Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Next time you hear a British person, for example, especially a supporter of Winston Churchill, says ‘my country’, turn their argument/belief on its head by quoting their ‘hero’: I  do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right.   I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, or, at any rate, a more worldly-wise race, to put it that way, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, 'The American Continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here.' They had not the right, nor had they the power. —Winston Churchill  To the   Palestine Royal Commission   (1...

We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow. —Lord Palmerston  1784–1865,  British statesman; Prime Minister, 1855–8, 1859–65,  speech, House of Commons, 1 March 1848 In defense of imperialism and murder As in the cold war and the earlier struggles of the 20th century, the world’s democracies do not need to apologise for being ruthless in defence of free societies.” — Gideon Rahman , Financial Times, 27 May 2024

 Starmer says cost of sickness and disability benefits ‘devastating’ One of the richest economies in the world has been disable for a while: low or no economic growth. A capitalist economy which is dominated by the private sector and cannot resume growth. Who should the capitalist government go after to save money? The vulnerable.  Meanwhile, a man who used to earn 142 times the average salary of a nurse is lecturing British boys how to be ‘role models’ . Shouldn't he be at least attacking the British regime and the culture that is complicit in mass killing of Palestinians?

and more borrowing, more cronysm, more complicity in mass murder, more spending on 'defense',  welfare cuts and more  On 'Starmer's Britain’

“For context, the number of permanent secretaries who never went to university around this time was zero, says a 2019 report by the Sutton Trust social mobility charity. Most went to one of just two universities, Oxford or Cambridge, as did most senior judges, cabinet ministers and diplomats.  For context again, the share of the general population going to Oxbridge was less than 1 per cent and just 7 per cent went to the private schools that educated most permanent secretaries, top judges and Lords.  For context again, the share of the general population going to Oxbridge was less than 1 per cent and just 7 per cent went to the private schools that educated most permanent secretaries, top judges and Lords.  Education is not the only measure of class. Parents’ occupations matter too. But Gray remains an outlier in a country where a small elite still has a big say in how things are run.  Class can have a bigger effect on your chance of being promoted than gender, ethn...

Insufficient housing, an eroded social sector and diminished state support made tens of thousands destitute .

Nowhere “ explores his turbulent history against a backdrop of seismic world events” Related The West's Favourite Afghan

Mark Curtis pays tribute to John Pilger Related   The War on Democracy documentary

They don’t only tacitly support killing of Palestinians, they create the circumstances of a killing machine at home then they put the blame on someone else.

As ever, the ‘legitimate concerns’ brigade includes a well-heeled faction of the lumpencommentariat, such as Carole Malone, Matthew Goodwin, Dan Wootton and Allison Pearson. Notably, however, these ‘concerns’ aren’t about the ‘bread and butter’ issues that many leftists seem to think will defuse racist agitation: as I’ve said many times before, it isn’t the economy, stupid. What the two recent moral panics have in common is the coprological image of matter out of place: borders and boundaries eroding and people being were they ought not to be. As was proven when the court revealed that the suspect is a British minor and the riots persisted, it doesn’t matter what ‘the facts’ are: we can’t ‘fact-check’ this phenomenon into oblivion. It would be instructive to ask one of these ‘whiteness’ or ‘Englishness’ rioters what they would have done had the suspect been white. One of the rationalisations of rioters claiming not to be racist was that, because the suspect killed children, he was not ...

The Britons who can’t afford to retire

“Any supposed peace dividend from the end of the Cold War, always more talked about than experienced by voters in the UK, was now over, Shapps argued. We are not in a ‘post-war world’ but a ‘pre-war world’, the defence secretary told his listeners.”  “In a phrase worthy of Dr Strangelove, he said that we cannot assume that ‘the strategy of mutually assured destruction that stopped wars in the past will stop them in the future’. “The majority of its [Britain’s] citizens have had more sense than to approve the imperial follies of the post-Cold War hot wars.”  I am not sure about that. Rees must provide evidence. John Rees is from the Socialist Workers Party. Publishing on the Middle East Eye means Rees and MEE have to replace the term imperialist with ‘imperial’ and neocolonial power with ‘post-colonial power’ .

  The Hundred Years' War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi

Support for the brutal, indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza finds its roots in the historical context of western settler-colonialism

Under the header “They mustn’t forget why they struck down Allende,” the magazine announced in October 1973 that: “The junta has been the victim of a campaign of organised hostility in the west as well as of its own mistakes”. The article continued: “Perhaps the imposition of martial law, the mass interrogations and the summary execution of snipers would not have aroused so much criticism if there were a clearer understanding of the events that precipitated the coup.” The magazines Latin American editor Robert Moss would go on to become a speechwriter for Margaret Thatcher, who  described  Pinochet as Britain’s “staunch, true friend” and praised the former dictator for having “brought democracy to Chile.” The Economist’s and Britain’s role in the coup of 1973 against Allende Related Liberalism at Large The World According to the Economist

Slavery, Capitalism and the Industrial Revolution

“The future of Britain under Starmer looks like an outdated 90s tribute act to Blairism and Thatcherism.”

“From the point of view of the regime, it may well be that riots are welcome , for they guarantee  renormalisation , they permit social ‘bantustans’ to remain such, and they deflate discontents that could otherwise be perilous. Naturally, for them to perform this stabilizing function they must be subject to outward condemnation: vandalism should be denounced, violence should spark indignation, looting should cause disgust. Such reactions justify the ruthlessness of the repression, which becomes the only means to beat back the tide of barbarism. It is under these conditions that riots serve to ossify social hierarchy.” “A social system is not only characterised by its internal structure, but also by the reactions it provokes: a system founded on commandments can, in certain moments, imply reciprocal duties of aid carried out honestly, as it can also lead to brutal outbursts of hostility. To the eyes of the historian, who must merely note and explain the relationships between phenome...