up a memorial to the fallen Indian soldiers!

[sanjaykumar]

For the reflexively derisive and inverterate Angrezphobes. Regarding a man of little possible consequence to Britain.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013 ... portations

A coroner who oversaw the inquest into the death of the Angolan deportee Jimmy Mubenga has issued a highly critical report that raises a series of concerns about the way the government and private contractors deport people from the UK.

Mubenga, 46, died after being restrained by three G4S guards on board a plane at Heathrow airport that was bound for Angola in October 2010.

Last month, at the end of an eight-week inquest, a jury of seven men and three women recorded a majority verdict of nine to one of unlawful killing after four days of deliberations.

• Evidence of "pervasive racism" among G4S detention custody officers who were tasked with removing detainees;

• Fears that these racist attitudes – and "loutish, laddish behaviour … Inappropriate language, and peer pressure" – are still common among escort guards today


I dare say I don't expect to read such a judgement in the US, India or even Canada.

You gotta admire them at times.

[Virupaksha]

yes, yes, this after the queendom is refusing to bring any criminal case. Yea, yea, a commitee to bury a case and "satisfy", where have I seen this before? Wasnt this pretty similar to Gen Dyer was tackled after Jalianwala bagh? Seems like they have succesfully modified the tactic to make sure, that there is no resignations and token suspensions.

I agree that there is some thing to admire in their deviousness and ruthlessness, how they deftly handle when it is in their interests and their perversity in satisfying people who like to tomtom the queendom at the same time. A report straight to use at the holy queen's musharaff and then throw at the ever grateful reflexively servile and inverterate Angrezophyles who then jump up and down for having the "honour" of catching the now holy toilet paper.

[Murugan]

90 jihadis rape a british girl


http://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/201 ... e-weekend/

[Philip]

Hilarious viewpoint of UKIP leader!

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 49159.html

Ukip MEP caught on camera demanding Britain stop sending money to 'Bongo Bongo land'
But Godfrey Bloom shrugs off criticism saying his remarks would 'probably double my vote in the north of England

A Ukip MEP caught on camera demanding Britain stop sending money to "Bongo Bongo land" has shrugged off condemnation and said it would "probably double my vote in the north of England".

Godfrey Bloom's comments about Britain's foreign aid contributions, much of which he said were spent by the recipients on flash cars and sunglasses, are now under scrutiny by the Ukip leadership and provoked outrage among political opponents.

Rushanara Ali, a shadow development minister, called on Ukip leader Nigel Farage to take action against Mr Bloom and was reported as saying: "It's just offensive and the kind of thing that should have been consigned to the history books.

The MEP made the remark about "bongo bongo land" at a meeting in Wordsley in the West Midlands when he told supporters he couldn't understand why Britain gave foreign aid when it needed the money itself.

"How we can possibly be giving a billion pounds a month when we're in this sort of debt to bongo bongo land is completely beyond me," he said in the footage obtained by the Guardian.

"To buy Ray-Ban sunglasses, apartments in Paris, Ferraris and all the rest of it that goes with most of the foreign aid. F18s for Pakistan. We need a new squadron of F18s. Who's got the squadrons? Pakistan, where we send the money."


(he meant F-16s!)

The comments echo those made by Tory MP Alan Clark who prompted a furious backlash in 1984 when, in a debate on immigration, he said: "Send them all back to Bongo Bongo land." Two years later he was appointed Minister of Trade.

In the footage of the meeting in July Mr Bloom is also heard offering to hang the killers of soldier Lee Rigby and criticising the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) for ruling that full life sentences could not be handed down.

"You can torture people to death but you jolly well can't give them a full life sentence because that's against their human rights," he said. "We can't hang them because we're now a member of the European Union and it's embedded in the treaty of Rome.

"It's a personal thing, but I'd hang the ******** myself. Especially for some of these, especially for the guy who hacked the soldier to death. I do hope they would ask me to throw the rope over the beam because I'd be delighted to do so."

The MEP, who denied his comments were racist, and told the newspaper when asked about his speech: "What's wrong with that? I'm not a wishy-washy Tory. I don't do political correctness. The fact that the Guardian is reporting this will probably double my vote in the north of England."

