UK General Election 2015

Published time: May 07, 2015 07:42
Edited time: May 07, 2015 10:31 Reuters/Darren Staples

The UK is choosing its new 56th parliament in the 2015 General Election. There are 650 constituencies across the country. Among the front-runners are the Conservatives, Labour and UKIP.

Political blogger Guido Fawkes has reported that the Conservatives are having problems with their voter software which is failing to generate knock up slips of people who are registered but have yet to vote.

"This is a message from CCHQ that I’ve been asked to send out to London officers: ‘Vote Source’ isn’t generating knock up slips in committee rooms. Can you urgently ring each user and ask them to stop generating more as it is making the queue even longer! You can generate them from the control room. Vs team working on issue will be fixed soon" they quote a source as saying.

One Kent local has notified us that UKIP's buses have been defaced vandals with a sense of humour...

@RTUKnews It would appear 3 of UKIP's Kent buses have been customised by local people... pic.twitter.com/k3fPdDTkcl

— julie wassmer (@juliewassmer) May 7, 2015

Our video agency has posted footage of David Cameron casting his vote early this morning with wife Samantha.

David Cameron casts his vote in Oxfordshire FULL VIDEO: http://t.co/Iji5JV7Qee https://t.co/Vg7LgBvNpB

— Ruptly (@Ruptly) May 7, 2015

While this is the most diverse general election the UK has had in decades, there is still a battle between the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives, to gain the highest number of seats. But what are the differences between the two giants of UK politics?

"Regardless of how the British public votes today, one outcome is guaranteed: the UK will end up with some form of either a Labour government or a Conservative government.

The two largest political parties in Britain have several differences in policy.

The Conservatives support a referendum on UK membership of the European Union (EU), for example, something which Labour is strongly against.

Labour, meanwhile, pledges to introduce a mansion tax for the wealthy, a move the Tories are opposed to.

Beneath these differences however, much of the two parties’ policies reflect a Westminster consensus"

Read the full article here.

Are you sure you put your ballot paper in the right box? Here's RT's look at the weirdest and wackiest polling stations across the country.

My local polling station pic.twitter.com/8j4dvRVLIH

— Karen (@Karenippy) May 7, 2015

Here's a great info-graphic from the London School of Economics which shows you when each seat's result will be announced.

Keep your eyes peeled for RT's guide to the most interesting constituencies in the UK coming soon!

This is a really fun tool for finding out when your constituency's result is declared http://t.co/fwXTf5tnFH pic.twitter.com/hhcxw4tQlt

— Poppy Bullard (@PoppyBullard) May 7, 2015

The latest social media trend to take over twitter is also definitely the silliest. #DogsAtPollingStations has seen voters post snaps of their political puppies getting involved in democracy.

#IVoted and so did the dog. #DogsAtPollingStations pic.twitter.com/WYLkpKtr7L

— Phoebe (@justphoebe) May 7, 2015

Pixar Lamps at Polling Stations....sorry I mean #DogsAtPollingStations #WaterOrton #IVoted pic.twitter.com/k3CjZgzyo9

— Kelly (@DHPLover) May 7, 2015

Young Jarrah voting for the first time #DogsAtPollingStations pic.twitter.com/vA3A4DMvjz

— Courtney (@c_greatrex) May 7, 2015

We've voted, and on his birthday too. What a treat #DogsAtPollingStations @Benvironmentals #Rhondda pic.twitter.com/oMbCgrb4O4

— Esyllt Mair (@EsylltMair) May 7, 2015

NB. Dogs can't actually vote, but we live in hope.

Don't forget to tune in from 10:00 for our comprehensive election night coverage with Bill Dod and Polly Boiko.

Have you ever wanted to put together the ultimate cabinet? Well here's your chance. Seeing as it's unlikely that we'll have any real results for at least a couple of days, why not create your own Fantasy Frontbench? You can pick your MPs on age, gender, and policies for maximum representation.

Despite the results of this election being far from certain, activists are already planning to demonstrate against a 'Tory coup' which would attempt to de-legitimise any agreement between Labour and the SNP.

"Activist groups are planning to take to the streets as rumors abound that David Cameron’s Conservatives may be preparing an election ‘coup’ after labeling any Labour government propped up by the SNP ‘illegitimate’.

Commentators have issued warnings in the wake of what they consider a sustained campaign by various influential newspapers to influence voters against a Labour/SNP pact.

