Wednesday, 12 May 2010

fucksolar.com

Interesting...
Hard to sell yr house when you are in a coma...

(Click to enlarge)
More
HERE
let alone send emails

(Click to enlarge)

The Hacked Emails That Expose Former Guru Partner Solar As the Most Evil Man In Hip-Hop

Alladin's Story

Titled 'So Divine' on the new 'Exile' set

HERE
(Two versions just one fades out earlier. I am not sure what this has to do with 'Exile On Main Street' as I think this is from 1969!)

'Good Time Woman'

(An earlier version of 'Tumbling Dice'
HERE

(NB:
That these are NOT from the new 'Exile' release!)

Anagrams of David Cameron:

Carved Domain, Random Advice, Romanced Diva

Police remove David Cameron 'wanker' poster

David Hoffman describes being handcuffed by police for displaying a poster deemed offensive by a neighbour WARNING: contains explicit language Link to this video A man who placed a poster of David Cameron containing the word "wanker" in his window has described how police handcuffed him in his home on election day, threatened him with arrest, and forcibly removed what they said was offensive campaign literature.
David Hoffman, 63, said police went "completely over the top" when they visited his home in Bow, east London, and demanded he take down the poster, which had been fixed to his window for weeks.
After he expressed concern at his treatment, Hoffman says, a local inspector told him over the phone that "any reasonable person" would find his poster "alarming, harassing or distressful". The visit from police followed a complaint from a neighbour, who told Hoffman she found the poster offensive. The word "wanker" was printed beneath a photograph of a smiling Cameron.

Hoffman said four officers knocked on his door on polling day. When asked by them for identification, he said he tried to momentarily close the door. The officers then forced the door open, he said.

"They burst into my house, pushed me back and handcuffed me. They said I had committed an offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act, I was being detained, and I might be arrested."
Coincidentally, Hoffman has become one of Britain's most respected photojournalists after three decades chronicling alleged police brutality. He said that after the officers looked up his identity, they "calmed down". But the poster, one of several images of party leaders produced by the veteran anarchist group Class War, was removed.
In a statement, the Metropolitan police denied officers forced their way into Hoffman's home and claimed he was "restrained with handcuffs to prevent a breach of the peace" after becoming agitated. It said that "words of advice were given to the resident … who removed the material".
Hoffman said he would lodge a formal complaint. He has since returned the poster to his window, but replaced the word "wanker" with "onanist", derived from a biblical character in Genesis 38:9 whose seed was "spilled on the ground".

Paul Lewis @'The Guardian'

paul__lewis Officially, I think Cleggmania just ground to a halt 2 minutes ago via web

4.00pm: Laura Kuenssberg has just said on BBC News that she has seen bags being loaded into cars at the back of Downing Street. "Large hold-alls", she said. She is implying that the Browns are getting ready to leave.

3.55pm: Labour has given up talking to the Lib Dems, according to the BBC. This is what Laura Kuenssberg has put out on Twitter.

No 10 sources recognise talks with the libs and labour are over and working out how to declare their side of the negotiation is at an end

@'The Guardian'

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

Pete Wylie - The Day That Margaret Thatcher Dies!

HIT!!!

Steel Justice (1992) & other 'lost' TV shows...

A little boy idolizes his policeman father and likes to secretly tail him when he goes out on drug busts and stakeouts at night. One night, the kid gets killed. Dad is distraught… until he meets his new crime-fighting partner-a fire-breathing, 100-foot-tall robot dinosaur that’s possessed by the spirit of his dead son.

More 'lost' TV pilots

HERE
Including:
Heil, Honey I’m Home! (1990)

A parody of 1950s sitcoms like Leave It To Beaver, this British show was about Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun living peacefully in a suburban neighborhood until their lives are turned upside down by their new Jewish neighbors.
(!!!)

(Thanx Anne!)

