The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: The British Contribution.

The UK is this participating in this year's Song Contest with the song "You're Not Alone" by Joe & Jake. 

Not being a complete masochist I have not yet got around to listening to it. However it already seems clear that it will be the least and possibly last of Britain's contribution to this year's contest.

The UK has long had something of a Love/Hate relationship with the Song Contest.

On the one hand the UK pays its dues to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) at the highest rate qualifying them as one of what is known as the "Big Five." In return for their larger financial contribution the Big Five get to skip the semi-finals qualifying automatically for the Grand Final alongside the previous year's winner and host.

On the other hand the UK likes to think of itself as something of a cultural powerhouse that is somehow above all this tacky nonsense. As such Britain seems to take great pride in sneering at all the other participants and the contest itself.

This year though the UK is laser focused on the Song Contest as one of the most important events of the year.

In part this is because on June 23rd (23/6/16) the UK will hold a public referendum on its membership of the European Union (EU). The EBU is a much older and entirely separate organisation from the EU. However 27 of the nations competing in the Song Contest are also EU member states. So topic certainly does have a habit of coming up.

Also I don't think it is any secret that amongst the main themes at this year's Song Contest are the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and associated groups alongside the Irregular Migrant/Refugee crisis and substantially increased terror threat that war has caused. Despite being an early supporter of ISIL the UK having a long history of terrorism is now very much taking the issue seriously and trying to lead the fight. Never has the phrase; "A Road to Damascus Moment" been more appropriate.

The obvious thing for the UK to do then would be to enter a really strong song into the competition. Calvin Harris has recently released a song called "This Is What You Came For" featuring Rihanna on vocals. As Calvin Harris is British this could have been the UK's entry this year. However based on previous years that would have likely been seen as significant over-kill.

The UK could then have followed up its strong entry with lots of multi-platform programming to hype up the competition before and during.

It seems though that the UK has instead decided to go in a wildly different direction;

The 2016 Song Contest opens as it always does with a Red Carpet Gala on Sunday (8/6/16). Just as that Gala was drawing to a close Britain's Prince Harry opened the Invictus Games in Florida, US. This is one of his pet projects.

In only its third year the Invictus Games does pretty much only what it says on the tin. It helps wounded ex-servicemen rehabilitate themselves through sport. 

As is our debt to them we make more of a fuss about it than it probably deserves. It certainly doesn't feature any of the political or cultural aspects of the Olympics. 

However in a effort to promote it the Queen of England of all people has been exchanging trash talk in Internet videos with other World leaders such as US President Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau. That could certainly give the impression to those not involved that there is something serious and political going on.

In support of the Invictus Games Britain's Eurovision host broadcaster the BBC has cleared its prime time, prime channel schedules to provide a round-up of the day's events. That is the sort of coverage the Song Contest can only dream of with the semi-final broadcasts being relegated to a niche BBC channel.

Before the Invictus Games opening ceremony got under way in the US the British Academy for Film and Television held its annual TV Awards (BAFTATV). This was broadcast live from 8pm-10pm in direct competition to the Song Contest opening Gala which was not broadcast at all in the UK.

Although it's most high profile project is the Song Contest Eurovision is really a TV thing rather than a music thing. The Song Contest is little more than content filler that allows Eurovision to broadcast a vast TV spectacle. It is though content filler that has been going for 61 years and regularly attracts 200million+ viewers.

As such a lot of people involved in Eurovision will be reasonably interested in the backstage gossip at BAFTATV's. Not least because it was hosted by Graham Norton who hosts the BBC's coverage of the Song Contest Final. This year's gossip was likely to be very political because today (12/5/16) the British government has announced its plans for the BBC over the next decade. Established by Royal Charter the way that the BBC is run is very uniquely British.

In 2016 the 9pm on a Sunday has emerged as the BBC's flagship drama slot. So far we've had the adaptation of "War & Peace" and the "Night Manager." On the heels of those we've had a show called "Undercover." Although clearly a much smaller production this is still extremely good.

The fact that the finale of "Undercover" was delayed for the BAFTATV's caused something of an uproar amongst viewers. So much so that the show's lead actor - Adrian Lester - was called upon to hand out the last award of the night in a sort of nod of apology.

Undercover is heavily inspired by the 2014 scandal that British police had sent undercover officers to spy on various political campaigns including the family of murdered black teenager Stephan Lawrence. It centres on an undercover police officer who is sent on to spy of a group anti-racism campaigners. He quickly falls in love with one of the group, quits the police force and marries her without ever telling her the truth about who he is.

Twenty years later the wife - a lawyer - is being considered for the job of Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) - equivalent to the Attorney General in the US - so the police suddenly reactivate the husband as a spy. How it ends we STILL DO NOT KNOW!!!!

The husband in the show is black and so is the wife. Obviously this means that all of their three children are also black as are many of their friends. As such this primetime show is led by a majority black cast - a first for the BBC and possibly British TV.

However it is so well done that unless you particularly object to seeing black people on TV you probably wouldn't notice that there are actually very few white faces on screen.

The only irritation is that the wife has long been representing a black man on death row in the US state of Louisiana. However rather than filming those scenes in the US they instead film them in what is quite clearly South Africa. As such it seems that they're trying to draw a comparison between Apartheid and the largely imagined racism of the US Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaigners are constantly complaining about.

The real reason for filming in South Africa though has far more to do with economics than art.

A few years ago the BBC Three channel produced a sitcom called "Bluestone 42" about a British Army bomb disposal team in Afghanistan. Being able to enjoy jokes about what to do with the suicide bomber's severed head I found this reasonably funny. However only amounting to around 20 thirty minute episodes over three seasons it certainly wasn't a big primetime show.

It is hard to explain then why in order to make it the BBC felt the need to build a miniature version of Afghanistan in South Africa. After all it would be much cheaper just to go to southern Spain where they filmed all those spaghetti westerns. 

The Bluestone 42 production was so expensive that the BBC has been forced to invent other shows like "Our Girl" simply to get some use out of the set. They even rented it out to the makers of "Homeland" for their Pakistan set fourth season.

With its Charter being up for renewal this is the sort of thing that makes it extremely difficult to argue that the BBC spends its money wisely.

Fortunately BBC Three has now been shut down - sorry, 'bravely found a new home online.' 

This means the Song Contest is now being broadcast on BBC Four. Culturally speaking that is a promotion although with BBC Three no longer being there that was hardly a factor in the decision.

Back on April 26th (26/4/16) a British Coroners Inquest finally ruled that 96 Liverpool FC fans had been unlawfully killed at the Hillsborough ground in Sheffield in 1989. 

Rather than forcing me to recite the entire 27 year history of this campaign it is probably easier all around if you just read what I wrote at the time; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-truth-at-last.html

The summary version though is that there has always been a lingering suspicion that the British did this on purpose. Not least to punish Irish nationalists such as the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA).

