Morning music
On this day a year ago
From the newspapers
“An obscure company has handed more than £340,000 to three senior Labour figures.
Analysis of political funding has revealed that MPM Connect Ltd has been the third-biggest donor to MPs since the general election.
It has given £183,317 to shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, £100,000 to former South Yorkshire mayor Dan Jarvis and £60,000 to health spokesman Wes Streeting.“
[Daily Mail]
All Jewish-lobby puppets. What a surprise…
Tweets seen
Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley, Kennedy…Biden? Probably not, but time will tell.
Simon Pegg. Actor, apparently. I had not heard of him and, looking at him, have never seen him on TV either. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Pegg.
Not that I disagree with him about Sunak’s “study maths until age 18” nonsense. The most important thing in that regard is to drill very basic maths (multiplication, subtraction, division) into pupils aged 7 or so. I constantly meet young and not so young cashiers at Waitrose who literally cannot work out how many lottery tickets are necessary for X-number of lines at Y-number per ticket. Some have to use a calculator!
Of course, “@TheFreds” are quite right: changing the colour of the deck chairs on the Titanic changes nothing but the scenery.
More lies from “Jack Monroe”
Serious pathological/psychological condition, I think.
I posed the question weeks, and I think even months, ago as to whether “Jack Monroe” sometimes makes up things and rolls out a pack of lies almost daring people to accuse her of lying, as in (to take a few examples only) that she was “on the game” (prostitution) in Essex (by reason of impecuniosity), that she attended the Grenfell Tower fire (60+ miles from where she lives), was “waved through the police cordon” (oh yes, the police would really allow a stray interfering rubbernecker to go through…) and even had plans of the building (why would she? How could she?).
The “Bootstrap Cook” said that she was so poor that she had to sell her small son’s toy dinosaur, that she had to take out lightbulbs in order not to waste electricity, and that she had to boil soap to make shower gel (which does not even stack up logically, when 90p shower gel lasts for 1-3 weeks with daily use, and when boiling soap costs money in itself; and why not just use the soap instead of trying to make gel out of it?). Ludicrous.
On several occasions, I have been certain in my own mind that her lies must amount to her thinking “surely the sad bastards won’t buy this one?!“, and then they (those who defend her to the marrow) do buy whatever absolute crap she comes out with at any given moment; while also (631 utter mugs as of today) each sending her between £3.50 and £44 a month!
In other words, at times she is certainly, in the well-known phrase, “having a laugh”, a laugh at the expense of the mugs subsidizing her and the others promoting her, the latter including Nigella Lawson, at least a couple of Labour MPs, and of course the media rats from the Guardian, Observer, BBC and Channel 4.
I think that “Jack Monroe” lies mainly because she enjoys inventing a fake or 90% fake narrative, and because she enjoys making absolute mugs out of those who not only defend her as a supposed —if risible— “champion of the poor” but who also send money to her!
She herself has said recently that her basic lifestyle, inc. rent, utilities, food, adds up to about £4,000 a month. The 631 utter mugs subsidizing her are anyway sending more than that (I am guessing about £6,000 but it may be more) each month.
I have no idea who that particular mug is, nor whether his/her problem is a mental illness or just plain everyday stupidity, but imagine taking money off someone like that on the false promise/threat that Con Party MP, Lee Anderson, was going to be sued for stating, entirely truthfully, something along the lines of the assertion that “Jack Monroe” is basically a fraud (at very least, a “grifter”) “living off the backs of the poor“, which is exactly what she is and does.
It is obvious that “Jack Monroe” is not going to sue Lee Anderson and/or Martin Daubney, though she has hinted at “things going on behind the scenes etc”.
Rubbish. Technically, she has 3-4 months left before the one-year limitation applies, but Lee Anderson has apparently not even received any letter before action.
It’s another “Jack Monroe” lie, in other words.
I think that “Jack Monroe” has one main intent, which is to be the centre of attention. Nothing else. I believe, rightly or wrongly, that even the money she gets from mugs etc. is very secondary to that central narcissism.
Incidentally, the “media folk” are still promoting her— there are a couple of articles even today in the Metro newspaper, giving “tips” and a recipe, and no mention of the scandal(s).
Afternoon music
Strange to see: I was just reading about Ava Gardner [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ava_Gardner] and saw that she died in 1990, aged 67, at at her home in Ennismore Gardens, Kensington (London), near Kensington Gardens, where she had lived since 1968. I never knew. Had I thought of it at all, I probably would have assumed that she lived in either California or New York City.
I have only been to that exact place once, I think; in the very early 1980s, with someone escorting the then Metropolitan of Kiev (a kind of Russian Orthodox archbishop, the second-highest prelate of that church) who was then visiting London. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Dormition is at the end of a kind of hidden-away cul de sac there. We dropped him there, and were invited in (no-one else was around, as far as I can recall). The Metropolitan kindly gave me a bottle of Moskovskaya vodka.
More tweets seen
In other words, only 1 person out of every 235 is on the side of “Jack Monroe” and her tweet.
Most supporters of the “Bootstrap Cook” effectively say, on the larger scale, “let’s bin the Tories. Once ‘Labour’ are in government, everything will be fine, or start to be fine“…
Does anyone with any sense actually believe that? The migration-invasion (both across the Channel and otherwise) will continue unchanged in numbers, and Rachel Reeves and her fellow Labour Friends of Israel MPs will be even harder on the unemployed, disabled etc than the fake “Conservatives” have been— she said so expressly.
