Just watching breaking news on SKY of green liquid/paint being thrown in the face of Business Secretary Peter Mandelson by what they think was a Heathrow third runway protestor... Amazing that no one grabbed the girl who did it; she just walked away.
Personally I think it was an outrage. No matter what the anger/emotion involved no one deserves to be publicly assaulted in that way. To me much damage has been done to the 'Green' movement today.
43 comments:
Absolutely, what a pathetic, childish action.
I also suspect similar actions from silly people during Crufts Dog Show. Protest no problem, but assualting people, no way, this is not the way to change things, all it does is reduces these people to nothing, in other who the will listen/join these people if they continue to behave like terrorists!!
thedlog
If it had been anyone else other than Mandelson, Peter Jones or bankers, then i would have to agree with Rachel and Dlog.
Just some people need to be bought down to earth.
These particular people are arrogant and elitist and it is time they started to come down from their ivory towers and feel what it is like to be humiliated.
Then maybe they would stop being such bullies and be truly with the people.
I don't protect bullies.
That's what these people are.
It is time the people who are appointed by the people or who have been blessed with great wealth and responsibility stopped looking down their nose at the rest of society.
We are all One. We are all sparks of the same flame. Some better at the political or capitalist game - but all just as valuable, nonetheless.
I don't wish harm on anyone, but maybe the people affected might start to think more carefully about the responsibility bestowed upon them, when the shit starts to hit closer to home.
A new age of realism is required. There is a lot to do.
Stephen, what's your problem with Peter Jones?
Lee
Lee,
"Peter Jones". I don't dislike him and i reckon he could be a pretty nice, down to earth guy.
Albeit a bit silly about his true worth at times.
But to me, his persona is symbolic of the "clumsy", "dim", "shallow", "over-valued", "over rated", "yuppy years".
I also don't believe he understands the "true nature of brand" when he and others effectively removed Rachel from RLD.
Clumsy, lofty, silly.
Its the bankers all over again.
Grow the fuck up!
Ah, good to see that Stephen's festering resentment continues unabated. Does this man have no end to his wallowing self pity. Let it go for God's sake or you will remain angry for eternity.
As for Rachel's 'outrage' I suspect that this would have been somewhat supressed if the victim was John Varley for instance.
Rachel, is it any surprise you get repeatedly accused of hypocrisy?
C
C
Your comments are a reflection on how YOU would feel if you were in my situation, they are not a reflection of me or my feelings, and no, I would not condone a physical assault on John Varley or any other person for that matter.
Stephen: Having met Peter Mandelson I think he is quite sweet and also tries to be quite accessible - as you saw in the newsclip he went over to speak to the girl in good faith; he could have been aloof and ignored her and he didn't have an armoury of bodyguards.
R
By all accounts, RLD went into administration… and Peter Jones purchased a stake in the company. So what’s the problem? Its hardly clumsy, lofty or silly is it? It’s called business.
Or am I’m missing something?
Lee
For once I have to agree with Rachel!
It was uneccessary and goes to show that however lofty the cause, there are always people who will reduce it to something like this... just like politics and banking..
It is good to see Stephen disagreeing with Rachel for once, however, the usual ridiculous rant assures me that normal service (or is that servitude) will be resumed!
Lee
I think the point that Stephen is making is that Peter Jones does not understand the RLD brand and has taken it in the wrong direction (i.e. downmarket) - hence the cumulative losses since accrued of £10million.
R
The radicals seem to always be able to screw up what could be a good cause with their detrimental acts. I agree with Stephen that there are those elitists that could be brought down a peg or two, but I can't agree that violence in any form is the solution.
C'mon Stephen - Peter Jones - don't you know he is just a cartoon character nowadays?
What we are witnessing is the gradual dismantlement of social order, caused in no small measure by the erosion of accountability by those who are entrusted with power.
I have seen this in business for many years where a "power vaccum" exists, with most managers operating only at the fringes and no one taking responsibility for the huge hole in the centre.
What is meant to be a unified and rampantly successful operation turns into a day to day arse covering excercise with all the ducks treading water. All treading water, whilst the pond is bled dry.
No. It is not wrong to try to wake these people up from their deep slumber.
The decisions they take have huge ramifications for us and our children and our childrens children.
Don't be weak and pathetic.
There is too much to lose by letting them reneage on their responsibilities. I want to know who the guy is making the moves and that he is effectively representing me. If he screws up then he should say so and then resign.
If he can't stand the heat, then he shouldn't carry that much power and responsibilty.
The way we're going - we would be much better off - having Sooty and Sweep running the country.
Definitely agree with Mike G about Peter Jones.
