As blogged previously, I am all in favour of the NHS principle of “free at point of use”, but the fact is that the NHS, as it is (i.e. not in theory), is simply not working. Not working properly, and scarcely working at all.
It may well be that more money is required, but even now the NHS consumes nearly half the governmental budget (I see 44% as the proportion).
It may well be that nurses should be paid more. What about doctors? I see that GPs are mostly paid over £100,000 a year, some over £200,000, and for a service that is now lamentably poor.
As for hospital doctors, though the most junior (in the first year) receive only about £32,000 p.a., that rises rapidly to over £50,000 and, for consultants and surgeons, well over £100,000.
Ambulancemen (paramedics), (and women), get more than nurses, and do (from what I have seen) a very good job indeed.
As said, nurses and paramedics have a case for wanting more pay, but I cannot see it as morally correct for them to strike, leaving patients without care, even with some kind of skeleton service still running.
As for the NHS generally, it plainly needs to be changed to a service that genuinely puts patients first.
In the past decade, I have seen enough (though not as patient) to convince me that the maladministration in the NHS has to be rooted out. I should say that that is the main problem, not the staff as such, and not money as such.
Few people would want the UK to have an American-style health service, though it also has merits, which I saw when my first wife (an employee of the U.S. Federal Government) needed urgent surgery— and had it within a day or so of being admitted to hospital, and she was admitted the same day that she experienced pain bad enough to seek help. In the UK, that surgery would probably have taken weeks if not months to organize.
Likewise, I recall that my first wife was advised, on another occasion, to get a scan, and was given a choice of five hospitals within a 20-mile radius of home. The same year (1990 or 1991), King’s College Hospital in South London, a major UK teaching hospital, had to have a public appeal to buy a scanning machine, and that appeal ran for several years.
Again, the wife of a friend of mine in New Jersey was paralyzed after a woman driving a car in a supermarket parking lot (at only 5-10 mph) drove into her bicycle. Thanks to being heavily insured, my friend’s wife was able to stay at the Kessler Rehabilitation Center, where the Superman actor, Christopher Reeve, spent time a few years later [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Reeve#Hospitalization]. An excellent “facility”, as Americans say, and in heavily-wooded and peaceful grounds.
Still, the American system, under which about 40%-50% of the population are uninsured or under-insured, is unjust, and not what we in the UK would like to see.
There are, however, alternatives. The French system, for example (which I have also seen a little) seems to be far better than the NHS and, to take just example, has done away with “wards”— patients almost all have their own rooms, or shared rooms, and have done for about 40 years.
A friend in Brittany when I myself lived there (pre-2010) suffered from a heart condition and had already been treated by the NHS. On seeing the French specialist for the first time (taken the 50-mile journey to Brest and 50 miles back by taxi, at State expense, incidentally, rather than having had to drive himself), he was asked what medication he was presently prescribed, and replied. The French consultant raised his eyebrows and said “I think that we can do a little better than that“…
We are often unaware to what extent the NHS rations healthcare; the more advanced techniques and drugs available elsewhere are often not available on the NHS.
What we need is to keep the “free at point of use” principle, but ring-fence an “NHS tax” from income tax, so that those monies are usable solely for and by the NHS, not diverted to “aid” for the Jew Zelensky’s dictatorship, not diverted to other projects or services etc.
Also necessary (to some extent), along with better administration, is attitudinal change in some staff.
If they really received the full ration (call me a cynic…).
'It's the BBC and they're so out of touch with what the audience wants and needs. To do this is expensive stuff… The BBC pays for this out of our taxes.'
What use is SIS/MI6 when it has neither the will nor the capability to bump off Shamima Begum and her sort? Especially when it also failed, inter alia, to predict the fall of the Shah of Iran, failed to predict the Falklands invasion, failed to predict the fall of socialism (inc. the Soviet Union) etc.
SHOCKING! Who would produce and sell poisons for wildlife? The most unimaginable and cruel death for a wild animal. Who would produce and sell poisons for protected species? FABER it seems. DISGUSTING pic.twitter.com/MMfIirTsaE
@BadgerTrust stated that aware, are working with relevant authorities, and are asking that we don't post links to products. Posts elsewhere state that it's a scam.
American. Don’t know if lawful in the UK. If lawful, should not be.
It’s not Faber but FERBER. Read their website blog – lists everything from jays to weasels and pretty much all “insects” as dangerous, disease carrying pests. The hedgehog bait is particularly sickening #Natures_Voice#RSPBEngland#hedgehogsociety#wildlifetrusts
“The NHS has been accused of ‘wanting less and less’ to do with patients after it advertised a series of remote-only GP roles for £85 an hour.
The work from home job offers general practitioners a three-month contract with the chance ‘to provide online digital consultations’ via video or phone calls to patients, with pay of just under £3,000 a week or almost £13,000 a month.
It comes amid mounting evidence that ‘telemedicine’, while convenient for doctors, can be ‘disastrous’ for some patients.”
I wonder why @guardian, having fronted @bootstrapcook on its Saturday magazine, didn't include any of her 'recipes' in the Feast supplement which concentrated on thrifty meals that week? (Although thank god for all mercies)
Probably because the virtue-signalling Guardian readers, while pleased to have a copy of one or two “Jack Monroe” books prominently displayed on a kitchen bookshelf, are certainly not going to actually make, let alone eat, her swill.
One of my favourite things about the growing scrutiny of conwoman Jack Monroe is the screenshots & archives. She might go on deleting sprees to try and hide the truth about her scamming, but the receipts are all there. https://t.co/KyEjmGyU47
Some stuff about the Guardian article on Jack Monroe bugged me. So, spent some time reading what her critics say. @AwfullyMolly has some useful info: https://t.co/HhdjRrMAdn
I shall look forward to that. All the online “grifters” should be rooted out. Ausrotten!
And this is the point that goes under the radar and that the blue tickers don’t check: the recipes often don't work, are time consuming and inappropriate. See @AndyLynes and Tattle for examples.
At @Depheruk it is so important to us that those that get help from us know that there are accessible resources they can turn to AFTER they receive help from us🫶 pic.twitter.com/qtDHP4hK77
— DEPHER Community Plumbing and Heating (@CPH_CIC) January 12, 2023
Late music
[Scottish Highlands: a 19thC baronial-style lodge]
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.
Sadly, you are concise and accurate. Serious cracks have now appeared in the "group think" veneer of, "Englishness is good and righteous and you have nothing to fear from mass immigration and our glorious tapestry of diversity".
It never ceases to amaze that "colonisation" is considered bad, yet the total erasure of the traditional British heritage, customs and traditions is seen as "progress" or somehow desirable.
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.
A 9% increase in deaths over a year is massive. Amongst the reasons for this being touted by the #BBC are "the pandemic and the pressure on the NHS." It must be difficult for even the multi-vaxed not to see how utterly controlled the media is. Surely 🤔
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.
🔴 The Duke of Sussex has described his wife Meghan as “not visibly black”, as he said the Royal family needed to go through unconscious bias training https://t.co/Hqsa15NmXx
Like most System politicians, that one deserves a good kicking.
A man attacked and wounded six people at the Gare du Nord train station in Paris on Wednesday morning, leaving one with serious injuries, before being shot by off-duty police officers, authorities said https://t.co/tk6HypOLP6pic.twitter.com/BappsINlo3
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
🤬🤬🤬
A truly sick world when a thing like this can identify as a woman!
He was arrested in 2021 as a 'Woman' & arrested again in 2022 for a second time for engaging in sexual communications with a child. https://t.co/xG7y0OzQc8
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.
It's just more of Jack Monroe's Narcissistic Personality Disorder on display – she has no empathy, and no conscience. One of her former 'real life' friends summed her up as 'lazy, and entitled'. She's never going to apologize, because she's incapable of it.
