John Prescott

Hi all, what a great day for the news about the affair by John Prescott to hit the news stands. Everybody is so concerned about the Home Secretary that John is able to get away from it all in one of his two jaguars. I wonder if he feels like hitting the reporter who broke the news. Either that or maybe he would like to seek advice from John Major as to how to keep an affair private until he leaves power. Is it any wonder that his missus wants to have her hair safe from the elements. Some of us do have long memories. Griff22

Charles Clarke

is it any surprise that people are deciding that the existing political parties are not up to the job. When the Home Secretary has to admit that over 1,000 individuals released from prison should have been considered for deportation and are then, in fact released into the community, then get this shambolic bunch out of power.
Please do not vote BNP but instead take another option. When you go to the polling station in May then write across the voting paper "Troops out of Iraq", put down your name and address and put it into the box. With a bit of luck the politicians, of all parties will listen. You can make this a referendum if you really had the will so to do. So, vote "Troops out of Iraq" you cannot be ignored.

Prince Harry

now I am getting quite confused over our presence in Iraq. The reason for my confusion. Well it is the way in which their seems to be differewnt treatment for different people.Prince Harry is widely quoted as saying that unless he is sent to Iraq, the front line as it is called, then he will resign from the army. Now, if what he is saying that if he is posted to, say Germany, then he will not go and effectively refuse the order. Can we take it that he will then be courts martialed for refusing an order. The problem is that he cannot just resign he has to be released. Just because he is a Prince does not mean that he can expect special treatment.Now Kendall-Smith refused a whole series of orders and he is now serving time in jail and fined £20,000.My son, Ben Griffin, has been released from the army on grounds of conscience. You know that thing which seems to be lacking in so many, in particular, politicians.Now can anybody explain, in plain English, why Prince Harry should be allowed to decide his postings. Surely, every body can see that he would be a target for any terrorist and that he would be putting his comrades in jeopardy. Sad for him but unfortunately true.In the meantime poor old John Reid is trying to manfully explain what exactly our troops are going to be doing in Afghanistan and, how they will be different from the awful Americans who are there in revenge for 9/11 and are working on orders to seek and destroy.Finally, in Iraq there is going to be a new government so please get our troops out now because there is definitely not a civil war, there is just a little sectarian violence. Troops out now, because this will be the final chance.

Kendall-Smith

I believe that the authorities have behaved differently towards Kendall-Smith than they did towards my own son Ben Griffin. I think you will find that Ben, on his return from Iraq, expected to be treated in a similar way to Kendall-Smith but was relaesed from service, with no payment nor did he have to wait 18 months for release. Why should his treatment been so different from K-S.
Could it possibly be that because he was a front line soldier that certain senior military personnel may well have substantially agreed with the stance which he took.
I strongly believe that more investigations must be made into the deaths of the six military policemen. I personally find it amazing that they should have been killed without any of the soldiers apparently firing a shot.
Were they under orders not to kill any of their attackers on the basis that if they had done so there could have been many deaths amongst the local population and that these would have given the locals their martyrs.Every revolution needs its massacre of the innocents to let the local troublemakers say that these people must not have died in vain and that there deaths must be avenged.

Ben Griffin SAS

Just to say that why does Ben Griffin receive letters from MoD warning about civil proceedings possibly being taken aganst him when it seems OK for the military talking about SAS involvement in the rescue of the British peace worker. Is there not some sort of double standards operating.
What I also find interesting is that six retired US generals are now asking for the replacement of dear old Rummie. Why did none of these people take the honourable option and leave the army either through being released or resigning. Could it just be that they are more interested in their careers and pensions. At least Ben had the courage to speak openly with his superiors who totally sympathised with his stance.
In the meantime all that Tony Blair and the British government have to do is release, in full, the original advice from the Attorney General. If they did that then nobody could put forward an argument for refusing an order. Also everybody must conduct themselves totally legally when operating in any sphere of action in the middle East. There must be no handing over of prisoners to the Iraqi authorities for interrogation and no support, no matter how tacit, for the death squads now operating in occupied Iraq.
As for Iran, there must be action before they have nuclear material. They must be stopped. However, so must we because we are as much of a threat to world peace as anybody else.

Ben Griffin SAS

just to say that I think you will find Ben Griffin will be on the radio and TV today being interviewed by BBC and Channel 4. This is despite the knowledge that the BBC have received a request from the MoD not to interview him over the Kendall-Smith case. how much longer must this disaster continue. 65,000 Iraqis have fled their homes because of sectarian violence. People are no longer safe in their own homes. What are the British and American troops doing to protect these unfortunate people from terror. There is worse to come. This really is a civil war. When people say that we are there to protect people what exactly are we doing to defend them. Our actions are illegal because previously I we are no different to the Nazis. If we do nothing then we are complicit. It is not good enough to say I was following orders. Where are the orders to protect these people. There are none so what exactly is going on.