Id prefer Bill & Ben running the country, oh and weed could be chancellor, at least that way we would have a bright and cheerful garden to look out on, if nothing else.
Sorry for the banter, but just had to, I'm in a humorous mood today :-) :-) :-)
dlog
Rachel
Neither of us have any idea what I would feel in your situation so it is pointless speculating.
What I do know is that I am not the one who tells people I disagree with to 'fuck off out of my blog and die'. It may not be a physical attack but hurtful nevertheless.
Can you see the point about hypocrisy?
C
I think Rachels point Mr C is that it is stupid to abuse people.
And i can't see how she is a hypocrite when she doesn't condone abuse and when she herself doesn't go around doing such things.
Even if she had just cause in the past.
I just think people like Mandelson are symbolic of mistrust and misplaced loyalty and that they need a bit of a nudge to get them operating in the right direction.
Mandelson would be a great Prime Minister; but he will never succeed all the time he operates like some foreign mercenary.
Ultimately this government and successive government have positioned our nation toward dependency and away from an independent self-sustaining nation.
We are well off any credible axis right now.
What a waste of good green paint.
She could have reserved it for somebody of consequence!
Mandleson symbolises the era in politics I have most disliked - in which the "spin" mattered more than the underyling truth.
Where people start believing in the dreamworld picture of reality they are creating in words, instead of the harsh reality.
That culminated in the concocted spin report that started a video game war in iraq. So divorced are these politicians from the fact there is a real world outside their spin - I wonder whether they yet realise 100000 people died as a result of their spin
For creating the spin world that led to it, Mandleson deserves the pot of green paint. After all - it did not kill him.
And as for being done for assault, the entire government of the era should stand before a war crimes tribunal in which the stakes are hanging, not green paint
>>For creating the spin world that led to it, Mandleson deserves the pot of green paint. After all - it did not kill him. <<
This can't be right - an assault is an assault should should not result in the death of someone before we take it seriously. Mandelson approached her, she could have spoken with him rather than assault him with her green custard. She was interviewed afterwards and gave her reason for doing it -
I can't see it. How can two wrongs possibly make things right?
It really is a sad state of affairs when we have to resort to this kind of violence to make a point. A reflection of the person she really is.
Not on at all and not to be condoned.
Anne Herbert
It is a fact that many serious changes in society have been brought about by borderline illegal protests.
And frankly nobody died, or got hurt so who cares? - Mandleson was the architect of 10000 blatant lies told to the british public over the years.
So let the media "spin it" and say it did not happen. Give the man a taste of his own medicine.
Ah, good to see that Stephen's festering resentment continues unabated. Does this man have no end to his wallowing self pity. Let it go for God's sake or you will remain angry for eternity.
Don't be so silly Mr C. It is for you i am concerned.
Stephen. anarchist.
It isn't the government people to blame, its the scum contract companies that feed off public monies. I remember people from government departments being hearded into seminar rooms and then being preached at by sharp eyed executives types from the stage. All the guys in the audience could do was nod, because they were overwhelmed by the bullshit and no doubt the occasion.
What happened after were deals that were supposedly endorsed by the civil servants. Budgets were agreed and then the contractors always under-delivered on their committment. And who were to blame?
Yes, the sheep in the audience got the blame.
And who got even more money for fucking up?
You got it... The contract companies got more money for under-acheiving.
Why...? because as soon as the contract companies got their feet under thr table on projects - they were in a great position to blackmail the civil servants into funding project completion.
Doesn't this pattern of behaviour remind you of something?
Of banks that need bailouts and of bankers who are being rewarded for failure?
If Mandelson can sort this out - then i take back what i said about his paint job!
f..off anonymous.
believe me guys. This is barefaced robbery, using a model that has been tried and tested over many years.
Its all about stealing public monies, right from under our noses, whilst holding us responsible for the state of the economy.
Truth is. The economy is what they want it to be.
Its designed, orchastrated and then choreographed by the media!
"Don't be so silly Mr C. It is for you i am concerned."
A big sloppy kiss isn't in order is it? No? Damn shame.
There was me being all content with life and suddenly I find someone is concerned for me. Quite honestly I think I am the least deserving of concern. No really, I'm bordering on the blissfully smug.
But if you think I need a metaphoric hug then go ahead. I'm feeling the love...
C
Lost in the thought of snogging Stephen I forgot to log on as Mr C.
What am I like? Given his views on being anonymous I'm worried now I've blown my chance.
C
Can't get out of my head what was said here bout the economy being a game by a small group of people at the top. Some people have told me this before but i thought they were crazy. The older and greyer i get the more this seems possible.
Couldn't possibly be any other reason for it "anonymous"..
If this really was all some big cock up - then i am extremely afraid for the future of our children and our childrens children.