The System punishes anyone prominent who questions the “vaccine(s)” (or the so-called “holocaust” farrago)…
So no mention of the elephant in the room? Is the failure of the NHS also responsible for the current excess deaths in all other countries that administered the gene therapy mRNA ‘vaccines’?
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.
How did Bridgen not know the old 'mention the holocaust on Twitter in any context whatsoever and they'll destroy you' rule?
💬 President Vladimir Putin: We can reliably guarantee Russia's security and interests.
☝️ We will increase our defence capability and continue to implement large socioeconomic programmes aimed at unlocking Russia's enormous potential, and expanding our international ties. pic.twitter.com/4BL1ktKWCi
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.
I was surprised about several aspects of the piece…I don’t represent the views of the department, but having worked at the Guardian myself – and often enjoyed your writing – I’d love to know where you were coming from with the pub, the meal, the timeline, the pennies, etc.
I tell you what I am shocked by – the constant pile on by people who probably haven't lifted a finger to help the poorest and most disadvantaged in our society.
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).
I used to work at a charity that did rehabilitation for people with drug and alcohol issues and also extensive work with people who had a huge variety of mental health needs.
*Despite* all of those, look at what Jack Monroe has achieved and done. Could you have done it?
“@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?).
Tons which is why I know so much about her and foodbanks. I don't have emotions about it. Just objectives that require clearing out enablers who hopefully we're not brought up to assist grifts.
This really isn't a case of 'burn the witch', Monroe has had ample time to deliver on her promises. Instead, she tells lie after lie, gas-lights ppl asking questions and monsters those who call her out.
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“.
Weird isn’t it? That’s the legacy of social media. Everyone HAS to take a side on every single issue. It’s a bit pathetic really.
That’s what i mean. Most people on here can’t see past their own “side” I too am left of center and loathe the Tories; but that doesn’t change the fact that Monroe is a middle class rich girl cosplaying poor for her own financial gain
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.
Paul, you kinda miss the point. Yes she has done good previously- no doubt. But that has now turned into a grift. She doesn't care about the 600+ who gave her money every month, whilst she was getting drunk and spending £1200 on furniture she didn't want or need
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.
Grifter gets royally rumbled, confirming everything we suspected. Grifter’s cultists still won’t accept it and make up increasingly embarrassing excuses for said grifter.
It's quite remarkable how all these traits function as a handy excuse for actions which impact negatively on others, but directly benefit her, isn't it?
— Hagatha Christie – THEE MRWTT (@EmmaElizaCrouc1) January 8, 2023
So, as a doctor, what is your take on the truthfulness (or otherwise) of Jack claiming to have been drinking a bottle and a half of whiskey AND popping 40 tramadols a day at the same time?
Good advice is never, or only very rarely, to trust a medical doctor who is primarily a socio-political activist.
If I were asking whether it was theoretically plausible for someone to drink, I don’t know, 20 bottles of whisky a day, or something equally absurd – would the same apply?
That Wonky account was tweeting me in defence of JM for ages at 4am the other night. The next morning JM is tweeting about having been up at 4am stressing out. It did seem weird.
“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.
Was claiming a bottle and a half of whisky a day and 40 tramadol your idea too? Anyone with an ounce of sense knows this is just another one of your fantasies. Your problem isn’t addiction it’s delusions.
I never gave Jack Monroe any money, but I was taken in by her for a while. There were always some red flags – for me, mostly that her recipes didn't consider time costs. And it was hard to believe that her loving middle class family wouldn't help her at all. https://t.co/REsKIIGYPd
It’s a tragic irony that Christopher would most likely have taken his lead from the likes of Dawkins and Sam Harris and got the last three years completely wrong. https://t.co/3JQPo1xbXG
By the way, the journalist who attacked me for trying to share the evidence back then is the same disgraceful idiot who wrote the article in today's paper.
For those of you who can't read the article, it's a gushing torrent of dangerous, Bill Gates-sponsored nonsense about benefits still outweighing risks and myocarditis being a common symptom of 'Covid'. @sarahknapton is an absolute embarrassment to journalism, science and ethics.
They have been forced to print 50pct of the truth 2 years later as every man and his dog knows about the carnage that these shots are causing. The latest excess data showing accelerating damage may have triggered this pathetic little article.
This is a long interview with me but it covers a lot of ground and I explain in some detail why I've taken the stance that I have. As well as laying out where I think this is all going. Very nicely put together by the delightful @PlanetUplifthttps://t.co/qm8uxbEoGe
Argentina is a lovely, exciting country with a bad political history. These two — Evita & Juan Perón, commemorated here in Ushuaia, — helped it on its way down economically. In 1900 Argentina was richer than Australia or Sweden. Now its economy is smaller than Ireland’s. pic.twitter.com/TO3fwbB0mM
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.
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…
Exactly. Families living in conditions so poor that their homes are literally killing them really aren't going to be sawing up tin cans in order to make egg rings. What even is an egg ring anyway?
— Mad, bad, and angry of Mayfair. (@Vanessa17253550) January 8, 2023
Please don’t slur autistic people by suggesting we are so useless and unreliable that we would happily defraud people and gigglingly spend every penny on “whatever”. There are enough negative stereotypes about us, thanks.
If you’re useless with money then maybe you’re just ‘useless with money’. Not every single personality trait can be attributed to having a developmental condition. Jack pathologically avoids taking responsibility by doing this.
Excellent point!! That The Poors need to be 'thrifty' while Jack Monroe is buying multiple £300 sideboards really shouldn't be lost on people! She's promoted by media as one of answers during 'cost of living' crisis but readily admits she can't manage money. Outrageous really.
Definitely. Yes! She's a media creation who became an austerity celebrity during economic crisis. How and why is what I'm interested in. (My interest in her is the bizarre use of Twitter to say 'fuck you' etc when people's concerns have been proved right. Grim soap opera.)
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?
“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.”
“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.
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.”
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.
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.
I agree. Criticism and asking genuine questions is not abuse. The same things being called trolling this last week has now been addressed by the publisher and Trussell Trust. The book doesn't help poor people, it just makes middle class people feel better.
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.
Jack Monroe continually claims to be the *only* voice for people living in poverty. Her ego knows no bounds. I'm staggered that she's STILL claiming to have made a significant difference to the lives of people currently experiencing hardship. Where's the evidence? #ThriftyKitchen
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.
Honestly, this is one of the most shocking reversals of the truth I’ve seen in a while. Our government absolutely hates its own citizens. They despise us. And they use our taxpayers money to remind us of it in public spaces everyday. Shame on you @MinBZK. Shame on you, @MinPres.
Incredible!! As someone who cares about the planet. This is what I want to see. Not the #netzeroscam.. our environmental groups who cared about pollution and micro plastics have been hijacked by net zero fanatics pic.twitter.com/w8EoeLZW8j
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.
BREAKING: the Ontario College of Psychologists @CPOntario has demanded that I submit myself to mandatory social-media communication retraining with their experts for, among other crimes, retweeting @PierrePoilievre and criticizing @JustinTrudeau and his political allies.
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.
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.
Disgusting. And I'm talking about the craven masses who keep voting in parties and politicians who oversee such amoral cesspits formerly known as societies across the West
Don't you dare lecture me about the hypothetical dangers of political extremism as you tacitly endorse this https://t.co/bG1lK5RCNN
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.
UK charities watchdog ‘assesses concerns’ about Campaign Against Antisemitism – https://t.co/6CaK4ug59y Commission opens ‘regulatory compliance case’ after complaints that the charity is politically partisan
Jack Monroe threatened and crowdfunded to sue Lee Anderson because he claimed she makes a fortune from the poor. Her talent agency today showed £10-£15k fees she charges for appearances etc. Tell me how what Lee Anderson said was libellous. #GriftyKitchen#ThriftyKitchen
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.
