You know those times when you want to say something’s unbelievable – but it just isn’t? This is one of those.
You can’t even say it’s ‘astonishing’, because astonishment means surprise. It is staggering, though – it manages that even while being entirely unsurprising.
The Tories – along with their media glove-puppets and ‘usual suspect‘ Labour cuckoos – have been desperately banging the ‘Corbyn must condemn’ drum concerning Venezuela and the thoroughly-misrepresented situation there. Smears by association seem to be the last weapon they have against the Labour leader’s soaring polling and popularity – even if it’s having the opposite effect and even if they have to invent a situation to be outraged about.
In the Venezuela instance, it’s the idea that a brutal socialist dictatorship is repressing poor, downtrodden, democratic protesters – when really the protesters are either very rich or being paid by the very rich, it’s the protesters who are being brutal and who desperately want an end to democracy because they can’t win democratically.
While the brutal, repressive dictatorship does brutal, repressive things like releasing opposition leaders convicted of incitement to violence to house arrest so they can be with their families while they ‘serve’ their long custodial sentences.
Desperate times, desperation measures for the Tories. But about to get even more transparently desperate.
Because it turns out that, since they entered Downing St in 2010, the Conservatives have been selling weapons to the very same ‘regime’ they claim they’re so angry about that only Jeremy Corbyn’s outright condemnation of the Venezuelan government could possibly salve their pain.
The Guardian has revealed that the UK has sold millions of pounds’ worth of military and police equipment to Venezuela since 2008 – with new licences for the export of such equipment granted right up to the last year of figures available:
It’s a good thing that the portrayal of the Venezuelan government is grossly inaccurate and appears to be driven by western interest in improving access to and control of its huge oil reserves.
Because otherwise the Tories would be guilty of arming a repressive regime – and of the hapless hypocrisy of trying to smear by association with said regime a politician who has never sold a single weapon to anyone.
Not that this would be anything new – from Thatcher’s infatuation with the brutal actual South American dictator Pinochet to Theresa May’s fawning over Saudi Arabia, the Tories are up to their necks in support for regimes to whom human rights are at best an inconvenience and usually ignored too much even to be that.
So they haven’t the slightest excuse for misrepresenting Venezuela while continuing to supply it with arms and to licence their buddies to do so.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
Always the way accuse Corbyn of something and you can be sure when the truth comes out those utterly vile Tories have indeed done it with cost to human life
They should all be locked up
TOTAL HYPOCRISY OF THE TORIES WHOEVER THE LEADER “MAY” BE!
THOSE ON THE RIGHT ARE ALL TARRED WITH THE SAME BRUSH!
BE ASHAMED THE LOT OF YA!
A little perspective.
Last year’s figure was £80k, zero of which was supplied by “hypocritical tories”, unless the article’s writer knows the political leanings of the responsible persons within the private companies doing the selling.
The sales take place under licenses granted by successive governments of Labour, Coalition and Conservative persuasions. Interestingly the highest figure in recent years is £7m in 2005 under Labour.
“https://www.caat.org.uk/resources/export-licences-eu/licence.en.html?source=United%20Kingdom&year=2005&destination_iso2=VE”
Tosh.
They could have withdrawn licenses at any time.
And do you seriously doubt the political leanings of arms dealers?
Theoretically could be UKIP, but statistically, it’s 99-1 on for the tories.
As you well know.
2005? Things in Venezuela were rather different then, as you probably don’t remember.
£80k worth of bullets is enough to kill 160,000 men, women and children. That’s not OK with me. Is it OK with you?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/08/04/007902C700000258-0-image-a-33_1428464071817.jpg
The figures aren’t tosh unlessCAAT have got their figures wrong. And any government could have revoked the licenses.
Of course it’s not OK with me for people to be killed. The world would be a wonderful place if there were no guns and no bullets. But there are guns and bullets (and bombs, and vehicles used as weapons, and knives and…….)
I’m putting some context into the argument.
If £80k = 160k deaths then £7m = 14m deaths. Which is worse?
On the face of it Labour approved of the socialist paradise and licensed lots of bullets; the Conservatives don’t and licensed fewer bullets.
You are sincerely stupid, like most tory trolls.
In 2005, there was not an issue in Venezuela. Go read the history books.
There is now. Stop throwing in irrelevant ‘facts’ to distract from the point. Which is what’s happening NOW – not 12 years ago.
This isn’t a case of ‘choosing between two evils’ because there is a rational alternative.
When both are wrong, the alternative MUST be considered .
Blairite Labour and Tory Governments ignored the alternative and chose evil.
Jeremy Corbyn has condemned violence on both sides in Venezuela. He wants there to be dialogue instead of conflict.
He isn’t one of the Blairite Labour Party who condoned the sale of arms and shouldn’t be tarred with the same brush. Far from it, he wants to stop the UK Government licensing UK companies to arm foreign Governments so they can kill and oppress their own citizens.
Remember: “Jaw Jaw, not WarWar”
@Hindson
And here’s a little PERSPECTIVE for you and your comments ( Hindson) —-
His only intention and purpose is to cover the actions of his Govt paymasters by appearing reasonable on the surface but below is an all out Tory Troll who is as unpleasant as they come .Visit some of the articles surrounding Grenfell tower fire and note his ducking and diving to straight questions and utter lack of sensitivity and compassion , and then note here again on this topic the same pattern of comment .
His reason is to undermine this blog ,make you think it is unworthy of belief and to question its writers honesty. Whilst providing a blanket of cover for the actions of the establishment and his Govt who he defends every time very subtly . There is a very clear pattern of action that he masquerades as ” debate” but successfully in some cases “pushes all the right buttons ” ,that wind up honest decent people with a moral conscience , something he clearly has none of .
