LegaliseFreedom1: Andy Duncan - Europe: In or Out?

[giovonni]

a EU referendum discussion ...

"Andy Duncan discusses the forthcoming EU Referendum and related issues. On Thursday, June 23rd, 2016, citizens of the United Kingdom will vote on whether or not to remain part of the European Union. The United Kingdom's membership of the EU was achieved in several discreet although ultimately orchestrated stages. Since the formation of the European Economic Community in 1958 which later morphed into the European Union itself in 1993, the entire scheme has seen ever deepening integration and interdependence between an increasing number of member countries, with the UK itself joining in 1973. Its restlessly expansive aims and ambitions were divisive then and they remain so today, arguably more than ever.

The campaign to remain within the European Union, the imaginatively titled Remain campaign, cite reams and rafts of beneficial EU legislation which over the years has simultaneously helped protect the rights of workers, consumers, business, minorities, and the environment, as well as preserving peace within Europe's borders. Their efforts, however, dubbed 'Project Fear' by those who would quit the EU - the so-called Brexit campaign - have been marked by a distinct lack of hard facts and figures to assist the voting public in making what the Remain camp continually insist will be a momentous and strictly once-in-a-lifetime decision. As the day of reckoning draws ever closer, Remain - or Bremain if you prefer – have also indulged in blatant scaremongering with dire warnings of impending doom ranging from giant mosquito invasions to nothing less than World War III.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Brexit campaign argues that, whatever the intent of the EU's founding fathers, it has metastasised into a corrupt and unaccountable cabal of control freaks and gravy train grifters. The Leave campaign have a veritable laundry list of gripes including but by no means limited to areas such as farming, fisheries, immigration, national security, international trade, and the shape of bananas. We read in the UK news just today, for example, the provocative headline 'EU postpones toaster and kettle crackdown until after Brexit vote.' Forget ISIS, Al Queda, and North Korea, surely this is the stuff of World War III? At the hands of Bremain, therefore, Brexiteers are branded as ignorant, inward-looking, xenophobic little-Englanders, even if they happen to live in Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.

As things stand, however, no matter what the preferences or prejudices of individuals and institutions with an interest in the outcome, the remit, regulatory reach, and sheer size of European Union bureaucracies and their combined budgets have ballooned since the nascent days of what was always a political project. Something, it would seem, simply has to give. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not even on June 23rd, but soon, and the aftermath may prove impossible to predict."

Published on May 11, 2016


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_vgrOFkJro&feature=em-uploademail

[Baby Steps]

Thanks – excellent discussion.

I have struggled to find a higher perspective on the in/out debate, in political human affairs these kind of debates are like gunky treacle with awful ethical compromises built into all possible alternatives.

The British public are being bombarded with fear based propaganda from both sides and currently 'in' supporters are leading the polls but there are enough un-decideds to swing it the other way.
We have had apparently reasonable people like Nick Clegg, indulging in the most pathetic statements along the lines of ‘this is just primitive racism & xenophobia motivated by dinosaurs and little Englanders’ and ‘4 million jobs depend on our trade with Europe’ with the nonsense implication that Brexit will mean we STOP trading with Europe. In reality, it is unlikely that the UK will suffer the 2.5% WTO tariff level when exporting to Europe, but the £ is likely to fall more than this anyway so UK exports to Europe are likely to be more competitive. Given that the UK runs a huge deficit in goods with Europe, it is the UK who holds the power when negotiating trade agreements, as the German car manufacturers and French wine producers are well aware.
The participants in this discussion appear to be Right-aligned and Libertarian in outlook. There are some slightly bonkers trains of thought running amongst such people. UK democracy is mostly a sham, as is European democracy. If we leave the EU will there be a sudden return to our Politicians paying attention to the wishes of the Electorate? Of course not.

So in reality there certainly are down-sides to leaving the EU, but that does not mean we should not. What we can expect to see are:
- Some high end financial jobs migrating from London
- Renewed momentum behind Scottish secession, with the attendant economic uncertainty.
- Reduced international investment in the UK
- Reduced access to top talent for the currently burgeoning London Finance and tech scene
- De-industrialisation
- Removal of various worker protections which will be diluted at best
- Removal of the Human Rights act
- Loss of lower skilled (EU)labour – which will further stress UK firms
- Decimation of agriculture
- 2.5% tariffs on UK goods sold to USA.
- VISA chaos & reduced Tourism
- UK embracing the worst of GMO industry
- UK embracing the worst of TTIP tyranny.(including destruction of the health system)
- Reduced credit rating and higher interest bill for state.

So in the end I plump for exit mainly because people like Cameron & Obama say the opposite. TPTB have their sinister plans and we have the opportunity to set them back.
1. DEMOCRACY
TPTB are systematically attacking what little democracy there is. This includes undermining and corrupting it at the national level, but these existing checks and balances are proving durable. So the follow-on strategy is to build supra national institutions, treaties etc that by-pass National self-determination. I have a lot of love for the French & German public who are resisting GMO’s and TTIP, however because Europe is the ‘Big Bloc’ this will prove to be temporary and TPTB will get their way whatever the public does. Europe itself is fundamentally NOT democratic, and the European Parliament is mostly a sham.

