Whole Truth Coalition

The Campaign to Make Wars History UK Tour

See the website

Inspired by global economic developments, I’ve been thinking recently about doing without money. Not in a bad way. Oh no: I’m planning to do very well indeed without money – perhaps turn myself into Mr Big. And the method I intend to use, now that money has dried up everywhere, is . . . barter.

I realise it will not be easy. When I started doing this, I phoned the council to ask about settling my tax bill by barter, and an official said: “We allow direct debit, cash, cheque, credit card. But barter? It’s unheard of, sir.”

My accountant had warned me about this: only inheritance tax, he said, could be settled with goods, such as an oil painting. But I persisted, telling the man from the council that if I failed to pay my bill the council would send bailiffs to confiscate goods to the same value – a kind of forced barter after the fact.

What could I offer? A vast sackful of apples and other produce from my allotment, a selection of silk ties (rarely used), large piles of novels (good condition) and some amazing home-baked cakes.

He was unmoved. Perhaps I could work for the council instead – sweep the streets; paint a portrait of the mayor? “It’s a very ingenious proposal,” the official said, “but I don’t want to waste your time.”

I know what you’re thinking: barter is useless. But you may be mistaken. Because an astonishingly large proportion of the global trade in goods and services is barter-based, to protect traders against alarming currency fluctuations.

In one of the most famous examples, Pepsi took profits from Soviet Russia in the form of vodka. The largest barter of all time took place last year: China agreed to build massive infrastructure in the Democratic Republic of Congo in exchange for copper and cobalt supplies worth an estimated £6 billion. About the same time, Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed with Pakistan and Thailand, respectively, to swap oil for food.

Read more..

Residents claimed to have seen bright flashing spheres in the skies near Louth, Lincolnshire, where the 290ft turbine was mangled in a mystery collision.

Ministry of Defence insiders have reportedly said the UFOs could be unmanned stealth bombers on test flights.

The black delta-wing craft, called Taranis, is understood to have been making test runs on the coastal bombing ranges at Donna Nook and North Coates, which are right next to the site of the wrecked wind turbine.

Taranis is about the same size as the Hawk jet trainers used by the Red Arrows at nearby RAF Scrampton - it is being developed by BAe Systems to deliver bombs in battlefields.

Some witnesses have said an octopus-shaped UFO was seen flying through the air hours before the turbine was destroyed.

One woman said she saw an object fly towards the wind farm, while others described the lights as being linked by “tentacles”, leading locals to dub it the octopus UFO.

Read more…

Police have been told they cannot object to a planned gipsy camp in a picturesque village  -  because to do so would be ‘racist’.

Council chiefs have ruled that the local force’s professional opinion ‘breaches the Race Relations Act’.

The decision meant that councillors considering the planning application were not told how officers had been called to another local camp 109 times in just two years

Read more…

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

A new government regulation scheduled to take effect next month has thousands of retailers, thrift stores and small businesses worried they will be forced to permanently close their doors – and destroy their merchandise.

The law is expected to have such a devastating impact that Feb. 10 is now unofficially known as “National Bankruptcy Day.”

Congress passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, or HR 4040, a retroactive rule mandating that all items sold for use by children under 12 must be tested by an independent party for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable.

All untested items, regardless of lead content, are to be declared “banned hazardous products.” The CPSC has already determined the law applies to every children’s item on shelves, not just to items made beginning Feb. 10.

The regulations could force thousands of businesses – especially smaller ones that cannot afford the cost of lead testing – to throw away truckloads of children’s clothing, books, toys, furniture and other children’s items and even force them to close their doors.

Read more…

So the US Government is going all out to bankrupt thousands of businesses and make it even harder for the public to make ends meet when buying clothes etc  for their children. Over here in the UK it would mean all second hand shops and charity shops closing!

They are so concerned for your childrens health arent they whilst at the same time pumping your kinds full of vaccines, fluoride, MSG, ELF waves!

CET EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Union member states authorised the export of €200 million in arms exports to Israel in 2007, the latest figures from Brussels disclose, with France far and away the Jewish state’s biggest European weapons supplier. According to the EU’s 2008 report on arms export licences, published in December for the 2007 calendar year and consolidating the accounts that member states must annually submit, 18 member states authorised a total of 1,018 such licences to Israel worth €199,409,348.

