QUALITY!!!

O good another opportunity for people to dress up and make empty political points.

Woo Hoo !

We like it silly ok?

Silly is better than bored or not doing anything. Silly is as silly does. I am silly, ok.

nuff said.

UKg rock!

Way to go Capt Sensible. The longer we can keep the disenting voices busy with stunts like this the easier it will be to maintain the status quo.

Move along now - nothing to see here.

never mind the protest - where did they get those class suits and helmets from?

Princess Leia had wanted to know how much it will cost to moor the G8 Death Star over Gleneagles. Rebel intelligence suggested that it might be £100m. True?

Suddenly, young McSkywalker became transformed before our eyes into Darth Evader. "That cost" – hiss – "is not" – hiss – "true". He was not the only one hissing, but pressed on. The empire, he said, had supplied £20m for the legions of stormtroopers preparing to occupy Perthshire. Besides, he had a few bob put by. "You lie, Evader!" said Leia, or words to that effect. The imperial treasury had already been supplied with a best-guess as to the cost of the Death Star's visit, so why should local bit-players not be informed?

Evader was seized then by the malevolent force of the dark side, the malign power that crushes all before it by taking a simple question and torturing it to horrible death. A phrase was launched into hyperspace here, a subordinate clause was sent into orbit there, until finally the answer itself disappeared into the nearest black hole.

The parking fee for the Death Star would be "nowhere near to £100m", said Darth. So how many light-years away would it be? This, clearly, was a truth far too dark and awesome for mere mortals. Leia persisted. Evader then produced the most potent weapon in his armoury, the one that saps the very spirit of all who dare approach. "Thirdly," he said, and galaxies trembled.

As is customary in such hokum, he left a hostage to fortune by refusing to worry over the tendency of "the odd penny to go awry". Should a pile of pennies, odd or not, approach £100m after the G8's masters of the universe quit Gleneagles, someone might make a connection between imperial small change and making poverty history.

A wookie was still troubled by the Death Star. Were the forces of the republic to be denied "their democratic right to march in peaceful protest" against the planet-destroying evil empire? Not a bit of it, said Evader, reassuringly. No-one was ever denied the right to peaceful protest. He merely hoped – and here storm-troopers seemed to snap to attention – that such a question "was not intended as a threat".

It fell to a cuddly Ewok to ask a less than cuddly question concerning the children detained at Dungavel and elsewhere in conditions deemed, by the independent inspector, to be less than civilised. Darth was being asked about human rights: this never happens in the movies. It was a challenge to his programming.

Circuits buzzed; software was accessed. Finally, problem solved, he said that "considerable progress" has been made since last summer. On the back benches, the droids settled for that.

W. is the dark side of new 'Star Wars'
 http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-opqpin194265640may19,0,325374.column?coll=ny-viewpoints-headlines

Darth Vader and the New World Order
 http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/may2005/170505nwodarthvader.htm

I must admit this is an amusing stunt, but what's the likelihood of the G8 leaders paying any attention? I had a good laugh when I saw the photos, but I don't think people are going to take on board a message put out by a few people dressed up as fictional characters from a famous film.

Also, what are you actually protesting against? The G8? I don't see what's wrong with some of the most influential politicians getting together to discuss internation issues, surely that's a good thing? At worst they'll achieve nothing or very little, but is anyone worse off from the summit taking place?

certainly the local tory crew are not happy in the local villages around the gleneagles hotel - they feel unconsulted and sidelined despite the 'local liason' work by the police. a massive amount of disruption will take place as hundreds of residents get given photo ID cards to come and go through their own village and much of the huge associated costs will be paid by the local councils - the G8 is not paying their own way for this event. and that's before the issue of protests are even into the mix.

stormtroopers is quite a good image regarding the security operation that will happen in the local area and places like edinburgh.

>>

Paul, the 8 most politically powerful men are gathering to consolidate their power, ensure a corporate-led economy is maintained and to swap techniques on accumulating wealth for themselves and their cronies. The G8 leaders are making decisions that are likely to affect the whole planet on every issue from debt through climate change through war. The meeting they are having is not a good thing for anyone but themselves and their closest political and economic allies.

>>

The worst (and most likely) outcome is that they will consolidate their power, spread the insane fear of terrorism further, override laws protecting the environment and get their war plans in order so they can control more of the worlds resources.

These people (and those who work for them) are expert propagandists - They know how to make statements like "We are gathering to discuss the third world debt" and make it sound like they intend to drop the debt. But the truth, if you take the time to read the small print, is that they are discussing how the third world can be kept in debt! by using the WB to lend money to dictators, by using the WTO to force countries to open their economies and by using military force to squash down those who rise up and disagree.

I'm glad there are storm troopers out there who are turning against the empire... It reminds me that last week there was a report that (so far) 6000 US soldiers have become heroes by going AWOL. 6000 and rising!

Hope this gives you food for thought.

Sean
(the hairy jedi)


[  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10126890

"If I have to go to prison because I don't want to kill anybody, so be it," said Sergeant Benderman.

The case of Benderman and that of others like him has focused attention on the thousands of US troops who have gone Awol (Absent Without Leave) since the start of President Bush's war on terror. The most recent Pentagon figures suggest that 5133 troops remain missing from duty. Of these, 2376 are sought by the Army, 1410 by the Navy, 1297 by the Marines and 50 by the Air Force. ]