Although as a child at the time I can only look back at it as if it were an event from ancient history one thing I always found suspicious was the decision not to run what are termed "Football Special" trains from Liverpool to Sheffield. Made many weeks in advance this is the sort of mistake that cannot be blamed on the confusion and panic of the day.

Going to a football match in Europe in the 1980's was a lot like going to war. As far back as 1985 English teams were banned from the European Cup (now the Champions League) after Juventus fans launched an attack on Liverpool fans at the Heysel stadium in Brussels, Belgium. In their predictable haste to run away from the inevitable counter-attack the Juventus fans trampled 39 of their own to death.

Due to this level of violence the standard procedure for English football fans wishing to travel to an away match in what is now known as the Premier League was that they would meet at their home ground. 

From there the riot police would march them to the closest railway station and load them onto a special designated train known as a "Football Special." The riot police would travel with the fans aboard this train. 

When it arrived at its destination the riot police would march the fans to the stadium of the team they were playing. Once the match had ended the riot police would march the fans back to the station for the Football Special that would take them back to their home ground. There they would be released back into society.

Even now in modern times this tactic of football policing has still not been forgotten for certain matches.

A prime example of this would be a West Ham United versus Millwall match. Even if you've never seen the 2010 Hollywood movie "Green Street" you would know that West Ham's "Intercity Crew" have a fearsome reputation. Their name comes from the trouble they would cause on the Intercity Football Special trains. The Millwall "Bushwhackers" don't need a movie to make them famous.

If I were to compare the hatred between West Ham and Millwall to the Israel/Palestine conflict I could still be accused of understating it somewhat.

Despite this on August 25th 2009 (25/8/09) London's Metropolitan Police saw no reason to lay on Football Specials for Millwall fans travelling to West Ham's Boleyn ground in the Upton Park area of London for the League (Carling) Cup second round match. I can't remember the point the police were trying to make by organising this riot but I think it's fair to say that a bit of a ding-dong ensued.

The other thing I find highly suspicious about the Hillsborough tragedy is that despite knowing that Liverpool fans were seriously delayed match commander - Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield - did not push-back the matches scheduled kick-off to allow the fans to safely enter the ground.

On Tuesday (10/5/16) West Ham played their last ever game at the Boleyn ground after 150 years against Manchester United. It was always going to get a bit naughty. That is probably why this last game had been rearranged at the last minute for a Tuesday night rather than a Saturday afternoon at the last minute. 

It seems that for the special occasion the Intercity Crew brought themselves out of retirement and threw a few bottles at the Man U team bus as it made its way into the stadium breaking a few of the bus' windows. 

By the standards of the 1980's this was embarrassingly sh*t. However the game's kick-off was still put back by 45 minutes from 18:45 (GMT) until 19:30 (GMT) to allow the fans to enter the stadium safely.

Man United fans big chant is; "Glory, Glory Man United." This is a complete rip-off of an Irish Republican drinking song; "The Belfast Brigade." The fact that Man U fans have been allowed to sing this in their disgustingly illegal 26 year stint as; "The Anointed Club of the British Empire" should be considered deeply offensive to all.

With migration/terrorism being a major theme of the Song Contest it is fair to assume that the issue of racial integration/social cohesion has also emerged as significant sub-theme. This is genuinely worth a PHD in Human Geography from any one of the World's best Universities.

So while I've yet to completely blind myself with potatoes you'll excuse me if I leave that until a later date. You may be lucky on Saturday (14/5/16) but realistically I think you're waiting until Wednesday (17/5/16) at the absolute earliest.

I for one will be filing a formal protest against all the unnecessary extra work I'm being forced to do.

As for the tedious middle-class treachery of the UK SAT test result being leaked on Tuesday (10/5/16). In the run-up to the 2016 Oscars I joked that certain subjects would be "On the Test."

At the Eurovision Song Contest there is literally a test. 

00:10 on 13/5/16 (UK date).

 

 

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: 1st Semi-Final.

As I mentioned yesterday for the first time the Eurovision Song Contest is being broadcast in the US on the "Logo" network. Due to a time difference that can be as much as 9 hours I am not sure how they are approaching the semi-finals.

I know that in Australia which has a similar problem with the time difference they tend not to broadcast the semi-finals live. Instead they broadcast them both as one big program in primetime on what for them is Friday evening. However due to the time difference that can mean just as the second semi-final is getting underway on Thursday evening in Europe.

Then of course there is the fact that the Song Contest doesn't suddenly stop the moment the semi-final broadcast ends. The Song Contest actually opens on Sunday with a red carpet gala and Monday is taken up by rehearsals. Following the end of the semi-final there is a press conference of all the acts that made it through to the final. Wednesday is taken up by rehearsals before the process repeats and the rehearsals for the final take place on Friday. In between contestants exist in this bubble of press interviews and parties where the first rule is that you can only talk about the Song Contest.

As such this year I am trying to make a concerted effort to delay and break up my commentary on proceedings. However if you are clicking on a link entitled "The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: 1st Semi-Final" there's got to be at least some expectation of spoilers.

My task has been made more difficult by the fact that Bosnia & Herzegovina did not make it through the first semi-final into the final with their song "Ljubav Je (Love Is)" by Dalal & Deen ft Ana Rucner & Jalal.

The stage setting for their performance feature musicians wrapped in the foil blankets the emergency services hand out to Irregular Migrants/Refugees who have just been rescued from the sea or the survivors of terrorist attacks. In the middle of the stage they had a barbed wire fence.

On one side of that fence you had Dalal - the woman - singing while dressed in an outfit that was heavily influenced by the Caucus region such as Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kurdistan and eastern Turkey. This was intended as a reference to the Kurdish, Yezidi and Assyrian refugees that are fleeing the fighting in Syria & Iraq along with Turkey's associated war against its own Kurdish population. I can't immediately think of a way that they could have referenced the Arab refugees who are also fleeing. After all something like the Hijab is a reference to Islam rather than any particular ethnic group. As such I don't think the omission was intended as an insult.

One the other side of the fence you had Deen - the man - dressed in the black leather jackboots and overcoat synonymous with the Waffen SS of Nazi Germany.

As such I think Bosnia & Herzegovina's entry really set the agenda for the entire competition. Unfortunately that means I really can't say too much about it at this early stage. Also I'm a bit worried that without it being included people who only watch the final will struggle to understand what is going on.

However the fact that the song which was unusually not sung in English didn't make it through the semi-final kind of suggests that even the more hardcore voters didn't understand what was going on and dismissed it as a bit clunky and lacking in subtlety.

