51

What exactly is happening at Salisbury hospital?

Salisbury NHS Trust hospital


The UK has publicly said it is looking for “transparency” in the Skripal investigation. Currently this seems no more true than any other part of the UK’s narrative. In fact the opposite would seem to be the case. The situation with the Skripals in regard to Salisbury NHS Trust hopsital is particularly opaque as things stand.
Just to quickly recap.
1. The March 22 High Court judgment by Mr Justice Williams makes it clear the UK govt lawyers were trying to minimise or even deny the existence of the Skripals’ Russian relatives, claiming there was very little evidence there even were any such relatives, even after Sergey’s niece Viktoria had been interviewed by UK media outlets, and using this fabricated “lack of evidence” as a reason for not contacting the relatives or involving them in considerations of Yulia Skripals’ welfare.
2. The Russian embassy has repeatedly said it is being illegally denied access to the Skripals, and there is evidence the pair have been denied due process.
3. There are claims Yulia’s Russian cellphone has been disconnected or denied service.
4. The alleged phone call (on a “temporary phone”) from Yulia to her cousin Viktoria on April 4, if genuine, implies this reluctance to involve the relatives may be extending into discouraging or even denying Yulia access to her family in Russia.
5. The alleged statement issued by the Metropolitan Police on Yulia’s “behalf” only hours after the details of the above phone call were published has puzzled some people. It is quite generic and broadly similar in terms of sentiment (thanks to hospital and people of Salisbury, request for privacy etc) to the statement allegedly made by DS Bailey after his alleged recovery in late March.
Did Yulia contribute to that statement?
Does it reflect her real feelings or opinions? Why can’t we hear her own words?
6. The UK is apparently using questionable means to ensure the results of the OPCW investigation can remain secret. It has said it does not want them publicised and does not want them shared with Russia. Exactly what form of “transparency” does this represent?
7. Slipping down the Memory Hole is the still apparently unresolved question of consultant physician Mr Stephen Davies’ letter to the Times of March 16, and what he meant by the words “no patients have experienced symptoms of nerve-agent poisoning in Salisbury.” If Mr Davies has clarified his meaning, we have not heard about it, which leaves open the possibility that a senior doctor involved in treating the Skripals is of the opinion they were not poisoned by a nerve agent.
Major questions would seem to be:
How is Yulia being kept? Is she free to contact anyone she chooses? What information is she being given about her poisoning, and by whom?
Can the nature of what happened to the Skripals be established objectively (ie were they in fact poisoned by a nerve agent pr did something else befall them?)
Is the UK about to allege or imply Yulia does not want to contact her own government? If they take this step what happens next?


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Filed under: empire watch, latest, Russia, Skripal case, UK
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Old Pepper
Old Pepper
Apr 8, 2018 7:57 AM

Great News! It was possible to obtain the results of Skripal’s blood tests-the presence of powerful sleeping pills. That is, the poisoning was not, they were kept unconscious.

alaffcreator
alaffcreator
Apr 7, 2018 10:49 PM

4. The alleged phone call (on a “temporary phone”) from Yulia to her cousin Viktoria on April 4, if genuine…”
Well, this was a very interesting call. I don’t know what about it (genuine or not), but in my personal opinion there’re two versions: 1) It was NOT Y.Skripal on the phone 2) It was Y.Skripal but talking, you know, with someone standing behind her back and controlling what/how she’s saying (partly this was evident from the way the conversation was going on).
Must not forget that UK authorities in fact is still(!) holding Y.Skripal a hostage – her relatives are not permitted to visit her, Russian consuls are not allowed to visit her (which is unlawful)…
Must not forget Y.Skripal called her cousin from unknown number. After this conversation, her cousin [Viktoria] tried to call Yulia back, but this [unknown] number was no longer available (Y.Skripal’ personal phone is also unavailable).
In fact, Y.Skripal now is under full control of the British special services.
5.
“Did Yulia contribute to that statement?”