2. GEOPOLITICS

It is a stated long term aim of the USA establishment to prevent a German-Russian rapprochement, as this has the potential to challenge USA hegemony.Until the Ukraine disaster , the Russians were slowly integrating into the European economy, with benefits for both sides. Russia’s long term destiny is as an Eastern European land power integrated with Europe, probably having ceded eastern Siberia to China. The USA is keen to stop this, and will do whatever necessary including provoking a war with potentially billions of deaths. Whether they use a ‘looking glass’ or crystal ball to view this potential time line is not important. My problem with the EU in this context is that the Germans for example, are well aware of the shenanigans that have been going on in Ukraine. It is an existential threat for them, but they are so far SO WEAK that they have not resisted the process. Instead they have participated-we know that it was German Euros that were paid to the Maidan protesters. If the Germans and French stood up and admitted that war is being stirred up in Ukraine by USA and it was unacceptable- I would be more comfortable being allied with them. NATO’s whole posture towards Russia is increasingly aggressive, and this does not serve the interests of the European public. This point alone shows what a sham our democracy has become.

3. UK DEFENCE ROLE

We got a clue about this, because one of the fear memes that TPTB are using is that the UK will be ‘less secure’ if we leave the EU. This implies that the EU is becoming a state with a national defence. The UK currently operates three Trident Submarines. Russia knows that there is a secret treaty between UK and USA whereby if the UK Prime Minister and deputy are dead/missing, the USA can take over operational control of all UK naval assets. This gives the USA the capability to nuke Russia while not fully being involved or culpable in the eyes of the world.
The UK has the second highest ‘defence’ budget in NATO. The UK has numerous USA air bases where nuclear weapons are placed without any UK public oversight or debate. These assets are key to the plan to provoke war in Europe. If we Europeans wish to step back from the brink, we need to reduce the current offensive posture towards Russia. Start by reducing or eliminating USA assets based in Europe. Mr Trump is making some hopeful noises about Europe shouldering a fairer burden of their own defence – which they currently do not.
The UK electorate can play a role in stepping back from the brink by leaving the EU, and if necessary NATO too. Europe can organise its own defence, and it is sensible for them to start standardising and integrating their systems. The UK can do the same, so it will be able to join in if needed, but only if it sees fit.

[jaybee]

.


thanks giovonni --and Baby Steps for your comments--- I've already decided to vote Leave - but will watch the OP video later -

.

[giovonni]

will share this here ...

What is the real cost of UK's EU membership? BBC News

"One thing the campaigns disagree on is the real cost of our membership. So how much money do we put in and how much of it do we get back? I've been taking a closer look at some of the latest figures from the Treasury to try to get to the bottom of it."

Published on May 25, 2016


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dokwnx4U1aA

[Mark (Star Mariner)]

So in the end I plump for exit mainly because people like Cameron & Obama say the opposite.

Good write up, and that's exactly my thinking too. All this political mud-slinging and propaganda is causing so much confusion at the moment (which maybe by design to create as many abstainers as possible) it's very hard to sort out what is likely to be true with all the "alleged" pros and cons.

Putting to one side all that, all that's swaying me at the moment is that the Power-Elite cronies want us to stay in the EU. What's good for them, probably isn't going to be good for us. So for now I'm choosing to leave as well.

[Akasha]

will share this here ...

What is the real cost of UK's EU membership? BBC News

"One thing the campaigns disagree on is the real cost of our membership. So how much money do we put in and how much of it do we get back? I've been taking a closer look at some of the latest figures from the Treasury to try to get to the bottom of it."

Published on May 25, 2016


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dokwnx4U1aA

Yeah right, because we can always rely on Auntie Beeb to be impartial can't we? Whenever a referendum debate is aired on the BBC it is always skewed to endorse the remainian point of view.

Your TV license money at work (I trust no-one on Avalon still pays it).

Here's an entertaining resumé highlighting just how ridiculous "Project Fear" has become courtesy of the eloquent as ever Sargon of Akkad (the YouTuber, not the historical Akkadian conqueror):

7WiqTpQReY8

BTW thanks for starting this thread Giovonni, it was long overdue.

[Baby Steps]

The following is a quite well-reasoned blog regarding this issue. People on the pro side are posting in a quite aggressive way, and there has been success in depicting Brixiteers as racists and the anti-immigration issue has been demonised. There is in the UK, and has been for some time, a kind of PC norm that if you speak out against excessive immigration you are a racist.


