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You’d have to be mad to think Boris Johnson is the answer to Britain’s problems – George Galloway

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/464839-boris-j ... -problems/
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George Galloway was a member of the British Parliament for nearly 30 years. He presents TV and radio shows (including on RT). He is a film-maker, writer and a renowned orator.

23 Jul, 2019


You’d have to be mad to think Boris Johnson is the answer to Britain’s problems – George Galloway
© Getty Images / Stefan Rousseau

As Noel Coward sang,

Only Mad Dogs and Englishmen go out in the noon-day sun.

You could say the same about the Conservative Party, which just chose Boris Johnson to lead it.

Getting his sole challenger Jeremy Hunt’s name wrong has become a national obsession. Mind you, he got his own wife’s nationality wrong when he claimed she was Japanese (she’s Chinese) on a mission to...China!

You’d have to have been out in the noonday sun, would certainly have to be English and being mad would help, if you thought Boris Johnson was the answer to Britain’s now rather critical problems.

Britain’s (almost) new prime minister is the perfect encapsulation of all of the vices (and one or two virtues, to be fair) of the upper-class English elite (even though his grasp on Englishness is itself tenuous).

The feeling that one is born to rule, [deleted] by an expensive education at the world’s most exclusive school, Eton (which has educated precisely half of all Britain’s prime ministers) and Oxford. An effortless belief in one’s racial and national superiority over Johnny Foreigner (including the upstart Americans). A contempt only blunted a little by noblesse oblige for one’s own countrymen and women who either don’t look like you, or even for those that just don’t sound like you.

In this sense Boris Johnson is a throwback to former times – not quite to the 19th century like his aide-de-camp Jacob Rees-Mogg but at least to the middle of the 20th century. On the face of it, Harold MacMillan, the then British PM, was a straight-laced, slightly eccentric upper-class Englishman. That his wife was upstairs in bed, for years, with one of his parliamentary colleagues Sir Robert Boothby didn’t seem to faze him. Or us, but then we weren’t to know about it.

In deference to the new age, Boris Johnson has skipped the straight-laced bit; he has cuckolded his colleagues, even leaving cuckoos in their nests, has left a trail of lurid love-life stories to make a thriller-writer blush, and will likely bed down in Downing Street on Wednesday night with his 31 year-old girlfriend. But the rest is just the same. Johnson is (or has fashioned himself) as an upper-class English eccentric and will be hoping the deference is not dead amongst 21st century Britons.

To be fair it should be said that Johnson is as colourful as his predecessor, Mrs May was bloodless. He is clever and quick-witted (you get what you pay for at Eton), is well read and is a good writer too (he should be, he is Britain’s most expensive newspaper columnist). Like his hero Winston Churchill, he believes history will treat him kindly because HE intends to write it.

He is also possessed of a brand of courage, the kind of courage that showed in the Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava in the Crimean War. He led the Tory-Brexit campaign from the front and –unlike the Light Brigade – he emerged the winner.

He has come back from terrible setbacks and humiliations. His baggage hangs about him, unable to be shaken off. A British citizen languishes in an Iranian jail as a result of his lazy, slovenly approach to his briefings. A non-existent garden bridge stands in his name in London. It cost https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/201 ... -tfl-finds the taxpayer over £37 million though it was never built and never will be. He has insulted half the world personally. Calling the French “turds” calling the Turks an unmentionable name (despite being part-Turkish by heritage), he even declared that he would not visit some parts of New York (he was a joint UK-US citizen at the time) because of the “high-probability” of “bumping into Donald Trump” if he did. Because he didn’t tweet that, he’ll be hoping now that President Trump didn’t hear that one.

His sure-touch on the Muslim world he demonstrated when he called

half of them –the women– “letter boxes.” Good luck on your first tour of the Islamic world, Boris.

He described black people as “piccaninnies,” though he liked their “watermelon smiles.” Good luck in Africa, Boris!

Like Harold MacMillan, Boris Johnson sees himself as Donald Trump’s missing brain and sees Britain as Greece to America’s Rome. A land of learning sophistication and culture firmly fastened to the rectum of brute American power.

He is the wisest fool in Christendom. Poor Boris, he doesn’t realise that both empires are history…

[Zmeselo]

CHINA RESPONDS TO IRAN CAPTURING 'U.S. SPIES': REMEMBER WHEN MIKE POMPEO SAID CIA LIES, CHEATS AND STEALS?

By Tom O'Connor

7/23/19


Secretary of State Mike Pompeo takes questions following a speech at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas, April 15. Pompeo's assertion that "we lied, we cheated, we stole" during his time at the CIA drew controversy. PHOTO: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

https://videos.newsweek.com/share/51199 ... at=IAB12-1

WORLD

China responded to reports that Iran busted an alleged United States spy ring by citing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the former CIA director who admitted a few months ago to misdeeds during his time in intelligence.

During his April lecture at Texas A&M University, Pompeo shared a personal anecdote as "a bit of an aside" how he came to defy his West Point honor code stating that

a cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.

