Alastair Campbell and the Shame of Sheffield

I found out at the last minute this Thursday just passed that Alastair Campbell had a speaking engagement at Sheffield University. Interestingly the student group, 'The Exchange', who normally inform everyone on their mailing list of upcoming political speakers kept quiet on this one.

I managed to get hold of a ticket in the nick of time and attend.

I've never been so ashamed of Sheffield in my life.

There is simply no way the BNP, for example, would ever be able to have a speaker attend Sheffield University. Even if there were no 'no platform' policy, UAF and every other student group would be mobilised to stop it, and if they failed, protest outside in their hundreds and likely attempt to intimidate everyone going in.

How then is it possible that this serial distorter and murderer of the truth, who was amongst other things the chief architect for the fabric of lies that led the U.K. into that obscenity known as the Iraq War, was to be welcomed with open arms, his every quip received with warm chortles? This man has the blood of thousands on his hands through murder, injury and torture.

The host of the event, which was set up in an entertainment chat-show format, asked him expectedly softball questions. This was an irritant, but expected. It was the audience however who absolutely stunned me with their almost sychophantic acceptance of all of his talking points (such as the idea that anyone bringing up the deficit had some kind of pathological 'deficit fetish') and - most importantly - when they had their chance to question him themselves they went for the most mind blowingly anodyne and saccharin questions one could imagine.

Examples included 'what do you do in your shed?' and 'do you get free tickets for Wimbledon?' I spent most of the event shaking my head in absolute abject despair at the level of political dialogue. I continually put my hand up but did not get picked by the presenter. I'm not surprised, my body language must have looked very angry and aggressive and I spent the whole time staring at him, not clapping or laughing along with the ship of fools that was the Sheffield audience.

One of my friends wrote the idiocy off as just students being generally uninformed after I related this to her. I was sorry to tell her that the vast majority of the audience, which packed out the entire Octagon centre (1250 capacity auditorium) at the University, were not students and the average age was between 40-50. So these people have been fully cognizant of our wonderful 13 year journey with the Labour debt - and people - bombers.

Towards the end, the presenter allowed a 'quick fire round', where people could shout out brief questions that Campbell would then try to answer. It was at this point that he received his only difficult question of the night - one young chap shouted out "how right was Andrew Gilligan?"

When Campbell finally got around to answering this, his response was simply "Andrew Gilligan? Completely wrong on everything". That was it. I blew a gasket and started heckling. I'd purposefully sat in a prominent location, in a raised seating area at the back that gave me direct eye contact between the row separating the seating areas in front of me. "Andrew Gilligan was VINDICATED" I boomed down the aisle. The entire emasculated audience appeared absolutely shocked at my audacity.

Campbell repeated his line again at which point it degenerated into a mouth off between him and me. He said something outrageously idiotic which I can't remember, however it set me off into a long belly laugh which irritated him, and he said something like 'whatever facts the gentleman is privy to do not worry me'.

At which point I completely lost it and fully sounded off in a rant at him, telling him that I know he wouldn't be worried by facts, by his fake affectation to be down with the common man, (one of the questioners had previously asked him what it was he brought to the table for Tony Blair - his response was to claim that when he went to football matches he didn't sit in the VIP area, but deigned to mix with the 'common man' and therefore he understood the 'common man'),because he was a member of the political class, in the Westminster bubble.

He got shirty for a bit then remembered his snake-oil training and chose very carefully neutral words simply restating his position. I was shaking with rage and only began to calm down at the end when a nice chap and his girlfriend approached me and thanked me for standing up to him and said I was "very brave".

On the whole the evening really reminded me of why I'm glad to be leaving Sheffield. It is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, having failed completely to start evolving into a more cosmopolitan and forward thinking place unlike most of the other core cities, and is packed - still - with people in complete denial regarding the economy, who expect state handouts for everything, who think there is an endless source of money for everything and everyone. I frankly have no sympathy at all. Sheffield is going to deserve whatever bad things come its way - the audience in the room were certainly representative of the City's more influential and better informed people.

For shame Sheffield, for shame.

God help this city.

The Nobomba Candidate

A worrying number of people seem to have brought into the Nobomba's messianic campaign, thinking that positive change is inevitable with his inauguration. A popular myth appears to be that there is going to be leagues of difference between him and "where the fuck am I?" McCain with regard to foreign (i.e. war) policy. Nobomba has already reneged on some of his supposedly antiwar commitments, which he made prior to being voted in. What more might we have in store - and could Nobomba change anything even if he wanted to?

The middle east is the obvious focus for U.S. foreign policy. There is almost certainly going to be another major conflagration soon in the region with either Pakistan, or Israel as the main instigator. So what's the deal with these "armies with a state attached"?