The Guardian’s Owen Jones warned against “sleepwalking into a dangerous moment,” while Adam Ramsey, co-editor of the Our Kingdom blog, said the Conservatives were cooking up “an attempt to delegitimize any partnership between Labour and the SNP.”

Read the full story here.

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Coup de grace: Nazi Berlin’s fall in RT’s 3D reenactment

Published time: May 08, 2015 10:23
Edited time: May 08, 2015 13:39 Sergeants Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria raise the victory banner above the Reichstag. Still from the film Battle of Berlin from the Unknown War Soviet-American epic documentary. (RIA Novosti)

The last major battle of WWII in Europe came in April-May 1945, as the Red Army surrounded the German capital and pushed inwards to decapitate the Nazi regime. In a last-ditch attempt to turn the war around Nazi leaders rounded up civilians to fight.

By the time of the offensive, Soviet and Polish troops outnumbered the resisting German forces in both manpower and hardware. However, Berlin was fortified in preparation for defense and the sheer number of troops participating – which included some 2.5 million attacking and 770,000 defending – meant there would be no easy taking of the city.

Supporting regular troops in the street battles were members of the Volkssturm militia and Hitler Youth organization as young as 16. Nazi leaders ordered harsh punishment up to execution on the spot for deserters.

On April 23, the first Soviet troops started fighting their way into Berlin’s suburbs. By April 27, the city was fully encircled, and fierce battles were raging in its streets.

“Of all the operations I lived through during the war, the Berlin operation was the hardest, the most difficult,” Vladimir Lebedev, a veteran of the war, told RT.

“Imagine a huge city packed with fascists. They were shooting from everywhere. From basements, windows, attics. Bullets were whistling by. It’s a miracle anyone survived. Out of 100 soldiers born in 1923-24, only three returned home. And out of the 1,000 reconnaissance troops, only seven,” he recalled.

Despite the desperate resistance, Berlin fell by May 2, although episodic clashes continued throughout the city. The Reichstag building became a scene of intensive fighting on April 29, which culminated two days later with lifting of a red flag on its roof – the fourth to make it there, but the first not to be destroyed by German artillery fire.

Several key figures in the Nazi government, including Adolf Hitler himself, committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner by the Soviet soldiers. Others surrendered to stand trial for war crimes. The unconditional capitulation of the Germany army was signed on May 8, but in Moscow it was already the next day, which explains why V-Day is celebrated on May 9 in Russia.

Listen to more witness accounts of the Battle for Berlin at RT’s “War Witness: Heritage” webpage. Also visit the Victory Day project dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the end of the defeat of the Nazi Germany.

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Pentagon boosts alert level at military bases following ISIS threats

American soldiers walk around at the Taji base complex which hosts Iraqi and US troops and is located thirty kilometres north of the capital Baghdad on December 29, 2014. (AFP Photo)
The US military has increased the security level at US military bases due to unspecific warnings involving the radical Islamic State terrorist group. The alert level is now at its highest since the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
The order to boost the security level on US military bases to “Bravo” – the third of five levels of alert - was ordered by Admiral William Gortney, head of the US Northern Command (NORTHCOM), which commands all military installations on American territory.
The move comes just hours after FBI Director James Comey spoke out on the increasing threat of jihadist attacks being carried out on US soil.
Comey said Thursday there are "hundreds, maybe thousands" of individuals in the United States who are being inspired via social media platforms to carry out acts of violence on American targets.
"It's like the devil sitting on their shoulders, saying 'Kill, kill, kill,'''
Comey told reporters Thursday.
"We have a general concern, obviously, that ISIL is focusing on the uniformed military and law enforcement."
The Pentagon has come around to the view that IS sympathizers residing in the United States present enough of a risk to warrant boosting the security level.

A statement released by the Department of Defense said they share the “same concern about the potential threat posed by homegrown violent extremists, as discussed publicly by Director Comey and others."
US military brass said the change is “not tied to a specific, credible threat,”
though “recent events have led us to recognize the need to take prudent steps.”
READ MORE: US begins training anti-ISIS fighters in Jordan - report
Although Davis refrained from outlining exactly what new security measures would be enforced, he said US military bases and recruitment centers “are going to have increased vigilance and force protection.”
He added: “We seek to be unpredictable."
A Pentagon statement described the heightened security level as a means of protecting US military personnel.
“The USNORTHCOM Commander raised the baseline Force Protection Condition as a prudent measure to remind installation commanders at all levels within the USNORTHCOM area of responsibility to ensure increased vigilance and safeguarding of all DOD personnel, installations and facilities,”
the statement said. “This change, in addition to random drills or exercises, is a mean to ensure that we effectively execute our force protection mission."
In March, a group calling itself the Islamic State Hacking Division allegedly posted the names, photos, and home addresses of 100 US military personnel, urging IS followers to kill them.
The US military members' personal data was apparently not obtained through hacks on government servers, despite claims by the Islamic State, a Defense Department official told the New York Times, because personal information allegedly collected by ISIS "could be found in public records, residential address search sites and social media."
Nevertheless, it looks like the US military is taking the threats seriously.

