Morning music
On this day a year ago
Saturday quiz
Some tough questions this week. Political journalist John Rentoul only scored 1/10 (and credit to him for admitting it). I did better, though not much better— 3/10. I did not know the answers to questions 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 10 (though, in the oft-heard phrase, I “hit the post” on questions 4, 6, and 10; I knew them in the back of my mind).
Ukraine
We may be not far now from the use of tactical nuclear weapons by the Russian side. Putin cannot allow either the capture of Crimea or the capture (or sinking) of the Black Sea Fleet.
“Thinking the unthinkable”, obviously the Russians have the capability of actually destroying all major cities in Ukraine, using tactical or strategic nuclear weapons. The question is whether the Russian leadership wants to do that, or is willing to do that if pushed and, if so, is ready to accept what might be the “NATO” (NWO) response.
We seem to be getting closer to the edge.
Liz Truss
Andrew Neil’s columns now read as if written by someone beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s.
“Truss does not look like a competent leader / PM…..Looks like an extra from One flew over the cuckoos nest….“
[A reader’s comment from that Daily Mail piece].
That last comment made me laugh…it is so true…
London. Zoo
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/morning-doctor-under-investigation-cant-28184506
“Cosmetic doctor Dr Tijion Esho, who often appears on the ITV show alongside hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, currently ‘has restrictions on his practice’ as the GMC probe allegations made against him and is not permitted to carry out consultations with female patients without a chaperone present during the investigation.”
[Daily Mirror]
Comment unnecesary.
More tweets
Kaluga (city) is only 93 miles southwest of Moscow. If the Kiev regime has the wherewithal to bomb Kaluga, it has the capability to attack Moscow.
More tweets seen
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So it turns out that the bomb was on a truck. Was this a suicide bombing, as used by the Tamil Tigers and the ISIS barbarians?
Bridge terrorism, bombing of an airfield in Kaluga, and the slaughter by Kiev-regime forces of civilians opposed to the Kiev regime. It all reads as if the Kiev regime is trying to provoke a massive Russian attack using tactical nuclear weapons, in order to bring NATO into the war directly, fighting directly with Russia.
Jewish cabals have been a major cause of two world wars— will there now be a third?
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See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/09/30/diary-blog-30-september-2022-including-an-assessment-of-jack-monroe-aka-the-bootstrap-cook/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/04/a-brief-word-about-owen-jones/.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
Yes, that comment in the Daily Mail is pretty funny. Liz Truss is utterly hopeless as was always going to be the case. For God’s sake, she is a, ahem, ‘former’ Lib Dem after all and clearly lacked the ability to be Foreign Secretary after she got basic Russian geography wrong when she met Russia’s far more educated one (Mr Lavrov can speak not only his own language fluently but French and English as well) so why did anyone think she would be able to be a competent PM?🙄🙄🙄🙄
She thinks she is Maggie 2 and blatantly copies her with stunts such as posing on tanks and even wearing Russian style hats as if visiting Moscow as Margaret did in 1987.
The trouble is Maggie was far more intelligent, was a real leader etc and had a clear and DELIVERABLE idea of where she wanted to take the country.
Liz wants to copy Maggie but Margaret’s tax policies could be done because the country could afford it and there was a NEED to reduce the top rate from the absurd rate of 83p in the pound to a much more reasonable rate of 60p. Mrs Thatcher KEPT that rate for 8 YEARS!
A top rate of 45p at present is not fundamentally unreasonable especially considering the tough economic scenario we are faced with and compares well with pretty much all of our competitors eg even Germany has its rate for its richest people at that level.
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John:
I certainly did not agree with all of the policies of the Margaret Thatcher policies of the 1980s, but her strength was that, until some date towards the end of the 1980s, she understood that she had to carry at least a plurality, if not a majority, of the British public with her. She did that, and in most policies was able to persuade a majority , often a substantial majority, to support her views and policies. That is not to say that “Madame Hatchet” was always right. I am talking about a government being able to carry say 40% to say 80% of the public along with it.
When you look at Liz Truss, she has no mandate whatsoever. A majority of Conservative MPs did *not* want her as leader. The Conservative Party membership, mostly rather elderly and mostly not poor people, supported her, but only (from memory) about 58% of them.
As for the public, the opinion polls speak for themselves. Only about 20% of people really support her. She will not hold a general election (for obvious reasons) and that translates, to the public, as Liz Truss knowing that she would lose badly, were one to be held.
Doomed.
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Liz Truss wants to go down the route of economic liberalism to an absurd and unworkable extent for a major country. Even Maggie balked at privatising the Post Office or British Rail.
She and her party need to be gently told that Britain can’t emulate Singapore as regards economic policy because that country is a country which makes its wealth from being a trade and transportation hub, has few public services etc and only has a small population.
Most British voters are in the centre ground economically speaking or even slightly to the left of centre. They are not free market fundamentalists and at any rate Mrs Thatcher liberalized the British economy as much as many people including eminent economists think is desirable or can be made to work.
