Category Archives: Ian Millard

Diary Blog, 11 January 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11620213/Accomplished-fraudster-paid-1-3m-pretending-doctor-NHS-22-years.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11620389/Moment-woman-forced-defend-kick-man-away-lunges-double-decker-bus.html

London. Zoo.

Cheerful news

Only now just realized that one smug and unpleasant individual, who used to post rather nasty tweets about me years ago, around 2013 and 2014, died a few years ago. Not quite sure how many that makes.

#TenGreenBottles.

Tweets seen

Ha ha! Now that really is funny. I think that, out of all the absurd tales made up by (mostly) Jews about the Second World War and the so-called “holocaust” farrago, that is pretty much the best yet.

Your friendly local medical centre is becoming just another “grift”, taking large amounts of money but providing little support.

It’s quite funny, in a bitter way— decades, even centuries, of Irish nationalism have come to exactly nothing, and now even the pathetic Sinn Fein/IRA rump has caved in. Ireland is ruled by globalist puppets (including a half-Indian gay doctor as “Taoiseach”), and is being flooded by blacks and browns.

Should have gone to Specsavers…

Like most System politicians, that one deserves a good kicking.

Very few of that 1M+ believe “Jack Monroe”, or give her any credence.

As a former quasi-celebrity who has had her “15 minutes of fame”, she is pretty much dead in the water, but so long as 631 utter mugs keep sending her money each and every month (between £3.50 and £44 each), she will probably not be too worried that most people have woken up to her nonsense.

More tweets

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/11/15/when-reality-becomes-subjective/.

You mean the Indian money-juggler posing as Prime Minister?

I have blogged more than once about this. The “Bootstrap Cook” has not launched legal action, and will not. The money she “grifted” from mugs wanting to help her sue Con Party MP, Lee Anderson (and also “alt-lite” commentator Martin Daubney) has been kept by her and my belief (unless I see convincing evidence otherwise) is that she has stolen it.

I also believe that the police should be taking an interest in “Jack Monroe” and her whole range of activities.

Less subtle thieves than “Jack Monroe”

Look at the Tesco employee in that clip! He would not notice if a tank crashed through the wall. What a deadhead!

I wonder how long it has been since the thieves landed on the Sussex beaches in their rubber boat?

Any comment from the “refugees welcome” dimwits?

Afternoon music

More tweets

The MPs are just puppets of an international conspiracy; same with the msm. The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalergi_Plan; http://adam.curry.com/art/1543753587_mkXBrvrY.html.

A typical facemask idiot.

More from the newspapers

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/two-15-year-old-thugs-28928822.

The “justice” system is routinely failing victims. This was not a mere peccadillo by silly teenagers, but a vicious and unprovoked attack.

I am generally against corporal punishment, but a good flogging would have been in order in such a case.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/harrowing-cctv-shows-accused-killer-28929885

Comment unnecessary (?)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ex-mp-jared-omara-denies-28928813

(See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/07/24/deadhead-mps-the-jared-omara-story/).

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/breaking-tory-mp-andrew-bridgen-28926820

The System punishes anyone prominent who questions the “vaccine(s)” (or the so-called “holocaust” farrago)…

More tweets

Good grief! I actually agree with unpleasant Jew, Giles Coren, today.

Late tweets

Little Matt Hancock will be looking for a lucrative sinecure after he leaves the Commons. The Jew-Zionist lobby sorted similar positions out for, inter alia, Ruth Smeeth, Mary Creagh, Tom Watson, Michael Dugher etc, after they left politics. Hancock is “showing willing”, in other words.

“They”…(((They)))…

Late music

[Mosley, 1930s]

Diary Blog, 10 January 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

From the newspapers

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11616555/Obscure-firm-handed-340-000-gift-Labour-MPs-Yvette-Cooper-Dan-Jarvis-Wes-Streeting.html

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

[Ava Gardner in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman]

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

Diary Blog, 8 January 2023

Morning music

On this day a year ago

Jack Monroe

There does not seem much else to say, but the backwash from the storm continues.

“Jack Monroe” herself has gone for the main chance, meaning a general “I’m sort-of sorry but will not/cannot refund anyone“, combined with a plea consisting of “I’m not really guilty of anything, because I am sort-of mentally-disturbed, ex-alcoholic, maybe ex-cocaine abuser, with a huge number of physical and mental problems (self-diagnosed autistic, ADHD, arthritic etc), as well as sort-of lesbian, sort-of ‘trans’, sort-of single mother, as well as a ‘shopaholic’, and anyway have spent all the money I took from people [cheated out of well-meaning mugs]”.

I suppose that the hard-core “Jack Monroe” fans will buy all or some of that, and that the 600+ utter mugs funding her lifestyle via the Patreon website will very likely continue to do that, even as she openly mocks them.

Damage to the septum?

Tweeter “@cashandcarrots” is another one who seems to believe that “Jack Monroe” has done things that “help the poorest and most disadvantaged in society” rather than nothing except help herself (literally).

What? What exactly has she done, when you strip away the virtue-signalling on social media and in the msm? Nothing.

“@cashandcarrots””Michelle” really cannot accept that she and others have been conned by a cunning and manipulative woman entirely out for herself. Even has to pretend that one of the staunchest critics of “Jack Monroe”, “@TruthSignalUK” is somehow part of a [non-existent] “trolling” conspiracy (why would he be, though?).

“@WivFunnyFarm” has evidently bought the “I’m unwellexculpa.

That Bleasdale person tweets all sorts of rubbish. His tweet about the “Bootstrap Cook” is a good example of entirely false logic, i.e. presenting a false choice.

Relentless advocacy for people on the breadline“? Not really. She mostly tweets and sends other online messages about herself, mixed with a bit of typical Twitter “I hate the Tories” stuff (I feel similarly about the “Conservatives”, to put it simplistically; but I also “hate” the “Labour” hypocrites). “Jack Monroe” also constantly messages or tweets with a subtext of “please send me money“.

I wonder whether the loonies and mugs sending money regularly to “Jack Monroe” will ever wake up to the fact that she despises them and mocks them?

As for the “Bootstrap Cook” herself, what are her talents? Not cooking, that’s for sure, looking at the swill that seems to be the bulk of her cuisine.

There is nothing wrong with being well-meaning, as tweeter “@PaulOnBooks” seems to be, but that has to go in tandem with an objective outlook. We are enjoined to be “as wise as serpents and as innocent as doves“. Both.

Good advice is never, or only very rarely, to trust a medical doctor who is primarily a socio-political activist.

More “Jack Monroe” lies, it appears.

“Jack Monroe” has a number, perhaps a large number, of Twitter “sock accounts”, many of which tweet “supportive” messages to her main account. Her level of dishonesty is incredible.

Whatever her problems are, they never get in the way of taking people for as much money as possible.

More music

The heavy brigade

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11610889/A-quarter-Britains-soldiers-classed-dangerously-overweight-past-five-years.html

More tweets seen

[“Don’t damage my necklace, Wills!”]

Whatever one may think of Peron and his wives, the fact is that political leadership is only one factor, albeit perhaps the most important, in whether a country is rich or poor (either overall as a country and notionally per capita, or in terms of how much that wealth is actually spread among the population).

Argentina was once a very wealthy country, certainly. Uruguay too. In fact, right up to the 1950s, Uruguay was one of the most prosperous countries in the world. A number of factors changed that.

There again, between 1918 and 1939, Estonia, Latvia and Czechoslovakia were very prosperous, and the citizens were, per head, much better off than the average of those in, say, the UK, France, or most other states. That changed mainly though not solely because of political changes and invasions, notably the Second World War and Soviet invasion (1940, and later 1944, in the case of the Pribaltika states; 1945 in the case of Czechoslovakia), Germany having also effectively occupied them during most of the war years.

Cuba was, economically, once a vibrant economy, albeit suffused with corruption and inequality. Castro’s socialist regime killed the economy. His decision to replace mixed farming with, mostly, a sugar monoculture (in the 1960s) worked up to a point, so long as the Soviet Union paid over the odds for sugar (and whatever else Cuba could export) but resulted in total collapse when the hidden subsidy was removed in the early 1990s.

Likewise, Cuba’s socialist experiment resulted in an end to development in the residential housing sector. Today, Havana and much of Cuba is falling to pieces, and people try to grow their own food if they can.

Some people say that the Cuban system is good re. medicine and education. “Education” in the basic sense perhaps, though obviously rigid in terms of what can and cannot be taught. As to medicine, perhaps so, again in a basic way, though.