He has previously provoked an outcry in comments on women when in 2004 he said: "No self-respecting small businessman with a brain in the right place would ever employ a lady of child-bearing age."

When he was given a seat on the European Parliament's women's rights committee he said, in what he later explained was intended to be a joke, that he was interested in the subject because: "I just don't think they clean behind the fridge enough."

[anupmisra]

Cameron visits Manchester mosque

David Cameron visits Manchester mosque, meets Muslim community

in central Manchester on Eid day

He also chopped some onions during his visit

Cameron said that his tip for avoiding crying while chopping onions was to put a piece a bread on the end of the knife

[Prem]

UK court warns Indian against sex with husband
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/ ... ttarget=no

LONDON: In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the UK, an Indian woman who had an arranged marriage with a mentally disabled British Sikh man has been warned that she faces life in prison if she were to sleep with her husband. Justice Holman, sitting at the court of protection in Birmingham on Tuesday, said the woman's husband lacked the capacity to consent to a sexual relationship. "The fact that they are married to each other would be no defence. If she were to have any form of sexual intimacy with him, he would be the victim of a criminal act," he said in his ruling. The woman had pleaded with the court not to annul her marriage to the man who is being cared for at a local authority home in the West Midlands.
Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council had asked the court to declare the marriage not recognized in England and Wales because the man lacked capacity to consent to the marriage. However, the judge gave in to the woman's request and declined to annul the marriage. It is believed to be the first time that a British judge has allowed a marriage to continue despite finding that by law it never existed. "Her position is a tragic one, which she bears with fortitude and dignity..." the judge said. In 2009, the husband, now in his late 30s, was taken to Punjab by his parents. The woman did not meet her husband before their wedding day and realized that "he was not like a normal person" only after the ceremony. She said they had slept together on their wedding night and on a few occasions since. "I have been told that within the area... there are a number of incapacitated adults who have been the subject of arranged or forced marriages, and that it is important to send a strong signal to the Muslim and Sikh communities within this area ... that arranged marriages, where one party is mentally incapacitated... will not be tolerated, and that the marriages will be annulled," the judge stressed.

[brihaspati]

Regarding all the talk of Commonwealth, India and UK : here is an interesting if dated bit from Colombo -

Delhi, Geneva And The Hambantota Commonwealth
March 10, 2013 | Filed under: Colombo Telegraph,MORE OPINION,Opinion | Posted by: COLOMBO_TELEGRAPH

http://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.p ... monwealth/

By Tisaranee Gunasekara -

“Whatever is that distant rumble that I dimly hear?” Christopher Hitchens (Arguably: Essays)

It is now a virtual certainty. Barring some last-second, utterly unforeseeable, development,India will vote for the new US resolution on Sri Lanka. The original resolution has been amended to take on board Indian concerns. Indian worries would range from a reactive lurch by Colombo in Beijing’s direction to the impact an intrusive resolution might have on Delhi’s own ‘freedom of action’ in Kashmira nd elsewhere.

The Indian input ensures that any international investigation into alleged human rights violations by the Rajapaksa administration will happen “only in consultation with and with the concurrence of Colombo…. The provision for taking the Lankan government into confidence was part of the US resolution of March 2012 as well. It had been included at India’s insistence….” (The New Indian Express – 9.3.2013). Though the 2013 resolution is far more critical of Colombo than the 2012 resolution, it is equally toothless; just a slightly harder tap on the knuckles, nothing more.

The Rajapaksas will be irked if India votes for theUS resolution, however watered-down. Tamil Nadu would be irked that an international investigation into war crime allegations was rendered effectively impossible by India’s input.Delhi, in its desperate efforts to satisfy both Colombo and Tamil Nadu, may end up by satisfying neither.

India’s capacity to compel the Rajapaksas to do anything they do not want to died in Nandikadal, with Vellupillai Pirapaharan. Though the possibility of another Indian intervention to save the LTTE a la 1987 ended when a Black Tigress garlanded Rajiv Gandhi with death, the fear that Delhi would renew its patronage of the LTTE (indirectly or surreptitiously) never stopped haunting Colombo. During the Fourth Eelam War, the Rajapaksas took infinite care to anticipate Delhi’s reactions and to prevent any Indian response which would tilt the politico-military balance in the LTTE’s favour. Presidential Sibling Basil Rajapaksa was tasked with neutralising India, and did so, to perfection.