Is it really true, that this government and those before. precided over years of entrenched failure?
English economist, John Maynard Keynes once said, “There is no subtler, no surer means of overturning the existing basis of society than to debauch the currency. The process engages all the hidden forces of economic law on the side of destruction and it does it in a manner which not one man in a million is able to diagnose.”
what i find diffucult to understand is why people have to talk about failure all the time. Surely this means they are just part of the problem. i don't hear anyone offering positive solutions here.
M
It is in understanding failure that people understand what it takes to be successful. Both in business and in their private lives.
At best, what has happened to the economy is a symtom of "victory disease". Of arrogance, overconfidence and complacency by those with the honour and responsibility to serve.
At worst the result of fraud and complicity.
For years people would say to me it has to be done this way or your part of the problem. Often i'd be ejected and tared with the brush of failure. This made many people feel better about themselves.
Now the pidgeons are coming home to roost. Call it a chip on the shoulder. Call it what you like.
They were always fucking up and i told them so.
But they wouldn't listen.
And you know why? It was because it was all a short-term game. The whole game was predicated on the fact that a few people at the top wanted the majority of the value to themselves and when exiting the business were happy to leave everyone else the spoils.
I didn't like that skewed game.
M
I have to agree with you on the lack of positivity. I am in business and although sentiment has changed there is still business to be done.
I am investing heavily this year both in my existing businesses and also in new ventures. I am recruiting ahead of the curve because I can get great people who will drive our businesses forward.
How can I buck the trend? Because I bucked the trend before by saving money in the upside to invest now in the downside. If you blew your cash and borrowed in the bubble then don't be surprised when its tough when the bubble pops.
I truly believe this is the best time to go into business. Get it right in this climate and you'll survive anything. Start a business in a rising market and you flatter yourself about your business acumen.
C
Hi Rachel. Guess what! We are the same age..but wildly different experineces in our lives. Wow. Perhaps this isn't the best theme to start wth you, especially seeing as I think you're extremely hot...haha, but never mind. I like real women. However perhaps the eco warrior subject is something that I know more about than you..and yes this is an issue that breaks out of business world of any sort and into the world of politics and also the extreme negative effects that money driven reality has on the planet.
Recently I've started a business, yes its eco business and so far I havn't lost all my stash. No its not drug dealing. Yes especially cannabis dealing, especially at a free market price and organic herb (£10/oz say) might well be eco business by the way. The woman that throw the slime at the labour parties answer to Richard Nixon is a warrior, and I pass to her a (real) Eagle Feather given to me by Danny Zapata at Ethinog comman land protest 10 years ago. He was there to speak to the locals about the Navaoh/Hopi traditions who are still even today resisting the trashing of the sacred temple, their homw at Black Mesa, Arizona. They belive the Mother Earth to be sacred, and not something to be endlessly exploited for profit. We used to also many years ago, before the money virus inflitared and took over our society.
The woman that throw slime the slimball is a shero. Why? because these scum called politrickion that play headgames like criminal sociopath deserve a DAMN SITE MORE THAN THAT. People absolutely have to wake up and cease being conned by these, these f'ing vermin, to stop playing their game, and vote for someone sane. I've seen Caroline Lucas, Gren Party leader in person, and I can tell you that she is not in the mold of those pathogenic liars and game players of the usual politition. The situation is absolutely deadly serious, and its time that everyone started to consider direct action, including direct action sabartge of construction sites - what we used to call 'pixying'. And we were heros and sheros - the old school eco warriors.
A nice bit of direct action, getting the issue of mindless, idiotic 'magic of the f'ing market' driven flying (strawberries in winter from Ethiopia, holiday home commuting etc etc etc) into the media, and at the same time insulting that creep Mandelson.
Money is so corrupting. So many tribal realities have been perverted by the infiltration of money into the reality - breaking innocence, the innocence of sharing freely with unconditional love. It is money that is f'ing the Mother Earth. Its a reality. RE-AL-IT-Y. Its has to stop. We have to stop behaving like absuers, to have respect for Mother Earth. NOW, not in 2 years time. We have to start doing things like permaculture, low impact self sufficiency, to break out of fakish ad mans world...the blag of marketing. Stop trying to sell all the time and slow down and share. Sorry m8, it has to stop. Otherwise? well, you've watched enough disasters movies - like that, but much much worse, for real. I have 25 acres of land in Sussex and 7.5 on Anglssey. Fruit and nut trees being planted to provide food for wild birds and humans maybe. The water is good to drink..and its free!
BLESSED BE.