France, Germany and Romania were the top three exporters. France issued export licences worth €126 million, Germany authorised €28 million and Romania €17 million, the EUobserver can reveal. In response to calls from opposition politicians that the UK government halt its arms exports to Israel and push all other EU member states to do the same, a British foreign office spokesperson said: “We do not approve any defence related exports if we judge that there is a risk that they will be used for external aggression or internal repression. “We routinely refuse export licences where we believe that there is a risk of this. Any application relating to Israel is considered on this basis,” the spokesperson continued. EU arms code of conduct The EU has maintained an arms export code of conduct since 1998, but it is overseen at the member state level, not in Brussels, so if Mr Brown were to push for such a move, he would have to convince the 26 other member states.

In 2007, €12 million in small arms and ammunition were exported to Israel by Bulgaria, Germany, Poland, Romania and the UK. Another €23.5 million in “light weapons,” meaning those that require two to three people to operate them, such as bombs, torpedoes and explosive devices, were supplied by the Czech Republic, Germany, Romania and Slovenia. Belgium, France and Romania also sent Israel €18.5 million worth of aircraft and related material. Paris is responsible for €10 million of this sum.

Read more…

So while Brown, Merkel and especially Sarkozy are strutting around saying how awful it all is and there must be a ceasefire; the governments they represent sell the arms to Israel to butcher the Palestinians. Your tax payers money! And yet you sit there and do nothing!

You might as well be pulling the trigger yourself!

The Bureau is charged with administering and enforcing the Antiboycott Laws under the Export Administration Act. Those laws discourage, and in some circumstances, prohibit U.S. companies from furthering or supporting the boycott of Israel sponsored by the Arab League, and certain Moslem countries, including complying with certain requests for information designed to verify compliance with the boycott. Compliance with such requests may be prohibited by the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and may be reportable to the Bureau.

Read more…

Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces.

There is also evidence that the rounds have injured Palestinian civilians, causing severe burns. The use of white phosphorus against civilians is prohibited under international law.

The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition. The shell is an improved version with a more limited dispersion of the phosphorus, which ignites on contact with oxygen, and is being used by the Israeli gunners to create a smoke screen on the ground.

Read more…

A Local Exchange Trading System (LETS) is a community-owned and run currency system based on a zero-sum model, as opposed to monetary systems in which the money-suppliers continuously add interest, thereby increasing the money supply. Each member’s account is usually set to start at zero; in order to trade on average half the accounts will be “in commitment” but with no interest being charged or earned at either end.

The zero-sum system enables members who engage in mutual exchange activities to record the value of that exchange, as a simultaneous plus and minus in each other’s accounts. Historically, some LETS groups keep manual ledgers, others use stand alone database systems to carry out these transactions. The next generation of networked community currency systems is changing the scene, immensely.

During Wsfii, a local currency was used to manage internal accounting between organisers, and provide attendees with food tokens redeemable in the local shops. The “Lime” (short for Limehouse in London, where Wsfii was held) was not a LETS system proper, but an Event Currency only usable within a discrete period of time. This seemed like excellent way of bootstrapping what could become a fully-developed local currency, because it established with local traders the idea that Limes are real, they equate to the mainstream currency, and they work for all. Once confidence is established, it becomes possible to take the currency “virtual”; so traders would not necessarily feel the need to cash out in sterling, but could keep a balance on their Limes account.

An ideal scenario: perhaps they need some help to serve behind the counter. They could connect to a local information portal and consult a directory to find someone willing to do this kind of work in exchange for Limes, which are redeemable in other local shops. This scenario may be some way into the future, but the Limes experience at Wsfii laid a good foundation for proving the concept could work.

Read more…

The Association of Police Authorities (APA) hired a private lobbying firm in its battle against Home Office plans to dramatically reform the make up of its members.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith had proposed allowing the public to directly elect members to police authorities, but dropped the plans last month in an eleventh hour climbdown.

It has now emerged the APA used taxpayers’ money to fund the services of Connect Public Affairs to offer advice and help oppose the proposals.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell, who discovered the spending, said: “It is shocking that quangos are using our money to pay lobbyists to defend and protect their own.

“They are using our money to stop us having a say in how our local communities are policed.”

Read more…

Every Tuesday, at 9.45am precisely, a 50-seat executive coach draws up at a bus stop outside Ealing Broadway station in West London. No one ever gets on and, a moment later, it departs - empty - on a 70-minute trip to Wandsworth Road in South London.

Once there, it waits for two hours and 15 minutes before returning, again carrying no passengers. Welcome to Britain’s most luxurious bus service, paid for by the taxpayer, immaculately clean, punctual to the second and which the Government is trying desperately to keep secret.

This service, funded by the Department for Transport, is not advertised on any timetables or departures screens, and staff at the stations it serves are not even aware it exists.

The “ghost bus” runs simply to allow the Government to escape the embarrassment of admitting that it has closed several sections of railway in West London to passenger trains.

Read more…