Whenever Delhi pressured about a political solution,Colombo pretended to succumb. Extravagant promises were made and specific deadlines given, with seeming solemnity and sincerity. They would be forgotten the moment Delhi’s eyes moved elsewhere. The APC was a masterstroke which allayed Indian (and Western) anxieties, at a critical time, and camouflaged anti-devolution actions on the ground. A series of few well-placed, but not overgenerous, economic concessions were made to compensate for the continued absence of a political solution.

After the annihilation of the Tiger, whatever tactical influences India had vis-à-vis the Rajapaksas waned into near nothingness. Post-war, the Rajapaksas can afford to ignore Indian concerns because they believe that India has no aces left, while they have two: China andPakistan.

So India is in a bind, caught between an unresponsive Colombo and a churning Tamil Nadu. Last week, Delhi increased its financial aid to Colombo, probably to compensate for the coming Geneva vote. India might announce its decision to back the US resolution early, in order to ward off or tone down the general strike in Tamil Nadu, planned for March 12th by the Tamil Eelam Supporters Organisation (TESO). The strike has already drawn significant support from across the political spectrum, including from Congress-ally, DMK (Mr. Karunanidhi wants the day to be declared a holiday).

But moderation and vacillation are not the same.Delhi’s pendulum-swings are likely to antagonise Colombo and radicalise Tamil Nadu. While the Congress administration would be concerned about the electoral fallout, Indian state would be worried that a seething Tamil Nadu might become a fertile breeding ground for a reactivation of Tamil separatism in the sub-continent.

With every road is fraught with danger,Delhi may opt to do as little as possible, for as long as it is politically tenable.

The Spectre of Impeachment

Given India’s unwillingness/inability to do anything other than play a reactive role, the future trajectory of the ‘Lankan issue’ will be determined in Washington,London,Brussels and Beijing. Whatever noises they might make for public consumption, the Rajapaksas would know that they cannot come to grief in Geneva. The real danger is in New York, and, there, the Siblings are assured of two Security Council vetoes, at least for the time being.

The outcome in Geneva is important, not in and of itself, but because of its potential impact on the Hambantota Commonwealth. Currently, the greatest of all the Rajapaksas desiderata is a star-studded Hambantota Summit. President Rajapaksa must be counting the days until he can welcome the British Queen.

He may have his Summit but it might be a far dimmer affair than he hopes for. And if his Commonwealth Dream is killed, it may not be by war crimes allegations (British establishment, given its past and its present, is unlikely to harp too much on that), but by the litany of anti-democratic deeds the Siblings committed, post-war.

The ghost of the unjust impeachment is haunting both Geneva and London. The Bar Human Rights Committee (the international human rights arm of the Bar of England andWales) has lent the calls for a Hambantoa-boycott an unprecedented gravitas by adding its influential voice to it. It did so, subsequent to the Report on the impeachment prepared by Geoffrey Robertson QC, at its request. In his Report Mr. Robertson argues that if Queen Elizabeth/any member of the British Royal Family attends the Hambantota Commonwealth it will strengthen the Rajapaksa Siblings by providing them with useful photo-opportunities: “Royal seals of approval serve the propaganda interests of people like this, and no-shows by powerful nations would signal the unacceptability of their behaviour”.

The Khuram Shaikh case is the other ghost haunting the Hambantota Commonwealth. 15 months after Mr. Shaikh was murdered (and his Russian companion was allegedly gang-raped), the case is languishing in a legal-wilderness. The main suspect, Rajapaksa acolyte and the Chairman of the Tangalle PS, Sampath Chandrapushpa, is out on bail and back at his job. Ironically, if the Hambantota Commonwealth happens, the alleged murderer of Mr. Shaikh will be a special invitee to it, in his official capacity.