I’ve been reading @AwfullyMolly’s blog and have had my eyes well and truly opened! I feel for those who donated to Jack’s Patreon and didn’t receive anything in return, and refund requests have largely been ignored. #shameful
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.
To be fair to Monroe, she does say in the book she adapts other recipes. Other recipe writers also use a similar process. The issue in this case is apparently targeting the book at less well off people and charging them for something they can get for free. pic.twitter.com/4GuXe8yZU2
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.
Prince Harry should be ashamed of his sorry self for that book.
Somehow he managed to go from a Prince to a whiny bitch in two years.
Men, watch how you marry. That Meghan girl got him all the way messed up in the brain.
Prince Harry, who constantly complains about the press invading his privacy, releases a book giving details about how he shagged some woman behind a pub, his drug taking, physical fights with his brother, and what his penis looks like. 🥴
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.
Bluebird has issued a statement regarding “potentially risky” hacks and tips included in Jack Monroe’s latest book Thrifty Kitchen, confirming that changes are being made post-publication.
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.
That's not what she is saying. Jack Monroe has not been poor for a decade, but sells books full of ridiculous 'thrifty' (not) hacks and recipes that don't save money!! She's not authentic.
Shes admitted a lot of that is lies, eg she withdrew the prostitute story and changed it by several years. It was a fantasy she wrote for Pink News. Even accused Kris if being a client. Vile. Also withdrew the autism diagnosis story. Absolute congenital liar.
No she's from a millionaire family, her dad didn't put her out on the game as she disgustingly insinuates, nor is Kris a deadbeat dad she often libelled him – resulting in a settlement requiring her to print a retraction, which she did with an article praising him.
…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.
How the bloody hell does washing no frills spaghetti hoops make you a celebrity chef 🤦♀️ Jack Monroe still grifting. pic.twitter.com/V9g6GFZIjS
People bashing Jack Monroe for writing about her lived experience, sharing tips for free online, writing some books, fundraising to send 1000s of copies to foodbanks, and earning a few quid (royalties rarely make a living) clearly haven't heard of Michelle Mone.
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?
She admitted its all a pack of lies years ago by leaking this photo, and others, but then goes back to the lie. Classic Jack. pic.twitter.com/jwNH0qYaDE
Some types of bungalow do have a room upstairs, of course. #MoralHighGround.
She tried to distance herself by the above quote by saying she was manipulated by a journalist into saying it… and then an audio recording of her actually saying it during a speech in Parliament emerged. Lots of forgetfulness.
Yep! There's a literal recording of her saying it. She went quiet after initially going off an a woe is me rant about her young naiviety and cruel journalist manipulation.
Calorific content. I care because there are genuine poor people out there who deserve a voice that is being taken by someone pretending to be poor. I care because if someone is lying they should be called out on it regardless of what they are lying about. I care because…
She keeps being held up as an activist… but what has she actually, genuinely done? There are charities that do amazing work, that deserve the profile being given to JM. I care because, if you are poor and desperate, buying a cookbook is the last thing you’re going to do.
Fine on £20 a week. Which is false, because her recipes never come to £20 a week, that’s also a lie. I care because I have morals. I care because I’ve known people to struggle. I care because even the trussel trust keep distancing themselves from jack monroe ffs.
Truth: Jack Monroe's dad was not just a firefighter, but a senior manager: https://t.co/AJVs5FR7xs Previously, he was in the armed forces and served in the Falklands. As a veteran, he would/will receive a pension for this on top of his salary.
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].
“Aisha Ali-Khan, Women’s Rights Campaigner” or “human rights campaigner“? Oh, they must mean the Aisha Ali-Khan who has been imprisoned several times (certainly two or three times) for, inter alia —wait for it— abusing women!
In the usual phrase, “you couldn’t make it up!“…
“A former aide to Respect MP George Galloway has been jailed for contempt of court after failing to destroy “explicit” pictures of her lover and his estranged wife.
Aisha Ali-Khan, 33, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, served as the Bradford West MP’s parliamentary secretary.
Ali-Khan was jailed for three months at the High Court in London because she defied an order to destroy the images.
She was also ordered to pay about £10,000 in court costs.” [BBC]
On that occasion, a judge of the High Court imposed a 12-week sentence of immediate imprisonment for no less than 26 breaches of an earlier suspended sentence imposed by yet another judge in 2017 (a sentence of two months imprisonment, suspended for a year).
Incidentally, her husband, Afiz Khan, a former police inspector, was convicted of another related offence and was sacked by the police. I wonder whether he was up to anything else (and whether she was, too).
The wonderful world of “diversity” in the police, and in the UK generally…
Pity, though, that LBC does not do any kind of proper research beforehand on those whom it allows to comment as if reputable “experts”.
I believe that that Ali-Khan woman tweeted a couple of times, and unpleasantly, about me some years ago. She seemed to be friendly with a pack of malicious Jew-Zionists on Twitter at the time.
Incidentally, I have no interest at all in the recent Andrew Tate matter, either way. In fact, I had scarcely heard the name until a few days ago.
Finally, it seems, listening to that interview or conversation, that Aisha Ali-Khan is now a schoolteacher in a secondary school. Surprising to me, with her record.
Rachel Johnson’s piece there would have been a great deal more interesting had she asked Aisha Ali-Khan at the end about her own history of online abuse etc. That would have made that very dull LBC radio conversation quite sparky, I warrant.
“A police detective could be sacked after her estranged boyfriend apparently reported her for allegedly writing racist WhatsApp messages.
Det Sgt Victoria Teagle, 38, is alleged to have referred to a colleague with an Asian background as a ‘C***** b****’.
Her partner, a police inspector, is said to have handed the messages over to anti-corruption officers.“
[Daily Mail]
Well, what a little shit that (unnamed) police inspector boyfriend must be. I would not trust a little bastard like that as far as I could throw him. If I were chief of police in that force, I would certainly have him investigated.
The police in the UK are often worse than useless now.
I wonder whether, or to what extent, “the Harry Formerly Known As Prince” realizes that, without his fortunate birth (and the appended titles, money, easy privilege, automatic “respect” from the msm and plebs etc), he would have been lucky to get a job as a West End car salesman or Kensington estate agent or, at best, as an officer in the lower commissioned ranks of the Army?
As it is, he has, with encouragement from, or nagging by, Meghan Mulatta, “sold his birthright for a mess of pottage“, like that character in the Old Testament.
The sooner Charles and William dump him (and the Mulatta) the better for the Royal Family, not that I care much about the monarchy anyway. The fact is that Harry and Meghan Mulatta are the biggest embarrassment to the UK since “Squidgygate“, “Camillagate” etc, or maybe even the Groundnut Scheme [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanganyika_groundnut_scheme].
Incidentally, I wonder whether the derogatory term “nutter” (pl. “nutters”), as in “Harry’s just a complete nutter“, originated with that? Maybe not, thinking of the American term “nut”.
Also incidentally, I think that Charles, William, Kate, and Harry should all have DNA tests done, for several reasons, but there is no chance of that, at least with the results published in the public domain.
Final thought: how long before this “one-trick pony” act of “Life is unfair on me because I was not first-born, even though I have always lived in palaces, and with unlimited privilege and money; also, my family and Britain are all racist towards Meghan Mulatta” continues to interest the mass media in the USA and elsewhere? Maybe not as long as Harry and the Mulatta would like. They may have made hundreds of millions out of it, but I think that their endless whine, free of any real social awareness, will soon start to bore people.
That haul must have been there, under the sand, when I used to visit Balmoral Beach in 1967, aged 10-11, with my family; 1967 was the year we moved to Sydney from the UK. Balmoral was our nearest beach, only about 10 mins drive away.