The question is whether the supposed advantages of such a system are enough to compensate, both for the poor economy largely the result of that system and also for the harshness of the system politically and in terms of civil rights.

Russia before 1914 was arguably the fastest-growing economy in the world. War (lost war) and then civil war and political upheavals, followed by the socialist system —especially under Stalin from about 1928— weakened, and also distorted the economy. Collectivization, prioritization of heavy industry etc.

I recall reading the memoirs of the self-publicizing Jew Armand Hammer [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armand_Hammer]; Hammer— Witness to History. He operated businesses in agreement with the Soviet Government during the 1920s, including a concession to produce pencils.

Hammer discovered that the best pencils were produced in Bavaria. He imported to Moscow both machines and German technicians.

On returning to the Soviet Union in the 1970s or 1980s (I forget; 1970s, I think), Hammer was taken to the pencil factory, still operating. He discovered that nothing had changed: the machines were still working, a few of the original workers, now in their sixties, were still there; even his own old desk was standing unchanged in the same place.

An example of the lack of dynamic change in a socialist system.

Having said that, that same system put the first satellite into space, and created some products and programmes not seen even in the finance-capitalist West. Priorities? As Goering said in the 1930s, “Guns before butter“. That is, of course, a political choice.

Political direction is the single most important factor governing the prosperity of a country, but there are others. Where would the oil states of the Middle East be without demand for oil (and gas)? Back riding camels, almost certainly.

In their case, they have money in vast amounts despite their political and religious backwardness. There again, Europeans (and Americans, who are basically European in origin) discovered the oil and gas, extracted it, knew how to refine it, and also exported it to European and other markets. The Arabs only profited because they were there, and because they were on the cusp of the two contending Cold War cultures, neither part of the Soviet world nor the Western world.

Perhaps the best way to put it is that political leadership can assist an economy but cannot create it, whereas the wrong political direction can certainly ruin an economy, especially if that direction is too rigid. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_threefolding.

More tweets

Damning…

[https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/author/andylynes]

Peak Twitter? Some “IT bod” from darkest Northamptonshire, one James Drury, tries to trash food blogger Andy Lynes, who is, inter alia, a Masterchef semi-finalist…

Ha. Very good.

From the newspapers

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/08/meet-the-people-who-took-an-evening-class-and-changed-their-life.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/08/tory-right-warns-sunak-calm-before-storm-small-boats-brexit

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/jan/08/what-the-love-of-cats-taught-me-about-myself

More tweets

So “Jack Monroe” cannot, by her own admission (or claim) “manage money”, she cannot cook (as far as I can see), certainly not to any kind of professional standard, and she has cheated hundreds, probably thousands, of people out of money that many can ill-afford to lose, yet the msm is still promoting her! As someone who can advise “the poor”, at that! Why?

If someone like Al Capone can pull themselves up out of difficult times…why would anyone attack that?

Some people really do not know what day it is…

Incidentally, if any reader is interested in seeing how my opinion of “Jack Monroe” has hardened in the past 3-4 months, take a look at my blog assessment posted on 30 September 2022: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/09/30/diary-blog-30-september-2022-including-an-assessment-of-jack-monroe-aka-the-bootstrap-cook/.

If the facts change, so does my opinion“.

More tweets

…and I mistrust anyone who is referred to as “a national treasure“…

Late music

Diary Blog, 7 January 2023, with the latest on the “Jack Monroe” scandal

Morning music

On this day a year ago

Saturday quiz

Well, this week brings another victory over political journalist John Rentoul, trumping his 4/10 with my 7/10. I did not know the answers to questions 6 and 10, and I just could not recall the answer to question 1 even though I “really” knew it.

The “Jack Monroe” juggernaut rolls on

[https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/07/jack-monroe-interview]

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jan/07/jack-monroe-interview

I suspect that some hurried rewriting had to be done by the Guardian’s scribbler.

That Guardian piece was evidently planned to be part of the launch of Thrifty Kitchen, the latest book by “Jack Monroe” (and at the end has a link via which enables any “mug” unaware of the full “dodginess” of the book and its authoress to buy a copy).

The interviewer mentions “Jack Monroe’s” Patreon “grift” but not the crowdfunder launched by “Jack Monroe”, ostensibly to sue the MP for Ashfield, Lee Anderson, the proceeds of which have gone straight into the bank account of the “Bootstrap Cook”. Certainly no legal action has been launched, not even a “letter before action”, and Ms. Monroe’s favoured solicitor, Israel-based Mark Lewis, has not emerged from his kennel since the Twitterstorm etc around “Jack Monroe” gained strength several months ago.

That Guardian piece gives the impression of sitting uncertainly on the fence after the more recent revelations, neither wholeheartedly endorsing the woman and her book (the recipes from which seem to have been lifted from a number of different Internet sites such as BBC Food), nor making an all-out hatchet attack on her. More the former than the latter, arguably.

The interviewer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_Hattenstone.

More tweets

The “Bootstrap Cook” is not alone in wanting to join the world of fake “celebrity” while still pretending to “stick up for the poor”. Look at the pseudo-revolutionary and pseudo-Marxist poseur, Owen Jones, who has made a career out of being a kind of “licensed Bolshevik” while still doing fashion shoots for glossy magazines on occasion, attending receptions with the “rich and famous”, and making a rather large income in various ways.

Another? What about Chuka Umunna, the half-caste one-time “Labour” MP, who whined about not being allowed into the VIP area of some louche nightclub?

All fakes.

Notes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuka_Umunna; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Jones; https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/04/a-brief-word-about-owen-jones/.

More tweets

Of course. “Jack Monroe” might like to ask advice on that from her one-time solicitor, Israel-based Jew-Zionist Mark Lewis, who admitted or claimed a few years ago at the Solicitors’ Disciplinary Tribunal (that found him guilty on several charges) that at times he did not know what he was doing because his mind was affected by prescription drugs (etc).

[Update, same day: “Jack Monroe” has swiftly deleted her tweet threatening (making empty threats of) “libel” action].

“Jack Monroe” once again snarling at people and threatening “libel” action. Ha ha!

I should imagine that her lawyer (if any) is well aware that a defamation action, though it has to be be brought within one year, should all the same be brought as expeditiously as possible within that 1-year window. In the case of Lee Anderson and Martin Daubney, the alleged “libel” (in fact the totally true assertion that “Jack Monroe” has made a living off the backs of the genuinely poor) occurred in early May or even April 2022. No libel case will be brought by the “grifter” against Lee Anderson now, in my opinion. Let’s see.

As for stray tweeters or, indeed, me, “Jack Monroe” will be unable to bring legal action successfully (certainly not against me) for a number of reasons, including the fact that I would have a number of arguable defences (including what the English law now terms “Truth”). Also, having no capital and a very low income now, even a successful libel action against me would leave the claimant about £500,000 out of pocket; in reality, no claim could even be launched against me, and I apprehend that the same would be true of many tweeters critical of “Jack Monroe”.

That would tend to explain, if true, where much of the money “earned” by “Jack Monroe” has gone…

Like many liars, “Jack Monroe” ties herself in entangled knots of her own fabrication.

So tweeter “@JanetAnscombe” thinks that “Jack Monroe” cheats her Patreon donors because her life was or is “in chaos“? “Jack Monroe” never seems to fail to take the money, or to set up ways of taking more. Well-organized in that sense, anyway.

Opinions are OK, but should be based on evidence…

I note that, like many “Jack Monroe” fans, “@JanetAnscombe” is (judging from her photo) retired, seems to live comfortably (in Tenerife), and according to her Twitter profile, is “Doctor, ancient historian, “leftie elitist”, mother of chickens, hermit-ish, trauma & neurobiology wonk, Celt, European, MBE.” (and a facemask zealot as well).

So not exactly “poor” or “working class“. Again.

As blogged previously, I have not myself seen even one present “Jack Monroe” fan who is actually poor, or “working class”, or for that matter from any ethnic minority; as I opined yesterday, few of the blacks, browns, Chinese etc would eat the swill that the “Bootstrap Cook” makes or pretends to make.

I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that anyone still defending “Jack Monroe” should not be listened to on any subject…

Ha ha! “@sitebadger”, another “Jack Monroe” defender. Once again, not poor, not someone who claims to have been: “Environmental Manager / planning compliance. BA(Hons) Landscape Design. MSc Conservation Management.”

Rhetorical questions: Where are the poor? Where are the “working class”?

…and of course, another one who “stands with Ukraine” (on Twitter), and is almost certainly a facemask fanatic, like most of the rest.