Last week Mr. Shaikh’s brother and the Shaikh-family MP Simon Danczuk were in Colombo seeking to jolt into action the unmoving wheels of justice. By all accounts they failed. “Mr. Danczuk said…that senior Sri Lankan ministers had refused to meet him…. The British MP also expressed concern over the political interference in the case…. ‘The case is moving slowly not because the country’s justice system is slow but there is political patronage in this case… There is concern that one of the suspects is alleged to be close to the President of the country….’ the British politician complained” (Daily Mirror – 8.3.2013). Mr. Danczuck said that he will lobby the British government and the British Queen to boycott the Commonwealth Summit.

If the Rajapaksas are compelled to make some behavioural modifications to save the Hambantota Summit, we, ordinary Lankans, will benefit from it. Since the financial burden (and the public-inconvenience) of the Summit will far outweigh its niggardly national benefits, a venue-change/boycott too will not hurt us. For Lankans, caught in a debilitating losing-streak, a tussle over Hambantota will constitute a rare – and welcome – win-win moment.

*A clarification: I am not back with the Sunday Leader. The paper is carrying already published material, with strategic cuts.

[Philip]

Another British politico exposed for alleged pro-Nazi leanings.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 55093.html

Gregory Lauder-Frost exposed: The Tory fringe group leader with Nazi sympathies
Right-wing views and criminal past revealed of vice-president of the Traditional Britain Group

The right-winger whose association with Jacob Rees-Mogg caused the senior Conserative MP great embarrassment this week has added to concerns about his group’s relationship with the Tory party – by launching a personal attack on the mother of Stephen Lawrence as “anti-English” and a “nobody”, as more damaging revelations emerged about his past.

Gregory Lauder-Frost, the vice-president of the Traditional Britain Group, claimed the decision to award a peerage to the mother of the murdered teenager was an example of a modern fashion for “filling the House of Lords up with spivs”.

Mr Lauder-Frost and his organisation were a little-noticed Tory fringe group until the website Liberal Conspiracy revealed that Mr Rees-Mogg had been guest speaker at one of its dinners – and highlighted some of its questionable views.

A red-faced Mr Rees-Mogg has since admitted he did not make a proper check of the organisation’s beliefs before taking up its invitation. The MP told the BBC: “I clearly made a mistake. Mrs Lawrence is a wonderful and courageous woman who has contributed to British public life and, in any traditional view of Conservatism, she should be lauded for what she has done.”

But Mr Lauder-Frost, who campaigns to reintroduce what he calls “traditional” values into the Tory Party, refused to back down on his views. Speaking to BBC London’s Vanessa Feltz show yesterday, Mr Lauder-Frost said of Mrs Lawrence: “We do not feel there is any merit in raising such a person to the peerage. She’s a complete nobody. She has been raised there for politically correct purposes. She’s just a campaigner about her son’s murder.

“It’s ridiculous. She has made countless anti-English comments over the last 10 years. She’s no friend of the English people.”

Referring to the 1999 Act of Parliament that removed most hereditary peers from the upper House, he added: “They have kicked out people who have sat in the House of Lords for 1,000 years consecutively, father to son, father to son, all that experience of running the country. We’re filling the House of Lords with spivs.”

The Traditional Britain Group supports halting immigration and leaving the EU. Yesterday, Mr Lauder-Frost, who lived in Zimbabwe when it was under white minority rule and known as Rhodesia, went further – saying that anyone living in the UK who was not of “European stock” should be offered “assisted voluntary repatriation” to their “natural” homeland.

When it was pointed out to him that hundreds of thousands of British citizens from ethnic minorities were born in the UK, he retorted: “As the Duke of Wellington said: ‘Being born in a stable doesn’t make you a horse’.” Asked whether he considered his views to be racist, he replied; “I have said nothing unpleasant about aliens at all.”

The Traditional Britain Group was founded in 2001, but made little impact until recently, when it drew new recruits in reaction to David Cameron’s efforts to give the Conservative Party a more modern image. Its website boasts that it has been “reinvigorated by a new, dynamic generation of young, intelligent and passionate people”.