It would be incredibly puzzling to see Greta Nut still being given msm platforms, were one unaware that she is merely a puppet of a transnational conspiracy, the agents of which are pulling the levers to make sure that the propaganda is constantly on TV etc.
[Update, 21 February 2024: Louise Raw never did sue Jeremy Clarkson, as far as I know. I wonder how much money she raised, ostensibly to do that, and whether in the end she just kept it for her own use? I have no idea, just the suspicion; of course, that may or may not be correct…].
We are constantly fed an NWO/ZOG msm narrative about how “Ukraine” (the Kiev regime) is “defeating Russia”. Is it true?
What would “Ukraine defeating Russia” look like, ultimately? Presumably, in that scenario, all Russian forces would be forced to leave behind not only the pre-2022 borders of Ukraine but also the Crimea, the population of which is at least 85% Russian and only a few percent Ukrainian now (there are also Crimean Tatars and others).
So, in that scenario, Russia would have been driven back into its own unargued territory, and kept there by Ukrainian/Kiev-regime military might. Is there any logic at all to that?
Russia is, of course, famously the largest country in the world, over six and a half million square miles, so about 72 times the size of the whole of the UK, and 29 times the size of Ukraine (even including Crimea and the Donbass). A country which covers one-eighth of the landmass of the entire planet.
Russia has a population of over 144 million (147 million if Crimea is included); Ukraine had 41 million people (excluding Crimea) in 2021, before the Russian invasion or incursion, but about 20% of the population of Ukraine (I suspect the relatively affluent layer) has fled beyond Ukraine, so the real population, at present, is perhaps 30 million.
Russia has, therefore, almost five times the population of Ukraine.
Russia’s economy may not be booming, now that Western (NWO/ZOG) sanctions have hit hard, but it is still functioning. Russia is getting huge amounts from oil and gas (and mineral) sales, and has, of course, no problem with generating electricity. Russia’s domestic agriculture has actually been stimulated by the Western sanctions which prohibit import and export.
Compare that to Ukraine— it has very limited sources of fuel of all kinds, its electricity generating and distribution capacity is being smashed, possibly beyond easy repair, its industry is scarcely operational, and its agriculture is unable to export easily.
Even before the invasion/incursion of 2022, Wikipedia noted that “Ukraine is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita.”
The only material advantage that Ukraine has is that the Kiev regime is in receipt of enormous amounts of Western aid: arms, ammunition, military transport, food, clothing, medical supplies, and money.
There is no suggestion that Ukrainian forces can either invade or destroy Russian territory or cities. There can, likewise, be no suggestion that Ukrainian forces will actually topple Putin or the existing Russian Government (unless obliquely— e.g. should a coup d’etat take place).
The most that the Ukrainian forces can do, the peak of their realistic ambition, would be to expel all Russian forces from the pre-2014 Ukrainian borders, and then dig in, in effect.
Russia’s war aims have never been openly or clearly expressed in a manner that makes any sense, but part of them would be the necessity to demilitarize Ukraine, something that is now impossible without Russian control over the bulk of the territory, including Kiev.
Under other circumstances, Russia might now be sitting on the entire eastern half of Ukraine (ie Ukraine east of the Dnieper), but “we are where we are”, in the tiresome phrase.
As I predicted would happen on the blog months ago, Russian forces have recently been trying to think outside the box by applying “oblique warfare”, targeting the electricity production and generating system deep inside Ukraine, using missiles and drones.
While the Kiev-regime forces have supposedly been downing most of the attacking missiles, the ones that are getting through have been smashing the electrical system of Ukraine to pieces. What next? Possibly the railway network.
Russia is said to be mobilizing more troops, possibly with the idea of a mass assault on Kiev next summer.
Unless a peace treaty or armistice can be agreed and executed, the war can only escalate. However, Russia can only “win” this ghastly mess of a war by taking Kiev and toppling the present Kiev regime.
Hard to see why anyone not very feeble-minded would send money to “Jack Monroe” after reading that Tattle Life exposé . Surprising, therefore, to see that no fewer than 647 utter mugs are still sending her £3.50-£44 monthly, a total of between £2,265 and £28,468, each and every month. “A nice little earner“, in the estuary argot, even if the actual total amount sent is nearer to —at a guess— maybe £6,000 or £7,000 a month rather than the maximum. Probably taxfree as well.
I have no idea whether the Essex Police, Metropolitan Police, trading standards officers, or fundraising regulators are “on the case” or not. If not, though, why not?
“The composer of Jerusalem has been effectively ‘cancelled’ by the Royal College of Music (RCM) because his views on race a century ago are unacceptably offensive to today’s woke students, The Mail on Sunday understands.“
I have also been there (in the 1980s). Just as well that Blake and I do not walk around that part of London now; we might get stabbed by some untermensch, almost certainly non-white.
I recall having a beer at the Clock House pub once, in the late 1980s.
[The Clock House pub, Peckham Rye]
Tweets seen
I don’t say this with any glee: it sucks to be Cassandra all the time. It’s just that I’m nearly 60 & childless, it’s been a bit of a dreadful year here, & I’ll be checked out well before the inevitable social disintegration that’s now looming can do any worse to me.
A brief list of things that the press has declared white supremist in the last two years:
Exercise Healthy food The scientific method Being on time Reading old books Using correct grammar Christianity The nuclear family Opposing the sexualization of children Self defense
Preview my column in toimorrow's The Mail on Sunday : 'Why do we stir up trouble in foreign countries but can’t even run our own?'https://t.co/elimw0DtcB via @mailplus
Peter Hitchens’ column is worth publishing in full:
“What a twisted society we have become. We stir up wars in other people’s countries and praise ourselves for doing it.
But there is no political reward for protecting our own people against crime and disorder on their streets and in their homes. It is no longer clear if anyone is governing the country at all, so busy are we putting other nations to rights.
Burglaries go unprevented, uninvestigated and unpunished, in colossal numbers. Our capital city seethes with uncontrolled knife crime and stinks of marijuana.
Christmas brings news of terrible ultra-violent crimes in supposedly peaceful suburban areas. Migrants stride boldly ashore in unknown numbers. We pay heavy taxes for pitiful services, cratered roads and a health system that is the envy of nobody.
Yet, nothing happens about all this. The surest way to gain praise in politics is to make simple-minded statements about a crisis abroad and demand that we send bombs and shells to some strife-torn state, or actually bomb it ourselves.
The idea that such things are often complicated and dangerous, and may do harm, has faded from view. When Prime Minister Anthony Eden dragged us into his disastrous attack on Egypt in 1956, the entire country was bitterly divided. And rightly so. The archives, when they were opened, showed that the adventure was based on lies, futile and doomed.
When the USA sank up to its waist in the bloody mud of Vietnam in the 1960s, the whole world was at odds. Once again, now that the truth is revealed, we know that thousands of brave men died, and many more thousands of innocent civilians were killed, because of a mistake.
But since the Blair revolution of 1997, pious, allegedly virtuous foreign crusades have come back into fashion. Criticising them gets you into trouble. There is only one permitted view. Few go back to find out how things actually went.
The Kosovo episode, for instance, did not bring paradise to that part of the world. Nor did the Iraq invasion. I know most people now pretend to have been against it at the time but as one who actually was against it at the time, I can assure you that they are mistaken. It had wide support. The same goes for the daft adventures in Afghanistan and Libya.
In fact, the last three did so much harm that it will never be measured. Together they began the era of mass migration from the Middle East and Africa to Western Europe. This is probably the biggest event in human history since the First World War, and perhaps bigger.
How can we do all this stamping about in foreign countries when we are so bad at governing our own and also not very strong? Our country doesn’t work properly. You can’t even see a doctor. The police are equally invisible. Our Army is as tiny as our debts are huge. Our grandest new warship, the aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, has broken down. Even when it works, we have to borrow aircraft from the Americans to fly off it.