More “Jack Monroe” lies, in other words.

Other tweets seen

No-one can rule guiltlessly” [Saint-Just].

“Dr.” Louise Raw

So far no news about “Dr” Raw’s doomed and ostensible attempt to sue Jeremy Clarkson for making rude remarks about Meghan Mulatta.

Surely Ms. Raw is not going to use the money she has raised via GoFundMe for other, or even personal, purposes? She has almost hit her financial target of £15,000 (£13,787 as at time of writing), but no news from her about the supposed upcoming legal action. What a surprise.

Mike Stuchbery (notorious Twitter “grifter”) and Roanna Carleton-Taylor (former “antifa” cheerleader who is now keeping very quiet…) claimed, a few years ago, that they were going to sue “Tommy Robinson”. Raised ~£12,000 for that ostensible purpose. No legal action ensued. I wonder what happened to the money of the 700+ mugs who donated?

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/10/23/a-few-words-about-mike-stuchbery/; https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/11/27/mike-stuchbery-and-tommy-robinson-legal-dispute/.

Stuchbery was also (he claimed) going to sue me (never heard from him or his —non-existent— lawyers), and he was going to sue various other people, including several Danes. Never happened. A man of straw.

More tweets

Exactly, and the tweeted typo (?), “cause celeb“, is actually —and ironically— more accurate than the correct “cause celebre“.

Indeed. In fact, she has had a good run, bearing in mind the easily-disprovable lies, at times reaching heights of absurdity only achieved by Monty Python, The Goodies, The Good Life, or maybe The Goon Show.

Next? Maybe “Jack Monroe” will turn and turn about, and become a pseudo”Conservative” social commentator with a column in the Daily Mail. Hard to see, but in the madness of the UK in 2023, not actually impossible.

“Jack Monroe” has been mocking her mug donors for years, but usually only in private. Now she does it openly, “telling the truth to shame the Devil” (?).

Still, as of today, no less than 624 utter mugs are still signed up with Patreon to send her between £3.50 and £44 every month! Hard to believe how stupid people can be.

At last! A “poor” or “working class” “Jack Monroe” fan!

Oh no, wait…— “Director: @Air_Cover_PR | #HR PR | ‘James Staunton is a PR faster than Muhammad Ali’ –@guardian. Once part of @InstinctifPtnrs, @wriglesworth and @PwC_UK“…

The absurdity becomes surrealistic…

I suppose that, were Katie Hopkins still scribbling for the Daily Mail, she would be wondering aloud in print how much of the £324,000 she had to pay “Jack Monroe” after the libel action (£24,000 to “Jack Monroe” herself as an award, £300,000 for the legal costs of “Jack Monroe”) went up the nose or down the throat of the “Bootstrap Cook”.

More seriously, I cannot see that “Jack Monroe” offers anything much to the truly poor or struggling. She has some way to go, however, before she reaches the rock-bottom uselessness of other “one-trick-ponies” such as the crazed feminist trustafarian, Caroline Criado-Perez [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caroline_Criado_Perez].

As blogged, most of the supporters of “Jack Monroe” are middle-aged if not elderly. Not sure why. Not all aged lesbians, either. Men of 60+ as well. Why? I do not know; and, as already said, I have yet to see anyone under 40, let alone under 30, supporting her; also, no non-whites (are they too practical when short of cash?). A conundrum.

Just look at that Adrian Hilton idiot! Doesn’t know his **** from his elbow, yet purports to teach at university level [“Adrian Hilton is a conservative academic, theologian, author and educationalist. He has spent more than 20 years in secondary and university education, teaching, writing and lecturing in politics, jurisprudence, philosophy and theology in the UK and the US.“].

Typical.

Tweets on other subjects

Rachel Reeves: Labour Friends of Israel member, and quite possibly part-Jewish.

When you look at Starmer’s Israel-lobby Shadow Cabinet, there would seem no point in replacing the similar Con Party government with that.

Only a social-national government or rulership will or could save the British people, but there is not even a social-national party worthy of the name.

I do.

Afternoon music

[Berlin Wall, 1960s, from the Western side]
[street scene, East Berlin, 1970s]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernest_John_Moeran]
[BBC TV Centre, White City, under construction, early 1950s]

Late music

Diary Blog, 6 January 2023, including more thoughts about Ukraine, more about “Jack Monroe”, and reminiscences about the actor Bruce Barry

Morning music

[Katyusha rockets, 1940s]

On this day a year ago

Ukraine

https://www.ft.com/content/216fecbc-31be-454b-bec3-9fa253580b15

Germany and the US will send armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine, the White House said, in a move that will deliver a big boost to Kyiv’s offensive capabilities.”

[Financial Times]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/05/germany-tanks-ukraine-russia-war

Joe Biden and his German counterpart Olaf Scholz have agreed to send infantry fighting vehicles to help Ukraine fight Russia, a day after France said it would supply its own armoured vehicles to Kyiv in an attempt to create a breakthrough in the 10-month war.

The joint announcement followed a phone call between Biden and Scholz and amounts to a step change in western military support for Ukraine, which has asked for up to 700 armoured vehicles to help force the Russians out.

Ukraine has repeatedly said it needs 600 to 700 infantry fighting vehicles plus 300 tanks from from the west in order to give its military a chance of breaking through the increasingly fortified Russian positions along the frontline.

Until now, however, the US and Germany have been wary of supplying Ukraine with Nato-standard armour, because they feared it would be interpreted by Russia as escalatory. But the decision to supply western armoured vehicles is significant, even if both countries stopped short of sending tanks.

[The Guardian].

At what point does Russia decide that it has no choice but to use massive force (nuclear or conventional) to raze Kiev and Kharkov to the ground, so that the area of Ukraine east of the Dnieper (about a third to half of Ukraine) can be later rebuilt, and occupied by Russian settlers?

That may sound almost impossible but is actually similar, arguably,to what happened centuries ago when the Cossacks were formed as a group, or connected groups, around the various rivers in southern Russia and Ukraine— Don Cossacks, Zaporozhye Cossacks, Volga Cossacks, Dnieper Cossacks etc.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cossacks

[“the Wild Fields”, where Cossacks lived]

Whatever the possibility of the above, there is no doubt that the supply of armoured vehicles, advanced missile systems, and tanks, to the Kiev regime constitutes considerable escalation.

In fact, one need not go back too far in history to find examples of Russian forces all but razing cities to the ground, then rebuilding them and filling them with the troops and civilians of loyal satraps: see Grozny in the 1990s— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grozny#After_the_wars.

Afterwards, the Russians slowly entered the empty city and on 6 February raised the Russian flag in the centre. Many buildings and even whole areas of the city were systematically destroyed. A month later, it was declared safe to allow the residents to return to their homes, although demolition continued for some time. In 2003 the United Nations called Grozny the most destroyed city on earth.”

[Wikipedia]

[Chechen partisan takes cover behind a ruined armoured vehicle, Grozny, 1995]
[Presidential Palace, Grozny, 1996]
[central Grozny by night today]
[panorama of Grozny after dark]
[same area— daytime view]

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1994%E2%80%931995); and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Grozny_(1999%E2%80%932000); and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grozny.

The Russian tactic in 1999 was to hold back tanks and armored personnel carriers and subject the entrenched Chechens to an intensive heavy artillery barrage and aerial bombardment before engaging them with relatively small groups of infantry, many with prior training in urban warfare.”

[Wikipedia].

I read, re. Ukraine in 2023, that Russia has huge numbers of troops not “in theatre”, i.e. not (yet) in Ukraine. That may be because those troops are not trained enough yet, it may be because there are logistical problems in supplying them. If Russia can train them and supply them by next Spring or early Summer, then a vast offensive might be possible, to take Kharkov and even Kiev itself, though if the latter it would be a bloody battle, akin to Stalingrad in 1942-43.

In the end, Russia needs to take Kiev, Kharkov and, if possible, Odessa, along with surrounding territory. If it can do that, then it can write off Western Ukraine and its cities (chief of which is Lvov). That would mean continuing conflict with a regime which would be based on Lvov, but there would be little the Zelensky regime or its successor could do, with almost all Ukrainian cities of any size in Russian hands.

At this point, Ukraine is not a functioning state.

The “Jack Monroe” “scamstorm” continues

[https://unherd.com/2023/01/jack-monroe-the-acceptable-face-of-poverty/?=frlh]

Those “FBPE” tweeters are nearly always absolutely stupid, and often rather unpleasant as well.

The idea that “Jack Monroe” has “worked tirelessly” on behalf of anyone other than herself is ludicrous.