Pakistan is now officially a basket-case. It should have been the primary target in the bogus "war on terror" since day one. It would have been if the pirates steering the ship of state actually gave a mad hatter's crap about dealing effectively with terrorist, and various non-state, actors. Our friends in the ISI have kept things ticking along nicely thank you very much - thanks to billions upon billions in "aid" (read: bribes) from the West. Plenty of money to go around to Al Queda, the Taliban and that pesky A.Q.Khan nuclear proliferation network. You know - the network that the West continued pretending to shut down. Despite another alleged recent crackdown on the network, Siddiqui and Griffin - two of the key British enablers - are still walking free and unharrassed.

Nobomba 2007: "If we have actionable intelligence about high-value terrorist targets and President Musharraf won't act, we will." Musharraf has gone since this statement. Which means things are likely much worse now. The ISI is riddled with anti-West and pro-Taliban sentiment at the highest levels. Musharraf was the primary force holding them in check. And since Nobomba's statement of intentions, various infractions of Pakistani territory by Coalition forces have already occurred. The fact is though, in many ways it wouldn't have mattered if Nobomba was actually this mythical dove that his ardent supporters claim - the stage is set and Pakistan is already skidding into the crash.

Israel? Pfft. Forget it. Nobomba has spoken to AIPAC and he is THE MAN for defending the Great Golem. The army with a state, the permanent airstrip in the east, the holy homeland that might have actually been in Saudi Arabia (oops), the buffer zone between the West and the middle east, the West's basket case of "democracies" (keep that Arab vote out why dontchya). Yep that place.

p.s. Israel has just requested "bunker-busters" and clearance to fly over Iraqi airspace to get to Iran. Aww shucks, don't you just love a military that wants to demolish a nation on the basis of wafer thin evidence?

Iran? "As President, I will use all elements of American power to pressure Iran. I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon…." And..."I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything in my power. Everything." - That nuclear technology? Yeah you know the one. The technology developed by Iran with the direct assistance of the A.Q.Khan network. The network given a free pass by Anglo-American intelligence and customs.

The CIA's official estimate is that Iran stopped its nuclear programme in 2003 and hasn't made any progress since. If the mainstream media was to be believed, you would think the CIA had said the opposite. The Khan network was supposedly trounced by Western intelligence around that time when it intercepted a shipment of parts bound for Libya. This was, funnily enough, the signal event that led to Libya 'coming in from the cold'. The mainstream media also claimed, following their usual simpering line, following the intelligence PR releases and not doing their own research, that anglo-american intelligence had been responsible for this coup. They weren't responsible for it at all. It was the Libyans.

Then of course, Nobomba should know all of this. And yet he follows the line that Iran's is an independent effort. It's like that Bill Hicks sketch with the U.S. telling the about-to-be-bombed-into-the-stone-age nation of [insert name here] to pick up the gun the U.S. has just thrown at its feet....

I'm supposed to believe that a new presidential candidate really can change the course of events for the better. I don't. Just like every president before him, he'll face dug-in, fortified interests that have nothing to do with wishful notions of "democracy". Kennedy was the last president to take their hand from the tiller (pseudo-pun intended there). "What forces" you ask? Well here's one - Ehud Olmert, prime minister of Israel recently boasted how he had yanked the U.S. president "off the podium" to demand that the U.S. abstain in the UN vote on the Gaza Strip (the vote that the U.S. set up in the first place). In case you hadn't been paying attention these last few years, the Israeli amen corner and Israel itself, as been kicking America's back door in. Google "US israel espionage" for a summary.

Even if I did believe this however, let's take those arguing that this great man, this messiah of change, this lion of american politics, actually has the intention to do great things for everyone other than the invested elites. If he was good to his word, you think he might appoint like minded people, right? Well....

...Nobomba's doveish appointees? Well - here we go:

- Dennis Ross
Middle East adviser. Promotes Israeli interests over U.S. Has worked both "sides" of the aisle. Big name in Neocon circles.

- Robert Gates
Defense Secretary. Wait - he has exactly the same name as the last guy!

- (General) James Jones
National Security Adviser. A close friend of John McCain. This appointment also means continuing the policy of using NATO as an instrument of U.S. aggression.

- Hilary Clinton
Secretary of State. Warmongering fucktard. Clinton represents the pro-war wing of the Democratic Party.

- Rahm Emmanuel
Chief of staff. Rabidly pro-israel and an active opponent of the antiwar movement.

E.J. Dionne on Obama and the antiwar movement: "Obama made clear six years ago that while he was with them on Iraq, he was not one of them"
Since Dionne made that comment, Nobomba has also reneged on his commitments re: Iraq.

So - Obamaites - What is the substantial difference between this administration and the last one? And what is the source of your faith?

p.s. the first person who implies my criticism of Nobomba is racist gets a punch in the face. Plus you could always check what some black political activists are saying about him.