None of this will be properly discussed at the rapidly approaching General Election and nobody will stand in that poll who prefers reforming Britain to foreign policy fantasy abroad. Why do we put up with it?“
My rhetorical answer to Hitchens’ rhetorical question? This:
“The British/English people do not rebel against all of the above, not yet anyway, because they are bombarded with propaganda brainwashing 24/7, because few have either the independence of thought, or the (real) education, to stand against the tide, and because the “plebs” think that all that matters, or that the main matter of importance, is whether the “England” sports teams (which are now largely black or brown anyway) win some meaningless game, match, or tournament somewhere or other in the world.”
That, and because those in political life, those of great wealth, those in the mainstream media, who should all be protecting the people, are exactly those who, from malice, evil, or just sheer inability and lack of basic competence (as with “Boris”-idiot, Liz Truss, Woollyhead Trussbanger —Kwasi Kwarteng— etc), are encouraging migration-invasion of this country, are letting standards and services slide, and are preventing —by ever more repressive laws— even obviously justified criticism from being made. They are, in effect, signed up to the Coudenhove-Kalergi Plan.”
[the odd link immediately above now seems to be the only one for the interesting Western Spring article].
Incidentally, I see that the Daily Mail/Mail on Sunday is now, yet again, refusing to allow its readers to comment on Hitchens’ column, no doubt afraid that the readers will leave comments hostile to mass immigration, migration-invasion, “intervention” in foreign wars or countries, or even (could it be?) comments hostile to the Zelensky Jew-Zionist regime in Kiev…
More tweets seen
From bison to pine martens to white storks, it's been a landmark year for species reintroductions in Britain. As we come to the end of 2022, it's amazing to know their footprints are amongst ours in the snow.
Amusing to see affluent idiots like that porcine woman journalist (I remember seeing her commentating on TV years ago— she was constantly pumping out pseudo-“Conservative” and/or “austerity” propaganda during the David Cameron-Levita years) suffering a little by reason of her own virtue-signalling and/or lack of thought or preparation. England has too many of such silver-spoon scribblers. See also: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Mills_(journalist).
The readers’ comments appended to that Daily Mail story are telling.
“£400M slashed from road repair budget” yet billions wasted on the regime of the Jew Zelensky, and so also on prolonging the war in Ukraine. Mad, but also stupid— our roads need repair. It is not a minor matter, but one that affects tens of millions of British people.
Very true. I raised the issue repeatedly when I had a Twitter account (before the Jew-Zionist lobby conspired to have me expelled in 2018); I believe I have blogged about it as well.
In socialist Poland in the 1980s, which I visited a few times, the population was divided, not only by those pro or anti the socialist government, but also, and in more immediately-practical ways, by those who had access to hard currency (mainly U.S. dollars, but also Deutschmarks etc) as against those who did not. Even a few dollars regularly made the difference between having the means to live semi-decently, as against having to struggle.
That’s the divide in the UK now, but with inheritance as the touchstone.
Ukraine
As can be seen from that map, the front is now essentially frozen, indeed literally, despite recent relatively minor advances by the forces of the Kiev regime.
What is more important is not shown on the map.
20% of the pre-2022 population of Ukraine is now living beyond the pre-2022 borders— in eastern, western and central Europe, and in Russia itself.
Ukraine now has a mainly non-functioning electricity-generating and distribution network.
Gas supplies, formerly supplied from Russia, have been halted.
Industry is mostly not in operation.
Agriculture, though continuing, cannot export most of its production.
The Kiev regime only fights on because it has become a complete NATO (NWO/ZOG) proxy, fuelled by shipments of arms, ammunition, petrol/diesel, medical supplies, clothing, other equipment and, of course, money, in vast amounts.
On the Russian side, the problems are different: indifferent military leadership, apparently-poor officership at all levels, low morale among troops, and apparent uncertainty within the high political leadership. Above all, no clear and expressed strategy in relation to ultimate war aims and how to achieve them.
In terms of presenting itself to the peoples of the West via public relations or propaganda, the Kiev regime has “played a blinder” from the start, meaning early 2022; the Russian effort in public relations has been wooden and ineffective by comparison.
“A care agency boss has described the NHS as “a joke” after a disabled man was forced to wait for 48 hours in A&E.
One of David Williams’ clients, who has severe epilepsy, had been taken to the Grange Hospital near Cwmbran, Torfaen, complaining of chest pain.
Mr Williams said he had to wait in a chair with no food for 36 hours.
Aneurin Bevan health board said delayed hospital discharges and winter viruses had led to longer waits at A&E.
Mr Williams, the responsible individual and director of Prestige Care Agency Services, said the NHS was a “failed system”.”
[BBC Wales]
“I don’t think it was any fault of the hospital, I think it’s a fault with the system.”
He added: “There’s a fear of destroying the myth that the NHS is fantastic and the best in the world… I think it needs a fundamental shake up.”
It does.
Tweets seen
It was the press baron Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, who said: ‘When I want a peerage, I shall buy one like an honest man.’ https://t.co/qEEyyBj6Vp
.@stugray1 . Eurocommunism has no objection to letting business rip. It has shaken off the mistakes of Lenin, and realised that businessmen can be the most reliable allies of cultural, moral and social revolution. https://t.co/byAgPlvBs3
.@arbuthnotting. Surely that fantasy of the British bulldog spirit died forever during the Covid panic. Millions obediently submitted to house arrest, muzzled their faces and ceaselessly anointed their hands with conformist sanitiser, the holy water of Covidism. https://t.co/GpgjNMp3Ws
The “safety first” mob have totally taken over, but not today or yesterday; years ago. Example: the hysterical tightening of laws by both Major and Blair, with the aim of all but removing firearm weapons from members of the public. Why? Because (in the whole of history in the UK) there were TWO gun massacres (Hungerford 1987, and Dunblane 1996), though in fact since the “gun laws” were tightened (and almost all privately-held handguns confiscated) there has been another such “spree killing”— in Cumbria in 2010.
Yes, an explicit request on Friday 13th May 2022 for contributions towards a specific objective.
With all of the other questions regarding financial transparency that Jack currently faces, I am certain she will want to be absolutely open and honest when dealing with this matter. pic.twitter.com/XxmIrY52Ww
https://t.co/7abWpyNYeH Why is there no named solicitor on this gfm? Why has Louise Raw taken it upon herself to speak on behalf of a Black woman who has the means to take the Sun to court herself if she wanted to? What happens to the cash is all the money isn't raised?
1. “Dr” Louise Raw is far from being the brightest tool in the box, despite her supposed doctorate (said to be a Ph.D. based on one particular strike in London in 1888); 2. it raises the Twitter profile of Ms. Raw (and to her that is apparently important); 3. under GoFundMe rules, she can use any monies donated any way she wants, for political or even personal purposes, and the donor mugs will have no say in that.
Incidentally, Meghan Mulatta is not “black” but a half-caste (or “mixed race”, if you prefer). You don’t have to take it from me— look at the words of the Mulatta herself:
“She identifies as mixed race, often answering questions about her background with “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white.””
The “tips” in Grifty Kitchen are dangerous, patronising and forget one vital thing – most people struggling or in poverty haven’t always been in that situation and are not stupid or lacking basic resources. I have pan lids, it’s the gas to cook with I can’t afford! #jackmonroe
Hey @TrussellTrust, you're backing this book too right? This is highly irresponsible and also very insulting to people in poverty. I've been poor, I've never not had a tin opener. Poor people aren't stupid. There are a fair few alarming (and harmful) 'tips' in this book.
I'm tired of people telling me that Jack Monroe is a force for good and has done good things for those in poverty, when she has made money off those people and continues to cosplay as a poor person while being positively middle class and doing NOTHING.