Of the nations that were knocked out during the first semi-final that I do feel comfortable talking about we have;

San Marino: Their song "I Didn't Know" by Serhat was an absolutely savage takedown of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Unusually the Turkish singer Serhat is a dentist by training having graduated from Istanbul University.

I don't think anyone likes going to the dentist. Over the last couple of months there's been one of those funny little stories that I've not been following coming out of France about a Dutch national by the name of Jacobus van Nierop. Dubbed the "Dentist of Horror" Nierop seemed to take great pleasure in mutilating his patients with unnecessary and poorly preformed dental procedures. In April he was finally banned from practice anywhere in the European Union (EU) and fined E10,000 by a French Court.

After giving up dentistry Serhat became a TV host on the Turkish version of the gameshow "Jeopardy (Riziko)." He then launched a music career becoming successful in a vast range of nations including Greece and Russia. He is probably the only Turk who is currently popular in either Greece or Russia. The long list of nations where he is popular along with the vast range of nationalities involved in the entry is intended to raise another point.

Every year at the Eurovision Song Contest various versions of the same conversation take place;

"Q. Where is San Marino?

A. It's a small principality in the north of Italy. You see rather than being a nation in the conventional sense Italy is more of a loose confederation of city states - the Vatican City for example. I suppose you could use this as a metaphor for the European Union (EU)."

The song itself "I Didn't Know" was intended to invoke memories of the globally successful 2000 song "It Wasn't Me" by Jamaican/American singer Shaggy. You get the impression of Erdogan sitting at an EU meeting being told that the continent is being flooded by irregular migrants and him going; "It Wasn't Me" or terror attacks have taken place in Paris & Brussels - "It Wasn't Me" or that someone's shelled a refugee camp in Syria - "It Wasn't Me."

With lyrics like; "You have to see this love is real"  and "I need you more and more each day." the song is very much about a man who is deeply, madly, passionately in love with someone who's just not that into him. It is intended to make the point that Erdogan needs the EU a hell of a lot more than the EU needs Erdogan.

In the video supporting the song there's lots of use of gold lighting and gold props to give the impression that you're in a vast golden palace albeit an extremely dingy one. Erdogan is sort of considered the king of bling and the opening of his 1,100 room Presidential palace on a designated conservation zone has made him a figure of fun both within Turkey and beyond.

The costumes such as a Fedora hat and pinstripe double breasted suits play on the stereotype of a 1930's American gangster. This intended to make the point that Erdogan is not a politician nor a statesman. Instead he is a bully and a thug and should be treated as such.

Serhat is accompanied by male dancers who are playing the role of his gangster henchmen. A number of them are not only black by clearly darkskinned Africans. Although the majority of African refugees are arriving in the EU from Africa in the south rather than Turkey in the east this serves as a shorthand for the refugee issue. The fact they are portrayed as Erdogan's henchmen is a reference to the way Erdogan is weaponising the refugee crisis to bully the EU into giving him what he wants.

In short the whole thing was hilarious from start to finish.

The problem is that the performance Serhat gave on stage in the semi-final was very stripped back and spartan. I think this was intended as a reference to the way Erdogan tries to censor any criticism of himself not only within Turkey but also in other countries such as Germany. Once again Turkey has opted not to participate in the Song Conquest so Turkish voters won't have got to see any of this.

Unfortunately if this censored performance was the only performance you saw you simply would not have got any of the multitude of hilarious jokes. In a sort of mockery of Erdogan's speech the tone of the song itself is slow, dull and frankly a bit whiny.

Also on the night the henchmen dancers were replaced with women in the sort of gold & silver lame hotpants that you associate with a 1970's gay roller disco. Although I don't want to cause offence the massively over the top hair and make-up seemed intended to give you the impression these dancers were transvestites or Drag Queens.

Erdogan is deeply homophobic so suggesting that he enjoys secret gay orgies with Drag Queens is massively offensive to him.

However the Song Contest does have a significant gay fan base. The subtly of using someone's homophobia to mock them can sometimes be confused with homophobic mockery of gay people. Although it's technically impossible for them to be gay transgendered people are particularly fashionable at the moment.

Iceland:  In February 2016 it was announced that the US was re-opening its Cold War Keflavik Air Base in Iceland in order to keep Europe safe from the ever growing threat of Russian aggression.

Iceland's entry "Hear Them Calling" by Greta Salome was therefore a passionate display of support for the US' assessment of Russian aggression threatening all of Europe. Both in the video and on stage the performance relied heavily on animation being projected on the wall behind the singer.

That was a direct copy of the performance of "Heroes of Our Time" by Mans Zelmerlow which won last year. The "Heroes" it refers to are the so-called "Cyborgs" who are waging war against their countrymen on behalf of the US backed junta that currently controls much of Shamali Province (nee; Ukraine). Featuring lyrics such as; "Now the skies are burning" and "Oh, they’re calling out tonight" the song was a similarly full blooded call of support for the junta.

However it was so passionate you had to start to wonder whether it had crossed into the sarcasm and subtle mockery that is common at the Song Contest. You may have even got the impression that the US assessment of the Russian threat was being likened to the movies produced by the Disney Corporation that Greta Salome sometimes works for on their cruise ships.

A Song Contest finalist in 2012 Salome has the equivalent of a bachelors degree in the violin and a masters degree in music. Particularly at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and the Eurovision Song Contest that followed the cultural superiority of the Soviet education system was as a convenient way to highlight the difference between the US and Russia.

So while the words she was singing were passionately pro-American I get the impression Ms Salome was leaning towards Russia.

Interestingly the Disney Corporation chose yesterday to release their quarterly financial results in the US. I suspect the corporation may be considering its relationship with the artist.

Finland: Their song "Sing It Away" was performed by Sandhja who is half-Indian (I think Hindu) and half-Finnish.

With frequent reference to "Heavy Water" the song itself had a very nuclear theme. India is a course a nuclear armed state and it is right next door to China which is of course another nuclear armed state. As a member of the UK Commonwealth India has a strong diplomatic relationship with the UK which gives the UK diplomatic access to issues in that region that just aren't available to other European nations. For example when Erdogan made his recent visit to the US around the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) there was a sort of joint UK/India protest.

Due to the Commonwealth the UK has a much larger non-white population than many other European nations. That population is extremely well integrated. There were race riots involving the Pakistani Muslim population in Bradford in 2001 but generally large scale racism died out in the UK in the 1970's. In UK politics the supposedly racist right is represented by the UK Independence Party (UKIP). For want of a better term their immigration policy is really; "Fewer Whites, More Coloureds." 

This past weekend everyone's been working themselves up into an absolute frenzy over the election of Sadiq Khan as the first Muslim Mayor of London. One of the first people to congratulate him was the Secretary of State for Business Sajid Javid. He is also the Muslim son of an immigrant Pakistani bus driver.