“Does it reflect her real feelings or opinions? Why can’t we hear her own words?”
Actually these are very topical, logical and correct questions.
Total lack of videos, photos of “victims”, as well as personal statements – at least of Y.Skripal – leads me to the opinion that she is completely controlled (at least now) by someone (MI6?) and for some purposes.
Btw, Russian experts have already expressed the opinion that she can be pressured – simply intimidated [by UK special services] to get the “right statements” from her. After all, there have already been statements in UK mass media that the “victims” will either not survive, or the “poisoning” will irreparably affect their mental abilities (the victims will simply became “vegetables”).comment image
So, in fact, UK special services can do anything to her. It is “highly likely” (c) that under the threat of – if not murder, then at least causing some harm to health – the UK special services are able to force her to say all that is needed. After all, they can always say that “remember, doctors warned…”.
Call this a “conspiracy theory”, but must not exclude the theoretical possibility that these statements – “victims will either not survive, or the poisoning will irreparably affect their mental abilities” – were made special and in advance.

John Ward
John Ward
Apr 7, 2018 5:17 PM

Keep it up Off Guardian, your reporting on this is top-notch. The classic maneouvre of all black op stings that create a stink is to bombard the public with confusing data and more “proof” which is anything but classic egs respectively being the “death of the Skripals’ pets” and the “aerial shot” of an alleged Russian Chemicals factory. It seems possible that ‘Novi chok’ (literally “new stuff”) is just a generic term with no specific congruence to nerve agents at all.
Yesterday I was given sight of a research poll showing that over 60% of Brits believe Boris. Depressing and at one and the same time incredible.
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2018/04/07/saturday-satire-the-slog-sums-up-on-skripal-and-the-foreign-secretary-offers-an-exclusive-endorsement/

Admin
Admin
Apr 7, 2018 8:01 PM
Reply to  John Ward

Frankly we currently see no reason to believe any opinion poll arising from the MSM. The situation is now such that disbelief and doubt should, in our view, be the default. Opinion polls are easy to manipulate or even invent for a culture that now regards lying and deception as political norms.
The idea that 60% of people believe Bojo, who was a laughing stock even before his recent humiliation, is risible enough to be virtually dismissed out of hand. 🙂

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 8, 2018 2:47 AM
Reply to  Admin

Absolutely. I saw comments on Skripal articles in the Daily Mail and The Sun where virtually all commenters expressed ridicule. The comments in The Sun were hilarious and I wish I’d saved them before – what a surprise – they were all deleted.

Mulga Mumblebrain
Mulga Mumblebrain
Apr 8, 2018 4:04 AM
Reply to  John Ward

John, by definition, 50% of the UK population is of below median intelligence, many far below, and I doubt that the median compares well with other societies not as relentlessly dumbed down and stupefied by the brainwashing machine as poor Old Blighty.

Jo
Jo
Apr 7, 2018 12:50 AM

And of course…absolutely no news of what why when how who is the boyfriend…a very marked silence indeed.

bevin
bevin
Apr 6, 2018 10:27 PM

One of MoA’s Norwegian readers solves the mystery so far as I am concerned:
“Doctors at the Salisbury District Hospital announced today that Sergej Skripal’s health is rapidly improving. He and his daughter Yulia will likely be well again.
“It is unlikely that any targeted poisoning with a real ‘military grade’ nerve agent would have allowed for such an outcome. This brings us back to food poisoning as a possible cause of the Skripals’ ordeal.
“A friend of this blog, Tore, sent us his considerations which we publish below. He suggest that shellfish poisoning, which is caused by a neurotoxin known as Saxitoxin or STX, is the real culprit of the Skripal incident. He explains how this would fit to the observable behavior of the British government and other participants in the drama. In my view his theory has significant merit.
“For those who have not read our previous posts on the issue we offer a short recap of the case. Regular readers may want to scroll down to Tore’s part.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/04/the-best-explanation-for-the-skripal-drama-is-food-poisoning.html#more
The bottom line? Democracy in journalism, citizens sifting through the evidence available and discussing possibilities works, just as the Jury system does, better than all the punditry and secret intelligence and ‘journalism’ of the capitalists.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 7, 2018 12:29 AM
Reply to  bevin

I think this is a very ‘plausible’ scenario. Poster @DavidKNZ posted a comment on ‘The Empire Strikes Backwards’ article on this website which you might like to look at and I have added a few comments in response supporting this as a valid hypothesis. As with all the hypotheses being expounded it is impossible for us to determine which one is the actual cause of the incident but what we are all demonstrating between us is that it is irresponsible – and criminal – of the Govt to point the finger at Russia with such disrespectful haste when there ARE many plausible alternative explanations requiring consideration in the investigation.