At times over the past months, since I really began to look at her activity, I have thought that “Jack Monroe”, “Bootstrap Cook”, tries to “push the envelope” of outright fantasy/lies out of pure devilment, as if to say “I wonder how far I can go before those mugs twig?“, as with her Grenfell Tower “firefighter” fantasy (she did once, long before Grenfell, answer the telephones in some fire call centre, but in Essex, not London); then there was her “I am so poor that I have to boil soap to make shower gel” etc, followed by the implied subtext, “please send me —and my disabled child— money“.
Incredibly, as of time of writing, no less than 647 utter mugs are sending the “Bootstrap Cook” between £3.50 and £44 each and every month via the Patreon website. Thousands of pounds each month. In fact, 647 is an increase of 4 since yesterday; amazing when you know how “Jack Monroe” has been forensically exposed for months on Twitter.
Reading a few tweets, one realizes how dim many of the “Jack Monroe” supporters are. Interesting demographically, though. Few young people, and few of any age who are —in any sense— “poor”.
Christmas University Challenge
Once again a match between two teams of alumni (Balliol v. Hull). I thought semi-final, but I now see on Twitter that it was the final.
The winning team, Balliol, was this time no worse than me, though I should say no better. Overall, I think that I still got more than both teams together. I did OK, I think, if I myself say so; after all, there are 8 of them playing.
[Wanda Landowska at the keyboard, as Tolstoy looks on; probably at Yasnaya Polyana, though possibly at Tolstoy’s house in the Kropotkinskaya district of Moscow. I myself have been in that latter house, long ago, and the parquet floor was similar]
“Cost of living catastrophe“, but that was written (and tweeted) by Sky News in December 2021, about 3 months before the Russian incursion into Ukraine that (we are now told) is the cause of all our woes…
Mainstream media lies.
Tweets seen
[🔴China’s 64th launch in 2022] At UTC 04:43 Dec 29, Shiyan-10-02 space environment detection, new tech testing satellite was successfully launched by CZ3B rocket at Xichang, Sichuan. It’s also the 458th launch of Long March rocket family. HD: https://t.co/oySxQl6WeEpic.twitter.com/zMAMUFkpaY
…and in the middle of the alien crowd, I see the philosopher Roger Scruton, now deceased. “And then there were none“.
A couple of friends of mine in South London were friendly with Scruton, back in the mid/late 1970s. He would arrive by bicycle, in the manner of Cambridge University.
Then a fairly obscure university college lecturer at Birkbeck College (part of the University of London), though already becoming known and communing with the famous and well-connected (including Margaret Thatcher), Scruton later dropped the couple I knew for fear of being associated with them after the popular Press ran a story about how Scruton of the Salisbury Review etc was associating with “fascists” and “neo-Nazis” etc.
In other words, Scruton put career before friendship.
Having said that, Scruton was a considerable figure, sometimes honoured more in the recently ex-socialist states such as the Czech Republic —where I myself once saw a whole bookshop window of Scruton’s works in Czech— than in the UK.
That display was seen by me in Central Prague in 1999; it could not have happened when I had previously been in that city (1988); very few Western visitors were there then, and the works of Scruton (and many others) were banned.
Scruton was born into modest circumstances and, when later both famous and wealthy (as some might say, “box office“, with his high-selling books in multiple translation, and with several income-streams), he took on some of the traditional habits of the English “upper classes”, such as foxhunting, and living in country houses. He also started to take money from tobacco-lobby interests.
[Scruton’s house —2004-2009— near Sperryville, Virginia, USA]
Scruton (whom I myself never met) strikes me as having been, like many, perhaps most people, a blend of the highminded and tawdry, of the original and the very derivative, of the highly ethical and the morally-suspect.
A hugely-talented man, in any event. One could say, without it being too much of a cliché, “a Renaissance man“.
Perhaps better remembered in his works than in himself.
“Blame and praise alike befall, when a dauntless man’s spirit is black and white mixed, like the magpie’s plumage…”
[Wolfram von Eschenbach, Parzival]
More tweets seen
Just remembering there is literally a button @BootstrapCook can press on Patreon to make the amount they earn from their patrons public….
Perhaps the (at time of writing) 643 utter “mugs”, each presently donating between £3.50 and £44, and every month, might start to wake up if they saw the total income (from that source alone) of “Jack Monroe”, the so-called “Bootstrap Cook”. Somewhere between a few thousand pounds and tens of thousands, monthly.
I'd love to know which part of "questioning an unlikely story and asking for transparency on fundraising & donations, plus promised refunds to be processed in a timely manner" is criminal as Jack Monroe alleges? https://t.co/9A3zUtZnLS
“Criminal?” My idea of “criminal” is pleading poverty or (when, e.g., Tiffany earrings are noticed by alert readers) near-poverty, in order to induce people to donate thousands of pounds monthly to a private bank account, while never or rarely providing the goods and services offered, and (it is said by many) never having intended to perform; or crowdfunding in order to fund a defamation case, with no real intent to launch such a case, and later (it is alleged by many, at any rate) keeping the donated monies for private purposes.
This will only be clarified if, or when, police and/or trading standards officers and/or various regulators properly investigate the activities of “Jack Monroe”, the “Bootstrap Cook”.
No decent meal can be made for either 30p or 11p. This is reaching Monty Python levels of nonsense.
Hi @panmacmillan, can I ask why you have published and are promoting a book containing dangerous advice? Previews of Jack Monroe's Thrifty Kitchen include using a knife & hammer to open a tin can and draining boiling liquid through cloth. Positively harmful suggestions. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/ILWq8Esi5Z
And here goes Catharine herself. Just like most things coming from Russia she belongs into a museum.
Anyway, the remnants of Russian chapter of Odesa are herewith closed for good, as it has been already the case since 1991. #Odesa#Ukrainepic.twitter.com/uo3wdt9BmJ
Without the Russian connection (there since Kievan Rus in the 9thC: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kievan_Rus%27], there would be really nothing of note in Ukraine, and that is exactly what its present Jew-Zionist dictatorship wants; in other words, for there to be nothing in Ukraine that existed before 1991, when this shambolic, corrupt and Jew-Zionist-ruled and exploited republic emerged from the collapse of Sovietism.
A semi-final alumni teams match: Balliol, Oxford v. Exeter, Oxford.
At last, two teams which at least scored about the same as me, not far below as over the past two weeks. Balliol seemed rather better than on their previous appearance (admittedly not hard). Some incredible howlers all the same.
It cannot be denied that this conflict started in 2014, not in 2022.
This wasn't a mistake. This is the same as the Poland incident. The Ukrainians are losing badly and they are desperately trying to drag NATO into the conflict. They want Belarus to go to Ukraine so that NATO can have an excuse to go to Ukraine as well. pic.twitter.com/q0u8UJHWnR
The Zelensky regime in Kiev wants NATO to weigh in on the Kiev-regime side. If that were to happen even more blatantly than is presently the case, a nuclear exchange between NATO (NWO/ZOG) and Russia will be only a matter of time.
Gas in Germany 🇩🇪 has increased from 80 Euro a month to 860 euro a month. Straight from horses mouth. Every one cheering Ukraine hang yr head. Germany once a great country… ruined by leftist socialist green government 🤬 TAKE NOTE AUSTRALIA 🇦🇺
We have a new addition today. There are as many as 7 new kittens. They were just thrown out into the cold and frost. The electricity is off. But they are warm and will receive food and treatment. Kindly support us Paypal- https://t.co/rzrJz12GsS#Ukraine#animalrescuepic.twitter.com/ifXlGstekD
I cannot say whether the above is a genuine cause or not; probably it is. In any case, the true cost of war is the suffering of both human beings and their companion animals.
It is bad that Ukraine, whatever the reasons, is a theatre of war. Let us make sure that the rest of Europe is not dragged into a worse, and greater, war.
