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Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières ★ Written by 
George Monbiot.

There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to.

There is one political problem from which all others follow. It is the major cause of Donald Trump, of Nigel Farage, of the shocking weakness of their opponents, of the polarisation tearing societies apart, of the devastation of the living world. It is simply stated: the extreme wealth of a small number of people.

It can also be quantified. The World Inequality Report (WIR) 2026 shows that about 56,000 people – 0.001% of the global population – corral three times more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. They afflict almost every country. In the UK, for example, 50 families hold more wealth than 50% of the population combined.

You can watch their fortunes grow. In 2024, Oxfam’s figures show, the wealth of the world’s 2,769 billionaires grew by $2tn, or $2,000bn. The total global spending on international aid last year was projected to be, at most, $186bn, less than a tenth of the increment in their wealth. Governments tell us they “can’t afford” more. In the UK, billionaires, on average, have become more than 1,000% richer since 1990.

Continue @ ESSF.

At The Root Of All Our Problems Stands One Travesty 🪶 Politicians’ Surrender To The Super-Rich

Caoimhin O’Muraile 🏴 Tomorrow, Friday the sixth of February, marks the sixty-eighth anniversary of the Munich Air Disaster. 

On that fateful day twenty-three people lost their lives including eight of Manchester United’s finest who were returning from Belgrade after a European Cup Quarter Final Tie against Red Star Belgrade. 

United had qualified for the Semi Final of the competition and were fancied to win the cup, toppling the Mighty Real Madrid. Due to playing a makeshift side United lost 5-2 on aggregate to Milan in the semi-final. With a full side having won 2-1 at Old Trafford that score would in all probability been much higher to the Reds putting Milan out of sight to the rear. Without the following players it was hopeless but a brave effort was put up by United. 

The players who died at Munich were; Geoff Bent aged 25, Full Back making his first trip to European Football, Roger Byrne, Club Captain aged twenty-eight and England left back, Eddie Colman aged twenty-one the youngest to perish, Duncan Edwards aged twenty-one renowned England international who died 15 days later from his injuries, Mark Jones aged twenty-four, Centre Half, David Pegg, aged twenty-two, Outside-left, Tommy Taylor aged twenty-six Centre Forward, and Irelands Liam Whelan aged twenty two, Inside Forward. In addition to these eight players, three members of the coaching staff, trainer Tom Curry, Coach Bert Whalley, and Secretary and former temporary Manager, Walter Crickmer also perished. Several other people tragically lost their lives including journalists, one being the former Manchester City Goalkeeper, Frank Swift, then a journalist for the News of the World, Crew member and Co-Pilot, Kenneth Rayment, Bela Miklos, Travel Agent, Willie Satinoff, supporter and friend of Matt Busby’s. 

Other journalists who lost their lives were Alf Clarke of the Manchester Evening News, Don Davies, Manchester Guardian, George Follows, Daily Herald, Tom Jackson, Manchester Evening News, Henry Rose, Daily Express, Eric Thompson, Daily Sketch, Archie Ledbroook, Daily Mirror. Cabin Steward, Tom Cable, also lost his life that day. 

Other crew members who survived were George Rogers, Radio Officer, and stewardesses Rosemary Cheverton and Margaret Bellis. Manager Matt Busby received the last rites of the Roman Catholic Church twice while in the Rechts der Isar Hospital so critical were his injuries. The last words uttered by Duncan Edwards were; “come on mum, get me home, I can’t miss Wolves on Saturday,” so much was his enthusiasm for the game. 

United goalkeeper, Harry Gregg, and defender Bill Foulkes both re-entered the dangerous fuselage for survivors. Bobby Charlton, who along with Foulkes, would play in the European Cup Final ten years later when United destroyed Benfica was saved by Gregg and Foulkes. Manchester United was the first English team to enter the competition defying the Football League and without whose exploits who knows, the achievements of Nottingham Forrest, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Man City might never have happened!!! United were the first English team to win the European Cup, the first to win the treble in fact the first at everything. The question I ask is what would the ‘Babes’ have made of today’s exploits both at Manchester United and the game in general?

Firstly Matt Busby:

expressed strong concerns regarding the commercialisation of football famously warning against prioritising financial gain over the sports core principles. His emphasis that football should be about passion, fans, and entertainment, rather than purely profit-driven business interests.

The Altar of Big Business Warning.