Agnostic Citizen
Agnostic Citizen
Apr 6, 2018 9:31 PM

“UK/US Given Novichok Case File”
The smoking-gun ? Or the script…?
Either way this definatively confirms an identical attack can be (an has previously been) carried out by a
non-state actor.
?!
“Leonid Rink, a former employee of the chemical weapons facility, [Skikany lab – target of latest UK allegation] admits in case files seen by the Guardian and first reported by Reuters to enlisting a scientist to develop a batch of the nerve agent in his garage and sell it to an organised crime group. He was caught before the murder of Kivelidi, but the nerve agent was later used in the killing.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/06/uk-us-case-file-russian-nerve-agent-shikhany-spy-poisoning?CMP=share_btn_tw

Ross Hendry
Ross Hendry
Apr 6, 2018 8:39 PM

To avoid getting lost in the deliberately created wilderness of mirrors I find I have to keep referring back to the senior consultant’s assertion that nobody has been treated for nerve agent poisoning at Salisbury Hospital. More than anyone in this saga, I trust the good doctor who has taken it on himself to write to The Times and refute the official narrative. He implies that only three people have (ever) been treated for poisoning – i.e. with some other substance.
This being the case, the nerve agent sample(s) must have been faked and given to Porton Down and the OCW, or planted in situ somewhere (the door knob, the car vent, etc) for them to collect.
My current hypothesis is that the Russian pair and the policeman were given a relatively mild poison for the purpose of the melodrama and they are now being readied for “convalescence”. The interesting challenge facing our intelligence service bunch of ne’er-do-wells is to keep them away from the spotlight for as long as possible, otherwise they might be asked too many searching questions. It’s likely they are as confused as everyone else about the whole experience but still they could unknowingly let slip some details (regarding their treatment, for example) which could go against the official line and prove embarrassing. No doubt they would also be asked to sign confidentiality agreements and given some financial inducements.
Note how we are earnestly entreated to “respect their privacy” 🙂 Devilishly clever.

JudyJ
JudyJ
Apr 6, 2018 9:19 PM
Reply to  Ross Hendry

I think it was amongst reader comments on Craig Murray’s blog (if it was on this website, apologies for repeating the points) that someone who had seen the cctv footage of the Skripals heading for ‘the bench’ observed that they both looked intently into the camera as if wanting to be sure they could be recognised and that they were walking more quickly than one might expect them to be doing just heading for a bench to sit down on. The reader suggested, not tongue in cheek, that it would be consistent with people who might have been following instructions and had dosed themselves with a few valium tablets and laxatives to emulate the symptoms of severe poisoning. I recall also a witness from the restaurant commenting that shortly before they left the restaurant he saw Sergei go to the toilet and come back looking agitated. That could of course have been put down to the argument they supposedly had with staff in the restaurant. I don’t know what the argument was about but maybe something was slipped in their food there.

Paul
Paul
Apr 6, 2018 11:55 PM
Reply to  JudyJ

Public arguments are not uncommon ways of ensuring there will be witnesses to wherever you were and also a way of identifying yourself to undercover operatives – if you were on business!

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 1:06 AM
Reply to  JudyJ

This event simply screams false-flag hoax from every possible angle and, of course, the Skripals are in on the hoax as are, I’m sure, a number of doctors. Doctors are always in on these things.
To support all the evidence for a false-flag hoax (the Navy “major chemical exercise” on Salisbury Plain is a classic hallmark) and complete lack of evidence for a real event, here is some symbology and numerology that is always used:
https://steemit.com/conspiracy/@lavater/sergei-skripal-poisoned-russian-spy-masonic-hoax-33-and-777-coded

Admin
Admin
Apr 7, 2018 2:43 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Are you suggesing the Russians and Viktoria Skripal are also in on it?