Swans To Play Brooklyn Masonic Temple (& elsewhere in N America)

In January I posted about Swans’ plans to reform, record, and tour. At the time, I had no idea I’d be helping to organize their biggest ever show in New York City. It’s an honor — Swans’ music/thought exerted a huge influence on me at a crucial time and the band’s remained one of my all-time favorites. I put together an acoustic M. Gira show at Housing Works a couple of years ago, but this is a different monster: Haunting The Chapel’s teamed up with the Blackened Music Series (we did Alcest at the Studio) and Issue Project Room to present Swans’ first show in NYC in more than a decade. It takes place 10/8 at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple (317 Clermont Ave). It will be very loud. Michael Gira handpicked Baby Dee to open. Her performance will be keyboards accompanied by a cello. Tickets go on sale Friday (5/14) at 10AM EST. We have info on that and the rest of the tour dates.

09/28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero Theater
09/29 – Washington, DC @ Black Cat
09/30 – Boston, MA @ Middle East downstairs
10/01 – Montreal, QC @ Le National (Pop Montreal Fest)
10/02 – Toronto, ON @ Lee’s Palace
10/04 – Detroit, MI @ Crofoot Ballroom
10/05 – Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
10/08 – Brooklyn, NY @ Masonic Temple
10/09 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
10/22-24 – Birmingham, UK @ Supersonic Festival

Tickets go on sale Friday. You’ll be able to grab tickets for the Masonic Temple show at TicketWeb (I’ll post the link on Fri). Also, keep in mind:

THIS IS NOT A REUNION. It’s not some dumb-ass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past. After 5 Angels Of Light albums, I needed a way to move FORWARD, in a new direction, and it just so happens that revivifying the idea of Swans is allowing me to do that. I’ll be using what I learned in the last several years to inform the way this new material develops, while carrying forward from where Swans left off with its final album Soundtracks For The Blind, and in particular, Swans Are Dead. If you have expectations about how Swans should be, that’s your business, but it would be a disservice to both of us if I were to make music with your needs in mind, and the music would certainly suffer as a result. In any event, I certainly never thought this day would arrive, but it’s inevitable, it’s here, it’s fate, so I’m succumbing to it.   Helping me in this quest are the fantastic musicians and friends listed below. I’ll enter the studio with the songs, we’ll hash them out together, someone will come up with something unexpected, then that will lead to new ideas, the song will take a different trajectory and the material will grow on its’ own. This is what I’m hoping, anyway.

As far as that album, Gira told me in January that the approach will be “basically where Soundtracks For The Blind/Swans Are Dead left off, with influence of Angels of Light in there too. Probably pretty severe tho, according to my present mood…”

Excellent.

Brandon @'Stereogum'

I once recorded Swans playing live at The Paradiso in Am*dam and it was SO loud that the result was nothing more than thick aural sludge!

Now all we need is some enterprising young hipster to bring them down to Australia...

Anyone?

Hitting Home (BBC One Scotland at 2235 BST Tonight)

Domestic abuse victims 'turned away' over lack of space

There are fears about the impact of cuts on refuges like this Glasgow one

About 3,000 women fleeing domestic abuse are turned away from Scottish refuges every year because of a lack of space, a BBC investigation has found.

A Scottish Women's Aid census last year revealed 49 women and 25 children had asked for help in a one-day period, but more than half had to be turned away.
Experts have said there has been a "huge improvement" in domestic abuse services since devolution.
But it is claimed cuts are now putting refuges in a difficult position.
The women and children were turned away for a number of reasons - because the refuge was not suitable, because of their immigration status and because there was no space.

You worry about what happens to them and you wonder where the kids have ended up

Lily Greenan
Scottish Women's Aid

Abuse court 'makes a difference'

'I could have killed my partner'

'He hit her with a fire extinguisher'

Police 'proactively hunt abusers'

Across Britain, it is thought that 235 women every day are refused access to refuges because there is no space, equating to up to 58,000 a year.
Although many of these women may get help elsewhere, or from another refuge, experts have raised concerns about the situation.
Lily Greenan, director of Scottish Women's Aid, said: "We're not at what we need in terms of refuge provision. We turn away women and children every day.
"The prospect of further cuts, it just feels like we're going back. We've achieved so much and we don't want to lose that ground."
She added: "You worry about what happens to them and you wonder where the kids have ended up.
"You wonder if they found a friend's floor to sleep on. You wonder if they went back."
'Turned away'
Dr Mairead Tagg, a psychologist who works with Glasgow East Women's Aid, said: "To be fair we have seen a huge improvement in the services for domestic abuse since the Scottish government came into being."
But she said she was concerned about the impact of economic hardship and cuts.
"Women will then come forward depending and relying on a service that may be truncated or cut or fractured or, God forbid, not there at all," she said.