In fact I would go so far as to say that getting excited abut Sadiq Khan becoming Mayor proves you're not a proper Londoner.

Particularly as once you get past the novelty of him being a Muslim you would notice that there are some pretty nasty racist and homophobic undertones to Khan's campaign. Even US rapper Azealia Banks seems to have noticed and she's on another planet half the time.

The video supporting the song heavily invokes the imagery of London's inner-city multi-cultural housing estates. These of course are very different to the immigrant ghettos you get in places like Sweden, Belgium and France. Although she sports the cropped, bleach blond hair that is pure Miley Cyrus Sandhja's look seems heavily influenced by the globally famous London artist M.I.A who is currently working closely with Swedish clothing retailer H&M and won't hesitate to tell you about her Sri Lankan Tamil heritage.

Again though none of this came across in Sandhja's stripped down and spartan semi-final performance yesterday. This could have been a sign of support/enquiry into San Marino's self-censored performance or it could simply be a sign that they'd had enough and wanted to go home.

Either way the general impression you were left with was of a woman who really couldn't be bothered. Plus Finland went first in the running order which never helps.

Montenegro: The big controversy of this years Song Contest is the inclusion of Shamali Province in the competition despite their song "1944" being in direct violation of the golden rule that prevents songs being overtly political. As I explained yesterday this rule is in place, in part, to stop every song turning into a Grindcore tirade.

Although itself not explicitly political Montenegro's entry "The Real Thing" by Highway is pretty much a Grindcore tirade. As such it is clearly intended as a protest against the inclusion of Shamali Province despite their rule breaking.

The tone of the song is very masculine which is emphasised by a scantily clad woman dancing throughout the video that supports the song. In last night's performance this woman was front and centre on a podium at the front of the stage with the band itself almost hidden away in the shadows. I think that it is fair to assume that the gay men in the audience were no more interested in her than I was in the band's male lead singer.

With Montenegro supporting Russia's objections to Shamali Province's inclusion this display of heterosexual male masculinity could easily be viewed as a big "F*ck You!" to the Song Contest's legions of gay fans.

However I think it actually made a much more intelligent point.

It turns out that your sexuality only defines who you want to have sex with. It doesn't determine how good you are at sport, how neat or even basically hygienic you keep your home, what clothes you like to wear or what music you like to listen too.

When I was living in Brighton - the UK's gay capital - it was extremely common for gay men to go to rock shows, punk shows and drum & bass club nights. They used to complain constantly that when they went to the gay clubs and bars where the dating happens or the annual gay pride festival they suddenly had to pretend they liked "Kylie f*cking Minogue."

As it always helps to have evidence to corroborate your point last night I found on Youtube an American Grindcore band called; "Limp Wrist." As far as I can tell all the members of that band are gay men and extremely proud of that fact.

The gay men who are fans of Eurovision are united not by their sexuality but by their shared love of the glittery, camp silliness on which the Song Contest thrives.

The problem is that Eurovision has long acted as a sort of beacon for gays rights across the continent. However sometimes the image of homosexuals that it projects is of a sort of weird, brainwashed cult who all dress the same, behave the same and listen to the same music. That can actually be a barrier to furthering the cause of gay rights amongst people who believe that homosexuality is a choice or some sort of mental illness.

The discussions about this issue are currently being had in Montenegro and hopefully across all of the Eurovision nations.

So I actually think that by busting this stereotype that gay men can't like rock music Montenegro put on a much more effective gay rights protest then simply waving a Rainbow Flag and booing Russia.

The other nations not to make it though to the final were; Estonia, Greece & Moldova.

They should consider it a great compliment that I am not discussing them further here. It is a sign that I think they were so good and deserving of a place in the final that I have to self-censor for the sake of greater good. 


16:40 on 11/5/16 (UK date).

The 2016 Eurovision Song Contest: The Pre-Game.

On Sunday (8/5/16) the 2016 Eurovision Song Contest opened in Stockholm, Sweden.

The first semi-final will take place tonight (10/5/16) at 19:00 (GMT). The second semi-final will take place on Thursday (12/5/16) also at 19:00 (GMT). The Grand Final will take place on Saturday (14/5/16). It is scheduled to begin at 19:00 (GMT) but as always it seems likely to overrun its allotted 3 hour time slot.

The 2015 contest was of course dominated by the civil war taking place in the geographic area formally known as the nation state of Ukraine. It was eventually won by the Swedish entry "Heroes of Our Time" by Mans Zelmerlow.

Since then the war in what used to be known as Ukraine has not gone away. If anything the situation has got much worse.

In August 2015 a terrorist attacked a Thalys train travelling between the Netherlands and France via Belgium. Thanks to little more than luck this attack was thwarted.

In October 2015 a civilian passenger jet was bombed out of the skies over Egypt killing 224 Russian citizens. Although they opt not to participate in the Song Contest Egypt is part of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) of which the Song Contest is merely the tip of the iceberg.

In November 130 people were massacred in a terror attack in Paris, France.

In March a terror attack tore through the Belgian capital Brussels killing 32.

Israel which is also an EBU member seems to be averaging a terrorist attack a day at the moment. Tunisia - another of the EBU's silent partners - saw 38 civilians massacred on a beach in Sousse in June 2015.

Throughout this bloody summer Turkey has been weaponising the flow of refugees from Syria (also in the EBU) by flooding continental Europe with irregular migrants. In response the European Union (EU) has suspended its cherished Schengen passport free zone and the far right are gaining popularity across the continent.

As such I think this is going to be a rough week. There will certainly be no prizes for guessing what the main topics of political discussion will be.

The controversy surrounding this year's contest actually began all the way back in February when what used to be known as "Ukraine" but is now more properly known as the "Shamali (Northern) Province of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)" selected their entry "1944" by Jamala.

This presented huge problems for the organisers not least that no longer being a nation state Shamali Province is ineligible for the competition. Also Jamala is from Crimea which is now part of another nation state - Russia.

The big problem though is that if there is a golden rule of Eurovision it is that songs cannot be overtly political.

So for example if you wanted to complain about a neighbouring country you could do a break-up song about how much your ex-lover used to mistreat you and how glad you are they are gone. You would though still have to be careful that it took the form of a personal story rather than being more generally about the wider political issue of domestic violence.

With the Song Contest owing far more to politics than to music this rule might seem odd. However it performs a number of vital functions.

For starters it stops every song turning into a Grindcore (Very Heavy Metal) tirade against ones neighbours.

Also in the world of global politics and diplomacy almost everything is done through metaphor and code with no-one ever saying exactly what they mean. For example there is currently tension between the US and Turkey over ISIL's supply lines. However in order to follow this discussion in detail you have to be super interested in the design and maintenance of Washington D.C's underground rail (Metro) system.

