On their facebook page, #DisruptJ20 have said: ‘We must take to the streets and protest, blockade, disrupt, intervene, sit in, walk out, rise up, and make more noise and good trouble than the establishment can bear.’ The irony is that Donald Trump ran as the anti-establishment candidate. It is #DisruptJ20 who stand for the true big-money, globalist establishment.
But who is on the next level? Who is providing the money? After all, a spontaneous demonstration needs a lot of organising.
George Soros
Billionaire financier George Soros provides the money for anti-Christian activism and violent protests worldwide.
Step forward financier George Soros. The billionaire funds ‘Occupy Wall Street’ through an intermediary known as the Tides Foundation in San Francisco. Look for any anti-Christian NGO worldwide, and you can be sure the Tides Foundation is funding it. Gay rights in Uganda, abortion rights in Tanzania, you name it. Tides, and others like them, are putting up the money.
Reuters News Agency says this: ‘According to disclosure documents from 2007-2009, Soros’ Open Society gave grants of $3.5 million to the Tides Center, a San Francisco-based group that acts almost like a clearing house for other donors, directing their contributions to liberal non-profit groups. Among others the Tides Center has partnered with are the Ford Foundation and the Gates Foundation.’
As this page shows, Tides Foundation makes no secret of its financial support for ‘Occupy’.
Davos Curse
Meanwhile, Soros has cursed both Donald Trump and Theresa May at the Davos World Economic Forum, saying the former is ‘a would-be dictator’ and the latter ‘won’t last’. And when Mr Soros says something, he has the financial muscle to at least try to bring it to pass.
Obviously, Donald Trump, as much as Theresa May (and for that matter Jeremy Corbyn and all in political leadership) need our prayers. We need to stand with the Lord against the ‘Kings of the Earth’ like George Soros.
Please Pray
In particular, on the day of his inauguration, please pray that President Trump does make America prosperous and a force for righteousness in the world. May he stop the flow of US money to abortionists and LGBT rights activists. May he appoint strong, righteous men to the US Supreme Court. May he defend Israel’s right to a peaceful existence. May he end NATO sabre-rattling against Russia. May he stop destablising sovereign states in the Middle East, because peace – even freedom from war – the Lord says is a good thing. May the new President strike the balance between protecting strategic industries at home and fostering trade. May he root out corruption in the US.
And if you have further prayer points, please leave them in a comment below!
Scriptures:
Psalm 2:1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD, and against his anointed, saying, 3 Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. 4 He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.
Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
Matthew 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
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It says: “That this House notes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen and the impact of the conflict on civilians; condemns any breach of International Humanitarian Law; and calls for an urgent independent investigation into reports of breaches of International Humanitarian Law on both sides of the conflict.”
Saudi Arabia bombed a funeral in Yemen
Al Jazeera’s map shows the areas held by the Houthi rebels in green and those controlled by the government in red.
It amounts to a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia and neither side has been particularly scrupulous about observing human rights.
However, Saudi Arabia, which backs the government, has the advantage of air power. There have been many well-documented instances of Saudi air strikes causing great devastation in the Houthi areas. One of the more notorious caused 140 deaths at a funeral. But the aircraft and arms used by Saudi Arabi are supplied by the US and the UK. That makes the UK complicit. For that reason, MP’s have been calling for over a year for arms sales to Saudi Arabia to be curtailed.
EDM’s call for an end to arms sales to Saudi Arabia
In November 2015, Early Day Motion 665, tabled by Margaret Ferrier, called for an end to military exports to and military cooperation with Saudi Arabia. The motion described it as ‘one of the most repressive regimes in the world’. The motion has just thirty-three signatories to date. No Conservative has signed.
The Saudi attack on a funeral in Sanaa left 140 dead.
On 1st March last year (2016) Tom Brake tabled Early Day Motion 1170, again calling for an ’embargo’ on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It also asked for the UK government to condemn the use of cluster munitions against the Huthi rebels. These were sold to the Saudis by the UK in the 1980s (see below). This motion has 59 signatories, again drawn solely from the ranks of Labour, LIbDems, SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party’s MP.
In February 2016, the International Development Committee wrote to the Secretary of State for International Development, who was Rt Hon Justine Greening MP at the time. They too asked the government to suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia, noting these were worth £3 billion since the start of the conflict.
(The actual figure, according to Middle East Eye, is £3.3 billion during the first twelve months of the Yemen conflict.)
Opposition called debate on Yemen last year
Emily Thornberry MP
This is not the first debate in the House of Commons on Yemen. On Wednesday 26th October 2016 the Opposition tabled a debate. They called for a ‘UN-led investigation … into alleged violations of international humanitarian law in the conflict in Yemen’. Labour’s Emily Thornberry also called ‘on the Government to suspend its support for the Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces in Yemen until it has been determined whether they have been responsible for any such violations’.
Naturally the Foreign Secretary, Boris Johnson, objected to all of that and tabled an anodyne amendment. This was carried, according to the Hansard record of the debate, by 283 votes to 193.
Labour tabled the debate, as Peter Oborne reported in Middle East Eye, ‘ in the wake of a recent Saudi coalition attack on a funeral in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, which killed more than 140 mourners’.
UK does not know where arms end up
In answer to a Freedom of Information request by Christian Voice, the Department for International Trade admitted it does not know how many armaments sold to Saudi Arabia have been passed on by the Saudis to their client jihadis in Syria. These include Al-Nusra Front (as was) and of course Islamic State.
CAAT’s Andrew Smith spoke at this conference on Yemen last year. It is not just the US which supplies Saudi Arabia. The UK sold them £3.3 billion worth of arms in the first year of the Yemen conflict. These have been used against civilians in Houthi rebel-held areas.
Legal action is being taken by the Campaign against the Arms Trade to have the UK’s sales of arms to Saudi Arabia ruled unlawful. This appears timely and with the political prevailing wind.
The sale of arms is worth staggering amounts of money to the UK’s manufacturers. One year ago, the Independent reported CAAT’s figures that since David Cameron came to power in 2010, licenses worth £5.6 billion had been granted for arms sale to Saudi Arabia. They are our biggest armaments customer worldwide.
It is legitimate to ask if the UK should be supplying arms to Saudi Arabia and other despots. In practical terms, if we do not know and cannot control where they end up, they could be used against us. But we can also ask if these are the actions of a constitutionally Christian nation.
We should remember Judah’s king Jehoshaphat was condemned for forming a military alliance with the Ahab regime in Israel:
2Chron 19:2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, Shouldest thou help the ungodly, and love them that hate the LORD? therefore is wrath upon thee from before the LORD
Meanwhile, the House of Commons International Relations Committee is taking evidence today. They are asking witnesses ‘How can the UK assist political reforms and stability across the Middle East?’ Many of our readers would respond: ‘By ending ‘Responsibility to Protect’, stop destabilising sovereign states, cease activities aimed at ‘regime change’ and spend the money on the NHS or Transport, or Broadband. Or anything else at home.’
It is worth remembering that Saudi Arabia was, for most of the twentieth century, a client state of the United Kingdom. The UK financially supported the Saud family. (Please remember when pronouncing Arabic that each vowel is enunciated separately.) The UK set up the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932.
The discovery of oil in 1938 altered the dynamics of the relationship somewhat. But how do matters stand today? Is the House of Saud merely an ally of the UK? Dan Glazebrook suggests it goes further than that. He claims Saudi Arabia does the Middle Eastern dirty work for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Christ Church Aden during reconstruction in 1994/1996. Sadly, as a result of the violence, the church is now closed again.
Christians in Yemen
Whatever the truth of the UK/Saudi relationship, life for the estimated 40,000 Christians in Yemen is now particularly harsh, with the Sunni jihadists and Islamic State elements who are active in the south and east of the country taking a particularly hard line. Christian books including Bibles are being burned and churches have been damaged or destroyed.
Pray for today’s Committee meeting, tomorrow’s debate, for an end to arms sales to anti-Christian despots, for CAAT’s court case and for the UK to stand up for Christians in Yemen and across the world.
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According to reports in the Daily Express, the Independent and RTamong others, the US has just landed the biggest shipment of military equipment since the Cold War at Bremerhaven in Germany as part of a NATO build-up.
The Express said hundreds of tanks had been off-loaded at the port and are now trundling across Europe to Poland.
The Indy ventured: ‘Some 3,500 troops from the 4th Infantry Division in Fort Carson, Colorado, will join up with the equipment, which includes 87 tanks and 144 Bradley fighting vehicles, over the next two weeks.’
NATO exercise on Russian border
The military build-up is part of a NATO sabre-rattling exercise to be held later this month on the Russian border.
The MainStreamMedia line is typified by what has been written in the Daily Express: The exercise ‘comes amid growing fears that war-hungry Russian president Vladimir Putin could trigger an all-out global conflict’.
In reality, the President of the Russian Federation is far too pragmatic to fall into the trap. Witness his refusal to respond when President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats in the row over ‘the hack that never was‘. Western diplomats are well aware that Russia is only interested in defending its own people, spheres of influence, bases and allies. They must know Mr Putin has little ambition to recover old Soviet Union assets.
in his book ‘1984’ (written in 1948) George Orwell predicted that empire-building governments would engineer a continual state of war.
What is the real reason?
So what might be the real reason for the military build-up? These ideas may not be mutually-exclusive:
1 President Obama, in the short time he has left, is trying to ‘poison the well’ of relations between President Putin and President-elect Trump. He gambles that Trump will not wish to appear ‘weak’ by bringing all the kit back home and that therefore Putin will remain in a cross mood.