Dr Tagg said services highlighted by advertising drives may not be available

It is thought one-in-four women and one-in-six men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.
Among those not entitled to help in a refuge are those women who have come to Britain to marry from abroad.
Many of these women find that, although living in Britain legally, they are not entitled to help from public funds. This means that refuges have no money to help them.
A survey of Women's Aid refuges in Scotland found that 139 such women had to be refused help by refuges over the course of a year.
However, John Watson, Amnesty International's programme director in Scotland, said there was no accurate way of measuring how many women were being affected by this and that the real total could amount to many hundreds.
He said: "In the great majority of those cases they have to be turned away, either to go back to the abuser, or to be forced onto the charity of friends or forced onto the streets.
"We've heard of cases where people have ended up in prostitution."
Since the BBC investigation was carried out, a pilot scheme which offers some limited help to domestic abuse victims who have no recourse to public funds, has been extended until the end of August.

@'BBC'

GOP seeks to block Obama nominee to El Salvador post over Cuban romance

Senate Republicans are determined to block a Democratic Party activist's nomination as ambassador to El Salvador because of questions about a long-ago boyfriend who had contacts with Cuban diplomats, congressional staffers say.
The FBI cleared Mari Carmen Aponte when the issue of the boyfriend, Cuban-born businessman Roberto Tamayo, first became public after President Bill Clinton nominated her as ambassador to the Dominican Republic in 1998.
Aponte withdrew from that nomination after Senate Republicans vowed to ask tough questions about Tamayo. They had dated from 1982 to 1994 and attended social functions with Cuban diplomats in Washington, D.C.
Her Obama administration nomination to the El Salvador job was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee April 27, with 10 Democrats endorsing her -- including Cuban-American Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey -- and eight Republicans voting no.
But the Republicans will put a hold on her nomination when it comes up in the full Senate, meaning it will need 60 votes for confirmation unless they lift the hold, said congressional staffers who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the topic.
``This is clearly a controversial nomination. It was controversial the last time she was nominated, in a different administration,'' the committee's top Republican, Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, said during last month's vote.
The panel's Republicans, led by Sen. Jim DeMint, R-SC., had asked to look at Aponte's full FBI file and a reputed confidential memo on Tamayo's Cuban connections written during her 1998 nomination. Democrats countered that no such memo exists, and that by tradition only one member from each party is allowed to read the full files of nominees.
Menendez strongly defended Aponte during the April 27 vote, according to The Cable, a Washington-based foreign policy website.
``If I thought that, after having reviewed the file, that Miss Aponte would be a security risk to the United States in any context, but particularly in the context of the Castro regime . . . I would oppose her. But that is simply not the case,'' he was quoted as saying.
Cuban intelligence defector Florentino Aspillaga alleged in a 1993 newspaper article that Havana's spies were trying to recruit Aponte through Tamayo, but gave no details. FBI agents later revealed that Tamayo was in fact passing them information on his contacts with the Cuban diplomats in Washington.
The Puerto Rico-born Aponte, 63, has acknowledged that she and Tamayo attended some social functions with Cuban diplomats but insisted that she never became aware of any attempt to recruit her.
Aponte has been a longtime Hispanic community activist in Washington, working in the Department of Housing and Urban Development under President Jimmy Carter, volunteering in the Clinton White House in 1993 and later raising campaign funds for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she ran for Senate.
She has served on the board of directors of the National Council of La Raza and as president of the Hispanic National Bar Association, and was executive director 2001-2004 of the Puerto Rican Federal Affairs Administration in Washington, a liaison between the island's government and U.S. federal and state agencies.