Matt Busby warned back in 1970 “I hope we shall never sacrifice our sporting principles on the altar of big business.” Football is Nothing Without Fans. Busby believed “the games true value lies with its supporters, rather that purely economic, commercial, or television interests”. As can be gleaned at Old Trafford today supporters, who Matt believed, rightly, so much in, are called “customers” at the insistence of the club owners, the hated Glazers. The interests of big business today much to the disgust of many do take preference over the game of football. Kick off times are altered to suit television companies irrespective of any consideration given to the supporters. The traditional 3pm on Saturday is no longer the case as TV companies demand ridiculous times like 12 noon on Sundays to fit in with their programme. The modern game could be described as a game of Monopoly involving football teams and players. 

Busby’s approach to the game and management was fundamentally based on “youth development, community, and making players rather than simply buying them to chase commercial success”. Most of these principles laid down by their greatest manager ever – sorry Sir Alex – have long been forgotten by the bastards who run Man Utd today. Could Busby have worked with these people, the Glazers and Ratcliffe? I doubt that very much. The Babes must be turning in their graves at what is happening at Old Trafford. Since Sir Alex Ferguson, United’s most successful manager, retired back in 2013 United have struggled to find a replacement manager. David Moyes came from Everton and, in my view, was not given time by the clueless Glazers to do the job. They sacked him after nine months, had nobody told them it took Ferguson four years to win a trophy!

What would the Babes have made of the game in general today? An outfield player cannot pass back to the Goalkeeper and if such a back pass is made the Keeper cannot pick the ball up. Referees, once the trusted timekeeper of any game, has had this responsibility taken away from him and the result is ridiculous numbers of minutes are added on to the end of the game by the so-called fourth official. Sometimes games are played for over 100 minutes due to time added on. 

Another addition to the modern game is Video Assisted Refereeing (VAR) which in reality is probably the first step to getting rid of referees? VAR is in reality nine times out of ten ‘Video Overruling Refereeing’ as most referees do not have the backbone to say No. there are rare exceptions and one such referee was Farai Hallam who refereed ,his first top flight game, the match against Manchester City and Wolves. City claimed they had a penalty due to a Wolves player handballing which the Referee disagreed with. He looked at the VAR and ignored its advice much to the fury of Man City who threw tantrums with their Manager, Pep Guardiola, making all kinds of accusations about the referee! I admire the young official telling VAR to fuck off and stuck to his guns. How long before the rules change making VAR decisions compulsory? Duncan Edwards was a very skilful talented player with a certain amount of aggression. How would he react to this ridiculous VAR? Duncan has been hailed by many, including Bobby Charlton, as the ‘finest player to grace a football pitch’. Tommy Taylor, United’s Centre Forward who perished at Munich, how would he react to being ruled offside because his laces on his boots are in front of the defender? Defender Roger Byrne, team captain, was an aggressive though fair player, a wall to get passed. Eddie Colman flying down the wing only to be called up by the referee over an incident which occurred five minutes ago. Players like Roger Byrne would be blown up every five minutes in todays ‘Monty Pythons’ game which passes for football.

What would have been the reaction to the managerial fiasco still engulfing Old Trafford since Sir Alex Ferguson retired in 2013? What a joke. Firstly they employed David Moyes then, after just nine months, sacked him. Moyes got a raw deal and was treated very shoddily. Then in came Ryan Giggs as a caretaker manager until the appointment of Louis Van Gall who, despite winning the FA Cup, was sacked. Enter Jose Mourinho, who won the League Cup and UEFA Cup, and was sacked for his troubles. He was followed by Ole Gunnar Solksaer. Despite promising starts when he was in charge temporarily, once he was given the job permanently things fell apart and he was sacked. Michael Carrick took the reins on a temporary basis to be replaced by unknown Ralf Rangnick who was replaced by Erik Ten Hag who, again despite winning the League Cup and FA Cup was sacked. In came on a temporary basis Ruud Van Nistelrooy who was succeeded by Ruben Amorim who was sacked by the Glazers, whom he had criticised along with others above him and not before time in my view. He was succeeded temporarily, for two games, by Darren Fletcher. Now we have Michael Carrick back at the helm for the second time and things look promising with victories over Man City and league leaders Arsenal. On Sunday 1st February United had a tricky game at home to Fulham which we won 3-2 giving interim manager Michael Carrick three games from three. If this success continues, he should get the job but remember, this is the Glazers we are talking of!