Tweeter “@codfather” is the usual “Jack Monroe” partisan: wilfully blind, a certain age (reading between the lines), reasonably affluent (ditto) and certainly not “poor”. Also, vituperative.

In fact, and as I started to understand some time ago, many of the pro-“Bootstrap Cook” tweets are actually from…”Jack Monroe” herself, pretending to be other people. So-called “sock accounts”. Not all, and I think not “@codfather”, but many others.

See also: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/05/cost-of-living-crisis-england-most-deprived-area-birmingham-hodge-hill.

The sheer delusion that many “Jack Monroe” partisans seem to live in has to be read to be believed; look, for example, at the tweet belkow, from (supposedly) a “professor emeritus at Bristol [University]”:

What the professor fails to see is that “Jack Monroe” has only one achievement (two if you include persuading large numbers of msm people that her whole story is true) — making a pretty good living for herself mainly by tweeting personal trivia, and recipes which look as dire as they are deficient in nutrient.

As for “measurement of food price inflation“, the ONS has made clear that their one meeting with her (at her request) had no effect on any of their work, and was not even noted or recorded. The “Vimes Boots Index”, supposedly being “worked on” by “Jack Monroe”, does not even exist, in reality. So what is left is the commonplace observation that the cost of basic foods has risen faster than that of luxury items.

Once again, a “Jack Monroe” supporter turns out to be a “woke”, and comfortably-off virtue-signaller, in this case an academic, or retired academic.

As I have blogged before, I have so far seen not one “Jack Monroe” supporter who is under 30, is “poor”, or who has ever been in circumstances of real financial difficulty.

Interestingly, also, I see not one “Jack Monroe” supporter who is black, brown, or Chinese. As someone who wants the UK and all Europe to be European, that in a sense is not a problem for me, but is still an interesting thing to note.

My take on that is that the ethnic minorities are too down to earth (and many also with too recent an experience of actual poverty) to take “Jack Monroe”/”Bootstrap Cook” seriously. Also, many would not look twice at the kind of swill she seems to produce much of the time.

Other tweets seen

The same is true in most areas. Politically too. Lenin was just one of a small number of marginalized exiles; Hitler was just an individual who was told to take a look at a tiny party, then joined it as member (possibly committee member) no.7.

Acorn—oak etc.

It is an incredible fact that (what is left of) the print newspapers in the UK are still churning out “editorials” or “leaders” which hardly anyone reads and by which even fewer are influenced.

19th Century thinking.

More music

Temps perdu: Bruce Barry

Ha. Back in the early 1980s, I knew a lady, a civil servant, who rented her basement flat near Central London to an actor well-known then in Australia, but obscure in the UK— Bruce Barry. I got to know him slightly.

At some point, maybe in 1984, Bruce auditioned for the part of Crocodile Dundee in the eponymous film. He told my friend, his landlady, that he had been shortlisted. The only other contender was… Paul Hogan. And the rest is history, as they say.

Bruce had spoiled his chance by going to the final meeting with the film people, at the Ritz in London, beautifully dressed (according to the lady I knew) but then enjoying “a liquid lunch“…

Bruce was fussy about food, living off wholefoods, nuts, avocado, and I think the occasional Australian steak, but drank too much. Drink and women were his downfall.

Not a bad fellow, though rather neurotic, and rather intense, in my view. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Barry_(actor). Bruce had come to London at the age of ~46 to try to break into musicals. His divorce in Australia had left his wife (or one of them) and teenage sons in the family home, apparently a palatial house with grounds going down to the waters of Sydney Harbour, while Bruce himself was left with little.

In London, his first part was the male lead in The Biograph Girl [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Biograph_Girl], a musical about Lilian Gish [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lillian_Gish], which closed after (I now see from Wikipedia) 57 performances (I had thought, until today, after only a couple of weeks). Bruce had described it in hardnosed Australian fashion to my friend, the Civil Service lady, as “a bum show“, i.e. not much good.

I recall seeing Bruce on stage a couple of times, once at the Adelphi, in the Strand, where he was the second male lead in Marilyn! He played Andre de Dienes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andr%C3%A9_de_Dienes (though I cannot have been paying attention because until today I had thought he played Arthur Miller).

Bruce had very kindly given me two free tickets; I invited my mother, who lived in Surrey, and she enjoyed it. Musicals are not really my thing.

The other time I saw Bruce Barry in performance was at the Australian High Commission in London. I think that it was called An Evening with Bruce Barry, and was very good. I attended with the Civil Service lady, and met the real Australian Cultural Attache, who perhaps unsurprisingly was a very pleasant diplomatic fellow, and not a bit like “Sir Les Patterson” as portrayed by Barry Humphries [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Les_Patterson].

Bruce had a girlfriend, a tall Australian dancer who had been a member of the Bluebell Girls ensemble in Paris. One day, Bruce returned to his flat to find her in flagrante with a third party. The end of the affair.

Bruce toured a bit around England with well-known stars such as Rula Lenska and Elaine Paige. I believe that that was in Evita. One star he disliked intensely, though, was Barbara Windsor. He was, apparently, not alone in that. Several disliked her tie-ups with gangsters etc.

In the end, Bruce Barry, having not quite broken through in the way he had hoped, returned to Australia, remarried, and had parts in quite a few TV shows, including The Flying Doctors [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flying_Doctors], where he played a landowner, I was told (I myself never saw it, though the series was shown in the UK).

The last I heard of Bruce Barry was that his second (or third) wife had divorced him, taken his home off him (as I heard it), and left him to drink and regrets.

I was unaware until today that Bruce had been with Mick Jagger in the film Ned Kelly, in 1970. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ned_Kelly_(1970_film).

Bruce Barry died in 2017, aged 82.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hogan.

More tweets

Said Eritreans should have been executed by firing squad in the main square of Stockholm; it would have been a deterrent to other migrant-invaders (prior to their mass deportation). Sweden is even more mad than the UK.

The “CAA” is a pack of malicious Jew-Zionists, which cabal makes unfounded and untrue complaints to police and others: see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/01/15/diary-blog-15-january-2022-including-an-outline-of-the-failure-of-the-latest-jew-zionist-attempt-to-prosecute-me/.

A number of wealthy Jews have recently donated £600,000 to that tiny group of troublemakers.

The Charity Commission should close down both its charitable status and, as far as possible, its fundraising.

In any case, why would “Jack Monroe” even go to the Grenfell Tower fire? She was never in the fire brigade, except as a civilian office bod answering the telephone in Essex (about 50-60 miles from Grenfell Tower) for a year or so, and years before the Grenfell Tower blaze. If she did go to Grenfell Tower (which I doubt), it could only have been as a “rubbernecker”, and the police would certainly not have “waved her through the cordon” as she claimed. She’s a fake, a total fake.

Someone should make a series on con-men, con-women, “grifters” etc. Hour-long episodes, each covering two or three perpetrators, a bit like the very interesting In Suspicious Circumstances presented by Edward Woodward [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Suspicious_Circumstances]. A favourite series, presently being repeated on satellite TV.

Another good one was Great Crimes and Trials [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Crimes_and_Trials]. I used to have all of those on video or DVD.

At a guess, I should say that copies of Thrifty Kitchen will soon be on sale in charity shops for about 20p. At least “the poor” will then be able to read the book, should they be so misguided.

I can only agree.

Ha ha. Just thinking again about the very idea that “the poor” need to be advised (very negligently) that, if they have a can without a ring-pull, and cannot find a can-opener, that they should use a hammer (or mallet?) and large knife! “Jack Monroe” obviously thinks that “the poor” are all completely brainless, and either cannot think of that on their own, or think of how to get an opener (less than £1 in some places).

She might as well “advise” people to invest in a Swiss Army Knife (mine has a can-opener which does work, though it’s hard work). The worst “investment” is to buy her book, in my opinion.

Now send “Jack Monroe” a fiver!

Once the book appears for 10p (at a stretch, 20p) in charity shops, which will be soon, I shall probably buy a copy just to give myself a laugh or two before I chuck it away.

“Jack Monroe” is a total £3-note…a fake.

…and, so far, despite 3-4 months of Twitterstorm and offline criticism, her Jewish lawyer, Mark Lewis, a resident of Israel, and with whose name (by implication) she used to threaten people who called her fraudulent, has not once emerged from his kennel.

