Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has been under increasing pressure after the revelation that his claim – including in a televised interview – that the Porton Down chemical weapons laboratory told him ‘categorically’ that ‘there is no doubt’ the Salisbury nerve agent came from Russia was a complete falsehood.
Yesterday’s Sky News interview, in which the head of Porton Down said it had been unable to identify a source, has exposed Johnson’s claim as a fabrication – and forced the Foreign Office to delete a tweet it had put out with the same false claim.
Sky News and Channel 4 News have given reasonable coverage to the issue – but the BBC’s coverage has framed the issue in terms of Johnson giving Russia ‘wiggle room’ to deny culpability.
The real issue – whether Johnson lied to us all and should resign or be sacked – has not been examined.
But in its exertions to cover for Johnson, the BBC has handed the UK public a ‘smoking gun’ of the Corporation abandoning its charter to report impartially – as this video reveals:
The Tories have been desperately pushing the line that Johnson was merely talking about Porton Down’s identification of the substance, not of the source – but the video evidence is conclusive.
Of Johnson’s false claim – and now of the BBC’s attempt to cover for him.
While helping obscure Johnson’s guilt, the BBC has been pushing the Establishment’s other line – that Corbyn is ‘siding with Russia’ by saying Johnson has questions to answer for ‘completely exceeding the evidence’.
As if it’s not completely clear that the blame lies with Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn has a duty to point out that he misled not only the people of the UK but also twenty-eight countries that expelled Russian diplomats on the basis of Johnson’s certainty.
Which he admitted in the interview came from Porton Down’s ‘categorical’ confirmation – which Porton Down say never happened.
Boris Johnson must resign – and if he does not resign, he must be sacked.
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I saw the so-called ‘journalist’ Frank Gardner say those words.
Piss on them all.
How dare you….Frank Gardener’s a HERO!
HERO, I tells ya! HERO!
The UK ambassador to Russia said the same thing on 22/3/18
‘Four days later the analysts at Porton Down, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in the UK, established and made clear that this was a military-grade chemical weapon. One of the Novichok series; a nerve agent as I said produced in Russia. Porton Down is an Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons accredited and designated laboratory.
‘There is also no doubt that Novichok was produced in Russia by the Russian state. It is not a weapon that can be manufactured by non-state actors. It is so dangerous it requires the highest grade state laboratories and expertise to produce it.’
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/british-ambassador-to-russia-briefing-on-the-salisbury-attack-22-march-2017
Everything is a big joke to Johnson, he doesn’t have the ability to tell truth from fiction. Let’s not forget it wasn’t only Johnson who made the claims about Russia being culpable it was May herself and little “Go away and shut up ” Williamson
Just been reading how the US Right Wing Billionaire Barbarians in every sphere of life are trying to crush the US People & Environment so perhaps its time to take the first of the UK Right Wing Tory Barbarians down!
And then hopefully one by one the Right Wing Neo-Liberal House of cards will fall internationally as they enjoy their temporary moment in the sun.
We are the many, they are the few.
Yours in international solidarity!
At present, the BBC is probably the worst it’s ever been for bias in favour of the right. Every news bulletin is carefully crafted to denigrate Jeremy Corbyn and blow smoke over any wrong doing by the right wing and the Government. Reporters such as Norman Smith, Laura Kuenssberg and John Pienaar are blatant exponents of the practice.
It reminds me of the way very young children play hide and seek. They cover their eyes and think no one can see them. The BBC plays down the smell and the noise and stands in front of the Elephant, naively thinking we won’t see it.
We need better from the BBC, to which the majority of us contribute, there needs to be an urgent clear out of top management.
Christ we have a national broadcaster which is now as corrupt as hell!
UN-bloody believable , well done SB for showing up the oh so subtle voice over intro , I’d normally never have batted an eyelid at this effect and I bet most of the UK population wouldn’t have either.
Question everything the BBC says/reports re the news and politics in particular !
Thank stuff I no longer pay for it or watch it other than the examples shown thro these blogs,
From the above article:
‘As if it’s not completely clear that the blame lies with Boris Johnson, and Jeremy Corbyn has a duty to point out that he misled not only the people of the UK, but also twenty-eight countries that expelled Russian diplomats on the basis of Johnson’s certainty.’
(Ends)
So now the Government and their shills are all over the place telling us that the reason the twenty-eight countries were with us on this is because THEY had been shown the evidence (that it was Russia wot done it). Now I’m not going to start researching it, but I certainly don’t recall this having been said at the time – ie TM or ministers saying THAT was the case – and any of them saying something along the lines of: “We’ve shown the conclusive evidence to our European neighbours etc and, as such, they now know it was Putin wot done it and have given us their support as a consequence”.
In fact, come to think of it, I definitely remember at least one spokesperson for one of the coutries saying something like: “We have complete faith in the UK Government’s assessment”, and I have little doubt that if someone did the research, they would find similar such statements being made by other countries. But one thing I DEFINITELY remember is a French Government spokesman being very dissmissive and saying something along the lines of when the UK Government provide us with their evidence (that it was Russia wot done it) then we will give it our consideration. He said it on the night of the 14th of March, the same day that TM made her so-called statement on the ‘Salisbury poisoning’, and as reported in The Times the following day, by which time another statement had been released by the Elysee Palace that morning giving their full support etc to the UK Government.
