What ideas are there instead of bombing?

The allegation about Syrian spokespeople being prevented from speaking at a StoptheWar meeting was discussed on GN at the time. There seemed to be confusion about what actually happened.

I apologise for not posting links to the various articles and blogs I found after reading about the Matt Carr article. A friend who has be nice an active supporter of the Stop the War coalition came across the Carr article on their website and told me he will never support the organisation as a result.
I take your point about Tatchell,s credentials and have written to my MP For clarity.

I take your point about Tatchell,s credentials
not sure I should have posted that, if it's deleted so be it.
It was nothing really controversial but I knew the truth of the matter!!

The Stop The War meeting that Dianne Abbot chaired and the Peter Tatchell incident is on a thread somewhere .

The young Muslim woman that was ejected. (if I remember the story correctly and her name was Usma?) was on the Daily Politics show sat alongside Dianne Abbott , she made Dianne Abbott look a tad foolish .. Probably still available to watch somewhere.

Rose quartz , after Ana remind me the STW meeting where Tatchell alleged Syrians who wanted to highlight Assad's brutality towards his people has been discussed on this forum, with no definitive conclusion, I had another Google search. The allegations are consistent but PT seems the consistent source.

My main concern f course, is the implications of the Matt Carr article for supporters of the STW group

Pogs, at the risk of being accused of being unpleasant, I confess to feeling that making DA look a tad foolish is not difficult

Merryn Williams: Why We Had to Bomb

Merryn Williams 07 December 2015. Posted in Poetry & Spoken Word

With great reluctance,
with a profound sense of responsibility,
I ordered air strikes.
My thoughts are with the gallant men and women
who, as I speak, are carrying them out.

I had no choice.
This act was forced upon me
by the appalling, and wholly unacceptable
behaviour of our enemies.

I deeply regret
any civilian casualties
which may unhappily (but, I hope, in small numbers)
occur as a result.
My hands are clean.
As I have explained repeatedly,
the fault is not ours, but that of other people.

Those films
the other side insist on showing
of children’s coffins (probably empty) being
carried through streets of mourners
are a disgraceful propaganda ploy
(which won’t succeed), to play on the emotions
of those who cannot see the wider picture.

Finally, may I take this opportunity
to thank you for the many greeting cards
I and my family have received this week,
and wish you all a very happy Christmas.

There is a video somewhere taken at the actual meeting and it clearly shows Tatchell confronting the panel.

It looks like the BBC Daily Politics program with Abbott and Muzna! on the 5th Nov is no longer available to view.

you had a vote in the house rosequartz ?

www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/07/michel-faber-donates-book-of-strange-things-to-syria-cameron
and suggests he drop it from a plane, so that it might, with luck, hit a Syrian.

How can we stop the selling of oil when the government's spokesperson is implicated in a company which sells IS oil?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/kurdistan-delegation-led-by-tory-millionaire-nadhim-zahawi-raises-concerns-that-mps-will-be-9359279.html

He gets paid £20,000 a month for this, on top of his MP's salary.

It seems that those who support the STWC are unconcerned about its website claim that Daesh/IS are the International Brigade of today.

It seems those who support the bombing are indifferent to a Tory MP involved in a company which sells oil or in the company

The Merryn Williams poem sums it up exactly for me.

It doesn't for me . For me John Donne speaks

This thread has no ideas from pacifists ( as I am kindly supposing some to be) that are meaningful or represent any real alternative to getting involved in military action in Syria.Doing nothing is not an option and does nothing to help the children, or the adults there from the horrors Daesh are inflicting on them.What I am hearing about the Stop The War Coaltion confirms what I already think about some of them.

you had a vote in the house rosequartz? ?

Yes, I was thinking about the OP too which posed an extremely pertinent and valid question, and thinking that nothing realistic has been suggested.
The horror pictures are emotive and upsetting, but they are not pictures which resulted from any action by the UK in Syria. The fact remains that something needs to be done unless the whole lot of moderate Syrians have been totally annihilated by one side or another.

If the bombing by the British of Syrian oilfields in the hands of ISIL is not considered to be a constructive answer to the OP, then perhaps some posters could come forward with more constructive answers.

Durhamjen Anniebach

There is a question to be asked over the role of APPG's, All Party Parliamentary Groups in general. However Nadhim Zahawi as your link states has declared all interests in parliament.