Below, another typical “Jack Monroe” supporter:

a. much of her “lived experience” written about has been fantasy or lies; b. her “tips” are mostly worthless, or actually dangerous to health, or are obvious (eg “buy the budget range at the supermarket“); c. her royalties total around £100,000 to date; d. the monies from “fundraising to send thousands of books to foodbanks” seem partly, perhaps largely, to have been diverted into her own pocket; e. then there was the “sue Lee Anderson” crowdfunder scam; and f. the continuing Patreon scam, bringing her maybe £6,000 each month.

In addition to the above, it seems that, last year, “Jack Monroe” did a number of events, and getting, it seems, up to £15,000 each time.

Not exactly “earning a few quid“…

In any case, should a small-time robber get off just because a big-time robber down the road has committed a bigger crime?

Some types of bungalow do have a room upstairs, of course. #MoralHighGround.

Just looking again at the Twitter profiles of those who are the angry supporters of “Jack Monroe”: “professor emeritus” (ie retired academic), “noise consultant“, “retired HR lady“, “small businessman“, “writer“, “writer and photographer“, “part of brilliant Marketing Team“, “Pagan…therapeutic counsellor“, “#ACAB #BLM, Rape/Cop apologists blocked, TERFs blocked“, “novelist“, “High Profile hard left twitterer“, “Mother of Mayhem, Psychology student, Not Jack Monroe, Maybe“, “I’m a doctor but not working clinically” [i.e. another “grifter”], “fandom old, makes various media“, “BSc Psychology. History MA. Labour Party Member. MA Creative Non Fiction“, “Widower, autistic, stroke survivor. Tofu eating, Woke Corbynista“, “Labour & Co-operative MP for Oldham West & Royton | Chair, Co-operative Party | Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs” [n.b. if he cannot see through the “Jack Monroe” nonsense, Jim McMahon is unsuitable as MP and possible government minister], “Academic, political theorist, educationalist, former Pro-Director Education at LSE, HoD Department of Government LSE. ‘Woke Realist’ in a good way. Grandfather“, “Writing, blogging married mum of two boisterous boys..Tweets powered by Diet Coke, Earl Grey and wine“, “Educator/Writer/Student“, “Bristol based Graphic Designer. Gets giddy over lovely paper and buttons“, “*Producer|Cam|Editor *PhD #VR@ExeterDoctoral (yr 3, on hold) *Support Worker (#autism)“, “Nature, landscape, holloways, streams, printmaking. Wild swimmer & pluviophile“, “Founder & M.D of the Rabble Chorus, a lovely crowd of 350 community singers, open to all who fancy a bit of music on the side. Environmental activist, musician“, “Books. Music. Language. Science. Theology. Family. Talk. Think. Opinions my own. Pilot and PhD researcher (human factors and linguistics)“.

And so on.

Taken in a line. Just look at them. Not a steel worker, nurse, bus driver, train driver, cleaner, carpenter, plumber or the like among them. The “working class” seems to be absent.

Certainly not absent are the Guardian-readers, small business owners, suburban housewives (who prefer some other designation), well-paid freelancers, retired people (who used to be academics or working in reasonably-paid office jobs etc).

Also well-represented are various species of “Looney Tunes”.

Also absent is anyone likely to be “poor”.

As blogged previously, all her partisans are pseudo-socialists and/or “poverty tourists”, most if not all rather comfortably-off, many either retired or otherwise economically inactive (though not short of money); and quite a few with obvious mental health “issues” and/or problems with rational thinking. Also, various loony “trans” supporters.

Disturbing to see a Labour MP in there too, one Jim McMahon [Lab. and Co-op; Oldham West and Royton].

Oh, well, enough for now.

Late music

Diary Blog, 5 January 2023

Afternoon music

[painting by Volegov]

On this day a year ago

Peter Hitchens

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-11599987/PETER-HITCHENS-Wear-mask-want-understand-fear-control-NOT-health.html.

Worth reading.

The “Jack Monroe”/”Bootstrap Cook” storm continues…

I started off, several years ago, thinking that “Jack Monroe” (who changed her name at some point by deed poll from her birth-name of “Melissa Hadjicostas”— she is half-Greek Cypriot) was a generally positive influence, bearing in mind the poverty mainly introduced under the all-misnamed “Conservative”, “Liberal Democrat” and “Labour” System-parties since about 2008.

I became gradually more sceptical over the years. I noted the upswell of criticism of “Jack Monroe” since July or August 2022, so looked at the matter, which perusal resulted in my blog post of 30 September 2022: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/09/30/diary-blog-30-september-2022-including-an-assessment-of-jack-monroe-aka-the-bootstrap-cook/.

In the past months, I have seen more and more material from Twitter and elsewhere about how “Jack Monroe” made up or embellished much of her personal biography, while concealing other parts, such as the fact that her grandfather was wealthy, and that her father is still what many might term a rentier (someone who lives parasitically off rental property); apparently, he owns a number of rental properties in the Southend (Essex) area.

I also discovered how, partly thanks to the tweeted and otherwise-expressed support of half-Jew TV cook and scribbler Nigella Lawson, “Jack Monroe’s” number of Patreon donation/purchase adherents (each sending her between £3.50 to £44 per month) grew from about 200 to about 800, a figure which declined after summer 2022 and has now fallen to 623. Still, multiply 623 by any figure between £3.50 and £44. Every month. Taxfree (possibly). My own guesstimate? About £6,000 per month.

[Update, 7 August 2024: I now understand that Nigella Lawson is a full-Jew, not half-Jew— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigella_Lawson#Early_life].

I was sceptical about “Jack Monroe” partly because she seemed to be on good terms with the egregious Israel-based Jew-Zionist solicitor, Mark Lewis [see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/01/11/update-re-mark-lewis-lawyer-questions-are-raised/].

Sure enough, I discovered that, the deeper I looked, the more fakery and near-fraud seemed to attach itself to “Jack Monroe”: the unreliable (to say the least) biography or, as people now say, “backstory”; the endless whining and demanding for money; the various tiny violins being played to get people to give to her (e.g. involving her son, who it now turns out does not even live with her most of the time, e.g. around her possibly-invented medical conditions, mainly mental but also physical). Etc.

I also discovered that genuinely-poor people, some of whom had donated monies to her monthly via Patreon, had been refused refunds after she failed to supply the goods and services offered for various levels of Patreon subsidy.

Then there was the threat to sue MP Lee Anderson [Con, Ashfield] for having openly called her a parasite “living off the backs of the poor“. Which she most clearly is.

No legal action has ensued and, after 8-9 months, never will, now.

That last reminded me of another fraud who quite frequently used to threaten me (and many others) with an action in defamation, and some (including Tommy Robinson) with other legal action— Mike Stuchbery, online “antifa” cheerleader, who begs money from people online while fighting a good (actually risible, and laughably derivative, ideologically) pseudo class war from cafes in Germany.

In fact, Stuchbery and one-time “antifa” comrade Roanna Carleton-Taylor (along with a tame Paki-stani solicitor), got about £12,000 out of ~700 mugs in order to fund a legal action against “Tommy Robinson”. No action was ever taken.

No-one except those three knows what happened to the money, but Stuchbery is still sitting in German cafes, “fighting” the (online) “class war” of his imaginings. See https://ianrobertmillard.org/2019/10/23/a-few-words-about-mike-stuchbery/.

Another “comrade” of Stuchbery’s, “Dr.” Louise Raw, recently tried the same gambit, and, in a matter of a week or so, has raised nearly £15,000 in order to, ostensibly, “sue Jeremy Clarkson“. Well, numerous lawyers on Twitter have only just stopped laughing. I wonder what will really happen to the money Louise Raw has bagged?

More tweets seen

Imagine being as deluded and dim as that tweeter, Jan Fuscoe, yet another very comfortably-off “Jack Monroe” fan (she was a scribbler and photographer for Time Out magazine and others, and is currently scribbling for the Daily Telegraph about Sardinian holidays etc).

As if the fact that there are worse fraudsters and tricksters around somehow exculpates the behaviour of “Jack Monroe”! Also, how has “Bootstrap Cook”/”Jack Monroe” ever “helped” “people in poverty” anyway? By appearing on a few TV shows (for money)? By selling poverty-play books for £20 a go?

Jan Fuscoe seems to fit the usual “Jack Monroe fan” profile: middle-aged, rather comfortably-off, and almost certainly rather “woke” as well.

In a word, “Jack Monroe” is shameless, the ideal mock-heroic figure for “woke” Britain…(and always ready, in case of anyone criticizing her, with either a contrived “mental health” or illness defence, or with a snarling “I’ll sue you” counter-attack).