By forcing everyone to use code and metaphor the Song Contest allows some of the smaller nations - say Malta or San Marino - to sharpen their skills so they at least have a vague idea of what is going on in the wider world.

Shamali Province's entry is all about the Soviets forcible deportation of Turkmen (known locally as "Tatars") from Crimea to China where they became known as "Uighur" in 1944. Although they're attempting to use this as a metaphor for Crimea's decision to rejoin Russia it is clearly an overt reference to a political event.

As such it should not have been allowed into the competition.

Last year Armenia pushed this rule to its limits with "Face the Shadow" although they didn't go so far as to specifically reference the 1915 Genocide. Despite the goodwill of it being the 100th anniversary they were still forced to change the title and some of the lyrics to make it eligible for competition.

More out of a sense of obligation than a genuine desire to succeed Russia lodged a complaint against Shamali Province's entry. The fact this entirely valid objection was dismissed gives very anti-Russian overtones to the entire contest.

In response the organisers seem to have swung back in the opposite direction by promising to strictly enforce the rule that says only flags formally recognised by the United Nations (UN) will be allowed in the arena during the contest.

Following the Brussels attacks a memorial to the dead sprung up in the city. Above that memorial were hung a number of flags including the Turkish flag and one of the flags of the Syrian insurgents. I felt this was done in mockery of the dead. A group of football hooligans clearly agreed and marched on the memorial to tear down the flags prompting a stand off with the riot police. There were also a number of nasty incidents where the Israeli flag was either removed, defaced or replaced by the Palestinian flag.

Sending the riot squad into the arena to break up a football-style punch up is really the polar opposite of what Eurovision is about. As such organisers clearly don't want a repeat of events in Brussels.

There is also some concern that the unrecognised flag to the Nagorno-Karabakh Region (NKR) will make an appearance. Last year I said that the best supporters of Shamali Province can hope for is a repeat of this long frozen conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the last couple of weeks that conflict has heated up again. There is currently a fragile ceasefire in place and Eurovision clearly don't want to be the people who bring it to an end with a controversial flag wave.

The ban also seems to specifically target the flag of Kosovo. Contrary to what you may be told in the US and British media Kosovo is most certainly not recognised as an independent state. A lot of the opposition to its recognition comes from nations such as Norway who don't normally side with Russia against the US. The Greater Albania movement which led the invasion of Serbia's southern Kosovo province was quite a large issue at last year's contest particularly amongst Albania's neighbours such as Macedonia and Greece.

When talking about Crimea's vote to return to Russia US President Barack Obama likes to say; "You cannot change the borders of Europe by force in the 21st century. The words "In the 21st Century" are included specifically because of the US invasion of Kosovo which changed the borders of Serbia in the final year of the 20th century.

As a result the flying of the Kosovo flag as if it were a national flag will cause a lot of deep offence to a lot of people in Europe.

The flag ban initially also applied to the Rainbow Flag used to signify gay rights. However that has since been relaxed so the flag can be used but not in a political manner.

For much of the first 20 years of the Song Contest homosexuality was illegal in most European nations including the UK. Even today its still not exactly encouraged many eastern European states. As a result in order to avoid getting murdered or going to jail gay people had to live their lives in secret through metaphor and code. There is even a secret gay language called "Polari."

As such there has long been extensive overlap between Eurovision culture and gay culture and I for one think that Eurovision is much better for it. However in recent years there has been a growing problem of the gay community being unable to see beyond the issue of gay rights.

A prime example was Azerbaijan's 2013 entry "Hold Me." This featured a man dancing on a see-through box. Inside the box there was a sort of "shadow man" dressed all in black mirroring his every movement. This was a protest against Azerbaijan's oppressive security state which shadows everyone everywhere they go. However the gay community assumed it was a metaphor for the man's hidden homosexuality and immediately went into an absolute frenzy.

Since then a succession of participants have been quietly patting Azerbaijan on the shoulder and whispering; "Don't worry. We knew what you meant."

This inability to see beyond the gay rights issue has meant that the issue of "Pinkwashing" has been a significant theme recently.

This is when a nation, corporation or politician plays up its support for gay rights in order to hide other nasty things it is up to. For example last year the Republic of Ireland scheduled its referendum of gay marriage for the day after the semi-final in a cynical attempt to make the final. It failed.

It is particularly unfortunate when gay rights activists boo Russia because the US-led opposition to Russia on gay rights is done in support of ISIL. Who throw gay people off tall buildings to execute them.

All the other unrecognised  flags such as the Palestinian Flag, the Kurdish Flag and the Basque Flag seem to have simply been caught in the crossfire.

There is also the issue of Australia's use of the phrase "Facetime." I'll leave that until the competition is properly underway but as far as I'm concerned it has artistic rather than commercial value so should be allowed.

The other big change is to voting.

For many years voting was handled exclusively by secretive national judging panels with their government's foreign intelligence service on speed dial. Then in the 1990's public telephone votes were included and mixed in with the panel's scores.

This has led to certain nations hiding a very dark political agenda behind a very populist song in order to give the impression that their political position enjoys more popular support than it actually does. Poland's "We Are Slavic" in 2014 being a prime example.

This year the judging panels will award their points. The public vote will then award their scores separately. I think this is a much needed change to bring back a level of political precision to proceedings. After all I'm guessing most people don't dedicate an entire week of their year to the Song Contest.

Romania will not be appearing this year because they've failed to pay their EBU membership fee. This debt of around USD16million has been building up since 2007 so patience was always going to run out eventually.

However you may remember that last year the US tried to muscle in on the contest with Taylor Swift's "Bad Blood." This year the Song Contest will be broadcast in the US for the first time, admittedly on a fringe gay interest cable channel. This years half-time show in the Grand Final will be performed by US superstar Justin Timberlake.

As such it seems an appropriate time to issue a warning about people trying to freeload on the contest.

16:55 on 10/5/16 (UK date).

Tedious Thursday.

On Thursday (5/5/16) voters across the UK went to the polls in a range of local elections.

Some of these such as the Scottish Parliamentary and the Assembly elections in Wales and Northern Ireland are worth taking note of. However with all three bodies being wholly subservient to the national government it is hard for a normal person to get excited about them. In fact in Northern Ireland it's actually a rule that the election will result in a draw and the main Protestant party and the main Catholic party will share power.

Across England there were also 89 local authority elections. I don't want to dismiss these as unimportant. However they are so hyper-local that in order to get excited the issues involved you really do need to actually live in the very small areas where the elections are taking place.

The election that everybody is talking about though is the London Mayoral election. This strikes me as odd because of all the elections taking place on Thursday the London Mayoral race is by far the least important.