Kendall-Smith is innocent.

Just to hope that all of you out there are keeping with the Kendall Smith case. The 'judge' has decided that he is not allowed to call his defence witnesses. This is an absolute travesty of a court case and if he is found guilty then there must be an appeal to the court of human rights.
Let us just accept, which is difficult for me, that the war was in fact legal. This I do not agree with but let us get it out of the way for arguments sake. Now, even if the war was legal, and the occupation is legal, for reasons which I do not agree with, then surely everyone must agree that the actions by some of the troops , that is in the execution of the occupation is, by the very actions taken, are most definitely illegal. How many civilians have been murdered. Are there any records kept. Research has shown that, on there return from a tour of duty, 27% of American troops have either been involved in, or witnessed, shootings of civilians by American troops. How many of these have been investigated. we really must start to see that when our troops do come home that they will not be able to hide behind rules of engagement which involve them 'accepting orders'. When the nazis were tried, and some executed, at the end of WWII their defence of 'I was only accepting orders' was not a justifiable defence. Furthermore, according to the law we are no longer at war anyway. The war was won. Accordingly, you will find that our troops and the troops of other nations are now more or less just confined to barracks. There has been agreement with the local militia that as long as they stick to agreed areas then no action will be taken against them. Hence, no injuries and no deaths. What exactly are we doing out there. Oh yes that right we are training the local militias to kill each other because there is not civil war its just sectarian fiolence between various groups. Kendall Smith is innocent.

Impeach Bush

It is now becoming more obvious that the American President deserves to be impeached over the illegal war against iraq. There is the meeting held on the 31st January 2003, where a strategy for invasion was agreed with Tony Blair. The important aspect now is that he also authorised the leaking of the name of the CIA agent. A British trooper in the SAS has been able to leave the army with an unblemished record whilst a Royal Air Force doctor is being charged with disobeying orders. Literally hundreds of troops have also boughtthemselves out and are now acting as mercenaries in Iraq. I think that Blair will take the labour party to defeat in the local elections and then he must resign, calling a general election and then the labour party will select a new leader so that the democratic process can be seen to be working. If I was in parliament I would also have Blair impeached. he should also be charged, like Bush with war crimes. The conservatives deserve to be sued over their allegations that UKIP is made up of closet racists. The country is in a mess. The economy is only kept going due to the war. Somebody always makes money out of somebody elses misery. As for the problems in Palestine....

Exeter rubbish

Just to say that i have today visited the cathedral green at Exeter cathedral, UK. It is an absolute disgrace with rubbish blown across the green, people cycling when they should not be, throwing frisbees and playing on skateboards. Now if this was a mosque people would be up in arms and theire would be cries of desecration. in this City what happens! Nothing that is what and it really is not good enough. if you want to know more about my views then go to www.thisisexeter.co.uk and search under the name of Griffin. I know i write a lot but I think that the local newspapers are good ways of getting the ordinary man in the streets views known.

Troops out of Iraq

just to say that I hope you have all been keeping abreast about the story of Ben Griffin SAS. The UK soldier who resigned from the British army on the grounds that the war in Iraq was and is illegal. The politicians may not like it but in all truth all the coalition troops are open to claims of having committed war crimes if they kill anybody. It is my belief that the British Military Police were under orders not to fire at their opponents and that accordingly their commanding officers should be tried for some offence. six men died with about fifty rounds of unused ammunition available to them. Were they too timd to fire or following orders because most, no all, soldiers will tell you that there is no way that they would have allowed themselves to be killed without firing a shot. Why did not the paratroopers who were close by come to their aid. what you must remember is that it was 2 para who were involved in Bloody Sunday. Look what has happened to them. they have leftout to dry by the senior officers and the politicians.

Bird Flu

Am I the only the person in the world who listened to Ben Bradshaw on the Today programme yesterday April 5 and listened to him telling us that they were only conducting a test as to how DEFRA would cope with an outbreak of Bird Flu. He even stressed the fact that if people were listening then they must not be afraid because this was definitely only a test of systems and procedures.
He seemed to show amazing foresight because the very next day it is announced that there has in fact been a Swan found in Scotland with the disease. Furthermore, the Swan was found a week ago. Accordingly, when can we trust the government to tell the truth. When did they organize the test. We must be told because this further increases peoples fears of spin etc. Funny how these things always happen whilst Parliament is away on holiday and of course we cannot distrub MPs whilst they are enjoying their holidays can we.