2 The myth of a ‘war-hungry’ President Putin is useful for NATO chiefs and their pals in the armaments industry in order to keep up defence spending.
3 Some military people have not yet adjusted to the end of the Cold War.
4 George Orwell’s prediction that governments would use wars and rumours of wars in order to distract the population from focusing on domestic problems is coming true in our lifetime.
5 President Obama is incandescent at the Syrian Government’s recovery of eastern Aleppo, the strengthening of President Assad’s position and the vanishing likelihood of ‘regime change’ in Syria.
John Kerry, still annoyed by the House of Commons
John Kerry still irritated by UK vote
To bolster the last idea, outgoing US Secretary of State John Kerry last week expressed irritation at the vote in the House of Commons in 2013 against military action in Syria. He blamed it for President Obama’s lack of action against President Assad and the latter’s subsequent military successes.
Mr Kerry said: “Now, we were marching towards that time when, lo and behold… Prime Minister David Cameron went to the parliament… and he sought a vote for approval for him to join in the action that we were going to engage in. And guess what, the parliament voted no, they shot him down.”
Mr Kerry described how MPs’ 285 to 272 vote against joining American-led airstrikes led to the demands from the US Congress for its own vote on action. It is good to be reminded of how great an answer to prayer was that historic vote in August 2013. The link above shows how your MP voted.
Can you offer another reason for the NATO exercise? Please leave a comment below!
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Christians Celebrating Christmas in liberated Aleppo December 2016.
‘O hush the noise, ye men of strife, And hear the angels sing’.
(From the carol: ‘It came upon the Midnight Clear’)
Celebrating Christmas in Aleppo last month.
We thank God for the liberation of Aleppo last month (December 2016) by the Syrian Government, supported as they were by Russia and Iran (and opposed by Boris Johnson and the British Government), and for the eviction of Western- and Saudi-supported jihadists from the east of that historic city.
The reunification of the city was a triumph for peace. Christians in Aleppo were able to celebrate Christmas in their churches for the first time in five years!
But now, as we pray for a cease-fire and a political solution, the British Government should recognise it is time to help rebuild Syria.
For the first time in five years Christmas was celebrated in Aleppo. Most British MPs seemed to think the liberation of the east of the city from Al-Nusra Front jihadists was a bad thing.
4 If we have to spend as much as £12.2 billion on foreign aid, send some of it, in fact, a lot of it, to Syria to help rebuild that country and its infrastructure, especially helping its Christians to re-establish their homes and their businesses, and
5 Never again interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign state, under the pretext of ‘Responsibility to Protect‘ or with any other excuse.
It’s time for bricks, not bullets.
PRAY for the UK Government to stand for peace in Syria. PRAY they understand that further support for rebel groups will only add to the bloodshed and destruction. PRAY for them to accept reality and bring war to an end.
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‘White Helmets’ as they like to be seen, rescuing children from ‘Assad’s bombs’.
With the liberation of Aleppo, we have heard much about the so-called ‘White Helmets’ in Syria.
Last month, ‘Avaaz’, a group of George-Soros-funded globalists in the US, ran a campaign to raise a “people’s million” in dollars for the ‘White Helmets’.
The campaign was started after the group was unaccountably overlooked for this year’s Nobel Peace prize.
The message went far and wide, with the UK contingent on the Avaaz emailing list invited to donate from £2 to £32 to the ‘White Helmets’ to ensure ‘the recognition they deserve and the funding they desperately need’.
JUST ORDINARY SYRIANS?
Syria’s ‘White Helmets’, Avaaz claims, have saved ‘70,280 lives … rushing to the scene of bombings to pull people from the rubble and carry them to safety’. ‘For their heroic efforts’, it goes on, ‘White Helmets volunteers are often targeted — Russian and Syrian regime planes bomb civilians, then circle back to bomb the rescue workers who scramble to help’.
White Helmets celebrating with Al Nusra Front fighters in a video on YouTube.
‘These heroes’, it gushes, ‘are just ordinary Syrians – bakers, teachers, tailors – who felt they couldn’t do nothing, and threw themselves right into the line of fire’. ‘The White Helmets aren’t from an international aid organization, and they need every dollar they can get’, it goes on.
CASH-STARVED AND LOCALLY-GROWN?
So are the ‘White Helmets’ really a cash-starved locally-grown humanitarian group of peacemakers and para-medics as Avaaz claim?
Well, actually, no, they aren’t. They are a foreign-inspired and foreign-funded partisan force working against the Syrian government. As can be gathered from the comment about ‘Russian and Syrian regime planes’ bombing them, they only work in rebel-held areas.
There is footage online of ‘White Helmets’ waiting while jihadists execute people they disagree with before carrying the bodies away. They have been briefed in advance. Also online are videos of ‘White Helmet’ persons celebrating with Al Nusra jihadists firing guns in the air (see picture above).
White Helmets founder British insider James Le Mesurier. We discovered the background is the Eminonu docks in Istanbul, Turkey, where the UK-funded Syrian National Council is based and where he trained the ‘White Helmets’
‘White Helmets’ are also called ‘Syria Civil Defence’, perhaps to engender confusion with the genuine Syrian government ‘Syria Civil Defence’ or even to claim to be locally-inspired.
But they are actually a Western-Arab import. The ‘White Helmets’ was started in 2013 by insider James Le Mesurier. He claims to have been a British Army Officer, but does not give his rank.
He also claims to have been on the staff of the United Nations and to have been a consultant for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as well as private security companies.
‘The organizational underpinnings of the White Helmets can be sourced to a March 2013 meeting in Istanbul between a retired British military officer, James Le Mesurier—who had experience in the murky world of private security companies and the shadowy confluence between national security and intelligence operations and international organizations—and representatives of the Syrian National Council (SNC) and the Qatari Red Crescent Society.’
Naturally, the Syrian National Council is an anti-Assad opposition group based in Istanbul and just as naturally, it is funded by the British Foreign Office. Earlier in March 2013, the SNC was given Syria’s seat in the Arab League at a meeting of the league held in Qatar. Scott Ritter continues in ‘TruthDig‘:
‘At that meeting, the SNC assumed Syria’s seat, and the Arab League authorized member states to actively provide support, including arms and ammunition, to the Syrian rebels. The Qataris, working through the SNC, helped assemble for Le Mesurier $300,000 in seed money from Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom for a seven- day course designed to train and equip a 25- person rescue team, recruited by the SNC, for duty in so called “liberated areas” of Syria. The SNC made available a pair of Syrian activists – Raed Saleh and Farouq Habib – to assist Le Mesurier in this work.’
The British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, under Permanent Under-Secretary Sir Simon MacDonald (seen here welcoming his new Foreign Secretary in July) funds the ‘White Helmets’.
$30m Budget
GlobalResearch.ca says the ‘White Helmets seems to have an annual budget of US$30 million and has raised a total support of well over $100 million’ in its three years of operation.
A White Helmets’ briefing page says: ’funding for their humanitarian relief work is received from the aid budgets of Japan, Denmark, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.’
‘The United Kingdom has provided support to Syria Civil Defence (also known as the White Helmets) through the cross departmental Conflict Pool and its successor, the Conflict Stability and Security Fund. Our assistance has been delivered through trusted third party implementers. The total value of funds committed between June 2013 and the end of the current financial year (31 March 2016) is £19.7m.’
Naturally, photos abound of men wearing white helmets carrying wounded infants out of bombed sites presumably in Syria. But journalist Vanessa Beeley told RT the ‘White Helmets’ are ‘terrorist support group & Western propaganda tool’.
Syrian women have spoken out against the ‘White Helmets’
‘This organization is a fraudulent shadow state construct created by NATO to simply propagate the propaganda that will demonize Assad’s government and also demonize Russian legal intervention in Syria,’ said the journalist, who recently returned from Syria.
While there, she was told by an emergency worker with the legitimate Syrian Civil Defense that the White Helmets are ‘very poorly trained in paramedic work.’ Beeley went on: ‘He claimed that they drive around with guns in the back of their car, like every other terrorist there. They carry out and facilitate criminal activities in Eastern Aleppo.’
A woman named Rana from Damascus said: ‘they are an armed force [which has] covered themselves under the wing of ‘humanitarian’ organization. In rural Idlib they did so many executions against Syrian civilians that don’t support the fake revolution’.
DUAL-PURPOSE ORGANISATION
So which is it? ‘White Helmets’, good or bad? Jan Oberg of GlobalResearch suggests a both/and approach. He suggests the White Helmets is ‘a dual purpose organisation. They claim to be ordinary Syrian volunteers who came together around the idea of saving lives and are truly altruistic ‘bakers, tailors, engineers, pharmacists, painters, carpenters, students and many more, the White Helmets are volunteers from all walks of life.’ It could well be that some of them actually are, even a majority.
‘That doesn’t preclude that other elements – not the least those operating outside Syria such as foundations, PR and marketing firms, change organisations, NATO government and NGOs are in it with less noble, war -promoting purposes.’
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A row has broken out on the left following a headline yesterday in the Morning Star (in red opposite) saying ‘Final liberation of Aleppo is within sight’.
Many were from the disgruntled Blairite wing, like John Woodcock MP who fumed about the paper: ‘They sponsored the Momentum conference. If you associate with this traitorous scum after this front page you’ve no place in our politics.’
There. If you question the Establishment line, you are a traitor.