I have lived in London for the best part of 30 years. I also have what I suppose you would call a particular interest in politics. However for the life of me I still cannot work out what the Mayor of London does. In fact having an interest in politics it seems to me that the job was only invented to prevent Northern Ireland's Protestants objecting to the peace process and the creation of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Officially the Mayor of London controls a budget of GBP17bn (USD25.5bn) that he must get passed by the London Assembly/micro-Parliament of which there is no guarantee he controls. However without any real tax raising powers the Mayor's budget is entirely dependent on the amount of money the national government decides to give. With a Conservative government and a Labour Mayor this can get extremely nasty.

A large part of the Mayor's budget is spent on welfare payments such as Housing Benefit. These are set nationally and enshrined in law. As such it's really a case of the Mayor being told how much of his budget is going to be spent on welfare.

Another large part of the Mayor's budget goes on healthcare. In the UK this is controlled by what are known as Primary Care Trusts (PCT's). These not only operate outside of the control of  local government but largely outside of the control of the national government. Therefore at best the Mayor gets to negotiate with the PCT's over healthcare. The Mayor is not their sole source of income and again there are legal minimums. As such the PCT's are very much the dominant party in those negotiations.

The Mayor also has some control over London's Metropolitan Police. However the UK is very clear about the police and the Courts being independent of political interference. As such the Mayor's role is really only to negotiate with the Police Commissioner as the junior partner. In practice it's often a case of the Police Commissioner simply handing the Mayor a bill which the Mayor is legally obligated to pay.

In terms of the small day-to-day duties such as refuse collection and licensing the sale of alcohol or the playing of music for entertainment these all remain the responsibility of the local authorities in control of the London Boroughs. I think the Mayor has the power to overrule the local authorities on local planning issues but only when the project in question can be viewed as being of benefit to all Londoners.

So basically the Mayor of London controls the city's underground rail (Metro) system known as "The Tube." That is it.

To put it in perspective Boris Johnson who remains the Mayor of London until at least Monday (9/5/16) managed to hold down not one but three other jobs while being Mayor. This included being an MP in the national government.

Due to the Freddie Grey case I am still following the Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland, US on Twitter. It seems that much of her - or person who controls her Twitter account - time is spent gossipping about things they've read on Twitter. However she continues to wield significantly more power than the Mayor of London.

On Thursday there was a big meeting of city Mayors from across the globe to discuss how they could respond to the threat of climate change. Well that was the first hour. The rest of the day was spent bullying the Mayor of London over how little power they hold.

I could continue making jokes about how insignificant the job of Mayor of London for a very long time. After all there are kids in filthy refugee camps in warzones who are fully entitled to point at the Mayor of London and laugh at how powerless he is.

Despite all this the Labour Party in its infinite wisdom decided that the London Mayoral election was the election they wanted to win at the expense of all other elections going on in the country.

As we've sadly come to expect from the Labour Party they set about this task in their usual grubby and undemocratic manner.

London has roughly 1.3 million Muslim voters the majority of whom can trace their heritage back to either India, Pakistan or Bangladesh. So the Labour Party simply nominated as their candidate Sadiq Khan who is a Muslim and the son of a Pakistani father. If you were to sum up Labour's election strategy in a single phrase it would be;

"All Muslims are thick as pig sh*t. They'll vote for one of their own no matter who he is."

As it turns out Sadiq Khan did - technically this morning - win the election with 1.3 million.

The fact this exactly matches my back of an envelope estimation of how many Muslim voters there are in London causes me to somewhat the validity of the entire process. After all if there is one election result you could simply make up without affecting the lives of voters in any way it would be the London Mayoral election.

I should point out though that London is traditionally a Labour leaning city. The defeated Labour candidate in 2012 still received 990,000 votes. As such there is a significant constituency who will vote for the Labour candidate regardless of who they are.

Added to that there is a significant proportion of young, white British voters who often attend the city's universities. Looking over Twitter and other social media it is clear that many of them have voted for the Muslim candidate because they think they're striking a blow against Donald Trump in the US or against the white Mummies and Daddies who gave them their comfortable home counties upbringing.

Therefore I think we can rest assured that there are at least 200,000 Muslim voters in London who were not stupid enough to fall for Khan's bigoted campaign. Or at least realised that the London Mayoral election really isn't worth the effort of voting in.

Khan's main challenger - Zac Goldsmith for the Conservative Party - didn't really contest the election at all. He did though reach out to London's Hindu and Sikh voters. This ignited a lot of the religious/racial tensions that are common in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

It also drove Khan's radical Muslim supporters into an absolute fury. Sadly not understanding the argument many white Londoners mistook their screams of racism as legitimate allowing Khan to portray himself as an anti-racism candidate.

Once the Labour activists screams of racism had reached fever pitch the Conservatives dropped the anti-Semitism bomb on them nationally.

This was not intended to alter the outcome of the London Mayoral race which wasn't viewed as a lost cause some much as not a cause at all. The intention was to hurt Labour in the 92 other races nationally where the voters tend to be older, wiser and less likely to view anti-Semitism as a positive.

What screwed the Conservatives over was their Chancellor (Finance Minister) George Osborne and his 2016 Budget which I covered here; http://watchitdie.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/the-uk-budget-2016.html

That introduced plans to remove all schools from local authority controls. Schools are one of the few things that local authorities have control over and many voters are very happy with the way their local schools are being run. As such this policy caused those who would have switched from Labour to Conservative to change their mind and some Conservative voters to stay at home.

With the national picture beginning to emerge as yesterday went on the Conservatives announced that they were scrapping that policy. It fell to George Osborne to respond to the result of the London Mayoral election on behalf of the party.

Nationally it seems that the competing campaigns have succeeded only in cancelling each other out with "No Change" being the big result of the day. Labour did slip into third place in Scotland although that was part of a well established downwards trajectory for the party. Interestingly Labour lost ground to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Wales where the Labour Party was born. That seems to be further evidence of the party being rejected by Britain's working class voters.

In London people in the borough of Barnet were denied the right to vote after huge numbers of names were purged from the register of voters. Barnet has a significant Jewish population. With the eventual winner seeming to take great pride in the anti-Semitism and bigotry of his supporters the fact Britain's Chief Rabbi was denied his legal right to vote looks really bad.

Even without the racial element of the scandal events in Barnet provide more than ample grounds for the election result to be challenged in Court. Based on previous experience a Court investigation could well find that as many as 40% of postal votes cast for Labour are fraudulent. That would force the result to be vacated and the election re-run with Khan and the Labour Party barred from participating.

Alternatively we could all just get on with out lives once again forgetting that London's got a Mayor let alone what his name is.

13:225 on 7/5/16 (UK date).

Operation Featherweight: Month 22, Week 2, Day 5.

On Wednesday (4/5/16) the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a special meeting to discuss the recent increase in violence in Syria's Aleppo province.