See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2023/01/03/diary-blog-3-january-2023-including-more-about-the-jack-monroe-scamstorm/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2023/01/01/diary-blog-new-years-day-2023-with-thoughts-about-ukraine-and-more-on-the-continuing-jack-monroe-storm/; and https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/12/06/diary-blog-6-december-2022-with-more-opinion-about-jack-monroe/.

More tweets seen

The migrant-invaders should be eliminated in the Channel, before they ever reach the UK.

I blogged about Roger Scruton only a few days ago: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/12/29/diary-blog-29-december-2022-including-a-few-thoughts-about-the-philosopher-roger-scruton/.

My one and only visit to the EU Commission, in 1998, was enough— a nest of shambolic corruption.

As groups, both Jews and Muslims are inevitably hostile to European civilization, and to the future of European humanity.

Britain is now flooded with similar trash. Does any rational person believe that a better society can be built, or even the present level maintained, when there is a constant increase in the proportion of backward persons and groups within our borders?

Both main System political parties are promoting migration-invasion.

That idiot tweeter, “Charlotte”, is very typical of the “refugees welcome” and “anti-racist” dimwits around.

Come (back) friendly US bombers, and drop your bombs on…[with apologies to John Betjeman].

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Betjeman].

cf. kosher (kashrut) and halal slaughter…

(ps. I concede that many of our “Western” ways are also cruel, such as factory farming, and the industrialized slaughter of animals and birds etc).

More tweets seen

Is that a “poor person” buying a “Jack Monroe” book for once? No, yet again not someone in obvious financial need (a microbiologist and technician, in fact).

[This is the fundraiser of that lady, one of many genuinely struggling people ripped-off by “Jack Monroe” [https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/heather-booth-3?utm_term=Gde7678Nq].

Late tweets

Late music

Diary Blog, 21 December 2022, with thoughts about foreign students at the Bar of England, about Jeremy Clarkson and “Dr.” Louise Raw, and about the continuing Ukraine situation

Afternoon music

On this day a year ago

Interesting vlog

A few comments.

There have always been a certain, and in fact fairly high, number of foreign students qualifying at the Bar in London. Many go back to their own home countries to practise law. Some become leaders of those countries, one such leader having been Lee Kuan Yew, who “invented” Singapore as we know it today: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Kuan_Yew. Others too became not only national leaders but also founders of states: Gandhi was called to the Bar in London, as was Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahatma_Gandhi; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Ali_Jinnah.

In Malaysia, it is a tradition that those who can, go to London to study law, and they have a particular affection for Lincoln’s Inn (my old Inn, at which though, thanks to the Jew-Zionist lobby, I am now effectively persona non grata).

Lincoln’s Inn is, even today, the Inn of Court to which most if not all Malaysian students apply, by reason of the fact that the first Prime Minister of Malaysia was a member: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunku_Abdul_Rahman.

Many of the Chinese names read out in that vlog are probably from Singapore, Hong Kong, or Malaysia, where the legal system is a derivation from the English.

Having said that, it is disturbing that there are so few English names. It may be, in part, because most of the English students pass the exams and then are Called to the Bar in the Trinity Term (Summer), rather than the Michaelmas Term (Autumn).

I have to admit that, while I saw some very low-quality black and brown barristers when I was practising at the Bar in the early/mid 1990s and then again in 2002-2008, I also saw some pretty rock-bottom English ones.

I do agree with the vlogger, though, that all barristers who are practising in chambers in England should be English or (real) British.

Incidentally, for those readers of the blog unaware as to why I am now no longer a barrister, please read the following: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2017/07/09/the-slide-of-the-english-bar-and-uk-society-continues-and-accelerates/.

Twitter

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11559991/Twitter-colluded-Pentagon-run-network-fake-accounts-world.html

Tweets seen

Most of the push for censorship and repression comes from the Jew-Zionist lobby.

I favour the “free at point of use” principle of the NHS, but it is becoming increasingly clear that the NHS is just not fulfilling its proper role. It is no answer just to say that more money is needed. More money may well be needed, but the whole thing has become a bureaucratic mess which is delivering poorer and poorer outcomes.

The “panicdemic” and, overall, all the nonsense which the NHS espoused (the facemask nonsense being just one) has broken something in the connection of the people with the NHS.

Hollywood is another Augean Stables, which should be cleansed, no matter what.

I did not know anything much about Sean Penn until today, when I read a bit about him. Needs a good kicking. Horrible bastard, it seems. I was also unaware, until today, that he is a half-Jew.

Ukraine

The war would have ended some time ago without the huge arms shipments (and transfers of cash) from USA, UK etc to the Kiev regime.

The items referrred to are those that Americans call “potbellied stoves”.

The Russian side is probably looking now at a stable front during the cold weather, assuming that it becomes really cold, with renewed advances in summer 2023.

While the strategic view is superficially not good for the Russian side (most of Ukraine as a whole remaining controlled by the Kiev regime, and most of eastern Ukraine too), the fact is that Ukraine is on life support. The electrical power system is being reduced to rubble, industry is almost at a standstill, something like 10%-20% of the population has fled, and both the armed forces and civilians are being kept going by the vast influx of aid from Western states, NGOs, and private charity.

Russia continues to control most of the coastal areas of the Sea of Azov and Black Sea, as well as Crimea, and most of the Donbass region.

As blogged some time ago, Russia needs to cut the Gordian Knot of this bogged-down attritional battle/war in the southeast of Ukraine. It has started by applying “oblique warfare”, mainly by reducing the electrical power system throughout the whole of Ukraine, but that alone will not achieve a breakthrough. Kiev remains the main target. Somehow, Kiev has to be taken, something which would have been not too difficult 8 or 9 months ago, but is far harder to accomplish today.

The alternative is a peace treaty, or at least a ceasefire, but the Kiev-regime side will not agree one without a withdrawal of all Russian forces, as well as delivering the (almost all Russian) population of Crimea into the hands of the Ukrainian/Kiev side. Impossible.

There may be an escalation in 2023 by the Russian side, something on a large scale.

More tweets seen

As the above tweets imply, it will be interesting to see how many “socially progressive” (in their own little minds) mugs send money to “Dr” Louise Raw in order, supposedly, to sue msm loudmouth Jeremy Clarkson and others.

Actually, I have just clicked the GoFundMe link posted by “Dr” Raw: in less than a day, she has raised nearly £6,000 of her £15,000 goal, from no less than —at time of writing— 125 utter mugs.

As the first tweeter, Barbara Rich, above, tweets, it is hard to see what could be the cause of action. Clarkson’s comments in the Sun “newspaper”, impolite though they were, do not amount to defamation (if I recall them aright), but are “mere vulgar insult”— not actionable. As to those remarks being “hate speech“, well that is not, in itself, actionable, and is also very much “in the eye of the beholder“, so to speak:

There is no cause of action here recognized by law, and not even (moving to the criminal realm) incitement. It is very doubtful that anyone would really be incited to chuck poo at Meghan Mulatta or to drag her through the streets (even were she in the UK, and even if she had no bodyguard force to protect her).

Most British people do at least distrust the Mulatta, and also despise both her and the “Harry Formerly Known As Prince”, but Clarkson’s remarks not only do not but could not amount to incitement of any kind.

As to lack of an identifiable claimant (“plaintiff”, as was)— that too. “Dr” Raw has no locus standi; who does? Only the Mulatta herself, were she foolish enough to get involved in “Dr” Raw’s hopeless idea.

I see that the GoFundMe says that “Although the legal route is expensive, I have received a lot of support already and have a team of lawyers who have agreed to review the case.

Note “review the case“.

Of course. It is an easy few thousand pounds for any barrister or solicitor (perhaps a cynical one) who can see that there is no chance, but who will provide an erudite and beautifully-printed Opinion or Advice saying (with much citing of case precedents, statutes, and obiter dicta) that the claimant (if there is any claimant as such) has no case.

When I was a practising barrister, I not infrequently had to (try to) save potential claimants from themselves by formally/informally telling them that they would be wasting their money. Sometimes they listened, sometimes they did not (would not). Sometimes people simply insist on going to law.

Once, about 28 years ago, I was asked to advise on whether a matter, already considered more than once by the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and (originally) an arbitrator, might go to what is now the Supreme Court of the UK (since 2009: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_Kingdom; https://www.supremecourt.uk/about/history.html), but which was then still called the House of Lords (Judicial Committee). The brief was (literally) heavy, and the fee more than acceptable.