Rachel - you may be good at business deals, sussing out the best deal...BUT you are being blagged by the politrickions. Mandelson is a crook, a sociopath. So is Blair. These scum started an illegal war of agression, just as they do all the time m8. Arms dealing perverts. Thats the actual reality. That is what physcopaths are like - they may seem very 'nice', but in other areas they are total and complete filth. She was breaking through these games and giving the so and so some reality - showing him for wht he REALLY is.
Try as perceive this:
The problem ESPECIALLY with 'western' business people is that you have little or no respect for entities that in India for example have huge respect. The difference is due to the religion or otherwise of the society. Thus in these societies those that have the gift of channelling auspcious consciousness (and reality) to the people around them, its kinda like a proof that god exists, you guys send mental at worst, OK.
I.e you have no respect. However you will learn some. You will learn some because if you don't learn to have respect for the deities, in particular, the Mother Earth, then you, and your special and precious personal nuclear blood family will enter a reality from your very very very very worse nightmare.
GOTCHA
CHATCH 22
BLESSED BE
No have some respect.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/12/global-warming-temp-rise-population
..now have some respect for the Sacred Mother Earth.
BLESSED BE.
C, negativity and risk aversion is not necessarily a bad thing because it raises the bar in terms of how much has to be acheived and what level of quality is acceptable in order to make a profit.
Some call it pragmatism.
It means entrepreneurs have to think harder and smarter in order to survive. I have found positive people to be the ones making all the sharp moves and generally cocking everything up.
They seem to jump around a lot, but contribute little else.
So you saved some money in the good times - well done!
But does that mean you are about to blow it all now?
I guess we will watch this space.
True, I guess only time will tell!
I think the key difference for me is having a long term view and having modest ambitions. My definition of success has less to do with personal wealth and more to do with making sure we do the right thing by our customers, employees and the wider community.
If you feel a strong sense of responsibility for the community you operate in you have to take a long term conservative view to ensure you can continue to take an active role in bad times as well as good.
C
PS. Is it just me finds the Bernie Madoff thing amusing? These were greedy people who were skillfully relieved of their cash, most of which ironically was returned to them (that's how the scheme works so don't be surprised when the cupboard is bare). Not only that but he gave away quite a bit of money to charity. I'm sure there are innocent victims out there but in some cases he was paying an annual return of 46%! Even drug dealing doesn't return that sort of money!
I have to dissagree with you on this one, Madoff was using others money to pay others who had invested with him, and those that did not want there dividend so to speak, then Madoff just put it into his own pot, wether it was property or other he couldn't lose, well until he got caught stealing the money.
My view of Madoff is that he is just a fall guy. He wasn't playing any other game than anyone else at the top of economies. He was just dealing the cards at a high level and became an obvious target.
Its easier to blame one individual for fraud than blame the system of being intrinsically "fraudlent".
Our economic systems are just huge multi-level marketing systems and ponzi schemes. Virtual money just washes around and around and the smart guys get to intercept and divert huge amounts of it.
I do not expect Madoff to live out his life in extreme poverty. He knows far to much about far to many people. The system is rotten and it will take a master stroke to restore confidence. Given this confidence needs to be restored with organisations with power who have already shown themselves to be incompetent and untrustworthy.
Once again I go away for a few days only to find the fairytale creatures have taken over my swamp!!!
However I would just like to say to 'The Greenwood is Magic' I totally agree that we should live in harmony with Mother Earth and one of the themes of all my recent talks is that the current 'recession' is actually a huge period of change in the way economies are run - because old style capitalism is unsustainable and totally at odds with preserving our environment.
We are of course now finding that all the money used to fund the consumerism boom didn't exist anyway!
Money is a mirage.
The point of the post is that throwing green slime over someone is not the way to get the message across; there are more powerful ways than acts of violence/aggression/humiliation
R
I do agree with you Rachel.
Whatever device it is that stops the rot - let it stop it forever.
By the way, i'm out of here for a while.
Let some other folks get a word in edgewise. Yak, yak, yak!
all the best everyone.
OMG - I didnt think it possible!
In The Greenwood is Magic we have found someone madder than Stephen!
I agree, this was a physical attack and the means don't justify the cause, just like when the protesters contaminated Savalon, a cream widely used on babies to make their point.
I am all for peaceful protest and think protesters should be treated better by our legal and policing system so that they can get their message across without being arrested at the first opportunity.
Maybe a more tolerant attitude by the government to protesters would encourage more peaceful measures, rather than drastic actions to gain the publicity needed.
Maybe if the government listened to their people and did a better job there would be less protesters.
I understand the protesters passion and frustration and admire their dedication. However, physically harming people in any protest makes them just as bad and if not worse that the people/companies they are protesting against.
please ignore the random and at the end of the post!
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