If the purpose of this meeting was to genuinely discuss the facts of that increased violence UNSC members - particularly the US and the Russia - would have to share the battlefield intelligence such as aerial surveillance, radar data, communications intercepts etc that they had gathered on Aleppo. In order to protect the sources of that intelligence this would only be done in a closed session.

The fact that Wednesday's UNSC session was an open session demonstrates that it was not a genuine attempt to discuss recent events in Syria. Instead it was to provide an opportunity for certain UNSC members - particularly the UK - to pose for the cameras in response to the carefully marshaled #AleppoIsBurning social media campaign against the Syrian government.

As we've come to expect the comments of the US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power were particularly troubling. Attributing blame to the Syrian government Ms Power's comments were based entirely on the premise that violence returned to Aleppo on April 22nd 2016 (22/4/16).

Therefore I am now forced to take time out of my busy day to fill in the vast gaps in Ms Power's timeline of events;

February 12th 2016 (12/2/16) - Russia and the US agree a cessation of hostilities agreement.

Based on UNSC resolution 2254 (2015) this makes quite clear that it does not apply to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Al Qaeda's Syrian affiliate Al Nusra Front (ANF) nor any other individual, group, undertaking or entity associated with either ISIL or ANF. Within Syria ANF operate as part of a wider coalition known as the Army of Conquest/Jaish al-Fatah (JAF) alongside numerous other groups including those which are frequently described as moderate.

As such it was agreed by all members of the UNSC that the cessation of hostilities agreement does not apply in any way shape or form to the Army of Conquest. As all groups operating in Aleppo province are part of the Army Conquest it was also agreed that the fighting in Aleppo province could continue unabated.

Despite being under no obligation to do so separately from the UNSC endorsed cessation of hostilities agreement Russia and Syria voluntarily opted to limit their operations in and around Aleppo in order to provide humanitarian relief to the civilian population.

February 26th 2016 (26/2/16) - The cessation of hostilities agreement enters into force and Russia and Syria begin their voluntary humanitarian pause.

March 28th 2016 (28/3/16) - The US sends three armed pick-up trucks ("Technicals") containing US trained and equipped fighters across Turkey's border with Syria to join up with the Army of Conquest close to the Syrian town of Azaz. This is in clear violation of numerous UNSC resolutions passed since UNSCR 1267 (1999) forbidding the provision of material support to Al Qaeda including UNSCR 2254 (2015) and therefore the cessation of hostilities agreement. It is also a violation of Title 18 of the US' own criminal code.

April 1st 2016 (1/4/16) - Bolstered by their American reinforcements the Army of Conquest launch an offensive which captures the town of Tel Al-Ais which overlooks Aleppo City. From this high ground the Army of Conquest begin launching artillery attacks and snipe fire against the Kurdish civilian Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo City. In the first four days this bombardment kills 11 civilians and wounds 38 more including women and children.

The US is forced to confirm that it has resumed its support for the Army of Conquest.

April 8th 2016 (8/4/16) - The Army of Conquest launch a chemical weapons attacks - suspected Sulphur Mustard Gas - attack against the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo City. Despite a denial by the US that the attack had taken place it was quickly claimed by the Army of Islam/Jaish al-Islam (JAI) faction of the Army of Conquest. They claim it was the work of a rogue commander who is to be severely punished.

The civilian death toll of the Army of Conquest's conventional attacks on the Shiekh Maqsoud rises to 30.

April 10th 2016 (10/4/16) - Multiple confirmed reports emerge that the Army of Conquest is massing a force of 10,000+ to the south of Aleppo City in preparation to launch an offensive to capture the M5 Highway linking Aleppo City to the outside world. As the UN and nations such as the US have acknowledged the sealing off and laying siege to Aleppo City would lead to a humanitarian disaster.

April 12th 2016 (12/4/16) - The Army of Conquest launch their offensive to capture the M5 Highway. This puts them in direct combat with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) of the Syrian government. The Army of Conquest are beaten back by the SAA at the village of Al-Eis.

The Army of Conquest launches a second chemical weapons attack against the Sheikh Maqsoud district of Aleppo City.

April 13th 2016 (13/4/16) - Syria holds its Parliamentary election as mandated by the nation's constitution.

April 17th 2016 (18/4/16)  - Whilst continuing to repel Army of Conquest attempts to capture the M5 Highway to the south of Aleppo City the SAA launches an operation to liberate the Highway 214 and the Tel Rifat road to the north of Aleppo City. The objective is to cut the Army of Conquest's supply line into Turkey through Azaz in order to end their attempts to encircle and lay siege to Aleppo City.

April 18th 2016 (18/4/16) - The political arm of the Army of Conquest - the High Negotiations Committee (HNC) - withdraw from UN sponsored peace talks with the Syrian government in Geneva following a call by the head of the Army of Islam to strike at the necks of the infidels.

April 27th 2016 (27/4/16) - The propaganda arm of the Army of Conquest - the White Helmets - claim that the Al-Quds hospital in Aleppo City is destroyed in a Syrian government airstrike. They offer no evidence to support the claim of a Syrian government airstrike or even that the building was a medical facility as per the Geneva Conventions.

The #AleppoIsBurning campaign in launched and the UNSC swings into action. Under pressure the SAA is forced to suspend its operation to liberate the Tal Rifat road and the 214 Highway keeping the Army of Conquest's supply lines into Turkey open.

May 4th 2016 (4/5/16) -  The UNSC meets and Russia and the US agree that the SAA will cease its operations in Aleppo province.

The Army of Conquest celebrate by launching a sustained and indiscriminate artillery barrage on the Sheikh Masqoud district of Aleppo City which last for hours.

May 5th 2016 (6/5/16) - The Army of Conquest launch a fresh offensive to capture the village of Khan Tuman from the SAA in a further effort to seize the M5 Highway and lay siege to Aleppo City.

The only event from yesterday that the western media seem interested in covering though is the alleged Syrian government airstrike on the Kamouna camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP's) which is roughly 10km (6 miles) from Turkey's border with Syria. I used the term alleged here because despite certain parties seeming unshakable desire to blame the incident on the Syrian government there is actually little evidence at this point to indicate what happened.

All of the footage I have seen so far shows a tent camp badly damaged by fire. This could have been caused intentionally by someone armed with nothing more than matches or a cooking fire that got out of control. I noticed that the UNSC has not condemned France over the decision by its residents to set fire to the so-called Jungle refugee camp on February 29th (29/2/16).

However careful inspection of footage from the scene does reveal a single crater. This is very narrow but also very deep. This is consistent with a rocket or missile rather than a bomb.