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 3:23 AM
Reply to  Admin

Not necessarily the Russians but Viktoria Skripal certainly. Why not? Skripal, was after all, a spy for the UK. The point is that we have absolutely zero evidence of any of this story so, surely, anything is possible.
The thing is though it seems to be that every power is somehow in on these events. It seems that nations simply do not call each other out for committing false flags against each other. The Russian ambassador said, seemingly with some irony, “They need to get Poirot onto it,” but he didn’t say, “I think it’s a false-flag hoax, put up your evidence or shut up,” did he?
Where are the Muslim nations calling out all the Muslim terrorist false flags and false-flag hoaxes, notably, 9/11, the evidence of which is right in your face?
I think the claim made by Ronald Bernard, the Dutch high-finance whistleblower, that we are ruled by an elite of 8,000 people among whom nationality and religion do not mean anything is borne out by the evidence just as the conclusion of this post linked to in my previous comment is:
An Order Out of Chaos PsyOp aimed at increasing the Tyranny in the UK (increased “Security”) and programming the masses into hating Russia & Putin (who of course has already been blamed) in preparation for WW3.
Why doesn’t Putin expose these hoaxes? because he’s part of the charade (member of Freemason Lodge Golden Eurasia) and it takes 2 sides to tango in a War. The Hegelian Dialectic, 2 conflicting sides to reach a predefined conclusion, is what they always use to reach their common objective: The NWO.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 4:17 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

I will add though that cognitive dissonance prevents me from being able to really believe this because the very idea is so discombobulating but all I can say is that there is some evidence, at least, suggesting it. In a comment made by vexarb he mentions how the Bin Laden family was at the Bushes’ residence the day before 9/11 and their private jet was the only plane allowed to fly out of the US on 9/12. Seriously, it is astounding, no? Of course, Bush and the Bin Ladens knew what was going to happen so this seemingly completely avoidable scenario surely is an example of the power elite rubbing the evidence of a false flag in our faces, I mean, it’s almost as if they’re choking us with it.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 4:20 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

In fact, who knows if they even were at the ranch and flown out of the country. The level of both fakery and rubbing their dastardly deeds in our faces should never be underestimated.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 4:25 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Or perhaps it was supposed to suggest innocent ignorance of the coming event and thus the private jet requirement. Best not to dwell on it too much.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 6:52 AM
Reply to  Admin

Also, by asking the question, “Do you think Viktoria Skripal is in on it? implies to me perhaps that you suspect it’s a false flag as opposed to a false-flag hoax. As far as I’m aware, any events of a false flag nature, at least, on Western soil, since 9/11, are of the false-flag hoax variety, not false flag. I think false-flag hoax is really the event of choice – no pesky family members jumping up and down. I’d suggest that part of the reason (if not the entire reason) 9/11 was a false flag rather than a false-flag hoax is that people were targeted for murder in the twin towers and the Pentagon. They only wanted a few hundred or so murdered but with those murders people would have been killed as “collateral damage”, however, the number of 3,000 seems to be an inflated number with evidence of “double-dipping” so to speak.

Admin
Admin
Apr 7, 2018 10:53 AM
Reply to  flaxgirl

But in Russia Viktoria has indeed been ‘jumping up and down’, as has the entire Russian establishment.
Also don’t you think, if it was all scripted, it would have played better and not so obviously fallen apart?
Having said that, I entirely agree we would all be foolish not to always keep in mind that entire narratives can be fabricated.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 7, 2018 2:31 PM
Reply to  Admin

You always have to keep in mind that seeming “falling apart” can be deliberate, that is, their form of informing us of what they’re up to or somehow part of the plan. These things really very, very planned but perhaps someone isn’t playing along and that’s why it’s genuinely falling apart. I have no idea.
I have to confess I’m not following the story very carefully – all I know for sure is that it is a staged event but who is “in on it” and who isn’t I have too little knowledge to guess at.

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 7, 2018 11:27 PM
Reply to  flaxgirl

You are wise not to follow this pantomime
closely, Flaxgirl. It’s smoke and mirrors.
THE SECOND COMING
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
 Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
 The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
 When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
 Troubles my sight: a waste of desert sand;
 A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
 A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
 Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
 Wind shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again but now I know
 That twenty centuries of stony sleep
 Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
 And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
 Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
                                   W B Yeats
Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 6, 2018 6:35 PM