What would the Babes have made of the managerial turmoil at Old Trafford since Sir Alex Fergusons retirement? They played in an atmosphere of stability, excellent management in Matt Busby, who all had faith in. They never had to worry who would be in charge the following week. The people at Man United back then including Harold Hardman who was Chairman and had the club at heart. He oversaw the club both on and off the field post Munich and was a stable influence who supported Busby in all managerial matters. All the babes had to worry about was going out and playing football while enjoying themselves at the same time. It is not the fact Alex Ferguson retired, this happens, but the turmoil which followed. Man United have had at the helm eleven managers, including Michael Carrick this time round, and it is this instability and uncertainty which would no doubt have bothered the ‘Busby Babes’ and why wouldn’t it? If United have any sense in appointing a new permanent manager and if Carrick’s record continues in this successful vein then it is a no brainer. Don’t’ believe it, these wankers, the Glazers and Ratcliffe, are no Harold Hardman or even Louis Edwards. These people stand for everything Sir Matt Busby opposed to the point of hating.

It would not be fair to finish on the Munich theme without mentioning the sterling work carried out by Matt Busby’s assistant, Jimmy Murphy. Jimmy took the reins in Matts absence and led United out that day against Bolton Wanderers in the 1958 FA Cup Final. A depleted United side were, according to reports, the better team showing more ‘imagination’ but still lost to two goals from Nat Lofthouse. The team was makeshift with only four Munich survivors playing, the rest were reserves and players loaned out by other sympathetic clubs. Nevertheless Jimmy Murphy instilled a belief in this makeshift team which, after Munich, may have been thought impossible. RIP Jimmy Murphy who died on 14th November 1989.

In memory of all those players, supporters, ground staff and airline crews who have died in various football tragedies around the globe. RIP.
 
Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist.

Munich-Sixty-Eight Years On ⚽ What Would The Babes Have Made Of This?

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Seventy Two

 

A Morning Thought @ 3049

Jim Duffy ✍ There have been hundreds of plagues and pandemics throughout history. 

The Plague of Justinian was caused by the Bubonic plague. It ran from 541–549 and may have killed one hundred million. It killed 25–60% of European population.
 
In terms of death toll, it is akin to the Spanish Flu (1918-20), which also killed up to 100 million (albeit of a larger world population).
 
In terms of death toll, the third placed pandemic is the HIV-AIDS pandemic. It reached 45 million in 2026, but with Trump's destruction of USAID, the body critical to providing treatment in Africa, the number is likely to increase sharply again after years in decline.
 
In fourth place was the Black Death which is believed to have killed 25–50 million - again from a smaller world population. It ran from 1346–1353.
 
In fifth place is the covid pandemic, with an estimated 38 million to date. Vaccines thankfully prevented it reaching numbers akin to the Spanish Flu - something it had the potential to do. However it is by no means over, and there remains the risk of a variant appearing that current vaccines cannot control.
 
The Cocoliztli epidemic of 1545–1548 was limited to Mexico, but is thought to have killed up to 80% of the population.
 
Knowing how many died is not always easy. Sometimes a person technically died of something else, but would have survived but for being ill with the pandemic. Other times record-keeping collapses due to mass deaths so the total number who died is unknown. That is the case in some US cities in the Spanish Flu. Death certification, burial records, church records, etc all broke down as those who had kept them died or were too ill. Bodies in Philadelphia were buried in mass graves without counting numbers as there were so many rotting bodies needing burial they had not time to count the dead. Some people died in their homes, but the collapse in the collection of corpses forced families to dump the bodies of the dead in back lanes as the smell of the decaying corpse in the house was unbearable. It would disappear but they would not know had it been picked up for burial in mass graves, or simply eaten by rats, dogs and cats. So in pandemics often all that can be made are estimates. 

When research is done afterwards, it always turns out that the estimates were a considerable under-estimate. Bodies buried in the Spanish Flu in Greenland and the Artic were exhumed some years ago. They had remained undecayed in the frozen earth. When autopsies were done, it was found that many people whose deaths were originally thought to have been caused by something else had been caused by the Spanish Flu. Detailed exhumations over the decades has led to the conclusion that the original presumption that 50 million died was a considerable under-estimation, and the number was potentially one hundred million.

Overall, pandemics are a constant regular occurrence. The best way to stop its spread is use lockdowns - something learned in the 14th century. Most pandemics are spread by person-to-person. Therefore to break the transmission, lockdowns have to happen to stop people becoming in contact with someone with it. Thankfully, we can develop vaccines, and once a vaccine achieves the right number, lockdowns can be eased and ended. Lockdowns feature in plays, poems and art from the Middle Ages. A lockdown is critical in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. It is why a vital message to Romeo cannot be passed on - the city he is in is in lockdown and the gates are locked, so no-one can enter.
 