View the original article here

The German question

Seventy years after the end of World War II, and twenty-five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany is once again under the grip of ‘sturm und drang’, but this time barely registered in either East or West.

Without a serious attempt at myth busting, it’s impossible to discern what could be interpreted as a new, discreet German attempt at hegemony.

Contrary to a myth currently propagated by US ‘Think Tankland’, political Berlin under Chancellor Merkel is not a mediator between a still hegemonic US and an “aggressive” Russia.

The reality is Berlin, at least for the moment, would rather give the impression of singing Washington’s tune – with minor variations - while chastising Russia. That’s the case even when we consider the solid energy/trade/business ties with Moscow, as in Germany importing a third of its natural gas, and German industry/companies/corporations hugely invested in Russia.

Contrary to a second myth, political Berlin does not seek “stability” in Europe’s eastern borderlands, but rather outright vassalage. The relentless Eastern European integration to the EU, led by Berlin, was as much a strategy to open new markets for German exports as to erect a buffer between Germany and Russia. As for the Baltic States, they are already vassals; Germany is the largest trading partner for all three.

Yet another myth is that Berlin cannot lift – counterproductive - sanctions against Moscow as long as “security” of Central and Eastern Europe is not assured. The reality is that Germany would rather exert total political/economic control over the periphery of the former USSR.

As for the EU itself, now mired in a post-democratic, un-egalitarian, austerity-ravaged toxic environment, with no discernible way out, Germany already rules, politically and economically.

Amidst the current EU intellectual quagmire where, to quote Yeats, “the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity”

– think puny neoliberal ideologues scurrying under their sinecures in that Kafkaesque temple of mediocrity, Brussels - a modern Diogenes would be hard pressed to find an informed observer capable of seizing up Germany’s game.

Thus the glaring exception of historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd, author of the seminal 2002 essay After the Empire which showed no mercy in its cartography of American decline. In a long 2014 www.les-crises.fr interview, centered on Germany, Todd hits the geopolitical ball out of the park.

Todd deeply worries about the West’s dysfunction – manifested at its prime in Europe being “virtually at war with Russia”. He sees the anxious, sick West’s “fixation” on Russia as the search for a scapegoat, or better, “the creation of an enemy, necessary to maintain a minimal coherence of the West. The European Union was created against the USSR; it cannot do without Russia as an adversary.”

And yet, behind the EU, there’s the real deal; the German project, which Todd identifies as a project of power, driven “to compress demand in Germany, to enslave the debt-ridden countries of the South, to put to work the Eastern Europeans, to throw some peanuts to the French banking system.” And that project of power could not but open the ominous door to Germany’s “immense potential for political irrationality” – a theme very much prominent now with all those rehashes of the fall of the Reich.

Todd identifies what Lacan would dub the great European non-dit (“not enunciated”); “The key to the control of Europe by the United States, which is the inheritance of the victory of 1945, is the control of Germany.”

Yet now the control is dissolving, albeit chaotically, and that means “the beginning of the dissolution of the American imperium.” And imperial decline – visible in myriad declinations – leads Todd to a bombshell; the real threat to the US, much more dangerous than Russia – “which is external to the empire” – is Germany.

And what about the threat to Russia from Germany? Todd strongly implies the populations of Russian language, culture and identity are being attacked in Eastern Ukraine with "the approval and support" of the European Union - which is a fact. At the same time, he interprets the Russian "silence" about it not "as in the French and the American case, a refusal to see reality

,” but as good diplomacy; "They need time. Their self-control, their professionalism, compels admiration." Try finding this kind of analysis in CIA-infested European corporate media.

So what Todd is essentially gaming here is “the emergence of a new face-to-face between two great systems: the American continent-nation, and this new German empire, a political-economic empire which people continue to call ‘Europe’ out of habit.

” And yes, he’s got a compelling case.