UK authorities have denied an entry visa to the niece of ex-Russian spy Sergei Skripal saying her visa application as it “did not comply with the Immigration Rules.”
Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said to Rossiya 1 TV channel that Moscow wants London to explain why it had refused to issue a visa to Victoria Skripal, who sought to visit her cousin Yulia in the hospital of UK town of Salisbury. She also dismissed the insinuations in the UK media that Victoria Skripal is the Kremlin’s “pawn.”
Viktoria Skripal said earlier to the Sky News that “the British must have something to hide,” commenting on the visa refusal on Friday.
The UK authorities denied an entry visa to the niece of the ex-Russian spy who had been in the hospital for over a month after being found unconscious in the town of Salisbury in early March.
“We have refused a visitor visa application from Viktoria Skripal on the grounds that her application did not comply with the Immigration Rules,” a Home Office spokesman stated.
The confirmation followed a tweet by a BBC correspondent’s tweet who said that the Russian state was looking to use Yulia Skripal’s cousin as a “pawn.”
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201804061063291689-sergei-skripal-niece-no-visa-uk/

brankabrankov
brankabrankov
Apr 6, 2018 6:30 PM
MICHAEL LEIGH
MICHAEL LEIGH
Apr 6, 2018 11:01 PM
Reply to  Yonatan

And YONATAN It is also widely reported in the Middle-East TV and Press Media, that when handed over to the Syrian Government the senior military British prisoners illegaly operating in Syria and leading the terrorist against the Syrian Government and when captured claimed to be soldiers and be treated accordingly!
But currently according to the Damascus Radio as the prisoners were disguised as Arab civilians, and by this fact adjudged accordingly, and liable to death by a sentence of a hanging by the public gallows – which normally is a suspension from a crane at dawn in a public square?
Surely, YONATAN Boris Alexandra de Pfeffer Johnson should be in Damascus now urgently pleading for the lives of his compatriot’s do you think ?

Mikalina
Mikalina
Apr 7, 2018 12:04 AM
Reply to  MICHAEL LEIGH

Vierotchka posted an interview with Ritchie Allen (www.ritchieallen.co.uk) and Michael Shrimpton on another thread. Close to the end of the interview, Shrimpton said that he was being sounded out by the government (British) to go to Syria for negotiation purposes – something he had done previously.

Hmmm...
Hmmm...
Apr 7, 2018 10:00 AM
Reply to  Yonatan

That report appeared to refer to a smoke grenade found in Eastern Ghouta, made by a company based in Salisbury.

flamingo
flamingo
Apr 7, 2018 6:16 AM
Reply to  brankabrankov

This is months old video. Have a healthy skepticism with this site. This video likely has zero to do with the east Ghouta events of the past fortnight. The prisoners story is likely correct but entirely unrelated to this video. Other contemporary videos reveal a production facility in a large building.

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 6, 2018 6:16 PM

I posted these letters on Craig Murrays blog. I wrote two letters one to Yulia Skripal Care of Salisbury Hospital Trust, and one to the Chief Executive of the Trust, and sent them recorded Delivery. They were delivered on the 04/04/18 and signed for by ‘BEN’. with full signature.
Here is the letter to Yulia…
Yulia Skripal
CO: Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury District Hospital
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP2 8BJ
Dear Yulia Skripal,
Hope you are recovering well! I am writing to you today to inform you of your rights as I see them.
1 You have the right under two conventions to have access with a Russian consular official.
Under the consular convention 1965 between the United Kingdom and the USSR (now Russia the legal successor state)
ARTICLE 30
A consular officer shall be entitled, within the consular district, (a) to protect the rights and to promote the interests of the sending State and of its nationals; the term “national” shall, for the purposes of this Part, mean any person whom the sending State recognises as its national, including, where the context so permits, any juridical entity;
ARTICLE 36
(1)(a) A consular officer shall be entitled within the consular district to communicate with, interview and advise a national of the sending State and may render him every assistance including, where necessary, arranging for aid and advice in legal matters.
(b) No restriction shall be placed by the receiving State upon the access of a national of the sending State to the consulate or upon communication by him with the consulate.
Articles 5 and 36 of the 1963 Vienna convention is in a similar vein.
You have rights under the NHS charter and as justice Williams said at the High court hearing, decision makers such as NHS personnel must look at their patients welfare in the widest sense, not just medical, but social and psychological. In this spirit the NHS charter states:
“We recognise that visiting a relative or friend in hospital plays a vital part in helping their recovery and we would encourage any visitor to socialise with our patients. To help and to benefit our patients. We will keep family members and next of kin informed of any information the patient wishes them to know.”
In my opinion your rights have clearly been infringed, and I hope that you can tell carers and government officials of these infringements.
Yours sincerely
Harry Law
The letter to the Chief Executive of the NHS Trust …….
FAO Chief Executive
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust
Salisbury District Hospital
Salisbury
Wiltshire
SP2 8BJ
Dear Sir or Madam,
I write In view of the UK governments apparent breach of two conventions, The Vienna convention (1963) and the Bilateral convention(1965) between UK and USSR, and specifically denying consular access to your patient Yulia Skripal. She may be unaware that her rights to consular access have been infringed.
Be that as it may Yulia Skripal’s condition cannot but be affected by her lack of access to family, friends and consular access. As Mr Justice Williams said at the High court hearing last week, “decision makers must look at their (i.e patients) welfare in the widest sense, not just medical, but social and psychological”
May I also point out the visitor’s charter of one NHS trust “We recognise that visiting a relative or friend in hospital plays a vital part in helping their recovery and we would encourage any visitor to socialise with our patients. To help and to benefit our patients. We will keep family members and next of kin informed of any information the patient wishes them to know.”
You have a duty of care. I have written to Yulia Skripal today informing her of her rights under the relevant conventions, and her rights under the NHS charter. I hope you can ensure she receives the letter.
Thank You
Harry Law
My aim was to inform Yulia of her rights since her Litigation Friend appointed by the Official Solicitor seemed not to want to help her. If I presented at the hospital and said I wanted to see Yulia. The hospital authorities would need to ask Yulia whether she wanted to see me or not, they could of course tell me a pack of lies which could come back to haunt them later, then it would demonstrate she was a sort of detainee. note. A visa applied for from the Russian Federation usually results in 99% approved within 10 days. This application would have urgency in view of the situation, so who can tell when or if she will receive one?