Tom Blenkinsop MP called the paper an ‘absolute disgrace’, while Stephen Doughty thought they were ‘vile and disgusting’. Angela Smith, a Remoaner of expenses scandal fame, asked ‘How can anyone claim what is happening in Aleppo is ‘liberation’?’
House of Commons Debate on Syria
Jeremy Corbyn reportedly reads the Morning Star but his team missed an open goal in the Syria debate.
During the two-hour debate not one Member of Parliament condemned the UK for funding and encouraging jihadists in Syria. Not one mentioned that whatever his faults, President Assad had protected religious minorities including Christians in Syria. Not one mentioned that the Western-funded terrorists in Syria had torched churches and murdered Christians. Not one asked to which groups the UK’s money had gone or where what it had bought was now.
The fault was especially bad in Labour’s ranks. They are supposed to be an Opposition. By cosying up to the Conservatives, allying themselves with the Establishment’s new ‘Cold War’ stance and blindly following the ‘Rebels Good, Assad Bad’ line the Labour front bench missed any number of available shots at an open goal.
Donald Trump will end ‘Responsibility to Protect’ or ‘Excuse to Interfere’ as it should be known.
‘Responsibility to Protect’ is dying
Mitchell himself used the debate to try to breathe life into the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’. This is the line invented by financier George Soros to give legitimacy to the US and its allies to destabilise the countries of national leaders whose faces do not fit, fund opposition groups, run fake news and try to effect ‘regime change.’
By the grace of God, ‘Responsibility to Protect’ is now on its death-bed. Donald Trump has said the days of the US interfering in countries around the world is coming to an end. With Trump as Presidenta new era of US co-operation with Russia could begin.
An Islamic State militant urging people to fight against President Assad in Aleppo (The Guardian)
That would leave the likes of Messrs Mitchell, George Osborne and Michael Fallon up a creek without a boat, let alone a paddle.
Aleppo is being liberated from jihadists
But to answer Angela Smith’s question, yes, east Aleppo is being liberated. How can we claim that? Because those holding the people there hostage were and are a bunch of hard-line jihadists. Or, as the Morning Star’s Ben Chacko put it in an editorial, ‘murderous religious extremists’.
The paper went on: ‘The insurgents being driven from East Aleppo after a four-year occupation are still being lionised as freedom fighters in the press and Parliament. Their defeat by the Syrian army is being treated as a tragedy. They are not and it is not.
‘The occupiers of East Aleppo are terrorists, who have deliberately targeted civilians in their regular bombardment of government-held West Aleppo — a bombardment that, in contrast to the Russian and Syrian bombardment of the eastern parts of the city, does not appear to bother Western governments.
‘They are tyrants, who have held the civilian population hostage. Families who have managed to flee have spoken of the use of civilians as human shields; the massacre of people who sought to leave the city by insurgent militias; the execution of family members of those who successfully got away, as a warning to others to stay put. And they are fighting for a brutal, medievalist vision.’
‘Civilians’ or jihadists?
We should also be sceptical of reports of actions taken by the Syrians against ‘civilians’. The terrorists are not above disguising themselves as civilians to escape and begin actions elsewhere. As the Morning Star’s James Tweedie put itin a post about the retaking of Aleppo:
‘Hidden among the refugees Syrian authorities found Yousef Fahd Deeb, who confessed to being head of the “sharia tribunal” office of the al-Jabha al-Chamiya terrorist organisation which sentenced 25 civilians to death by public firing squad.
‘He said that insurgent factions included numerous foreign jihadists from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Russia’s Chechnya region.’
Odd politics
Politics is truly in a odd state in this country when the Morning Star and Christian Voice, not normally found on the same page, are the only ones trying to call the Government to account over its support of jihadists, its sense-defying ‘Assad must go’ Syria policy and actually celebrating the defeat of terrorists in Aleppo.
Syria has a long way to go and its remaining Christians need our prayers. But at last the people of Aleppo can start getting back to some kind of normality after four years of oppression by UK-sponsored jihadists.
Acts 15:23 And they wrote letters by them after this manner; The apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: 41 And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. (KJV)
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Herr Van der Bellen, a former leader of the Green party, said he would be an “open-minded, liberal-minded and above all a pro-European president”. Herr Hofer might feel aggrieved at that. He was not exactly campaigning for an Austrian exit from the EU either.
THE ANTI-ELITE MOOD IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL
Austrians are said to be pro-European Union, but despite the sense of relief in Eurocrat corridors of power, we should not think the prevailing anti-elite mood has had an abrupt about-turn.
Crucially, mainstream politicians were not in the running. The Social Democratic Party (SPÖ) and Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) candidates came fourth and fifth in the April 2016 first round, behind Herr Hofer, who won, Herr Van der Bellen, second, and independent Irmgard Griss in third place . This allowed the Green Party’s avuncular Herr Van der Bellen to claim to be an ‘outsider’, just like Herr Hofer.
Norbert Hofer
The significance of the first round was that parties winning over 50% of the vote for the Parliament in 2003 (see below) were soundly rejected by the electorate.
So when Werner Kogler, a Green party politician, described the result as a “small global turning of the tide in these uncertain, not to say hysterical and even stupid times”, he missed the point, as well as casting voters in the UK and USA as stupid.
VOTING PATTERNS IN AUSTRIA
The Freedom party secretary, Herbert Kickl, was more astute. He acted as Hofer’s campaign manager and was well aware that the establishment had swung behind Herr Van Der Bellen, but quietly. He said: “In this case the establishment – which pitched in once again to block, to stonewall and to prevent renewal – has won.”
In the 2003 Austrian Parliamentary elections, the Greens polled 12.42% of the vote, winning 24 seats. Hofer’s Freedom Party, the FPÖ, polled 20.51% and won 40 seats. Between them, the SPÖ and ÖVP had over 50% of the vote and 99 seats. Clearly, many of their supporters voted for Herr Van der Bellen. But equally, a good number voted for Norbert Hofer, concerned about immigration and jobs.
An analysis ofthe voting patterns in May is highly revealing. Men voted considerably more for Hofer, women for Van der Bellen. The young were somewhat more inclined to go for Van der Bellen. The working class were overwhelmingly for Hofer. Cities voted for Van der Bellen, the countryside for Hofer. This time around is likely to have returned similar results.
ONE MAN’S REFUGEE …
Herr Hofer was castigated by some for apparent antipathy to “the weak, poor and vulnerable – who today particularly include refugees and foreigners”. The barb had significance in the country which gave birth to Adolf Hitler. Indeed, so well did the ‘far-right’ label stick (but was Hitler actually far-right or far-left?) that Herr Hofer’s posters were routinely defaced with little moustaches.
A Christian position may well remember the Holy Family were refugees in Egypt, but they did not go there to subvert the Egyptian government, start a wave of crime or begin a campaign of terror.
There is a theological balance to be struck between hospitality and security, as I show in this video:
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Europa on the Bull outside the Council of Ministers building in Brussels
The European Union faces a crisis this weekend, with a referendum in Italy and Austria re-running its presidential election. But is the entire EU project doomed? Is the heart of God against the EU just as he was against the antichrist Roman Empire? If so, have the Eurocrats been hiding their true intentions in plain sight?
ITALIAN REFERENDUM
A vote against the reforms proposed by Matteo Renzi, the Italian prime minister, could dent confidence in Italy’s banking system and spell disaster for the Euro. At the very least, it could sweep the Five Star Movement’s anti-EU leader Beppe Grillo into power.
Matteo Renzi, Prime Minister of Italy, wants more power.
Signor Renzi wants more power for whoever forms the ruling party, and Italians fear he, or someone in the future, could act like Il Duce of old.
Meanwhile, a triumph for Nobert Hofer, of the Freedom Party, could result in a referendum on Austria’s membership of the European Union.
Norbert Hofer; the slogan roughly translates as ‘Austria, again and again.’
Hofer is described by the BBC as ‘far-right’, although his opponent, the Green Party’s Alexander Van der Bellen, may be equally far-left. If Herr Hofer wins, there would surely be demands for reform of the EU super-state.
But does the EU need mere reform, as Mr Cameron famously proposed (although I was never sure whether he thought he had already achieved reforms or whether he thought he was going to secure reforms after a Remain vote in the Brexit referendum), or is the purpose of God for it to be broken up?
EUROPA ON THE BULL
This spring, I went to Brussels to look for a mythological woman who has become a symbol of Europe. I found her outside the Justus Lipsius Building, which houses the EU council of Ministers (above). She is also the subject of a statue in Strasbourg (below) and her image is just about everywhere in the EU. By placing Europa on the Bull all over the European Union, were the Eurocrats secretly telling us something about the destination and purpose of the EU, but doing so right out in the open? And if I am right about what they propose for the people of Europe, wasn’t the result of the UK’s Brexit referendum a real token of the grace of God?
Europa on the Bull outside the rear entrance of the European Parliament Building in Strasbourg.
In the Greek myth, their top god Zeus became infatuated by Europa, a Phoenician princess. He changed himself into a bull and enticed her onto his back. Once she had sat upon him, he made off to Crete with her. In Crete he changed back into his human form, flung the bull into the heavens, where it became the Taurus constellation, and raped her. Like Europa, are the people of Europe being lied to about the purpose of the trip and the eventual destination?
EUROPA WRITING THE EU CONSTITUTION
The disturbing tale of the rape of Europa is all over the EU, not just in the statues outside the EU Parliament in Strasbourg and the Council of Ministers Building in Brussels.
Europa writing the EU Constitution on a commemorative Italian 2-Euro coin.