I found that there was no possibility of being able to take the matter to the House of Lords, and spent a couple of days writing a detailed Advice to that effect. That resulted in the potential claimant (already declared a “vexatious litigant” by the Court of Appeal) storming into my London chambers, storming past the Clerk and others, and demanding that I explain (again) why he could not take his —in any event, hopeless— case to the House of Lords. A colleague who was there was so concerned (that I might be assaulted by this large, heavily-bearded, and very angry, man) that he volunteered to help me elucidate the issues to the furious would-be litigant (who, after 20 minutes or so, stormed out and off).

There were several similar though less incipiently-violent incidents with other clients unable to accept reality. I expect that many barristers have had similar experiences.

Incidentally, the reason I call Louise Raw (who has more than once tweeted very silly things about me) “Dr“, in quotation marks, is that (as I have already blogged about in the past), in England, it has always been accepted that the title “Doctor” should not be used as a title by people who have simply had a doctorate, such as a Ph.D, granted to them after having spent a year on some course or other, and (presumably) written a thesis.

The title “Dr” should, as a general rule, only be used by bona fide academics, bona fide scientists attached to recognized institutes, persons in holy orders, or by medical doctors (in fact, medical doctors often do not actually have a doctorate— the “Dr.” is simply a courtesy title in their case).

There is no law about all that, it is simply custom; it is considered infra dig in England to use the title, usually. In Germany etc, no such custom exists. Thus Joseph Goebbels was “Dr. Goebbels” because he had a doctorate in Philology from Heidelberg [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Goebbels].

I have no idea from what university “Dr” Raw got her doctorate, which was apparently based around her thesis about the strike, in 1888, by women employees at the Bryant & May match factory in East London. “Dr” Raw has always been rather reticent about where she studied (though I have no reason to doubt that she has a “doctorate”).

Likewise, I have no reason to suppose that “Dr” Raw intends to keep for her own use the monies raised by her GoFundMe appeal. It does occur to me, though, that the appeal raises her (?) faded political profile on Twitter. Perhaps that is her motivation, or part of it.

I might add that some MPs and others, meaning some (other) odd types seen on Twitter, also misuse the “Doctor” title.

Late tweets seen

Hard to believe that the editor of a major trade publication could be so unaware.

Christmas University Challenge

As on previous occasions, I have to say that I scored far better than the teams of alumni (Durham and York) this evening, all or almost all of whom were possessed of professorial status (if not knowledge— at least outside their narrow, mostly scientific, specialisms).

A few tweets make the point:

Very true. Tends to be, or so I was once told, the place for people who wanted to go to Oxford or Cambridge but were rejected. I once, in the late 1980s, met an entirely ridiculous man at a dinner party in Blackheath. I was at the Inns of Court School of Law at the time, belatedly; he was a barrister, possibly already QC. No doubt competent in the law, but otherwise a complete idiot. Durham graduate. Later, he was not only QC but also a Recorder in England and, I believe, a civil/commercial judge in Hong Kong, among other things. I believe from what my then girlfriend told me that his family were prominent in the (English) Civil War. Is that typical of Durham University? I do not know.

I see from Twitter that I am not alone in finding the teams on Christmas University Challenge egregiously ignorant. This evening, one team did not know the (old-style calendar) month of the Bolsheviks’ 1917 Revolution (i.e. October Revolution); they, or the other team, also not only missed the Second Symphony of Shostakovitch but (one of them) thought that Tchaikovsky had written it! In 1927!

Another fairly easy question that seemed to puzzle the teams was the name of a famous “female Anglo-Iraqi architect” (Zaha Hadid, now deceased). I mean, how many can there be? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaha_Hadid.

Late music

Diary Blog, 17 December 2022

Afternoon music

On this day a year ago

Saturday quiz

Well, this week I achieved 6/10, thus just beating political journalist John Rentoul, who scored 5/10. I did not know the answers to questions 3, 5, 8, and 9.

I was actually not quite sure about question 4, but against that I got question 1 right despite the fact that the question is itself flawed (the book in question was published in the late 17th Century, not 18th…).

BBC

It has only now come to my attention that the Chairman of the BBC (since February 2021) is one Richard Sharp, a Jew (or possibly half-Jew), who was previously an international banker worth several hundred million pounds, and who has given £400,000 to the Conservative Party.

Incidentally, Sharp’s sister, Victoria Sharp, is President of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court, and a former Lady Justice of Appeal.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharp_(BBC_chairman); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Sharp.

Tweets seen

[Update, same day: so only yesterday, “Jack Monroe” had “all-consuming bleak and crushing depression“, but less than a day later (earlier this evening) she is tweeting about being ready to go to a fancy dress party? See below on this blog post. Does she ever tell the truth?]

More music

More tweets

Well, there it is, in plain sight. A new wave of non-white migration-invasion (inc. Albanian, which is non-white, in effect), given the green light by Britain’s first non-white prime minister.

The Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan in action. See http://adam.curry.com/art/1543753587_mkXBrvrY.html; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalergi_Plan.

The Plan is no “conspiracy theory”. Just look around you, especially if you live in a city and/or are over 40+ years of age (and so able to recall the 1960s and/or 1970s to compare).

Brilliant. Maybe I shall apply to have my old Twitter account restored, with “blue tick”. First target…well, we shall see. A pack of malicious Jews around the fake “charity”, “Campaign Against Antisemitism” or “CAA”, conspired to have it removed in 2018.

The idea that the NHS was somehow wonderful before 2010 or 2012 is just silly. I can recall seeing (as an almost daily visitor to a hospital, though not as patient) some appalling service and attitudes (as well as the opposite, and as well as surgical excellence) during the period 2012-2015, from only about 18 months after the 2010 General Election. It takes longer than 18 months for either positive or negative trends to develop in such a huge organization.

It is clear that maladministration is a major problem in the NHS, perhaps the major problem.

London in 1967

Moscow in late 1950s/early 1960s

Late tweets seen

Asks only for a donation to a worthy charity”? Ha ha. What a “mug” tweeter “@SteveChev1” must be. 643 other mugs are each sending “Jack Monroe” between £3.50 and £44 each month via the Patreon website, and not even getting the various bits and pieces promised; they are thus sustaining the not-uncomfortable lifestyle of the “Bootstrap Cook”. Somewhere between £2,500 and £30,000 each month.

Sadly, most people prefer the comforting lies, whether re. race, culture, Ukraine, migration-invasion, the “Covid” “panicdemic”, “Jack Monroe”/”Bootstrap Cook”, the war against the German Reich, or whatever.

That tweet by tweeter “@360Raygun” is not as silly as it may seem to many.

There is nothing wrong with the principle(s) behind the NHS, but the system is just not working or properly working now, and simply increasing the pay of nurses, doctors and others (not that I oppose that) will not help in the slightest, because the administrative system is broken, from the top down.

Late music

[Akademgorodok, nr. Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, in winter]

Diary Blog, 15 December 2022

Morning music

[Arkhangelsk region]

On this day a year ago

Regeneration and transformation of land and landscape

Saw again this video, which I posted on the blog last year:

The lady at Bealtaine Cottage in Ireland was, sadly, persuaded by notorious Jew Twitter-troll Ben Gidley, under one of his aliases, to block me on Twitter, some years ago. No matter. I still think her work interesting. #MoralHighGround.

[Incidentally, the Jew Gidley is a lecturer at Birkbeck College in London. His admitted Twitter account is “@bengidley”, but he also runs “@bobfrombrockley” and, in the past, Twitter accounts closed down for trolling and online stalking: “@inthesoupagain” and “antinazisunited”. All accounts replete with Jew-Zionism, and mostly with a fake “socialist” tinge.

I am not the only person to have had problems with the Jew Gidley’s Twitter (and other) behaviour. The well-known journalist and columnist, Peter Hitchens, repeatedly exposed some of Gidley’s activities in his own tweets, though long after I had unmasked the little bastard. Others as well. I blazed the trail, though.

[Gidley there hiding behind the photo/mugshot of Johnny Cash]

Other Jew trolls tried to defend Gidley by attacking me and others:

As I tweeted some years ago (Jews conspired to have my Twitter account closed down in 2018), Gidley seems to spend most of his time tweeting, mostly via “sock accounts”, in the Jewish and Israeli interest, and most of that tweeting is negative trolling.

If, as seems, Birkbeck College is going to make a number of staff redundant, they could not do better than to start with Gidley, whose jargon-filled “academic” product is completely useless to society anyway].

Another interesting project:

Tweets seen

British people living in tents, while non-white migrant-invaders are accommodated in good hotels, and given money, telephones etc on top, not to mention hordes of Ukrainian ingrates living like leeches on well-meaning but naive British families.