We even know throughout history that churches and ale-houses/pubs are the most dangerous places. People remain in the same spot and get infected in churches. In pubs, alcohol dims awareness of distancing. So right back to the middle ages, both have to be shut. It is nothing new. In contrast, modern supermarkets are not dangerous. Everyone is on the move. They have air-conditioning and aisles are wide. So people may only come close to an infected person for a split second. In a church, with everyone sitting, standing and kneeling at the same spot for half an hour or more, they are likely to get the infection if they are near someone carrying the virus.
 
Pandemics are as certain as night and day. The only thing we don't know is when they will hit. One might not hit for fifty years, or it could hit next month. The usual cause is the same - some animal virus jumps species into a human, then spreads. The Spanish Flu is suspected of moving from a pig to the farm worker looking after it. He had arranged to join the army as the US was in WWI, went to the local army fort and unbeknown to him spread it to soldiers, who spread it through the army and brought it to Europe. They infected workers at the port of Brest. They infected crew on merchant ships who brought it to their own countries. And all from an apparent farm worker on a farm in Kansas nursing a sick pig.

⏩ Jim Duffy is a writer-historian.

The Plague

Anthony McIntyre ☠ The brutal repression by Iran's theocratic regime of protestors, resulting in the mass murder of Iranian civilians, is to be viewed with the same opprobrium as Israeli mass murder in Gaza. 

But it isn't. It is treated as something worse. The inexcusable behaviour of the murderous mullahs and their men has been occurring since the end of December. According to some sources, over 6000 people have lost their lives to the repression.

The response of the European Union in listing Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation has been rapid. Yet the same institution has dragged its heels on the genocide in Gaza, never remotely approaching a position where it might consider designating the IDF a terrorist organisation.

Kaja Kallas, the EU’s foreign policy chief, announced that there was unanimity amongst EU foreign ministers for the designation, arguing that:

any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise . . . This will put them on the same footing with al Qeida, Hamas, Daesh. 

The suggestion is that if you keep killing thousands of other people you can escape the designation 'terrorist' but you need to avoid killing your own. So much for the universality of human rights: killing thousands in your own society is a no-no but ok when they live in an another society. 

The crackdown by the mullahs has supposedly pricked the sensibilities of the Western political class. Experiencing the worst division within its ranks since the end of World War 2, it has found something its internecine battlers can unite on: confronting Iran. But it is not concern about human rights abuses that sits at the heart of Western sensibilities. Not when by the time the protests had erupted in Iran, the genocide in Gaza had already been going on for almost twenty seven months, enabled not condemned by the West. 

With some sources predicting a US military strike against Iran as early as Sunday the European action directed towards the Revolutionary Guard feeds the suspicion that it is the opening shot in the war of position. The aim of the primary military actor, the US, is regime change. Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, is - in the words of a former US Intelligence official and current Trump advisor - “hoping for an attack . . . and assuring Trump that Israel can help put in place a new government that is friendly with the West.” Talk of protecting Iranian protestors is simply hot air as was evident from the list of demands put to Iran: The New York Times pointed out:

Notably absent from those demands — and from Mr. Trump’s post on Truth Social on Wednesday morning — was any reference to protecting the protesters who took to the streets in Iran in December, convulsing the country and creating the latest crisis for its government. Mr. Trump had promised, in past social media posts, to come to their aid, but has barely mentioned them in recent weeks.

It is not the characterisation of the brutal Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist force that sticks in the craw but the sheer hypocrisy involved in the failure to treat the IDF in similar fashion. Western leaders are still deaf deaf to the IDF. They are also deaf to the wails of the children of Gaza, so brutally butchered during the infanticide. 
 
Iranian citizens have the same right to be free from the mullahs as we in Ireland have to be free from the priests. The citizens of Gaza have the same right to be free from genocide and Israeli occupation. Arguably, the rights of Gazans should be pursued by the international community with even greater urgency and vigour than is applicable to Iran given the severity of the crimes being inflicted on them.

Not a position likely to prevail in the Western chambers of power which have become little more than echo chambers for genocide. 

⏩Follow on Twitter @AnthonyMcIntyre.

Echo Chambers For Genocide

Seamus Kearney 🎤 Vincent Robinson had been arrested on Wednesday, 17th June 1981 and taken to Castlereagh Interrogation Centre but released the following day to have a suspected fracture to his arm treated at the Ulster hospital, Dundonald.


He had fallen off a coal lorry the day before his arrest and had sustained the injury as a result of the accident.

On the 24th June 1981 Vincent was abducted in the Lenadoon area of West Belfast by 3 IRA personnel not connected to Internal Security and bundled into a black taxi. He was driven into the Divis flats complex and handed over to the IRA's Internal Security Unit, or the 'Security team' as they were more commonly known within IRA circles.