George Bevan
May 24 at 9:47pm ·
Alright, you filthy animals. I don't normally do this, because I believe that everyone should have the right to vote how they want at elections, but a) this ain't an election, it's a referendum so go **** yourself, and b) I honestly believe that the stakes are too high for me not to get involved here. If I can influence even one person with this post, then I'll feel like I've done something important. As a result, feel free to share this far and wide as I've done a veritable ****load of research and I don't want all my hard work going to waste.
So, I'll put my cards on the table: I believe, very very strongly, that we need to stay in the EU. I never thought I'd find myself agreeing with David 'PigFellatio' Cameron, but in this unfortunate case I am, and here's why.
We stand to gain SO MUCH from staying in the EU. "How much", you're (probably not) asking? Well, I made a convenient list for your perusal, WITH sources, so you can't be a twat and say 'you're making that up!' and froth at the mouth like a rabid ****.
I know people on the internet like listicles with clickbait titles, so here are "14 Reasons Why We Shouldn't Leave The EU That Everyone Should Know! You Won't Believe #8!":
1) The EU provides easy access to 1/3 of the world's markets by value (in other words, the EU's combined market value is 1/3 of the entire world's, and we can tap into it whenever the **** we want). [1] It also gives UK businesses preferential market access to over 50 countries OUTSIDE the EU, including some of the fastest-growing economies in the world like South Korea and South Africa. [2]
2) The EU gives us better product safety. You know, so your toddler doesn't impale him/herself on a ****tily designed toy, or swallow a load of poisonous plastic. [3]
3) The EU gives structural funding to areas hit by industrial decline (hello, Cornwall). [4]
4) The EU gave us lead-free petrol. [5]
5) The EU gives us cheaper mobile charges. [6] It also gives us cheaper air travel. [7] **** yeah, cheap things!
6) The EU gives us cleaner beaches, rivers and air (hello again, Cornwall). [8]
7) The EU gives us improved consumer protection and food labelling, so you actually know what it's in your Chicken McNuggets (hint: it's chicken. It wasn't always chicken, though). [9]
8) The EU has helped break up monopolies. [10] If you don't know why monopolies are a Very Bad Thing, try playing the popular board game 'Monopoly' and see how many friends you have left when you win.
9) The EU gives us cross-border policing to combat human trafficking, arms and drug smuggling, and terrorism. [11]
10) Being a member of the EU means no paperwork or customs for exports throughout the single market, as well as the freedom to travel, live and work across Europe. [12] This one is particularly important for me as someone who likes to live, work and travel abroad. Do you have ANY IDEA how ****ing great it is to be able to travel and work visa-free?! Having to a get a visa for every single country you enter is a nightmare, believe me. If you've ever tried to travel around Asia, Africa or South America, you'll understand what I'm saying.
11) The EU creates and helps uphold all kinds of awesome human rights, such as equal pay legislation, holiday entitlement, and the right not to work more than a 48-hour week without overtime. [13] I'd also like to point out that it's some of these same human rights that David 'PorkTwatter' Cameron tried to erode back in 2014, with the EU playing a major role in stopping him. [14]
12) The EU creates and upholds all kinds of great animal welfare legislation; it has the strongest wildlife protection laws in the world and contributes to improved animal welfare in food production. [15]
13) The EU funds incredible scientific research and industrial collaboration (including, most recently, a project that may be the catalyst for a cure for breast cancer being found in the next few years, I **** you not). [16]
14) Finally, and arguably most importantly, the EU has for 60 years been the foundation of peace between European neighbours after many years of bloodshed. [17] It has also assisted in the extraordinary social, political and economic transformation of 13 former dictatorships, now EU members, since 1980. [18]
SOURCES:
[1] http://news.cbi.org.uk/…/eu-business-facts/10-facts-about-…/
[2] http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-1080_en.htm
[3] http://ec.europa.eu/…/general_product_safety_d…/index_en.htm
[4] https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/…/european-structural-and-inve…/
[5] http://ec.europa.eu/environme…/…/project/Projects/index.cfm…
[6] https://www.theguardian.com/…/europe-abolishes-mobile-phone…
[7] http://europa.eu/…/citizens/travel/passeng…/air/index_en.htm
[8] http://www.theguardian.com/…/england-beaches-bathing-waters…
[9] http://ec.europa.eu/…/la…/labelling_legislation/index_en.htm
[10] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w…/European_Union_competition_law (I know I'm not supposed to use Wikipedia as a source for its less-than-rigorous academic standards, but **** YOU I'm not in uni anymore, I'll do what I like).
[11] http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage…
[12] http://ec.europa.eu/…/borders-and-…/visa-policy/index_en.htm
[13] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…/European_Convention_on_Human_R…
[14] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/David-Camerons-plan-to-scrap-t…
[15] http://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/welfare/index_en.htm
[16] http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/94691_en.html
[17] The Second World War, mother****er. Read a history book.
[18] The Cold War, mother****er. Read a history book.
And now, let's take a moment to address some of the arguments for leaving the EU. Apart from the fact that I can't find a single reputable study that suggests we'd be any better off outside of the EU (and believe me, I've looked; I want to research my counterarguments as thoroughly as my arguments), the most persuasive arguments I've found are what I'm going to term 'the trade argument' and 'the immigration argument'.
The trade argument goes as follows: if we left the EU, we could negotiate a sort of 'amicable divorce' where we somehow retain strong trading links with the EU while not being subject to its laws. Many people point to Canada as a good example of this model, which recently negotiated a CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement- do I have to google EVERYTHING for you?) with the EU. I have two retorts to this argument. My first retort: Canada was never a part of the EU in the first place. To return to the divorce analogy outlined above- whereby the EU and the U.K. are a sort of 'married couple' and trade is their kids- the U.K. seeking a CETA after leaving the EU would be like a nasty, messy divorce where one parent uses the kids as a weapon against the other, threatening to take them away whenever their demands aren't met. Canada's CETA, meanwhile, is like a married couple approaching someone else to have a threesome at a swinger's party, which sounds a lot more fun and exciting, I'm sure you'll agree. My second retort to the above argument is simple: why even take the risk? If we stay in the EU, our trade with them will continue to be prosperous and full of great sex while the kids are asleep (okay, I've taken the analogy too far now). If we leave, however, there's a chance any trade agreement could fail catastrophically and leave our economy in a ****storm. In fact, I would argue the likes of Germany, France and other leading EU nations would not simply let us pick and choose what rules and trade agreements we adhere to, so the likelihood of us being absolutely fine, trade-wise, after leaving the EU seems overly optimistic. Plus negotiating a CETA of any kind could take years and have a completely uncertain outcome. Again, why take the risk? An additional point: arguments no. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, and 12 above are examples of really great laws and regulations the EU has introduced. If you say you want to leave the EU so we have autonomy over our own laws, you know that you're effectively handing control of our country over to David 'HideTheSausageLiterally' Cameron, don't you? In terms of making laws that benefit all of us, I trust the EU way more than that guy.
The immigration argument tends to centre around the whole 'visa-free work and travel' thing, and is generally espoused by people terrified of dem immigantz stealin are jobz. Alternatively it's espoused by people afraid of terrorists being able to come here more easily, but for that I'd refer you to point no. 9 above; we're safer from terrorism in the EU because we can share intelligence and resources with other countries more easily. But back to the 'stealing our jobs' fear; while it's true that technically speaking there could be an influx of foreigners coming to claim your particular job at any moment, just remember, we've been part of the EU for 43 years now and it hasn't happened yet, despite what the mainstream media may tell you (and you DEFINITELY shouldn't trust those guys; more on that later). Seriously, do you know ANYONE, personally, that has had their job stolen by a foreigner? Be honest now. I'd be willing to wager that you don't, and I'll explain why that is too: the immigrants that are coming here are not stealing YOUR jobs, specifically. They're either starting their own businesses (in which case they're actually creating jobs), or they're skilled labourers taking jobs there just aren't enough trained British people to take (such as doctors or surgeons), or they're unskilled labourers taking the jobs that you don't want (like toilet cleaning or washing dishes). Incidentally, about a year ago I taught English to some Eastern European immigrants who worked in a salad-packing factory in Lichfield. One Latvian girl was actually a teacher back home, but she was making more money as a salad-packer here than she was as a teacher in Latvia(!)- the point being that unskilled immigrant workers are generally happy to work ****ty menial jobs that no British person wants, and your cushy 9-to-5 office job is not under threat. Not even a little bit- so don't worry your xenophobic little head about it. Oh, and one last thing on this subject, to paraphrase Louis CK: maybe, if an immigrant with no contacts, no skills and no local knowledge of the language and/or culture can steal your job, maybe, just maybe, you're **** at your job.
If you've made it thus far through this absolute essay of a post, congratulations! You're nearly at the end! But before I go, I just want to hit you with one final thought. Over 80% of UK newspapers are owned by five right-wing media billionaires (aka five massive cuntstacks): Lord Rothermere (Daily Mail), Rupert Murdoch (Sun/Times), Richard Desmond (Express), and the Barclay Brothers (Telegraph). Murdoch is an Australian living in New York and Rothermere lives in France, while the Barclay Brothers live in the tax havens of Monaco and Guernsey. All of them use tax haven entities to avoid UK taxes. And guess who wants to stop billionaires using tax havens to avoid paying their taxes? That's right, the EU. So of COURSE the British newspapers are trying to persuade you to leave the EU; it benefits their owners personally. The moral of the story is, don't gather your views from newspapers. Do some research like I have with this post, you lazy twonknoggin.
In conclusion: we're in a really great position right now. We're part of the EU with all the benefits that entails, but without being tied to their notoriously unstable currency. Leaving the EU would not only be hypocritical since we spent so much time telling Scotland they shouldn't leave the UK this time last year with all that lovely 'better together' rhetoric, it might also be downright stupid and harmful to our economy.
tl;dr version: Vote to stay in the EU, you filthy animals. Because reasons. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about.
EDIT: thank you to everybody who made me internet famous for the day. You're all sweethearts. If you'd like to read more of my filth-ridden political thoughts, please tune in to my new blog.