In a binary political system, and one where both main System parties are really almost identical, you cannot change things very much by squashing one party at some election or other, because the other one is thereby strengthened, and the “Deep State” policies continue largely unchanged.
That Tom Doorley person is an Irish restaurant critic, who has been oddly biased in favour of the “Bootstrap Cook” for some time; see also https://www.tomdoorley.com/about.
Very true, though I doubt an accurate quotation. Or am I just too nice? I see various journalists tweeting that.
So much for people needing a degree. She did not have one, so (like Iain Dunce Duncan Smith and others), she just pretended to have one: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Brooks#Early_life.
Ha. Well, there it is. For once I have to agree with “The Harry Formerly Known as Prince”!
More tweets
A “counter-terrorism strategy“? Isn’t that rather similar to what, in more honest times, was just called a “police state”? See, for example: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/05/30/one-mans-extremism-is-another-mans-struggle-for-liberty-and-justice/.
Late tweets
Deutschland erwache!
…and Europe is about culture and civilization…
I myself am at present disinclined to bother with having my Twitter account reinstated (it having been “suspended” quasi-permanently after a pack of malicious Jews conspired to make a mass complaint in 2018).
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
Hello Ian: Although I gathered that “mug” is a derogatory word and suggest that the person in question is an idiot/fool, I looked for its exact meaning and I found it has several others.
https://theslangpodcast.com/what-does-mug-mean-in-british-slang/
Incidentally one of its synonyms is a quaint English word very popular in the XVIII century which I found very attractive and descriptive: blockhead.
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Claudius:
Yes. “Mug” (as I use it) means, in very colloquial English, something like “obtuse person”, “naive or easily-fooled person”. Not really “The King’s English”, and you will find few uses of it in Parliamentary speeches, or in the summing-up of High Court judges, but the term is not uncommon in everyday speech. It amuses me to use it, just as I have “culturally appropriated” the American black word, “ho”!
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Regarding that idiot known as “Harry, duke of Sussex” I found this little video that tries to explain why is IQ is so low. The video is interesting (in spite of the irritating accent of the speaker and the speed of his speech). I discovered two things:
A) The British love to complicate everything, for example the system to assess the students’ academic level. I am still trying to understand the differences between the old “O” levels and “A” levels plus “AS” levels. (LOL)
B) Diana, the former princess of Wales, was an absolute blockhead who failed all her “O” levels TWICE and who once said “I am thick as two planks”. No wonder Harry is such a numbskull (another lovely old English word, LOL)
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Claudius:
Yes, the House of Windsor is not blessed with brains. I knew an old White Russian woman who was asked, under conditions of secrecy, to coach a girl related to the late Queen. This was about 1979, or 1980, I think. She taught her enough Russian and French to get the girl into Oxford. Despite the girl’s family links, the college was at first reluctant to admit her but, after the coaching, relented.
In the “old days”, meaning 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the basic exams at school level were “Ordinary”/”O” Levels, usually taken at 15/16, and “Advanced”/”A” Levels, taken at 17/18.
I took one O Level (English Language, I think) at 14, but refused at 15 to take the main O Levels (I was very rebellious at school) and so dropped out of school with nothing but the one O Level. Long story.
I later, a couple of years later, took a number of O Levels but was not enrolled anywhere; private study.
When I decided to become a barrister in the 1980s, I needed a degree to get into the Inns of Court School of Law, but could not get onto a degree course without first having A levels, so I studied alone from library books etc for about 6 months or so, and took the exams, getting several top-grade A Levels (it was harder then, actually). I think that my subjects were Russian, Law, and History (mainly English History 450-1450 AD, and modern European History …within the last bit, I specialized in Russian History 1860-1940, and the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939, mainly).
BTW, when I took the A levels mentioned, I also took at the same time the far more difficult “S” Level in Russian, but though I got a very good pass in the A Level, I did not pass the “S” Level. Most people did not even try.
As you will know, the UK system for schools and late entrants (as I was, in my twenties) uses such exams in lieu of the continental system of having one overarching exam (in France, the Baccalaureat, in Germany the Abitur).
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Thank you for the story. I still do not understand how the British system works, that shows: A) How complicated it is, B) What a numbskull I am (LOL)
Seriously we had a simpler and more straightforward system (at least for me). During the 5 years of secondary school (from 13 to 17) we had 4 terms called “bimestres” (bi-monthlies). During each term the professors in every subject would test our knowledge several times with un-announced tests. The professor would come in and say: “Get a sheet and start writing” he would dictate a series of questions (or hand them over printed on a special form). A minute before the end of the class (we had 45 minutes) He would say “Stop writing, hand the papers over”
We were qualified according to this system (1-3: bad/useless) (4-5: mediocre) (6: good) (7-8: very good) (9: distinguished) (10: excellent). To pass in every subject you must had a yearly average of 6, this was achieved by adding the figures/results from the 4 terms and dividing them by 4. If you fail, you were given 2 weeks to prepare for a big exam in December. You had to study the whole curriculum/programme for the year and you would face a team of three professors that would bombard you with questions (some were OK, some were real bastards).
You could only pass to the next level or year if you had no more than two subjects pending. If you had more, as I did in the 4th year, you will have to repeat that year.
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Claudius:
The system now in place in the UK has moved on (many think mistakenly) from the old “O” and “A” Levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Certificate_of_Secondary_Education#Criticism_and_controversy
My main concern (as someone who has no everyday contact with schools and exams), is the general dumbing-down, grade inflation (almost all pupils getting high grades etc). Same at university level.
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Thank you very much Ian, the information is very extensive and I am sure after spending the weekend reading it, I will understand how the system works (LOL)
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