On this occasion the head of the ISU, the former Marine from the Special Boat Service (SBS), was not present nor was Freddie Scappatticci. Instead two other British agents within the ISU, known within the IRA as 'Burke and Hare', after the notorious 19th century Scottish body snatchers, were waiting for Vincent Robinson.

They proceeded to torture Robinson in a grotesque fashion for 2 days, finally smashing his skull in with a hammer, shooting him in the head, and then sending his body down a bin chute within Divis flats. Vincent Robinson died on 26th June 1981 at the age of 29, a married man with 2 young children.
However, as both men vacated the area in a vehicle they were stopped at an RUC /British Army checkpoint. As they were being checked an RUC officer noticed blood on the boots of one of the men and ordered both out of the car. Once out of the vehicle 'Burke' tried to explain that he worked in an abattoir ( slaughter house), hence the blood on his boots, but the RUC officer wasn't convinced. The cornered man then demanded to speak to the Commanding officer of the checkpoint and walked off with him. A few minutes later both men returned to the vehicle and were allowed to proceed from the murder scene.

'Burke' had a habit of pulling this trick and applied it before in late August 1979 when he accidentally drove into the scene of the ambush of 18 paratroopers at Narrow water, near Warrenpoint. An irate British paratrooper ordered him and another man out of their vehicle but 'Burke' demanded to speak to the Commanding officer and both men were allowed to proceed after the brief conversation. It would seem a quick call to the handler cleared up the mess.

'Burke', three months after the execution of Vincent Robinson was involved in the execution of Anthony Braniff, as it was 'Burke' and Freddie Scappatticci who went to get permission from Belfast Brigade to have Braniff executed.

In July 1986 an IRA Volunteer was abducted by the ISU in Belfast and driven across the border into County Roscommon. The ISU, which included ', Burke and Hare' and the former Marine from the SBS, tortured the Volunteer for 3 days in a house in Charlestown, burning him with cigarettes, beating him severely, water boarding him in a bath and hanging him upside down in a sleeping bag. For 3 days he wasn't allowed to go to the toilet, but had to shit in the sleeping bag, but he refused to admit anything that would incriminate him and was eventually dumped on a border road near Sligo. He was fortunate to have escaped with his life, while others weren't so fortunate.
 
In a stroke of luck for him, Brendan Hughes (The Dark) was released from Long Kesh in November 1986 and reported back to the IRA, and gained a senior position within GHQ Intelligence, which overseen the Internal Security Unit. Even prior to his release Brendan Hughes suspected that the British had targeted and successfully penetrated the ISU, so he had a jaundiced view of the unit, especially its head, the former Marine.
The following year he had successfully identified that the ISU was infiltrated by enemy agents posing as IRA personnel, and voiced his concern to a leadership figure, but was told he was 'paranoid' and ignored.

Nonetheless, after he was approached by the IRA Volunteer who had been tortured in County Roscommon Brendan convened a Court-martial and had both ' Burke and Hare' dismissed from the IRA with ignominy in 1987. The charges may have been 'brutality, cruelty, torture and disobeying Army orders', but a more sinister element to his thinking was ever present. However, both men were dismissed on a technicality rather than treachery. Despite Brendan's best efforts to clean out the rat infested Internal Security Unit, both men returned but in a lower capacity.

Seamus Kearney is a former Blanketman and author of  
No Greater Love - The Memoirs of Seamus Kearney.

Stakeknife 🕵 The Rise And Fall 🕵 Act Ⅳ

Lynx By Ten To The Power Of One Thousand Nine Eight Hundred And Seventy One

 

A Morning Thought @ 3048

Gary Robertson ⚽ European duty awaited Glasgow’s big two as Celtic faced Utrecht and Rangers away to Porto (not Napoli as yours truly said last week, not sure how I got the two mixed up but I did and I apologise for my mistake).

So, to the matches. Rangers took an early lead. A cross met by the head of Gassama that nestled nicely into the bottom corner of the net - and with that, hope. However, Porto proved their class and helped by some defensive calamities found themselves 3-1 ahead by half time. And despite spirit and a much improved second half the Rangers limped out of Europe and back to Scotland and domestic duties.
 
Celtic on the other hand found themselves with much more to fight for: a win against Utrecht and they were through to the knockout stages of the Europa league. Any nerves however were quickly settled as a Tierney cross found Nygren, and Celtic park erupted. The second quickly followed as a mix up between former Celtic keeper Barkas and defender was pounced upon by Nygren whose pass to Maeda was turned into his own net by the hapless Viergever. 2-0 Celtic and all looked lovely. A few mins later and ecstasy for the Celtic fans as they were awarded a spot kick which was readily dispatched by Engels. 3-0. Then just before half time Utrecht found themselves with some hope as De Witts shot eluded Schmeichel and found the back of the net. 3-1 half time, I’ll take it for sure. 