[Matthew]

Here's a crowd-funded film putting the case for Leave.


Extract from source https://www.brexitthemovie.com/about



...
A Crowdfunded film for the British public
Brexit : The Movie is a crowdfunded production, financed entirely by donations from the public. It was made possible thanks to the support of more than 1,800 backers, who raised over £300,000 with donations from as little as £1. You can see the list of our incredible backers here.
...

UTMxfAkxfQ0

[giovonni]

a kind of hands on guy ... :rolleyes:

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/4341526/images/n-JUNCKER-large570.jpg

“Five Presidents” EU’s Jean-Claude Juncker Drunk in Public, Slaps Leaders (http://heatst.com/uk/five-presidents-eus-jean-claude-juncker-drunk-in-public-slaps-leaders/)

[Bill Ryan]

.
I'm not in a position to vote, but if the UK's exit then causes a domino effect to split up the EU, that's a GOOD thing. :Party:

The EU was a beta test for the rest of the world, including the North American Union. If it fails, the world will be much freer than the decades-old NWO plans intended.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dpfvp060sIk

[Baby Steps]

The following from an Australian Political Party. The nub of it being that the EU is in essence a financial tyranny, and as such is driven by the shadowy 'First Order'- continuity British Empire, that is financial and city of London Based. It exposes how Cameron is a key part of this. He has been politically damaged by the Panama papers scandal, and my theory is that Putin is the real target, and Cameron is collateral damage, however the CIA may not have calculated that discrediting Cameron would undermine the EU 'Remain' Camp's credibility:


Who is David Cameron?