Europa on the Bull has been on an Greek and an Italian 2-Euro coin. On the latter, she was writing the EU’s failed constitution – how scary is that? Europa herself is on the ‘Europa’ series of banknotes and the Bull, with a bit of astrology thrown in, is on every EU residence permit.
Going deeper, is there a parallel between Europa on the Bull and the Woman on the Beast of Revelation chapter 17? The woman, the whore, sits on the beast just as Europa sits on the bull. She goes where the beast, or the bull, wants to go.
The woman in Revelation 17 appears to be an earthly power (she personifies the Roman Empire of the time) and the beast seems to be a demonic spirit empowering her. In the same way, Europa seems to personify Europe and its peoples, and the bull she is riding is the demonic spirit of Zeus, whose altar is referred to in Revelation 2:13 as Satan’s seat.
I could go on, but it’s all in this short video (less than 4 minutes). Click and see for yourself:
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Confused? Article 127 is the exit clause for the European Economic Area.
The so-called ‘Hard Brexit’ involves leaving the European Union’s Single Market and its Customs Union. A ‘Soft Brexit’ would stay in them, making the vote in June to ‘Leave’ the EU of no consequence.
So just where does the European Economic Area fit in?
OK. Let’s draw it all together.
CUTTING THROUGH THE JARGON
The EU’s own website says: ‘The Single Market refers to the EU as one territory without any internal borders or other regulatory obstacles to the free movement of goods and services. … The European Single Market is one of the EU’s greatest achievements. … The Single Market is at the heart of the European project …’ It also allows the free movement of people, but they are a bit coy about admitting that.
The BBC explains: ‘A customs union is a form of trade agreement between two or more countries. It means they decide not to impose tariffs (taxes on imports) on each other’s goods and agree to impose common external tariffs on goods from countries outside their customs union. Setting common external tariffs is what distinguishes a customs union from a free trade area.’
The European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states: ‘The European Economic Area (EEA) unites the EU Member States and the three EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway) into an Internal Market governed by the same basic rules. These rules aim to enable goods, services, capital, and persons to move freely about the EEA in an open and competitive environment, a concept referred to as the four freedoms.’
The UK Government confirms the EEA allows Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway to be part of the EU’s Single Market. It goes on: ‘Switzerland is neither an EU nor EEA member but is part of the single market – this means Swiss nationals have the same rights to live and work in the UK as other EEA nationals.’
THE UK IS A CONTRACTING PARTY TO THE EEA AGREEMENT
The UK signed the EEA Agreement in Porto on 2nd May 1992 and ratified it on 15th November 1993. It came into force on 1st January 1994. The UK is a ‘contracting party’ to the EEA Agreement.
Article 127 of the EEA Agreement says: ‘Each Contracting Party may withdraw from this Agreement provided it gives at least twelve months’ notice in writing to the other Contracting Parties.
‘Immediately after the notification of the intended withdrawal, the other Contracting Parties shall convene a diplomatic conference in order to envisage the necessary modifications to bring to the Agreement.’
In the face of the legal challenge about to be launched by a pro-single market think tank with no working website called ‘British Influence‘, the Government has maintained that EEA membership ends when the UK leaves the EU. But that is not what the Agreement says. So a bit like the Roundheads in the book ‘1066 and all that‘, the Remoaners in this case are ‘Right but Repulsive’. (The Cavaliers, you will remember, were ‘Wrong but Wromantic’.)
Where does this leave the UK Government? Quite simply, they must just get on with it and bring a short Bill before Parliament to leave the EU and trigger both Article 50 and Article 127. Or they can add all that to the bill they have promised, dubbed the ‘Great Repeal Bill’. which will repeal the European Communities Act 1972.
And if they lose the vote, they will be able to call a General Election and win it.
WE DO NOT NEED TRADE AGREEMENTS TO TRADE
The Bible reminds us that nations do not need trade agreements to trade. Ezekiel 27 is an important chapter which sets down in minute detail the extensive network of ocean-going international trade 2,600 years ago. It was centred around the wicked city of Tyre and included metals from the British Isles:
Ezekiel 27:12 Tarshish was thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all kind of riches; with silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs.
All trade agreements do is reduce tariffs, which may or may not be of benefit. The EU exports more to the UK than it imports from us, and German car-makers will not want a trade war. The Bible also reminds us that leaders have to trust God and make decisions. First Moses then the Lord told Joshua:
Joshua 1:6 Be strong and of a good courage: for unto this people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land, which I sware unto their fathers to give them.
In particular, rulers have to take the initiative, set a standard and lead the people:
2Chronicles 20:3 And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
PRAY that Theresa May, David Davis, Boris Johnson and Dr Liam Fox will get on with it and take the UK properly out of the European Union with its pretensions to continue the antichrist project of Babel. View our video:
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The Bible tells us to pray for our leaders, but there is an urgent need to pray for Donald Trump, especially as he embarks on his ‘Thank You’ tour with all the security challenges that presents.
TRUMP IS NOT YET ‘PRESIDENT-ELECT’
Despite the generous words of President Obama, Donald Trump is not yet, at this time of writing, the ‘President-Elect’ of the United States.
He will only become President-Elect when the fifty US electoral colleges have met, in their own states, on 19th December 2016 and that when the President of the US Senate counts up the votes, 270 or more state electors have voted for him.
What would happen were Donald Trump to become President-Elect but be assassinated after 19th December and before his swearing in? His running mate, Mike Pence, having been elected Vice-President-Elect, would become President on 20th January.
Hillary Clinton
But what would happen were Donald Trump to be assassinated before 19th December? Then, as I understand it, the electors would be free to vote for whomsoever they wished. Mike Pence might be elected. But so might the runner-up, Hillary Clinton.
CHANCES OF ASSASSINATION
A Mrs Clinton Presidency would be a green light to the Neo-Conservatives, hawks and interventionists in the State Department and the Pentagon to bomb far-away places and increase NATO aggression against the Russian Federation. It would also be bad news for Israel, and great news for abortionists, gay rights groups and those who paint transsexual signs on toilets. Her judicial appointments to the Supreme Court would entrench the antichrist agenda, and the effects of all that would undoubtedly be felt this side of the Atlantic and across the world.
Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt in 1981
There is a lot of money and ideology at stake and we should be under no illusion about that. There are dark forces already at work trying to undermine Mr Trump. An assassination attempt on him is not beyond the bounds of reason. Joe Tex says the chances are:
‘about 1 in 4 that he will be killed, injured or narrowly escape an assassination attempt. There is a 90% chance that at least one attempt will be made, since one attempt has been made on 9 of the last 10 Presidents.’
By working with Russia, President Trump will also be the best hope for peace and for Christians and Christianity in the Middle East. It was President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair who were responsible for the ‘war on terror’ in Afghanistan, which began in 2001. The same two took their countries into war on false pretences against Saddam Hussain in Iraq in 2003, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and sowing the seeds of Islamic State.
Even on President Obama’s watch, the US, the UK, under David Cameron, and France threw Libya into chaos in 2011 and the same year, with the help of funding from financier and agitator George Soros, destabilised Syria, bringing about today’s refugee crisis across Europe. The civil war in Syria saw jihadists Al Nusra Front and Islamic State finally become established. This BBC timeline video is helpful.
Mike Pence
Depending on who Mr Trump appoints as Secretary of State, there is hope we shall hear far less of the Soros-inspired ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which in practice means organised destablisation and fake news from establishment media followed by regime change, followed by anarchy.
We must pray especially against the appointment to that office of the war-monger John Bolton. Having said that, Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney are each of them anti-Russia insiders. The delay in the appointment must mean the Trump team are still looking for someone who shares his views.
(03/12/2016 Update: On his ‘Thank You’ tour, Mr Trump has said “We will destroy ISIS. At the same time, we will pursue a new foreign policy that finally learns from the mistakes of the past. We will stop looking to topple regimes and overthrow governments, folks.”)
IT ALL HINGES ON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
Clearly Mr Trump, his advisers and his running mate Mr Pence, who gives his testimony in this video, need wisdom from on high in their appointments.
But of course, much hinges on the electoral college on 19th December. If Donald Trump makes it that far, and if the electors stay faithful to their state vote, he will at that point become President Elect and the elite will have been denied the Clinton presidency they were counting on.
So we must pray urgently for safety and protection for Donald Trump and also of course for Mike Pence. In particular, may the Lord frustrate all attempts to assassinate Mr Trump.
Pray also that his appointments will be marked by wisdom and a desire for peace.
Psalm 140:4 Keep me, O LORD, from the hands of the wicked; preserve me from the violent man; who have purposed to overthrow my goings.
1Timothy 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; 2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
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So it’s President Trump heading for the White House as America does a Brexit.
Our prayers for the best candidate for peace in the world to be elected have been answered. Just as in the Brexit vote, the polls underestimated ordinary people and their votes.
Even right now, NATO is sabre-rattling against Russia. Hillary Clinton would have exacerbated that. We now call on President Trump to rein in the Pentagon and its assorted gung-ho generals, arms manufacturers and vested interests in war and make the world a safer place.
Hillary Clinton was solidly in the Neo-Con camp that gave us the War on Terror, incursions into Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq, the ruin of Libya, the destabilisation of Syria and the rise of first Al-Qaeda then ISIS. Her old friend Madeleine Albright urged here to pick a ‘fight’ with President Putin. She would have continued the George Soros doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ – or ‘Excuse to Interfere’, as it should properly be called.
NATO troops on an muscle-flexing exercise in Poland earlier this year.
