Basic Income
Basic Income, an idea whose time has come?
My previous blog articles on the subject:
https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2016/11/25/a-few-words-more-about-basic-income/
https://ianrmillard.wordpress.com/2016/11/14/the-case-for-basic-income/
Coronavirus panic-buying continues
Some bulk-buying may not be so stupid in the present situation, but some is very silly and is clearly “panic-buying”, such as the old woman of whom I read, “caught” in an Aldi store trying to buy no less than 80 cans of tomatoes! Enough for months, surely? (She was only allowed 4 cans in the end).
I saw this in the Daily Mail online:
Sainsbury’s in Hertford, at opening time. The photo shows what is happening: hordes of old people (and a few “Vicky Pollard” “chavscum” mothers) lining up to imitate a cloud of locusts. Some stores are prioritizing the elderly, but that may be a misconceived idea.
Where I live, in a generally affluent part of Hampshire, the elderly (who are the majority of the population) are the ones who are bulk-buying almost everything. The local Waitrose is stripped bare within minutes. I spoke to a lady who had been there in mid-morning and already all loo paper, pasta, pasta sauce, tuna, bread, flour and cleaning products had gone; and that happens every single day, it seems. Affluent —or at least not poor— pensioners (many in large houses, with several fridges and freezers) are stocking up for Armageddon.
I went yesterday evening to a village shop and sub-post office. The village has no other shop, just a church, a pub-restaurant and a car dealer. The little shop is a grocery outlet which also sells booze and local produce (prepared crab, smoked trout and salmon, as well as pheasant and other game; local asparagus, local honey).
On an unrelated aspect, it seems to me that small shops and little post offices like that, in villages or areas without other shops, should not have to pay business rates, council tax or even other taxes (eg on profits), for good social reasons. A place like that is more than just a food, drink and postage stamps outlet. It is a community hub.
The owner told me that affluent old people had bought all the bread that morning and did so every morning, and were probably freezing it. This is an area where people, often in sizeable houses, and with comfortable incomes, have 2, 3, or 4 large fridges and freezers.
The joke is that those are exactly the people most likely to spout the “we won the war” stuff, about Britain being a “nation” (which it scarcely is now), “all pulling together”. They all vote Conservative and would deny that they are featherbedded in various ways.
It is not that I dislike the elderly, as such. After all, at 63 I am well on the way myself, and anyone under 40 is likely to regard me as quite “old” (though few who meet me realize that I am that old). However, it seems to me that there is a dual process going on:
- an increasingly aged and ageing population; but also
- a creeping infantilization, which affects all ages.
Enemies of the people
I have just invented and instituted a new tradition on my blog pages, namely the “enemies of the people” section, to consist of tweets exposing enemies of Britain and Europe generally in the enemies’ own tweets.
I have decided to launch my new section by featuring two-in-one: a Jewish woman called “Dr Miranda Kaufmann”, as well as an apparently similarly inimical organization called “Octopus Publishing” (which may not be all bad; judgment reserved):
“Infection” is the buzzword of the day. The fields of academia and publishing in the UK are both infected and infested; both need a purge.
One law for the rich…
So “bosses” (whatever that means— in Sun-speak, it can just mean a middle-manager) are taking a pay cut, but the “workers” are being “axed”…
Have these people never heard of 1789, 1848, 1917, 1933 etc?
“Justice”?
Pakistani woman and four others attacked a schoolgirl (was she English? Probably), punching her, ripping out hair, then later intimidating her on Facebook. Found guilty on overwhelming evidence but still denying her guilt. Result? Non-custodial sentence. Quelle surprise. Sentencing judge ludicrously says that “the offence was so serious that he could have sent Mahmood to prison, but decided to spare [her]” because the w** woman is mother of four children and is carer for her mother. And (unsaid) the British people pay for all six of the bastards…and probably others in the family/clan…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-ripped-girls-hair-out-21717967
Why are they even here? Why do they exist here?
Bail-out
I agree with much of this: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-rishi-sunak-business-bail-out-banking-crisis-a9411771.html#r3z-addoor
“We have, of course, been here before, 10 years ago when the banks were bailed out with few conditions being attached to the money that flowed their way. As a result, they were able to use a chunk of it to keep their top tier employees in the style to which they had become accustomed while branch staff were losing their jobs.” [The Independent]
Guy Fawkes and Iain Dunce Duncan Smith
We still celebrate the end of the Fawkes plot by burning an effigy on a bonfire, the effigy being, even after over 400 years, called “the Guy”. What about Dunce Duncan Smith? Ideas on a postcard…
What are the Jews up to?
“Israel’s secretive Mossad intelligence agency launched a covert international operation this week to fly in up to 100,000 coronavirus testing kits…The local broadcaster Channel 12, which first reported the operation, said Mossad had intended to bring in about 4 million kits from several countries. About 530 cases have been confirmed in Israel, which has taken stringent measures to contain the spread, including shutting down all schools, cafes and malls. On Wednesday evening, it barred all tourists and visitors from entering the country.” [The Guardian]
Why is British intelligence not as active as that? Are they even worth their salt?
Profiteers
https://twitter.com/willb_ldn/status/1240301702533660674?s=20
https://twitter.com/Kwokker1/status/1240363110558564352?s=20
In another age…
The Earth can heal and cleanse itself, given the chance…
https://twitter.com/EuropeanUnionC/status/1240573744344678401?s=20
Does Trump have some kind of dementia?