However, 62-year-old Mr Lauder-Frost is a veteran of the right-wing fringe of the Tory party with a political record that dates back to Margaret Thatcher’s time. This was interrupted in 1992 when he was imprisoned for two years after stealing £110,000 from a London health authority where he was employed as payroll operations manager. At the court hearing, where he pleaded guilty to eight specimen charges, his lawyer said he had taken the money to pay for a custody battle with the Polish ex-wife.

At the time he was chairman of the foreign affairs policy committee of the Monday Club, a pressure group within the Tory party that was later banned by Iain Duncan Smith because of its views on race. During one meeting, he provoked a walk out by right-wing European politicians by alleging that the EU was forcing member countries to legalise homosexuality, and accusing them of “sympathising with sodomites”.

A keen admirer of pre-war German culture, particularly its opera and films, he has frequently expressed the view that the UK should not have declared war on Germany in 1939, because the Nazis had no quarrel with this country. In 1990, he criticised Thatcher for her ambiguous attitude to the reunification of Germany. He called for Germany to be restored to its 1938 borders, which would have involved absorbing a large part of what is now Poland. “Poland asked for it from 1919 onwards,” he claimed in one post on Facebook.

He has called the Nuremburg trials of leading Nazis a “farce… without an ounce of legitimacy” and has claimed that those who ordered the bombing Potsdam should be tried as war criminals. But he defended the Luftwaffe’s bombardment of Coventry, saying: “Britain had all its small arms and tanks manufactured at Coventry. If you did not want to be bombed you should not have declared war on a country who had no quarrel with you.”

No holding back: The ‘wit and wisdom’ of Gregory Lauder-Frost

This woman [Doreen Lawrence] has done the British nation no favours whatsoever. If these people don’t like us and want to keep attacking us they should go back to their natural homelands.

The Poles asked for it from 1919 onwards. It was Britain and France who made it a world war, not Hitler.

Basically if you did not want to be bombed you should not have declared war on a country [Germany] who had no quarrel with you.

The barbarians who bombed [Potsdam] right at the very end of the war, serving no purpose whatsoever, should have been tried as war criminals.

The Nuremberg trials were a farce. They were show trials without an ounce of legitimacy.

The Africans never had it so good as when Britain governed their colonies there… We owe Africa nothing whatsoever. It owes us eternal gratitude for lifting it out of barbarism.

[Philip]

Another maverick Brit. politico,infamous for his relations with Saddam,etc., is now about to make a film of Tony Blair,which he hopes will see him indicted for war crimes.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 56358.html

'The Killing of Tony Blair': George Galloway in bid to raise funds for film about former PM

The film project is, Galloway hopes, the first step in a campaign to get Blair tried for war crimes in an international court
Nick Renaud-Komiya

Sunday 11 August 2013

The outspoken politician George Galloway will turn his hand to film making following an announcement that he intends to produce a feature-length documentary entitled The Killing of Tony Blair.

The Respect MP for Bradford West is appealing to the public to help finance the project through the crowd-funding website Kickstarter.

The film project is, Galloway hopes, the first step in a campaign to get Blair, the former Labour Prime Minister, tried for war crimes in an international court.

The 58-year-old has acknowledged that the film's title was chosen for "shock value", but in response to claims it is in bad taste he said that Blair's was a "shocking story".

The title, Galloway said, refers to three types of "killing" which he pins on Blair's shoulders.

He will use the film to argue that Blair "killed" the Labour party with his modernising efforts; his decision to go to war in Iraq led to the deaths of "hundreds of thousands" of civilians; and that since stepping down from office the former leader has made a "financial killing".

Galloway says he has taken inspiration from Michael Moore, the left-wing American film maker whose feature Fahrenheit 9/11 attacked President George W Bush's reaction to the September 11 attacks and his war on terror.

He says he intends to replicate Moore's technique of ambushing unwilling interviewees by confronting Blair and other prominent New Labour figures.

This week Galloway and Greg Ward, the film's co-director, will launch an online fundraising initiative to get members of the public to contribute towards the costs of producing the feature.

Crowd-funding is an increasingly popular way for indviduals and organisations to get funding for particular projects.

Unlike investing money and receiving a share of the profits, backers who give money through crowd-funding websites like Kickstarter are given a reward in line with their contribution.