At this moment, according to the Daily Mail (well, OK, but they have quoted The Times) NATO chiefs are embarking on a 300,000 troop build-up in Europe and saying: ‘Relations between Russia and the West have plunged in the last year, with Moscow’s insistence on backing its Syrian ally, President Bashar al-Assad, at all costs leading to serious tension with the US, Britain and France.’
Yes, because those like Cameron, Hague, Hammond and Fallon went along with Soros and the US to agitate for regime change in Syria. By supporting and arming the jihadist rebels they have all but destroyed that country and caused thousands of deaths and displacement, the virtual eradication of Christians in areas where the rebels seized control and brought about the European migrant crisis.
If President Trump engages, as Sean O’Grady thinks he will, writing in the Independent, in ‘realpolitik’, de-escalation of tension is possible. Trump understands that Russia offers no threat to the United States (or its allies, for that matter). So if the Russians want a naval and an air base in the Med, or a presence on the Black Sea, they can have it.
Jonathan Powell, former chief of staff to Tony Blair, says his “biggest fear under Trump is the United States will become more isolationist, it will be less willing to intervene in the world than it has been.” Yes, exactly! It’s great news! Just maybe the world might now become a bit more stable.
Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of the UK Labour Party, has issued a statement in which he called Trump’s victory a “global wake-up call”. Does he not understand that the spirit which saw him elected as Labour leader and delivered the Leave vote in the Brexit referendum is the same spirit that elected Donald Trump? It’s called, ‘rejection of the global elite and the status quo.’ He that sitteth in the heavens is laughing this morning (Psalm 2!).
Praise God today for answered prayer. And pray for protection and wisdom for President-elect Trump.
Psalm 120:7 I am for peace: but when I speak, they are for war.
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President Obama has warned the fate of the world is at stake in the USA presidential election tomorrow.
He is surely right. Wherever we are in the world, we need to pray that Americans make the right choice.
Firstly, there has probably never been an American election where the choice was between two more unlikeable characters.
But looking beyond that, which candidate will be better for peace in the world?
If we ignore internal US matters and just look at US foreign policy, the way in which we need to pray becomes very clear.
Madeleine Albright wearing her ‘war’ badge
Hillary Clinton is solidly in the Neo-Con camp that gave us the War on Terror, incursions into Afghanistan, hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq, the ruin of Libya, the destabilisation of Syria and the rise of first Al-Qaeda then ISIS. Her old friend Madeleine Albright continues to urge a ‘fight’ with President Putin. She is totally sold out to the George Soros doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ – or ‘Excuse to Interfere’, as it should properly be called.
In her determination to squeeze Russia out of Syria and the Mediterranean and her endorsement of Pentagon and NATO sabre-rattling in Europe, she could quite easily start world war three. Remember, had it not been for Oleg Gordievsky’s intelligence on the USSR, a provocative NATO exercise in 1983 could have provoked a Russian nuclear strike.
There are many in the US Pentagon who stand to benefit from increased spending on armaments and they are dreading the election of Donald Trump.
Why? Because, as Sean O’Grady put it the Independent, Donald Trump ‘get’s it’. He does ‘realpolitik’. He understands that Russia offers no threat to the United States (or its allies, for that matter). So if the Russians want a naval and an air base in the Med, or a presence on the Black Sea, they can have it.
Donald Trump, despite his aggressive persona and his bullish comments about walls and suchlike, is the candidate for peace.
That is why I shall be praying for a Trump victory to tomorrow, and why I invite you to join me.
Psalm 140:1 Deliver me, O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2 Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
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The paper set ‘Big Sam’ up in a meeting with reporters posing as what they described as ‘businessmen’. The men were so obviously crooked the alarm bells should have been ringing if not in the analytical Allardyce mind then in those of his agent Mark Curtis, and his financial adviser, Shane Moloney who were also at the meeting.
Instead, Sam Allardyce found himself carried away by the attention and the lure of money.
The England manager offered advice on how to get around Football Association rules on third-party ownership of players – for a very large fee. A man already being paid £3 million a year by the Football Association demanded £400,000 to advise characters he had only just met on how to invest in players. He also made unguarded comments about individuals.
West Ham United’s Trevor Brooking Stand
THIRD PARTY OWNERSHIP
In football terms the ‘first party’ is the player, and the ‘second party’ is his club. The involvement of a ‘third party’ to invest in that player and take a cut out of any transfer fee has been described as a form of ‘slavery’ by Michel Platini, the former president of European football’s governing body Uefa.
Sam Allardyce was recorded saying there were ‘ways round’ the ban. But underneath, it was greed and a loose mouth that did for the England manager, who had been only in his ‘dream job’ for 67 days.
Rev Joe Young appointed Sam Allardyce to manage Limerick FC
Twenty-five years ago, Joe Young was chairman of Limerick FC. It was he who sought out Allardyce and persuaded him to take on the job of player-manager for the Irish team. When the now 61-year-old was appointed as manager of England, Fr Young revealed he had been praying for his former associate.
On 5th April this year (2016), after his Sunderland side could only manage a goalless draw with West Bromwich Albion, Sam Allardyce spoke of the ‘Black Cats’ needing ‘divine intervention’ to avoid relegation. He told BBC Newcastle, ”I need to go back to church and start praying. I can’t ever imagine in my long career dominating a game for so long, creating so many chances and not winning it.’ His prayers, if he made them, were answered. In their final seven matches, Sunderland only lost to champions Leicester, went on to beat Norwich, Chelsea and Everton and stayed in the Premier League.
MORE BIBLICAL WARNINGS
Greg Dyke criticised Sam Allardyce for ‘greed’
But how much better it would have been for Sam Allardyce if instead of resorting to prayer when his back was against the wall, he had made seeking the Lord his way of life. He would have read in his Bible:
Exodus 23:8 And thou shalt take no gift: for the gift blindeth the wise, and perverteth the words of the righteous. (KJV)
Former Football Association chairman Greg Dyke spoke on BBC news this morning of a man earning £3 million a year and ‘grubbing around’ for another £400,000. ‘He was just being greedy, wasn’t he?’, asked Dyke. It is no wonder that the Bible warns directly about that and gives a promise for the opposite attitude:
Proverbs 15:27 He that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house; but he that hateth gifts shall live.
Ludwig Glötzle’s 1891 representation of St. Paul ordaining Timothy as Bishop of Ephesus.
The Bible carries so many warnings which Mr Allardyce could have heeded. Perhaps the most famous is the Apostle Paul’s advice to Timothy:
1Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
UNGUARDED WORDS
As for ‘perverting’ one’s words, the context of Exodus 23:8 is that of passing a legal judgment, but it can also be applied to any form of dialogue.
There were unguarded words in the Telegraph’s recordings from Sam Allardyce on his predecessor Roy Hodgson, coach Gary Neville and Prince William. He spoke disparagingly of Prince Harry. But the Bible says plainly:
Ecclesiastes 10:20 Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber: for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.
All of us need to heed the Bible’s teachings on guarding the tongue, as the Apostle James put it:
James 3:5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! … 10 Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
The Bible is the word of God. It speaks of salvation through Jesus Christ and warns against greed and loose talk.
GRACIOUS TALK RETAINS RICHES
As for loose talk, the warnings to speak well and carefully are all over the word of God. For example:
Eccl 10:12 The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious; but the lips of a fool will swallow up himself.
Perceptively, Sam Allardyce described himself as ‘a fool’ after the event. It is even written, in a proverbial parallelism, that being gracious in our talk brings financial advantages:
Proverbs 11:16 A gracious woman retaineth honour: and strong men retain riches.
We all know that the mindset which is necessary to drive successful men can also lead to their downfall. Sometimes we ask too much of our statesmen, artists, military heroes, even football managers. We set them on pedestals and put our ‘trust in princes’. Then we are shocked when they fall. But it does not have to be like that.
FAITH ‘EVEN MORE ESSENTIAL’ FOR THE MIGHTY
The spiritual strength brought by the Christian faith is there for all. Belief in Christ and the renewing of the mind which the Holy Spirit sets in motion will both bring salvation and change anyone for the better.
How the Daily Telegraph reported their scoop
The power of the Gospel is transformative for every individual and every society. The Bible’s warnings against wickedness and its encouragement to live according to the ways of God apply to every single one of us.
Those in positions of power and leadership may think they are above all that, that they are ‘self-made’ and resilient, but the Christian faith is if anything even more essential for them in equal measure as it may be more difficult for them to humble themselves, accept the Gospel and put their trust in Jesus.
The Lord God can even empower a sincere believer to resist the false witnesses employed in Daily-Telegraph-style entrapment:
1Corinthians 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.
Will a leader prosper or a sportsman be more successful if he has faith in Christ? That’s what the Bible teaches! And above all that such a one will find rest and forgiveness of sins. Let each of us pray for just one soul in a position of power and responsibility to turn to the Lord today.
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British special forces pictured on the ground in Syria for the first timeBBC News
Both International Business Times and Russia Today have joined The Sun and Daily Mirror in reporting that British Special Forces are secretly training ‘New Syrian Army’ (NSA) rebels in Jordan. It was not a story which found a place in the BBC.
IBTimes says the aim of the Marine Commandos and SAS is to equip and empower the US-backed NSA to fight Islamic State or ‘Daesh’ (why do American officials pronounce it ‘Dash’? for that matter, why do they pronounce ‘Putin’ as ‘Putn’)?. Those who join the NSA are supposed to sign a pledge only to fight IS and not the Syrian Army. But don’t let us be surprised if they do turn their fire on Syrian regular forces.