Firing a rocket/missile from a jet aircraft actually requires some very complicated engineering. As a result air-fired missiles are very expensive. The top of the line "Hellfire" and "Brimstone" missiles that NATO nations use cost at least USD100,000 each. The Syrian government has been at war for the past 5 years and has been under an extensive arms embargo for much of that time. As a result it is unlikely that it possesses such a missile.

What is much more likely is that the damage at the Kamouna camp was caused by a surface fired missile such as a the Grad or the Katyusha. These are extremely common being used by all sides in the Syria conflict including in yesterday's Army of Conquest assault on Khan Tuman. However they only have a range of 20km (12 miles). There don't appear to be any SAA positions that close to the Kamouna camp.

Eyewitnesses on the ground of course all swear blind that they saw the missiles being fired from a Syrian government aircraft. 

Military jets travel at around 200km/h (120m/h) the missiles they fire accelerate away from them at similar speed. As such I find it difficult the track the launch of a missile from an aircraft when I'm sitting in a comfy chair in a quiet office with the ability to rewind and pause footage.

The area around Kamouna camp is controlled by Al Qaeda. I think it would be an extremely brave person who was to stand up an accuse the Al Qaeda fighter with the AK-47 standing next to them of lying.

It is also worth noting that eyewitnesses claimed to have seen a rocket being fired from a Syrian government aircraft into the Al Quds hospital on April 27th (27/4/16). Those events of course occurred at night. I know there is a lot of depleted uranium being fired about but I don't think we've quite got to the point where Syrian civilians have started to develop superpowers.  

At around 15:55 on 6/5/16 (UK date) I will try and pick this up later.

Edited at around 13:35 on 9/5/16 (UK date) to add;

Within the Army of Conquest coalition there is a sub-coalition known as the Syrian Turkmen Brigades (STB). This is essentially an irregular division of the Turkish army that operates illegally within Syria. 

As the Al Qaeda led portion of the Army of Conquest began its operation to encircle Aleppo City of April 1st (1/4/16) the STB portion launched its own operation east to capture the town of Cobaney which sits around 30km (20 miles) east of Azaz and 55km (30 miles) west of the Euphrates River. They succeeded in capturing Cobaney on April 8th (8/4/16).

However it then became apparent to the STB that they would not be permitted to advance from Cobaney across the Euphrates River to attack the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF/QSD). The QSD are a coalition of Arab, tribal and Assyrian forces alongside the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG). They have been by far the most effective non-governmental anti-ISIL force in Syria cutting ISIL off from a roughly 900km (540 mile) long stretch of the Turkish border. As a result the STB simply handed back control of Cobaney to ISIL erasing all of their recent gains.

This has caused substantial tension between the US and Turkey over the roughly 100km (60 mile) stretch of the Syrian/Turkish border between Azaz in the west and the Euphrates River in the east. This area has become known as "Erdogan's Pocket" and serves as the main supply route for both the Army of Conquest and ISIL into Turkey. It is rumoured the US recently gave Turkey the ultimatum that it had two weeks for remove the entire ISIL and Army of Conquest presence from that area or the QSD would be crossing the Euphrates to do it.

Although it is rumour rather than firm fact it seemed that ultimatum was due to expire just as the UNSC was being forced to reaffirm its commitment to the Army of Conquest by the #AleppoIsBurning campaign.

The STB's withdrawal from Cobaney has coincided with ISIL launching near daily rocket artillery strikes into the Turkish border town of Kilis which sits around 15km (9 miles) north of Azaz. Turkey has responded by returning fire. Although these exchanges of fire are of an extremely low level they allow Turkey to argue that it is fighting against rather than allied with ISIL. It also serves as a warning to YPG forces positioned just to the west that Azaz is within range of Turkish artillery and therefore they should not even think about liberating the area from ISIL.

The collusion between Turkey and Al Qaeda is of course well documented;

On January1st 2014 (1/1/14) the Turkish police stopped a number of trucks carrying weapons to Al Qaeda in Syria through the Hatay border crossing which is just to the west of the Syrian city of Idlib. On January 19th (19/1/14) Turkish police stopped a number of trucks carrying weapons to Al Qaeda in Syria as it was passing through the city of Adana.

It soon emerged that both these convoys of trucks belonged to Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT). In response Turkish President/Prime Minister/Emperor Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the arrest of all the police officers, prosecuters and government officials involved in stopping the vehicles on charges of treason against Turkey. Erdogan also ordered the arrest of two Cumhuriyet newspaper journalists who reported on the story.

As I was writing the above on Friday (6/5/16) those journalists - Can Dundar & Erdem Gul - were being convicted of treason and both sentenced to five years in prison. As he was making his way into Court Dundar was attacked by a Erdogan supporter armed with a gun who tried to shoot and kill him.

The reason why the area between Azaz and the Euphrates is known as Erdogan's Pocket dates back to August 2015. Just after the YPG had succeeded in closing the 900km (540) stretch of the Syria/Turkey border to the east of the Euphrates and before they became the QSD Erdogan ordered the Al Qaeda portion of the Army of Conquest to cede the village of Marea to ISIL.  Marea sits roughly 20km (12 miles) south-east of Azaz. The intention being to preserve what was left of ISIL's supply lines and ultimately provide and excuse for a formal Turkish invasion of Syria in order to roll back the gains made by the YPG.

The Kamouna camp is located roughly 30km (18 miles) south of what is known as the Kurdish "Afrin Canton." What had Turkey screaming for a ceasefire back in January/February is that the YPG were advancing with Russian support from the Afrin Canton on Erdogan's Pocket. Turkey responded by shelling them when they reached the village of Tall Rifat which sits roughly 15km (9 miles) south of Azaz.

On Friday (6/5/16) Russia announced that its analysis of the damage at the Kamouna camp was consistent with a Grad or Katyusha type rocket artillery attack. Sometimes known as "Stalin's Organ" the Grad/Katyusha is of course a Russian weapons system. Russia also confrmed that its flight data monitoring revealed that there had been no aircraft in the area at the time of the attack. 

With Russia and the US sharing flight data in the area to avoid crashing into each this was intended to put pressure on the US to also confirm publically that there were no aircraft in the area.

The silence from the US on the matter has been deafening.

Turkey though has dramatically changed its tune;

Immediately after the attack and as recently as Saturday (7/5/16) Turkey was using the attack on the Kamouna camp as a reason why it should be allowed to invade Syria to set up safe zones to protect against Syrian government airstrikes. 

On Sunday (8/5/16) Turkey carried out artillery strikes against Al Qaeda rocket artillery launchers making the wholly incredible claim that they'd killed 55 fighters in the process. As such they were trying to use the attack on the Kamouna camp as a reason why it should be allowed to invade Syria to set up safe zones to protect against Al Qaeda rocket strikes.

The only constant is that Turkey really wants to invade Syria.    


14:42 on 9/5/16 (UK date).