I’m going on hunger strike from today. I’m not allowing myself anything but sips of water.
Why? This is not some George Osborne-inspired weight-loss plan. No. I’m following the Guantánamo diet in solidarity with two men who are being slowly starved to death by President Trump.
His administration has changed its practice towards detainees who choose to refuse food in protest at their incarceration. Previously they were force-fed, a cruel and inhuman punishment in itself. Now they are no longer fed at all. Make no mistake, these men will die at the hands of Donald Trump if nothing is done.
Perhaps the clarity of mind that hunger brings will aid his logic. Not force-feeding someone is not killing them.
He looks like he spent eight years force feeding himself in protest at Obama, so you can’t say he’s being opportunistic or biased here.
I wonder how long he’ll keep it up, assuming of course he isn’t lying and stuffing his face in private?
If one of them can starve himself to death why can’t all of them? It does bring back fond memories of Northern Ireland though.
Could you go a chicken supper Bobby Sands?
Could you go a chicken supper Bobby Sands?
Previously they were force-fed, a cruel and inhuman punishment in itself. Now they are no longer fed at all.
Those terrorists just can’t catch a break. 🙁
This man is the leading figure on the supposedly sane wing of the Labour Party.
Even the Guardian commenters are mocking him btl. Did he really expect any other reaction than ridicule?
No idea about the Guantanamo folks, but a lot of hunger strikes aren’t real.
People often give themselves get-out clauses like fasting until a doctor advises against it, or eating only every other day, or only at night Ramadan-style. I do wonder where Watson stands on this spectrum, but I’m pretty confident he won’t be in a body bag in two months’ time.
I also wonder why he is prioritising this so much. Is he playing to the Islamist gallery in his constituency or party? Or is he trying to get leftist street cred within the party (hoping a bit of the Jezza-is-Jesus magic works for him)? Does he just want to turn anorexic and needs a pretext?
Or does he genuinely think this is the big issue of our times and something he should prioritise using his platform as an MP?
The moderators are going to be busy today
After a day of no food, I will be quite hungry. I might even feel a bit weak and find it hard to concentrate.
A. Whole. Day.
Way to take to The Man Tom! As someone pointed out below, Fat Boy Tom voted for the Iraq War and against any sort of inquiry. So he is saner than most. Is this his attempt to copy Jim Hacker’s British Banger moment?
“Now they are no longer fed at all.”
I’d suspect that’s a lie (Tom Watson so high probability). I’m confident the Guatanamo authorities have been offering them 3 squares or more a day, throughout the hungerstrike. Extraordinary tasty ones. It’s up to them if they eat them.
After all.if you’re going to do cruel & inhuman (sic) you do cruel & inhumane.
Bollocks; I bet the fat fuck is tucking into a mars bar right now.
I’m not retreading all the previous thread. Due process then hang/jail –or just let him go.
But a fat turd like Watson is no asset to his cause.
What’s the game I wonder? Watson want some kudos with the beards ?
This is in the same vein as Yvette Cooper taking in immigrant lodgers.
i.e. complete bollocks
I do wonder where Watson stands on this spectrum
Fish suppers delivered in secret to the back door after dark?
@Rob
I initially thought Rocco posted that
‘It is no coincidence that this has happened under Trump’
‘Neither man wants to die, but after over a decade of torture, injustice and indifference, they are desperate.’
Trump has been president for ‘over a decade?’
Gamecock – such is the Evil of Trump he can be held responsible for bad stuff that precedes his time on the planet, never mind in office.
Rob,
Isn’t that Keith Vaz and a rent boy, or have I misunderstood the ‘back door’ reference?
The human rights organisation Reprieve got in touch last week to alert me to the situation of two of their clients, Ahmed Rabbani and Khalid Qasim.
Dunno about you, but they sound guilty to me.
Tom goes on to virtue-signal harder than Keith Vaz at a plumbing convention:
First, we can’t let these two men die in silence. They are among the most powerless in the world and have faced grave injustice at the hands of our close ally. We need to take on their plight as our own and raise the alarm, on social media and in the House of Commons.
We should be asking questions of ministers. Why have they not spoken publicly about this? Have they raised it at the highest levels with their counterparts in the US? What responses have they got?