Earlier this month, RT somewhat gleefully reported that US-trained jihadists chased their American special forces mentors out of the northern Syrian town of Al-Rai. It was claimed, very plausibly, the jihadists chanted ‘crusaders’, ‘dogs’, ‘infidels’ after them.
Does anyone in the Pentagon or Ministry of Defence seriously think current training operations will do any better? From all the talk of ‘lessons being learned’, it appears they do. Our money is going down the drain, or worse. If it ends up being used to attack President Assad’s forces, it will be simply prolonging the conflict.
WHY WESTERN MEDIA SAYS ASSAD CAN DO NOTHING RIGHT
Aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov has joined the Russian fleet in the Tartus naval base in Syria.
There is one reason and one reason only why the United States wants ‘regime change’ in Syria. It is because President Bashar al Assad is an ally of Russia’s President Putin. Russia has both air bases and a sea port (Tartus) in Syria. The US and its NATO allies, including France and the UK, seek to weaken Russia. Replacing Assad with a puppet regime drawn from Syrian ‘exiles’ would do the job nicely.
If we view the news which comes out from Western media about alleged atrocities committed by ‘the Syrian regime’, ‘Assad’ or ‘Russia’ with this ‘regime-change’ purpose in mind, every negative story will make sense.
Do we believe the Americans or the British are above ‘false-flag’ operations designed to discredit the Syrian Government? Sadly, no, we don’t. Do we believe they would happily blame atrocities committed by their jihadist allies on President Assad? Sadly, yes we do.
BORIS JOHNSON ‘GOES NATIVE’
Our hopes were high (well not that high) that the appointment of Rt Hon Boris Johnson MP as Foreign Secretary in July might bring with it a change of attitude towards Russia and Syria. From the backbenches, Mr Johsnon had publicly advocated that the UK should work with Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad against ISIS, which as Tim Eaton pointed out on the Chatham House website was at odds with current government policy.
Permanent Under-Secretary Simon McDonald welcoming Boris Johnson to the Foreign Office.
Sadly, it did not take long for the ‘Sir Humphreys*’ (led by the PUS, Simon McDonald) at the Foreign Office to put the new Secretary of State in his place. Two months later Boris was hosting exiled Syrian opposition figures, those described to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee as ‘a busted flush’. Asked on BBC news if the meeting would have any positive effect, the BBC’s Jeremy Bowen almost laughed before saying the leaders and their demands were irrelevant.
Among those demands is that President Assad step down within six months as part of any settlement. Not even the US Secretary of State John Kerry says that any more. But that did not stop Boris repeating it a day or so ago. Now he is blaming Russia for everything from running a ‘proxy war’ (as if they are the only ones) to destroying aid convoys (as if the rebels would never do that) to bombing hospitals (ibid) to protracting the violence.
WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SYRIAN CRISIS?
If anyone is responsible for what Boris Johnson now describes as “a cynical and barbaric protraction of violence and it is tragic,” it is the US and the UK. The reality is President Assad is the only guarantor of stability in Syria. It’s Assad or the deluge. He is the only one who will defend the rights of religious minorities including Christians. (The UK’s jihadist clients have destroyed churches). Russia will not let him fall and nor should they.
Those perpetuating the violence in Syria are the US and the UK, namely Boris Johnson, his understudy Alan Duncan MP, his predecessors Philip Hammond and William Lord Hague and Defence Secretary Michael Fallon. By encouraging, training and funding the armed insurgency Her Majesty’s ministers and their civil servants can take full responsibility for the destruction of Syrian infrastructure, the deaths of civilians, loss of property and businesses, persecution of Christians in rebel areas and the waves of Syrian migrants flooding across Europe, with IS sleepers among them. (View my video, ‘Syria Sense and Compassion‘.)
And the UK is doing it just in the vain hope that Russia might lose its bases in Mediterranean. It is a scandal.
PLEASE PRAY that the UK Government will support or at least get out of the way of the Syrian Government as it tries to regain control and establish peace. Pray for the remaining Christians in Syria as they try to hold their communities together and rebuild their lives. Pray for the time when bricks will take the place of bombs.
Please leave other prayer points as comments below.
In the TV comedy ‘Yes Minister‘ the character of Permanent Under-Secretary (he’s the top civil servant in the department) Sir Humphrey Appleby (played by Nigel Hawthorne) was constantly ensuring the new minister Jim Hacker (Paul Eddington) kept to the department’s official line.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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Permanent Under-Secretary Simon McDonald welcomed Boris Johnson to the Foreign Office last night.
Last night, new Prime Minister Theresa May made six senior appointments, covering the three great offices of state (Chancellor, Home Office, Foreign Office), and created two new post-Brexit positions. Continue to pray for her appointments today.
BORIS JOHNSON
The most astonishing appointment last night was that of Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary. Mr Johnson is said to have had wide experience dealing with foreign governments promoting the capital city as Mayor of London. He is much better disposed to Russia than his predecessor and apparently speaks five languages fluently, including German and Russian.
The latter will be especially useful as he pursues what we pray will be a more positive engagement with Russia than that taken by his predecessor. (Although never under-estimate the power of the PUS – see the picture. Sir Simon Fraser, Mr McDonald’s predecessor, has already said “highly professional people” will surround Mr Johnson as he takes on the role. Sir Humphrey?
Mr Johnson, like Theresa May, is pro-Israel. The BBC reports: ‘In 2015, Mr Johnson had to cancel planned public events in the West Bank because of security fears after he criticised backers of a boycott on Israeli goods, and he has previously described Hilary Clinton – US presidential hopeful – as having “a steely blue stare, like a sadistic nurse in a mental hospital.”‘
British sanctions against trade with Russia must be ended and Russian efforts to bring stability to Syria supported. We can pray that Boris, with a great-grand-father from Moscow, will have nothing to do with the posturing of the world elite which needs to see Russia as the big enemy and President Vladimir Putin as an aggressor and a threat.
A more positive engagement will help as Mr Johnson tries, as we hope he will, to find the reasons behind Russia’s new anti-evangelism law and argue against it from an informed and friendly position.
Write to your MP. Ask him/her to congratulate the new Foreign Secretary on your behalf and to ask him to pursue a positive engagement with Russia, lift sanctions and let you know what discussions he has with Russian officials about Russia’s new anti-evangelism law, which, of course, concerns you.
PHILIP HAMMOND
I prayed yesterday and I am still praying that Philip Hammond would leave the government completely, because of his stance on Syria and Russia (see below). Mr Johnson taking his place at the Foreign Office was a spectacular and unexpected part-answer to that prayer.
Mr Hammond, with his ‘Assad must go’ rhetoric, showed himself both ignorant of reality in Syria, and in thrall to the US-driven elites of this world. I made a video on this topic last October with an emphasis on Syrian Christians: Syria – Sense and Compassion. Do take a look – it’s less than 4 minutes.
Mr Hammond was also part of ‘Project Fear’ with his view that it would take longer than World War II to leave the European Union.
In the event, he has been made Chancellor of the Exchequer, which is a promotion. Pray for him to have the great wisdom and vision that job needs at any time, but especially at this time. I still pray that the Lord will intervene and that he will not be there long.
MICHAEL FALLON
Mr Fallon retains the post of Secretary of State for Defence. He was part of the ‘Assad must go’ triumverate (with Mr Cameron and Mr Hammond) and the same arguments apply to him as apply to Mr Hammond. It was a spectacularly ignorant and stupid line originated by William, Lord, Hague, totally driven by the desire of the US to destablise that country for financial and strategic reasons – Russia has bases in Syria.
It has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and drove the migration disaster of last summer, in which thousands of Islamic State activists were able to infiltrate European Union nations.
The United Kingdom needs a Defence Secretary able to stand up to the US in NATO and end the current policy of military build-ups and sabre-rattling at the Russian border. Make no mistake, such things are planned by the elite for their benefit, not ours. A top insider, Craig Breedlove, former head of NATO, was at the Bilderberg meeting in Dresden last month. And a series of leaked emails published in RT show how keen he has been to push the Obama administration into agitating in Ukraine and aggression against Russia.
I am praying that Mr Fallon has a change of heart and becomes a man of peace, whose strength is in the Lord. His voting record is good on the issues that matter. He voted against ‘gay marriage’ and against doctor-assisted dying, for instance. But he voted for military intervention against President Assad’s forces in Syria. if the Lord will not change his heart, will the Lord replace Mr Fallon as well.
Write to your MP (a separate letter with a different date will be best) and ask him/her to ask the Secretary of State for Defence to pull British forces out of NATO’s aggressive current confrontation with Russia.
AMBER RUDD
The new Home Secretary was, like Mr Hammond and Mr Fallon, a ‘Remainer’ who voted against having a referendum at all. She also voted for ‘gay marriage’ and, like Mr Fallon, for military action in Syria. That vote, mercifully, was lost. She abstained on doctor-assisted dying. Her voting record goes back no further than 2010, because that was when she first became MP for Hastings and Rye.
Amber Rudd stands in need of our prayer as she takes charge of this vital office of state. We should especially pray against the introduction of intrusive surveillance measures and the use of real or imagined threats to curtail civil liberties.
DAVID DAVIS
Thank the Lord that the veteran parliamentarian has become the new Secretary of State for Brexit, or whatever it will be called. This is an inspired appointment, as apart from a lapse when he voted for Masstrict, Mr Davis has been constantly opposed to the EU, as he has to measures like ‘gay marriage’.