13 April-As we go to press, British Prime Minister Dav-
id Cameron is reeling from the Panama Papers' revelation
ofthe role of his father, Ian Cameron, as a director of the
Bahamas-based, tax-evading fund Blairmore Holdings-
in which David Cameron held shares, and the release of
his own tax returns thereafter. The latter showed Camer-
on and his family making multi-thousand-pound transfers,
to avoid future inheritance taxes. Cameron's disapproval
rating rose to 58 per cent, the Telegraph reported, while
several Labour MPs, including Deputy Leader Tom Wat-
son, suggested that the Conservative Party's Cameron may
have to step down.
The situation has grown serious enough that the Lon-
don Economist columnist who writes as "Bagehot" fret-
ted on 7 April that the major victim of the revelations may
not be Cameron's leadership per se, "but the campaign to
keep Britain in the EU", when that matter comes to a vote
by referendum in June. Hostility to the EU's economic dic-
tatorship (which in truth is exercised on behalf of City of
London and related financiers) was growing already, but
has now been amplified by the revelations of Cameron's
preoccupation with self-enrichment.
But Cameron's family tax affairs are the least of the mat-
ter! Let us take the opportunity of the current scandal to
look at the UK prime minister as a cameo of the Crown-
City of London nexus, which, as we began to reveal in our
feature article "'Bail-in': They plan to steal your personal
deposits and pensions!" (AAS Vol. 18 No. 12, 23 March
2016), dominates not only the British economy, but the
entire transatlantic financial sector.
An imperial family: opium and the City
Prime Minister David Cameron came into public life
as a hereditary oligarch of the new British Empire, the re-
casting, in the decades following World War II, of the old
empire of gunboats and colonialism, as an "informal, fi-
nancial empire", in the words of a 1995 Chatham House
report. The Empire today is a money kingdom based in a
City of London vastly enriched by speculation and looting
of the real economy, both at home and throughout much
of the rest of the world.
The long imperial role of his family, and his own hedo-
nism and aversion to political ideals, have made Cameron curiously trustworthy
in the eyes of the lords of finance and geopolitics who sponsor polit-
ical leaders. His background and those qualities made him eligible for advancement, to help press forward their pursuit of total freedom for money
and its masters to do as they will.

Cameron's family portrait, his family's historical ties to the power structure, are
the place to begin the story of his own ascent to the top, and his pres-
ent difficulties. In the 19th century, the current prime minister's ancestors were in business at the heart of the drug running British Empire of that era. His great-great grandfather Sir Ewen Cameron joined the Hong Kong and Shanghai
Bank (also called "Hongshang", and today named "HSBC")
in the 1860s. At that time, Hongshang and the allied Jar-
dine Matheson Company (the family firm of the Keswicks)
led the monster-scale opium trafficking then ravaging Asia.
Sir Ewen's son Ewan Allan Cameron was born in Shanghai
in around 1880, and the family later moved back to Lon-
don for Sir Ewen to chair the global bank, whose crimes
and centrality to the British Empire are chronicled in the
best-selling book Dope, tnc.Britein's Opium War Against
the World (2010), by the Editors of Executive Intelligence
Review. HSBC still today is the world's biggest narcotics
money-launderer; it was nailed in 2012 for aiding the Mex-
ican drug cartels and their murderous enforcement gangs
in the USA, but was let off the hook by the Obama Ad-
ministration, paying only a small fine.
Hongshang formed a partnership with the City of Lon-
don investment bank Panmure Gordon, which specialised
in the Asian opium trade and in the securities markets of the
London-Wall Street power axis. The son, Ewan Allan Cam-
eron, became a senior partner in Panmure Gordon, as did
his son, Sir Ewen's grandson Donald Cameron (1906-58),
and Donald's son, Sir Ewen's great-grandson Ian Cameron
(1932-2012)-Prime Minister David Cameron's late father.
It is Ian Cameron whose name has surfaced in the Pan-
ama Papers affair, for having set up the secret "offshore",
tax-avoiding Blairmore fund for his family, naming it af-
ter the family home in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This spe-
cies of activity was lan's occupation, and he was a pio-
neer in the field.
Ian Cameron joined Panmure Gordon in around 1954,
just as the old British colonial empire was falling apart.
With the blessing of powers within HM Treasury and the
Bank of England, Siegmund Warburg led the way in mak-
ing the City of London a new power centre, kept afloat on
inflowing torrents of the global hot money set free in an in-
creasingly deregulated financial world.
Ian Cameron's firm was a key player in the dramatic first
triumph of the new system. Acting against stuck-in-their-ways
firms such as Hambros, Morgan Grenfell and Lazard, Pan-
mure Gordon backed SG Warburg in orchestrating the fa-
mous 1958-59 Aluminium War, the hostile takeover of Brit-
ish Aluminium by a trans-Atlantic group led by Reynolds
Metals. The shocked British establishment began to adjust
to a new, black depth of monetarism, utterly disconnected
from the national interest.
Following the 1971 dissolution of the stable, regulat-
ed Bretton Woods system of fixed currency-exchange rates,
and the shift to unbounded speculation by London and Wall
Street (including rampant betting on the value of national
currencies, an activity destructive of the real economy and
trade in real goods), Ian Cameron became a specialist in cre-
ating offshore trusts. These new money-hiding arrangements
came to underlie relationships within the ruling oligarchy.
Bankers and monarchs (and other billionaires) have them,
and demand policies and institutions, such as a deregulat-
ed European Union, to protect them.
Royal politics
David Cameron was born into this golden web of influ-
ence. The other branches of his family tree, his family friends,
and his own career continuously reflect the constant inter-
face between the Crown and the City of London.
A close friend of Ian Cameron was Sir Henry Keswick
(b. 1938), head of Iardines in Hong Kong and a City of Lon-
don nabob, their relationship rooted in the old, world-rul-
ing partnership of the two family firms, Hongshang and Jar-
dine Matheson.


