Afternoon music
Battles past
From the newspapers
Many a true word spoken in jest…I remember a visitor from the Soviet Union, one Alex (not the MP above, of course), joking with me during a similar prison accommodation crisis (in 1987, I think, and seen on Channel 4 News) that the British Government should make a deal with the Soviet Government to house Brit convicts. Alex said that he could guarantee that the Soviet Government would turn a profit on it.
He ought to have known, he himself having been arrested and convicted, on entirely invented evidence, of having been a spy for a number of secret services. He had been about 18 at the time, and the arrest came in 1948, the peak of the postwar purge. He had then spent 5 years in a camp in the region of Archangel in Northern Russia. Stalin’s death in 1953 had saved him, and millions of others, from longer or worse.
“Where did it all go wrong for John Lewis? How Britain’s favourite High Street giant hired boss with NO retail experience whose disastrous reign saw stores shuttered, staff bonuses axed, £234m losses and decline of its famed customer service.”
[Daily Mail]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_White_(businesswoman).
Incidentally, her basic salary at John Lewis has been £990,000 p.a., nearly three times her previous salary (for 4 years) as head of OFCOM.
She has other revenue streams as well.
Incidentally, I myself often use Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Group. The decline , particularly since 2020, has been sad to see. The range and also quality of fruit and vegetables is much reduced, the formerly stellar customer service has almost gone, and there have been other disagreeable changes, while the prices have soared.
Hard to know where to place the blame, though, in circumstances where we have seen Brexit, the “Covid” scamdemic/panicdemic, the pathetic anti-Covid “measures” put in place, staff shortages locally, and general inflation.
The other day, I bought a small bottle of (40%/Vol) Kirsch. About £9.50. A few years ago, the price was £6.50 or £7. Hardly a typical everyday purchase, even for me, but not dissimilar to other items in its increased cost.
It is incredible how, in the Britain of 2023, to state the plain truth, the obvious truth that is staring us in the face, is actually controversial. Sign of a slowly (?) collapsing society.
Tweets seen
No wonder most Ukrainians are trying to avoid or evade being used as cannon-fodder.
“Collapsed support: a major failure?” For the second day in a row, the German Bild informs its readers that all is lost – despair reigns in Kiev, the situation is critical, and Western supporters are inclined to negotiate. “Soldier fatigue” is one of the biggest dangers.
At the same time, it is absolutely obvious: the situation for Ukraine has not become any less, but even more threatening! The counteroffensive is going less successfully than the Ukrainians and the West would like. The number of victims is extremely high. There is no necessary support in arms from the West. And Russia can produce more per day than the West, despite the sanctions.”
[Bild]
More music
A very bad organization of a bad state, but few things in modern history are entirely black and white…
Conservative Party Conference
Saw a few minutes of Sunak’s speech. Pretty pathetic. The HS2 fiasco has become symbolic. Not that I was ever anything other than opposed to the ridiculous vanity project anyway, but now we have massive cost, massive environmental damage etc, but no useful train line at all, just a line that goes to or from Birmingham but only to an outer suburb of London, thus losing its purpose altogether. As said, pathetic.
It seems that Sunak is trying to portray himself as a Prime Minister, when the whole country knows that his popularity (as was that of even more useless Liz Truss) has never been tested via General Election. The longer Sunak holds on, and the longer he puts off a General Election, the worse his position is likely to become. However, if a general election were to be held this year, the result would almost certainly be a disaster for the Conservative Party, and the number of its MPs likely be reduced to around 100, maybe only 50 or so. Therefore, the circus will have to continue into 2024, maybe until December 2024.
More tweets
Once my own trial is over in late November, I shall (unless gagged) blog about my own fairly recent experiences.
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 
I am glad to hear the disastrous consequences of John Lewis’ decision to hire a [REDACTED] to run their operations. The bastards running the company are all traitors, as almost 99% of the British millionaires/big businessmen. Have you heard ANY of them speaking against “diversity” policies or the relentless arrival of invaders ferried by the RNLI and “Border Farce”?
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Claudius:
As you say. The same is indicated by the plethora of TV ads on UK television by large companies, all featuring mixed marriages, mixed-race children etc. As propagandistic or brainwashing as the TV in the old Soviet Union.
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Hello Ian: Here is a very interesting interview that shows how fake the Hungarian “nationalist leader” Viktor Orban is. The relevant question to look up is the No. 5 regarding foreign/slave labour.
https://counter-currents.com/2023/07/orban-makes-massive-use-of-foreign-labor-in-hungary/
PS: If Farage would have become PM, he would have done exactly the same. A total hypocrite.
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Claudius:
Thank you.
No argument. The only question is whether sometimes an inferior choice has to be made rather than no choice.
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You are right. I think that it could be described as “the lesser evil”. Someone once said something similar: “Twenty percent of something is better than one hundred percent of nothing”
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You know that I have been criticized Laurence Fox harshly in the past for his “civic nationalism” stance. However, he has been right on other subjects and spoke eloquently about them. Here is a video of a self-promoting (and I assume very popular and wealthy) young barrister who is explaining the reason why he has been arrested.
Would you mind to tell me if, as I believe, the police DO NOT have a case to arrest him. This barrister seems to believe they do. I know Fox has been foolish enough to say that he would join the people destroying the cameras but that does not constitute a “conspiracy to commit damage” (or, at least that is my interpretation of the British law on this case)
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Claudius:
I try not to “advise” on the law these days…after all, I have not actually practised law for 15 years now. It has been far longer since I was involved in any *criminal” law of the usual sort(s).
