Saturday quiz

Satisfactory 7/10 in John Clarke's Saturday Quiz for @theipaper (answers in the paper or here later) pic.twitter.com/Uf5vlIIjlw

— John Rentoul (@JohnRentoul) July 17, 2021

A rare week, in which John Rentoul beat my score. This week he scored 7/10, but I scored only 5/10, a far worse effort than usual. I did not know the answers to questions 3, 6, 7, 9, and 10 (I should have known no. 7, but the mind was blank, so there it is…).

Tweets seen

He should know: ‘ Nobody should trust Wikipedia,' co-founder Larry Sanger warns https://t.co/utrSXzpe4C via @MailOnline

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 17, 2021

pic.twitter.com/2aXRr52U0J

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 17, 2021

Sadly, very true, though “Left wing” (eg “socialist”) is not fully accurate, certainly not the full story. The Jew-Zionist element has a near-stranglehold, as it does over the msm. In fact, not so long ago, the fake UK “charity” known as “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA” was advertising for “volunteers” with their own Wikipedia accounts to “edit” (vandalize) Wikipedia pages.

Wikipedia is one of the best resources on the Internet, perhaps the best, which makes it all the more irritating that Jew-Zionists and others are using it to spread propaganda.

It is absurd, also, that the mainstream UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, cannot be cited as a source for anything, yet rubbish publications such as the Sun, Mirror, even Morning Star, can be! Incidentally, I have no reason to be kind to the Daily Mail, as you will see if you google “Ian Millard barrister Daily Mail”!

Perhaps @franssmith11.More likely failure to compy will prevent travel, debar you from higher education, cause problems for your children. They don't want to have to feed or house you, & they know human rights campaigners don't pay much attention to marshmallow totalitarianism. https://t.co/LK0YuNPxsM

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 17, 2021

Also, we see that the trend for the State to “outsource” things has now led to the “Boris” etc weaselling that the facemask nonsense will largely end (in law) on 19 July 2021, while at the very same time telling the public that they “should” carry on being scared facemask-wearing rabbits, and also telling —or nod-and-winking— to large supermarkets etc, and airlines, that they should effectively demand that their customers continue to be muzzled.

Screw that, and screw all companies demanding facemask use! Rebel any way you can, especially by boycotting those companies. Vote with your feet, and with your wallet or purse!

My latest interview – on *why* the free countries of the west , especially in the Anglosphere, are willingly handing over their former freedoms and taking the yoke of submission. https://t.co/TBznvEdHKd

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 16, 2021

Excellent by Freddy Gray. People and institutions which used to guard freedom now combine to attack dissent. America’s Maoist mutation https://t.co/bManYD8RVs

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 17, 2021

Not exactly, @policy_uk. Rather ore that, having spent my childhood in an indebted rather grey and resource-poor country which had to count every penny, public and private, I must either now accept that this was not necessary, or fear we are in for a repeat of it. https://t.co/iHaFIkLZp3

— Peter Hitchens (@ClarkeMicah) July 16, 2021

After 2008, “austerity” (which was the policy not only of the part-Jews David Cameron-Levita and George Osborne but also of Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling), was completely wrongheaded. Now, though, we see almost the opposite —but skewed— policy of vast sums spent, not on useful infrastructure, nor on real education and upskilling, but on schemes over the past 19 months to keep the population at home, eating delivered junk food, drinking heavily, and watching TV.

Totally agree Peter. Or just basic things like paving. Even in Oxford, one of our wealthiest cities, it is appalling.

— UK public policy failure (@policy_uk) July 16, 2021

I too live in one of the wealthier parts of England, yet the roads are falling to pieces, and public services have been cut to the bone.

Early afternoon music

These people should be on our side! When I lived in Kazakhstan (1996-97), I knew several former Russian VDV (Air Descent Contingent…special forces) people. Very solid people.

More tweets

https://twitter.com/MadMaxO41/status/1416050318962565131?s=20

(and in most of the USA, minimum-wage workers cannot afford even a one-bed apartment!).

The same or similar problem exists in the UK. Topping-up pay via Universal Credit is quite wrong; it subsidizes poor-paying-employers vis a vis employers who pay decently. Pay must be sufficient to live on. A measure of State-paid Basic Income will also have to come into existence, because the nexus between pay and work is very loose now, and many do not have paid work at all.

Spy story

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9796639/The-story-John-Stonehouse-told-great-nephew.html

Well-written Daily Mail puff for a new book about the arguably infamous, certainly egregious, John Stonehouse [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stonehouse], who did a “Reggie Perrin” in 1974. For those too young to remember Reggie Perrin, read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fall_and_Rise_of_Reginald_Perrin#Background_and_influence].