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John:
Yes, and I think that the huge gulf between Mrs Thatcher (for all her interest in Friedman and Hayek) and Truss is fundamentally one of age. Despite everything, Thatcher realized that there had to *be* a State, and that some functions were State functions alone.
Liz Truss was born only in 1975, so was only aware of socio-political matters from, at earliest, the mid-1980s. By then, Britain had no Empire, only a limited world role militarily, and the Falklands happened when she was 5 or 6 years old. World socialism collapsed when she was about 14. She has a completely different world-view to Mrs Thatcher.
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Hello Ian! I have read Andrew Neil’s article (in spite of my dislike for the fellow) but it did not seem bad at all, since he was (quite rightly) beating Liz Truss to a pulp (LOL). Now, if I may ask, why did you say the article looks as if it was written by someone suffering from Alzheimer’s?
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Claudius:
The whole simplistic tenor of that article, supporting a kind of globalist liberal free-trade-ism, compared to the Andrew Neil I recall seeing on TV, and reading, only 10 years ago, or maybe even 3 years ago.
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Thank you Ian, as I guessed, I did not understand it because of my lack of in-depth knowledge of British politics and famous personalities. My knowledge of Andrew Neil is limited to Wikipedia and his latest venture, the pathetic GB NEWS (a.k.a “Controlled Opposition”)
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Claudius:
Andrew Neil is, or maybe was, the heaviest of heavyweight political interviewers in the UK, so much so that, by 2019, “Boris”-idiot was openly avoiding him, eg during the election campaign of that year.
It may be that Neil, despite having been editor of serious newspapers, does not come over as well in print as he does in discussion and interview.
All the same, it might be interesting to see Neil interview Liz Truss.
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Just a comment regarding the seemingly ludicrous expenditure (£ 32.7 billion) in Defense. If the British armed forces are now SO small as I remember the figures mentioned by you, how is that possible that they absorb so much money? Having said that I would not be surprised if the government is lying and the money spent is far less than the figure mentioned.
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Claudius:
The money has gone on new nuclear submarines, and on new aircraft carriers (I think two of the latter).
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If she had any brain cells she would have chosen her cabinet on the basis of their having some basic abilities to do their jobs rather than being just good friends of hers or to play yet another round of PC Bingo.
Saying that where are the gay/lesbian/bisexual/one legged transvestite in a wheelchair members of the cabinet?
It seems to me the fake Conservative Party views LGBT and disabled people as being of far less worth than people who don’t need a tan.🙄🙄🙄🙄
If you are going to play PC Bingo you CAN’T be half hearted about it and have to be FULLY INCLUSIVE of ALL minority groups!🙄🙄🙄
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John:
That reminds me of the police drones who say that their police force must be totally inclusive of the whole “community”, in which case at least 1% of the police force should be actual practising criminals…
Liz Truss is operating a “government” (of sorts) composed entirely of cronies, sycophants, and the dregs of the dregs of the past few governments, basically.
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Yes, she has surrounded herself with her mates, various incompetents and backslappers.
She needs to develop some humility rapidly because as you rightly say her MPs didn’t want her on the whole and even the party’s members didn’t give her an absolutely massive victory as was predicted by early opinion polls of their views.
She was warned to assemble a cabinet from all wings of the party with some jobs being allocated to Rishi Sunak supporters but has plainly ignored those urgings.
I would watch her back if I was her. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some MPs are already sharpening the knives considering the utterly dire poll ratings which if they came to pass would see many out of their jobs.
I have read that she may break the record of George Canning who was a Tory PM in the 19th Century who lasted just 119 days as PM.🤣🤣🤣🙄🙄🙄🙄
She may well be the PM who sets a new record as Britain’s shortest serving one and ends up as a question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?🤣🤣🤣😆😆😀😀
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John:
Canning died of natural causes (TB), not from a knife in the back or front.
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Frankly, it should come as no surprise the Tory Party is on its knees with that cabinet of incompetents. They are now averaging about 23% behind Labour and if they don’t get rid of Truss soon or make her see sense then we will get another Labour landslide of horrific proportions.
Even my own ultra-safe Tory seat of Brentwood and Ongar which has a numerical majority of 29,065 and a percentage one of 55% over Labour is predicted to come within a few thousand votes of falling to Labour:
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk
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John:
Liz Truss has only one strategy— to plod on hopelessly in the hope that something will turn up…Not a strategy worthy of the likes of Clausewitz or Sun Tzu (or even of Madame Thatcher).
I read that there are moves to change the Con Party rules so that Liz Truss can be removed via another election by MPs before 12 months are up, and perhaps also to disenfranchise the Con Party members. We shall see.
*If* Truss can be removed by next Spring, and *if* someone else, someone less obviously loony, then takes over, the Labour lead may lessen, but by that time millions of people may be suffering as much or more than the poorest tenth have suffered since 2010; there may be a house price crash hitting “Middle England” etc.
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