“It is a matter not so much of concealing as of withholding and what is withheld is not so much the truth as the facts.”
—cabinet secretary, Sir Burke Trend, 1963
The magazine Private Eye provoked panic in Whitehall when it identified C, the letter used to denote the head of MI6, hitherto secret papers released at the public record office yesterday [Wed 16 Feb 2000 01.44 GMT] reveal.
The
magazine broke existing media conventions by naming Sir Dick White as
C, standing for Chief, in a column by Claud Cockburn, in August 1963. In
a small paragraph headed "Note to foreign agents" he named Sir Dick as
the "head of what you so romantically term the British Secret Service".
"You see," my colleague went on, "one doesn’t see exactly where or how
to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse
than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the
next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others,
when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You
don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of
your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of
doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that
restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty.
https://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html
“I expect to pass through this world but
once. Any good, therefore, I can
do, or any kindness that I can show to any
fellow-creature, let me do it now. Let me not
defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way
again.”
"Attributed to William Penn."
Describing what he witnessed as "sobering," Mr George stated: "The
International Court of Justice has deemed Israel an apartheid state. I
don’t feel qualified to make such a judgment, but I can confirm I
witnessed extreme segregation and discrimination."
He added: "There are broadly two communities of people, living unequal
lives – one with rights, freedoms, and access to services; the other
with restrictions, no right to vote for the government controlling their
lives, and daily hardship."
...
He stressed that achieving peace requires addressing this inequality:
"Seeking peace after decades of conflict can only work if it benefits
both Israelis and Palestinians.
“Achieving this will require political change and herculean diplomatic effort. Peace can’t come until this inequality ends."
Mr. George proposed a "Two-Stage Solution" as a necessary foundation for future peace:
1. Full democratic rights – votes for all
2. A truth and reconciliation process.
"And don’t you think it wonderful (asked
the Guide who was showing us over a great
factory) that the mind of man could have
Invented this?” The Guide, whose duty it
Was to impress upon all visitors the size and
importance of the factory he was explaining,
made a magnificent gesture towards Q& great
complicated machine which meant nothing
to us. “That,” he said, “is one of the greatest
achievements of mankind. It can produce
goods on a scale unthinkable before. It is
almost human; in fact, it is much more
than human.”
"
People in this country are disillusioned by a two-party system that thrives on despair. Politicians may regret spending their lives convincing their constituents that nothing will change. Instead, they should inspire some hope that a more equal world is possible.
”
—Jeremy Corbyn January 2025
Privatisation does not save money for the NHS. It diverts money away from the NHS. This is the very same NHS that will end up delivering the expanded care. It is NHS staff – and NHS resources – that will provide the private sector’s “spare capacity”. This is what Dr. Tony O’Sullivan, co-chair of Keep Our NHS Public means when he says that “feeding the parasite undermines the health of the NHS host”.
Privatisation rests on an illusion that their services are provided out of thin air, hiding the human and economic cost required to satisfy the private sector’s endless greed.
Quote - "We will love her while the light lasts, and when darkness comes, we will not forget her.”
‘Do animals .. .” she said, and paused to consider, ‘feel disappointment
in each other, Jack, the way humans do?’
‘Well...
‘Or is that what makes us human, the fact that we can feel
immense disappointment in each other?’ She poured herself another
glass of wine.
‘I don’t know,’ said Jack, cautiously. “What do you think?’
‘I wonder if they ever go through the trauma of sensing that
someone they once liked, maybe even loved, is now turning into
someone they don’t respect.’
‘Why do you say that, Martha? Where’s that coming from?’ Jack
was chewing on his cheeks again.
‘Do animals, birds, fish, whatever, fall in and out of love?’
‘I believe they can.’
‘In that case,’ she continued drowsily, ‘can a fish, Jack, listen, can
a fish love another fish, but then one day imagine that they do not in
fact love that fish and that they now love another fish, only to realise at
some later date that they did actually love that first fish more than they
would ever love another fish for the rest of their lives, and therefore
feel that their existence is overcome with a feeling of regret that they
‘I learnt a lot of things during the war, Irene,’ he said, after a
pause. ‘Most of them of no use whatsoever. But there’s one thing
I can’t unlearn, even if I wanted to, and it’s that life is very short,
and very precious, and if we can’t find a way to be happy in the
one brief span we’re allowed, then there really isn’t a lot of point
to any of it.’ He paused again and Irene finally turned to look at
him. He smiled slightly, kindly, and she knew he lived in a
different world to the one she did. ‘So I’ve a proposition for you,
and I don’t want you to think about it too much. We get so
tangled up in knots, we humans, trying to think everything
through, trying to guess at outcomes we can’t possibly know. So
please just listen. I adore you. Marry me.’
"The Hiding Places 76 hb by Katherine Webb"