Everyone who gives £5 will see their name in the film's credits. Those who donate £2,000 will be treated to a "working VIP lunch" with the MP. The team aim to raise £50,000 for the Blair film, which he claims will make up a third of the final budget.

Galloway has caused controversy throughout his career. In 2003 he was expelled from the Labour Party following his criticism of Blair and the Iraq War.

He was also accused by the party of inciting voters in one constituency to reject Labour MPs and encouraging Arab armies to fight British troops, an allegation he denies.

He has also drawn criticism in the past for presenting a weekly talk show on Press TV, a channel backed by the Iranian state and banned from broadcasting in the UK by Ofcom.

[Philip]

Another tilt at the Spanish Armada for the RN what?
Cameron can't have his "Falklands" victory but he may have his "Gibraltar"!

We may see an exodus of Brits from Spain ,who live in the Spanish sun and sand in lakhs.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/po ... 57581.html

Gibraltar tensions soar as UK threatens legal action over border checks and HMS Illustrious sets sail for Med

Downing Street said it was considering the 'unprecedented step' against Spain
Nigel Morris

The Government today threatened legal action against Spain over the "politically motivated" imposition of extra checks on the frontier with Gibraltar.

Diplomatic tensions between the two countries looked set to soar after Downing Street said it was considering the "unprecedented step" against Madrid.

Last week Number 10 claimed David Cameron had secured a promise from his Spanish counterpart, Mariano Rajoy, to scale down the border controls. The Spaniards immediately contradicted Britain's version of events.

With little sign of an early resolution to the stand-off, there were reports yesterday of drivers facing a wait of up two hours to pass into the UK overseas territory.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "Clearly the Prime Minister is disappointed by the failure of Spain to remove the additional border checks this weekend. We are now considering what legal action is open to us.

"This would be an unprecedented step so we want to consider it carefully before a making a decision to pursue."

He said: "We feel these delays are politically motivated and totally disproportionate".

A cloud looms over the Rock of Gibraltar, which is the subject of a dispute over sovereignty between the UK and Spain A cloud looms over the Rock of Gibraltar

Ministers were discussing whether to pursue the issue as a "matter of urgency" with the European Union, the spokesman added.

The move comes amid an escalating row over the construction of an artificial reef by the Gibraltarian authorities which Spain claims will destroy fishing in the area.

Madrid responded by beefing up border controls, leading to lengthy queues, and suggesting that a 50 euro (£43) fee could be imposed on every vehicle entering or leaving the British overseas territory through the fenced border with Spain.

Earlier, thousands of Royal Navy personnel set sail for a training deployment in the Mediterranean.

The helicopter carrier HMS Illustrious left Portsmouth Naval Base, Hampshire, and will join the navy flagship HMS Bulwark, which has sailed from Devonport for the Cougar '13 operation.

Also sailing tomorrow will be HMS Westminster, a type 23 frigate, which will visit Gibraltar en route.

Other UK ships taking part are another type 23 frigate, HMS Montrose, and six Royal Fleet Auxiliary (RFA) ships.

The vessels will be taking part in what defence officials stressed was a long-scheduled deployment in the Mediterranean and the Gulf.

But London mayor Boris Johnson said the deployment should send a clear signal to the Spanish, and he accused Madrid of reverting to the blockade tactics of the Franco era.

"Perhaps it really is a coincidence - as the Foreign Office claims - that we have just sent a fleet of warships to Gibraltar," he wrote in an article for the Daily Telegraph.

"Maybe it's just a fluke that HMS Illustrious is about to bristle into view on the southern coast of Spain, complete with thousands of Royal Marines and other elite commando units.

"But I hope not. I hope that one way or another we will shortly prise Spanish hands off the throat of our colony, because what is now taking place is infamous."

Commodore Paddy McAlpine, Commander UK Task Group, said Cougar '13 was an opportunity to enhance the Navy's ability to "operate and project power as a task group at range".

"In so doing, it will also remind interested domestic and international parties of the enduring utility, employability and interoperability of the Royal Navy," he said.

HMS Illustrious leaves Portsmouth navy base as British warships began setting sail for the Mediterranean for a naval exercise that will see one vessel dock in Gibraltar, as tensions rise with Spain over the British-held territory HMS Illustrious leaves Portsmouth navy base

[Vayutuvan]

So that is the reason Queendumb wants F18 (sic) - to invade Spain.