David's mother was the former Mary Mount, whose
father, Sir William Mount, had been made High Sheriff of
Berkshire by King George VI, father of the current Queen.
Her first cousin Ferdinand Mount (b. 1939) would become
an adviser to Prime Minister MargaretThatcher in 1982-83,
heading the Number 10 Policy Unit, which oversaw dereg-
ulation and privatisation of the economy.
David's godmother was Fiona Aird, a lady-in-waiting to
Princess Margaret, the Queen's sister, for more than four dec-
ades. Her husband, Sir Alastair Aird (1931-2009), was long
the Comptroller of the Queen Mother's Household, becom-
ing an Extra Equerry to the Queen in 2003.
By the time David was 18, the Camerons' family friend
and neighbour Sir Brian McGrath was chairman of Broad
Street Securities Ltd, while also serving as Treasurer to Prince
Philip.
And Ian Cameron was chairman of White's. This old-
est London club admits only the hard-partying Royals (up
through hosting Prince Charles's stag party), favoured no-
bility, leaders of the secret services, and the banking elite.
Born in 1966, David Cameron at age seven went off to
board at the Heatherdown Schoo" along with many boys
from the titled nobility. The Queen came to see her son Prince
Edward and David Cameron in a school performance. The
Heatherdown boys flew on school trips to the Alps, and went
on safari in Africa. David drank champagne on one school
flight on the supersonic Concorde at age 11, one of his bio-
graphers reports.
The Queen made Ian Cameron High Sheriff of Berkshire
in 1978 (the same honour earlier accorded by her father to
lan's father-in-law), and the next year son David went off to
Eton, the elite prep school located in that county. Cameron
is the nineteenth British prime minister "produced by Eton".
When young David was attending that seat of entitlement
he announced to his friends that he would one day be prime
minister, even though he had absolutely no political thoughts
aside from belonging to the ruling class. History teacher Mi-
chael Kidson stoked the Eton boys' august self-esteem with
vivid tales of Britain's imperial conquerors, their ancestors.
David left Eaton in 1984. His father packed him off to
Hong Kong for a three-month internship with Henry Keswick
at lardines, cementing the family's HSBC-Keswick-City of
London axis.
Cameron matriculated at Oxford University in 1985, en-
tering its famous Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE)
program, which has churned out administrators of the mod-
ern British Empire, for duties in the UK and throughout the
Commonwealth, since the 1920s. Given his future rise,
David's record at Oxford was astonishingly free of politic-
al interest, debate or association, in a time of con-
siderable campus political ferment over apartheid
in South Africa and other issues. At a cost of thou-
sands of pounds, he joined the Bullingdon drinking
club. An elite club, analogous to White's but at the
university level, it had been a riotous haunt of the
future King Edward VII in the 19th century, and vari-
ous members of the Rothschild bankingfamily in the
20th. Bullingdon incumbents recruited members by
trashing their rooms. (David's chum Peter Czernin
produced the 2014 movie The Riot Club, based on
the cruel arrogance of the Oxford "Bullers".)
David was also reputed to be in the super-elite
Piers Gaveston Society, named for the favourite, and ru-
moured gay lover, of King Edward" in the early 14th
century. The members and guests dress in drag, and
their orgies are often accompanied by the use of dead
pigs for decorations and for strange sex, in the tradi-
tion of the Hellfire Clubs of one of London's most ob-
scene imperial eras, the 18th century.
Another man who was in both Bullingdon and Piers
Gaveston in David's time, Count Gottfried von Bismar-
ck, finally died in 2007 of cocaine and heroin, infec-
ted with HIV and hepatitis. David Cameron did drugs,
too, but he kept his wits and his charmed circle of con-
nections about him, and went all the way to Down-
ing Street.
The governing class
While David was at Eton back in 1982, his moth-
er suggested he contact "cousin Ferdy"-Ferdinand
Mount, just then doing his stint as head of the Num-
ber 10 Policy Unit for Thatcher, to interview him for
a school magazine. This was one of the strong family
ties that buoyed David up to a spot in the Tories' Conserva-
tive Research Department (CRD) upon his graduation from
Oxford in 1988.
David worked in the Political Section of CRD as depu-
ty to Guy Black, later Baron Black of Brentwood, the first
openly gay peer; Black's partner was Mark Bolland, who
would later manage public relations for Prince Charles fol-
lowing the murder of Princess Diana in Paris on 31 August
1997. Another colleague there was Derek Laud, who was a
source on these years of Cameron's career for the book Call
Me Dave: The Unauthorised Biography of David Cameron
(Biteback Publishing, 2015), by former Tory Deputy Chair-
man Lord Ashcroft and co-author Isabel Oakeshott, recount-
ing boozing and travels with Cameron. Laud took him on
a lavish 1989 trip to South Africa, seemingly sponsored by
the South African regime which was then seeking to in-
fluence the British elite against anti-apartheid sanctions.
An equestrian crony of Camilla Parker-Bowles, now Mrs.
Prince Charles, Laud today heads a City of London propa-
ganda unit called New City Initiative, is a private wealth
manager, and is the UK's first-ever black and gay master
of foxhounds, a position of honour in the British aristocra-
cy's beloved sport.
Cameron made other politically well-vectored friends at
CRD, whose team became known as the Brat Pack. A nota-
ble one was staffer Linda Whetstone, daughter of Sir Ant-
ony Fisher, the wealthy businessman who had co-found-
ed the Institute of Economic Affairs (lEA). This is the flag-
ship think tank, within the large fleet of its spin-offs, of the
"Austrian school of economics" movement for free trade,
deregulation, privatisation, and ending national sovereign-
ty in economic policy, which gave rise to "Thatcherism"
and the worldwide dominance of neoliberal economics
as the instrument of bankers' dictatorship. The lEA's spon-
sor at its founding in 1955 was Harley Drayton, the City of