One should bear in mind the following fact that HIndson wrote in an earlier reply thread,
Graham Hindson 30/07/2017 at 3:44 pm · ·
As a life long Conservative voter it’s unlikely to be my CLP!
Thus there you have it , self confessed Tory Troll and hence any and all comments by this troll need to be viewed bearing this fact in mind.
They’d sell arms to North Korea if Kim had any money.
If hypocrisy hadn’t been invented, they’d have thought of it all by themselves.
They wouldn’t know the ‘moral high ground’ if they were buried in it.
Reblogged this on Earth Changing Extremities.
@Andrew Heenan
2005 – Chavez in power – socialist paradise – people happy.
2017 – Maduro in power – socialist paradise – either people unhappy, or CIA inspired counter revolutionary whatever, depending on who you believe.
So yes it is different. The question is, I suppose, is it the right thing or the wrong thing to license arms exports, whatever their size, to either suppress the people or defend against the CIA counter revolution, whichever is the case.
The evil USA people would presumably say the more arms the better (presumably Labour in 2005 making sure that Chavez could protect the socialist paradise from outside influence); the evil Maduro people would say the less arms the better to keep the people safe.
So on the face of it the Conservative government is doing what it thinks is the right thing (fewer almost no arms); presumably a Corbyn government influenced by Skwawkbox type articles would increase the licenses again.
It’s all very confusing.
NB Putting the word fact in quotes implies the fact is not a fact. The facts I’ve quoted are facts, at least according to the CAAT!
You still contrive to miss the point. In 2005 – whether you loved or hated Chavez, there was not the discord we’re now seeing. I don’t defend ANY arms deals; but isn’t it just a tiny bit hypocritical of the tories to be selling arms now, while pretending they aren’t supporting a US regime change?
Can you REALLY not see any difference between 2005 and now?
Not in the state of turmoil their now compared to then?
Not in UK government policy toward Venezuela?
Seriously?
Because THEN Venezuela – love Chavez or hate him – was a peaceful nation. NOW there is every prospect of extreme violence, assisted by the US (Trump has made his position clear).
And as the UK has been throwing (Venezuela’s) petrol on the fire for a while, don’t you think they should ban arms sales, rather than shout abuse at Mr Corbyn?
What planet are you tories on?
Crikey. I expect at least a smidgen of logic from trolls.
I’m not sure what you’re getting at .
You’d like to see arms sales to Venezuela banned, but you also subscribe to the theory that democracy in the country is being threatened by the US with the support of our government.. Surely Mr Maduro in that case needs all the weapons he can get to defend his country and his people from this external threat.
tories – would sell anything to anybody without regard to consequences[
@Terry Clarke
This is where I get confused.
The conventional wisdom amongst Corbyn favouring outlets such as this seems to be that Venezuela isn’t “killing and oppressing” its own citizens.
So presumably Mr Corbyn would have no objection to arms sales to Mr Maduro’s government.
I presume you pretend to appear lacking in insight to obscure the clarity of discourse.
To put it in simpleton terms:-
– Corbyn has been called on repeatedly to condemn the alleged repression of the Maduro government, by Conservative supporters and their “moderate” Labour allies;
– all the while expressing outrage about this repression, the Conservative government has been approving the export of military hardware to the same repressive government;
– the hypocrisy is created by the context of these simultaneous actions.
Calling for Corbyn to condemn Maduro is OK; licensing arms exports to the Maduro government is OK; the same institution doing both is hypocritical and illogical, and exposes the mendacity of the connected outrage about Maduro government actions.
You are of course clever enough to assess this juxtaposition for yourself but chose not to refer to it in your numerous posts.
I have made it perfectly clear and your own dishonesty is also obvious.
Now stop polluting the comment pages of an articulate blog and stick to massaging your fellow snivelling golf club Tory nonces
It’s certainly hypocritical to condemn the Maduro government and allow arms to be exported there. It’s what politicians do all the time – do what I say, not what I do. (Cf Labour outrage over maternity units)
It’s the scale that I’m highlighting.
£125k of UK licences in the last three years. The EU figure is 461m euros, and the EU has also condemned Mr Maduro,
NB I generally find that insulting language adds nothing to debates of this nature; indeed it can obscure otherwise valid arguments.
And I repeat my original assessment of this individual ( Hindson) —-
His only intention and purpose is to cover the actions of his Govt paymasters by appearing reasonable on the surface but below is an all out Tory Troll who is as unpleasant as they come .Visit some of the articles surrounding Grenfell tower fire and note his ducking and diving to straight questions and utter lack of sensitivity and compassion , and then note here again on this topic the same pattern of comment .
His reason is to undermine this blog ,make you think it is unworthy of belief and to question its writers honesty. Whilst providing a blanket of cover for the actions of the establishment and his Govt who he defends every time very subtly . There is a very clear pattern of action that he masquerades as ” debate” but successfully in some cases “pushes all the right buttons ” ,that wind up honest decent people with a moral conscience , something he clearly has none of .
One should bear in mind the following fact that HIndson wrote in an earlier reply thread,
Graham Hindson 30/07/2017 at 3:44 pm · ·
As a life long Conservative voter it’s unlikely to be my CLP!
Thus there you have it , self confessed Tory Troll and hence any and all comments by this troll need to be viewed bearing this fact in mind.
There’s none so blind as they who will not see.
I think I’ll leaving at that and let you presume what you want to presume.
Wish I could say it’s been a pleasure but I’m not into telling lies.
And here’s a ‘fact’ for you: Theresa May is a hypocrite.