[Lalmohan]

britain has no business to hang on to gibralter, except that the gibraltarians are not keen to join spain and cause a fuss everytime the topic comes up
and spain is being a little mischievous, it holds on to two enclaves in morocco - cueta and melillia under much the same basis as the british hold on to gibralter, so its 'legal moralising' is a bit dubious
this is all grandstanding and politics and will blow over in a few days - probably after the spanish have extracted some sort of financial package to prop up their economy

[Prasad]

Gents, apologies for not doing due diligence but can someone point out to our rejoinder/statement to the continuation of british aid to India? Why do we still get 'aid' from them?

[panduranghari]

Gents, apologies for not doing due diligence but can someone point out to our rejoinder/statement to the continuation of british aid to India? Why do we still get 'aid' from them?

edge of lunacy

So what on earth is going on? Why are swivel-eyed ideologues in London a more deserving cause than starving refugees in Somalia? To understand what is happening, we must first revise our conception of what foreign aid is for.

Aid has always been an instrument of foreign policy. During the Cold War, it was used to buy the loyalties of states which might otherwise have crossed to the other side. Even today, the countries which receive the most money tend to be those which are of greatest strategic use to the donor nation, which is why the US gives more to Israel than it does to sub-Saharan Africa.

But foreign policy is also driven by commerce, and in particular by the needs of domestic exporters. Aid goes to countries which can buy our manufacturers’ products. Sometimes it doesn’t go to countries at all, but straight to the manufacturers. A US government website boasts that “the principal beneficiary of America’s foreign assistance programs has always been the United States. Close to 80 percent of the U.S. Agency for International Development’s contracts and grants go directly to American firms.”6

A doctor working in Gondar hospital in Ethiopia wrote to me recently to spell out what this means. The hospital has none of the basic textbooks on tropical diseases it needs. But it does have 21 copies of an 800-page volume called “Aesthetic Facial Surgery” and 24 volumes of a book called “Opthalmic Pathology”.7 There is no opthalmic pathologist in training in Ethiopia. The poorest nation on earth, unsurprisingly, has no aesthetic plastic surgeons. The US had spent $2m on medical textbooks which American publishers hadn’t been able to sell at home, called them aid and dumped them in Ethiopia.

In Britain the Labour government claims to have abandoned such practices, though only because they infringe European rules on competition. But now it has found a far more effective means of helping the rich while pretending to help the poor. It is spending its money on projects which hand public goods to corporations.

It is now giving, for example, £342 million to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.8 This is a staggering amount of money, 15 times what it spent last year on the famine in Ethiopia. Why is Andhra Pradesh so lucky? Because its chief minister, or “chief executive” as he now likes to be known, is doing to his state what Pinochet did to Chile: handing everything which isn’t nailed down, and quite a lot which is, to big business. Most of the money DFID is giving him is being used to “restructure” and “reform” the state and its utilities. His programme will dispossess 20 million people from the land 9 and contribute massively to poverty. DFID’s own report on the biggest of the schemes it is funding in the state reveals that it suffers from “major failings”, has “negative consequences on food security” and does “nothing about providing alternative income for those displaced.”10 But it permits Andhra Pradesh to become a laboratory for the kind of mass privatisation the department is seeking to encourage all over the world.

[Philip]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/cr ... 72691.html

cotland Yard to assess fresh claims over death of Princess Diana

Detectives say they are 'scoping' the information and 'assessing its relevance and credibility'
Richard Osley

Sunday 18 August 2013

Scotland Yard said last night it was “scoping” new information about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi al-Fayed. The new file, passed to the Metropolitan Police by Royal Military Police officers, includes allegations that a former SAS soldier claimed to know who “arranged Princess Diana's death and that it had been covered up”.

The allegation is contained in a letter written by the former parents-in-law of an ex-serviceman. The letter emerged during the most recent court martial of former SAS sniper Danny Nightingale, 38, who was convicted of possessing a gun and ammunition. The former soldier accused of having knowledge of Princess Diana's death is an ex-colleague of Sgt Nightingale.