London magnate who managed the fortune of the Crown.
Linda followed in her father's footsteps, and now sits on
the board of the lEA.
In 1991, in preparation for the next year's general elec-
tion, Tory Party Chairman and campaign chief Chris Pat-
ten moved David Cameron to Downing Street as a brief
er for the PM. Cameron stayed in touch with Patten after-
wards, when the latter was in office as the last British gov-
ernor of Hong Kong (1992-97), overseeing power-sharing
arrangements there between the Chinese government and
the HSBClKeswick-Jardine firms.
Cameron's trip up the power ladder now came into the
province of the so-called Cambridge Mafia, a clique of
Conservative Party cabinet members, partisans of the City
of London's privatisation and deregulation agenda, who
had all been at Cambridge University in the early 1960s.
These included Cameron family friend Peter Gummer, Mi-
chael Howard, Kenneth Clarke and Norman Lamont, all of
them important in David's life, and Leon Brittan, Margaret
Thatcher's fair-haired boy who as home secretary covered
up a paedophile ring permeating the highest ranks of the
establishment and was a key architect of the modern EU.
Cameron's first position after the CRD was as adviser to
Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, previously
a banker with Rothschilds. When Lamont was hit with the
Black Wednesday debacle in 1993 (the forced exit of the
pound sterling from the European Rate Mechanism), the
chancellor and his aide both lost their jobs.
But Henry Keswick's wife Tessa, who in 1995 would rise
to a powerful position on the board of the Centre for Pol icy
Studies, a key lEA spin-off which had launched Thatcher's
career, was then adviser to Ken Clarke, the new chancellor.
Clarke pressed Home Secretary Michael Howard to take
David Cameron on as special adviser. Howard had made
his name proposing harsh government measures against the
families of striking workers, and promoted stronger British
ties to the European Common Market.
Then, as at Oxford, Cameron was clever but without
his own pronounced political viewpoint. After a year with
Howard, he grew tired of government and wanted to make
real money.
Private and public relations
He had become engaged to Samantha Sheffield, whose
mother happened by then to have married Viscount Astor,
grandson of the Astors of the Hitler-sympathising CI iveden
Set in the 1930s. A powerful media owner named Michael
Green was a friend and frequent summerhouse guest
of Lord and Lady Astor. It was arranged that son-in-
law-to-be David would enter Green's commercial TV
holding company, Carlton Communications.
Cameron's job was to manage Green's arrange-
ments with the City of London investors, who might
back Green or keep away, in that time of newly de-
regulated commercial broadcasting. It was essential-
ly a public relations job, selling advantageous posi-
tions and stances, and was perfectly in line with his
life's experience.
During his years with Carlton (1994-2001), Cam-
eron twice ran for Parliament without success. But
in 2000 a way up luckily opened to him. The Con-
servative Member of Pari iament for the Witney con-
stituency (Oxfordshire), Shaun Woodward, abruptly
changed his party affiliation to Labour, but refused to
give up his seat in that Tory stronghold. It happened
that the president of the West Oxfordshire Conserva-
tive Association was a fami Iy friend and neighbour of
the Camerons: this was Peter Gummer, Baron Chad-
lington. A PR mogul, he is the brother of Cambridge
Mafia associate John Gummer, Baron Deben. Lord
Chadlington bridled at MP Woodward's insult to the
Party, and, seeking with his friends a replacement
for the 2001 elections, needed to look no farther than the
socially ultra-respectable and available David Cameron.
Baron Chadlington gave David and Samantha the use of
a house on his estate, so that Cameron would have a base
and a constituency home. Thus chosen and set up for the
safe seat, he entered Parliament in 2001.
This was the epoch of City of London trillionaire deriva-
tives-trading banks, a system flying without wings towards
the 2007-08 crash. It was David's time. He strode impor-
tantly with his entourage through the corridors at Westmin-
ster, anticipating a short ride as a mere parliamentarian.
Cameron got onto the Home Affairs Select Commit-
tee, a position where he had working relations with Shad-
ow Home Secretary Oliver Letwin (Labour having been in
power since 1997). Like Linda Whetstone, Letwin was by
inheritance a political grandee, the son of influential Aus-
trian School strategists. A fanatical devotee of the monar-
chy, Letwin was a director of the NM Rothschild merchant
bank, which had orchestrated the privatisation process un-
derThatcher. Today he is in charge of the Cabinet Office-
the boss of Prime Minister Cameron's government; and,
concurrently, Letwin is Chancellor of the Queen's estate,
the Duchy of Lancaster.
A scant four years later, the stars were al igned for Cam- .
eron's pol itical takeoff. When the Tories lost the 2005 elec-
tion and Michael Howard stepped down as their leader,
Howard quickly got behind his former aide Cameron as his
successor. With his father at White's, with the old Brat Pack,
with Letwin behind him, with funding from Lord Chadling-
ton and the approval of the fox-hunters (the one cause he
fervently defended), he was poised to sail to the leadership
of the Conservative Party.
All that was needed was a device to unstick the percep-
tion that David was not the preferred candidate of the Par-
ty's members. Public relations came to the rescue.
BBC at the time was guided by Mark Thompson, who
had come in as a compliant director general to replace the
BBC execs ousted for standing up to PM Tony Blair's lies,
the ones that paved the way for the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
BBC now engaged the American political consultant-magi-
cian Frank Luntz to work a trick on Cameron's behalf. The
consummate insiders' sophist, Luntz had famously guided
the Newt Gingrich Conservative Revolution US Republi-
can electoral victories of 1994 and the George W. Bush ad-
ministration's reframing of "global warming" as the more
acceptable "climate change".
On the BBC current affairs show Newsnight, Luntz con-