The problem with the link is it smacks a little of the recent cock up by The Green Party which had to do a climb down recently after it's Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Tony Cark (former Labour MP of Northampton South) who accused General Energy (Rothschild) of accepting Islamic State Oil on Radio 5 in November.

A retraction was made which said " The Green Party and Tony Clark wish to public ally retract this statement and accept it to be untrue and without foundation Bla, Bla, Bla".

Since when has hatred/dislike given way as it so often does for some to make rash, judgemental comments with either a lack of knowledge or with the purpose of making their inuendo stick but having no proof.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq has the following committee as of July 2015

Chair and registered Contact. Jason McCartney. Conservative
Secretary. Mike Gapes Labour. (co-op)
Treasurer. Lord Clement Jones Liberal Democrat
Vice Chair. Nadhim Zahawi. Conservative
Vice Chair. David Anderson Labour
Vice Chair. Mary Glindon. Labour
Vice Chair. Lord Glassman. Labour
Vice Chair. John Woodcock. Labour (co-op)
Vice Chair. Fabian Hamilton. Labour
Vice Chair. Bob Stewart. Conservative
Vice Chair. Stephen Metcalfe. Conservative
Vice Chair. Lord Phillips of Worth Travers. Conservative
Vice Chair. Lord Brew. Cross Bench
Vice Chair. Baroness Hodgson of Abinger. Conservative
Vice Chair. Lord Trimble. Conservative

6 Conservatives. 6 Labour 2 Cross Bench and 1 Lib Dem

The group is formed to promote friendship and understanding between the
peoples of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and the UK and to encourage the
development of 'democratic institutions' in the Kurdistan Region as part of the
democratic and federal process in the rest of Iraq.

Nadhim Zahawi fled from Iraq with his family because of the oppression of Saddam Hussein. Now whether or not he 'uses' his position on the APPG for self promotion I do not know but as the link gives innuendo and no proof of such behaviour then I will not defend him but most certainly would not assume he has, as you both obviously do.

There is another moot point the APPG probably was started before IS got a hold of oil, it was in my opinion a genuine attempt to link with the Kurdish Nation who has far as I can see is probably the one of most democratic of all the Arab Nations , certainly taking the brave fight to IS.

So Anniebach in answer to your statement 08.31 we are not all indifferent but neither are some of us so blinkered we see only wrong doing unless there evidence of wrong doing , which may or may not come as time prevails but not as of this moment as far as I can tell.

So Anniebach

Further more Durhamjen.

What implication do you mean ? Are you referring to his shares or do you have further knowledge of impropriety.

Anniebach

You too have taken the decision and posted you feel he is involved with the oil distribution from Islamic State, where is your proof.

Are you flying a little close to the wind or what proof do have Nadhim Zahawi is connected to the sale of or distribution of oil from Islamic State other than the link provided which does not as far as I could see make such a direct link as you have made.

POGS, why can I not make assumptions about him when others make assumptions about not only politicians but posters?

Because using assumptions as though they are proven facts is slander or libel. If you have any evidence that justifies what you say, it should go to the right authorities, not used as an online smear.

The Green party accused Genel Energy, of which Nadhim Zahawi, of Kurdish origin, is a major shareholder, of "laundering" Is oil.

The Green Party immediately retracted Clarke's comments. "The Green Party and Tony Clarke apologise to Genel Energy for this false statement, which they have withdrawn and have undertaken not to repeat," the statement said.

"The Green Party and Tony Clarke wish to publicly retract this statement and accept it to be untrue and without foundation. Genel Energy... is not, and never has been, a purchaser of oil from anyone."

Tony Clarke had Nadhim Zahawitold BBC Radio 5 on 17th Nov: "There are British oil companies such as Genel Energy, run by Nathaniel Rothschild, one of George Osborne's friends, who are making money, who are buying oil from ISIS, who are putting money into the pot, allowing ISIS therefore to fuel their evil across the world."

The Green Partry have undertaken not to repeat it. That means ALL members of the Green Party - and everyone else!

Then it would sensible if all posters were reminded of this not just a few by the usual few

Weel, ye ken noo!

Sorry, I only speak Welsh and English

What elegran said is English. Perhaps the Scottish accent is confusing you.