Stonehouse was a sensation when exposed as a fraud who had not died, as everyone thought, in 1974, in the sea off Miami Beach (a rather unlikely place to drown anyway). His espionage for socialist Czechoslovakia was not exposed —to the public— until well after his death.

That was an age when politicians, though hardly honoured, were still regarded as basically straight people. The later tidal wave of mediocre and hopeless idiots had not yet filled the Commons. That was another reason why people were fascinated by Stonehouse’s attempted (and very nearly successful) scam.

Other reasons why l’affaire Stonehouse became a sensation, briefly, were because it coincided with that Reginald Perrin TV comedy series, and also because a few other cases of international (British) fugitives had been news for years, notably that of Ronnie Biggs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronnie_Biggs].

I recall that, when I had to visit the British High Commission in Gaborone, Botswana, in 1977, at age 20, I noticed a small golden plaque by the entrance stating that it had been officially opened by John Stonehouse in 1966, when he had been a minister in the Colonial Office and its successor, the short-lived Commonwealth Office (from 1968, joined with the Foreign Office in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).

Strange to see that inscription, nearly three years after Stonehouse’s disgrace (but history is history, something both the “BLM” idiots and Zionist Jews might note).

The Daily Mail piece also contained the assertion that one Ernest Fernyhough, PPS to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, had also been (one of a number of Labour MPs) spying for the Czech StB (external intelligence organization). His treachery is new to me, and I see that Wikipedia does not mention it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_Fernyhough.

I imagine that Stonehouse, who was a bit of a Casanova, and a gambler generally, might have been a fairly useful agent for Czech Intelligence, willing to take calculated risks.

As to the book, to be released on 22 July 2021, I might buy the hardback edition via Amazon when it is put on secondhand sale in a few months. RRP is £25.99, but the book can be bought at £18.99. Maybe when there are good, or as-new, used copies for £2 or so. Or, if you like, “when you get down to 90 kopecks, wake me up again”.

Despite that Daily Mail piece having been interestingly written, it contained one schoolboy error by the author (of both the book and the article): speaking in the strict legal sense, Stonehouse did not commit, as the writer claims, “treason”; his alleged espionage crimes would have been charged, had he been charged, under the Official Secrets Act(s) [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Official_Secrets_Act#United_Kingdom].

[Addendum, 18 July 2021: I became aware today that Stonehouse’s daughter, Julia, an author and professional ghost-writer, has also just published a book about the John Stonehouse affair (“affair” in both senses): https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9776079/John-Stonehouses-daughter-breaks-silence-46-years-reveal-financial-deceit.html].

Sajid Javid and Boris-idiot

What a co-incidence! The new Secretary of State for Health, and also the person posing as PM, are apparently both now “self-isolating”. Of course, that has nothing to do with 19 July 2021, the day after tomorrow, and the (latest, so-called) “Freedom Day”…

Late tweets

https://twitter.com/Lord_Bawbag/status/1416419264521719809?s=20

It certainly is “verboten”…see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/

https://twitter.com/EternalEnglish/status/1416515987151654912?s=20

The organized trade unions, what’s left of them, are basically just System-run, politically-correct, advice organizations, of very little use to British people whether employed or not.

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416036199710482433?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416036409631252481?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416036638493454343?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416037002638766094?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416037645067640834?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416038070458200074?s=20

https://twitter.com/BlackBessDick/status/1416038358023868419?s=20

I myself am not a member, nor even supporter (as such) of Patriotic Alternative, but the negative attention that PA is getting from “the usual suspects” makes me think that they are at least on the right track.

That’s fcuking disgusting you bastards! 🤬🤬🤬🤬 https://t.co/pMloWFDno9

— Debbie Dove (@DebraBe16141698) July 17, 2021

Terrible. Abuse of the helpless, disguised as “caring sharing” communitarianism. Typical of this poor country in the year 2021.

https://twitter.com/ABexley88/status/1416419358730072065?s=20

I don't think we need to worry about this, comrades. They can carry on protesting. Before the next election we'll have Macron close a couple of mosques and the masses will vote for him again. https://t.co/jPnFmciGw2

— Climate Warrior🐬 #ClimateJustice🇵🇸#BDS⚧️ 🌈🇺🇦 (@ClimateWarrior7) July 17, 2021

I missed Bastille Day, so here’s to Macron meeting with Madame Guillotine!

Late music

Last word tonight

Listening to BBC World Service and, once again, appalled by the poor standards now, as compared to the 1970s and 1980s, when I was a regular listener. Then, mostly interesting and erudite programming, and including some entertainment, of which some even entertained me. Now, endless black “music” or other ghastly trash, and “BLM”-style nonsense propaganda. 90% of the output now is rubbish.