Execution and Intimidation are condemned: Statement of Tehran Bus Transportation Syndicate in condemning Farzad Kamangar’s execution

فارسی

We are mourning the death of a teacher whose teaching tool was chalk and pen, who taught children that many of them would go to bed with an empty stomach every night. Execution and intimidation is condemned. His crime was defending human rights. Crime that in the past 100 year has taken lives of many and made lots of families to mourn. In the past 4 years many national and international organizations had condemned the imprisonment of Farzad Kamanger and more importantly demanded for an impartial and legal review of his case. International organizations had asked for direct meeting with Farzad several times, which never got approved.

Unfortunately his family did not have the right or opportunity to see their beloved son for the last time. These executions take place in our society while our people have always negated any type of violence. Iranian and international worker movement have lost a teacher who did not stop learning and teaching even in prison. Our condolences goes to Farzad Kamangar family and everyone around the world.

As we have repeatedly announced through out these years, we want an end to death penalty, we reject verdicts of illegal courts and ask for the freedom of all social right prisoners; including Mr. Madadi and Osanloo.

With hope for peace and justice all around the world

Union Workers

Bus Transportation of Tehran and Suburbs

In Memorium

The fire at Valley Parade took 56 lives and left more than 200 people injured
Bradford marks Valley Parade stadium fire 25 years on

Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?

Forget "Downfall", here's Bayern München 's Dutch coach Louis Van Gaal!

In case you have just tuned in...

Gordon Brown plays last card – proffering his resignation

Brown's announcement outside No 10 Downing Street

School ban on gay anthology challenged by US free speech organisations

Oh look! it's that a**hat again Mommy!

A campaign by the local chapter of Glenn Beck's 9.12 project led to Rancocas Valley Regional High School's decision to ban Revolutionary Voices. Photograph: Soul Brother/FilmMagic

American free speech organisations are fighting a decision by a New Jersey school to remove a critically acclaimed anthology of writing about teenage homosexuality from library shelves after parents described it as vulgar and obscene.

Revolutionary Voices, a collection of stories, poems and artwork by young homosexuals, was banned at Rancocas Valley Regional High School last week following a campaign by the local chapter of Glenn Beck's conservative 9.12 project. Local grandmother and 9.12 member Beverly Marinelli told the Philadelphia Inquirer that the book was "pervasively vulgar, obscene, and inappropriate", while insisting that she is "not a homophobe".

But a coalition of free speech groups has jumped to the book's defence, saying that residents "have no right to impose their views on others or to demand that the contents of the library reflect their personal, religious, or moral values".

"There are undoubtedly GLBTQ [gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning] students at Rancocas Valley High School, regardless of whether they are openly recognised. Removing any of these titles would send a clear message to those students that they are the objects of social disapproval – different, vulnerable, and marginal – whose needs for information of particular relevance to their lives are not respected," wrote the directors of a collection of organisations to the school's board. The letter, the signatories to which include the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression, the Association of American Publishers and PEN America, added that there was "no question that these books are not obscene".

"No one has to read something just because it's on the library shelf," the letter continued. "No book is right for everyone, and the role of the library is to allow students to make choices according to their own interests, experiences, and family values ... Even if the books are too mature for some students, they will be meaningful to others."

Lambda Legal, a US civil rights group representing gays, lesbians, and people with HIV/Aids, has also written to the school board saying that removing the book "undermines the school's obligation and ability to protect students regardless of sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity".

The book's editor, Amy Sonnie, pointed to a letter from a 15-year-old boy, who said that on reading the volume he was relieved to discover "that there were other people out there who shared elements of my identity".

"Queer students may not feel safe speaking up when LGBTQ books are challenged," said Sonnie. "But, they certainly deserve a chance to discover the 'diversity of voices' that make balanced library collections so crucial for the health of our communities and democracy."

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the local 9.12 group is now looking to get the same book removed from the Lenape regional high school district, the county's largest school district. But the paper said that students were "shrugging off" the controversy. "Just because these books are in the library isn't going to cause us to be gay," they said. "We have so much access to information, if we want to read something we'll read it."