ducted a focus group that displayed positive reactions to
Cameron, simulating popularity, and this great event was
sold on the news as the turning point in Cameron's favour.
His first action as leader of the opposition was to create
the Quality of Life Policy Group, chaired by John Gummer
(Lord Deben), brother of Cameron's political sponsor Lord
Chadlington. As Gummer's deputy chairman Cameron in-
stalled Zac Goldsmith, son of the billionaire financier and
corporate raider James Goldsmith, and editor of his uncle
Edward's Ecologist magazine. Gummer and Goldsmith co-
authored the Policy Group's 2007 report, calling for an-
ti-growth environmentalist measures-a further City- and
Crown-endorsed move toward the Green agenda that was
to replace the dying industrial society.
The set, and the ocean of money
A glittering array of partying notables turned out, to
see and be seen among thei r power set, on New Year's Eve
2008 in the fashionable residential area of Chipping Nor-
ton, West Oxfordshire. They were nearing governmental
power, and all guests had to be approved by the inner core
around David Cameron. There was David's old CRD boss
Lord Black and his gay partner, Prince Charles's former PR
man Mark Bolland. BBC General Director MarkThompson
was there, celebrating a potential new regime for which he
had helped smooth the way. PR master Matthew Freud ar-
rived, with his wife Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of media
magnate Rupert Murdoch. There too was Rebekah Wade
(later Brooks), powerful editor of the Murdochs' newspa-
per, The Sun. The Camerons came in, and of course Shad-
ow Chancellor George Osborne; perhaps the party-go-
ers had seen the widely chattered-about 1992 photo of
George as an Oxford Bullingdon drinking man with Na-
thaniel Rothschild, taken a decade and half before the same
pair turned up fundraising for the Tories from Russian bil-
lionaire Oleg Deripaska, on the latter's yacht when it was
moored off Rothschild's villa on the Greek island of Cor-
fu (also in 2008).
David Cameron became UK Prime minister in 2010, in
a coalition government with Liberal Democrats party lead-
er Nick Clegg (whose father and wife are both money-hid-
ing tax haven operators).
Cameron's sponsor Peter Gummer, Lord Chadlington,
was at that time the owner of the PR firm Quiller Consul-
tants, in partnership with Quiller's founder Jonathan Hill
(former adviser to Ken Clarke and Conservative staffer).
Cameron gave Quiller a contract from after the 2010 May
general election until December 2010 "to provide initial
advice on the implications of the policies and actions of
the coalition government".
Beginning in January 2011, the Chadlington-Hill firm
Quiller was hired as PR consultant for the City of London
Corporation, the ultra-secret, ultra-powerful 1 OOO-year-old
organisation at the heart of the City of London. Quiller was
also hired as the PR arm for HSBC, which needed a spiff-
up after coming under fire for global drug-money launder-
ing; and for the United Arab Emirates, a money-hiding cen-
tre whose Abu Dhabi ruling family controls some US$150
billion in offshore funds. To foster the permanent war that
Cameron now promotes, Quiller also does the PR for the
Syrian Opposition Coalition.
Prime Minister Cameron turned PR man Jonathan Hill
into Baron Hill of Oareford and installed him as leader of
the House of Lords. In 2014 Lord Hill became Britain's rep-
resentative on the European Commission, in charge of Sta-
bility, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union. Hill's
task is to protect the City of London from even any "light-
touch" regulation, a demand that has been the main point
of PM Cameron's recent demands with respect to the UK's
continued membership in the European Union.
PM Cameron appointed John Gummer, Lord Deben,
as chairman of the UK's Committee on Climate Change.
Gummer also chairs GLOBE International (the Global Leg-
islators Organisation for a Balanced Environment), and the
Association of Professional Financial Advisers.
Since 2010 a Gulf Stream-sized flow of offshore mon-
ey has flowed into the Cameron-led Tory Party. Michael
Farmer, made a Lord by Cameron, is the senior Conserva-
tive Party Treasurer (known as "Mr. Copper" for founding
the Red Kite Hedge Fund and Mine Finance Group), who
donated almost £7 million. Lord Stanley Fink, a multi-mil-
lion Tory donor known as the "godfather" of the UK hedge
funds industry, boasts of his empire in the Cayman Islands,
Channel Islands and Luxembourg.
Cayman Islands hedge fund partners Hugh Sloane and
George Robinson have handed about £1 million to the Par-
ty; in 2012 a judge ordered them to pay millions because
of their Guernsey-based tax-avoidance scheme. Leveraged
buyouts man George Magan has donated £1.4 million to
the Party and became a Lord. Billionaire hedge fund bar-
on Michael Hintze has given £1.2 million to the Tories and
made millions in loans.
Information about David Cameron's own family trust,
revealed in the Panama Papers, leads to the centres of pow-
er within the current bankrupt system. One trust set up by
his father for him was organised by the notorious offshore
management firm, Ogier. That same firm is the leading fi-
nancial, political and judicial power in the Isle of Jersey
(an offshore base that is not a part of the United Kingdom,
but the British Crown has direct responsibility for super-
vising its government, with the Queen appointing all the
governing officers of the territory). Ogier is a great power
also in the offshore havens of Luxembourg and Brussels,
and around the world.
What Cameron has dreaded since he began rising po-
litically-that the public would somehow come to know
him as he is known to the oligarchy-is now certainly in
the offing. But the big question is, if Cameron goes, can all
the rubbish be swept out with him?


Australian Alert Service
The Australian Alert Service is the official newsletter for the
federally registered political party Citizens Electoral Council of
Australia.
Website: www.cecaust.com.au Email: cec@cecaust.com.au
Tel: 03 9354 0544 Fax: 03 93540166
Editor: Elisa Barwick Email: elisa@cecaust.com.au
Published & printed by:
Citizens Media Group Pty Ltd A.C.N. 010904757
PO Box 376 CoburgVic 3058
595 Sydney Rd CoburgVic 3058