This [below] is supposedly a genuine clip…
Midnight music
Ian Robert Millard 
What is happening is a worry and should not be allowed. These hysterical greedy idiots’ shopping should be limited to 4 units of each.article they intend buying, Their disgusting selfishness will only bring misery to the majority.
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Claudius:
I wrote some time ago about how Mormons are (apparently: I saw it in National Geographic 40 years ago) told to store up to a year or two of food. Must take a lot of logistical organization but traditionally their women do not have outside jobs, so I suppose that they have time.
We tend to think that everything is there to be bought whenever we want. That assumption is now being tested. It is clear that, in a real and even more pressing crisis, society would break down. Dictatorship would be seen as the least worst option.
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Yes, I think you right, I have bought some extra food and other items as a precaution. I have to say that my countrymen have been behaving very well, no panic-buying so far, but it will get worse, so I shall try to secure some things. Ironically almost all small supermarkets in Buenos Aires are owned by Chinese! LOL
Good luck!
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Claudius:
Thank you.
When I lived in London, you could find, in markets like the old Shepherd’s Bush market (I think now redeveloped) and in “ethnic” shops, large sacks of rice from India, which were about 10 kilos, I think. Maybe even 15 kilos. I bought one once. About £12! (this was in 1998). I expect that they are hard to find right now, though.
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Hello Ian: An update from the other side of the world. I have just come back from some shopping (the government has announced a shutdown of public administration beginning next Monday, which means things are going to get tougher). Very strange, no crowds, plenty of merchandise on the shelves, only one person had a trolley fully loaded.
What was really odd was a queue of people (8 persons) outside an important butcher. I know that we Argentinians are mad about beef, but you would have expected queues at the supermarkets and panic-buying but so far (fingers crossed) it has not happened. I just walked one street further to the next butcher (which was empty!!!) and bought everything I needed.
I am amazed, I expected people going crazy about food, but so far everything is fine. Let’s see what happens next week…
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Claudius:
There may be a perception in Argentina that there is plentiful beef. Surely that is right (though that would not help me— I do not eat meat!)
Here, in south of UK, there is no food shortage generally. In fact, even the most popular supermarkets have food, but the devil is in the detail. Pasta, tuna, tinned fish and pasta sauce in jars are in short supply,as is (bizarrely) bread (including the less popular types that I like, such as dense Russian-style rye bread). Other food is plentiful: soups in tins, smoked salmon, red caviar and fresh pasta etc). Some fruit and veg is under pressure too, probably because around here there are many people with large freezers. All the same, fruit and veg is available. I noticed a bit of a run on potato, but it is available.
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Those old people in your area, Ian, sound all too typical! Yeah, they always go on and on about ‘the war’ and reminisce fondly about it. It should come as no surprise that many of them are incredibly selfish and self-serving c@£@£ .Sorry about using the C word there which I don’t use often. These types, as you say, are why constituencies such as yours in New Forest West are such ‘true blue’ ultra-safe Tory seats. Selfish wealthy old people are the backbone of the Tory vote and the main explanation as to why we have Boris idiot as PM which would be bad at the best of times but in this moment of national crisis is, frankly, frightening in the extreme.
They go on about the state of the country and rightly so but it is because they didn’t listen to the likes of Sir Oswald Mosley in the 1930’s and continued to vote Tory when it is plain the Conservative Party has been following a steadily more liberal and globalist path since the 1950’s that we are in this mess. Why don’t they abstain instead of voting for the globalist anti-British tossers of the ‘modern’ Tories?
Times like this show them up for what they are. Can’t we introduce compulsory euthanasia for old Tory voters?
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Ha ha! M’Lord of Essex, you make me seem liberal in the extreme!
I have known only a few people who actually served on the front lines in the Second World War. My own grandfather was one. He was both at Dunkirk (in the BEF in France in 1939-40) *and*, later, in Burma. He never really talked about it. The ones who make a big thing about going on parades, wearing their old berets or caps etc are usually the ones who were nowhere near the front lines. In any case, few are alive now who were even in uniform in WW2, let alone actually fighting.
Yes, it has to be admitted that the Conservative Party vote, the core vote certainly, is composed of a very definite demographic: persons over 60 who are fairly comfortable in financial terms, affluent, or actually “rich”. Houseowners, often owners of more than one property, retired or business/professional people.
How long that Con vote will exist is a matter for conjecture.
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https://twitter.com/NationalistHist/status/1240717989290401792?s=20
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I see from your blog piece here that the foreign element in London is taking the piss and trying its best to profit from the situation just as many Jews did in WW2 during the Blitz and the blackouts. Of course, no appropriate actions from the authorities will be taken against them not least for the fact that under the Tory misrule imposed by those selfish, grasping, wealthy old people in seats like New Forest West and my own ultra-safe Tory seat of Brentwood and Ongar we have an administration dominated by people of essentially alien extraction like Boris, Priti Vacant, Rishi Sunak or whatever his foreign name is spelt like.😡🤬
At times last me this you realise how much damage has been done to this country by the liberal-left, globalist, open borders supporting Tories and Labour and the idiots who vote for them.🤬😡☹️😞
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Simply put, there is no “nation” left in real terms.
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Yes, just an economic space inhabited by many people who are very self-centred and selfish – human frailties given succour by the rampant libertarian individualism of Thatcherism.
BOTH Tories and Labour treat us as being merely a large, floating business park and not a real nation in any sense.
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