George Cornell
George Cornell
Apr 6, 2018 7:02 PM
Reply to  Harry Law

Bravo Harry

Estaugh
Estaugh
Apr 7, 2018 2:34 AM
Reply to  Harry Law

notice to agent is notice to principle. Am I right?

Harry Law
Harry Law
Apr 6, 2018 6:04 PM

What is the truth about this telephone conversation between Yulia and her cousin Viktoria, Alexander Mercouris said today…
“There have been some attempts to cast doubt on the authenticity of this transcript. However Viktoria Skripal vouches for it so for the moment I see no reason to doubt its truth”. http://theduran.com/is-sergey-skripal-also-recovering-more-questions-skripal-case/
In that conversation Yulia doubts her cousin will receive a visa.
The Salisbury Hospital’s chief executive Cara Charles-Barks was asked on March 31 to clarify the circumstances of the Skripals’ condition in the hospital:
1/ Are press reports correct in describing Ms Yulia Skripal as currently able to hear and talk?
2/ If so, what telephone contact has she made with her next of kin in Moscow?
3/ What is your hospitals standard operating procedure for contact between in-patients and their next of kin?
4/ In the Court of Protection a few days ago, as you are aware, a Lawyer representing you and your hospital testified to the “absence of any contact having been made with the NHS [National Health Service] Trust by any family member”. If your answer to Q1 is affirmative, and your answer to Q2 negative, please explain with your legal authority for blocking communication between Ms Skripal and her next of kin in Russia? http://johnhelmer.net/the-empire-strikes-backwards/
Charles-Barks replied on April 4 through a spokesman. “In answer to questions 1,2 and 4 the [Salisbury Hospital] Trust is not commenting beyond what it has already said in public due to patient confidentiality. In response to question 3 it is the Trust’s standard procedure that patients who have capacity are asked whether they would like to receive visits and if so from whom. No-one is permitted access to patients without their consent. Due to patient confidentiality, the Trust is not able to enter into further correspondence about the clinical care of patients.”
This is a shutdown by the hospital of all communications regarding Yulia Skripal on the ground that she has given her consent, and that said, the hospital has the authority to safeguard her privacy. Neither the consent nor the privacy can be independently verified. Both claims by Charles-Barks are subject to UK law and the European human rights convention so that verification can be tested by sworn evidence in court.
There are a number of things the Russian Embassy can do, if Viktoria is denied a visa, the Russians can apply to the courts for a breach of the UK and USSR bi-lateral convention, set out in articles 30 and 35 which are plain. they can also apply for a writ of habeas corpus, also Article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms — incorporated in the UK Human Rights Act of 1998.
It woulds appear the Skripals are being detained and are incommunicado in that hospital.