Although nothing can be taken for granted in football, nothing's over 'til the pie loving lady serenades us with her version of “Celtic Symphony”, and for a few mins in the second half suddenly thoughts turned to the dark days of WN and Celtic crumbling as Blake shot from range and made it 3-2. Surely not, surely not again. However this is O’Neill's team and quickly the 2 nil advantage was restored as Trusty's head met a corner and the ball flew into the net, sending Celtic through to the knockout stages of the Europa league and a tie against Stuttgart.
 
Very different emotions among fans of Scotland's divide as Rangers look to put all their efforts into the league title and Scottish cup whereas Celtic, Scotland's last remaining hope in Europe, have three trophies still available.
 
Can they finally exorcise the ghosts of Seville and add the Europa league to the “Big cup”? Only time will tell but right now let’s dare to dream. If anyone can inspire Celtic to a famous victory it’s Martin O’Neill.
So to the weekend and domestic action. Hearts faced Dundee Utd at Tannadice looking to extend their lead at the top of the table. This looked a potentially tricky tie on paper but any nerves among the Jambos settled with some excellent play in the 11th minute. What followed was shambolic at best. First a sending off (after a VAR review) for Fatah; another VAR decision upgraded and a penalty awarded; a red for Camara of United; Coach Bowman sent to the stands for protesting and Kabore added a second so Hearts went marching on while United are left thanking their keeper for keeping the score somewhat respectable.
 
Motherwell continued their fine form away to Championship bound Livingston. A double for in-form Maswanhise quickly put this game to bed. West Lothian’s finest must be desperate for the season to end having won only one game so far and cut adrift at the bottom.
 
St Mirren and Dundee both gained a point having fought out a goalless draw. A result that really benefits neither and in honesty the best thing I can say about it is that the match took place. 🤣
 
The Saturday shock however came at Rugby Park where struggling Kilmarnock came up against in form Aberdeen. Goals in the 12th and 14th minute from Lyons and former Livi favourite Anderson put McCann's men in a position they hadn’t found themselves in for some time. Some quality goalkeeping and awful finishing by both sides but nothing could put a dampener on the day for Killie. A sending off for Shinnie summed up the Dons' afternoon before John James scored a third and an unlikely victory sealed. Kilmarnock's first win in 17 league games, they’ll be hoping to build on this and perhaps save their season.
 
Sunday saw a trip to Leith for Rangers, and whilst the sunshine shone for much of the game there were few highlights - a dreary draw that saw the Rangers slip to third. Neither side can be particularly happy with the point. In a game best forgotten and quickly the highlight perhaps was watching Dane Scarlett, currently on loan at Hibs from Spurs, making his debut and showing some class in a match best forgotten. You can’t make a silk purse out of a pigs ear, Steve R. I tried. 🤣
 
Celtic rounded up the weekends action with a crowd pleasing performance against Falkirk. A first goal for the new number 11 Cvancara ( I believe will be known as Stan from here on in - if Celtic podcasts are to be believed) whose header from a Tierney cross found its way into the net, having gone in off the post. It took some time for Celtic though to finally ease the nerves of the bhoys and ghirls in Celtic Park when a rocket from the boot of man of the moment Nygren to make it 2-0 to the Celts and lift them back into second place in the league.
 
With transfer deadline day upon us fans up and down the country will be hoping for new signings, so eyes and ears will be glued to the tv and radio for the latest news. May the footballing Gods answer your prayers.

Til next time ….

🐼 Gary Robertson is the TPQ Scottish football correspondent.

Requiem For A European Dream

Intercept ★ Written by Georgia Gee. Recommended by Tony Roche.

Oracle, which has secret partnerships with Israel, has told employees to love the country or work elsewhere

Larry Ellison has been at Donald Trump’s side since he took office last month. The man Trump referred to as “one of the most serious players in the world” was front row at the inauguration, and then watched as the president signed an executive order on artificial intelligence — a major business interest for tech giant Oracle.

And Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire co-founder, was sitting next to Rupert Murdoch in early February when Trump created a fund to facilitate the purchase of TikTok. His presence was no accident.

Last month, after the Supreme Court upheld a law banning TikTok, Oracle emerged as a leader in the race to take control of the Chinese-owned short-form video platform.