The following is the first half or so of a comment I posted on March 17th:
As reported in The Times on Thursday (March 15th), Benjamin Griveaux, the French government spokesman, said on Wednesday night that British claims to have proof of Russia’s involvement were “fantasy politics”. The following extract is from the Times article:
Mr Griveaux had poured cold water on claims that Russia’s involvement in the attack had been proven. He said: “We do not do fantasy politics on subjects so serious and so sensitive. Once the elements are proven, that will be the time to decide. But we don’t begin by asking what we can do in case or if something might happen,” he said. “Once these elements are proven — we are in contact with the British authorities on a daily basis on this topic as you can imagine — the decision will be taken.”
(Ends)
Obviously someone forgot to show Monsieur Griveaux the evidence! And one can only imagine that Boris was then straight on to Macron and telling him that the guys at Porton Down told me categorically that there is no doubt whatsoever that it was Putin wot done it, honest, straight up gov.
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/03/17/video-boris-johnsons-sister-jeremy-corbyn-was-right-on-salisbury-response/
To my knowledge not one journalist has asked Johnson or May; if they are so sure Russia carried out the poisoning or supplied the poison will they resign if their accusation is found to be false?
In a similar way, journalists were criminally remiss regarding Blair and WMD.
For the slightest excuse, they crawl all over Corbyn but allow the right wing a free pass.
The interview between Emily Maitlis and Malcolm Rifkind tonight was a travesty – ‘Mr Rifkind, you look like a safe pair of hands, please come on Newsnight tonight to try and get Boris off the hook and don’t worry, I won’t insist you answer the damning facts, just use your own interpretation’
I’m sure Theresa said same thing in Parliament – shouldn’t she be SACKED too – I am against resignations cos they still get MASSIVE MP pensions whilst they are empoverishing majority of pensioners in this country and have stolen 6 years of pensions from #50swomen
Lets not let them off the hook by repeating at every opportunity, Johnson and May must GO.
Too many instances prior to this where they should’ve been hanged – nevermind sacked.
Nice notion, but never gonna happen. They’ll be there for the next one, and the one after, and the one after that – ad nauseam.
Something not being picked up on if nerve agent was so powerful and no known antidote for it and the pair have not been treated with any antidote how then is the daughter getting better and the policeman got better. It just does not add up. This government must be sacked. I for one do not want to see my grandkids incinerated by nuclear weapons because TM and Co wanted to stay in power at any price
And who would carry out such a tragic but amateur act?
No appeal for witness(es)
No cctv footage
No interview with copper what allegedly took ill (Remember when that animal shot the copper in the face & blinded him, up in the NE? He was all over the MSM in no time after leaving hospital – Britain LOVES a ‘hero’ so why not this copper? The s*n & mail must be fumin’ that he hasn’t given them the exclusive)
No photos of the victims in hospital
Nobody else (Man nor beast) harmed – despite this stuff being one of the deadliest substances on the planet; and despite it being found all over the place.
And the ‘beeb’ being fully compliant with the Gov’t line – From national Tv to local radio….
Utter bollocks from start to finish. Anyone who still believes is a moron.
MI6 Spooks, Government interference, all pointing to a setup! “Allegedly”!
Time for the liars in the MSM and Tory Party to F-OFF!
Put em on a leaky liferaft with what they stand up in, stick em on a desert island with an active volcano, see how they like, being refugees!
If you can believe what’s being claimed in this article (all well researched and sourced), then it’s actually much darker than we know. Here’s an excerpt from the piece.
“According to Liam O’Hare at Bella Caledonia, SCL went public in 2005 at the DSEI conference, a global arms fair in London, promoting itself as the first private company to provide psychological warfare services to the British military:
“Its ‘hard sell’ was a demonstration of how the UK government could use a sophisticated media campaign of mass deception to fool the British people into thinking an accident at a chemical plant had occurred and threatened central London.”
Such a sales pitch is even more chilling given the recent events in Salisbury, where the alleged attempted assassination of double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia—victims of a still unidentified nerve agent—is being used by the government to stage provocations against Russia”.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/26/camb-m26.html
Did anyone notice what appears to be more slip shod interviewing last night on BBC Newsnight?
Senior British diplomat Marl Lyall Grant asked, suggesting Russian dis-information, why had the Yulia/Viktoria Skripal phone conversation been monitored and released by Russian intelligence?
Yet a couple of minutes before, during a live conversation with Gabriel Gatehouse, Viktoria Skripal had said it was her who monitored it using her business app and released it to the media to show that Yulia had almost completely recovered?
Lyall Grant’s assertion was not challenged by Kirsty Walk, even though she had just heard the phone call herself.
On another issue, how was it that the policeman who went to the aid of the Skripals fell ill almost immediately and recovered quite quickly when the Skripals had, according to police, come into contact with the poison on the door of their house and then spent the afternoon in Salisbury in a pub and restaurant before being found on the park bench? Wasn’t there also someone else who went to their aid and is unaffected?
May is in no position to sack Johnson after last years election result,as to quote Lyndon Johnson’better to have them on the inside pissing out,than in the outside pissing in.
Richard Dennis.
It is the role of the police that interests me. Was the sergeant infected before the others? Was he there to spin or clean the flat? Either way I doubt whether he acted alone. No police search is conducted by a solitary officer. The whole affair stinks. I agree with all the posters. Regards, SKWAWKBOX ad good work.