East Germany, the DDR, was very strange; I have blogged previously about my impressions, gained in a short time (less than 3 days) there, in 1988, and while in car transit from then-socialist Poland to the then West Germany.

“Ostalgie”-Musik

As blogged previously, I find myself rather fascinated by “contrived” societies, societies which have in a sense invented themselves: the DDR, Singapore, Israel etc. It might be said that all societies “invent themselves“, but the phenomenon is more obvious in some as compared to others.

Few MPs are worth anything these days. Most are either useless freeloaders or are actual enemies of the British people, or both (eg Yvette Cooper).

My own assessment from a few months ago: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/09/30/diary-blog-30-september-2022-including-an-assessment-of-jack-monroe-aka-the-bootstrap-cook/.

Johnny Mercer

Saw this from Johnny Mercer, the MP for Plymouth Moor View:

Mercer became a Member of Parliament on the back of his military career, with the obvious implication that he was, is, or considers himself to be, a British patriot or some such: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Mercer_(politician).

I was hoping, some years ago, that Mercer would prove to be an improvement on the all-too-often-seen MPs who put their duty behind their own financial or career benefit.

Unfortunately, as an MP, Mercer has been a big disappointment. First of all, it seems that he is, at least to a large extent, motivated by money. Criticism has been made of his making a considerable sum from commercial and/or “charitable” activities outside his work and position as an MP. His expenses have also been criticized.

Quite apart from the above, Mercer has had the “distinction” of having been sacked as a minister by the two previous Prime Ministers, first by Boris Johnson, and then by Liz Truss, the latter of which triggering a tweet by Mercer’s wife (employed by him on his Parliamentary expenses, incidentally), which tweet described Liz Truss (admittedly not unfairly) as “an imbecile“.

Presumably, Madame Mercer did not like the fact that Mercer (and so she too) thereby lost a ministerial salary of about £71,000 or so, per year (paid on top of MP salary and expenses).

Well, Mercer is now back in Government, as Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs (the UK now using the American-style term “veteran” for someone who has served, however briefly, in the armed forces).

Now I see that Mercer thinks that Jew-Zionists such as Ruth Smeeth (actually half-Jewish— see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruth_Smeeth) are “brilliant“…

I daresay that few would call Mercer himself “brilliant“. Ruth Smeeth (now “Baroness” Anderson) has worked for BICOM, the overseas propaganda org supporting the Israeli state and government. She is, and/or has, also been involved with the malicious and basically Jewish “anti-fascist” org called “Hope not Hate”, and (I think) the even less pleasant “UAF” (“United Against Fascism”).

Ruth Smeeth is a member of Labour Friends of Israel, and was a major part of the anti-Corbyn campaign which, as noted previously in this blog, was effectively a Jewish campaign to remove Corbyn as Labour leader, a campaign crowned with success when Corbyn was replaced by Jewish lobby and/or Israel lobby puppet, Keir Starmer.

Ruth Smeeth is well-embedded in the System. Not only now elevated to a well-paid sinecure in the useless House of Lords boondoggle but also appointed, a while ago, as an “Honorary Captain” of the Royal Naval Reserve, an unusual —and, to me, puzzling— appointment.

In applauding the likes of Ruth Smeeth, Johnny Mercer’s stock, which has been falling in my estimation for a few years now, falls to the floor.

When Mercer was elected, I rather liked the idea that he was a bit of a “loose cannon”, as distinct from the usual yes-men in the Commons. I fear however, that he is, also, not much good, as his having been fired by two successive Prime Ministers would seem to indicate (albeit that “Boris”-idiot and Liz Truss were both also useless).

Support for Jew-Zionism and its creatures, however goes too far.

Mercer won his seat from Labour fairly narrowly in 2015, getting 37.6% of votes cast; the constituency was only created in 2010. In 2017, Mercer’s vote-share jumped to 51.9%. The 2019 election saw a further increase, to 60.7%. Driving factors may have been the LibDem collapse (16.9% in 2010, as low as 2% in 2017, and only 5.2% in 2019), the collapse and disappearance of UKIP (21.5% in 2015 but not even standing in Plymouth Moor View in 2019), and Labour’s decline (in 2019, 31.5%).

As to whether Mercer will retain his seat at the next general election, in 2023 or 2024, that is an open question, though it seems quite likely.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Moor_View_(UK_Parliament_constituency)#Elections.

Christmas University Challenge

Once again, the alumni teams of prominent and/or famous ex-students did battle; this time Hertford College, Oxford against St. Anne’s, Oxford.

Both teams pretty poor. As on most other similar recent occasions, I could have beaten either team on my own.

Late tweets

[symbolic burning of degenerate books by SA-men, Berlin, 1933]

Late music

[Rasputin]

Diary Blog, 11 December 2022

Morning music

[view of Berchtesgaden, Bavaria]

On this day a year ago

On the blog 5 years ago

More music

[SS-men take the oath of loyalty at the Feldherrnhalle, Munich]

Tweets seen

It is a strange fact that the Scottish tabloids are even more treacherous, even less truthful, than those of England. That may be because both the pro-Israel and/or Jewish element(s) and the freemasonic element is very strongly embedded in Scotland.

See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kriss_Donald.

The time may yet come, and have to come, when every white person of, or over, the age of 28 (and who is not on record as a criminal) will be entitled by law to carry a standard firearm, such as an automatic pistol; however, any untermenschen doing so will face the most rigorous penalties.

Thus will public order be preserved.

Our whole advanced —if often misled and misguided— society is living on borrowed time.

So there are anyway 40 MPs out of 650 who may have a few redeeming features. Still far less than a tenth of the bastards, though.

All change

I wrote a piece on the blog some months ago about my impressions of London as it now is compared to when I lived there (intermittently from 1976 to 1998): see https://ianrobertmillard.org/2022/06/30/diary-blog-30-june-2022-including-impressions-of-a-trip-to-dystopian-london/.

Today, I took to Google Earth again (I find it quite addictive) to look at the area between Little Venice, where I lived for many years, and the Edgware Road Flyover. Huge changes.

The old “top security” Paddington Green police station by the flyover is closed down and presumably to be redeveloped. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddington_Green_Police_Station.

A few steps away, a huge new development of rental apartments. I think that there were little shops and restaurants about 2 or 3 storeys high along Edgware Road, previously.

For such a central location, not too bad, aesthetically, but not cheap. The cheapest apartments come in at well over £2,000 a month, and many are £4,000 or more.

Actually, if anything an improvement on the tacky two or three-storey buildings previously there.

I notice that several old pubs have gone, including long-derelict-looking The Maida, where Edgware Road becomes Maida Vale (avenue). As blogged on a previous occasion, that pub, whose now-gone sign also said “Sir John Stuart, the Hero of Maida” (a general of the Peninsular War: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Stuart,_Count_of_Maida) is now no more, though the name “Hero of Maida” has been taken up by a new gastropub in another part of Maida Vale (area).

The original pub was the one after which the whole area, and that part of the A5 road, was named.

Another old pub has become a Moroccan restaurant, “Dar Marrakesh”.

The “Arab” part of Edgware Road, which at one time was the stretch between Marble Arch and the Flyover, has now spread further north as far as the start of Maida Vale avenue: Arabic shopfronts, ethnic food shops, shisha lounges etc. I have to admit though that, overall, Edgware Road actually looks better than it once did.

I notice that the old Metropolitan Cafe, which was opposite the police station and, presumably, named either after the police or perhaps the equally-nearby Metropolitan Line Underground station , is now a small convenience store. Another cafe-casualty has evidently been the 1930s cafe further along the road, which retained its original styling until at least the late 1990s, when I last consumed egg and chips therein.

I notice that there are more trees now, and that some that did exist 25 years ago are now quite grown.

I wonder what that area, and others, will look like in 2122. Perhaps they will resemble the destroyed ancient cities now visited by tourists visiting the countries around the Mediterranean.

More tweets

Exactly. “They” (((they))) are the number one problem. Most other problems stem from “them” and “their” influence and activities.

…especially —though admittedly not exclusively— those run by “grifting” West Indians such as Shaun Bailey, who is still a member of the London Assembly, and who nearly became Mayor of London: see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_Bailey_(London_politician)#Career_before_politics.

I would cite, also, “charities” such as the Jo Cox Foundation, and political so-called “charities” such as the “Campaign Against Antisemitism” [“CAA”], run by a handful of Jew-Zionists largely actuated by malice.

Late music

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ladmirault]