Alison Flood @'The Guardian'

Conservatives can't be funny.

a)They don't like irreverence

because their beliefs are based on sacred things that mustn't be questioned.

b)They don't like irony

because it involves nuance acknowledges that our assumptions about reality don't always match up.

That basically leaves them with humor based on puns and cruelty.

e.g.

West Midlands (UK) Ambulance Service defend 'Hitler' survey

The young are permanently in a state resembling intoxication.

- Aristotle

Sex Madness

Vaughn Bell just reminded me of this film, which I haven't seen since an all nighter at The Scala in London sometime in the early eighties.

I also learnt this rather astonishing bit of information from his post over at 'Mind Hacks':

"...Before then, the most effective treatment was to be infected by malaria which would give you a fever so strong that the syphilis bacteria would die in your body due to the high temperature. The hope was that the malaria could be treated by quinine before you died from that. The discovery won Julius Wagner-Jauregg the Nobel prize in 1927."

.@DMiliband says Cabinet has agreed no one will put their name forward for leader until talks are over 2 minutes ago via TweetDeck

(Nice to see that he knows the secret of the .@!)

RIP Frank Frazetta

@'The Beat'

Back at school in Glasgow in the mid 70's the art department was full of boys ripping off Roger Dean.

Frank Frazetta got ripped off a lot too!

‘Never book me in Memphis the day Elvis dies again.’ - Willie Nelson

JoeBot - "Disaster Tourist" - Photo by Andrew Edman

Beneath the Surface – Nashville’s Flood of 2010

Brother Dege (for Stacey!)

“This is Delta Blues for the 21st Century, raging out of the swamplands of Louisiana. Dripping with atmosphere and backwoods noir. The real deal—death-obsessed, god-fearing, foot stomping acoustic blues steeped in the devilish myths and haunted ambience that permeates every inch of Louisiana. Factor in some Historic longhaired rock & roll influences – from Sabbath to Black Flag – and you’ve got an art project and anthropological study wrapped in one time traveling package.”

@'Captain's Dead'

The Battle of New Orleans
The Girl Who Wept Stones

Coalition scenarios

@'BBC'

Hung parliament: Tories' 'final offer' on vote reform

Now...

...Osborne says he will offer the LibDems a referendum on the alternative vote

davidschneider William Hague making a statement as if someone's banging his balls between 2 bricks. And that someone is Nick Clegg. 1 minute ago via TweetDeck

HA!

Armando Iannucci explains the faff-mechanics of a hung parliament (1997)

"Look at the young hope on my face."
AIannucci Hey, they both offer votes on electoral reform and they both hate Nick Clegg: how about a Lab-Con coalition? 4 minutes ago via UberTwitter

Vintage Christian Documentary - ‘Pornography: A Winnable War’

“They took him into an alley and tied his hands over his head and drove a truck into his knees.”

Via Found Footage Fest, a vintage Focus on the Family production with a frank discussion on the dangers of (soft to) hardcore pornography.

("...or whatever you call it!")

@'Disinformation'

Twitter hit by major disruption

Most users currently show 0 users

Twitter has been hit by a major bug that has seen many users of the service lose all of their followers and friends.

The problem began when a flaw was uncovered that allowed people to force others to "follow" them on the site.
People who typed "accept" followed by a person's username forced the user to be added to their list of followers.
The hack was quickly passed around the social network with many people using it to force celebrities to follow them.
Twitter has fixed the bug but said they it was currently cleaning up the damage.(SIC)
"We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to 'force' other users to follow them," the site said in a blog post. "We're now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place."
As part of the clean up, Twitter has temporarily reset accounts so that people look like they are following no one and have no followers.
"Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we're aware and this too should shortly be resolved."
People can still use the service in the meantime.
Twitter allows users to post messsages - known as tweets - up to 140 characters long.
People can see what others are writing by choosing to "follow" them. However, unlike many social networks, both parties do not need to receiprocate the friendship.
The new bug allowed many people to force celebrities, such as Lady Gaga, to follow them by simply typing "accept @ladygaga". The flaw only worked on the website, and not through third-party applciations used to access the site, such as tweetdeck.
Twitter has exploded in popualrity since 2007, when it was launched, and now has more than 100 million users.