Some years ago, I noted on the blog that my old head of chambers, one M.B., a pretty good civil barrister, had been appointed to the office of Circuit Judge. Now I see that no fewer than three other fellow-members of the same chambers (now and for some time joined with another set under a new name) have also received judicial preferment.
The first, one “R.P.”, was, as I recall him from over 15 years ago, a small and rather dapper man, maybe about 40 at that time, unfailingly polite, who had been a magistrates’ court clerk for many years, and had written a very well-received book on sentencing, as well as (and I only saw that today) several other books on law and procedure. Someone both erudite and modest, a good combination.
I see just now (thanks to the Internet) that R.P. is 56-57.
R.P., a man so modest and self-effacing that I know nothing about him on the personal level, despite having been in the same chambers as him for at least a couple of years (I was there 2002-2008, he for not so long), was (if I recall aright) nominally a “pupil” at first, having been previously a solicitor (again, if I recall correctly); as said, he had spent years as a magistrates’ clerk.
R. P. is therefore now “His Honour Judge R.P.” and has been, as they say, “deployed” to the North East as a Circuit Judge. In the old days, pre-1970s, people would practice almost entirely on one circuit, such as Western Circuit, Midland and Oxford etc, and if granted judicial preferment, would be appointed, almost always, on that Circuit. Now, however, they can be sent anywhere within England and Wales.
The other two appointments seen by me were those affecting two people who were, like R.P., both pupils of M.B. twenty-odd years ago. When I knew them, they were both in their early twenties, so must be about 45 now. Let us call them, in the manner of M.R. James, “JB” and “AW”.
J.B, a pleasant-enough fellow, and rather likeable, albeit no intellectual (if I recall aright), and who came from an affluent family (his father is or was a businessman involved in trade with China), has been appointed both as an employment judge (i.e. at the Employment Tribunal) and also as a Deputy District Judge (which is same level, really, as a full District Judge, but only sitting for 15-50 days per year).
As for A.W., I recall him as a serious and bearded young man, bordering however on the humourless (admittedly, I only spoke with him a few times); intelligent, and who, with his wife (whom I never met), actually played music live at least once on either BBC Radio 3 or BBC Radio 4 at that time, i.e. about 16-17 years ago.
A.W. is apparently appointed District Judge as of early January 2023, and has been deployed to Worthing in West Sussex.
Such appointments as District Judge etc may seem minor (there are c.400 full District Judges in England and Wales) but actually such jobs are not badly-paid— about £114,000 p.a. at time of writing (Circuit Judges get more, about £145,000).
I can see why barristers often apply for such jobs. They carry none of the uncertainty which can be part and parcel of being a barrister, such as where the next brief will come from; also (for barristers of a certain age) there is the attraction of a generous pension scheme, something unknown to the Bar (unless you pay out for a private one). Also, the judge (at any level) does not have the need to travel much, if at all, whereas a barrister in a provincial set can travel extensively.
When I myself was in London as a practising barrister (early/mid 1990s), almost all my cases were within London itself (often at the High Court, a shortish No. 6 bus, or a taxi, ride from my then home in Little Venice); but when I was based in Exeter in 2002-2008 (and living 50 miles west of there, on the Cornwall-Devon border), I sometimes had to travel as far north as Manchester, and as far east as London, Cambridge, Brighton etc. 600-mile roundtrips. I even made the odd overseas journey, though admittedly that also happened when I lived in London.
Always interesting to see what is happening over time to those whom I knew in the past.
Finally, I should add that I have no idea whether those I used to know, and who have been appointed to the judiciary, are freemasons. Possibly. Not impossible, anyway, thinking back to when I knew them, and thinking about what I do know of them.
Tweets seen
In Paris they replaced Xmas with Hanouka in public spaces. ah what a wonderful world! pic.twitter.com/cTDHBEd0m3
I don’t think you have to be a mad right winger to think that there’s a level of migration that simply ends Britain as a culture and a functional society, and this is approaching it https://t.co/4P4TPHVyRo
Why did no-one shoot him, or just run over the bastard in a car? We always hear so-called “Christians” droning about “turning the other cheek” but what about “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” [Matthew 7-6]?
2. So far the Twitter Files have focused on evidence of Twitter’s secret blacklists; how the company functioned as a kind of subsidiary of the FBI; and how execs rewrote the platform’s rules to accommodate their own political desires.
4. The United States government pressured Twitter and other social media platforms to elevate certain content and suppress other content about Covid-19.
6. At the onset of the pandemic, according to meeting notes, the Trump admin was especially concerned about panic buying. They came looking for “help from the tech companies to combat misinformation” about “runs on grocery stores.” But . . . there were runs on grocery stores. pic.twitter.com/duzk2I1Y7T
7. It wasn’t just Twitter. The meetings with the Trump White House were also attended by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and others. pic.twitter.com/OgOrRxBBBW
10. Berenson sued (and then settled with) Twitter. In the legal process Twitter was compelled to release certain internal communications, which showed direct White House pressure on the company to take action on Berenson.
12. Culbertson wrote that the Biden team was “very angry” that Twitter had not been more aggressive in deplatforming multiple accounts. They wanted Twitter to do more. pic.twitter.com/lZTQV3yKeZ
14. But Twitter did suppress views—many from doctors and scientific experts—that conflicted with the official positions of the White House. As a result, legitimate findings and questions that would have expanded the public debate went missing.
16. Second, contractors, in places like the Philippines, also moderated content. They were given decision trees to aid in the process, but tasking non experts to adjudicate tweets on complex topics like myocarditis and mask efficacy data was destined for a significant error rate pic.twitter.com/lTISX00mo7
20. Exhibit A: Dr. Martin Kulldorff, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School, tweeted views at odds with US public health authorities and the American left, the political affiliation of nearly the entire staff at Twitter. pic.twitter.com/K3kwQIdzHG
22. But Kulldorff’s statement was an expert’s opinion—one which also happened to be in line with vaccine policies in numerous other countries. Yet it was deemed “false information” by Twitter moderators merely because it differed from CDC guidelines.
24. In my review of internal files, I found countless instances of tweets labeled as “misleading” or taken down entirely, sometimes triggering account suspensions, simply because they veered from CDC guidance or differed from establishment views.
26. Internal records showed that a bot had flagged the tweet, and that it received many “tattles” (what the system amusingly called reports from users). That triggered a manual review by a human who– despite the tweet showing actual CDC data–nevertheless labeled it “Misleading”
Well, there it is. Proof that hugely loss-making Twitter was both (as I speculated years ago on the blog) acting as an intelligence-collecting system for NWO/ZOG, and also proof that —time and again— the overall public debate or discussion in the “online forum” or “online public space” is —and in the case of Twitter, especially, was— being twisted by Twitter staff (etc); also offline (by the usual msm suspects). The “online public space“, as I termed it on the blog, as well as in my 2017 talk offline, at the now-defunct London Forum— with others later imitating my language and reasoning.
What at first surprised me slightly, years ago, was that I could see that the usual crowd of “human rights” lawyers, bien-pensants, “liberal” msm types, anti-censorship loudmouths, pseudo-socialists etc (many, but by no means all, Jews) were in fact perfectly OK with a secretive transnational finance-capital offshoot such as Twitter censoring dissenting views, and/or “deplatforming” dissidents and/or persons labelled “neo-Nazi” etc.
The mask of Evil has slipped a little as regards Twitter, but remains firmly in place in respect of other online and offline platforms.
This is not just about the Covid “panicdemic”. It applies also to other matters, especially the constant Coudenhove-Kalergi propaganda being blasted out across the TV, radio, newspapers etc.