I’m sure everyone is impressed that Big Tam is going to temporarily stop inhaling Pot Noodles to show how much he cares about two probable murderers on the other side of the world who have nothing to do with his constituency or Britain.
Meanwhile, closer to home, MP’s are maintaining a courageous silence on Kevin Crehan. Mr Crehan was jailed – jailed, mind you – for placing a bacon sandwich outside a mosque.
He then suddenly died in jail, shortly after Christmas. How come? Nobody seems to want you to know.
The media has largely ignored it, the police, prison service and coroner haven’t said anything in months, and Tom Watson hasn’t so much as foregone a packet of Nik Naks over the suspicious death of a British man who was railroaded into prison for sandwich-related mischief.
Lets ask New Yorkers if they feel that Guantanamo detainees should be force fed or left to die of hunger and blame Trump….
“Kevin Crehan … placing a bacon sandwich outside a mosque”: clearly another of those Irish terrorists.
So they want to commit suicide. OK. Fine. Nobody’s forcing them to eat – which is kinda the point.
We’re in a stupid situation where you’re criticised for force feeding, and criticised for not force feeding. Can’t win.
Let’s open a sweepstake on when Tom is forced to start eating his own fingers. Place your bets against the options below:
1. Never.
We need to take on their plight as our own and raise the alarm, on social media and in the House of Commons.
Spot the equivalence!
Ok for him to want to do something for oppressed folk, but are these the best examples he can find? Really?
Now that the news has reached ‘Merica that a fat wog doesn’t like the fact that ‘Merica is letting detained terrorists starve themselves to death, no doubt the policy will be changed to, well, whatever the fat wog wants, I suppose.
‘Cause we ‘Mericans all know this one true fact: Wogs – especially fat Labour wogs – are our moral and intellectual superiors.
Dennis the Peasant – “‘Cause we ‘Mericans all know this one true fact: Wogs – especially fat Labour wogs – are our moral and intellectual superiors.”
I like your style but unfortunately this is actually policy in America. Of course good liberals don’t put it that way. But in Lawrence v Texas and Roper v. Simmons the Supreme Court held that the “weight of international (that is, European, oddly enough the views of Saudi Arabia were not considered in either case) opinion”.
But they meant what you said.
I like your style but unfortunately this is actually policy in America.
I’m aware of that fact… It is yet another reason as to why Donald Trump is POTUS.
Presumably the fat tat will be happy for the two detainees to be released in to his costuency, with suitable publicity?
There are some cultures that look on hunger strikes as bizzare. What, you want to starve yourself to death? Well, ok, it’s your body, go ahead, nobody has any right to stop you.
“Previously they were force-fed, a cruel and inhuman punishment in itself. Now they are no longer fed at all. Make no mistake, these men will die at the hands of Donald Trump”
This guy doesn’t even hide it. Obama force-fed them – people said that was cruel. Trump *doesn’t* force-feed them (and keeps food available should they want it) and he’s worse?
@ SMFS @ 10.19 AM
I have found that if I get a dose of food poisoning the simplest answer is to eat nothing for a day-and-a-bit to give my guts a chance to clear it out of my system. So I think that you are *overstating* the sacrifice involved in not eating for a whole day.
I wonder how the Samoan Air price structure of ‘pay what you weigh’ is coming along.
Tom Watson though is an exemplar of the reason the HoC needs shrinking by 7.7%. To fit everybody in.
“Make no mistake, these men will die at the hands of Donald Trump”
Trump is killing Jihadists? What’s not to like? It’s would be better if he actually throttled them bare-handed, but you can’t have everything.
It’s = It
Trump is force feeding them, “It’s inhuman”. Trump isn’t force feeding them. “He’s a monster”. It is getting seriously pathological.
Maybe he lives in Hertfordshire?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/17/nhs-provokes-fury-indefinite-surgery-ban-smokers-obese/
Ecks, can we get a move on please, this is all taking far too long.
Apologies, 3 DT links in one day, but this is the obvious rebuttal to Hertford’s gibbering:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/18/comes-smokers-burden-nhs-may-contribute-tax-take/
Although the DT is reluctant to absolutely call it – of course they are net contributors, the arithmetic with reduced pensions / other stuff (they die younger) as well is overwhelming.