@'BBC'

UPDATE:
FIXED NOW!

Gordon Brown's Resignation Statement

Gordon Brown announces that he will step down as Labour leader

Gordon Brown announcing he will step down as Labour leader today. Photograph: Matt Cardy/Getty Images

We have a parliamentary system, not a presidential system, in this country.

As I said on Friday, with no party able to command a parliamentary majority arising from the general election, my constitutional duty as prime minister is to ensure government continues while parties explore options for forming a new administration with majority support in the House of Commons.

The business of government has continued, including concerted action in Europe today to avert the financial crisis in the euro area.

Alistair Darling, the chancellor, spent much of his time yesterday at the European finance ministers' meeting in Brussels.

This morning, I had conversations with the president of the European Council, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund and the president of the European Central Bank.

I have said I would do all I could to ensure that a stable, strong and principled government is formed, able to tackle Britain's economic and political challenges effectively.

As we know, the Liberal Democrats felt they should first talk to the Conservative party. Mr Clegg has just informed me that, while he intends to continue his dialogue that he has begun with the Conservatives, he now wishes also to take forward formal discussions with the Labour party.

I believe it is sensible and it is in the national interest to respond positively.

The cabinet will meet soon. A formal policy negotiating process is being established under the arrangements made by the cabinet secretary, similar to the negotiations between other parties.

The first priority should be an agreed deficit reduction plan to support economic growth and a return to full employment.

I know that both parties recognise the importance of ensuring economic stability in the markets and protecting Britain's standing and both are agreed on the need for a strong and full deficit reduction plan over the coming years.

There is also a progressive majority in Britain and I believe it could be in the interests of the whole country to form a progressive coalition government.

In addition to the economic priorities, in my view, only such a progressive government could meet the demand for political and electoral change which the British people made last Thursday.

Our commitments on a new voting system for the House of Commons and for the election of the House of Lords are clearly part of this.

I would however like to say something also about my own position.

If it becomes clear that the national interest, which is stable and principled government, can be best served by forming a coalition between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, then I believe I should discharge that duty to form that government which would, in my view, command a majority in the House of Commons in the Queen's speech and any other confidence votes.

But I have no desire to stay in my position longer than is needed to ensure the path to economic growth is assured and the process of political reform we have agreed moves forward quickly.

The reason that we have a hung parliament is that no single party and no single leader was able to win the full support of the country.

As leader of my party, I must accept that that is a judgment on me.

I therefore intend to ask the Labour party to set in train the processes needed for its own leadership election.

I would hope that it would be completed in time for the new leader to be in post by the time of the Labour party conference.

I will play no part in that contest. I will back no individual candidate.

I believe that the British people now want us to focus on the economy, the continuing fight against terrorism, the terrorist threat to our country.

They want us to continue to pursue the economic recovery, and I will do so with my usual vigour and determination, and I will do all in my power to support the British troops whose service and sacrifice create a debt of gratitude we can never fully repay.

And I believe on Thursday the country was also telling us that they want a new politics, and that the political reforms we seek will help deliver that change.

I now intend to facilitate the discussions that the Liberal Democratic party has asked for.

Thank you very much. As you will understand I will take no questions this evening. Other discussions can be had later.

Thank you very much.

@'The Guardian'

More Mandela than Mandelson LOL!

The Electric Cure

Coming soon...

48 HR Magazine

WTF???

Anyone else had all their followers & following on 'twatter' just disappear?

So...

With the news that Milibrand & Balls had secret meetings with Clegg and the LibDems over the weekend I think that this is the price that Brown had to pay...

chrislhayes RT @RichardKimNYC: 11/1 odds that Eddie Milliband, former Nation intern, becomes PM in coalition w/ LD Nick Clegg, former Nation intern. 1 minute ago via Brizzly

Loser?

'Oot mah way!'

This remind you of anything Rodda?