Diana, Dodi and their chauffeur Henri Paul died on August 31, 1997 in a car crash in Paris. An inquest found they had been unlawfully killed because of a lack of seatbelts, excessive speed and Mr Paul's drink-driving.

A three-year police re-investigation of the circumstances – Operation Paget – rejected previous claims of murder by Dodi's father, former Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed.

A Scotland Yard statement said: "We are scoping information in relation to the deaths and assessing its relevance and credibility. The assessment will be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command. This is not a re-investigation and does not come under Operation Paget."

A spokesman for Mr Fayed said he had no comment to make, but that he will be "interested in seeing the outcome", adding that he trusts the Met will investigate the information "with vigour".

[Vayutuvan]

Uqueendumb subjects are still looking for a grand CT to explain what is clearly an accidental death of a hexually frustrated princess. Even I, a completely unknown Indian, can spend my time more productively.

[vishvak]

British thrilling news where the vulnerable pregnant woman, a British princess, was accidented with unborn baby. Unlike famous James Bond movies from UK show clearly that all James Bonds are stylish caring British male who attract vulnerable women with elan and class and guns and roses, when it comes to the pregnant British princess the James Bond characterization didn't work exactly as it works outside of UK, and could be part of this unlawful kill. In fact Dodi Fayed turned out to be a better James Bond for attracting a vulnerable woman, a British princess this time.

This James Bond's personality can perhaps be calculated by his associates viz Sgt Nightingale, his ex-colleague and of course who arranged and ordered 'unlawful kill' of vulnerable British princess and her unborn baby along with Dodi and the drunk driver of Dodi while media paparazzi chased.

[Rahul M]

Gents, apologies for not doing due diligence but can someone point out to our rejoinder/statement to the continuation of british aid to India? Why do we still get 'aid' from them?

edge of lunacy
................

you post a 9 years old opinion piece in response to request for current status ?

[vishvak]

Coincidentally after scrapping aid to India by 2015, British seem to have started to plan for mission to Mars - that too when financial crisis is affecting UK along with many other usual problems such as social inequality.

[Aditya_V]

Coincidentally after scrapping aid to India by 2015, British seem to have started to plan for mission to Mars - that too when financial crisis is affecting UK along with many other usual problems such as social inequality.

Let them, no longer can they accuse us.

[abhishek_sharma]

The strange death of the British middle class

[Vayutuvan]

Coincidentally after scrapping aid to India by 2015, British seem to have started to plan for mission to Mars - that too when financial crisis is affecting UK along with many other usual problems such as social inequality.

Let them, no longer can they accuse us.

Not only that - now we can start accusing them

[eklavya]

A passage to Mayfair

[anupmisra]

A passage to Mayfair

The empire strikes back. It would be funny to watch gora butlers, maids, gardeners and chauffeurs catering and serving the Desi Punjabis and Gujjus with their Billoos, Buntys and Munnis in tow.

[Vayutuvan]

Oh absolutely. The new bollywood/politico nabobs would effortlessly fill the boots of now extinct Berty Woosters who are toiling in the hedge fund and investment banking Ltds.

A good match me thinks.

[eklavya]

^^^^
The i-bank, PE, and hedge funds industry is dominated by meritocratic US/European institutions, with a very diverse intake. Media, law, and journalism are also ferociously competitive. Bertie Wooster and his ilk work in PR, Real Estate, Fashion, etc. where knowing the correct answer to 2+2 is typicaly less important than the soft social skills.

[Vayutuvan]

To be fair, Bertie was a likeable character who by the end of the series was on his way to becoming a normal human being and a member of the prol society.

My impression was that hedge finds etc. are dominated by the assorted "'title" holders. My bad.

[Lalmohan]

the upper class english man is now a rarity in the high end jobs in london, unless he is very well educated and extremely smart

[vishvak]

the upper class english man is now a rarity in the high end jobs in london, unless he is very well educated and extremely smart

Isn't every Englishman supposed to be very well educated, extremely smart unlike unsaved savage heathens and pagaans? After all UK enjoyed biggest richest colonial empire and brightest education system after end of barbaric colonial times.