Baron
Baron
Apr 6, 2018 5:51 PM

This government with all the resources available to it seems unable to engineer even a false flag operation well, possibly because there still are honest people around e.g. the Porton Down scientists, the doctor who had his letter published in the Times, very likely others. Utter incompetence.
It would be of interest to discover how many people at the hospital (if the two are in a hospital) have signed the official secret act.

Sav
Sav
Apr 6, 2018 5:03 PM

Aside from most MSM happily being up the backside of govt when we’re bashing another country, there’s a good chance there has been a reporting ban on this case. The government did the same in 2003 after the ‘ricin plot’ raids just before invading Iraq.
Why else aren’t reporters stacked outside asking basic questions? Just relaying announcements from govt spokespeople. You’d think at least one person would contact the doctor who wrote to the Times newspaper.

Mark Gobell
Mark Gobell
Apr 6, 2018 10:16 PM
Reply to  Sav
MichaelK
MichaelK
Apr 6, 2018 4:56 PM

One can’t overestimate the stupidity and incompetence at the heart of this government. I mean, do any of them inspire confidence in their abilities? Brexit was a complete farce and the UK has handled the negotiations badly. They were shocked to the core by the last election result, which didn’t wipe out Labour, but wiped out the Tory majority, and given longer campaign, remember almost a full week was ‘wasted’ after the Manchester ‘terror attack’, Corbyn would probably be sitting in Downing Street.
So the government’s been desperate to find something/anything, some great platform, where they can strut around and pretend to be strong, successful and resolute, instead of catastrophic failures running the country into the ground. What’s better for that, what better ‘stage’ symbolically, than war? A quick and victorious ‘war’ with the Russian Bear and their fortunes are turned around.
Even if they weren’t directly behind this thing in Salisbury, they grabbed at it like a drowning man clutching at a straw. And the people who did it, probably a mix of ‘rogue elements’, which provide plausible deniability if things go wrong, knew that the Tories and the media would lap this up and accept the provocation gleefully and for commercial and political reasons hype it out of all reason and not ask too many, or any, really critical questions.
But it’s unravelling. The big problem is that the Skripals are still alive. Can they be controlled? Are they really being held as hostages? Is the UK going to hand them a blank cheque and they get to write the amount? The Russians could offer them more, because their family is still in Russia. After this would Sergie and Yulia, really want to stay in the UK. Sergie sold secrets to the British, but does he really hate Russia that much that he’s ready to help the UK in a ‘war’ against his fatherland to this extent, paving the way for a real military attack on Russia?

Vegetable Oblivion
Vegetable Oblivion
Apr 6, 2018 3:31 PM

This is Theresa May’s pursuit of ‘war and glory’ modelled on Thatcher’s Falkland’s campaign – The present government is so terrified of being ‘usurped’ that it is bullying all and sundry to collude with their campaign which is tainted by arrogance, hypocrisy and cowardice. That this government, fuelled by the sheer stupidity of Johnson and May, is pressing towards a course that could lead to the deaths of millions across the world, is ever more reason for it to be brought down at the earliest opportunity. We are being governed by a cabal of liars.

Kavy
Kavy
Apr 6, 2018 3:04 PM

Must-read. Details how the British ruling class is maintaining empire. Why Trumpgate and Russiagate are parts of the same canard, using a decoy to distract.
Adam Ramsay — The Spin War: Cambridge Analytica and Privatized Military Propaganda
https://www.mintpressnews.com/cambridge-analytica-is-what-happens-when-you-privatize-military-propaganda/239813/

Paul
Paul
Apr 6, 2018 2:54 PM

The official narrative doesn’t seem to know what to say about the phone call to Julia’s cousin. It is “unverified” and “alleged” and the BBC and Guardian cast doubt on it being an ‘authentic recording’. I wonder why they don’t just ask her if she spoke to her cousin? Maybe they aren’t talking or they don’t trust her? Maybe she won’t say who lent her the phone? The call certainly sounds genuine, especially Julia’s assertion that “they” won’t give her cousin a visa; she discussed that with her ‘handlers’ presumably. Is she a suspect? After all she arrived from Russia just the day before and there were half baked reports about her asking ‘somebody’ to bring buckwheat because she’d forgotten it. But buckwheat is widely available in the UK. Maybe it was code for something – like ‘antidote’? The phone call and absense of any answer by the British suggests Julia may not be co-operating? One imagines we’ll have to wait for a whistle blower to emerge from the hospital before we are allowed to know. There must be a lot of pressure and surveillance to stop that happening. The spooks will be monitoring calls – funny they don’t appear to have picked up Julia’s call.