So Mr Davis will need much prayer as he negotiates the UK’s exit with the European Unions’s Commission and/or Council of Ministers (they are currently fighting a turf war over which will handle the talks). He will need to invoke Article 50 quickly and be unafraid to pull out of the Single Market completely if that requires accepting freedom of movement.
Freedom of movement was perhaps the biggest factor persuading people to leave the EU, because of the problems it brings. It is not a matter of hospitality, it is a matter of social cohesion and security, as I showed in this video.
Mr Davis should remember the four reasons why the Germans will back down: Mercedes, Audi, Volkswagon and BMW. Other countries trade with the EU without being in the Single Market, the USA and India, to name just two.
Write to your MP (separate letter!) and ask him/her to congratulate the Secretary of State for Brexit on his appointment and wish him well. Ask your MP to ask him to invoke Article 50 immediately and to be ready to leave the Single Market completely if freedom of movement is demanded as a condition of remaining in it.
Dr Fox will be responding to nations across the world who are now queuing up to do trade deals with the UK. He reputedly knows the United States very well, but Commonwealth countries are obvious new trading partners. It was encouraging to see Ghana preparing a trade delegation. The European Union has caused much hardship across Africa and developing countries in other parts of the world by dumping food aid, knowingly depressing prices and impoverishing local farmers.
There is an opportunity here for us to do more for fair trade than just buying tea and coffee. We should also pray that overseas aid becomes much smarter. I’m anxious to be in touch with those who know best how fair trade principles could form the bedrock of Dr Fox’s approach, and let us pray that he will have great success. Let us pray that Brexit re-establishes Britain as a newly-free, global, outward-looking trading nation, one built this time on fairness and justice, not on deception and exploitation.
Write to your MP (yet another separate letter!) and ask him/her to congratulate the Secretary of State for International Trade on his appointment and wish him well in it. Ask your MP to ask the Secretary of State how fair trade principles will inform his dealings with developing nations.
LASTLY
Lastly, look out for chattering classes and the Twitter-sphere expressing ‘alarm’ and ‘concern’ over the elevation of Boris, David Davis and Dr Fox. Such will mean they are good appointments! We should never put our trust in princes, but Theresa May (be sure to put an ‘h’ in her name) has shown she was true when she said ‘Brexit means Brexit’. Those of our readers who supported Remain should also be praying the Lord uses the Brexit vote and this new administration for his glory and to advance his Kingdom on earth.
Mrs May will be familiar with these two prayers from the Anglican Morning Prayer service in the Book of Common Prayer. They can apply to an individual or a nation and they spoke to me vividly this morning:
A Collect for Peace.
O God, who art the author of peace and lover of concord, in knowledge of whom standeth our eternal life, whose service is perfect freedom; Defend us thy humble servants in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in thy defence, may not fear the power of any adversaries, through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
A Collect for Grace.
O Lord, our heavenly Father, Almighty and everlasting God, who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day; Defend us in the same with thy mighty power; and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger; but that all our doings, being ordered by thy governance, may be righteous in thy sight; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee meets today to decide whether Jeremy Corbyn, the incumbent leader, may go forward to a leadership ballot without being nominated by MPs.
Those Labour MPs who wanted to oust Corbyn were hoping they could keep him off the ballot paper in a leadership contest.
If he failed to get enough nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party, then he would not be on the ballot paper, party members would not be able to vote for him and normal service could be resumed.
Yes, party democracy would be sidelined, but, hey, who cares?
LEGAL ADVICE
Unfortunately for the plotters, the party’s own advice from barristers at Doughty Street Chambers makes clear that only Mr Corbyn’s challengers need to secure nominations from 20% of fellow MPs, not Mr Corbyn himself.
They say: ‘In a year where a contested election is triggered by a challenger under B(ii), the incumbent does not require to be nominated to appear on the ballot paper. The incumbent is therefore automatically on the ballot paper unless s/he resigns (or otherwise becomes permanently unavailable)’.
The advice goes on to point out that ‘In this case’ in clause 4.I.2.B(ii) refers back to the first sentence, ‘where there is no vacancy’, which is the current position. If Mr Corbyn were to resign only to stand again, every candidate including him would be required to secure the nomination of 12.5% of MPs, which is about 29. But if a rebel MP pops up to challenge the leader, they need 20%, or 46 of the party’s 230 MPs. Having said all that, the NEC, meeting today, can vary the rules under rule 1.A, but not to the extent, it would be argued, as to overturn them.
LABOUR PARTY RULE BOOK
You won’t read this in the mainstream media, as they prefer to entertain rather than inform, but here is the relevant section of the Labour Party Rule Book:
‘Chapter 4
‘Elections of national officers of the party and national committees
‘Clause I.
‘General principles
‘1. Internal party elections for officer posts and the membership of national committees shall be conducted in a fair, open and transparent manner, in accordance with the constitutional rules of the party and any appropriate NEC guidelines.
‘Clause II.
‘Procedural rules for elections for national officers of the party
‘1. General
‘A. The following procedures provide a rules framework which, unless varied by the consent of the NEC, shall be followed when conducting elections for party officers. The NEC will also issue procedural guidelines on nominations, timetable, codes of conduct for candidates and other matters relating to the conduct of these elections.
‘2. Election of leader and deputy leader
‘A. The leader and deputy leader shall be elected separately in accordance with rule C below, unless rule E below applies.
‘B. Nomination
‘i. In the case of a vacancy for leader or deputy leader, each nomination must be supported by 12.5 per cent of the Commons members of the PLP. Nominations not attaining this threshold shall be null and void.
‘ii. Where there is no vacancy, nominations may be sought by potential challengers each year prior to the annual session of party conference. In this case any nomination must be supported by 20 per cent of the Commons members of the PLP. Nominations not attaining this threshold shall be null and void.’
THE CANDIDATES’ VOTING RECORDS
It is worth remembering that given that we cannot expect a Labour politician to be pro-life, pro-family or anti-sodomy, their are important differences between Jeremy Corbyn’s voting record and that of Angela Eagle..
Jeremy Corbynvoted against Sunday trading and against Maastrict. Angela Eagle didn’t. He has voted against euthanasia. She is for it. Mr Corbyn is for freedom of speech. Miss Eagle wants to shut people up who disagree with her and her lifestyle. He voted against Tony Blair’s Gambling Bill and Identity Cards . She towed the Blairite line.
Jeremy Corbyn voted for a referendum on the EU. Angela Eagle voted against one. Mr Corbyn voted against war in Iraq. Miss Eagle was for it and the Blair / Straw axis which lied to get it. The only positive note is that when the proposal to help the Syrian rebels with military action and further destabilise that country came from a Conservative leader (David Cameron) in 2013, Angela Eagle at last managed to join Jeremy Corbyn and vote against it.
In her press conference yesterday, Miss Eagle said, ‘I’m not a Blairite, I’m not a Brownite, I’m not a Corbynista.’ Then raising her voice in high drama: ‘I am my own woman.’ Applause. No, you aren’t. You voted with Tony Blair on everything. You are the establishment candidate.
PRAY FOR OUR LEADERS
2Samuel 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
Pray that the Lord Almighty will place the fear of God in Jeremy Corbyn’s heart.
US Secretary of State John Kerry expressing the will of the world's elite as usual
US Secretary of State John Kerry expressing the will of the world’s elite as usual
The United State’s top foreign policy official has said the British vote to leave the European Union could be ‘reversed’. Clearly, the United Kingdom’s dramatic #Brexit vote has upset the kings of the earth and Kerry has let the cat out the bag that they intend to prevent it.
Speaking at the Aspen Institute, a leading think-tank of the world’s elite, Secretary of State John Kerry spoke seriously of how Brexit could be ‘reversed’ or ‘walked back’.
He was not going to go into details. Kerry said: ‘I think there are a number of ways. I don’t, as secretary of state, want to throw them out (into the public domain) today. I think that would be a mistake. But there are a number of ways …’
David Coborn MEP
But UKIP MEP David Coburn told Russia Today: ‘Brexit is absolutely essential – it is the will of the British people. I don’t much care what Mr. Kerry says. If the Americans are going to start interfering in our affairs as they interfered in Vietnam and the Middle East, they are going to get a pretty robust response from the British people. … John Kerry, I don’t know what he is playing at – it is not the thing to do – to go around telling the British public, who voted overwhelmingly to leave the EU, that Brexit (isn’t) going to happen. It is not up to the Americans and they should have nothing to do with it. They should mind their own affairs – they make quite enough mess running the world as they see it. They should just stick out of our affairs.’
Mr Blair goes on, ‘we have diminished our place in the world and we’ll have to fight to get it back’. That is just opinion, from the man who destablised the whole middle east and caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives by sacrificing truth in order to go to war in Iraq.
It could equally well be argued that the Brexit vote has enhanced the UK’s international status.
This ‘diminished place’ does not appear to have been noticed by the eleven countries even at this time of writing, just a week after the vote, which are now queuing up for trade deals with the UK.
New Zealand First party leader Winston Peters said “a trade deal with the UK is an absolute priority” and “New Zealand must be the first country in the queue for a trade deal with a liberated United Kingdom.”
Ghana Ghanaian foreign minister Hannah Tetteh said she was working up a delegation already. Africa has been impoverished by EU policies and Brexit is an opportunity for fair trade – something else for Christians to pray for!
New Zealand offered to help the UK with negotiators in the Brexit talks and Australia spoke of joint deal with their neighbours.