(you know like the disappearing mountain bike from the pole outside the Twee Prinsen? Sorry man - but it was fugn hilarious! For us NOT you...)

WTF???

BP 'may stem oil with golf balls and tyres'

This the move for a Labour-LibDem coalitation???

Gordon Brown 'stepping down as Labour leader'

Gordon Brown has been prime minister for nearly three years

Gordon Brown has said he is stepping down as Labour Party leader.

Mr Brown, prime minister since 2007, said he wanted a successor to be in place by the time of the party's conference in September.
Mr Brown announced his intention to quit in a statement in Downing St in which he also said his party was to start formal talks with the Lib Dems.
The Conservatives won the most seats and most votes in the election and have been in talks with the Lib Dems.
Mr Brown said no party had won an overall majority in the UK general election and, as Labour leader, he had to accept his part in that.
He said he had no desire to stay in his position longer than was needed to form a stable government, and that he would ask the Labour Party to set in form the process of a leadership contest.
He said it could be in the interests of the country to form a "progressive" government - possibly in coalition with the Lib Dems - the UK's third largest party.
It emerged earlier that the Lib Dem negotiating team, who have held days of talks with the Conservatives, had also met senior Labour figures in private.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said one of the stumbling blocks to any Lib Dem-Labour deal had been Mr Brown himself.\

@'BBC'

BREAKING: Gordon Brown Resigns

A must read (coming soon)

Reviews

“In this path-breaking book, Polakow-Suransky traces the evolution of the alliance between Israel and apartheid South Africa, from its murky beginning to its inglorious end, following the transition to majority rule. It is based on the most meticulous archival research supplemented by remarkably revealing interviews with decision-makers in several countries. Wise, elegantly written, and strikingly fair-minded, it deserves the widest possible readership.”
—Avi Shlaim, author of The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World

“Interesting, unique, and telling. Its lesson is very clear: doing the right thing may also be the best political option. It also tells us that sometimes we need others to save us from ourselves.”
—Yossi Beilin, justice minister of Israel, 1999-2001

“A major, long-overdue study of the rise and demise of one of the most intriguing alliances of our time. Polakow-Suransky has written a masterfully researched history that reads like a thriller unraveling the secrets of an alliance between two embattled societies under siege. Woven into the author’s fascinating narrative lies the disturbing debate about the degree of moral end political congruence that might have existed between the two allies—Israel’s political and defense establishment on the one hand and the Afrikaner ‘master race’ on the other.”
—Shlomo Ben-Ami, foreign minister of Israel, 2000-2001

“An intensely observed, eye-opening book.”
—Kirkus Reviews

Product Description

A revealing account of how Israel’s booming arms industry and apartheid South Africa’s international isolation led to a secretive military partnership between two seemingly unlikely allies.

Prior to the Six-Day War, Israel was a darling of the international left: socialist idealists like David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir vocally opposed apartheid and built alliances with black leaders in newly independent African nations. South Africa, for its part, was controlled by a regime of Afrikaner nationalists who had enthusiastically supported Hitler during World War II.

But after Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories in 1967, the country found itself estranged from former allies and threatened anew by old enemies. As both states became international pariahs, their covert military relationship blossomed: they exchanged billions of dollars’ worth of extremely sensitive material, including nuclear technology, boosting Israel’s sagging economy and strengthening the beleaguered apartheid regime.

By the time the right-wing Likud Party came to power in 1977, Israel had all but abandoned the moralism of its founders in favor of close and lucrative ties with South Africa. For nearly twenty years, Israel denied these ties, claiming that it opposed apartheid on moral and religious grounds even as it secretly supplied the arsenal of a white supremacist government.

Sasha Polakow-Suransky reveals the previously classified details of countless arms deals conducted behind the backs of Israel’s own diplomatic corps and in violation of a United Nations arms embargo. Based on extensive archival research and exclusive interviews with former generals and high-level government officials in both countries, The Unspoken Alliance tells a troubling story of Cold War paranoia, moral compromises, and Israel’s estrangement from the left. It is essential reading for anyone interested in Israel’s history and its future.

PREORDER @'Amazon'