I happened to see a copy of Vogue magazine the other day, not my usual reading material. Flicking through it for a few seconds, I noticed that almost every photo and report was basically about blacks, and pushing blacks forward, to an almost unbelievable extent. No one is going to tell me that that is simply about making money for the publishers. There is something more behind it all. See also: https://ianrobertmillard.org/2018/12/10/tv-ads-and-soaps-are-the-propaganda-preferred-by-the-system-in-the-uk/.
Returning to “Covid”, I see that the Chinese Government has now turned its massive state repression machinery into reverse, and almost overnight dismantled the “Covid” police state measures. According to Sky News in the UK, that has meant an increase in “cases” (whether labelled “influenza” or “Covid”-this-or-that. Of course.
The stupid “lockdowns” isolate people. When they have to be released (because to shut down society and economy indefinitely is unsustainable, impossible) naturally their immune systems have been weakened. “Lockdowns” were always the wrong policy, not only from the economic point of view (look at the UK, for example) but from the strict health point of view as well.
While on the subject of Twitter, I see that it continues to omit the (only-recently-dropped) “Latest” tweets column on any given subject or subject-name searched for. This really weakens the usefulness of Twitter.
Is it just me? Sampled opening couple of minutes of Christmas University Challenge. Had heard of none of those representing my own university, who were baffled when asked to identify obvious quotations from Thomas Hobbes and George Orwell.
I have blogged in the past week about the poor standard on Christmas University Challenge, and again below.
These signs were still posted in Blackwell’s Oxford bookshop in the early 1960s when I first saw it. I don’t know when they dated from. But by 1969 there were tactful notices all over the shop warning against shoplifting, a sad change. pic.twitter.com/nqepJU1AG5
That sign was still the ethos at Blackwell’s in the 1970s, when I asked for a copy of the Malleus Maleficarum, sat at a table reading it for a long time, then left without buying it, and still got a cheery goodbye from the staff.
Again, two dispiriting performances from the alumni teams (Cardiff v. Bristol), who displayed the ignorance which has been the hallmark of the series both last year and this year, and which by now I actually expect.
One who at least attempted to answer, though usually wrongly, was Dominic Waghorn of the Bristol alumni team, of whom I see that Wikipedia says this:
“Dominic David Waghorn (born 1968, Lambeth),[1] is a British journalist who is the Diplomatic Editor of Sky News and presenter of the channel’s weekly international affairs analysis programme World View. He was before that US Correspondent of Sky News, the 24-hour television news service operated by Sky Television, part of British Sky Broadcasting. He is based at Sky News’ Washington Bureau. He was formerly Sky News’ Asia Correspondent, based in Beijing and Middle East Correspondent, based in Jerusalem. He became Sky News’ US Correspondent in 2011.”
That reads well, on paper, but that supposed “expert” not only failed to identify Volgograd as the “new” (since 1961) name for the city of Stalingrad, even after prompting from Jeremy Paxman, but then compounded his error by venturing “Voronezh?“, a city about 360 miles away, and in a different part of Russia.
There were several other errors by Waghorn and worse ones by others (those who actually tried to answer any questions at all).
The problem I have with these well-known and/or “celebrity” contestants is not only that their general-knowledge levels are, indeed, generally abysmal, but also a. that they are all people paid plenty of money by society as a whole, partly by reason of their supposedly “elite” education, and b. that those working in msm current affairs are delivering misinformation to the public on subjects such as Ukraine, European politics, and the “Covid” “panicdemic”.
Ha ha! That must be intended as good-humoured satire, surely? (from one of the subject’s colleagues on Sky News). Waghorn even failed to get right a fairly easy question about which seas were mentioned in Churchill’s famous post-WW2 speech at Fulton, Missouri, which brought the term “iron curtain” into popular speech (though Churchill had lifted the term from Schwerin von Krosigk, unless it was a simple co-incidence).
The seas in the question were Baltic and Adriatic, not (as Waghorn said) the Adriatic Sea and Black Sea. The other team also got that one wrong, incidentally, citing Baltic and Atlantic.
To be fair on him, Waghorn did get a few other questions right.
It is always suspect to draw general conclusions from personal experience, at least without more. All the same, we have to start somewhere, like Newton and his apple.
It seems to me that there is an absence of what I recall as “Christmas feeling”. Am I wrong to believe that the feeling of Christmas as a special time has ebbed away over the past couple of decades? If so, why has it happened? It cannot simply be economic stringency etc, looking at the travails of the 20th Century— wars, the Great Depression etc.
I am not talking about religious or wider spiritual belief or adherence, but the actual feeling of Christmas-time. Do “the young”, children etc feel the same, or is the feeling of— what? Flatness? Unease?— connected to the nostalgia which is more naturally an accompaniment of greater age? I do not know.
I come to no conclusion here, but have raised the question. It worries me. I think that it goes beyond Christmas, too.
💬 President #Putin: As for the economy, as you know, despite the collapses, devastation and catastrophe predicted for us in the economic sphere, nothing like that is happening.
💪 Moreover, Russia is performing much better than many #G20 countries, and doing so confidently. pic.twitter.com/3Il9i9iSH8
.@alkenajan1 I don’t proclaim myself as anything but a jobbing scribbler who has lived long and seen much.All beliefs about the unknowable are opinions.This is mine : the universe is designed, purposeful and just. I do not deride you for disagreeing. A blessed Christmas to you. https://t.co/1uqVYSArV4
I doubt that I shall watch TV much in the next few days. Today, saw a few minutes of a religious service (Church of England) on BBC TV. It was from Blackburn Cathedral, a cathedral of which I had never heard, and in a town which I have never visited.
Instead of a traditional carol, something which sounded like the soundtrack for a black mass in a horror film; admittedly, I only saw a few minutes of the whole thing. Instead of a robed officiant such as a priest, a large black man wearing a kind of lumberjack shirt. As for the congregation (or should that be “audience”?), a relatively small crowd. The camera zoomed in on a young British-seeming couple with a tiny baby. The (?) husband and/or (?) father looked stressed or even (as it seemed to me) spiteful, somehow. No smiles seen from either. Were they actors? I suppose not; after all, actors might have simulated some happier look.
“The CIA is combining with the spy service of a NATO ally in Europe to conduct covert sabotage operations inside Russia, according to new claims.
The clandestine campaign is behind many unexplained explosions and fires that have hit strategic or prominent facilities in recent months, says US expert Jack Murphy, an eight-year Army Special Operations veteran.
Separately other European intelligence services have allegedly been ‘running operatives into Russia to create chaos without CIA help’, as has Ukraine.“
[Daily Mail]
Insanity like that (if true, is proven) can have only one result, eventually— escalation, leading to Russian strategic nuclear attack on both North America (both cities and military bases, ports etc) and Western Europe (particularly the UK, particularly London).
More tweets
President #Putin: After confessions made by A.Merkel, Poroshenko & other politicians about the true purposes of the Minsk Agreements, it became obvious to everyone that Russia was not the source of the conflict in Ukraine; the reason was the Western-sponsored coup in Kiev in 2014 pic.twitter.com/TYi4EGTbHX
— Russian Embassy in South Africa 🇷🇺 (@EmbassyofRussia) December 22, 2022
Good to know that Little Matt Hancock’s book has failed to capture public attention, and has failed to make the freeloader even more money, depending on what was his advance, if anything.
[Girls of the BDM ride in the German forest, 1930s]
[“The Fuhrer as friend of animals“]
[“Heil Goering!“; other captions proclaimed that “even the animals vote for the Fuhrer!” after Germany was the first and only state on Earth to ban experiments on animals in 1933, a law sadly repealed by order of the Western forces after the disastrous defeat of 1945]
In fact, it was better than expected, despite having the usual suspects (loud children, louder adults). One of the former looked like becoming the “inevitable” Hollywood film Wunderkind, but in the end did not.
Ian Robert Millard 