Using a political science concept coined by Belgian anthropologist Pierre van den Berghe, Todd qualifies the German system as “un-egalitarian domination”

; whatever equality is left concerns only the dominant, as in German citizens. Welcome, then, to Herrenvolk democracy - the “democracy of the master people.”

Todd bolsters his case by pointing to the dynamism of the German economy as based in the former USSR satellites; “Part of the success of our German neighbors stems from the fact that the communists were much interested in education. They left behind them, not only obsolete industrial systems, but also populations that were remarkably well educated.”

So “annexing” the populations of Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, etc, meant Germany reorganizing its industrial base using low-cost labor. But then there’s a major “if”; Todd believes Germany might also “annex” an active population of 45 million in Ukraine, “with its good level of training inherited from the Soviet period.”

Not only that’s extremely unlikely; Moscow has been explicit this is a red line. Moreover, “Ukraine” is a failed state in terminal disintegration, now a lowly, de facto, IMF colony, whose only interest for the “West” is rich agricultural land to be plundered by Monsanto and cohorts.

The fun really starts when Todd examines the mess “classical American geopoliticians of the ‘European’ tradition,”

are in. He had to be talking mostly about notorious Dr. Zbig “Grand Chessboard” Brzezinski; “Obsessed by Russia, he hasn’t seen Germany coming.”

Todd correctly notes how Dr. Zbig “has not seen that the American military might, by extending NATO all the way to the Baltic States, to Poland… was in fact cutting out an empire for Germany, at first economic, but at present already political.”

And in parallel to what I have been examining for years now, he hints that “the extension of NATO to the East could in the end bring about a version B of Brzezinski’s nightmare: a reunification of Eurasia independently of the United States.”

The clincher is to be savored like the best Armagnac; “Faithful to his Polish origins, he feared a Eurasia under Russian control. He is now running the risk to go down in History as another one of these absurd Poles who, out of hatred of Russia, have insured the greatness of Germany.”

For the moment, political Germany – but not its industrialists - has chosen to continue to be subjugated to the US/NATO as Chancellor Merkel appears to be enforcing the encircling of Russia.

As Todd nailed it, Germany painstakingly organized its EU hegemony on the basis this disparate basket of nations would provide Berlin with the economy of scale to win against its main industrial competitor, the US. Yet Germany lacks energy – oil and gas. Supply from Africa and the Middle East is inherently unstable.

So this is how we come to another scenario circulating among what Bauman called “nomad elites of liquid modernity”;

not think tanks or Western intel agencies.

According to this scenario, instead of a EU trying to work with Russia, we have Berlin trying to undermine Moscow to ultimately seize financial control of Russia’s immense resources; back to those good old disaster capitalism Yeltsin days, when everything was collapsing other than Russia’s natural resource production.

After all the ‘New Great Game’ is mostly about control of the natural gas, oil and resources of Russia and Central Asia. Will they be controlled by oligarch fronts supervised by their masters in London and New York, or by the Russian state? And once Russia had been subdued, then the Central Asian “stans”, especially gas republic Turkmenistan, would also be free to do German’s bidding.

But for the moment, it’s all shadow play. Merkel utters platitudes about the Minsk ceasefire – when every serious player knows Kiev breaks it on an everyday basis. Berlin works backstage to keep the proverbial “reluctant players” – Italy, Greece, Hungary - on board with sanctions on Russia while spinning it’s doing its best to contain hysterical Poland and Lithuania.

Merkel is very much aware the US prosecutes much of its drone war out of Germany while the BND – German intel – spies for the NSA on the French, the European Commission (EC) and even German industry.

So she will never directly antagonize Washington – as she in fact mostly fears German Atlanticists, while posing about Putin and the Kremlin living “in a different world.” Berlin and Moscow continue to talk diplomatically, but the mood tends to the tone deaf.

Todd is one of the few who at least are setting alarm bells ringing. As in this formulation: “German culture is un-egalitarian: it makes difficult the acceptance of a world of equals. When they are feeling that they are the strongest, the Germans will take very badly the refusal of the weaker to obey, a refusal which they perceive as unnatural, unreasonable.”

Once again, we’re in the realm of exceptionalism, but now with the added, historically troubling German penchant for political irrationality. The new, remixed lebensraum may revolve around an ever-expanding export powerhouse – adding on global trade by using educated, low-cost labor. While the Reich disintegrated in a larger than life folly seventy years ago, the new deal accomplished a dream; as Todd characterizes it, there are two great “developed industrial worlds”

today, America and “this new German empire.”