While the campaign against TikTok was led by China hawks in Washington, it was the ire of pro-Israel activists that perhaps best explains why Oracle is such a natural choice to take over the social media app.

The campaign to ban the app kicked into high gear after Hamas’s October 7 attack against Israel. The timing spurred talk that the push for a ban wasn’t just about American national security, but Israel’s too. 

Continue @ Intercept.

Poised To Take Over Tiktok, Oracle Is Accused Of Clamping Down On Pro-Palestine Dissent

Barry Gilheany ✍ The threats to democracy that have emerged in the 21st century internationally and within nation-states have almost hypermodern and transnational qualities to them.

From the release of automated bots through social media providers by bad actors such as Russia’s Internet Research Agency in order to corrupt democratic processes through misinformation; the emergence of vulgar yet alluring movements and personages like MAGA and Donald Trump who carry the Triple P virus of Populism, Polarisation and Post-Truth, and the imponderable capacity of Artificial Intelligence to transform all our lives. 

Yet what has played out in the Mother of Parliaments in the last week has illustrated the damage to the democratic will of the people that can be wrought by a venerable old part of constitutional architecture. I am referring to the steady strangulation of the Assisted Dying Bill passed by the elected UK House of Commons by the unelected, hereditary, and nominated House of Lords. The near death (absolutely no pun attended) by a thousand amendments of a piece of legislation commanding cross-party support and which, when enacted, will grant those who wish to avail of it the ultimate human rights to bodily autonomy and dignity in control of the circumstances of one’s own death, is a democratic affront no matter what one’s personal views on assisted dying are. For, in an example of Parliament at its best, the debate around the Bill was conducted with dignity and full accommodation of the passionate views held on either side of the issue and no imposition of party whips. It was then passed by the body delegated by the British people to deliberate and decide on their behalf. However, in what is probably the most outrageous abuse of its functions since it vetoed the 1911 Finance Bill, the Other Place has sought to filibuster the Assisted Dying Bill out of existence.

To briefly reprise the history of the assisted dying bill, properly known as The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, would allow mentally competent adults who are expected to die within six months - and who express “a clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life” - to get help to do so. Two doctors would have to agree as to their eligibility and a High Court judge would have to be satisfied as to the absence of any coercion. It was passed by a free and historic vote in the House of Commons in June 2025. It is opposed by Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary and Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary.

The violation of the fundamental tenets democratic decision making whereby an unelected upper chamber can try to override a decision by the elected lower chamber on any issue is thus a fundamental affront to anyone of a democratic persuasion. But it is the potential real-life impacts on the lived experience of those who desire a peaceful death to end a life of intolerable life. In the words of the tetraplegic Melanie Reid, the ideologues in the Lords who claim to be acting on behalf of a vulnerability minority (while defying the will of the majority).

Since then, a small group of peers have delivered more than a thousand amendments and delivered lengthy speeches, leading to accusations of the grand old delaying tactic of filibustering which Irish Home Rule Party MPs used to such infuriating effect (to opponents of Home Rule) in the Commons in the 19th century and by both Democrats and Republicans in state legislatures up and down the USA.

On Friday, the Bill’s eighth committee stage debate was upheld in the Lords; a further six are scheduled, keeping it in the upper chamber until late April. However it must clear all its remaining stages in parliament before the end of the current session, probably in May, or it will automatically fail.[1]

Analysis by the Observer shows that six peers are responsible for half the amendments: Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson; the former Health Secretary (and bon viveur drinker and cigar smoker) Therese Coffey; Ilora Finlay, a professor of palliative and former president of the Royal Society of Medicine; Alex Carlile KC, the former independent reviewer of antiterrorist legislation, Guy Mansfield (Lord Sandhurst) and Paul or Lord Goodman of Wycombe, who have tabled 623 amendments between them. During the first seven debates, opponents have taken up 90% of the debating time, according to Humanists UK, prominent Bill supporters.[2]

The sincerity of prominent disability campaigner and former Paralympic medallist Tanni Grey-Thompson and her concerns around disability matters as it relates to assisted dying cannot be dismissed. Nor can the expertise in palliative care of Professor Finlay be ignored. However most of the amendments amount to arguments against Common decisions at the heart of the Bill rather than technical revisions which raise fundamental constitutional issues. The need for robust protections against coercion of seriously ill people were raised in good faith during the Bill’s passage through the Commons and the appropriate guardrails against coercion, stronger than in any other jurisdictions permitting assisted dying including Canada, are securely integrated into the Bill.