Those four were followed within days by the United States (‘back of the queue’ is now an uncomfortable memory), India, South Korea, Canada, Mexico and Switzerland. Even Germany are desperate to keep the UK trade doors open. That’s eleven countries and counting. The Lord is already blessing the United Kingdom for coming out.
You see, the #Remain prophets of doom forgot the spiritual side of this matter – if they ever thought there was one.
Freed from those pagan shackles, the United Kingdom has an opportunity to return to its constitution and seek the Lord anew. The word of God is clear. This was written to Israel, but the Bible is clear it applies to any and every nation. It is the UK’s portion:
Deuteronomy 28:1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: 2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. 5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store. 6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.
Finally, the UK now has someone who campaigned for Remain as a Brexit-negotiating Prime Minister. The Parliamentary Conservative Party decided against Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove and Sir Liam Fox, who were – and are – committed Brexiteers. If Theresa May dithers, or accepts continued freedom of movement, prepare to see the Conservatives trounced by UKIP in the following General Election.
But before we ask whether the Lord will have mercy on the Conservative Party, or bring judgment on them, let us remember that it is important for our United Kingdom not to halt between two opinions with ‘Brexit-Lite’, but to be whole-hearted about it right now. There isn’t time for them to get it wrong, be judged and UKIP to start all over again after the next General Election.
There are great opportunities right now for the UK to establish proper trading relationships with Commonwealth nations, after years of EU oppression of African countries in particular. Fair Trade could come to the fore. The Biblical injunction to pray for our leaders in 1Tim 2 is as clear as daylight. So we need to pray now for God’s wisdom in the appointments Mrs May makes to Her Majesty’s Government and then continue to pray for them and for all in the political process.
2Sam 23:3 The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God.
As for John Kerry and his fellow insiders, as Johnny Cash famously sang, ‘you can run on for a long time’, but ‘sooner or later God’ll cut you down’.
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Chaired by Henri de Castries, Chairman and CEO of the giant AXA insurance group, it was the first time for a while that the men with the money were seriously worried.
Henry Kissinger speaking (of course) at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2008
Bilderberg, named after the Dutch hotel where the group first met in 1954, says it was ‘designed to foster dialogue between Europe and North America’. Its website is a recent innovation. Up until ten years ago journalists had to find out the annual guest list from staff at the latest venue. Leading members have included Dennis Healey, Kenneth Clarke, Peter, Lord Carrington, the Irishman Peter Sutherland and Henry Kissinger.
The website says of its meetings: ‘There is no desired outcome, no minutes are taken and no report is written. Furthermore, no resolutions are proposed, no votes are taken, and no policy statements are issued.’
Bilderberg is the primary concentrated gathering of the world’s elite. The annual meetings take place under what is known as the ‘Chatham House rule’ which was invented by London’s Royal Institute of International Affairs. This says ‘Participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’
1 Current events, 2 China, 3 Europe: migration, growth, reform, vision, unity, 4 Middle East, 5 Russia, 6 US political landscape, economy: growth, debt, reform, 7 Cyber security, 8 Geo politics of energy and commodity prices, 9 Precariat and middle class, 10 Technological innovation.
WORRIES ABOUT BREXIT AND TRUMP
Jim Messina, advisor to the Democratic Party’s Hilary Clinton, attended Bilderberg last year.
Behind (3) were worries about the UK’s Brexit vote. All of a sudden, the elite had realised that the European Union needed reform, vision and unity. Were they concerned about migration? Or is flooding Europe with jihadists part of the plan for greater restrictions on freedom? As for ‘growth’, there you have it, from the horse’s mouth. The EU is an empire which must keep expanding.
Their other big worry is Donald Trump. He may not be a very nice man, but he is anti-establishment. He is not an insider, not ‘one of us’. Unlike Hilary Clinton (Bill was chosen as US President by Bilderberg and Hilary’s chief adviser Jim Messina was at the conference last year) Trump is not someone they can control. The ‘US political landscape’ has really put the wind up them. How can they stop Trump?
Russia was on the agenda, because presenting President Vladimir Putin as an aggressor and a threat is a key part of the game right now. But then, the disadvantaged ‘precariat’ and the middle class could spoil the whole globalist project.
Delegates came only from Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and world bodies. There was no-one from Central or South America, Eastern Europe, the Middle or Far East, the Antipodes or Africa. Bilderberg is exclusively trans-Atlantic.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will tour the world telling the lesser beings what the elite expect.
After it has deliberated, US Secretary of State John Kerry will be sent around the world to tell the leaders of lesser nations what to do. After the 2002 meeting, his predecessor Colin Powell was despatched to India and Pakistan to tell them not to go to war over Kashmir. Both backed down immediately. The June 2002 Bilderberg meeting was the turning point. Welcome to the New World Order.
Present this year were Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary, ex CIA chief David Petraeus, the King of the Netherlands, the IMF’s Christine Lagarde, Philip Breedlove (Former Supreme Commander of NATO), Benoît Coeuré of the European Central Bank and Kristalina Georgieva, Vice President of the European Commission, the EU’s foreign minister.
There were current or former ministers of finance from Canada, Germany, Ireland, Portugal and Sweden. Money is important to the group. There were prime ministers from Belgium and Holland and the deputy PM of Turkey. In total, perhaps a couple of dozen politicians, a handful of academics and half-a dozen journalists and editors came to hear what the bankers and industrialists want to happen.
British academic Guy Standing thinks ‘the precariat’ are ‘dangerous’. ‘To whom?’ one may ask.
GB CONTINGENT
The GB contingent illustrates the point. Present were Marcus Agius, Chairman of PA Consulting Group (formerly chairman of Barclays), Douglas Flint, Group Chairman of HSBC Holdings plc, Dido Harding, CEO of TalkTalk Telecom Group plc, Demis Hassabis, Co Founder and CEO of DeepMind, the artificial intelligence company, John, Lord Kerr, Deputy Chairman of Scottish Power, and John Sawers, former head of MI6, now Chairman and Partner of Macro Advisory (the ‘strategic insight’ people).
Guy Standing, Co President of the Basic Income Earth Network and Research Professor at the University of London was the academic. He has written on the ’precariat’, describing them as ‘dangerous’. ‘Political populism’ which appeals to them ‘must be challenged’, he writes, in words every Bilderberger would approve. His views recently became a book.
Zanny Minton Beddoes, Editor in Chief of The Economist and Martin H. Wolf, Chief Economics Commentator at the Financial Times were the GB media contingent. Don’t expect them to write anything about it, although Wolf is very concerned that ‘nativist populists’ must not win. The only GB politician this year was Labour MP Helen Goodman, a minister under Gordon Brown and now a member of the Treasury Select Committee.
We can be certain of one thing:: whatever the Bilderbergers have discussed, their schemes will benefit them first and the rest of us a long way second. But also be certain of this: the Lord will have the final word.
READ: Psalm 2:1-4, 48:7, 64, 76:12, 149; Isaiah 24::21; Luke 8:17; John 15:18; 2Cor 10:3-5; Rev 19:19-20.
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Left out of ‘the six’, ministers and officials from (stage l-r) Austria, Spain, the UK, Greece, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia gathered in Warsaw.
The European Union appears to be splitting in two in the wake of the Brexit Referendum.
The day after the result was announced, the foreign ministers of the founding six, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxemburg and the Netherlands met in Berlin. No-one else was invited.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, said European leaders have to meet “the expectations of [European] people” in its response. Then, In a revealing quote, he went on: “I am confident that these countries can send a message that we won’t let anyone take Europe from us.”.
Somewhat aggrieved by being excluded, the Czech Foreign Minister convened a meeting in Prague of the Central European Visegrad Group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) with the ministers of France and Germany. Then the Polish Foreign Minister invited all the ‘non-six’ to another meeting in Warsaw. Ten in total attended.
‘Invited by Minister Waszczykowski, the foreign ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, Greece and Hungary came to Warsaw alongside secretaries of state and high-ranking officials from the foreign ministries of Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia and Austria. The meeting was also attended by Great Britain’s Minister for European Affairs, David Lidington.
‘This morning I took part in a meeting of the Visegrad Group together with the ministers of France and Germany. Just now I concluded a consultation of ten European member states. I did not create any given format, I invited many countries. Ministers came from countries such as Spain and Greece. They also came to discuss the situation after an open brainstorming session. We didn’t make any final decisions, we exchanged views, analysed the situation, proposed solutions. (…) We should have more of these debates. But they have to be debates that don’t exclude anyone,’ Minister Waszczykowski said, pointedly.
Another fault line could develop around the Euro. Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain are in the Eurozone.
Nicola Sturgeon: ‘a rat swimming to join a sinking ship’
Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden, and of course the UK, are not.
Finally, in recent days we have seen the Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, scurrying around the European Union’s corridors desperately searching for a way in as the UK leaves.
In the light of what is happening, Winston Churchill’s famous jibe comes to mind. We are seeing the astonishing spectacle of a rat swimming to join a sinking ship.
To add more fuel to the fire, the President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, has called for a referendum on his country’s membership not just of the EU but also of NATO. Although Zeman wants to remain in both organizations, he wants the public to have a chance to ‘express themselves.’
On top of that, Norbert Hofer, the Austrian Freedom Party’s candidate in that country’s re-run presidential election, has hinted at a referendum if Turkey looks like joining and if the EU’s institutions keep grabbing power: He told RT:
‘I hope that there will be no need for a referendum [on EU membership] in Austria, and that the Union will develop in a positive manner. But I am fully certain that Austrian people will not accept Turkish membership in the bloc, as well as the situation where Austria is deprived of its powers in favor of the authorities in Brussels.’
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