He admitted:

I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. It was like we had entire training courses...it reminds you of the glory of the American experiment.

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry announced Monday that it had captured 17 individuals suspected of spying for the U.S. last month. That same day, Pompeo accused Iran of having "a long history of lying" in an interview with Fox News. He pointed to Iranian claims about the U.S. regarding the downing of drones and seizure of vessels in the Persian Gulf.

When Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying was asked at a press briefing Tuesday about the competing claims regarding Washington and Tehran's competing claims over the U.S. alleged intelligence ring, she answered:

I'm not aware of the situation you mentioned about Iran, but I remember it clearly that Mr. Pompeo said in public in a speech at Texas University that 'we lie, cheat and steal, and this is the glory of experiment of America.' I guess you all remember that?

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry first announced in June that it had dealt a "heavy blow" to U.S. cyber-espionage networks as tensions between the two longtime rivals boiled over in the Persian Gulf. The latest announcement regarding Iranian counterintelligence was accompanied by images purported to be of several of the individuals, some with family members, that appeared to have been taken from social media.

The detected spies were employed in sensitive and vital private sector centers in the economic, nuclear, infrastructure, military and cyber areas and operated as contractors or advisers in these sectors, where they collected classified information,

the ministry said in a statement, noting that some of the individuals had been recruited as they attempted to apply for U.S. visas.

Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency reported that the ministry had further revealed that

rulings for these spies have been issued and a number of them will be executed as corruptors on Earth.

The outlet also cited an unnamed intelligence official who discussed details of previous CIA operations foiled by the Islamic Republic, though President Donald Trump has denied the entire affair.

The Report of Iran capturing CIA spies is totally false. Zero truth,

Trump tweeted shortly after the news broke.

Just more lies and propaganda (like their shot down drone) put out by a Religious Regime that is Badly Failing and has no idea what to do. Their Economy is dead, and will get much worse. Iran is a total mess!

Later that day, Trump repeated the claims during a joint press conference with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying

that's totally a false story. That's another lie. They put out propaganda.

The CIA has played a central role in the U.S. and Iran's troubled history https://www.newsweek.com/iran-remembers ... ld-1445104 as the agency worked alongside the United Kingdom to orchestrate a 1953 coup to reinstall a West-backed monarchy challenged by a popular, democratically-elected prime minister looking to nationalize the country's oil assets, among other reforms. In 1979, the Islamic Revolution overthrew the centuries-long shah dynasty and brought to power a theocratic leadership deeply resentful of the West's intervention.

Hostilities only worsened as the 21st century approached, with the U.S. and its top regional ally, Israel, attempting to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions, which the country has always maintained were strictly peaceful. One disaffected CIA operative, Jeffrey Sterling, was imprisoned in the U.S. for disclosing to journalist James Risen a botched attempt to damage Iran's nuclear program https://www.newsweek.com/ex-cia-officer ... ths-330767 by providing flawed blueprints — a move that reportedly may have inadvertently helped the Islamic Republic go nuclear.

A 2015 nuclear deal briefly brought the U.S. and Iran together, but Trump's decision to abandon it last year and impose sanctions on Tehran has once again seen the U.S. and Iran at major odds, raising concerns that a conflict could break out as they exchanged threats. China was among the parties to the agreement and, like fellow signatories the European Union, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom, still supported it.


Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (3rd L) meets Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi (2nd R) at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing on May 17. China has mostly sided with Iran in its dispute with the U.S., but has called for all parties to show restraint at tensions worsened in the Persian Gulf.
THOMAS PETER/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

With Europe struggling to normalize trade ties with Iran under the threat of U.S. sanctions, however, Tehran has begun enriching uranium beyond restricted levels, putting more strain on the fragile accord. China and Russia have called on Europe to do more and have largely blamed the U.S. for the current spike in tensions. The Persian Gulf has also seen unclaimed attacks on oil tankers, as well as Iranian and U.K. forces capturing tankers belonging to one another's countries https://www.newsweek.com/uk-oil-tanker- ... ip-1450341 after trading accusations that they broke the law.

Further straining U.S.-China ties, already caught up in a multibillion-dollar trade war, Pompeo announced Monday new sanctions against Chinese company Zhuhai Zhenrong for importing oil from Iran, defying the Trump administration's unilateral sanctions.

China firmly opposes and strongly condemns U.S. sanctions on Zhuhai Zhenrong and its chief executive,

Hua told reporters Tuesday.

China has stressed many times that the normal energy cooperation between Iran and the international community, including China, under the framework of international law is legal and legitimate, thus should be respected and protected.

In disregard of the legal and legitimate rights and interests of all parties, the US has been wantonly wielding the big stick of sanction, which is unpopular and contrary to the trend of the times,

she added.

We strongly urge the U.S. to immediately correct its wrongdoing. China will resolutely safeguard the legal rights and interests of its businesses and reserve the right to take further steps.