flaxgirl
flaxgirl
Apr 6, 2018 3:45 PM
Reply to  Paul

I put Russian comments under a video of the alleged phone call into Google translate and paste some of them below. There are also a number that comment on the phone call as if they accept it as genuine but funnily enough the ones that indicate they think fakery translate so much better. I thought the last comment was quite amusing.
This is a fake conversation!
When you call your sister, do you have a surname? Rave.
Who calls to my sister and says – I’m Julia Skripal?
100% fake …
This is not Yulia Skripal!
Clearly, nothing is clear. Although I trust the British media more. It is possible that this is a throw-in

M J BAILEY
M J BAILEY
Apr 6, 2018 4:32 PM
Reply to  flaxgirl

Apparently in Russia they do refer to each other by Christian and Surnames. However, the call surely could have been traced from the ‘phone that was used. If the ‘phone conversation was fake and had been used to try and draw out some kind of response from the British as to the well being of Yulia – which is a possibility – and this conversation was made public. Then the British could have denied it was Yulia but theyknew that the Russians were aware she was well. They only had one option – either kill both father and daughter – or then make public themselves that Yulia was better – and then a few days later that Skripal himself had rallied from this deadly toxic weapon of mass destruction!!

Thomas Peterson
Thomas Peterson
Apr 6, 2018 10:45 PM
Reply to  M J BAILEY

A good ploy even if fake then

bevin
bevin
Apr 6, 2018 2:50 PM

What is happening?
Miracles. On a daily basis. And how very appropriate too that it should be in Salisbury with its magnificent cathedral.
Sergei has recovered according to The Guardian. He will no doubt shortly be making a statement thanking Jeremy Hunt.
Where is John Cooper Clarke when needed?
” The fucking spy isn’t fucking dead,
That’s Sergei there in fucking bed,
Getting fucking better all the time,

Guest
Guest
Apr 7, 2018 7:16 AM
Reply to  bevin

Your post is funny
We do need John cooper Clarke!
This has all the hallmarks of a false flag/ provocation.
-as soon as the Russians asked about the pets – we hit the revelation that the pets had died after being locked in the house.
The animals were destroyed – they were not tested for chemical poisoning – yet the police are still searching the house?
as soon as the phone call to Victoria was played on Russian TV we got the miraculous recovery of Sergei Skripal and the news that he was fine and sleeping.
This suggests to me that the poisoning was exaggerated and used for a false flag and that the Skripals are either in on it or being held against their will.
they don’t want to give the cousin a visa as all this will come out and the UK won’t be able to control the narrative.
whatever happened has to do with Sergei Skripals life for the past 7/8 years in the UK
A real investigation starts with the people attacked

George Cornell
George Cornell
Apr 6, 2018 2:46 PM

The U.K. gov looks increasingly silly. They were so gleeful that they had a chance to smear the Russkies that they did not imagine their claims would be questioned. So there were never 40 members of the public poisoned, Yulia is not a vegetable whose brain has been permanently damaged, no one has died and we find it was the Americans who took over the facility in Azerbijan making the suspected agent.
This is all reminiscent of the David Kelly murder.

kgbgb
kgbgb
Apr 6, 2018 4:53 PM
Reply to  George Cornell

Uzbekistan?

George Cornell
George Cornell
Apr 6, 2018 11:48 PM
Reply to  kgbgb

Yes, thanks.

summitflyer
summitflyer
Apr 6, 2018 5:19 PM
Reply to  George Cornell

Reminiscent of the David Kelly yes , but this time they let themselves wide open to scrutiny and probably did not expect so much push back from the Russians.
Also I would add that back in the days of the murder of David Kelly , many of us did not suspect the malfeasance of government powers as much as we do today.We now have more experience in these matters and the internet has sure helped ,not to mention good sites like OffGuardian to help us all share info.
Cheers.