As the video said, that barrister concentrated on the “conspiracy” angle. Another “inchoate offence” (pre-2008) was incitement to commit (in this case) criminal damage. The offence is now “encouraging others to commit a crime”:
https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/inchoate-offences
I have to say that it looks as though Fox might face difficulties, looking at his words.
As the vlog barrister said, whether or not Fox faces any *conspiracy* charge will depend on whether evidence exists to support the charge (obviously). the police search may or may not have found any. The arrest itself was (I am presuming) under lawful warrant. If so, then that is enough for a lawful *arrest* (though not necessarily for a lawful *charge*)..
Conspiracy does require 2+ persons, but they may be “persons unknown”.
BTW, I do not think that I have heard of that barrister. That does not mean much, though. I have little to do with the Bar these days.
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Ian: Thank you very much for your observations regarding the case of Laurence Fox. I think he tends to talk/say too much and that is always a problem. He clearly encouraged people to go and destroy the cameras; however, in my opinion he never said he would join people to do so, therefore I do not see how they can charge him with “conspiracy to commit damage”
Having said that, when the System wants to destroy you, it will ALWAYS find an excuse.
Regards
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Claudius:
Sticking my neck out here as a very “ex” barrister, but I do not think that it would be necessary for someone in the position of Fox to say that he intended to join in actively.
For example, were I to encourage others known to me or even not known to me to commit crimes, then it would not be necessary for me to assert my intention to join in actively.
Likewise, in principle I could be found guilty of conspiracy if I were to agree with one or more others to commit crimes, in a situation where only that “other” or those “others” would actively do the physical acts.
Example: I am in a wheelchair, unable to do anything physical, but agree with others (known or unknown) to hurt or kill a chosen —or even random— “victim”, where I myself would not take part physically or at all beyond the encouragement or agreement. Still guilty of encouragement and/or conspiracy, imo.
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Thank you very much Ian. You are right. He (Fox) foolishly said that he fully supported the people destroying the cameras which, in a way, was inciting others to do so; therefore, he will be charged (and rightly so) with encouraging/inciting people to commit crimes.
He SEEMED to be quite rational and intelligent but obviously he isn’t. He already put himself in hot water with that stupid and unnecessary sexual comment about the obnoxious feminist who dismissed the growing number of suicides among men in the UK, and now he publicly encourages people to commit acts of vandalism. What a fool!
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A short but very good and interesting video from Katie Hopkins. Watch out for her judgement on Nigel “Conman” Farage, I think is spot on.
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Claudius:
Just watched that.
Ms. Hopkins is quite amusing quite often, and I was able to agree with most, perhaps even all of that, except for the idea that what she said could not be seen anywhere else..
I think that Ms. Hopkins sometimes reads my blog.
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Lawrence Fox has been rightfully arrested by the police. He is alleged to have encouraged people to commit criminal damage to ULEZ cameras.
Whatever may be said about that policy ie whether or not you agree with it or not you can’t go around encouraging vandalism/criminal damage. Lawless anarchy will be the result otherwise.
Mind you, if the police arrest Lawrence Fox for this then they need to be consistent and arrest others for doing it as well.
One person who should be in their sights in this regard is Ian Duncan-Smith who has also encouraged criminal damage.
So much for his being a member of what was the ‘party of law and order’! If Duncan-Smith had done that in Thatchers day, she would have given him a sharp dressing down but then Maggie was a real Tory in respect of law and order issues.
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I see that Sunak took aim at the trans issue today in his speech and said that a man is a man and a woman is a woman and stating this was was just common sense.
Indeed. However, the trouble with this PC lark is that you have to take the PC line with ALL minority groups and can’t treat various minorities as a kind of pick and mix menu where you can say the ‘common sense’ thing about some groups whilst others are off bounds for ‘common sense’ discussion.
If I were to say ethnic Indians are ethnic Indians and therefore can’t be English, Scottish, Welsh or Ulster-Scots and these four groups are the TRUE British and he wasn’t a part of it would he regard that as ‘common sense’? I somehow doubt he would!
What about gay marriage? Can gays ever be truly ‘married’? In law now they are said be but then the concept of gender and the complimentary nature of both genders has been removed from the definition of marriage.
http://www.c4m.org.uk
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Yes, what a complete farce and waste HS2 is. That huge sum of money could would have been better employed building Crossrail 2 from North London to South London and reopening train stations and expanding the normal rail network. For instance, it is a disgrace and absurd that the pretty sizable town of Skelmersdale in West Lancashire is not connected to the national rail network.
The Chilterns which is one of the most beautiful parts of the countryside near to London and should be a National Park is being ruined by that silly train set and now it doesn’t even go past the Midlands.
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John:
I agree. I myself was partly brought up in the western end bit of the Chilterns (the border of South Oxfordshire and Berkshire).
As you may have noticed, I have blogged about the disastrous closure of branch lines in the 1960s and indeed before the Beeching Report (many cuts were made even before WW2, and some before WW1).
As far as HS2 monies are/were concerned, it is clear that the cross-Pennine routes need a great overhaul. There are many parts of the country where rail services could be improved or even installed ad novum.
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