He sees Russia as a “secondary question”

and he has not examined China’s long game; thus he’s not focused – as in my own case - on myriad moves toward Eurasia integration. But what he’s concentrating on is no less than a thriller for the ages, a “completely different future for the twenty years to come, other than the East-West conflict;” Germany rising – and the US and Germany inevitably clashing, all over again. History may yet repeat itself as (lethal) farce after all. The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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Italy's Fiumicino Airport closed, terminal buildings evacuated due to fire & smoke

Rome's key airport, Fiumicino, closed after a fire broke out in an underground baggage storage area shortly after midnight. At least three people suffered from smoke inhalation, a fire brigade official told Reuters. The terminal buildings were evacuated.
Passengers who happened to be at the airport at the time of the accident shared photos of thick smoke on social media.

Up to 20 firefighting trucks attended the scene. The main highway linking Fiumicino to the capital was closed to allow emergency vehicles to pass.

Officials said there were no serious injuries, however.

Despite media reports of Rome Fiumicino Airport being closed some flights keep landing. pic.twitter.com/C0UmkDTFWc

The fire broke out in Terminal 3, which is used for international flights.

Firts Consequences of #Fiumicino#airport 's fire: rowing team should be flying now to 

According to the fire brigade official, the blaze was under control. The cause of the fire is unknown, however.

Caos #Fiumicino Rome. "A fire at Terminal 3, an accident I believe, hope no victims" a 

The airport is expected to remain closed until 2pm (1200 GMT).

Rome #Fiumicino Airport to be closed until 2pm After Fire at Terminal 3 last night

Rome Fiumicino Airport closed because of a fire. There go my travel plans for the day!

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German intelligence halts internet surveillance for NSA – reports

The German secret service BND has pulled the plug on the internet surveillance program for the US National Security Agency (NSA) amid the growing scandal over its extent of cooperation in spying on its EU partners, German media reported.

The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) – the German Federal Intelligence Service – stopped sharing internet surveillance data with the NSA on Monday, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily, public broadcasters NDR and WDR, and national news agency DPA reported.
Berlin has demanded that the US spy agency first file an official request explaining the need for the internet-based data from Germany’s Bad Aibling listening post in Bavaria, where 120 BND employees and some NSA technicians work, according to reports.
The NSA has reportedly refused to comply with the request due to short notice. Washington has not yet commented on the issue.
READ MORE: BND helped NSA spy on EU politicians & companies ‘against German interests’
However, the BND will continue to garner telephone calls and fax messages for Washington as this service falls under a different agreement.
German media reported on Thursday that the Chancellery made the decision to limit cooperation with the NSA in order to reshape future relations with the agency.
The request comes amid an investigation into recent revelations that suggested the BND had been spying on European politicians and enterprises for Washington for over a decade.
READ MORE: German opposition demands probe into BND/NSA surveillance & industrial espionage
Konstantin von Notz, an opposition Green party member on the investigation committee, confirmed the significant curtailment of cooperation in an interview to ARD television, saying “This is a drastic step.”
"I think they've pulled the emergency brake because, even in 2015, they still can't control the search terms for Internet traffic."
He also accused the German government of failing to “protect German and European interests."
On Monday Chancellor Angela Merkel, who heads the foreign intelligence agency, tried to defend its spying activities saying that she will fully cooperate with a parliamentary investigation and provide “all the details” necessary.
She added that it was imperative both agencies continue cooperation in the fight against international terrorism, but reiterated that it’s unacceptable to spy on friendly nations.
READ MORE: German govt accused of lying to parliament about NSA spying
Members of Merkel’s cabinet have been testifying before the parliamentary investigation committee over allegations that the BND acted against national interests. Among the latest was the testimony of current Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, who oversaw the foreign agency’s activities from 2005 to 2009 when he was the chancellor's chief of staff.
After a closed testimony on Wednesday, De Maiziere told reporters that he knew nothing of the "search terms from the US side, selectors or similar, for the purpose of economic espionage in Germany."
In April, Der Spiegel reported that the NSA had sent the BND thousands of so-called ‘selectors’, which included IP addresses, emails, and phone numbers, over the course of 10 years. The BND downloaded the NSA selectors into their monitoring system and used them to spy on targets, among which were European politicians, including French authorities, and European companies such as European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), Eurocopter, and the European aviation consortium Airbus.

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