Morning music
Tweets seen
Kate Ferguson, who is apparently Westminster Correspondent at the Sun “newspaper”, and who apparently does not know that the phrase she is trying to use is a variant of “…and with one bound he was free”… I mean, this is not some ignorant pleb tweeting. Oh, no…wait…
Yet another unintended comment on the state of British “journalism” and “journalists” today.
There are few considered more anti-Israel or “antisemitic” than me, but credit where due— this is, on the face of it, a tremendous achievement.
The “virus” fall-out
The various Government measures to mitigate, not the virus but the Government’s own policies in relation to it (“lockdowns”, “tiers”, quarantining, etc) bought off real popular opposition last year. The Government took a leaf from the book of Aneurin Bevan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aneurin_Bevan], who said that he had bought off opposition from medical doctors to the establishment of the NHS by having “stuffed their mouths with gold” (i.e. allowing senior doctors (“consultants”) to take on private work as well as receiving relatively high NHS pay).
“Furlough” payments ensured that, in 2020, many received effectively the same pay as before, but for no work (“furlough” was capped at 80% of net pay to a maximum of £2,500 p.c.m., but that was close to 100% for most, when the costs of just having a job are factored in: travel, snacks, drinks, clothes etc).
Many others were able to “work from home”, which might have had disadvantages for some but many advantages for others: no travel costs; a saving of (?) 1-5 hours of travel on the day, depending on the commute; the possibility to organize the day to suit the employee; no “boss” people supervizing the employee directly, or able to see what the employee is doing during the working day.
Naturally, the higher-paid working from home would have been, and are, in a better position than the lower-paid: perhaps large detached houses, perhaps also with swimming pools, tennis courts, large gardens in which to relax etc. One could imagine some, working in between swimming, and perhaps drinking Chardonnay ordered online and delivered to the door (I seem to remember that, even nearly 20 years ago, Sainsbury’s would not only deliver my wife’s orders, but actually take the stuff into the kitchen for her).
Also, companies started to demand Government help. Even those run by tax exiles such as Richard Branson. Some help was given.
Not everyone was taken care of by Government largesse. The self-employed, thhose running the smaller and one-man companies etc. The majority of the population, though, was shut up in both senses by Government order and Government money. Even the unemployed (etc) on Universal Credit, got a £20 a week increase.
Now, however, after much to-ing and fro-ing, we find ourselves back in “lockdown”.
Once again, the furlough is extended. Once again, failing businesses are, in some cases, being propped up, smaller airports among them. For how long, though?
Today, we heard that Newquay Airport (which I myself used a few times in the past) will be given money. I do not know whether other airports I used to use, e.g. Exeter and Southampton, are in a similar position.
Let us examine what might happen. Let us say that “the virus”, whether because of natural decline, the vaccine(s), whatever, disappears some time in 2021 from the UK. Air travel will take a long long time to recover, especially if countries are to insist on quarantines and “virus-free” certification. Will UK airports, airlines, ground services etc need or demand propping-up for years? Is that even possible?
We read that the UK Government can borrow money at very low, almost zero, interest at present. Good, but for how long?
We now read that the Government wants to reduce Universal Credit by £20 a week, while chucking those currently on it £500 in cash. There may be a revolt by Conservative MPs, and a possible Government defeat in the coming days.
The argument over UC payments presages coming disputes. No matter how much can currently be borrowed by the UK Government, eventually that will become unsustainable. What then? Already, State benefits paid to the unemployed are at their lowest since 1992 and, according to other calculation, overall benefits were not this low in real terms since the 1960s, which however was a era of, effectively, full employment.
The present government cannot simply, say, raise the State Pension (“Old Age Pension”, as was) entitlement age from 66, where it will be from 2022, to he age of 67, or 68, or 70, not without a massive backlash from voters aged over 65, and they are a half of all Conservative supporters: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-47909281. They are also far more likely to vote.
In other words, if the present government hits the pensioners or those looking at shortly becoming pensioners, it is toast.
The Government is looking at the unemployed and others as targets because they are less significant electorally, though at the same time, 40% of UC claimants are actually not unemployed but are in low-paid work.
Unsurprisingly, Indian “clever boy” Rishi Sunak is not going to introduce a windfall wealth tax. He wants to extract money from the poor or poor-ish, while not dooming his party electorally.
What about demand in the economy? Already low. The poor spend all or almost all of what they have; they have no choice. The rich, given extra money, invest it, often in hedging assets: property, savings accounts, gold etc. It makes sense to give more to the poor and less to the rich (however defined).
Once the various mitigation measures tail off, unemployment —and discontent—– will soar.
One can see storms coming. God grant social-nationalism the way in which to take advantage of them for the good of the people. “For the good of the people is the highest law” [Cicero].
More tweets seen
Meanwhile, the USA has concentration camps today, both at Guantanamo and elsewhere, including secret ones. The inmates are in many cases treated as badly or worse than were those in WW2 Germany, or even the Soviet Union’s GULAG operation. The American concentration camps have doctors too, as does the CIA.
Interesting.
Afternoon music
Trump! While you still can, PARDON the Capitol Stormers, PARDON all social-national and allied prisoners in Federal custody or incarceration, PARDON Snowden, PARDON Assange!
More tweets seen
Jewish privilege?
The “@Amy_amorie” Twitter account is usually worth seeing.
Or, with apologies to Orwell, “nigger” [etc] = bad language, but “gammon” = OK language…
Surprising, perhaps, that Andrew Neil put it that way, but then again he is very much pro-Jew and pro-Israel, and ranted a few times on TV (on his now-defunct late-night BBC2 show) about “Nazis”, “racists” etc. Demeaning (to him); it takes the gloss off his being the best political interviewer in the UK.
Prepare now…
The “new” politics (since the 1960s), now everywhere…
In the end, it will have to be confronted…
Late tweets
We shall see…
Peter Hitchens makes, once again, a good point, but fails to point out that the present Kiev regime, posing as the legitimate overnment of the Ukraine, is a complete Jewish-Zionist sham. All the top ministers are Jewish, and at least one is actually an Israeli!
“The whole point of the law is its cool impartiality, its judgment of the facts by a jury, and of the law by an impartial, dispassionate judge. If judges are going to start offering politico-medical lectures from the bench, it changes us into a completely different kind of country. In effect, a defendant in such cases is on trial for his opinions, not his actions.
Does Judge Matthews desire such a state of affairs? I doubt it. In that case she should not do this again. But I fear someone else will. Much that we used to know and trust about this country is vanishing with amazing speed.” [Peter Hitchens, Daily Mail].
All very true. Part of the problem is that “District Judges” (the old stipendiary magistrates) are not, in the traditional sense, real “judges”. Mostly solicitors who have applied for these rather simple jobs, which however pay quite well (I think that a full-time DJ gets about £110,000 p.a. now).
Late music
Ian Robert Millard 