A particularly egregious stalling tactic was the introduction of the strawman of the role of artificial intelligence in assisted dying by Therese Coffey who in toto put down 95 out of 1,227 amendments. She “put down quite a blunt amendment” to ensure that AI would be prohibited from any involvement in assisted dying. For an hour, peers speculated around such scenarios as future chatbots or algorithmic advertising or even a putative artificial general intelligence pushing people towards assisted death, or coercing people into suicide or that doctors may be fooled by fake voice recordings. Other peers pointed out that since many diseases are now partly diagnosed with AI assistance, since paralysed patients communicate using AI tools tracking their eye blinks and since AI is used to analyse GP records to uncover patterns of illness – not to mention transcribe video calls - Coffey’s amendment would make the law entirely unworkable. In the event, Coffey withdrew this amendment – like all of its 65 predecessors – after Charles Falconer, the bill’s sponsor in the Lords, promised in his response to the debate to draft an amendment dealing with digital advertising. In the opinion of Hannah Slater, a 38 year old with a three year-old son who was told last summer that she had twelve months to live after her breast cancer had spread to her brain and who would like to decide on the manner of her death, such amendments belong to secondary legislation and definitely not part of the Lords debate and which were for her “clearly a filibuster”.[3]

Another potentially complicating factor in the Lords passage of the Bill is the internal politics of the Labour Party with dozens of backbench Labour opponents of the Bill having written to the party’s chief whip Jonathan Reynolds urging him to ensure MPs are not called back to Parliament to vote on the possibly returned Bill during the campaigning period before Scottish and Welsh legislative and English local government elections on 6 May at which Labour are projected to suffer serious losses. In the words of one of these backbenchers: “While there is obviously some latent support for assistant dying, it isn’t core to what Labour was elected to do.”[4]

The violation of the fundamental tenets democratic decision making whereby an unelected upper chamber can try to override a decision by the elected lower chamber on any issue is thus a fundamental affront to anyone of a democratic persuasion. But it is the potential real-life impacts on the lived experience of those who desire a peaceful death to end a life of intolerable life. In the words of the tetraplegic Melanie Reid, the ideologues in the Lords who claim to be acting on behalf of a vulnerability minority (while defying the will of the majority) but who are actually using bad-faith tactics, presumably seeking to sabotage liberal democracy and to perform a tribute act for the “good old days when Britain was great and suicide was a criminal act.|” For, in Reid’s opinion:

They have no understanding of desperation, or what it’s like to endure the privations of the NHS without the connections to pull strings, or poverty and powerlessness. 

Not for them, the experience of “being trapped in a paralysed body I hate, fighting co-morbidities and chronic pain.”[5]

Not for the unelected moral guardians in the Lords, also the continuing trauma for affected families being forced:

to watch the terminally ill people they love and care for spend hours, sometimes days and weeks, dying slowly in agony, when even the best palliative care fails to alleviate their pain. 

Or in a parallel with the cruel anti-abortion laws in both parts of Ireland which forced thousands of Irish women (if they had the financial resources to do so) to make the lonely journey to Britain to terminate their pregnancies with no appropriate after care. If patients are rich enough they have to fly alone to die in Dignitas, in Switzerland:

unable to say their last goodbye to those they love because the current cruel criminal law means their loved ones would then be investigated by the police for murder.[6]

Ultimately, the Parliament Act can be used to force the Assisted Dying Bill into law. But before this democratic act of force majeure can be enacted, how many pain racked individuals will die in agony in a manner not of their choosing. Should the Bill fail to reach the statute book in the prescribed manner, then it will be the House of Lords who receive a terminal blow to its legitimacy and hopefully existence.

References  

[1] Catherine Neilan, Filibustering Lords seek to slow-talk the assisted dying bill to its doom. The Observer. 1 February 2026, p.7

[2] James Tapper and Katie Riley, Six Lords a-speaking: the peers whose long debates may yet end the hopes of those who choose to die. The Observer. 1 February 2026.
Assisted dying The plot against democracy pp.8-9.

[3] Ibid

[4] Neilan, op cit.

[5] Melanie Reid, Death doesn’t scare me but let me decide when it’s time to end the pain. The Observer. 1 February 2026 p.9

[6] Esther Rantzen, It’s too late to help me, but please, my lords: spare others this needless pain. The Observer. 1 February 2026 p.7

⏩Barry Gilheany is a freelance writer, qualified counsellor and aspirant artist resident in Colchester where he took his PhD at the University of Essex. He is also a lifelong Leeds United supporter.

Democracy Thwarted And Pain Is Prolonged 🪶 The House Of Lords Stymies The Assisted Dying Bill

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